from: dulce
to: "tiangotlost@gmail.com"
date: Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 12:19 PM
subject: a question/ tatoo

dear sir

today I met this man, who came to fix my car.
when I saw his arm, tattoed , I did ask him the meaning of the word and he said: this is the name of his son, called: João Victor (something like John Victor in English)

Is he right? I don´t think so....

best regards

dulce



It is completely gibberish, not even correct with the gibberish font.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE -- FREE YOURSELF FROM THE PHOTO

Spring Canyon, 12" x 18"

Using a photograph as a source of inspiration can be a helpful tool, but as an artist you need to develop the strength to make decisions based on your creativity and ideas, and not become overly dependent on photos. Becoming a better artist is a lot like building muscle. You must make time to work out and improve, and try different exercises to become stronger. Training makes you fit, gives you confidence and allows you to try new and more difficult activities, which can result in new vision and creativity. Your artistic muscle improves when you exercise it independently.

A photograph can assist you in planning a painting. It can be a wellspring of information that helps you recall the place, time and object you’re painting accurately and helps you capture temporal elements not easily recalled. However, the same photograph can come to dominate a painting, slowly and subtly becoming the goal, sapping you of creative strength. Too often a photograph enslaves the unsuspecting painter to some degree of realism, detail or composition, and steals creative aspects. The artist can feel compelled to make the painting almost identical to the photo.

The eye sees differently than the camera. This difference shows in a painting done exclusively using the photo. When you stand in a location and look at a scene you tend to overlook the little things that lie close to you that a photograph will often include. The photo creates an “arm’s length” look to a place set off in the distance, like a postcard held in your hand. Another aspect derived from using different lenses is the tendency to have the same amount of detail from your feet to infinity or the horizon -- something only a photo can do -- or to have such a short focal length that everything in front of and behind the subject is a dreamy blur. Surely you’ve seen pieces painted using a photograph and clearly recognized that fact.
Many artists aren’t willing to abandon the use of photographs entirely, wanting to make credible paintings that include some aspects found in photos. So, how can you free yourself of over-dependence on the photograph? At what point does it cease to give strength and become a source of weakness? This point is different for each artist, but if you find the photo has begun to sap your power you might want to try a few exercises to help you limit its use as a resource.

Newly gained freedom from photos can often be disturbing, even a bit frightening. It seems safer to have a good photo that you can go back to over and over. However, the idea is to free yourself of this dependence and find the creative aspects of painting that will make you a stronger artist. You need to develop those artistic muscles. Begin by resolving to put the photograph away after completing a certain portion of the painting. Decide exactly how far you wish to go before setting it aside. You might choose to do a sketch, the underdrawing or one layer of color using the photo as reference.

You must put the photograph in a place where you can no longer see it if you’re to become free of its undue influence. When you reach the point of too much dependence, resolve to put the photograph completely out of sight. This means it’s not lying on your worktable a foot or so away where you can easily glance over at it. If that’s the case, eventually you’ll pick it up to see some aspect more closely and find yourself captured by it once again. Put it in a drawer or in another room, a place where you have to make a concerted effort to get it again.

Spend some time thinking about how far you really need to go with your reference photo in hand before going without. At what point in the process of your painting are you comfortable putting the photo away? (If you just said, "When it’s finished," you need these exercises!)

EXERCISES

One way to begin is to decide to use photos only for sketches. You can draw every detail and catch every nuance of the photograph as long as you know it’s only the beginning. Many artists find this system helpful because it works out the desire to draw what they see. After completing the initial sketch, you can begin to recompose elements, rearranging things to improve the composition in subsequent sketches. Once you arrive at a pleasing arrangement of shape, line and value, put the photograph in its hiding place and proceed with the painting, relying on your intuition and creativity to complete it. This usually results in a more original work that contains some of the virtues of the photograph.

Another possibility is to use the photo for the underdrawing only. This means that you might make decisions about composition, value and detail on your paper but not make any commitments to them without changing things. You can use the photo for certain aspects, then recompose before you begin putting down color. Rearrange the elements -- lower the horizon line, position an object lower or higher, or to the left or right, lighten or darken an area, mass things together differently. Whatever needs doing, do it now. Think of the drawing as your own, not a recreation of the photograph. Take possession of the place or object you’re painting. In some ways, you might find this a more independent way to compose, unlike making sketches and transferring the image to the paper. This method encourages you to loosen up in your approach to the whole painting process. Once you’ve determined what elements you want to use and where they reside, including details in certain areas, be sure that you put the photograph away. Try to think of the new image as being liberated from the photograph, an original place or item that’s solely yours.

