New Years! 2018! Root Dreams
Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was fun and warm and a good dinner. Then the next day I got the flu and did nothing but sleep and be sick for, I guess it was 3-4 days. A lot of people are getting this. I’m lucky I dodged it for so long. Only gaged once. It could have been worse. Today when I woke up my back was more in frame. I needed meat so I had to go out to the hamburger stand and shopping and it is so cold out now. I can hardly walk. Hopefully I will get better than this. Cartoons seemed the only appropriate and eye catching thing to put in here now.
HOPE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is my latest advancement in drawing. It doesn’t look like it maybe. I relaxed the line. Maybe this helps and maybe it’s too relaxed. This is the direction I think for painting, if I wanted to do that. But if the subject is too relaxed, If I can’t find a way to put relax and a bit of tight together that looks natural I’m sunk. I think. This seems like nothing, but it is everything. I’m glad I thought this out before I started. I still have more realistic style pictures I can do . This will probably tell the tale though, maybe. I’ve got to work this out. I was going to wait and put this in later but I want to get all this done since I can’t do it from home. And want to be there.
My back has healed. Don’t think about it! Whew! Latest activities are sleep and shovel snow, and sleep again. This, with eating fixed the back. Only a couple of drawings. Yesterday I did a landscape and could not figure how to finish it off. I’ll have to sit it back. Actually I’m getting tired of teddy bears and snowmen, simple things I’ve set up to extend and practice on, but they work. After the landscape I did a teddy bear in environment drawing relaxed. Took 15 minutes! I pasted in the mask I did for the background and that was fast! Also the background paste was of copy paper and was a micron whiter and bluer (under the shading). This was interesting because it worked, sitting under the shading. I’ve got this slick paper and I’m going to try a teddy portrait on it. Still to know how it would accept watercolor. My new (cheap) cell phone works well for drawing subjects! I missed a grand photo op of white tree branches a few mornings ago because I didn’t know it was going to happen and I still had a sore back and was tired. So charged up for art. I’ve also come to the conclusion that unbelievable filters could also produce works of art fast on good photographs. This could be a mainline. I have filters and some might work well, but the filters I am dreaming about would have far more controls and horizons. Maybe they could exist. Maybe I’m not seeing the filters I have good enough. My screen? I always have the problem of distortion blurring. Could that be corrected? But the filters I have are still out of sight, I need distortion refinement. All these things go out the window when your drawing, you can distort yourself and your lines are crisp enough.
This background better, too many lines. I did get my new photos into folders and backed up. I have to sweep up my misc. photos into their site and then maybe I can fit in cataloging with drawing. I got more than I thought, so far. Soon I will have to relax this.
ROOT DREAMS
I thought it might be interesting to write about a certain type of dream I had this morning. Once in a great while I have dreams like this and wake up panicking that I have done something wrong and great relief that it was just a dream! Usually I am dreaming I didn’t take a test, or someone or something (often extraterrestrial) is chasing me, or I am on someone’s land or inside a structure I shouldn’t be.
The thing is I wake up (and other people too) thinking that deep down they are a criminal. Well I was thinking this morning. Maybe you are a criminal! But not in the way you think you are. In another form! Maybe these dreams go far back beyond your human ancestors to a mainline ancestor…like the evolutionary type of rodent we all came from…or even back beyond that! Everyone knows how animals act. They have the greatest love for their offspring, but will instantly unleash all hell and evil when they are threatened or hungry. Remorse or God does not exist, just a means to an end to live. And I believe this is right as rain for them (not people now) but animals.
We humans needed to follow another course having more extended deviations from this and other things (some rules & regulations) to ensure life, or we might have ended up dead long ago. This is my belief.
But I believe some of this root animal wiring is still in us. Your hair stands on end, adrenalin courses through your body, you know something without experiencing it before, or your senses tell you something does not match up.
When we are young we need to learn about things, experience some things first hand. But as we become adult we can find our interests and we know about much of the rest of the world. When I was 16 my parents drove to N.C. on vacation to see relatives. We sometimes went through the Smoky Mountains. I was entranced to see mountains! I became entranced to stand inside this carpet of trees I saw everywhere. I wanted to see what it looked like when I was in it! I found a way that didn’t get me in trouble for running off. I followed a piss trail that lead off every stop off view overlook that was on the highway. I followed one to the end and suddenly I was standing inside this carpet of trees and could know just what it looked like everywhere!
By the time you are a grownup you know a lot about everything. From television or wherever you know things and it’s not an adventure to know about that anymore. You sometimes find adventures or outlets you can get into through the human structure and can go with that. You are safe and deal with the rest and know it. Your horizons shift from an animals, but it is still a natural horizon for a human. And you live your life like this happy and fulfilled for the most part.
But it is my belief that after going years like this, some parts of that rodent wiring that lies at the root of your brain or spinal cord does not get used. And it needs to get used every once and awhile to keep it healthy and functional to all of your being now. So you have dreams! Something is chasing you or you are exploring somewhere that in real life you shouldn’t be. This is really healthy for a rodent. It’s normal. They go out every night and it must be a real seamless adventure to move through the night unless they are being hunted or especially hungry. They must get their share of this weightless pure safe adventure all the time and it is normal wiring for their body. I bet a lot of things are so refreshing, moving through the night, unafraid and experiencing each new thing, free.
We still need a bit of this. But we are not aware of it.
So we have dreams that we are being chased or fight or explore…like a animal or rodent. And this dreaming completely freeform is renewing our whole wiring, (the part that is being missing), without doing it while we are awake. And it is good! It renews us! The missed small part is there again and we are whole. And it makes us better in the end! And less likely a criminal!!
I’m not going into real human criminals now. Only to say that it is my belief that the human race gene pool probably needs opposites as much as it does the bigger middle ground. Good/evil, healthy/not healthy/, smart/dumb, happy/sad…to even keep going. So law breaking will probably be something ongoing, not something to eradicate completely in the end. (I don’t mean that jail should be done away with, we have to keep safe!) That is my belief. So I was happy this morning to come up with this idea. It seems to fit! We renew ourselves with our dreams. And I have more evidence of this with another dream I had long ago…
I was having one of these dreams that you don’t remember when you wake up. ( I think I have already wrote about this in here.) You never remember these dreams. It’s always like that. At least it is like that with me. But this particular one I remembered when I woke up. (It’s never happened before or since.) I was dreaming a string of things that made no fundamental sense at all in any dimension. The elements were elements in waking life but the relationship between them, in time, made no sense at all. And I was dreaming this slowly over and over, like a loop, over and over and over. And each time I dreamed it my brain felt refreshed and renewed! Each and every time. Refreshed and renewed! And I woke up and remembered the whole thing! WOW!
So dreams can warn you, interest you, release you, and take care of you like a parent. They probably take care of us more than we know. So when you wake up feeling so relieved it was just a dream, you don’t have to worry that deep down you are a criminal. You are not! But the rodent stock you evolved from had to be a criminal (along with everything else) to live. As we humans had to evolve and change from some of these criminal practices to live. And dreams keep us on track! Wonderful thought!
FENDERBERGS
Caution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They can rip your fender or hurt your suspension!! Esp when full as can get and HARD! Turning can crunch your wheels. Don’t kick off hard ones. Only think I could find quick on web is WD 40 oil in well before the snowing.
One of the worst things taking pictures is when you miss good things. My heart is still broken over missing the one morning of hore frost we had and more lately we had a silvery sheer fog at sunrise. These things never happen! I just don’t know they are happening. The weather reports much, but this? The hore frost was a victim of my Flu. It weakened my back and I just didn’t have the ongoing energy to keep checking. I just wish I had someone to call me, wake me up, I don’t care. I could have forced myself up if I knew it was going to happen. Photo aps for this? Warning calls.
:) WOW WHEEW, THANK YOU
Gun control. Something about the pace and standards, which we need, but some feel left out and can’t keep up or want to redo, and some of those will start to tear down things. This will ignite. But the general public, I don’t know. Television is great, but you do see things you can’t afford while listening and learning. Maybe you can get these things. No further can I go. I haven’t traveled?
I finally got the door to refrig cleaned. Now just top & freezer. This brightened my outlook after so many weeks. Swept and Bathroom cleaned. I’m back into photo cataloging. I just have 119 folders to go, not counting edited. But I think I am doing a good job. Especially explaining my keywords and keywording strategies behind the scene. I keep a Cat backup index for any new notations that have been done by that backup. I can explain going back and inserting garden flowers keyword to separate these from all flower pictures by that backup. Of course there are some random additions I put in along the way when I see a unique mistake or neglection once in a while and I just can’t take the time to record that. Meaning if I had to use a later backup, I would not know or remember these and these mistakes would again be included in the catalog. But not many. My outside lists work great with the program and my plugin works great!! Always reports my keywords and captions. I backup and backup.
Searching really helps when you want to change certain parts of the Cat! I haven’t done this much, but It’s a dream when finding and keywording higher ISO. I keep forgetting that. Yesterday I finally hit snags. Why was file numbering off in one folder and why was there no folder added when I reported it in my backup list. So I tried adding it and it was a go…so I had not added it yet. And my numbering problem was already reported in my Mistakes document. (maybe when I made up the folder to begin with). So I got myself back on track. Wheew. Try and report older photos accurately as to where? Sometimes creation times - down to the minute, help. I watch for breaks. Love the comment catergory, ha, it’s not called that. I put anything in it when needed. I’m hoping my computer will hold up for some time. I try and go slow with it. So my program is WONDERFUL. And I mean it. Love the time I put in it! This is awesome!
