November 8th, 2009 at 09:26am
Under Painting
I am currently working on a painting of a small owl statue (shown here) made out of twigs and tree bark. The owl statue is covered in different textures from head to toe. Since this is very different from anything that I have painted before, I decided to test some different techniques for painting the area around the eyes on an old canvas board before starting on the actual painting. After a few attempts, it was still looked a bit flat and boring. It was then that I tried using a plastic palette knife to apply the paint. A metal one would probably give you better control but I didn’t have one handy at the time. With the palette knife, I was finally able to get the area around the eyes up to a sufficient level of awesomeness. I also found that the same technique should be able to work for most of the owl. So far, I have completed the area around the eyes and the owl’s feet using the same basic technique for both areas.
First, I will go over how I did the feet. I started with two lines of paint on my palette, side by side, one of burnt sienna and one of cadmium red. I scratched a narrow, round tipped palette knife across the two lines to get a small amount of each color on the knife without getting them too mixed together. Then I applied a fairly thick coating of paint to the feet of the owl. Here is a picture of this in progress.
Once the feet were completely filled in, I added the texture of the small twigs coiled around the feet of the owl statue. For this, I used a different palette knife that had a pointed tip. Before each time that I touched the knife to the painting, I dipped it in a very small amount of black paint.
After dipping the knife in the black paint, I carved curved lines across the feet. The knife tends to build up some access paint, so keep a paper towel or cloth handy to wipe it on. Also, when carving into the paint, be sure to do it lightly if you are painting on a white canvas like I was. The knife can completely scrape the paint away and allow the surface below to show through. If a flat color were first applied to the canvas, it could be used to either reduce the impact of carving too deep, or you could use it to your advantage and have a color show through intentionally. Here are the finished feet.
The area around the eyes was painted in a similar way. I mixed white with very small amounts of yellow ochre and burnt sienna. Then I laid the paint onto the canvas like I was frosting a cupcake – which I have done about as many times as I have painted owl statue eyes. Check ‘em out:
Then, just like the feet, I carved in the individual bristles. In a few areas, I gave the palette knife a quick dip into some burnt sienna for a little extra spice. The centers of the eyes along with the remainder of the owl will come in once all of this is dry.
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By Wisdom Lion
November 4th, 2009 at 07:32pm
Under Learning a Second Language
I have wanted to learn a second language for quite some time now, French in particular. I suppose there is no specific reason that I want to learn French – French makes up a small percentage of my ancestry, I have never been there, I don’t know any native French people – I mostly just like how it sounds.
Last night I officially started learning French. I sat down with my red and white striped shirt and baguette and went through lesson 1 of Rosetta Stone French. I have been considering Rosetta Stone for a while, but was always turned away by its prohibitively high cost. Fortunately for me, I mentioned my desire to learn French near a co-worker who was just given a copy of disk 1, and he had no desire to learn. He let me check it out, and then promptly got a job in a different city and skipped town. Unfortunately, this will leave me in a bit of a predicament when disk 1 is over; disks 2 and 3 will still be looming out there at a cost of over $400. I will make the decision on whether or not to continue on the Rosetta Stone train based on how disk 1 plays out.
What I like so far…
I am only one lesson in, but so far I think it is going to be a success. I am learning all about the boy under the ball and the man on the house, the new white car and even the woman drinking milk. They don’t start with the most useful phrases up front, but I am optimistic that this is all part of Rosetta Stone’s grand scheme. What I like the most is that there is no English involved. In language classes in high school, I spent the whole time trying to translate things into English instead of allowing myself to hear the words and then directly connect them to whatever object or action that they refer to. High school language classes also had the discouraging aspect of 30 people nearing adulthood all struggling through what is essentially a kindergarten class.
Another thing that like is that every lesson is can be presented in multiple ways to help with different aspects of learning the language. For example, you can both listen to and read phrases at the same time, or only do one or the other. There are also exercises where you need to type things out, and even some sort of speech recognition function which I have yet to try.
What I don’t like so far…
I understand that there will probably never be learning tool that can take you from zero knowledge to fluency on its own. After only the first lesson, there are a few problems that I think will end up being consistent throughout the program. First of all, I do not see where the grammar lessons will come in. The endings of verbs change based on how they are used in sentences, but they never lay out the rules for you. The lessons seem to leave it up to you to pick up on these changes over time and somehow remember what the rules are. Another shortcoming is that it is possible to blow through some of the questions without knowing what all of the words mean. One word (aliment which means food) was always used in a way where it was unnecessary for answering the question. It actually took me a few questions before I realized what it meant.
My recipe for success…
1. As I stated earlier, I do not have the full Rosetta Stone series. After finishing disk 1, I will either complete the set or buy one of its cheaper counterparts.
2. I plan to get a French learning book with some exercises in it to help nail down the grammar.
3. To help with words that I hear and can’t figure out, I will keep some means of translating close at hand.
4. I will get some French movies queued up on my Netflix. I figure the more I hear people speaking in French, the more it will sink in. This will also help learn how French is actually used opposed to how it is taught. For example, if I were to tell somebody who recently learned English as a second language that I wanted to nail down some grammar, they would potentially be dumbfounded.
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By Wisdom Lion
October 31st, 2009 at 07:39am
Under Sprouts
Sprouted hummus tastes awesome and it’s good for you. It’s a double win. I made a batch the other day and have posted my recipe below. Feel free to make all the adjustments you want based on how you like your hummus. Whatever you do though, I really recommend switching in the sprouted garbanzo beans for the canned ones. You retain some extra nutrition, the texture is lighter and fluffier, and the sprouts give the flavor an extra dimension of complexity.
What you need:
2 Cups of Sprouted Garbanzo Beans
3 Tablespoons of Tahini
2 Cloves of Garlic (minced)
3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
Juice of 1 Lemon
Simple Directions:
1. Mix everything in a food processor.
2. Eat it.
I ate it with some homemade pita which was surprisingly easy to make. I recommend giving it a shot.
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By Wisdom Lion
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