Why "Draw Everything" Isn't a Good Way to Learn to Draw

Bargue practice drawings checked by placing mine on top of original using Photoshop layers.

Since I was a kid, I’ve always heard that the only way to learn to draw is to draw a lot and to “draw everything.”

Unfortunately, the idea of “draw everything” caused me years of paralysis!

“Draw everything” is so open-ended that it overwhelmed me with choices. Should I draw a house? A person? An airplane? A cloud? A horse? Where do I start?

I’ve discovered that I need structure. In the 80s and 90s, there was either no internet (imagine that!) or a slow internet with limited offerings. The only way to learn to draw was studying books and going to classes. I did both of these things and still couldn't get a job at MTV Studios working on Daria!

But with today's internet, there are ENDLESS options of structured courses that include feedback, a major part of improving.

The Famous Artists Course is what really started to help me understand what I’ve been doing wrong all of these years. Like most kids, I started out drawing by copying the outlines of things. But not until I came across the forms lesson in the Famous Artists Course (that I discuss in this post from last year ) that I realized that everything is a 3D form and everything can be broken down into the simplest forms of cubes, cones, spheres and cylinders. It’s incredible to me that despite YEARS of various art instruction, NOT ONE CLASS taught the basics of form. I mean, even clouds have 3D form!

My Proko pelvis bucket studies.

The other essential ingredient to learning to draw is deliberate—as opposed to generic—practice.

We've all heard about the "10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery" idea that was promoted by Malcolm Gladwell.

Gladwell got this idea from Anders Ericsson but unfortunately he misinterpreted some of Ericsson's research. (And it doesn't necessarily work in all areas.)

One can master something with 2.44 hours of work per day for ten years. But the quality of the practice is essential. The practice must be deliberate for it to have a positive affect. 

My Proko pelvis bucket drawing checked by placing on top of original in Photoshop.

I'm 48-years-old. I don’t have 10 years to master storytelling. So if I'm going to cut that time to five years, I'll need the most efficient and effective practice I can find. This is why I'm doing the Proko anatomy course, ruthlessly prioritizing my time and putting to work any and all positive hacks I can find.

It’s never too late, folks, for us to pursue our goals and fulfill our dreams!

And if you like these blog posts, please leave a comment or become a follower. Thanks!

Studying Human Anatomy with Stan Prokopenko—Supplement

I’ve finally started the Stan Prokopenko Anatomy of the Human Body for Artists course!

And…I quickly hit a wall.

My issue is that some things are not explained as fully as I need them to be explained. We all have our  own personal best ways to learn and for me, that means needing to understand everything in as much detail as possible. I need to know the WHY behind things to really “get” them.

That means anatomy tracings as the start was a struggle for me. I can’t trace the anatomy because I don’t know what I’m tracing. I understand the importance of learning this step but for me, the step came too early in the course.

The spine lesson was a struggle. The proportions of a straight on, neutrally-positioned spine were expertly explained. But once the spine moves from that neutral position, it wasn’t clear to me how to address those proportions. Moreover, the assignment involved drawing the pelvis and rib cage attached to the spine before the pelvis and rib cage were taught. It’s most likely that understanding the proportions will come with practice, time and further study.

I had the same problem with the pelvis lesson. In this case, Proko realized—based on recurring mistakes he saw in the critiques—that he needed to more fully explain how to draw the bucket of the pelvis. Despite his thorough explanation, I still found myself struggling.

I think I figured out why.

I was reminded of something that Robert Beverly Hale said in his book “Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters": the best way to learn to draw the body is to understand the bones.

For me to get the full benefit of the Proko lessons, I need to spend some time studying the actual bones. That means sitting in front of my skeleton and drawing the pelvis every day every day from every angle until I can do it decently from memory. And when I’m not at home with the skeleton in front of me, I can use the 3D models of the male and female pelvis on Proko’s site.

This is what I need: to touch the pelvis; to look at it up close; to get a complete sense of how it looks and therefore how it should be drawn.

My skeleton looks like this.

If you want to learn how to draw the human figure well, I suggest you follow Hale’s advice and invest in a skeleton or a set of bones. If that’s not financially possible, invest in Proko’s Skelly app or something similar. This way you can view an accurate 3D model of the bones that you can see from every angle and get a solid feel for how each bone is constructed. 