As usual, been very busy. I got back in photo indexing after so long of drawing. I got my newest folders done. (More than 100 are still waiting.) And am making up new folders from my cards now. I don’t know if I will be able to start on any older with taking new photos in future though. I want to get caught up. I’m trying to make a carry all for my photo equipment. It gets so heavy carrying. I’d like to fit in editing buy probably won’t have time. Wish I had more time, but none to fit in here right now. Relatives have been emailing me on how I weathered the winter, was I still here! I’m here!
Wrung out but revving up. I hate dirty yard work, but the exercise is okay. I got a new drawing pad, but so far nothing great. Someday I hope to have more to put in here. I saw the flower Snowdrops for the first time this spring. Vincent used to pick them for his sister or Mother when he was young. I thought they were only in Europe. They come up so early they sometimes grow up under the snow. Sorry this is so dry. I’m out in the physical ring all the time. No drawings.
FOOD HANDELING
Gourmet Food, why is it not clean? I know, politics, trying to get it together! Well I don’t want to lose this type of food, even though I mostly eat plain plain and like that. I don’t want to give up spice! Where are you eating? Today you better know! Can’t there be both foods? Plain & gourmet. We surly want our medical standards maintained! We will depend on others to take care of us when we are older, with our standards. We, or the baby boom generation has worked for older generations. Maintaining food is one of them.
With mixed dishes you should know your single ingredients are clean to begin with. TV is half the blame. They are still showing mixing and food handling with bare hands. My opinion, do this at home if you want to, but not for the general public. Of course politics comes into play, at least in a few I know. I hate that. Yeah it’s always been done with bare hands. In my opinion life and evolution is silently throwing you a curve ball. Older generations could handle food with bare hands and not transmit as many germs…We, no matter how much we wash our hands, [ and I am taking it for granted people wash their hands really good before they handle food for the public and after they use the restroom] will transmit many many germs. That can surly be true as a component of further evolution. It can be true. It doesn’t mean that future generations will continue this trend. But now WATCH OUT! We have germs on our hands and our parents had less. In my opinion life can do anything it wants in the evolution of a species or organism. My theory is the only thing life would want to do is keep the life organism going and regenerating healthy and stable throughout time. So if our hands/body at this time does not hold germs in as well, well that is a blow out for stronger regeneration for future of that organism. It doesn’t mean your hands are going to fall off. It means that a side is loosening for another part of the body to grow stronger in the next generation. It’s all a balance. Life keeps this balance going to equalize things and regenerate the next generation strong. It can’t keep making carbon copies thought time. Well TV shows mixing with bare hands. You should be using disposable gloves…that don’t lend plastic into the food. Change them when you start with different food, or wash them like you would your hands while they are still on your hands. And dry!
Mix with bare hands, more germs in the mixed food. (Mixed food probably carries more bacteria than a single item.) Put leftovers in the Refrig and the germs grow! (Even if this food , that I again take for granted is covered with fresh clean plastic or the bowl’s cover, that has be washed beforehand.) Dishes and utensils that are used for food must be washed in a very sanitary way before being used. Never put a utensil you have already put in your mouth into the clean food of a serving container…instant germs for leftovers! Do not breathe on food as you are preparing it! Wash used dishes and utensils in a very clean and sanitary method, DON’T MAKE A PASS. Keep your refrigerator clean! Don’t let stuff set in there! When you clean the refrig, throw out old bottles etc…of unused things. Buy new. Use your freezer more. Germs grow slower still in the frozen state. Date your freezer things because different things have different times they can be frozen and stay good. Cook to temperatures to kill bacteria etc in meat etc. Go online and get a manual cooking times. Don’t buy dented can goods or sometimes off brands. Watch your expiration dates! Keep yourself clean. Keep kitchen counter tops sanitized! Keep the kitchen clean. Keep the kitchen floor clean - don’t dust it Scrub it! . Clean up your kitchen spills with a disinfectant. Keep pets out and off! What is inside your cupboards? Are they clean? Insects? Out! Disposable wipes and paper towels are always better than using a rag over and over. Keep trash emptied.
Enjoy that food but you have to be strict handling food. It all can spoil fast. Sorry for my haunty attitude but unclean food makes me mad.
HOUSE CLEANING
That’s what I’ve been doing! Unless your rich, have others in the family, or really strong, you might want to use judgment. Even me - I’ve done cleaning right along every year or 2 years. So everything is not that dirty. But I have to use judgment. I can’t spend my whole summer on the inside and outside of the house. I want to look around, draw, take pictures, etc… So I must cut off some of the work. I just don’t go in the bedrooms which I can’t move stuff out of the do wall cleaning on MATT PAInting (WHICH I HATE - YOU CAN’T WASH IT). I don’t have the money to change the floors to be able to wash wood flooring. I get after bathroom and kitchen first…this year windows, blinds, curtains, then hope for the hallway and living room. But like I said - I hope to get the bathroom next. I don’t know about the living room, most is done, not walls. The roof, eves, garage, car, outside paint chipping must be done outside. Tree root exploration - it never stops. That is why I have to dish out the inside stuff when I have time. Already spring is popping with photo ops! And I’ve got to index photos. What I really need to do first is find out more basic things - can’t go into it. Oh hey, here is a tip. If you have a steamer, I know they say do not use the wall paper attachment unless you want to remove wall paper. Well don’t use any attachment on wall paper! I love the kitchen wall paper and don’t want to lose it.
Don’t have to be cold anymore. Cleaning some inside walls in the house and trying to keep up with outside work. My chimney is leaking again. I got some indexing done and drawing. The car needed two tires changed and that caused more problems. Placed flowers on my Mom & Dad and Grandparents graves. That involved some driving but got to see my cousins and Adrian. Sometimes I wish we wouldn’t have left. After two days on the road television gave me back what I had missed. I wonder if I need to learn to live country in the East or West Coast. I don’t know. Miss a high tension that I don’t get here, but who knows how much you want of anything. The cemeteries were beautiful and I got photos right along with everything else…not just in graveyard. All our parents are dead now and this town is filled with memories. Except I don’t like my Grandfather’s house. Mike is going to send me many more family photos. While I was gone I guess Alberto remnant came thru and there were a lot of branches down in the yard. I have seen, so far, no sign of the backyard bumble bees that were so busy last summer. Maybe they all died. (I was wondering how I was going to get to the hose this summer.) I still have bush trimming and tying to do. There are helicopter seeds and that marks the end of roof crap when I can start on the eves. Don’t have my carrier done for camera and I fear that my old sewing machine will not work for it’s cover. It was really great to get out away from Sturgis. I left at night when there was no sun, heat, or traffic. I have no back route for this destination and don’t want to press speed on my little car.
COMPARE HISTORIC DRAWINGS OR PAINTINGS.
Compare older examples against modern. Perhaps try portraits, landscapes etc. To me (in my opinion) the more modern the less receding in handling they appear. The older, the more relaxed in execution. To me this again affirms the idea of evolution happening generation to generation throughout time. (Not very much, but enough for parents today wonder why their kids and all their kids friends are not exactly carbon copies of themselves. (The same as the baby boomers and their parents felt years ago. ) So, as this has always [so far] been going on throughout time, older past generations are not exactly exactly the same container as everyone today… but this slight difference gets more the farther apart the generations are in time. This is my theory.
So if all the people on earth back in 1891 are a bit different than us, the execution of artists, of that generation, will be different too, and so goes for any point in time, back in history, while we were producing art…cave paintings, frescos, oil paintings and drawings. I’m not talking about the kind or style of art, I’m talking about calmness or point of reference inside the person while he was producing art. You can see this. I have always seen this like a slide ruler every time I checked. Art coming thru the person’s framework, which is internally there, inside of any way he is expressing it. The difference just grows a bit more the farther you go back in history from today. The artwork adds up the same in the end as most everyones (unless it’s abstraction), it’s through the execution that varies to get it to adding up in the same way. [And I am also aware that older work contained more symbolism and mine does not. Which is different with mine.]
So a slightly different container (the artist of a specific generation in time) will execute a picture through his expression, but that expression must shine through that artist’s own body, which is built within that generation’s point of time which evolution forms at birth. Hope you can see what I am talking about. It is just my idea of this. No one has to agree! Older works always seem more relaxed and reticent in execution and more recent works look more bold, tense, and have more velocity.
I, as many artists, have been encouraged to study the old master’s to help find my way in art. I have never been aware I was learning art or composition but I’m sure I was as I grew up. So the master’s have much to give you. More than not. But at times I have gotten hung up on why, as I tried and tried, and been at it a while, I couldn’t get mine to come off like theirs with my modern hand. I was frustrated not pulling pictures off like them! I can’t get it all in! Then you fall into the hole out there, ‘You have not practiced enough!’ Well that may not be the reason. This evolutionary thing may be the cause! You’re a horse trying to run in history’s horse race, but your not a horse, you’re a jet!
But think of it, don’t get jealous. (It’s hard not to when you see some older art!) This is all they had. Photography was really not around yet, and if it was, it was not used or valued as an art form that much. Painting was king. Most artist’s wanted to emotionally work through paint. We today have grown up with art and photography and can edit photos, or filter and edit into art. We can again combine that with our own hand art. We have abstraction. We can deal with far more compositions than they could even dream of with these things. We don’t have to work on just one picture or idea.
