Just a Tree on a Beach, Sunbathing by the Surf

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Location Taken: Ontario, Canada
Time Taken: June 2010

I took this photo from a small rest area on the Trans-Canada Highway as it goes along the north of Lake Nipissing. So I really can’t get more specific than “Ontario” for the location, since it is in the unnamed wilderness sections of the province. Which, admittedly, makes up a rather large percentage of the province.

It was a test of my camera in many ways. It required a pretty hefty zoom to get this picture, and I don’t use a tripod. Mainly because I tend to do spur-of-the-moment photos, the whole “That looks pretty” *click* thing, which doesn’t match the time requirement of setting up a tripod properly. And partly because a tripod that can handle all the terrains I take photos in just wouldn’t fit in my purse. I actually chose my camera partly on the fact that it’s rather lightweight for a camera with all the functions it has. The other reasons I chose it were fairly low price (it was in the $200-$300 range) and that it has a manual focus feature. I really like manipulating the focus, far more than I care about aperture and shutter speed, which even higher end cameras have.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned what camera I use. It is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8, on the lower end of fancy cameras. I got it for Christmas in 2007, if I recall correctly. It has flaws, such as not quite perfect color and exposure adjusting, but it lets me do just about what I want. The camera’s getting a bit old, for a camera, since it’s about 5 years since they first released it. That may not seem like much, but camera technology is improving very quickly these days. I do recommend Lumix cameras, especially for those just getting in to photography. It’s got a lot of functionality for a fairly low price, so you can learn the tricks of the trade without shelling out one or two thousand for a high-end camera. Mind you, I may not stay with Lumix for my next camera, since I’d like my next one to be a noticeable quality upgrade, but I do rather like my little camera.

  

The Grand Tour of The Most Awesome Workspace EVER!

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Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: May 2012

I just neatened up my art workspace, so what better time to talk about it?!

I work better if I have a permanent workspace, set up so I can jump into art at any moment. So I set aside part of my small room for this. There’s not much more to it than this. I can’t even push back my chair too much, since I run into a wall. But my art production has gone noticeably up since I set this up a few months back.

In the center is my main work area. You can see my current piece there, under the light. It’s a natural light, with a weighted base, which is good for seeing the colors properly. I’m not sure if you’ve realized, but a lot of indoor lighting is strongest in the yellow colors. I set my camera to “Cool” colors to take this photo, to balance out some of the yellow, and even then all the white plastic in the lower part of this photo has a strong yellow cast from the overhead light I had on. But the center of the photo is actually pretty close to the right colors, since the natural light uses the full wavelength.

I’m currently in the penciling stage for my current piece (which I should be able to show next Sunday), which is why I have a pencil and eraser out and why you can’t actually see anything on the piece. The pencil lines are too faint to counter the washed out effect of the light directly hitting it. And yes, I do work on pieces that small. For whatever reason, I like working at that scale.

I’ve got my brushes quite accessible in their holder, and the colors are at the back of the desk. I’ve covered the desk with a piece of felt. I work with water-based paints, after all, and the felt catches and contains any spills.

You know, I don’t think I’ve mentioned exactly what media I use. I use the Chinese Painting Colors, such as you find in, well, Chinese brush paintings. They act similar to Western watercolors, but have several key differences. First, the specific colors in the set are different. I’ve got Phthalocyanine Blue instead of Manganese Blue, for instance. Second, the Chinese colors tend to have a more consistent color when they dry. This does mean I lose out on the interesting variations of tone that are a key part of Western watercolor art, but I prefer having the constancy. Third, the Chinese colors are significantly cheaper than the Western watercolors. I can order a set of 21 tubes of Chinese paints, each containing 12 ml of paint, from Oriental Art Supply for $19.75. In fact, I just did, along with some other supplies (which is why I cleaned; I had a few more nifty things I had to put somewhere). Whereas I spent $6 on a single 5 ml tube of Western watercolors. Feel free to do the math (though to make it easier, I did get 50 times more paint for just over three times the price). Now, that was the quality paint, but then, the Chinese paints I use are also quality.