Admittedly, the skeleton pictured above which I purchased (about 20 years ago) is around $350. But if you can afford it, it's an excellent investment towards your drawing education.

What area or areas of anatomy are you learning or interested in learning? Leave a comment! Thanks!

An Evening with Women in Animation and Fred Seibert

Fred Seibert (SIGH-bert) makes original cartoons and television networks. He's the founder of Frederator Networks, the Chief Creative Officer of WOW! Unlimited Media, and a serial media entrepreneur. 

He was the first creative director of MTV and the last president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Fred founded Next New Networks (acquired by YouTube). He’s on the board of directors of Sawhorse Media and was the first investor in Tumblr.

It’s was a pleasure to listen to his history in the industry and to his thoughts on what he’s doing now and what may happen in the future.

Here are takeaways from the evening:

1. The presence of craft in an animated short is not relevant as long as people like it
2. Seibert HATES pitch bibles and believes the pitch should be whatever best shows off the idea
3. Now there are narrower groups of people who like a work deeper [this is related to Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans” idea. Read it HERE]
4. VR is not a storytelling medium. We’re years away from people caring about it
5. No one knows anything (screenwriter William Goldman said the same thing)

My favorite question response of the evening—aside from the anti-Trump one—was: "I personally don’t give a crap about educating anybody about anything. It’s hard to to one thing well let alone two.”

Another favorite thing said by Seibert—“I don’t understand why anyone would want to be an employee.” WOW, that one REALLY spoke to me! I'm always surprised that so many animators desperately want to work for Pixar considering the number of Pixar employees who make personal projects! That's a clear indication that Pixar employees—like most creative employees—are not entirely creatively satisfied with their day jobs. And if that's the case, you might as well go it alone!

I asked Seibert if it's valuable (although I actually phrased the question as “does it make sense,” out of nervousness!) for an independent animator focusing their attention on creating their own work versus pitching. He paused briefly to think of an answer. He said he would never say what makes sense, that it’s individual. He feels creators should ALWAYS be creating. But pitching, despite its low success rate, can be beneficial, too. Ultimately, it can be good to do both because a failed pitch can be turned into a successful short.

I feel lucky to have met Seibert and to have seen his wonderfully designed offices. I wish him the best in his future endeavors and I appreciate him sharing his knowledge and experiences with us. Thank you, WIA!

Prepping to Pitch an Animated TV Series

Walt Disney in front of a storyboard

OK, yes, I know, I SAID I was going to focus ALL of my attention on skills improvement, specifically learning human anatomy.

But…I may have a way of satisfying that nagging feeling of wanting to develop ideas AND to make some money.

So I’m thinking about PITCHING!

I have about three solid ideas (and many more less solid ones) that I’ve thought about pitching to studios.

Now I’ve heard mixed messages about pitching. One of the cons of pitching is that you’re appealing to an executive as opposed to appealing directly to the public. Pitching means you have to please a gatekeeper which runs completely counter to our DIY attitude!

I’ll admit, my goal for pitching is this: I want to buy time. If I can sell one or several ideas, it will most likely give me enough money to quit my day job. Quitting my day job means spending the most productive 8 hours per day on PROJECTS instead of on a meaningless, dead end job.

Tonight I’m attending a Women in Animation (WIA) event featuring Fred Seibert, the creator of Frederator Networks and Frederator Studios. He’s had positions at MTV and Hanna-Barbera. He’s made a significant contribution to the revitalization of the animated tv short.

It’s a huge opportunity to meet him and I hope to get the chance to ask about the types of pitches his company is looking for. Any insights and tips he can give would be hugely beneficial as I create my pitch ideas.

Is anyone else coming up with ideas to pitch as a tv series? Leave a comment! Thanks!

Animated Project Postmortem 2—How To Stand Apart in a Creative Crowd

Making the animated web series “A Universe of Trouble” clearly revealed my weaknesses. Or my main weakness, which is simple—I need to draw better.

What’s hard is figuring out the best and fastest way to learn to draw.

I know that much of animation is now and will continue to be computer-generated. But my passion has always been for drawing. It wasn’t until I did a weekend workshop given by a Pixar animator that I learned that computer animators don’t draw. I was shocked to learn this (in addition to learning that many computer animators have severe arm, wrist and hand pain) and I immediately saw an opportunity. With so many people creating so much great work, the challenge is how to stand apart from the competition. I think one answer to that question is to draw. (Another answer to that question is to be a better storyteller which I’ll discuss in another post.)