On the other hand, to contradict all I have just said, I have seen much art from some artists today that was relaxed and fits better with history. I guess they have gotten on to this or different people are interested in art also. Wonderful. I still have a problem with this calmness. My body can’t change? My ideas on this have been…you have not practiced enough to an idea of, try drawing and drinking. See if that will relax. Or living with it. I can’t drink every time I want to draw. But you know, I really can’t really foresee what advances or kind of advances I will make in drawing if I practice more. I only house a vague point that at some point practice might not get me any further. I don’t know if this will be true or not. Continued practice and doing of pictures will reaffirm the truth of this matter. Truth will grow and grow until your brain can’t miss it and you can confirm truth. Don’t dismiss symbolically hitting your head again and again against a wall. What ever gets you there.
So I am glad I have this theory. If ever I see I can’t go any further in art, or I see something I can’t fix about my body is going to stop me from going any further, I will have this theory and my realistic drawings. And where I am trying now is varied in more directions than one. Knowing in my body, not my head. Or the ability of the brain to direct my hand to preform all these at once. I see now that I need more of my health problem changed back to get any further. How to do all these pictures I pick out to practice with? I want a hit on every one!!!! It’s not that way. So do not dismiss practice, blind contour drawing or contour or gesture practice. And sometimes you can only get so close to the ancient way of doing things. Celebrate what you do best in this time also.
(My latest drawing ideas yesterday)
Well it had to happen sometime even if I'm supersonic careful...
CAMERA DISASTERS CAN HAPPEN ON THE NICEST DAYS!
It was a normal and usual picture taking day. I carried and held my equipment and tripod like egg shells. Got ready for each shot, going over everything important. A non descript flower on top of a high weed growing slope or hill. Set up my tripod right in front of the flower looking directly down the slope. Set my camera in tripod clip - solid. Got the tripod legs arranged (legs tight from last shot I thought). I framed the shot and tightened all upper arms. I took my hand off the tripod for a brief time to see if it was standing solid. It was. It didn’t move. I then shifted to working on focus, ap etc gear mode. CAMERA AND TRIPOD STARTED FALLING OVER DOWN THE RAVINE!!!! (I had bumped nothing.) I HAD A SPLIT SECOND TO GRAB THE CAMERA & TRIPOD………it’s been raining a ton in MI, the ground is not solid. I couldn’t see or know the deepness of the ravine. I’m glad my body overrides my head sometimes…I watched my camera and tripod fall over. If I were to grab my tripod I would have had to step forward down the slope and I could have slipped fallen way over and impaled myself on some unseen thing, not to say even the tripod and/or camera. I could have blinded myself or died! (I wear boots, not tennis shoes for snakes) So I watched my camera and tripod (which is med heavy) fall over. I knew it was over. I guess the Nikon Mount was separated from the lens and I guess the aperture stick was sticking out of the lens. I feared the camera was gone also. Occasionally my tripod will tip because one of the legs is not splayed out enough, but I catch that right away and occasionally one of my lower leg segments does not hold, even though it is tightened and this makes the tripod move and list. (I wonder if this is what happened? I didn’t check the tripod afterwards I was so blown away.) The camera store said the lens might be repaired but not sure, they might turn it down, and my CAMERA WAS OKAY!! This happened about two weeks ago and I was waiting to report here until I got another lens. I'm still getting used to the new macro and using my depth of field preview a lot. Ofcourse I still can't pick out pictures until I get home in the dark and some even slip by then for the computer screen. A primary two weeks of perfect flowers lost to the accident. But the new lens is probably better than the last. In some ways it is, and some ways the older way of not showing all, I don't know. So just thought I'd write in. I'm okay and was out this morning before rain finding some pictures. But ofcourse the darker and slight wind, the higher the ISO and the grainy the pics, even if you have high ISO dialed in.
DRAWING NOW
JUST LATELY DRAWING IS GOING GOOD. I DRAW FASTER AND EMOTIONAL, NOT WORRIED AND I GET BETTER WARPING FOR FILLING IN SHADING AND THE LAST ONE I DID I FILLED IN WATERCOLOR IN THE SPACES I WANTED DARK ( I THEN COVER THE PAINTED PASSAGES WITH GRAPHITE. THE GRAPHITE PART GOES WAY FASTER THIS WAY.) (I ALWAYS TINT THE BLACK WATERCOLOR WITH BLUE). I GOT TOO MUCH BLUE IN THE FILL IN THIS TIME AND THE BLUE BLACK LIGHT MEDIUM PATCH LOOKED OKAY WITH THE COLOR IN IT! I GUESS THIS IS THE DOORWAY TO COLOR. IT SEEMS JUST LIKE A YEAR AGO I WAS WONDERING IF I WOULD EVER LEARN TO CARTOON AND DIDN’T THINK I WOULD GET MUCH FARTHER WITH IT. NOW MY “WARPED” DRAWINGS SEEM TO BE GOING ALONG. I DON’T KNOW WHERE AND WHAT TO MESS - THAT IS NOT TOGETHER. I CAN’T SAY ENOUGH ABOUT PRACTICING. IT GETS YOU FARTHER AND FARTHER. I AM IN A FIGURE DRAWING CLASS NOW (DID I SAY BEFORE?) I AM DOING MOSTLY BLIND CONTOUR WITH THE NUDE FIGURE. I HAVE BEEN OUT TIME AFTER TIME IN PARKING LOTS DOING BLIND CONTOUR OF ANYTHING I COULD SEE…MOSTLY CARS. IT ALL ADDS UP TO ANGLES AND SHORT CURVES. I’VE DONE AND DONE THIS. GOING WELL BUT I NOTICED A NEED FOR BIGGER LONGER CURVED LINES. SO I AM GETTING THIS AND IT IS HELPING. I STILL WATCH THE PAPER I AM USING AND ONLY TRY AND DO MORE INVOLVED STUFF WHEN I GET HOME. SO GOOD TO FINELY BE WITH FELLOW ARTISTS. I ALSO FIND THE EVER PRESENT CELL PHONE CAMERA A QUICK STUDY FOR PRACTICE. I DID SOME WORK IN A COFFEE SHOP AND IT WAS BETTER AFTER TAKING THE CLASS. AND ALSO YOU CAN DO PREVIOUS PICTURES ON THE CELL PHONE, NOT ONES YOU JUST TOOK. HERE ARE SOME MORE (BETTER) MACRO SHOTS I HAVE JUST TAKEN ON MY NEW MACRO LENS…REMEMBER THE LAST ONE BROKE IN AN ACCIDENT. I WILL HAVE THE PICTURES WHEN I HAVE MINUTE
I saw a fox for the first time I think and had a camera!!!!
Chorus Frog with X on back!
Soldier Beetle on Milkweed
I'd like a job in this, I can't do much else. But I know many people would. I'm all for people who want and have done something to have the equipment and time for this. I'm not hogging this but I do love finding photos. My back is the killer. I wish I had someone else to advise at times and a carry all and better editing. I can only go so far, I know nothing more. Sometimes I feel there is better out there. Some pictures of normal stuff look so much more refined. This I would want for anyone else. The same goes for artwork etc. Anywhere. That's why I throw in my drawing experience and tips. Maybe someone somewhere is starting out in graphite and would benefit from another source.
Most of my insect pics are in enviornment. I'd like to start to take a few in a studio setup. Because I want some studio shots to go with my outside stuff. I think the studio shots really frame and isolate an insect picture the best. The problem is, unless the insect has been raised in an artificial enviornment, they tend to look anything but (catching a normal pose) (and that is also almost hard in the field with a 105mm! I mean what else am I doing!!!!!!!!!!! These shots are with my new lens. I've grown to love it... better, for the money it cost. I do love it. I missed that tragedy (broken old macro lens in tripod ledge accident).
ARTISTS ARE A BREED APART
Had a real hard time mowing yard last night among other things. Handle it nicely. Knowledge is power and can also be very very helpful along the way. It is essential and picking this up along your life is always business as usual. Give yourself a pat on the back your doing it. Some day you might use a bit of it and go flying through blocks that stop many others, or lead to lifelong heartache. You won’t have it. Like the time I didn’t ride my bike down the steep hill and was called a sissy…I didn’t break my back. The time I didn’t join in on campus mud sliding night. The time I very marginally did what others embrace and didn’t burst a kidney the next day in Emergency. If you’re an artist, be careful. Especially when your young and don’t know stuff. Your teeth, health, intake, output can be all different. Do you get pregnant? Do you father a family to be responsible for? Most everything you hear, see, is set up to do, or what people say to you, is mainline. Set up for average of everyone on earth. This may really not work for you, or hurt you. Or help you more in some cases. But a lot of artists are different. Some are not, but some are very thin skinned. You are just as much a part of mankind as everyone, but as for your frame, you are a breed apart. That’s my belief.
