I think it is a picture of Francis in his school uniform. I’m sending the front of the picture and the back that has something written in Korean.
Category: arts and letters
NaNoWriMo 2016
Ever since Marie wanted to learn to program in 2009, I’ve wanted to write a book to help her. But I never could get started.
The National Novel Writing Month is November every year for just this purpose: to motivate people to put 50,000 words on paper (about the size of the novel, Slaughterhouse-Five), editor be damned.
I first heard about it in 2007, when I started using Scrivener, but dismissed it because the requirement that a novel be fiction. I only just found about NaNo Rebels, which allows you to customize the “50,000 words” into nearly any other creative exercise, including non-fiction. So yesterday, this was born:
Nowadays, I use Ulysses. I simply created a group in the software and set a 50,000 word goal and started typing away!
Goal setting on my iPad.
I don’t know if I can finish since it’s about a good sized blog article each and every day. We’ll see how it goes. So far it’s been a bit strange writing a book. For instance, I can’t use my WordPress shortcode macros lest I ruin the word count.
Periodically, I’ll dump the output to my blog, which you can track here. Wish me luck!
If you want to buddy up, I’m “tychay” there.
The Artist’s Handwriting
After a break and much debate, I decided to not skip Chapter 2 of Keys to Drawing.
Sometime in the future, I’ll most certainly need to go back and practice copying the other masters to make up for the fact that I’m doing things digitally, but for this pass, I simply tried my hand at the first artist mentioned: Eugène Delacroix.
Procreate on iPad Pro 9.7″
Liberty Leading the People this is not. I need more practice. 😉
You can find Delacroix’s original drawing here.
As you can tell from the date, I started the exercises in this chapter two weeks ago.
Continue reading about the long slog through this chapter after the jump
On SciFi/Fantasy Fetishes
“Did you like the book you bought?”
“Well, when Sarkan gets…”
“Whoa! you’re not going to spoil it for me, are you?”
“Why?”
“Because I might want to read it.”
“Okay.”
The next day, she left the novel on my nightstand.
Continue reading about fantasy/sci fi and sex(!) after the jump
Digital sight-size
After finishing Chapter 1 of Keys to Drawing, I thoughtI needed a respite. I completed a bastardized version of the first exercise from Bargue’s Drawing Course.
I was wrong, this was not fun of a break.
My parents wedding by the sea
Here are your mom and dad’s wedding pictures. There were a couple of others that were damaged because they were attached to the album pages with scotch tape.
Continue reading and seeing some more wedding photos after the jump
Watch movement
I’m finally finishing chapter 1. This time I’m supposed to sketch a “complicated mechanical object.”
La Fantasia
My great grandfather wins my aunt an election
I found a photo of great grandfather and grandmother Ree
Continue reading about some unintended stories about this photo after the jump
Eyes
…there is no thought, “I have attained something.” When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners.
— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Now that I’ve spent over a year relearning how to program, it’s getting to the point that I can spend some spare time applying the system of shuhari to something I never learned: drawing.
The cynical me says if President George W Bush can do it, how hard can it be? But the real reason is I’ve always wanted to draw and admired and encouraged my friends who had the talent, but gave up trying myself around the sixth grade.
Later, I learned that “having talent” for something just means willingness to practice at it and fail, a lot. It was feeling embarrassment over the latter that kept me from seriously attempting to learn drawing.
Continue reading about my attempt to draw my eyes after the jump