I must say I enjoy The Simpsons cartoon series, so when I heard I could re-create myself as a Simpson’s character I jumped right in!
Here are Hubby and I as Simpsons (I’m on the right).
Captured our likenesses quite OK I thought, although Hubby hasn’t really got a flat top. I asked him who he thought they looked like, he answered “er.. Dr Hibbard and Edna Crabapple?”
Make your own Simpsons avatar likeness at http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/.
In this lesson we look at the myths surrounding art and artists. Brenda talks about the common perception of talent as something that is inherent, when in fact it is a skill that must be nurtured and developed. It is this misunderstanding of the word that discourages people from thinking they can draw. She says “Talent is actually the self-discovery and acknowledgment that you possess the interest and motivation needed to become exceptional in a specific area”. So if you are interested in drawing and want to be good at it, apply yourself and soon you will be.
Drawing means something different to everyone. To me drawing is… creating an artistic representation of something in a way that conveys some sort of message, meaning or mood.
The joy of drawing is in the process, not the product. For a perfectionist this is a difficult thing to appreciate! But I know what she means, enjoying the act of finding meaning in something, taking pride from developing your skills. I think it is similar to the enjoyment I get from learning about HTML and CSS code for web pages, it is a real thrill to learn something and make it work.
Next lesson is A03 – Buying Drawing Supplies
http://www.drawspace.com/lessons/lesson.php?id=a03
Jo and I are doing this online drawing course together. It is located at Drawspace.com and produced from lessons created by Brenda Hoddinott.
Have you ever filled out a form on the Web with a “verification” type field, where one of the fields requires you to decipher some odd looking letters and/or numbers? This is the technology of CAPTCHA, which endeavors to foil spambots with a randomly generated image only human eyes can decipher. Key in the wrong letters or numbers, and you have to try another combination (and another) until you get it right.
The smart people at reCAPTCHA have shown that with this technology it is possible to kill two birds with one stone. As well as slowing down spammers, reCAPTCHA harnesses the skill of humans to decipher blocks of digitally unreadable OCR text.
OCR text is text that has been scanned (say, from a book) into a digital format which is then translated word for word by Optical Character Recognition software. It saves a LOT of typing!
The problem has always been the accuracy of the translation. Some words can be difficult to translate if for example the print is faint, or there are stray marks. The human mind can distinguish the shapes of letters and other characters far more easily than software (nice to know we still have our uses).
There are a lot of books and texts being digitally converted for public access over the Internet, and if you’ve ever had to struggle through an academic text which has been rendered through OCR you will appreciate the value of quality assurance!
reCAPTCHA works by offering two randomly generated words, one has already been deciphered so this is used to verify you as human, not spam. The other is a word that OCR software has been unable to translate – so YOU translate it. Check it out! http://recaptcha.net/
Earlier this year Dad was diagnosed with leukaemia. It was a shock for all of us, and sad also because Dad had kept it to himself for a while, he hadn’t wanted to burden Mum with the news. She found out quite by accident and thank goodness that she did, because I think Dad might otherwise have buried his head in the sand about it – something we can all sympathise with.
Mum and Dad don’t like driving in the city, so in early May I volunteered to take Dad into the city hospital where his blood test results were reviewed by an oncology specialist. The specialist explained he had to go for more tests in three months so the results could be compared, to determine the severity of the condition and its best treatment.
In the meantime, the double whammy struck and Dad was also diagnosed with prostate cancer. In most cases treatment would immediately be considered to remove the growth and prevent its spread, however the leukaemia complicated this – it was not known how advanced the leukaemia was, or how it might affect recovery.
Well we’ve just had a small bit of good news. On Tuesday we went back to the hospital for Dad’s second meeting with the specialist. She told him to return again in another three months for follow up, but at this stage the leukaemia is stable, which means a green light for the prostate surgery. Dad is hoping to have this out of the way in about a month, he’s been told the recovery time is 12 months so he will be forced to take things easy for a while.
Jo and I have decided to do an online drawing course together. It is located at Drawspace.com and produced from lessons created by Brenda Hoddinott. The plan is to be “study buddies” and work through each section at the same time so we can help each other and stay motivated through the course. I will be logging my thoughts and impressions here as I learn new things, and hopefully Jo will do the same on her Web site.
In our first lesson we are reading through Brenda’s beautifully illustrated glossary of drawing words and terms, who cheerfully introduces the topic with the word *talent* – “to find out what a talented person looks like, go look in the mirror!”
Some new terms I learned from this lesson:
1. Cast shadow – the dark section on an object or surface that receives little or no light (giving a 3D appearance). The values of a cast shadow are darkest next to the object and become gradually lighter farther away (I hadn’t noticed this before!).
2. Compound curve – used to describe the line created when a curve changes direction – think of the shape of the letter “s”.
3. Golden Mean – a precise composition devised by the ancient Greeks, based on the division of a rectangle into three triangles (also known as the Rule of Thirds).
4. Key – refers to the overall amount of light and dark values in a drawing. Low-key, dark drawings tend to be moody or ominous. High-key drawings are full of light and medium values rather than dark.
5. Negative space – refers to the background around or behind a drawing object (positive space ergo refers to the space occupied by a drawing object).
6. Nose wings – refer to the soft rounded shapes extending each side of the tip (or ball) of the nose; these lead down to the nostrils.
7. Reflected light – faint light reflected or bounced onto an object by those surfaces that are close to our surround it.
8. Squirkling – a method of shading using random circular scribble or squiggles.
9. Tooth – refers to the surface texture of a piece of paper, which can range from silky smooth to very coarse. The more “tooth” paper has, the rougher it feels to touch.
10. Values – are the different shades of gray created in a drawing by various means.
Well, I wasn’t expecting to learn much from this lesson but it seems I did. I am very pleased to learn that I do in fact have *wings* on my body, although they are not located precisely where I thought they would be!
Next lesson is Drawspace A02 – Understanding Talent.
http://www.drawspace.com/lessons/lesson.php?id=a02
Another drawing lesson site I might check out after: http://www.drawingcoach.com/
There is something very appealing about the title of Allen Galbraith’s blog, it implies getting ahead, improving yourself without cost or effort. Allen has distilled advice from all the self-help books out there to create a simple set of guidelines for living a balanced and healthy life:
1. Relax
2. Take regular physical exercise
3. Eat a balanced diet
4. Sleep well
5. Socialise
6. Keep a journal
7. Help other people
8. Keep close to nature
9. Develop a spiritual life
10. Laugh
11. Watch less TV
12. Listen
13. De-clutter your life
14. Get organised
15. Think for yourself
All seems pretty sensible, unfortunately it still demands a certain level of self-discipline, so you can’t be totally lazy – damn, knew there had to be a catch! Read the entire article on Allen’s blog.