Signs of Improvement

Someday when I have a kid, a well-meaning but inexperienced relative is going to make my infant get all bothered.  I’ll swoop in to save the day, super daddy coming to soothe the squirming ball of angst.

Up until this weekend, whenever I would hold a niece or nephew and they got the slightest bit disgruntled, it was game over for me.  I either handed the child off to more capable hands, or those hands voluntarily relieved me of my post.

At that point a sense of relief and a twinge of disappointment would tend to surface.  The cute kid had become upset in uncle’s arms, uncle couldn’t soothe the child, and uncle can’t redeem himself, as the wailer is now off with the mother, aunt, or grandma on a happy-baby recovery mission.

It’s a bit discouraging being inexperienced at something that you want to be good at.

Our three-month-old niecer held court with us this weekend while her mama was reunited with some high school friends from yester-year.  From Friday to Sunday it was all auntie and uncle, which meant that uncle was responsible for some soothing, as auntie shouldn’t be expected to bear the weight of the wails, whimpers, and poopy diapers all by herself.  Fortunately for me, this meant that I could fully bask in the glory of the baby gurgles, coos, and smiles that followed the more character-building vocalizations.

I’m a baby-watching noob, so it took me a few tries to successfully soothe the little girl.  I feel like an incongruous blogging nerd talking about Adobe now, but my juvenile Adobe skills rate me at a similar level in the graphics-editing column of life’s Likert rookie-to-expert scale.

Youtube has thus far been my sole source of tutelage regarding Adobe Illustrator.  One of the video-making crazies was really excited about Illustrator’s Perspective drawing tool, so I thought it would be fun to give it a go.

I worked on the blue-building image above for longer than I should have, but not longer than necessary.  I just don’t know much about the software yet, so I continue to learn slowly, every step of the way.  The undo button has become my greatest ally.

But if I can make a 3-month-old, over tired, wailing baby pipe down and smile at her uncle, there’s got to be hope for me in a piddly program like Illustrator.  Adobe, you’ve got nothing on my niece.