And before you start saying “Oh no, it’s Chinese, it must be full of lead!”, please remember two things. One, this is a paint that is primarily used by Chinese painters in China, following one of the highly esteemed traditional arts of China. They’re not going to cut corners any more than well known Western paint companies will. Second, you’d be able to tell if there’s lead in the paint because it would turn white. Lead was used as a pigment for centuries, and in fact is actually better as a paint than the titanium white generally used these days, and would still be the white paint of choice if it weren’t for that pesky poisoning problem. Paints are all about chemistry, and making the colors is an involved process, especially for semi-transparent colors like the ones I work with. Any significant variation in the chemistry will produce visible results. Now, there are ways to synthesize paints to match the color, but it’s just about always to get away from toxicity, not add to it. I’ve got a few paints that have (Hue) added after them for that reason, such as my cinnabar color.  Besides, even if they do have toxic paints, it would just be following as grand a tradition as the mercury that turned so many hat makers into mad hatters.  Sometimes the best tool for the job is just not that good a tool for keeping you healthy. But we as a civilization are trying to mitigate such risks where we can, so it is highly unlikely that these paints are toxic.

I use primarily Chinese brushes, since I like the feel of them, but I do have a few western brushes. All the Chinese brushes have a tapering tip, which leads to fine variation in line but isn’t so good at, say, painting a square. So I’ve got a few flat brushes with a square brush shape, to do corners. I also have some brushes left over from my oil painting class, which I use as paint-mixing brushes since they aren’t suited for watercolors (the bristles don’t hold moisture as well, so the watercolor doesn’t get applied correctly). One of those, I use for loading ink and paint into my nib pens, which also are a good way for me to get consistency in my lines when I want it. I use those for calligraphy as well.

I’ve got a few trays for placing colors, though none of them currently have any colors on them. I did a full wash of all of them recently, and haven’t done any color work since. Watercolors can be fully revitalized from a dry state with a bit of water, so you can reuse your paints a lot. But they do come out a bit more dilute than the pure paint, and the colors have a good chance of getting polluted when you’re mixing colors together unless you’re far more careful than I am. So every so often, I wipe the trays clean and start over again. The paint’s cheap enough for that, after all.

I’ve got a lot of random useful things in that round shelf-like-thing in the back of the desk, such as sponges and measuring tools and the like. I store my paper primarily on the bookshelf there, though I have some rolls of special paper behind the round shelf, and some stock of massive paper up against the wall you can’t see behind the chair. I also store supplies in the two plastic shelves I placed next to the desk at the bottom of the picture. I store my ink on top of those, next to two piles of art. One’s my finished pieces and one’s my unfinished pieces. For various reasons I stop working on some pieces part way through (usually some other piece saying “make me” or life getting in the way) but I keep them around so I could potentially finish them one day.

There’s a bunch of other things I could talk about, but this is quite long enough, so this will do for now. Oh, one last thing. That white piece of cloth on the wall is a blanket covering a window. I have to cover them to keep the light down at the level I like, otherwise I get a headache after a bit. It’s a bit annoying being a visual artist with a light sensitivity issue. I need the light on to properly see what I’m working on, but I easily overdose on it. It’s a bit of a pain.

  

Does that count as a DragonFly?

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Time Drawn: December 2011

This was a practice piece more than anything, which is why some parts of it don’t quite work, but it came out prettily enough that I’m posting it.

As for what I was practicing, you may notice the gradients on the flower and the like. This was made with painting a swath of color on one section, then painting with just water in the other section, and letting the color bleed. It creates this sort of delicate gradient that plays to the strengths of the medium. I’m not sure how much I’ll use this technique, though. Delicate just isn’t my style.