Additional reasons I want to improve my drawing are that I want to make graphic novels, I want my animation drawings to look better and I want to animate faster. Therefore it’s clear that I must start my skills improvement in one area: anatomy. 

Two weeks after completing “A Universe of Trouble,” I reviewed both the Stan Prokopenko Figure Drawing Fundamentals series and the Samantha Youssef gesture drawing syllabus. I also started studying perspective, working on mechanical drawing skills (based on Scott Robertson’s “How To Draw” book) and an animation project based on Moebius’s “Arazak."

And I immediately fell into the same problem I’ve had for the last 25 years—TOO MUCH WORK!

By trying to do a little bit of many things every day, I felt overwhelmed and that I was short-changing the areas I was AND wasn’t working on.

I have now tossed aside all study except the Proko studies. I completed my review of the Figure Drawing Fundamentals and am now studying the Human Anatomy series.

I’m confident that with a daily focus on this one area that I will, by or before the end of next year, have a solid grasp of human anatomy.

After anatomy I’m going to learn perspective and tone but…I won’t even THINK about those until anatomy’s done!

Animated Project Postmortem 1—What I Did Right & What I Did Wrong

The final episode of my two-year animation project, “A Universe of Trouble," was uploaded on Tuesday, July 4, 2017.

A few stats: the entire project was 341 scenes. 221 of those were done in Toon Boom Animate Pro. 120 were done in Toon Boom Harmony (my computer died and I was forced to upgrade.) Episode 12 had the most scenes, 32 (the first 4 done in Animate Pro, the remaining 28 in Harmony). Episode 3 had the least number of scenes, 9.

Two years of sacrificing: time with loved ones, hanging out, relaxing, having fun, reading and exercising.

Two years of a single-minded focus.

Admittedly, once it was over, I felt deeply relieved that it was out of my system, completely drained and even a little lost. That’s why I haven’t addressed the completion of the project until now. 

So here we go!

Towards the end of the project, I began to have second-thoughts about the decision to dedicate two years to a project instead of spending that time on desperately-needed skills improvement. After briefly beating myself up over this, I came to these conclusions:

1. Although I knew that I needed to improve my skills, it was impossible for me to consistently focus on this task because I kept telling myself that I needed to complete a project! Ugh, you can’t have it both ways, Rochelle! It was EITHER focus 100% on skills improvement or focus 100% on a project. There was no way to do both simultaneously. Since doing a project kept gnawing at my mind and prevented me from focusing completely on drawing practice, I decided to satisfy the project-completion hunger.
2. The project clearly revealed my weaknesses which will make focusing and consistency on skills improvement easier. In the past when I tried to do skills improvement, after a few days of dull exercises and drills, I would second-guess if I was focusing on the right or best drills and exercises and topics. This further distracted from actually improving any skills! It became clear during the creation of this project that I need to learn anatomy and perspective if I’m to create and share all of the cool stuff floating around in my mind!
3. The project gives me something to talk about at industry gatherings. At my first Women in Animation (WIA) event since completing the project, I was able to tell people about my project and hand out business cards directing them to where they could see the project.

So ultimately, YES, spending two years working on an imperfect project WAS the a better use of my time rather than lackluster skills improvement!

In addition to becoming clear about my weaknesses and the areas I should focus my study upon, I learned what I should not skimp on for the next animated project: everything (characters, props, environments, colors) should be designed/determined in advance to maintain consistency; do color scripts in advance to ensure characters and background are distinct; make model sheets and turnarounds to make the drawing process faster; create texture swatches for everything (skin, hair, etc.); depending upon the clip, add an extra 2 secs. at the beginning and/or end for easier editing.

I’m proud of “A Universe of Trouble.” I love the story, I’m proud of the results and I’ve gotten great feedback about it. I’m going to take the lessons I learned from this experience and apply them towards becoming a better artist.

UPDATED Blog! and How to Upload Videos to Blogger

I’ll be honest.

After spending two years on the A Universe of Trouble project, I neglected slightly this blog. I used it to share with you what I was doing.