Sometimes you’ll use one of the two methods above, and then as you begin to paint you’ll have a need to refer to the photograph again. You may need to retrieve a certain area of detail, perhaps the rocky face of a cliff at your focal point or the sheen of the water’s edge. In that case, try beginning with the photo, putting it away to recompose the drawing, and then retrieving it for the details before putting it out of sight again. This yo-yo effect works to begin to free you of the photo by assuring you when you’ve rearranged and established a clear composition and found the area of interest. You’re still able to retrieve the detail in areas where you need them. It may reassure you to know that you can freely compose and go back to your reference material later. Don’t fall into the habit of using the photo too often. If you’re tempted to pick up the picture and return to it as the final authority, this method may not be the best for you.

Another idea is to use the photo for the underdrawing, deciding on the light and dark masses of the painting, at which point you can choose colors based on the black and white values that are in place. Match the value of a color for the value in the drawing, disregarding the photographic color. This is a good idea if you’re fairly capable of understanding value and color and are not afraid of working without the aid of the photo. You’ll become free of overly photographic color and can begin with a lovely layer of playful color. If your goal is realism, you can achieve more realistic color in your subsequent layers, allowing the creative use of color to enhance realism’s lyrical quality.

Another possibility is to do the underdrawing and one layer of color, then put the photo away. This way you have the natural color in place, but are free of the photograph to add layers of creative, personal color. This will work if you’re able to think value when a color is in place, but will be difficult if you’re overly dependent on photographic color. For instance, once the green of the foliage is in place, you may find it difficult to put orange or purple over it. However, if you feel confident of color and are more comfortable with the colors of nature in place, begin with the green and let orange or purple work their magic. You still must free yourself of the photograph, allowing natural color to bow to your creativity.

If the photograph is so precious and beautiful that you cannot bear to depart from it, consider having it enlarged and framed, and don’t try to make a painting using it! Good photographs are seductive, urging you to copy every aspect. Instead, find a photograph that has some interesting elements, but one that you wouldn’t paint as it is. This will force you to recompose or recolor your painting. Bad photographs can make good paintings in the hands of an increasingly strong and original artist and can encourage creative risks that will likely improve your work. When you’re not enamored of the photo you might be inspired to make the painting look even better.

Is there ever a time when you should rely on the photograph throughout the entire course of a painting? Each artist must answer that question herself. However, think creatively and usd different methods to see what will help you become stronger. As you become more confident of your ability to paint, rid yourself of dependence on the photograph. The ultimate independence comes when you no longer rely on the photo as a reference at all, instead reaching into your memory and experience to paint. Most artists have built more muscle than they realize and the act of painting solely by recall can reveal hidden strengths. Try painting your next piece without using any reference photo at all. Think about the place or objects you wish to paint, making a mental composition. Relax and let your mind and hand find the composition on your paper. You may be surprised in your ability to paint without any help from outside resources.

Building muscle is challenging but it results in new self-confidence. Knowing how much to rely on the photograph and when to let go can make more powerful paintings.

Soft Morning, 9" x 12"

Making a drawing, as I did above, can satisfy the desire to capture the details but free you to paint an image different from the photograph.

Sunstruck City

The resource photograph, shown above, is quite ordinary and uninspiring, except that it reminded me of the light that day. I used it to establish the mesas and shadows, then cut loose and recalled the color creatively.

Twilight Crossroads

Likewise a dull and fairly pedestrian photograph inspired me with a memory of shapes and light, but the color is all my own.


The paintings below were done entirely from my imagination, using no reference photograph at all.

Glow, 12" x18"

Boundary of the Day, 18" x 12"

Hillside series paintings.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR -- MAKE A PUZZLE PAINTING

Waterfall, 18" x 12"

This experiment is meant to help you identify the value of a color and use multiple colors in any given value area.

First find a photograph that contains good contrast and a range of values that you would like to use for a painting. Make two black and white copies of it, enlarging them to about 8"x10”. If you’re able, blur one of the grayscale photos. If not, it won’t make any difference. Just be sure you have one clear grayscale print, and a second one that is either blurred or not. Blurring it sometimes simplifies the choice of value areas.
 

Cut the grayscale print into pieces. Use three, four or more value groupings. In other words, cut out the light sky shape, the medium-light shadowed cloud shapes, the dark tree shape (massed together), the medium mountain and the medium-dark ground plane. If there are smaller groupings within a value area, such as in the clouds, average this out by squinting at the picture or by placing it across the room to look at it. Find the average of the area. For instance, where there’s a tree against the sky, do not try to cut out every little light spot. Simply choose the dark value of the tree where it is dark and the light area of the sky as big shapes. Make as many value pieces as you need so that you have at least three or four puzzle pieces. You may have more than one puzzle piece in any value grouping -- for instance, you might have two medium-dark value pieces, one on each side of a road.

