A quick note

Just a quick note to let you all know if you have a look at my SnapShots Blog you will see that four photos have been added.

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A Tale of Two Cockies

Tomorrow my husband and I leave on our two week holiday. Not much in the way of art supplies are packed other than pencil and papers, art magazine and of cause camera and laptop. These two weeks are going to be used to recharge my batteries in readiness for the year ahead, which is going to be the busiest ever. Most important of all this holiday is to have some quality time with my husband, as he also has been extremely busy and so often when two people are working we forget to put time aside just for us.

I would like to share this story with you that a family member passed onto me. It is about a story of Love, Compassion, Friendship & Loyalty. It makes one think about our own relationships and how many have to overcome obstacles along the way. There are many images that help tell this story but even though I am on dial-up I had to be patient so that I could read the story right to the last page. Click on A Tale of Two Cockies and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

So my friends unless I can find a user friendly Internet Cafe, this will be my last post for the next two weeks. Take care and think of my husband and I relaxing by a beautiful beach sipping red wine, Cheers!!!



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technorati tags: Cockies, holiday, beach, red wine, relationships, love, compassion, friendship, loyalty, family, husband, pencils, camera, laptop, story, art magazine

Keep current date and time for drafts with New Blogger

Found a piece of paper with a draft for a post and knew that a better idea would be to make more use of drafting my ideas on Blogger rather than loosing scraps of paper. The only problem with the draft posts on Blogger if I forget to change the date and time when posting it to the public, the post can be lost in earlier posts as the current time and date was never updated when editing the draft. A blogger called The Last Word that writes scripts for Greasemonkey for Firefox has come to the rescue with a keep current date and time for your draft posts script and the post can be found at Keep Current Date & Time On Posts. Before downloading and installing scrips it would be worth you reading this post at A Consuming Experience so that you are informed of what to expect. I am having no problems using this script and can see where it is going to save me a lot of time.

It is a shame I can't find a script that will do all my holiday preparations and packing then that would leave me free to concentrate on my creative jobs but alas one could not be found so there you have it, no painting to post today.

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technorati tags: draft, blogger, greasemonkey, firefox, script, holiday, painting, the last word, a consuming experience, keep current date & time on posts

A Remarkable Story

The little township at the foot of Mount Remarkable is the oldest settlement in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. This area is within half an hours drive from my own home and has been the subject of many of my landscape paintings.

Mount Remarkable was discovered and named by the first explorer into this area; Edward John Eyre. More can be read by going to Adelaide Library website. This is a quote from the page that will be viewed.

From our present encampment a very high and pointed hill was visible far to the N.N. W. this from the lofty way in which it towered above the surrounding hills, I named Mount Remarkable.

Surprise surprise, even I am surprised; my fingers did get pastel dust all over them today with some work achieved on this painting shown in this post. There will be no painting tomorrow because I have a full day of shopping along with appointments in readiness for my holiday that is fast approaching. With a temperature forecasted around forty one celsius, I can't say that I am looking forward to it.

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technorati tags: pastel, mount remarkable, melrose, art, artist, painting, landscape, edward john eyre, explorer, flinders ranges

Sketch of Grapes

For some reason the internet connection to my home is timing out constantly over the last few days. It has happened in the past with the problem improving on its own accord. Our very old and tired underground telephone lines do not help matters and it is hoped that sometime soon the area I live in will catch up with the more populated areas who enjoy a more reliable internet at much higher speeds.

On a much happier note; at the moment my local supermarket is suppling very cheap seedless grapes. Before gobbling these succulent orbs up a quick sketch was the order of the day and once completed ..... oh what a sweet flavour the grapes did have.

sigh!
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it isn't working!
"

With my commissioned oil paintings finished I decided to dig out a pastel that was started a few months ago. Putting it on my easel I am hoping my inspiration to paint it in the first place will return to me so that the work can be completed. So far it isn't working! Maybe laying my pastels out tomorrow will do the trick with a post tomorrow telling all about it.


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technorati tags: sketch, grapes, draw, drawing, graphite drawing, graphite, fruit, internet connection, internet, pastel

W3C Link Checker

An interesting post from Blogger Tips and Tricks dropped into my Google feed reader on how to check links in your posts. Click on W3C Link Checker to see if your blog links are all in order. I found two broken links in my Arts and Stuff blog sidebar due to domain changes. If you have been clicking on the following two links without success with them loading up the website, they are now working.

For your interest I didn't tick any of the boxes on the W3C Link Checker page before starting the search. Also I searched my whole blog rather than individual posts.