THROUGH THE SUMMER
I got eves almost. I wish I could blow off yard work. I wish I could blow off shopping. I hate balancing checkbook and I hate having to go out to pay my bills. I wish I could buy 4 months worth of food and dump it in a freezer, pre pay my bills for the year and have someone else mow the yard etc etc. I’ve been getting some shots. Lighting not great, but sometimes better. The deer are around in two places, but not in the other. I’m new to them now, unless they talk. But pickings seem to be narrower. Summers waning a bit. I wish I could move south or I don’t know. I hate winter. But there is time to work on stuff, if it’s warm enough. Your always closed in. Without a good laptop I can’t work outside in the summer. I could bring my desktop out there but really don’t like the idea. Maybe it would be okay, but with all the breeze, microbes, blowing junk. So I’m always inside and winter inside comes too fast. My photo sessions when I get out is a wonder time, but I have to watch my back for deer. And now hunting season is getting closer and this means one of my places is gone. Most people don’t bother with winter. It bugs me more and more and I hope I don’t get mad and cry and become depressed. Not enough challenge sometimes. Editing is something to do. I got new filters and some are pretty cool. My contracted job company changed and I still have a job. Thank God. There is another thing. I just found out there are figure drawing meet ups all over the world! I wish I could make friends with a few others about drawing. And these things are always there weekly!!!!!!!!!!! So I hope I can retake my figure drawing course that I just took. It’s not a class, it’s more like open drawing. I need more of it. But you can pick up tips other places. Maybe something online, if there are such places. And oh, as to photography. I mostly suffer a bit from not being able to see the picture I just took on a laptop screen in dark light. I run into this stuff (even though I bracket some on flowers etc. I run into shots that I couldn’t see that 1 stop smaller ap would get me just a bit more depth that would fit. I just changed my apertures into half steps…How frozen can I be! Anyway to get back to the tip. I was out looking for stuff and found some small sweat bees on grass seed. It looked good and different. I looked at my results in camera monitor and it looked good. It was different. After taking some I thought ‘I got my smattering, so move on.’ When I got home these pics were kind of good. Better than I thought! I wish I had taken more! That was the bees time…just then. We had rain and the next time I went out, day after, there were no more seeds. All it was, was a sea of mating solidier bugs. I just can’t manage carrying one more thing like a laptop. The day after I got caught in rain and had to bend over my camera in it’s bag to shield from the rain. All was okay. I left my raincoat in the car. Too hot and I have to carry. I’m trying to take a boxed stuffed new garbage tote on rollers to carry my stuff. Rolling it is better than carrying. I can put my tripod and camera case in that. Cover and have dust and rain protection. (It’s not white camo yet for lesser sun heat up. This idea kind of splits between ( better traversing to less better when steps between shots are only needed). I’ll end up having to carry the tripod anyway because putting it back and forth, in and out, of the tote is more work than carrying it. And there are these quick shots. Having the camera out can get it on tripod faster. I now have a macro lens with VB. Although VB seems to fall just short of my weak hand holding abilities sometimes. I still favor, for quick situations, bracing the camera on top or next to a leg and taking with a fast shutter. But the tote would probably get me all the way back without having to carry camera and tripod. That will save energy. I also have rigged a shoulder strap and release hook for my white sun umbrella. For shading photo items. It’s light and I just sling it over my shoulder. Also the tote could hold mosiquito repellent and sun stick which would free up pockets. I need a phone - the last time I tried there was no service! And there is the old work stab. Go to work in the morning and watch the unusual huge red sun come up with clouds where you know there is a perfect photo op. and you can’t take photos! Go to work and miss hoar frost…knowing when it is. I want to put more up here but I don’t know whether to watermark or not. I have a couple of drawings. I went through this wanting to know the best scanner for artwork and an online article said, ‘Don’t scan, take studio lighting pictures of the artwork!’ Much better! So now I will have to test that. Although I don’t really have studio lighting.
This drawing was a photo instead of a scan as I talked about above. The photos are a micron bit more quality (better glass?) than the scanned. I don't want to give all my specifics. I have a 2008 mid range good scanner and good software. I tried sharpening in and out of the software with it. Sharpened was sharp but a bit too rough and flat. The photos were better a bit. I had to go through all this set up just right to get them and have camera controls right. A lot of work because I don't have copy stand stuff. And I don't have diffusers and I didn't want to unpack my whole closet for the photo bulbs I have so I did tungsten with with white balance. I have a good camera. Not medium or large format which might make a difference!!! But the thing is the auto focus on graphite. Maybe my lens is off - it might be I've been having other situations with it. So the other thing is I can't use live view zoom focus because I can't see the exact edge of marks. So I did both and they were close but I felt I could not perform manual focus right on. So with my equipment there is not a mid to wide difference between a 800 dpi scan and my camera on it's full (no compression) raw file, low ISO, small apreture, leveling of camera and copy.
I feel my drawings are a bit better. I might be losing a bit of squareness, but it is becuase I'm loosening with practice only. This is not anything my mind can change. They are (I think) not lose enought yet? Art just takes you. You hope to be able to do things like you used to in case you get into trouble with the loosening. That is my trail. But drawings in here do not look way as good as they do in physical. This drawing trys to look okay in physical, but in here the right side needs to be pushed in...or maybe it's the screen lack of quality. In here I might as well just do little digital cartoons and lines! I got so tired of filling in dark passages taking hours of time being careful and careful that I have tried watercolor wash under and graphite over that. It really cuts the time of the darks. The trouble is, if then there is any erasing needed, you can't erase watercolor. I know there is a medium you can apply beforehand to the paper, or use yupo (I don't like the texture), but I haven't tried yet. Some papers will erase it some with work, but there is always a shadow and gallery hanging is probably out of the question. Unless there is something else. I've learned to center and diminish my watercolor. Haven't tried it over graphite yet!? Fixing a drawing gone digital is GREAT! SO EASY!
PRACTICE NUDE FIGURES FROM MY CLASS. Please, some of you, this is not X-rated stuff, not ment to be. Nude Figure studies have been used for practice and finished works throughout history. This subject matter is a valiad artwork in itself and is not ment to imply sex. I am not saying that with certain artists and others that this form does not slide into that side of things. And if that is right or wrong. Mine do not. But 15 years ago if you were able to look up "nude figure drawings" you probably would see many more nude studies of women, past and present! Just look up Modern Figure Drawing now. There are a few nudes for you to see. I'm afraid that by running these that I will get a message to remove the photo. I'll have to remove it and you will just have the web to look at. So I will be back checking if it is still there! Ha. These are practice. I need blind contour from bigger subject matter onto a bigger format newsprint pad. Usually I just do blind contour over and over with each pose without looking very much. But if I look down and it looks good I just flip the page. Some of the poses are longer so I fill in if need. I have done blind contour in the car a lot but everything is so little. You'd be surprised at just how many figure drawing sessions there are all over the world. You just have to dig on the web for one around or in bigger city. I can't afford a top of the line art projector that can get the image clear enough and big enough. I have a book of nude poses already, maybe I can learn to work from small to big because I can't run up my car driving to these things every week. I wished I lived there because I would like to practice every week like this. Poses still not velocity enough. And lines there which probably should have been erased. I'm not totally out of the medical slump yet. And that's the learning curve. What happens when I get the velocity, or will I?
STINKBUG HEAVEN
It’s getting hard to live life as I am doing. I had furnace problems yesterday, had to cancel my drawing class that night. I dodged a bullet for the time being. I just can’t seem to keep up with the house and yard. I’m not giving it up, but in a way I wish I could. To go on the road for a time. My computer versions are starting to give me trouble because they are so out of date and I am into a few things and updating that is not going to be easy. Sometimes eating is the only normal thing I do. I hope my life changes soon so I can do what I want to do and not have to do so much constant overwork to get this to come off. I’m starting to lose my grip and more job work is not going to help. I need advisement. Things could be worse and sometimes they are great, but if I do what is normal, I pay sorely with overwork. But when I’m up on the roof taking off the chimney cover and see all these stink bugs grouped under the folds I feel how lucky I am that I don’t have to end my life in cold, grasping for a bit of warmth that is left. :)
11/30/18 Listening to the Librarians talking makes me feel better. Haven’t been around much. I hate this time of year. It’s worse this year. Everyone is out to get you around the holidays. It’s really bad this year. At the church lunch one who helps also is leaving for the far reaches. I wish I was with them. I’d love to get away from all this. If it gets any worse I’d like to leave to somewhere this doesn’t occur. The fall hell came to a crashing halt with me almost falling downstairs trying to drag the power sprayer and hose and caddy downstairs. The chimney still leaks, I can’t apply the stuff until spring. Have to cover it. There will not be the right cover in the store so I will have to take time out to order it. You have to take time out for EVERYTHING! I look at something and it’s gone! I fixed my car and the noise is still there, but I did get something else fixed! Just yesterday two more things are threatening to go out. I can’t take much more of this. An aging service failed to give me any help with the leaves this fall. I just needed one time of relief while I did most of the leaves. My ladder is stuck. I can’t go out in the car for fear of a wreck. In spite of this, this week for a few days, I managed to have time to myself to relax and be myself and do naturally what I should be doing for a job. I could think! Don’t have to be constantly on guard someone is going to hit me or run me down etc… This is everywhere except at my job. I had no stress and was very happy alone and warm. Dig the commercials - too strident, a loop windup jewelry box! All these Christmas movies! Do you think one could be decent! I saw one commercial where some guy was in an horrible Xmas business suit, all decked out, poking fun at all this mindless accentuation and cheapness. That cracked me up. If I see one more Walmart blowup toy I will vomit. I got some art learning done and photo indexing too, on the good side. Lately, after a long stretch of not adding too many new keywords I ran into a couple that I must go through every picture I have indexed so far and I can’t use keywords to roundup just certain pictures I need to check. If I ever get to my edited it will be a miracle. I hope I can get through these next months. Happy pre Christmas because it’s starting. New Years is my favorite! The last of it. Tee Ha 😊
MERRY CHRISTMAS
QUIET AND SCARRY HOLIDAY, BUT WONDERFUL!