The other thing I was testing was how well my travel kit worked. I made this sitting on a sheet I laid down in my Grandparent’s living room, in the middle of the night a few days after Christmas. My travel kit has all the colors, dried and in small pill reminder boxes (it’s the right size, and cheap), plus some special brushes that have a water reservoir built in so I don’t have to carry much extra water. I’m also not too likely to use this kit, either, just because I tend to prefer studio work rather than field work when it comes to coloring. But it was fun to make, and a good test. And cost, what, $10 or so for the components? It’s held in the packing tube that I got the travel brushes in, even.

I do find it amusing how many of these art pieces I post have made me go “I should try that technique again”. Although, it may be a sign of how I have difficulty specializing properly because I love experimenting… I may be learning interesting things, but specializing would let me head towards mastery… Ah well, such is life.

  

Pretty Little Dogwood Bloom – well, not so much little.

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Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: April 2010

The dogwood trees have stopped blooming here, but they are still blooming beautifully in my photos.

I’ve got an odd relationship with flowers. I’m actually not too fond of them. Their prettiness is just pretty and little else, and I prefer the fine lines of the non-flowering decorative plants. But I love taking pictures of them. Flowers make great subjects, especially for the close-up photography I enjoy doing. They naturally have dynamic colors and shapes, and unlike certain other subjects, aren’t going to run or fly off while I’m adjusting the settings on the camera.

I am fond of flowering trees, though the ones that have more blooms than anything else do get a little much. Dogwoods tend to fall in the sweet spot for me, with enough blooms to add an interesting color mix without going over the top. And they tend to bloom when the leaves are all in,unlike a lot of trees, which adds to the potential compositions.

I do seem to be warming up to flowers as I take more and more photos of them, though. Though my love will always be for the odd-shaped ones such as Lady’s Slippers and Bleeding Hearts, and especially the oddballs like pitcher plants. I’m not the type to be wooed by a dozen roses (though roses do make decent drawing subjects, with their petal patterns), but with, say, a potted plant to decorate my room. They’d have to be resilient, to handle the dim lighting conditions I keep in my living places, which eliminates pretty much all of the flowering plants, but well, such is life.

  

Flowers grow even where trains pass hourly.

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Location Taken: Savage Marc Station, Laurel, MD
Time Taken: October 2008

I’ve always loved trains. It’s my favorite form of transportation by far, whether it’s a crowded subway or a long overnight Amtrak ride. I’m not sure exactly what makes it so right for me. Some of it is just not having to deal with driving amongst other drivers, while also not having to deal with the nonsensical rules of airline travel (seriously, American air security is more for show than anything else). Some of it is the calming rhythmical movement and noise of going along the track. And some of it is getting to see the behind-the-scenes areas of the world.

There’s something about the working areas that appeals to me. By this, I mean the sections where most people don’t go, the employee areas, the trainyards, the warehouses, places that are functional and mundane and not at all geared towards visitors. I think a large part of their ideal, aside from the sense that you’re seeing something few others see, is their mystery. If you don’t know what things in such areas do, there are few clues to guide you to the answer. Why is there a door there? What is that stack of lumber going to be used for? What is inside that large container? And trains, since they are by nature noisy and smelly and thus regulated to the fringes where other noisy and smelly things go, pass right by a large number of these working areas.

Other train systems, such as subways, have their own appeal. I like subway tunnels. Partly because I also like (well lit) cave systems. And tunnels are also full of the working areas. And for the train lines far away from the cities and suburbs, you tend to see fields and small houses rather than grand boulevards. There’s a delight in the mundane.

I really do wish America had a better train system. I’ve learned enough to know why we don’t, the way the sheer size of the country makes decent train coverage difficult, which also lead to people developing a really good interstate system to cover the territory instead and thus lead to a car-focused transportation system. But I do get envious of smaller countries like Japan where train systems are the best option. Their systems are much better, and much more sensible and geared for passenger travel. I doubt they’re buying track usage from the freight companies, which leads to the Amtrak trains having to pause for a while every so often to let the freight trains through, making the long journeys even longer. And they also have faster trains, since their tracks are designed for such things.

Still, even with the deficiencies in the American train system, I love going on them. Even if it means I have downtime where I have little to do other than take photos of the flowers growing between the tracks.