But once I started uploading the episodes, I didn’t pay attention to the obvious fact that the videos weren’t actually uploading! I assumed it was a Flash plug-in issue when instead it was a Blogger issue.

Although Blogger allows you to upload a video directly from your compute, the video will not show properly or at all on your blog. My searches for uploading video to Blogger came up almost empty with no recent explanations. 

Here’s how I did it using my YouTube channel:

1. I clicked the upload button on my YouTube channel
2. Once the video was uploaded, I created a “Blogger” playlist and—this is important—labelled the video as “Unlisted” (I did “Private” first but a private video doesn’t provide the Share options). I don’t want other people seeing this playlist because these videos are only for uploading to Blogger.
3. I clicked on the video to open it
4. Under the video, I clicked “Share,” then the Blogger icon
5. I copied the code
6. In the post window, I clicked on “HTML” to get the HTML editing window
7. I pasted the code into the window
8. I clicked on “Publish” once the video was finished uploading
9. My videos now show properly in my blog

Unfortunately I have to go through my entire blog and re-upload videos. So annoying!

And I decided to change the look of the blog as well. I think it’s now more inviting and better and easier to look at.

Do you like the blog’s new look? Tell me what you think! Thanks! 

A Universe of Trouble—The Final Episode

"Out in the fresh air."

The final episode.

A Universe of Trouble—Ep16

"You shall remain here forever."

A Universe of Trouble—Ep15

"Ancient bucket of bolts."

A Universe of Trouble—Ep14

"Red pits of burned flesh."

A Universe of Trouble—Ep13

"Alone in the dark."

A Universe of Trouble—Ep12

"A cold and fishy eye."

Flying around space fixing hyperspace beacons can be dangerous.

New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

A Universe of Trouble—Ep11

"A grand sight."

Flying around space fixing hyperspace beacons can be dangerous.

New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

A Universe of Trouble—Ep10

"Horrible but effective."
Flying around space fixing hyperspace beacons can be dangerous.
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

A Universe of Trouble—Ep09

"A grand sight."

A Universe of Trouble—Ep08

"And it wasn't nice."
Flying around space fixing hyperspace beacons can be dangerous.
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

A Universe of Trouble—Ep07

"Time to make contact."
Flying around space fixing hyperspace beacons can be dangerous.
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

A Universe of Trouble—Ep06

"They are poison."
Flying around space fixing hyperspace beacons can be dangerous.
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

A Universe of Trouble—Ep05

"Something clicked in my mind."

A Universe of Trouble—Ep04

"You have to understand hyperspace."

A Universe of Trouble—Ep03

A Universe of Trouble—Ep02

A Universe of Trouble-Ep01

You can't quit. Ever!

A Universe of Trouble TEASER!

On Wednesday, April 29, 2015 I started this journey.

At that time, I was struggling to simultaneously draw a 5-minute film while also learning to draw.

It. Wasn't. Working.

My skills were not sufficient to make the film as I pictured it in my head. And learning to draw while also trying to draw a project was getting me nowhere since I was splitting my limited time.

Through all of that, I had a nagging desire to complete some THING. Any THING!

I had calculated that at my present pace, my 5-minute film would take 3-5 YEARS to complete!

So I thought if I did a project shorter than 5-minutes, it would be completed quickly and satisfy my need to make something.

That's when I found Harry Harrison's "The Repairman" and was grabbed by the story. It felt like an excellent opportunity to tell a new story with a black woman in a compelling situation that had nothing to do with being black or female. It was perfect!

When I started I thought it'd take a few months to a year to complete. That quickly became a dream after it took 3 months just to complete the first episode…out of 17 episodes!

Yeah, I miscalculated. Badly.

Now, exactly 2 years later on Saturday, April 29, 2017, I completed this project! One month before my deadline!

I didn't fully realize how stressful working on this project was until it was over. I spent so much time on it that other parts of my life suffered. Despite the stress, however, I would have done it again. What I've learned from doing this project could ONLY have been learned by doing this project!

Now that I've made something and will be sharing it with the world, I'm excited and eager to get back to just pure drawing skills development.

I'll be discussing what I learned from doing this project in future posts in addition to what I'm learning now as I return to drawing practice.

I hope you enjoy my project! Please give me your feedback. As long as it's constructive criticism and observations (and not pure hating), it can only make me better.

