Tag: pen

Stopped by the Plague

Winnedumah Hotel, Independence, CA

We had a 2 week vacation trip planned. And it ended on Day 3. I had thought my sinuses were acting up, but to be careful I decided to have a Covid-19 test. It was a 1-hour quickie. Negative. Okay! Let’s go!

Our first stop was in Independence, CA, along the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains, traveling on Hwy. 395. My husband had a cold, mild, some sniffles and a cough. On Day 3, we left Independence, and continued north. Next stop was to be Virginia City, NV. Well, as we moved further north, the air became cloudy and sooty. The smoke from the fires in NoCal was moving east, and I could smell it. So could Tom and Judy, Josh’s parents. Josh couldn’t. We had mints. We could all taste them – except Josh.

And so the decision was made: return home and have tests. It was the ethical thing to do. Josh’s test came back positive; mine was “presumed positive”, and the antigen tests Tom and Judy had came back negative. Ethical decision made, people and places were called, and now we are self-isolating until our next test on 9/13. Test results will be around 9/15.

So, stopped by the plague . . . and ethics. Neither Josh nor I felt sick other than a tad under the weather. Josh has is sense of taste and smell back about 95%.

We have plenty to do, despite being stuck at home. I have a sketchbook, planned to document the vacation, and so the first drawing is the Winnedumah Hotel, built in 1927 for the film industry back in the days when westerns were shot in the Owens Valley.

Writing Tools of Yore

Sometimes things just drop by the wayside, and photography has been one of them. I’ve been too busy being lazy, painting, blobbing, and sewing. A few other things, too. We all get there. The photo mojo just vanished but I decided I had to get out of my rut and think about the photography side of my life. I rather wish I was up for challenges, as I think it could be a boon, but lately the idea of obligations – as a challenge could be – might be more than I want to deal with. However, I have come up with an idea to try for a few weeks . . .

Awhile back I got a Fuji Instax Square Printer, and it is a sweet little item. It connects with my phone via an app as well as the Fuji X100V. Instant prints. It works quite well. And that is my challenge – a picture or two every day for a bit. No time frame, just a daily picture.

Above is my first photo for this challenge. I like old writing implements and tools. This is my inkwell, ca. 1810-1840. I am inclined to think it may be from the time quills were in use as there are 4 holes on the top.  Quills need to dry out between uses, so if you are writing a lot, a number of quills need to be available.  You switch between them to keep a good nib.  The inkwell to hold the ink is under the hinged lid, and in it I have my own homemade iron gall ink. And a quill – a realio, trulio quill – cut in the traditional manner so that it actually works. I used both to write my sister a letter, and sent her this print and a few others.

It is very satisfying to get out the pen and ink and write! My cursive is pretty good, and I have a light touch, as needed, to use a quill pen. No blobs of ink sullied my letter. My paper, too, was excellent, because there was no feathering of the ink nor bleeding through the paper. I did my research and am pleased to see it paid off – modern papers can be hell to use with wet ink. I am also learning English “Secretary Hand” from ca. 1600. It’s not at all like Italic, which I think later replaced it, but it is interesting to do as it is somewhere between Gothic and Italic. The benefit to learning it will be able to read documents &tc from the time period, as well as stay out of trouble.

Drawing Practice

Frustrated with my inabilities to realistically do perspective and depth, which I attribute to my lack of depth perception, I’ve decided to re-edu-um-cate myself!  I signed up for an online gouache class by Lena Rivo, which has been great, as well as bought an eBook version of Bert Dodson’s Keys to Drawing.  I have decided to dedicate part of each day to doing at least one of his exercises if possible.  The hope is to improve my drawing skills, which are the problems behind some of my painting issues.

First exercise is contour drawing.  The purpose of this is to get used to the idea of checking what you see against what you draw, and get the idea into your head that what you see is not what you think.  This means looking at angles and curves as well as relationships of parts to each other.  Here are my exercise examples, diving in feet first!

Next was fun – look at your hand face on – that is, fingers in your face!  Close an eye.  Draw!

And then, imagine a pepper.  Draw it.  Then get a real pepper and take a good, strong look at it, and draw.  My imaginary pepper is at the top, and the real pepper, in three positions and three variations of drawing style, are below.

Very glad I chose to do this!  More to come.

Nowhere House

Another perspective study from hell.  Where do you put the vanishing point on paper where the horizon doesn’t provide one!?!

I used 2 point perspective here for the most part.  To figure this out, I drew the basic sketch onto a piece of paper that was larger than the final sketch.  I decided my horizon line.  Then I drew the building, uprights and then angles for the roof line and base of the building, both on the left and the right.  For the wall, I did the same thing, aiming it at the horizon line and trying to get the top and bottom to line up.

Ummm.  Not sure.  It looks okay in a lot of ways except for the wall – too wide nearer the building perhaps than it should be in the lower left foreground.

And getting into perspective.  I don’t have depth perception – eye docs confirm this.  But I do get distance – I can guestimate a distance and when it is measured, I am pretty accurate.  This makes me think that a sense of distance and depth perception are two different things entirely.