As you cut out the pieces reassemble them over the grayscale copy so that you can see where they belong. Lightly number each piece with a line pointing to that area in the grayscale photo, and then number the back of the cutout pieces to match. All this is meant to do is to help you reassemble the parts into a whole again.

Now remove the grayscale photo and arrange each of the cutouts into value order from light to dark. If you find pieces that are exactly or extremely near to the same value, group them together.

Take each value (or grouping of values) and prepare a clean, preferably white piece of drawing paper that will become the chart of colors you might use. Number them from one to five or six, depending on how many values you use.

Lay the hole in a value finder over the value shape cutout to find its value number from 2 to 9. Note the number of that value on your clean paper. * Note: There is no standard for numbering grayscales. Some will number white as 1 and some will number black as 1. Use whatever your value finder says and disregard others.

In good strong light on a separate piece of drawing paper find pastels that match this value. Lay down a swatch of the color and hold the value finder above it, then squint to see if it matches. Once you have found the matching value, note that color on the chart.

Have fun! Any color is okay. Try colors that often go unused. Think value, choose color. This is no longer a sky -- it‘s a light value. It’s not trees, but a chunk of dark colors. That’s no longer the ground but a harmony of medium colors. If you need to, turn the value shape cutout another direction so that it loses its identity as an object, such as trees, and can only be identified as a value.

You’ll know the values are exactly or almost exactly the same if, while squinting, they seem to blend into one larger shape. Look at the illustration above and notice how when you squint the blue centered in the hole and the gray surrounding it seem to merge into one. (If you can't see it, squint more.) Then mark the colors with the edges touching and you will quickly see if they are the same or very nearly the same value. As you can see in the mass of colors touching here, when you squint they become one larger shape, indicating their similarity in value.

It might be a good idea to lay aside the colors you have chosen from your palette so that you can easily find them again. You will be returning to these exact colors for your finished painting. It's helpful to make a chart for each value listing the value number and the colors, and lay out the pastel sticks on it. Do this for each of the value groupings in your painting. You should have three to six value charts. showing the color possibilities you might use in a painting of this image.

Now, looking at the original, whole grayscale photo, compare it with the charts you’ve made. Notice that you’ve selected many different colors of the correct value for each value grouping. Using only the grayscale photograph and your imagination (no pastel for now), envision a version of the image using different and varied colors. Imagine some different color possibilities for your painting. Take your time and think. This is valuable time and necessary to do.

Then using the grayscale photograph make three different sketches, loosely trying out different color layers to see just how the values work. Layer colors over one another or use broken color, putting them side by side in your painting. You don’t need to use every color in every painting, but remember that as you layer colors they will appear to be different depending on the last color applied. Perhaps it would help you to work in a format similar in size to the black and white copy. Paint quickly so that your brain doesn’t have time to demand “real” colors. Be playful, have fun, don’t let the finished product blackmail you into becoming colorless or vague. This is a color experiment! Find what is expressive and beautiful.

When you have completed your color sketches, select one to use as a basis for a larger, more finished painting using beautiful and expressive color.

(I apologize for not having any painting samples to show you from the above color choices, however here are some colorful paintings done using this method.)

Final Touches, 12" x 9"

Shadow Colors, 9" x 12"

Green at Pink Time, 9" x 17"

Slightly off topic here.

Image above was posted in CheckoutMyInk.com. The tattoo is Korean Hangul (Korean alphabet), but upside-side down, of course.

Who or what is "Park Noh Sik"?

In recent issue of GQ magazine (US edition), I came across this ad for The Art of Shaving:



The Chinese translation of "The Ambassador of Smooth" as 平稳大使 is contextually incorrect.

平稳 refers to stability, not related to physical surface condition, which shaving is about. Nor the American English slang usage of "smooth" in terms of finesse.

平稳大使 would be better suited as ad slogan for a physical therapy clinic, than hawking male grooming products.

The Hunger Games afterthoughts

Can I takeback most of the things I said about The Hunger Games’ style being jarring toread? Well, it still is, a bit, in the first book, but it works for theadventure style of the book. I guess it also means I wasn’t prepared for howthe writing improves exponentially in Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

There’s onething that is obvious: Suzanne Collins can write action, and write it well. Onceshe gets started on the actions scenes you can’t put it down.

The thingabout book 2, Catching Fire, though, is that it’s part 1 of book 3, Mockingjay.Mockingjay picks up almost immediately after Catching Fire, so if you stopbetween the two books you basically want to kill yourself because it’s at acliffhanger. So in part, it’s somewhat like the literary version of the two partsof the Deathly Hallows movies – the first part is exposition and lead up to thesecond part. Of course the first part ends with the climax.