Two days after Christmas I got in real trouble with the house and I’m still in trouble. I don’t mean legal or anything. I might have to move. That’s is why nothing much in here.
LOVE SNOW STORMS!
Cell phone can't get the pictures big. I had so much fun taking these because I was out in this silver cold blizzard. It's like surfing!!!!
HOPE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is my latest advancement in drawing. It doesn’t look like it maybe. I relaxed the line. Maybe this helps and maybe it’s too relaxed. This is the direction I think for painting, if I wanted to do that. But if the subject is too relaxed, If I can’t find a way to put relax and a bit of tight together that looks natural I’m sunk. I think. This seems like nothing, but it is everything. I’m glad I thought this out before I started. I still have more realistic style pictures I can do . This will probably tell the tale though, maybe. I’ve got to work this out. I was going to wait and put this in later but I want to get all this done since I can’t do it from home. And want to be there.
My back has healed. Don’t think about it! Whew! Latest activities are sleep and shovel snow, and sleep again. This, with eating fixed the back. Only a couple of drawings. Yesterday I did a landscape and could not figure how to finish it off. I’ll have to sit it back. Actually I’m getting tired of teddy bears and snowmen, simple things I’ve set up to extend and practice on, but they work. After the landscape I did a teddy bear in environment drawing relaxed. Took 15 minutes! I pasted in the mask I did for the background and that was fast! Also the background paste was of copy paper and was a micron whiter and bluer (under the shading). This was interesting because it worked, sitting under the shading. I’ve got this slick paper and I’m going to try a teddy portrait on it. Still to know how it would accept watercolor. My new (cheap) cell phone works well for drawing subjects! I missed a grand photo op of white tree branches a few mornings ago because I didn’t know it was going to happen and I still had a sore back and was tired. So charged up for art. I’ve also come to the conclusion that unbelievable filters could also produce works of art fast on good photographs. This could be a mainline. I have filters and some might work well, but the filters I am dreaming about would have far more controls and horizons. Maybe they could exist. Maybe I’m not seeing the filters I have good enough. My screen? I always have the problem of distortion blurring. Could that be corrected? But the filters I have are still out of sight, I need distortion refinement. All these things go out the window when your drawing, you can distort yourself and your lines are crisp enough.
This background better, too many lines. I did get my new photos into folders and backed up. I have to sweep up my misc. photos into their site and then maybe I can fit in cataloging with drawing. I got more than I thought, so far. Soon I will have to relax this.
ROOT DREAMS
I thought it might be interesting to write about a certain type of dream I had this morning. Once in a great while I have dreams like this and wake up panicking that I have done something wrong and great relief that it was just a dream! Usually I am dreaming I didn’t take a test, or someone or something (often extraterrestrial) is chasing me, or I am on someone’s land or inside a structure I shouldn’t be.
The thing is I wake up (and other people too) thinking that deep down they are a criminal. Well I was thinking this morning. Maybe you are a criminal! But not in the way you think you are. In another form! Maybe these dreams go far back beyond your human ancestors to a mainline ancestor…like the evolutionary type of rodent we all came from…or even back beyond that! Everyone knows how animals act. They have the greatest love for their offspring, but will instantly unleash all hell and evil when they are threatened or hungry. Remorse or God does not exist, just a means to an end to live. And I believe this is right as rain for them (not people now) but animals.
We humans needed to follow another course having more extended deviations from this and other things (some rules & regulations) to ensure life, or we might have ended up dead long ago. This is my belief.
But I believe some of this root animal wiring is still in us. Your hair stands on end, adrenalin courses through your body, you know something without experiencing it before, or your senses tell you something does not match up.
When we are young we need to learn about things, experience some things first hand. But as we become adult we can find our interests and we know about much of the rest of the world. When I was 16 my parents drove to N.C. on vacation to see relatives. We sometimes went through the Smoky Mountains. I was entranced to see mountains! I became entranced to stand inside this carpet of trees I saw everywhere. I wanted to see what it looked like when I was in it! I found a way that didn’t get me in trouble for running off. I followed a piss trail that lead off every stop off view overlook that was on the highway. I followed one to the end and suddenly I was standing inside this carpet of trees and could know just what it looked like everywhere!
By the time you are a grownup you know a lot about everything. From television or wherever you know things and it’s not an adventure to know about that anymore. You sometimes find adventures or outlets you can get into through the human structure and can go with that. You are safe and deal with the rest and know it. Your horizons shift from an animals, but it is still a natural horizon for a human. And you live your life like this happy and fulfilled for the most part.
But it is my belief that after going years like this, some parts of that rodent wiring that lies at the root of your brain or spinal cord does not get used. And it needs to get used every once and awhile to keep it healthy and functional to all of your being now. So you have dreams! Something is chasing you or you are exploring somewhere that in real life you shouldn’t be. This is really healthy for a rodent. It’s normal. They go out every night and it must be a real seamless adventure to move through the night unless they are being hunted or especially hungry. They must get their share of this weightless pure safe adventure all the time and it is normal wiring for their body. I bet a lot of things are so refreshing, moving through the night, unafraid and experiencing each new thing, free.
We still need a bit of this. But we are not aware of it.
So we have dreams that we are being chased or fight or explore…like a animal or rodent. And this dreaming completely freeform is renewing our whole wiring, (the part that is being missing), without doing it while we are awake. And it is good! It renews us! The missed small part is there again and we are whole. And it makes us better in the end! And less likely a criminal!!
I’m not going into real human criminals now. Only to say that it is my belief that the human race gene pool probably needs opposites as much as it does the bigger middle ground. Good/evil, healthy/not healthy/, smart/dumb, happy/sad…to even keep going. So law breaking will probably be something ongoing, not something to eradicate completely in the end. (I don’t mean that jail should be done away with, we have to keep safe!) That is my belief. So I was happy this morning to come up with this idea. It seems to fit! We renew ourselves with our dreams. And I have more evidence of this with another dream I had long ago…
I was having one of these dreams that you don’t remember when you wake up. ( I think I have already wrote about this in here.) You never remember these dreams. It’s always like that. At least it is like that with me. But this particular one I remembered when I woke up. (It’s never happened before or since.) I was dreaming a string of things that made no fundamental sense at all in any dimension. The elements were elements in waking life but the relationship between them, in time, made no sense at all. And I was dreaming this slowly over and over, like a loop, over and over and over. And each time I dreamed it my brain felt refreshed and renewed! Each and every time. Refreshed and renewed! And I woke up and remembered the whole thing! WOW!
So dreams can warn you, interest you, release you, and take care of you like a parent. They probably take care of us more than we know. So when you wake up feeling so relieved it was just a dream, you don’t have to worry that deep down you are a criminal. You are not! But the rodent stock you evolved from had to be a criminal (along with everything else) to live. As we humans had to evolve and change from some of these criminal practices to live. And dreams keep us on track! Wonderful thought!
FENDERBERGS
Caution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They can rip your fender or hurt your suspension!! Esp when full as can get and HARD! Turning can crunch your wheels. Don’t kick off hard ones. Only think I could find quick on web is WD 40 oil in well before the snowing.
One of the worst things taking pictures is when you miss good things. My heart is still broken over missing the one morning of hore frost we had and more lately we had a silvery sheer fog at sunrise. These things never happen! I just don’t know they are happening. The weather reports much, but this? The hore frost was a victim of my Flu. It weakened my back and I just didn’t have the ongoing energy to keep checking. I just wish I had someone to call me, wake me up, I don’t care. I could have forced myself up if I knew it was going to happen. Photo aps for this? Warning calls.
:) WOW WHEEW, THANK YOU
Gun control. Something about the pace and standards, which we need, but some feel left out and can’t keep up or want to redo, and some of those will start to tear down things. This will ignite. But the general public, I don’t know. Television is great, but you do see things you can’t afford while listening and learning. Maybe you can get these things. No further can I go. I haven’t traveled?
I finally got the door to refrig cleaned. Now just top & freezer. This brightened my outlook after so many weeks. Swept and Bathroom cleaned. I’m back into photo cataloging. I just have 119 folders to go, not counting edited. But I think I am doing a good job. Especially explaining my keywords and keywording strategies behind the scene. I keep a Cat backup index for any new notations that have been done by that backup. I can explain going back and inserting garden flowers keyword to separate these from all flower pictures by that backup. Of course there are some random additions I put in along the way when I see a unique mistake or neglection once in a while and I just can’t take the time to record that. Meaning if I had to use a later backup, I would not know or remember these and these mistakes would again be included in the catalog. But not many. My outside lists work great with the program and my plugin works great!! Always reports my keywords and captions. I backup and backup.
Searching really helps when you want to change certain parts of the Cat! I haven’t done this much, but It’s a dream when finding and keywording higher ISO. I keep forgetting that. Yesterday I finally hit snags. Why was file numbering off in one folder and why was there no folder added when I reported it in my backup list. So I tried adding it and it was a go…so I had not added it yet. And my numbering problem was already reported in my Mistakes document. (maybe when I made up the folder to begin with). So I got myself back on track. Wheew. Try and report older photos accurately as to where? Sometimes creation times - down to the minute, help. I watch for breaks. Love the comment catergory, ha, it’s not called that. I put anything in it when needed. I’m hoping my computer will hold up for some time. I try and go slow with it. So my program is WONDERFUL. And I mean it. Love the time I put in it! This is awesome!
