Water color-painting .. practice

Learning a craft takes a lot of practice. When I was stil pretty new to watercolor painting, I used to try to paint on any type of paper and thin cardboard.

Not all of it worked. Art calendars featuring photographic art have a lot of marble dust in them. Paint sits on top until it dries. Made for some interesting experiments.

Then for a while I used mixed media papers, they worked better and I still have a few of those paintings.

Lately I’ve gone into 200 gsm paper specifically made for watercolor and since I have a problem throwing out good things that might be useful one day, I swear I’ve hung onto every bit of used 200gsm paper I’ve painted, it seems like.

Of course I laugh at myself but then don’t throw anything, I have a bag full of painted scraps for collaging.

Recently I’ve felt the need to practise painting a ‘wash’ or ten. Something I have a lot of difficulty with. So ended up with ten washes on four sides.

Made them into a little art zine … if I have that terminology right. Here the back and front covers (three washes)

The story was going to be about a red planet but the nickety nog said No!

Several aspects about this booklet please me quite a lot. The size, a quarter of an A4 page. It’s just enough for a short fairy story. I like the way the torn edges of the pages look edged with gold.

‘Hariet Reed’ is a pen name scrambled from my real name. Good for the witch telling this story. I don’t like the stickers much, will rethink that aspect. The random design of the pages (all those washes) worked well.

The story became a dark in color as wel as plot little tale about a nickety nog demanding a five and after being offered various juicy morsels and rejecting them, stealing five gold coins.

The story lacks cohesion, there are a couple of glitches, as well as other things I could’ve done better. The gold coins for example.

Some of the coins are gold-leaf on pva glue, none of them turned out round and some were rounded later with acrylic paint. And then towards the end I thought might as well paint the whole coin with acrylic gold. Worked the best of the lot.

All useful things to remember for when I make the next little story book. Only the last two pages were over-painted to help the tale end.

Knitting, Mark One

A while ago I started an experimental knit that I intended to serve as a base for a crochet design of leaves and vines.

What happened to that?

This. The rolling up just never resolved itself. The more I knitted the tighter and higher it rolled.

OK, so experienced knitters will be saying I’ve done something wrong and I accept that.

Too tight? Nope, as loose as possible with yarn no thicker than a regular two ply, knitted on 4mm knitting pins.

Weird yarn? Maybe. 60% cotton, 40% viscose. No spring in it. At all.

Wrong stitches? Very possible. Stitches in the body of the work are fine. Loose and drapy as desired.

Increasing at the beginning of each row? The problem has to be there! Ffor the purl, rear of the work, row I increased by sticking pin into back of first loop, knitting that plain, then bringing knitting needle forward to knit a purl and continuing with a purl line.

Did the opposite at the front of the work, making a stitch at the beginning of the row by knitting a purl, yarn to the back then knitting a plain and coninuing in plain.

These made nice edges, one that I’d never seen before on the purl side of a work …

And yet, by the time I’d knitted twenty rows the first five had rolled up. After I unpicked those first five—with difficulty—the next five rolled up as I was doing it.

By sixty rows, the first fifteen had rolled up. No matter how I draped and folded the resulting cloth the bottom rolled up. By the time I’d knitted eighty rows I knew I had a twisted disaster and finished it off.

I may deconstruct it and use the yarn for another project, but this was already the second knit that that yarn featured in. Not sure how well it’ll stand up to the strain of pulling apart again.

Note that I said ‘twisted disaster’ …

Avatar Remaindered 19

19. Testing Himself, Testing His Wing Download

Avatar Remaindered 18

Having a problem posting Avatar Remaindered 18, which I meant to put up yesterday. It obviously didn’t stick. Today the same trouble.

Let me put up a picture. The chapter is called Into the Chasms … Working on it.

Well, it worked. Whatever I did. Really not sure and–you know how it is–I’d rather not touch it in case it disappears again.

18. The Chasms, posted Download

Food Chemistry: Purines

Round about Christmas time found these totally delish little bites. Bought them as my special treat since I can’t eat anything of the normal Christmas menu.

About halfway theough the twenty or so, eating no more than one or two per day … I’d call them biscuits you might call them cookies … I read the ingredients.

Huh?

First in the list, meaning there’s more of it than anything else, was apricot kernel flour. And I thought that was poisonous?

Diving down that rabbit hole, I discovered that raw apricot kernels are poisonous, containing cyanide; that cyanide is a biologically produced poison, in contrast to—for example—arsenic which is of mineral origin.

Cooking makes apricot kernel flour edible, and it is considered a health food as it has a high protein and needful mineral content.

At the end of January, I decided to get that packet out of the fridge, had been there long enough, how many to go? Four? I ate three. That night had an attack of gout in my left thumb and left big toe.

Gout is caused by the breakdown of purines into uric acid. Purines? Okay, they are important in that ‘cells use them to make the building blocks of DNA and RNA.’ (Courtesy of Google) I had already met excess uric acid once or twice in relation to eating too much red meat.

How could these scrumptious little bikkies be causing me such pain? Er, probably the baking agent? Ammonium hydrogen carbonate. One of my many many allergic reactions is to ammonia.

But, you know, I was still confused. What on earth has uric acid in common with ammonium that could be causing me such pain?

Nitrogen … they both have nitrogen in them.

And to make the whole deal worse (for me) all that happened on the same day that I chewed a single solitary coffee bean, thinking I’d ‘wire’ my brain to prevent the dizzies I’ve been having.

Caffeine is another example of a purine.

Unreal!

Back in the days of high school, I failed chemistry dismally. Give me a go now and I can probably pass.

All of it means, read the ingredients even closer.

Colours/colors …

What do you see?

I see a warm red and a warm green watercolour reaching out for a 50/50 agreement.

I might be wrong though. The red is warm, I have no doubts on that score. But the green?

Apparently if a green leans to its yellow side on the colour wheel it’s classified as warm. And cool if it leans to the blue side.

Light yellowish green has always seemed greener to me, and so cooler. Blueish green on the other hand, felt richer and lush, and so warmer.

I’m about to do that exercise again using Alazarin Crimson, which leans towards its blue neighbour so is classified as cool, and Hooker’s Green wich also leans to the blue side.

And after that, a second trial with the so-called warm versions of red and green. I assume I’ll need to use a scarlet and green made with a warm blue and a warm yellow.

I expect neither of these exercises to resemble the above but we’ll see what we’ll see.