The Art Gallery of South Australia

The Pastel Society of Australia

technorati tags: Blogger tips and tricks, google reader, link checker

Rose Sketch "Completed"

It is a shame when resizing the scanned image that some of the pencil marks are lost. There may be a better way of scanning drawings and would be interested to hear from anyone that can help me out. I did use acetate between the bed of the scanner and sketch as I found that gives a better result from the actual scan.

As the titles say, this rose sketch is completed and already thinking about my next mini project........ maybe another rose


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technorati tags: draw, drawing, rose, flower, sketch, sketching, acetate, scan drawing, scan sketch

Rose Sketch "WIP"

It was never my intention to post a work in progress graphite drawing because I am not a confident drawer in the first place. Sketching roses are right down the bottom of the list with what I consider I am reasonable at executing. For some reason it is difficult to judge one line direction and length against another and because of this avoid them. My intentions is to change that over the next coming months so expect to see quite a few rose sketches posted on my blog.

Getting back to why a WIP; simply it is a life size sketch that I started today and I ran out of time to complete it amongst many other jobs that were on the agenda.


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technorati tags: Drawing, sketch, rose, wip, workinprogress

Lipstick Sketch

Some days subjects come very easy for my blog and then another day there is a struggle between my brain and other things that are going on in my day. Today was one of those days until a couple of things happened.

As many of you know I do have a number of Squidoo Lenses that are listed on my Lens Masters page. I was invited to join the Everything Photography Lenses today, which I did and thank Janet for asking me, as it should be a lot of fun at the same time a learning experience with how it all works. Have a look here and Meet the Group master’s page to see more on this Group.

The second thing that happened today was coming across this sketch when hunting down my sketching books in readiness for my holiday later next week. Yup it is my lipstick that was retrieved one evening from a pocket on my handbag while working as artist in residence at Wilpena Pound. The sketch isn’t what I consider finished though have no intentions of doing anymore work with it.

I just remembered! Who has the January 2007 issue of the Australian Artist? On page 50 there is Works in Progress (WIP’s) using mechanical pencils by a very talented young artist. Her name is Tanya Anchugov. If you don’t have the Australian Artist magazine you are in luck as Tanya also has a website called Elaborate Art.

Ok time for me to post this then head off for my evening walk before I think of something else to add.

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technorati tags: Australian artist, australian artist magazine, magazine, sketch, art, sketching, drawing, draw, wilpena pound, lipstick, squidoo, squidoo lens, photography

Welcome to the January 8 2007 edition of Arts and Stuff Carnival.

Welcome to the January 8, 2007 edition of Arts and Stuff Carnival!

Admittedly when signing up to the Blog Carnival early December it had me scratching my head as to how it all worked. My first edition was back on the 4th of December 2006 and as it was a tentative test, I posted my own story without advertising it here. This edition today is what I consider is a new journey of being a serious Carnival blogger that will be posted once per month. As more stories are submitted I may consider posting editions more often.

Very interesting!
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What caught me unaware was how many submitted to my carnival before even posting my next addition date
"

What caught me unaware was how many submitted to my carnival before even posting my next addition date. Even though the stories were excellent they didn’t all fall into the category of what my carnival is about. In saying this I did come up with an idea of picking the best post for unrelated story for "fine art" to add at the end of my edition. Please be aware that all information provide by the authors has not been researched further by myself and is up to you to take the information as true or false.

What is a blog carnival?

• It is a collection of posts on a topic that I and many other bloggers have chosen to host on a blog.

• Carnival bloggers submit to myself or other members of Blog Carnival using a submission form with this example by clicking on Arts & Stuffs.
  

Why do it?

• Participating in Carnivals is a great way to promote your own blog because a published topic will generate traffic from the host blog for your published submission.

• Blog Carnival itself promotes participating blogs with a direct link back to editions that the hosting Carnival blog has posted.

• It connects you to other bloggers of the same interest as yourself.

• Adds additional interest to your own blog

Art Creativity

Laura Young presents Are you Creative? Developing Your Creativity, Part 1 posted at Dragon Slayer's Guide to Life.

This article is the first in a series that has been featured in the book: A Guide to Getting It: Creative Intelligence.

Teaching Art

Nick Franklin presents Amateur Illustrator : Community of Illustrators posted at AmateurIllustrator.com

The story I want to create is centered around the terrible subject of cancer. I don’t want to be morbid in my tale, but I definitely want to portray the seriousness this disease represents (hopefully in a non-intimidating manner). This way children and parents could read this together and potentially gain some insight from my experiences. I do not want to teach a lesson, or preach to anyone.

Nick Franklin presents Amateur Illustrator : Community of Illustrators posted at AmateurIllustrator.com.