As usual, been very busy. I got back in photo indexing after so long of drawing. I got my newest folders done. (More than 100 are still waiting.) And am making up new folders from my cards now. I don’t know if I will be able to start on any older with taking new photos in future though. I want to get caught up. I’m trying to make a carry all for my photo equipment. It gets so heavy carrying. I’d like to fit in editing buy probably won’t have time. Wish I had more time, but none to fit in here right now. Relatives have been emailing me on how I weathered the winter, was I still here! I’m here!
Wrung out but revving up. I hate dirty yard work, but the exercise is okay. I got a new drawing pad, but so far nothing great. Someday I hope to have more to put in here. I saw the flower Snowdrops for the first time this spring. Vincent used to pick them for his sister or Mother when he was young. I thought they were only in Europe. They come up so early they sometimes grow up under the snow. Sorry this is so dry. I’m out in the physical ring all the time. No drawings.
FOOD HANDELING
Gourmet Food, why is it not clean? I know, politics, trying to get it together! Well I don’t want to lose this type of food, even though I mostly eat plain plain and like that. I don’t want to give up spice! Where are you eating? Today you better know! Can’t there be both foods? Plain & gourmet. We surly want our medical standards maintained! We will depend on others to take care of us when we are older, with our standards. We, or the baby boom generation has worked for older generations. Maintaining food is one of them.
With mixed dishes you should know your single ingredients are clean to begin with. TV is half the blame. They are still showing mixing and food handling with bare hands. My opinion, do this at home if you want to, but not for the general public. Of course politics comes into play, at least in a few I know. I hate that. Yeah it’s always been done with bare hands. In my opinion life and evolution is silently throwing you a curve ball. Older generations could handle food with bare hands and not transmit as many germs…We, no matter how much we wash our hands, [ and I am taking it for granted people wash their hands really good before they handle food for the public and after they use the restroom] will transmit many many germs. That can surly be true as a component of further evolution. It can be true. It doesn’t mean that future generations will continue this trend. But now WATCH OUT! We have germs on our hands and our parents had less. In my opinion life can do anything it wants in the evolution of a species or organism. My theory is the only thing life would want to do is keep the life organism going and regenerating healthy and stable throughout time. So if our hands/body at this time does not hold germs in as well, well that is a blow out for stronger regeneration for future of that organism. It doesn’t mean your hands are going to fall off. It means that a side is loosening for another part of the body to grow stronger in the next generation. It’s all a balance. Life keeps this balance going to equalize things and regenerate the next generation strong. It can’t keep making carbon copies thought time. Well TV shows mixing with bare hands. You should be using disposable gloves…that don’t lend plastic into the food. Change them when you start with different food, or wash them like you would your hands while they are still on your hands. And dry!
Mix with bare hands, more germs in the mixed food. (Mixed food probably carries more bacteria than a single item.) Put leftovers in the Refrig and the germs grow! (Even if this food , that I again take for granted is covered with fresh clean plastic or the bowl’s cover, that has be washed beforehand.) Dishes and utensils that are used for food must be washed in a very sanitary way before being used. Never put a utensil you have already put in your mouth into the clean food of a serving container…instant germs for leftovers! Do not breathe on food as you are preparing it! Wash used dishes and utensils in a very clean and sanitary method, DON’T MAKE A PASS. Keep your refrigerator clean! Don’t let stuff set in there! When you clean the refrig, throw out old bottles etc…of unused things. Buy new. Use your freezer more. Germs grow slower still in the frozen state. Date your freezer things because different things have different times they can be frozen and stay good. Cook to temperatures to kill bacteria etc in meat etc. Go online and get a manual cooking times. Don’t buy dented can goods or sometimes off brands. Watch your expiration dates! Keep yourself clean. Keep kitchen counter tops sanitized! Keep the kitchen clean. Keep the kitchen floor clean - don’t dust it Scrub it! . Clean up your kitchen spills with a disinfectant. Keep pets out and off! What is inside your cupboards? Are they clean? Insects? Out! Disposable wipes and paper towels are always better than using a rag over and over. Keep trash emptied.
Enjoy that food but you have to be strict handling food. It all can spoil fast. Sorry for my haunty attitude but unclean food makes me mad.
HOUSE CLEANING
That’s what I’ve been doing! Unless your rich, have others in the family, or really strong, you might want to use judgment. Even me - I’ve done cleaning right along every year or 2 years. So everything is not that dirty. But I have to use judgment. I can’t spend my whole summer on the inside and outside of the house. I want to look around, draw, take pictures, etc… So I must cut off some of the work. I just don’t go in the bedrooms which I can’t move stuff out of the do wall cleaning on MATT PAInting (WHICH I HATE - YOU CAN’T WASH IT). I don’t have the money to change the floors to be able to wash wood flooring. I get after bathroom and kitchen first…this year windows, blinds, curtains, then hope for the hallway and living room. But like I said - I hope to get the bathroom next. I don’t know about the living room, most is done, not walls. The roof, eves, garage, car, outside paint chipping must be done outside. Tree root exploration - it never stops. That is why I have to dish out the inside stuff when I have time. Already spring is popping with photo ops! And I’ve got to index photos. What I really need to do first is find out more basic things - can’t go into it. Oh hey, here is a tip. If you have a steamer, I know they say do not use the wall paper attachment unless you want to remove wall paper. Well don’t use any attachment on wall paper! I love the kitchen wall paper and don’t want to lose it.
Don’t have to be cold anymore. Cleaning some inside walls in the house and trying to keep up with outside work. My chimney is leaking again. I got some indexing done and drawing. The car needed two tires changed and that caused more problems. Placed flowers on my Mom & Dad and Grandparents graves. That involved some driving but got to see my cousins and Adrian. Sometimes I wish we wouldn’t have left. After two days on the road television gave me back what I had missed. I wonder if I need to learn to live country in the East or West Coast. I don’t know. Miss a high tension that I don’t get here, but who knows how much you want of anything. The cemeteries were beautiful and I got photos right along with everything else…not just in graveyard. All our parents are dead now and this town is filled with memories. Except I don’t like my Grandfather’s house. Mike is going to send me many more family photos. While I was gone I guess Alberto remnant came thru and there were a lot of branches down in the yard. I have seen, so far, no sign of the backyard bumble bees that were so busy last summer. Maybe they all died. (I was wondering how I was going to get to the hose this summer.) I still have bush trimming and tying to do. There are helicopter seeds and that marks the end of roof crap when I can start on the eves. Don’t have my carrier done for camera and I fear that my old sewing machine will not work for it’s cover. It was really great to get out away from Sturgis. I left at night when there was no sun, heat, or traffic. I have no back route for this destination and don’t want to press speed on my little car.
COMPARE HISTORIC DRAWINGS OR PAINTINGS.
Compare older examples against modern. Perhaps try portraits, landscapes etc. To me (in my opinion) the more modern the less receding in handling they appear. The older, the more relaxed in execution. To me this again affirms the idea of evolution happening generation to generation throughout time. (Not very much, but enough for parents today wonder why their kids and all their kids friends are not exactly carbon copies of themselves. (The same as the baby boomers and their parents felt years ago. ) So, as this has always [so far] been going on throughout time, older past generations are not exactly exactly the same container as everyone today… but this slight difference gets more the farther apart the generations are in time. This is my theory.
So if all the people on earth back in 1891 are a bit different than us, the execution of artists, of that generation, will be different too, and so goes for any point in time, back in history, while we were producing art…cave paintings, frescos, oil paintings and drawings. I’m not talking about the kind or style of art, I’m talking about calmness or point of reference inside the person while he was producing art. You can see this. I have always seen this like a slide ruler every time I checked. Art coming thru the person’s framework, which is internally there, inside of any way he is expressing it. The difference just grows a bit more the farther you go back in history from today. The artwork adds up the same in the end as most everyones (unless it’s abstraction), it’s through the execution that varies to get it to adding up in the same way. [And I am also aware that older work contained more symbolism and mine does not. Which is different with mine.]
So a slightly different container (the artist of a specific generation in time) will execute a picture through his expression, but that expression must shine through that artist’s own body, which is built within that generation’s point of time which evolution forms at birth. Hope you can see what I am talking about. It is just my idea of this. No one has to agree! Older works always seem more relaxed and reticent in execution and more recent works look more bold, tense, and have more velocity.
I, as many artists, have been encouraged to study the old master’s to help find my way in art. I have never been aware I was learning art or composition but I’m sure I was as I grew up. So the master’s have much to give you. More than not. But at times I have gotten hung up on why, as I tried and tried, and been at it a while, I couldn’t get mine to come off like theirs with my modern hand. I was frustrated not pulling pictures off like them! I can’t get it all in! Then you fall into the hole out there, ‘You have not practiced enough!’ Well that may not be the reason. This evolutionary thing may be the cause! You’re a horse trying to run in history’s horse race, but your not a horse, you’re a jet!
But think of it, don’t get jealous. (It’s hard not to when you see some older art!) This is all they had. Photography was really not around yet, and if it was, it was not used or valued as an art form that much. Painting was king. Most artist’s wanted to emotionally work through paint. We today have grown up with art and photography and can edit photos, or filter and edit into art. We can again combine that with our own hand art. We have abstraction. We can deal with far more compositions than they could even dream of with these things. We don’t have to work on just one picture or idea.