Thanks for following me on this journey!

A Universe of Trouble—Ep17 Storyboard. FINAL EPISODE!

Here it is.

I've imagined this moment since April, 2015.

I'm about to start production on the FINAL episode of this project/journey.

I can't begin to describe how thrilled I am to be one big step from the end of this project.

One more BIG PUSH, and I'll be DONE!

A Universe of Trouble—Ep16 Storyboard

Here it is, the penultimate episode of my web series "A Universe of Trouble."

This is the episode that I originally had split into two. But after a second look, I decided to make it one long episode instead of two short ones. I think it makes sense storywise but also…it helps me psychologically. Once I decided I had one less episode to create, I felt less pressure! It's still the same amount of work BUT it feels like less work since it's one less episode. If I need this mind trick to complete this project, so be it.

Ep14 DONE! Ep15 DONE!

Scene from Episode 14.

Scene from Episode 15.

I've been so immersed in my Big Push that I didn't realize I hadn't posted since Jan. 30!

And since the last post I've completed TWO MORE EPISODES!

The light at the end of the tunnel has gotten a bit brighter now. There's one big scene and one small scene to complete and then I'll be done with this two-year challenge.

Next post: the storyboard for Episode 16

Episode 13 Production Has Begun

Continuing with my "Big Push Period" to complete the last 6 episodes of "A Universe of Trouble" on Memorial Day weekend, 2017, I completed the storyboard and scenes 01 and 02 this weekend. In the process I discovered that scene 03 is simply a closeup and scene 02 which saved me from having to do another scene.

This scene will be the last time for awhile that the Repairwoman is in the temple. After this, she moves into the actual hyperspace beacon to make the repairs.

Here's the storyboard:

I'm relieved that after doing a 30-scene episode, this episode has a mere 13 scenes.

There's no excuse to complete this quickly!

THE BIG PUSH!

April, 2017 will be the 2-year anniversary of working on "A Universe of Trouble."

My original intent was to quickly get some work out into the world. I assumed telling a short story would take less time than animating a 5-minute film.

Yes, I will complete this web series sooner than I would have completed the animation for "Adult Toy Story."

No, it's still not THAT fast!

I'm pleased with the progress of this project and am enjoying the process. However…I want it to be OVER!

First, I want it to be over because I'm eager to do so many other projects. But none of those projects can be worked on until I learn two important things: human anatomy and perspective.

Second, I want to enjoy my summer this year! Meaning, I want to get out of my drawing room and ride my bike while not having a little voice telling me that I should be working.

Therefore, I decided to make the remainder of the winter and some of the spring my BIG PUSH TIME. This means that I will cut back slightly on drawing practice to work as much as possible on completing these last 6 episodes (I'm days away from completing episode 12 of 18).

That's 4 months to complete 6 episodes. Right now it's dark and cold and I don't want to be outside anyway. THIS is the time to really push, to wake up even earlier (5am) to get this project DONE!

My new deadline is Monday, May 29, 2017—Memorial Day—to complete this project. That will be a long weekend and the official start of summer. What better time is there to wrap this up?

My Newest Favorite "A Universe of Trouble" Scene!

I'm happy to report that abruptly switching from Toon Boom Animate Pro to Harmony is not nearly as traumatic as I thought it would be. The two programs look and work similarly which is a great help.

BUT Harmony has many more features than Animate Pro and I happily discovered one of them: the Quake module!

In Animate Pro, I was able to do a camera shake effect by altering the x, y and z coordinates of the camera in the timeline. It was effective but a little time consuming.

In Harmony, I drag a module into the Node View, attach it to the camera node…and I'm done!

Here's the Quake module at work in my newest favorite scene of the series:


What do you think of this scene?

Studying Gesture—Examples of Combining Methods

In the previous post, I talked about combining the methods of Stan Prokopenko with those of Samantha Youssef.

Prokopenko's lessons communicate to me better than anyone else's. I think it's because I think linearly and completely and his lessons are designed that way. So I started with his spaghetti gestures and then moved on to the bean gestures.