Nina Paley’s career began in 1988 with her self-syndicated comic strip, Nina’s Adventures, which appeared in several alternative newspapers and two paperback collections, Depression is Fun and Nina’s Adventures.

Nick Franklin presents Amateur Illustrator : Community of Illustrators posted at AmateurIllustrator.com.

In this lesson we are going to look at some elements of good character design. This is not a drawing tutorial. This lesson illustrates principles that are the building blocks of good character design. Understanding them will help you in developing a process of good design in which drawing is only the last step.
I divided this lesson into two phases: the conceptualizations phase that deals with understanding your character and the realizations phase which deals with bringing it to life.

Show us your Art
D.A.N. presents Untitled Black & White Photo Gallery - Abstract and Artistic Photos posted at Sights & Sounds from the Fifth Column - Music, Art, Articles & More.

This photo series is a set that I took while in my first year of college for an artistic photography class. I don’t take a lot of photos but for some reason this set of 17 continues to have some of my favorite pictures.

Best Post for Unrelated Story to "Fine Art"

Amanda presents ChaCha: World's Worst Search Site posted at Take A Five Minute Break, Then Relax.

The worst idea of a search site to ever cross my path. Certainly this could be useful to those who couldn't turn on a computer, much less search for something simple on the Internet. ChaCha is Indiana's idea of a cruel joke. You use real live guides to help you search for whatever it is you don't know how to go Google yourself for.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
arts and stuff using this carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on blog carnival index page.

Upcoming Edition Dates

Submissions deadline: Feb 11, 2007
Next edition will be post on Arts & Stuff: Feb 14, 2007



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technorati tags: arts and stuff, carnival, blog carnival, art creativity, teaching art, art, art philosophy

Jug Sketch and holiday

Don’t you just love getting visitors where you can pull out your good crockery and is often hidden in a cupboard that rarely has the door opened? Neither my husband nor I take milk in our coffee so unless my visitors do, this little jug rarely sees the light of day. I love stoneware like this unpretentious jug as much as fine china and do have a mix of both in my dresser cupboard. I really should do more scratching around amongst the assortments of items that are stored to see what else is suitable to sketch.

My husband has finely found time today to make the frame up for the last commissioned painting. Tomorrow my job for me will be to mount the painting in the frame, take a photo and then send the snapshot off to the client.

holiday
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I can write my posts on my trusty laptop while lounging around near the beach
"

Over the next few days it is vital that I get a lot of my jobs tidied up because my husband and I are heading off for our annual holiday by the beach as we do every year. I made a purchase of a USB Flash Drive in the hope that I can write my posts on my trusty laptop while lounging around near the beach and then copy it over to my blog along with photos at an Internet Café. This way I will be able continue on blogging while on holidays and you won’t miss the dribble that I post here.

It is odd really as I often think I can’t be bothered going away on holidays but now the time is getting closer I am so looking forward to it. A lot has been packed into this year and it is going to be busier during 2007. Those subjects I will cover in this blog at the appropriate time and I know it will be a dizzy time for me as I won’t know if I am coming or going. Bet that has you all wondering what will be happening.


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technorati tags: sketch, drawing, usb flash drive, holiday, beach, frame, blog, blogging, internet cafe

CRT vs. LCD Monitors

Is your monitor off?
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monitor might just need to be calibrated correctly
"

Not surprising when having a conversation about web and blog background colours someone will mention what they can or can't see on their own monitors. For example seeing washed out hi-lights can happen because of the graphics card or type/age of monitor that the person has or the monitor might just need to be calibrated correctly. There is sure to be other reasons as well.

I love looking at a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), especially with video but do not own one. My CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) graphics monitor sits proudly on my desk in the office taking up quite a bit of the space and I love it for editing my images. I would imagine with technology moving forward at an incredible rate the LCD monitor will soon match my CRT screen if not better but until that time happens there will always be a CRT monitor on my desk because it is a tool for my trade.

I did write a post sometime ago how to go about calibrating a monitor and that can be found at Calibrate Monitor and may be of some help to you.

As often does; a Google search did bring up two interesting websites that goes into more detail about the differences with LCD and CRT Monitors.
Design: talkboard has a good writeup with

One of the most overlooked and undervalued purchases that many designers make when budgeting for a new computer system is the display screen.

The website then goes on to speak about monitor sizes, LCD or CRT and picture quality. It is very informative and easy to read.

The following website at About.com has some very good information as well.

The primary advantage that CRT monitors held over LCDs was their color rendering. The contrast ratios and depths of colors displayed were much greater with CRT monitors than LCDs. While this still holds true in most cases, many strides have been made in LCDs such that this difference is not as great as it once was.