I’m going tohave to go back and reread both Catching Fire and Mockingjay in more detailsbecause I was skimming quite a bit just to get through the story last night butI have to say that I’m sufficiently speechless by the fact that Collins writesthree books and manages to build such a world and such a story that sucks you in but is still so disturbing all the time. (And then the United States starts to come up with the Internet censoring stuff and I do wonder whether it's the beginning of Panem, if not even Oceania.)

I stillthink the love triangle is weak but the good thing is that then it doesn’toverpower the rest of the story.

That said, rightnow I’m just floored by the last paragraph(s) of the series. It’s still thesame direct, rather blunt prose, but there’s so simply beautiful about it.

Peeta and Igrow back together. There are still moments when he clutches the back of achair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake screaming fromnightmares of mutts and lost children. But his arms are there to comfort me.And eventually his lips. On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger thatovertook me on the beach, I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale’sfire, kindled with rage and h`tred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I needis the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead ofdestruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses.That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.

So after,when he whispers, “You love me. Real or not real?”

I tell him,“Real.”

I’ll go offand search stuff about the movie now.

The Hunger Games - First book, first thoughts

The thing aboutme is that I have this weird compulsion to resist reading popular books justbecause everyone keeps telling me I should read them. That is, until somethingabout it just gets my curiosity up so much that I cave in and read them anyway. Currently I’m trying to not read the Millenium Triology, which probably meansthat at some point I’ll read them anyway.

It was likethat back in 7^th grade when my best friend carried Goblet of Fire around school for weeksand there was one guy in the class who was quite obsessed with the series and kepttalking about it. At that time, the school library also go the four (as wasthen available) books for the first time. Our school library was tiny and quitelimited and I probably was running out of things to read so I just rememberstarring at those four books, thinking, what the heck. I didn’t expect to getso sucked into it, because back then, honestly I was still reading Sweet Valley and Baby Sitters Club. The idea of a book about wizards and boys didn’t’exactly appeal to me. But I digress.

With Twilight, it was a different story.Facebook had come into play by then and too many people I know were havingTwilight-related statuses, but at the same time I’m hearing a fair amount ofcriticism for it.  So I read it just tosee what on earth people were complaining about. And apparently people whocomplain have a point. I’ve probably raged and ranted more about Twilight thanis healthy but I still can’t get over how much I hate Bella Swan. But Idigress, again.

Anyway, thepoint is, I’ve been seeing The HungerGames everywhere lately and people keep saying oh, it’s the next Harry Potter/Twilight and quite frankly,after hearing Twilight being described as “the next Harry Potter” and the disappointment that that resulted in, I’mtaking this claim with a fairly large grain of salt. I wasn’t planning to readit, even. It’s dystopian fiction – that much I knew - not my favourite genre,and I was forced into too much of that in school already. Then the movietrailer came out and Josh Hutcherson just looks so good that I ended up reading the first book of the triology.

I’ll saythis much first: it’s addictive and a page-turner which was why I didn’t get tosleep until 1am last night and spent about fifteen minutes contemplatingcalling in sick to work this morning because I was sleep-deprived and (moreimportantly :P) I wanted to keep on reading the second book – Catching Fire. But I didn’t.

I guess youcould call it 1984 for teenagers. I reallylove the world that Suzanne Collins built up, the premise of the Hunger Games,and how it reflects reality TV in the modern world. I don’t watch a whole loadof reality TV shows, because all the drama and backstabbing and crying justseem rather fake to me. I watch American Idol sporadically, only ever managedto get through Junior MasterChef because it’s so much less stress than theadult version and the only cycle of America’s Next Top Model I got through wasarguably the least dramatic – Cycle 13.  TheHunger Games basically just encompasses all that I feel about reality TV – the pointlessness,the drama, the babarism, and sense of so-what – and takes it all up a notch (orseveral notches).

I like that Collinsdoesn’t shy away from the truth of the matter – that the games forces teenagersto kill each other, and while survival instincts allow them to kill, it doesn’tever become ok, that you can be haunted forever. I like the ideas how “allies”can turn against each other when enemies are all eliminated, because it is afight to the death. I like the social commentary on the power of the state,freedom and poverty – which, let’s face it, are timeless themes.

I like theuniverse, the world building and the entire idea of the Hunger Games. It’s realand gritty and makes for an exciting story. The Games both simultaneously makes you want to just keep on reading, feeling disgusted if you think that this could happen in the real world, but at the same time you do have to get excited with all the suspense. That’s what was keeping me turningthe pages.

