When the Mouse Meets the Keyboard

当鼠标遇上了键盘，两者之间形成一种特有的默契，在这城市化的办公娱乐中，成为了我们最不可或缺的得力助手之一。而当美学和人体工程学在此相遇，他们则化为了人人皆用的艺术品。
When mouse and keyboard find each other, they become one of the most important family members in the computer group. They have this unique bound that connect with people’s social life for business and entertainment. Whey they meet aesthetic and ergonomics, both of them are formed into the must-use artworks.

在线条、光与影的衬托下，给予了十足的现代科技美。按下一个键，光宛如水滴坠落湖心，从按下的第一个键向外扩散，波纹四起。鼠标的呼吸灯也一呼一应，传递着私语。
Their curves, outlines, lights, and shadows carve the entire beauty into modern science & technology. When you press a key, the light effect as if a raindrop falls into the lake forming the ripple to bounce back from other keys. Meanwhile, the mouse’s light twinkles, giving its unique signal to the keyboard as if they were communicating.

彼时，摒弃了我一贯用手绘板、铅笔的作画方式，鼠标与键盘成为了我的画笔，在电脑屏幕上创作了一幅我们中国的水墨画。
I didn’t go for my Wacom or traditional pencil drawing this time. Instead, mouse and keyboard were my brushes. I created our Chinese ink painting with their help on the computer screen.

在这儿Illustator成为了我的辅助工具，这是一款Adobe旗下最受欢迎的设计软件之一，作为平面设计师的宠儿，一般多用于商业海报、书籍装帧、名片、网页等的平面设计范畴，因其矢量图的优点，而大受欢迎，甚至作为UI设计也游刃有余，并在2018年的PC Magazine(知名美国电脑杂志)中入选最佳矢量图编辑软件。
Illustrator, one of the most popular designing software developed and marketed by Adobe Inc., becomes a bridge to my artwork creation, in which’s normally being applied in a poster, business card, web design, format design, book design, illustration, etc. This is a graphic designer’s favorite vector graphics editor that was reviewed as the best vector graphics editing program in 2018 by PC Magazine. I even use this one for UI design as well.

然而用该软件来绘画则需要超强的耐心，鼠标和键盘也增添了不少难度。鼠标作为画笔可没这么容易，其操作模式的改变，使用习惯的不同，要很好操控它，按住左键画出自然的曲线、弧线和勾勒线条，实则是个不小的挑战。
However, painting with this graphics software is a little bit challenging for giving full control of the mouse and keyboard is not that easy. You need extra patience for creating outlines, shapes, curves of the image to look natural as the one that drew by painting brush.

我用描点和路径工具一点一点塑型，描绘出所需的形状，随后选用圆滑工具润色。为此一个物体的成形，或弯曲成想要的形态，有时候添加的描点和路径能达上百个。譬如上方这两张截图，绿色和黑色的描点密密麻麻。(密集恐惧症的童鞋们慎看)
Pen Tool and Anchor Point Tool was the best way to offer the better lines of the shape I wanted to be. If the line was not that curve enough, smooth tool spiced it up. To make sure the image profile meet my requirement, the anchor points and paths could be up to hundreds. Check out the two snapshots above, it might make you uncomfortable if you are a trypophobia since there’re lots of green and black anchor points covering all over the shapes.

绘画之前，我尝试了各种画笔，以找寻真实毛笔的写意感觉。再加之配色、画笔大小和线条粗细的融合，一层层的叠加与调试，才有了在宣纸上的纹理。
I tried various brushes with the pencil tool to search for the style that fit a sense of ink painting perfectly, which’s seemed like painting with the real Chinese Brush. With the help of the color, size of the brushes, and weight of the strokes, I overlaid and adjusted for several times to copy the texture of the real Chinese art paper (Xuan Paper).

我画了两种构图，横版是鱼跃出水面，触碰落叶的瞬间；竖版则是鱼触碰湖心落叶的场景。自然是我最向往的地方，湖水暗示了一种宁静，鱼儿映射了内心的波动，竹代表了坚韧不拔的毅力，落叶映衬了尘世间被遗忘的美好。鱼群中，有这么一条脱离群体被落叶吸引，则隐喻了在996的社会里，也要放下匆忙的脚步，追寻自己曾经期盼的梦想，找寻那一份生活的幸福，去发现艺术的美，感受那与众不同。因为，美有时候甚是短暂，在你不经意间，悄然离去。不要因为那时，成为了巴黎圣母院前驻足的人们那样，望着熊熊大火一点一点啃食着精湛的艺术品，心中无不遗憾和惋惜。
The composition of my ink painting were two types. Fish jumped out of the lake was the horizontal one. Fish touched the falling leave that lied on the center of the lake was the vertical one. Nature is the very first and the last place for me to dive in. The lake represented a kind of stillness while fish as if a small tickle in my heart. And the bamboos implied a way of perseverance while the falling leaves suggested the forgotten beauty in the world. Dream big and go for it. Especially in this cruel sociality that enterprises consider employees work for 6 days at 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. and only have 1 day-off is the best solution for dedication. To slow down a bit, to find what you are long for, to search for the beauty of art, to enjoy the happiness of life, to feel that difference. Because the art that around you might disappear before you know it as if the terrible blaze devour the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. So cherish it, and make each day counts.

如果你们喜欢我的这幅水墨画，欢迎前来定制。当鼠标与键盘在此相遇，鼠标垫成为了它们一个温暖的港湾，因为艺术无处不在。
If you happened to love my ink painting, feel free to bring it home. When the mouse meets the keyboard, the mouse pad is a soft place to fall for the arts is everywhere.

My Online Shop: Mouse Pad

摄影/绘画/撰写/编译：BubbleSwan
Photos/Artworks/Writings/Edited & Translations by BubbleSwan

Click here to read more: When the Mouse Meets the Keyboard, They Find Art Together