About.com goes on to write about the Pros and Cons of LCD and CRT monitors with two further links at the bottom for understanding the two types of monitors, also written by the same author.

technorati tags: LCD monitor, CRT monitor, about.com, monitor calibration

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Are you in Shock?

Hope you like the lighter background on this blog without going into shock as the black was bothering me that it may cause problems for visitors to read so much text on such a dark coloured design, especially when some of my posts are for the most part now around 250 words, sometimes more. If you are considering changing the colours of your website or blog this website Mandarin Design has examples of web safe colours. The one I am using is snow # FFFAFA.

Before I made my changes I did post a question about it on WetCanvas with the title Black or White blog background? . As you can see it is neither black nor white. A girl can change her mind can’t she! I do thank the WetCanvas members for helping me to come to a decision. The New Blogger also makes it easy to change the colours of my blog so be prepared, you might see an over the top coloured version down the track.

A change of subject now. This watercolour painting is one that was promised some time ago that would be posted here on my Arts & Stuff blog. I completely forgot all about it until I spied it in my drawer for my art paper. I don’t consider myself a watercolourist because I haven’t had much experience using a watercolour medium. It is rather fun to see what evolves when working with such an unpredictable paint and admit to being a bit surprised that the end result isn’t always a complete loss. Even though some of the trees have been left out because the area is so dense in this part of the creek at Wilpena Pound, the likeness is still there that I would recognise it in an instance when walking upon it.

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technorati tags: Watercolour, watercolor, shock, painting, wetcanvas, web design, web safe, watercolourist, wilpena pound

Sketch of an ear

My post will be short today because I am bushed after an extremely hot and humid day.

The sketch of the eye was posted yesterday and now here is the ear. As you will see I pushed the darks more in today’s sketch and rather pleased how it turned out.

Catch you all tomorrow with another post on my blog, as here in Aussie land my bed is calling me much earlier.


Click for a larger view


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technorati tags: Sketch, ear

Here is looking at you!

Oops did you notice the date at the bottom of my sketch on yesterdays post? It should have had the same date as the post. It isn’t unusual for me to get my year mixed up during January and can be frustrating when it happens. Oh well I can’t say live and learn as I never do become practiced at remembering.

My daughter returned to her place of living today after spending Christmas and New Year on the farm with her dad and I. With our son and partner now settled into the second house on the farm for some weeks now and also our eldest child and her husband coming and going during the festive season, life is now back to what I call “normal” even if it means that my daughters are many kilometers away. It is also a signal for me to find my routine to produce work on a more regular basis for my blog as well as self satisfaction as a working artist.

Today’s post of an eye which I enjoyed playing around with though could be improved on does have the right date and is my fair dinkum effort to have more art on my blog. My blog will always flow over into other subjects and the Labels will help isolate said topics from the art related ones for those that are not interested. Saying this though I do hope some of these unrelated posts to artworks do offer a broader understanding of me as an artist.




Click for a larger view!

technorati tags: eye, sketching, blog, art, artist

Coffee Please!

Taking care not to contaminate my studio air with fumes from Turps more than necessary, the cheap tissue and paper that are used for cleaning up after oil painting are placed in an empty coffee jar and is always left on the trolley table near my easel. While taking a break I noticed how the light above was shining down the label and thought why not sketch it and post it on my blog as I do miss posting my current work, which I am pleased to say my last commission is now finished and only needs to dry.

Considering not much time was spent on this sketch I am rather pleased that a reasonable drawing was achieved. Mmmmm…. Reckon more effort should be made on my part during 2007 and fill up some sketch books. Nope I am not going to make it a New Years resolution and end up not doing it!


Sketch of coffee jar using mechanical pencil

technorati tags: coffee, sketch, drawing, blog

Emoticons

Painting over the holiday period has been put on the back burner with so much going on around me. Meanwhile I have been catching up with other items on the “to do list” that I have had on the back burner for some time now.

Quite awhile back I came across a way to add emoticons to blog posts without using links back to an image storage space on the internet. For example Photobucket and ImageShack. Today I was reminded of this when I came across the same blog and now put into practice emoticons on this blog of mine. If you want the same for your blogger you can learn by visiting Tricks and Thinks blog or go directly to Emoticons for Blogger.

Hopefully these little faces will help my readers to understand that I am an easy going Aussie…..for the most part!

On that note it is New Years Day in Australia and I am off to organise a few prawns for my evening meal.... cheers!

technorati tags: emoticons, photobucket, imageshack, blogger, happy new year