I love the fact that even in this life or death situation where you literally have to kill everyone to survive, Katniss still finds someone to care about - Rue. The relationship between Katniss and Rue is just heart-wrenching because you know it can't last, you know Rue will die, but the manner of death was just heartbreaking. Rue's death coupled with Katniss' first direct kill marks the loss of innocence (if you could even call Katniss innocent in the first place) for the character and it's the best chapter in the book, both in terms of writing and content. 

I’m not inlove with Katniss, the main character yet after a third of the series, but sheis a pretty fleshed out character. She is capable and cunning, and no fuss ismade about that, she’s not expected to lean on anyone to survive just becauseshe’s a girl. She’s got compassion and capable of cowardice, hatred and andguilt, which gives her depth. As far as character, even more, a femalecharacter, go, I don’t have that much to complain about. I just am at a placewhere I don’t really click with her just yet.  

What bugs meabout this book is the love-triangle-that-isn’t.

First off,Gale doesn’t make much of an impression on me, except that he’s a good guy, hecares for his family and he’s friends with Katniss and seems to have a crush onher. I guess, the book goes so straight into the Hunger Games – which Gale isnot a part of – that I don’t really get the idea that I’m supposed to care thatGale likes Katniss and how that’s going to affect her relationship with Peeta.

On the otherhand, Peeta is a saint. He’s kind, he’s caring, he’s patient, he’s wonderfuland totally in love with Katniss, and he’s the kind of guy that I wonder whyanyone would not want.  He’s bordering ona Gary Stu but without the annoying traits. Actually, the lack of bad traits(so far) from Peeta  could be kind ofjarring if I let myself get too into it, but I genuinely want to like Peeta,and the author’s making it so damn easy to like him.  

So I’m readingand wondering, not why Katniss is in a conflict between Peeta and Gale, but whythe author even bothers trying to paint up this love triangle. It’s kind ofobvious that Peeta has the upper hand here: the book is in first person, andKatniss is in the Hunger Games with Peeta while Gale is not. It means thatafter the first three chapters, Gale disappears off the face of the book,except in Katniss’ brief flashbacks, while Peeta is always there. Constantly.She’s supposed to kill Peeta. You get the idea that, after all the backstory andwonderful-boy-too-good-to-be-true  scenariothe author builds up, either he’ll die tragically, or that he won’t die somehowand Katniss and he will end up together.

But I guessit’s not fatal (yet) – I’m just wondering how much this triangle will play upin the second book, and the third, when Gale would probably appear more often.I just hate the idea that the triangle that everyone knows the end of mightsomehow end up shadowing the story, which is good.

The story isgood, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the writing is stellar. And this writingisn’t stellar. It’s not Twilight-quality, certainly, but it can be quite uncomfortableto read. I get the feeling that the author lacks finesse and subtlety,everything is stated out in the open, with comparisons between past and presentevents made too directly. It just feels like a whole load of telling in themost direct way possible. It doesn’t exactly lack poetry, the author can putout nice turns of phrase in certain places, but overall the writing approach isjust heads-on.

Though, now that I think about it, to be totally fair, the choppy, heads-on, blunt style of writing does work better in the Games where things are happening in the moment, people are dying in the moment. I guess Katniss has to be blunt there to get the narration across and it does create the mood for the Games. Still, it can be quite bumpy to read.

Then again,as I said, the story overall is good, so I can say that while I’m not overlyawed by The Hunger Games, I’m not disappointed that I read it. The story drawsyou in enough so that you keep reading despite the occasional bumps with thewriting style. I’m looking forward to getting more into this world with thenext books.   

from: Elsa M.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 10:41 PM
subject: Hanzismatter-worthy shirt

I actually laughed out loud when I saw the Chinese on this shirt. Thought I would share. Some smart alec designer had finally had enough.




Presumably the intended sentence is:

這是傳統中文的寫法

which means "this is traditional Chinese way of writing",

with missing "文" & "的".

From BME's gallery, 雪 has one extra horizontal stroke under the radical, 雨.



Also, 雪片花 (snow piece flower) is redundant, 雪花 (snow flake) would suffice. 

Dr. Victor Mair at Language Log has a nice piece on how Google Translate became the de facto tool for anyone wants to communicate in a foreign language.  Even though in some cases, translation it provided are incorrect. 

This young man holding the sign at "Occupy Wall Street", probably wanted "No More Corruption".  However, Google Translate gave him "There isn't any more corruption."

By the way, why is he holding a sign written in Chinese?! 

Has this naive young man ever done business in China?

How about 關係, 後門, and 紅包?