On the other hand, to contradict all I have just said, I have seen much art from some artists today that was relaxed and fits better with history. I guess they have gotten on to this or different people are interested in art also. Wonderful. I still have a problem with this calmness. My body can’t change? My ideas on this have been…you have not practiced enough to an idea of, try drawing and drinking. See if that will relax. Or living with it. I can’t drink every time I want to draw. But you know, I really can’t really foresee what advances or kind of advances I will make in drawing if I practice more. I only house a vague point that at some point practice might not get me any further. I don’t know if this will be true or not. Continued practice and doing of pictures will reaffirm the truth of this matter. Truth will grow and grow until your brain can’t miss it and you can confirm truth. Don’t dismiss symbolically hitting your head again and again against a wall. What ever gets you there.
So I am glad I have this theory. If ever I see I can’t go any further in art, or I see something I can’t fix about my body is going to stop me from going any further, I will have this theory and my realistic drawings. And where I am trying now is varied in more directions than one. Knowing in my body, not my head. Or the ability of the brain to direct my hand to preform all these at once. I see now that I need more of my health problem changed back to get any further. How to do all these pictures I pick out to practice with? I want a hit on every one!!!! It’s not that way. So do not dismiss practice, blind contour drawing or contour or gesture practice. And sometimes you can only get so close to the ancient way of doing things. Celebrate what you do best in this time also.
(My latest drawing ideas yesterday)
Well it had to happen sometime even if I'm supersonic careful...
CAMERA DISASTERS CAN HAPPEN ON THE NICEST DAYS!
It was a normal and usual picture taking day. I carried and held my equipment and tripod like egg shells. Got ready for each shot, going over everything important. A non descript flower on top of a high weed growing slope or hill. Set up my tripod right in front of the flower looking directly down the slope. Set my camera in tripod clip - solid. Got the tripod legs arranged (legs tight from last shot I thought). I framed the shot and tightened all upper arms. I took my hand off the tripod for a brief time to see if it was standing solid. It was. It didn’t move. I then shifted to working on focus, ap etc gear mode. CAMERA AND TRIPOD STARTED FALLING OVER DOWN THE RAVINE!!!! (I had bumped nothing.) I HAD A SPLIT SECOND TO GRAB THE CAMERA & TRIPOD………it’s been raining a ton in MI, the ground is not solid. I couldn’t see or know the deepness of the ravine. I’m glad my body overrides my head sometimes…I watched my camera and tripod fall over. If I were to grab my tripod I would have had to step forward down the slope and I could have slipped fallen way over and impaled myself on some unseen thing, not to say even the tripod and/or camera. I could have blinded myself or died! (I wear boots, not tennis shoes for snakes) So I watched my camera and tripod (which is med heavy) fall over. I knew it was over. I guess the Nikon Mount was separated from the lens and I guess the aperture stick was sticking out of the lens. I feared the camera was gone also. Occasionally my tripod will tip because one of the legs is not splayed out enough, but I catch that right away and occasionally one of my lower leg segments does not hold, even though it is tightened and this makes the tripod move and list. (I wonder if this is what happened? I didn’t check the tripod afterwards I was so blown away.) The camera store said the lens might be repaired but not sure, they might turn it down, and my CAMERA WAS OKAY!! This happened about two weeks ago and I was waiting to report here until I got another lens. I'm still getting used to the new macro and using my depth of field preview a lot. Ofcourse I still can't pick out pictures until I get home in the dark and some even slip by then for the computer screen. A primary two weeks of perfect flowers lost to the accident. But the new lens is probably better than the last. In some ways it is, and some ways the older way of not showing all, I don't know. So just thought I'd write in. I'm okay and was out this morning before rain finding some pictures. But ofcourse the darker and slight wind, the higher the ISO and the grainy the pics, even if you have high ISO dialed in.
DRAWING NOW
JUST LATELY DRAWING IS GOING GOOD. I DRAW FASTER AND EMOTIONAL, NOT WORRIED AND I GET BETTER WARPING FOR FILLING IN SHADING AND THE LAST ONE I DID I FILLED IN WATERCOLOR IN THE SPACES I WANTED DARK ( I THEN COVER THE PAINTED PASSAGES WITH GRAPHITE. THE GRAPHITE PART GOES WAY FASTER THIS WAY.) (I ALWAYS TINT THE BLACK WATERCOLOR WITH BLUE). I GOT TOO MUCH BLUE IN THE FILL IN THIS TIME AND THE BLUE BLACK LIGHT MEDIUM PATCH LOOKED OKAY WITH THE COLOR IN IT! I GUESS THIS IS THE DOORWAY TO COLOR. IT SEEMS JUST LIKE A YEAR AGO I WAS WONDERING IF I WOULD EVER LEARN TO CARTOON AND DIDN’T THINK I WOULD GET MUCH FARTHER WITH IT. NOW MY “WARPED” DRAWINGS SEEM TO BE GOING ALONG. I DON’T KNOW WHERE AND WHAT TO MESS - THAT IS NOT TOGETHER. I CAN’T SAY ENOUGH ABOUT PRACTICING. IT GETS YOU FARTHER AND FARTHER. I AM IN A FIGURE DRAWING CLASS NOW (DID I SAY BEFORE?) I AM DOING MOSTLY BLIND CONTOUR WITH THE NUDE FIGURE. I HAVE BEEN OUT TIME AFTER TIME IN PARKING LOTS DOING BLIND CONTOUR OF ANYTHING I COULD SEE…MOSTLY CARS. IT ALL ADDS UP TO ANGLES AND SHORT CURVES. I’VE DONE AND DONE THIS. GOING WELL BUT I NOTICED A NEED FOR BIGGER LONGER CURVED LINES. SO I AM GETTING THIS AND IT IS HELPING. I STILL WATCH THE PAPER I AM USING AND ONLY TRY AND DO MORE INVOLVED STUFF WHEN I GET HOME. SO GOOD TO FINELY BE WITH FELLOW ARTISTS. I ALSO FIND THE EVER PRESENT CELL PHONE CAMERA A QUICK STUDY FOR PRACTICE. I DID SOME WORK IN A COFFEE SHOP AND IT WAS BETTER AFTER TAKING THE CLASS. AND ALSO YOU CAN DO PREVIOUS PICTURES ON THE CELL PHONE, NOT ONES YOU JUST TOOK. HERE ARE SOME MORE (BETTER) MACRO SHOTS I HAVE JUST TAKEN ON MY NEW MACRO LENS…REMEMBER THE LAST ONE BROKE IN AN ACCIDENT. I WILL HAVE THE PICTURES WHEN I HAVE MINUTE
I saw a fox for the first time I think and had a camera!!!!
Chorus Frog with X on back!
Soldier Beetle on Milkweed
I'd like a job in this, I can't do much else. But I know many people would. I'm all for people who want and have done something to have the equipment and time for this. I'm not hogging this but I do love finding photos. My back is the killer. I wish I had someone else to advise at times and a carry all and better editing. I can only go so far, I know nothing more. Sometimes I feel there is better out there. Some pictures of normal stuff look so much more refined. This I would want for anyone else. The same goes for artwork etc. Anywhere. That's why I throw in my drawing experience and tips. Maybe someone somewhere is starting out in graphite and would benefit from another source.
Most of my insect pics are in enviornment. I'd like to start to take a few in a studio setup. Because I want some studio shots to go with my outside stuff. I think the studio shots really frame and isolate an insect picture the best. The problem is, unless the insect has been raised in an artificial enviornment, they tend to look anything but (catching a normal pose) (and that is also almost hard in the field with a 105mm! I mean what else am I doing!!!!!!!!!!! These shots are with my new lens. I've grown to love it... better, for the money it cost. I do love it. I missed that tragedy (broken old macro lens in tripod ledge accident).
ARTISTS ARE A BREED APART
Had a real hard time mowing yard last night among other things. Handle it nicely. Knowledge is power and can also be very very helpful along the way. It is essential and picking this up along your life is always business as usual. Give yourself a pat on the back your doing it. Some day you might use a bit of it and go flying through blocks that stop many others, or lead to lifelong heartache. You won’t have it. Like the time I didn’t ride my bike down the steep hill and was called a sissy…I didn’t break my back. The time I didn’t join in on campus mud sliding night. The time I very marginally did what others embrace and didn’t burst a kidney the next day in Emergency. If you’re an artist, be careful. Especially when your young and don’t know stuff. Your teeth, health, intake, output can be all different. Do you get pregnant? Do you father a family to be responsible for? Most everything you hear, see, is set up to do, or what people say to you, is mainline. Set up for average of everyone on earth. This may really not work for you, or hurt you. Or help you more in some cases. But a lot of artists are different. Some are not, but some are very thin skinned. You are just as much a part of mankind as everyone, but as for your frame, you are a breed apart. That’s my belief.