Youssef also starts her gesture drawing method with "spaghetti" drawings:

I was ready to start the second step of Youssef's 3-step approach which is adding 2D forms to the spaghetti gesture. With limited time to practice, I decided to combine Proko's bean practice with Youssef's method. I did this after realizing that Proko's bean shapes are similar to Youssef's egg and rectangle shapes:

Youssef's method has this important element: the addition of 2D shapes to the spaghetti gesture that represent the silhouettes of the solid, inflexible chest mass and the solid, inflexible pelvic mass. This 2D element is essential before adding the 3D forms of the figure. They act as a bridge between gesture and structure. Here she shows that the shapes should be a simple egg for the chest mass and a simple square/rectangle plus how they differ between male and female:

My practice of these principles:

Black charcoal is used for the spaghetti gesture and the bean masses. Red marker is used to make the egg and rectangle shapes.

Not only am I enjoying doing these otherwise tedious exercises, but I feel that I'm understanding and improving at drawing them. It's making SENSE to me!

There is a LOT more to gesture drawing than I imagined. So much so that I find that I regularly take 30+ minutes to review the principles and thinking behind the methods to ensure that I'm doing them correctly.

Keep drawing!

Studying Gesture—Combining Methods

Last year I made the mistake of going through the Prokopenko Figure Drawing Fundamentals lessons too quickly. I saw the lessons as "easy" and in my eagerness to improve quickly, I dedicated no more than two weeks to each lesson.

Needless to say, NONE of the lessons stuck!

Once it became clear that the skill of gesture drawing was the foundation for all figure drawing, I returned to studying and practicing it mindfully.

I'm dedicating four weeks to each lesson this time to ensure that I get it. I'm also combining methods from various instructors to see which work best for me.

Currently, my daily practice involves a warmup of circles, ellipses, egg shapes and straight lines. The circles, ellipses and straight lines I got from the Watts Atelier. The egg shapes I do because of Samantha Youssef.

I returned to the Youssef method after dismissing it the first time I studied it (I also dismissed the movie Tekkonkinkreet the first time I saw it and now love it having watched it again recently! Funny how age changes the way you look at things.) Originally I found the method involved too much thinking and too many steps to follow in the short period that models pose.

Well, I looked at it again and now understand how her methods relate to Prokopenko, Vilppu and Nicolaides. I'm making the connection among these various methods, finally understanding what they mean and how they're different ways of teaching the same principles. This is how I'll eventually arrive at the best gesture and figure drawing method for ME.

Next post: what combining Prokopenko and Youssef looks like.

New 27" iMac!

I'll admit, I didn't necessarily WANT this gigantic computer (it weighs 21 pounds and my arms were sore for 2 days after from carrying it home.)

What I DID want was a computer with the power to last for several years and to handle my animation, 3D rendering and film editing software. I would've preferred a laptop for the portability option but a desktop will do fine (especially since the latest MacBook Pro eliminated most of its ports and I REALLY need ports.)

It was recommended to me that I get a computer that will allow for parts to be removed in case they fail instead of having one where everything is integrated. That requirement combined with a video card that works well with both Toon Boom Harmony and Adobe gave me one option: the 27" iMac.

It's been a few weeks now and I'm absolutely loving this machine! Yes, it's a little big for my desk and I miss the portability of the laptop but the power of this machine makes up for all of that. I no longer have a use for my second monitor since the iMac's is so large.

I swapped out the 8GB of RAM that it came with and replaced it with…32GBs! It boots up in 10 seconds and effortlessly runs animation and video editing software simultaneously. I. LOVE. IT!

The speakers are so awesome that I no longer need the external speaker. The wireless keyboard and mouse frees up ports (4 USB, 2 Thunderbolt). And although I chose the smaller 512GB Flash storage instead of the 1TB, having less space forced me to clear my harddrive by moving all of my iTunes music to an external drive (the drive that I salvaged from the MacBook). Besides, I can always upgrade it later.

The only issue was that I was now forced to switch from Animate Pro to Harmony mid-project which is exactly what I didn't want to do. The change, however, has gone a lot smoother than I expected and Toon Boom even converted a few files for me.

I'll talk more about how much I'm liking Harmony in another post.

Ultimately, I consider the purchase of this machine as an investment into my future.

Now back to work!

White MacBook Crashed!

It was going to happen eventually.

My white MacBook stopped booting up suddenly. The only bright spot of losing that computer is that the harddrive didn't fail. It was more likely the logic board.

Bye bye laptop, hello shiny, new desktop!