THROUGH THE SUMMER
I got eves almost. I wish I could blow off yard work. I wish I could blow off shopping. I hate balancing checkbook and I hate having to go out to pay my bills. I wish I could buy 4 months worth of food and dump it in a freezer, pre pay my bills for the year and have someone else mow the yard etc etc. I’ve been getting some shots. Lighting not great, but sometimes better. The deer are around in two places, but not in the other. I’m new to them now, unless they talk. But pickings seem to be narrower. Summers waning a bit. I wish I could move south or I don’t know. I hate winter. But there is time to work on stuff, if it’s warm enough. Your always closed in. Without a good laptop I can’t work outside in the summer. I could bring my desktop out there but really don’t like the idea. Maybe it would be okay, but with all the breeze, microbes, blowing junk. So I’m always inside and winter inside comes too fast. My photo sessions when I get out is a wonder time, but I have to watch my back for deer. And now hunting season is getting closer and this means one of my places is gone. Most people don’t bother with winter. It bugs me more and more and I hope I don’t get mad and cry and become depressed. Not enough challenge sometimes. Editing is something to do. I got new filters and some are pretty cool. My contracted job company changed and I still have a job. Thank God. There is another thing. I just found out there are figure drawing meet ups all over the world! I wish I could make friends with a few others about drawing. And these things are always there weekly!!!!!!!!!!! So I hope I can retake my figure drawing course that I just took. It’s not a class, it’s more like open drawing. I need more of it. But you can pick up tips other places. Maybe something online, if there are such places. And oh, as to photography. I mostly suffer a bit from not being able to see the picture I just took on a laptop screen in dark light. I run into this stuff (even though I bracket some on flowers etc. I run into shots that I couldn’t see that 1 stop smaller ap would get me just a bit more depth that would fit. I just changed my apertures into half steps…How frozen can I be! Anyway to get back to the tip. I was out looking for stuff and found some small sweat bees on grass seed. It looked good and different. I looked at my results in camera monitor and it looked good. It was different. After taking some I thought ‘I got my smattering, so move on.’ When I got home these pics were kind of good. Better than I thought! I wish I had taken more! That was the bees time…just then. We had rain and the next time I went out, day after, there were no more seeds. All it was, was a sea of mating solidier bugs. I just can’t manage carrying one more thing like a laptop. The day after I got caught in rain and had to bend over my camera in it’s bag to shield from the rain. All was okay. I left my raincoat in the car. Too hot and I have to carry. I’m trying to take a boxed stuffed new garbage tote on rollers to carry my stuff. Rolling it is better than carrying. I can put my tripod and camera case in that. Cover and have dust and rain protection. (It’s not white camo yet for lesser sun heat up. This idea kind of splits between ( better traversing to less better when steps between shots are only needed). I’ll end up having to carry the tripod anyway because putting it back and forth, in and out, of the tote is more work than carrying it. And there are these quick shots. Having the camera out can get it on tripod faster. I now have a macro lens with VB. Although VB seems to fall just short of my weak hand holding abilities sometimes. I still favor, for quick situations, bracing the camera on top or next to a leg and taking with a fast shutter. But the tote would probably get me all the way back without having to carry camera and tripod. That will save energy. I also have rigged a shoulder strap and release hook for my white sun umbrella. For shading photo items. It’s light and I just sling it over my shoulder. Also the tote could hold mosiquito repellent and sun stick which would free up pockets. I need a phone - the last time I tried there was no service! And there is the old work stab. Go to work in the morning and watch the unusual huge red sun come up with clouds where you know there is a perfect photo op. and you can’t take photos! Go to work and miss hoar frost…knowing when it is. I want to put more up here but I don’t know whether to watermark or not. I have a couple of drawings. I went through this wanting to know the best scanner for artwork and an online article said, ‘Don’t scan, take studio lighting pictures of the artwork!’ Much better! So now I will have to test that. Although I don’t really have studio lighting.
This drawing was a photo instead of a scan as I talked about above. The photos are a micron bit more quality (better glass?) than the scanned. I don't want to give all my specifics. I have a 2008 mid range good scanner and good software. I tried sharpening in and out of the software with it. Sharpened was sharp but a bit too rough and flat. The photos were better a bit. I had to go through all this set up just right to get them and have camera controls right. A lot of work because I don't have copy stand stuff. And I don't have diffusers and I didn't want to unpack my whole closet for the photo bulbs I have so I did tungsten with with white balance. I have a good camera. Not medium or large format which might make a difference!!! But the thing is the auto focus on graphite. Maybe my lens is off - it might be I've been having other situations with it. So the other thing is I can't use live view zoom focus because I can't see the exact edge of marks. So I did both and they were close but I felt I could not perform manual focus right on. So with my equipment there is not a mid to wide difference between a 800 dpi scan and my camera on it's full (no compression) raw file, low ISO, small apreture, leveling of camera and copy.
I feel my drawings are a bit better. I might be losing a bit of squareness, but it is becuase I'm loosening with practice only. This is not anything my mind can change. They are (I think) not lose enought yet? Art just takes you. You hope to be able to do things like you used to in case you get into trouble with the loosening. That is my trail. But drawings in here do not look way as good as they do in physical. This drawing trys to look okay in physical, but in here the right side needs to be pushed in...or maybe it's the screen lack of quality. In here I might as well just do little digital cartoons and lines! I got so tired of filling in dark passages taking hours of time being careful and careful that I have tried watercolor wash under and graphite over that. It really cuts the time of the darks. The trouble is, if then there is any erasing needed, you can't erase watercolor. I know there is a medium you can apply beforehand to the paper, or use yupo (I don't like the texture), but I haven't tried yet. Some papers will erase it some with work, but there is always a shadow and gallery hanging is probably out of the question. Unless there is something else. I've learned to center and diminish my watercolor. Haven't tried it over graphite yet!? Fixing a drawing gone digital is GREAT! SO EASY!
PRACTICE NUDE FIGURES FROM MY CLASS. Please, some of you, this is not X-rated stuff, not ment to be. Nude Figure studies have been used for practice and finished works throughout history. This subject matter is a valiad artwork in itself and is not ment to imply sex. I am not saying that with certain artists and others that this form does not slide into that side of things. And if that is right or wrong. Mine do not. But 15 years ago if you were able to look up "nude figure drawings" you probably would see many more nude studies of women, past and present! Just look up Modern Figure Drawing now. There are a few nudes for you to see. I'm afraid that by running these that I will get a message to remove the photo. I'll have to remove it and you will just have the web to look at. So I will be back checking if it is still there! Ha. These are practice. I need blind contour from bigger subject matter onto a bigger format newsprint pad. Usually I just do blind contour over and over with each pose without looking very much. But if I look down and it looks good I just flip the page. Some of the poses are longer so I fill in if need. I have done blind contour in the car a lot but everything is so little. You'd be surprised at just how many figure drawing sessions there are all over the world. You just have to dig on the web for one around or in bigger city. I can't afford a top of the line art projector that can get the image clear enough and big enough. I have a book of nude poses already, maybe I can learn to work from small to big because I can't run up my car driving to these things every week. I wished I lived there because I would like to practice every week like this. Poses still not velocity enough. And lines there which probably should have been erased. I'm not totally out of the medical slump yet. And that's the learning curve. What happens when I get the velocity, or will I?
STINKBUG HEAVEN
It’s getting hard to live life as I am doing. I had furnace problems yesterday, had to cancel my drawing class that night. I dodged a bullet for the time being. I just can’t seem to keep up with the house and yard. I’m not giving it up, but in a way I wish I could. To go on the road for a time. My computer versions are starting to give me trouble because they are so out of date and I am into a few things and updating that is not going to be easy. Sometimes eating is the only normal thing I do. I hope my life changes soon so I can do what I want to do and not have to do so much constant overwork to get this to come off. I’m starting to lose my grip and more job work is not going to help. I need advisement. Things could be worse and sometimes they are great, but if I do what is normal, I pay sorely with overwork. But when I’m up on the roof taking off the chimney cover and see all these stink bugs grouped under the folds I feel how lucky I am that I don’t have to end my life in cold, grasping for a bit of warmth that is left. :)
11/30/18 Listening to the Librarians talking makes me feel better. Haven’t been around much. I hate this time of year. It’s worse this year. Everyone is out to get you around the holidays. It’s really bad this year. At the church lunch one who helps also is leaving for the far reaches. I wish I was with them. I’d love to get away from all this. If it gets any worse I’d like to leave to somewhere this doesn’t occur. The fall hell came to a crashing halt with me almost falling downstairs trying to drag the power sprayer and hose and caddy downstairs. The chimney still leaks, I can’t apply the stuff until spring. Have to cover it. There will not be the right cover in the store so I will have to take time out to order it. You have to take time out for EVERYTHING! I look at something and it’s gone! I fixed my car and the noise is still there, but I did get something else fixed! Just yesterday two more things are threatening to go out. I can’t take much more of this. An aging service failed to give me any help with the leaves this fall. I just needed one time of relief while I did most of the leaves. My ladder is stuck. I can’t go out in the car for fear of a wreck. In spite of this, this week for a few days, I managed to have time to myself to relax and be myself and do naturally what I should be doing for a job. I could think! Don’t have to be constantly on guard someone is going to hit me or run me down etc… This is everywhere except at my job. I had no stress and was very happy alone and warm. Dig the commercials - too strident, a loop windup jewelry box! All these Christmas movies! Do you think one could be decent! I saw one commercial where some guy was in an horrible Xmas business suit, all decked out, poking fun at all this mindless accentuation and cheapness. That cracked me up. If I see one more Walmart blowup toy I will vomit. I got some art learning done and photo indexing too, on the good side. Lately, after a long stretch of not adding too many new keywords I ran into a couple that I must go through every picture I have indexed so far and I can’t use keywords to roundup just certain pictures I need to check. If I ever get to my edited it will be a miracle. I hope I can get through these next months. Happy pre Christmas because it’s starting. New Years is my favorite! The last of it. Tee Ha 😊
MERRY CHRISTMAS
QUIET AND SCARRY HOLIDAY, BUT WONDERFUL!
Two days after Christmas I got in real trouble with the house and I’m still in trouble. I don’t mean legal or anything. I might have to move. That’s is why nothing much in here.
LOVE SNOW STORMS!
Cell phone can't get the pictures big. I had so much fun taking these because I was out in this silver cold blizzard. It's like surfing!!!!