Many earnest, and a few plaintive, warnings this morning. One implicit – “Be prepared, it’s going to be doozy”
Yikes! A doozy!
I forget to follow news and weather I can’t see out the window so I had to ask what all the doozy talk was about. It seemed cruel winter was angry with us and the world was being remade into Hoth. If you don’t have a Tauntaun don’t go into work until the ice-tunnels are finished. Something like that.
Despite the warnings we shall endure. Our experience in these matters is up to the challenge. I’ll dress warmly and enjoy. Jo will somehow light a fire by placing the kindling on top of the logs. There will be snowmen and their snow-families.
It doesn’t matter what’s weighing your thoughts, a frosted tree will bring you right into the present to the beauty and the quiet. It’s glorious and cool and has all the homey rituals including, “Yes. I mean. No, Love-bean, I haven’t forgotten to shovel.”
She knows I did forget to shovel.
Another part of wintery weather that will bring you into the moment; doing three-sixties on the Interstate. I’m speaking from experience.
Recap – In March 2010 Jo and I were driving back from a race on the other-slope. No kids in the car, just the two of us. My car at the time was a PT-Plow which have a tendency to fishtail in the front when the tires lose their grip. Well. They lost their tenius grip on the icy highway. The car went spinning and sliding. After a perfect three-sixty I regained control and kept going. Jo wasn’t impressed and soon after the trip sent me out to buy a new car. A Honda CR-V. Jo named it Curvy.
Anyway. We’ll see what happens with the weather. Things that are supposed to happen may or may not happen. It’s not something to worry about until it’s happening now. If I see a weatherman sticking his head out from behind an on-ramp, and traffic is sliding into him. I’ll know in that moment we can expect more winter. If he gets splashed, it’s going to be rain. If he’s splashed while wearing a yellow raincoat, it’s going to be hurricane.
Update; It’s a doozy.
Satisfying birthday celebration. I’ve been attempting to get the name changed to, “The anniversary of this soul’s appearance as William”.
Yeah. Okay. “Birthday” is easier to say.
I’m trying to be better at remembering to be okay with my birthday. It’s not the age thing that makes me reticent to celebrate, it’s the attention. It’s figuratively as uncomfortable for me as having lemon-soaked light-beams shined in my eyes.
I’m accustom to keeping in the background and not being noticed. My nobody role. I realize, though, that the celebration isn’t all about me. And that what makes it easy to be okay with it. And I love the greetings I get on Facebook. Little hellos from people far and wide.
Anyway.
The birthday cake was a pan of brownies with four candles in it. Lots of help opening and playing with gifts. Turns out I smell like a monkey. Had no idea.
At the end of the day Jo and I slipped out for a sushi dinner at Sushihai. I had forgotten how fancy the restaurants on 32nd think they are. Or maybe they’re being ironic. Still. It was great sushi.
Came home to M&Ms for dessert.
Before bed I chipped away at our mountain of accumulating iTunes gift certificates.
Quite a bit of time spent wandering the digital store finding songs and bands from my youth that I believed I wanted to hear again but really didn’t.
What I thought I liked turned out to be music that other people liked. Well. That’s not completely true. I liked it, but I never attached to it. Not like many of my friends did. It’s not bad I just don’t miss it, and I’m okay with that.
Besides Jo has more than enough music to tide me over.
I’ve been listening to a box of records Jo obtained hunting and gathering on her safari adventures to garage sales. She discovered that she needed another source of stuff to sell once she depleted mine. Anyway. I’ve been really enjoying it.
Anyway. I Ended up buying a book on the nature of things. And a movie, The Apple Dumpling Gang. It’s something kids need to see. It’s something I wanted to see. Not because I’m awestruck by the western comedy genre, and not because I missed it. It’s because Tim Conway and Don Knotts crack me up. Yes. I’m a dork.
I’m also cool. I rented “Seven Samurai” as well. Have no idea what it’s about. All I know is I’ve been encouraged for years to see it because it’s one of the best movies EVER, and it’s better than Zorro.
Really? Zorro? We’ll see.
I blame Disney, of course. If you make a movie about a car that inspires punching, and it’s successful, then you get the blame for those well-placed punches that really hurt. Slug bug, or punch-buggy as Jo calls it, is a universal constant. There’s death, taxes, and slug-bug. The Disney folks ought to have known this.
Anyway. I very much enjoy “The Love Bug”. Rarely not in the mood to watch it again. Again Disney is to blame. I might have been a hip kid if The Wonderful World of Disney had rerun 2000 Leagues more often. I said, “hip kid”, not cooler.
Hmmm. Well. I WAS going to suggest you introduce your kids to Herbie, but I’m reconsidering. While kids are a great excuse to revisit the movies that we loved as kids, I’ve begun wondering what inspired me to suggest you share “The Love Bug” with your kids. I’ve already admitted that it’s not hip or cool.
Now that I think about it the movie is kind of dated. There are hippies and no cell phones. Are your kids going to tolerate, “Groovy, Pop, groovy” and “Outta sight, man”.
And of course if you see it with the wrong person it could lead to intermittent attacks and soreness.
On the other hand if you see it with your kids the attacks may not happen at all. Maybe they’ve never learned about slug-bugging. That would be a reason in itself to expose your children to this film. To find out if your kids have been exposed to slug-bug. You’ll know by the symptoms – rapid heartbeat, excessive bruising on one or more of your shoulders. You’re their parent, you need to know.
Then there’s the charming characters – It’s hard not to like Dean Jones and the 1963 VW that played Herbie. Delightful antics. Amazing stunts. Herbie. And of course the incomparable Buddy Hackett whose jokes still induce a giggle.
A city slicker wished to become a duck hunter and he spared no expense in purchasing his hunting equipment. His first duck hunting day was spent with great joy, great anticipation and great … “waiting”. Until, finally, many cold hours later, a flock of ducks passed overhead.
He took aim. Fired. And to his surprise and joy, a duck fell from the sky and landed next to a farmers barn. Crossing over the farmer’s field, he picked the duck up and was about to leave when the farmer confronted him.
“What are you doing with that duck, son?”, said the Farmer. (Who was a very, VERY large farmer, by the way)
“It’s my first duck, sir, and I was just picking it up. Sorry about stepping on your property.”
The Farmer would have none of the hunter’s apologies … or that duck .. since that poor dead duck, after all, was on his property and possession is nine tenths of the law … or something like that.
Finally, after much arguing, the Farmer proposed this solution. The two of them would settle things in a “manly” way. The farmer would take one kick to the city slicker’s groin area. Then, the city slicker would have a chance to kick the Farmer in his groin area. The two would keep this up until the other person gave up … or passed out.
Now, the city slicker did have some grave reservations over this “solution” but he had waited all day in the cold and had spent all that money on his equipment, after all. However, he WANTED that duck! So he agreed to this contest.
The farmer kicked first.
(Facial expressions and physical comedy is where Buddy Hacket really shined. Imagine him rolling on the floor making all sorts of “strange” noises and facial expressions for about four minutes.)
Well, after what seemed like an eternity for the city slicker, he finally managed to stand up on wobbly legs and with steely determination managed to call out through clenched teeth, “Ok, big guy. Now it’s my turn!
The Farmer took one look at the man, calmly dropped the duck and said, ” Heck, son. Take the duck. I just wanted to see if you were dumb enough to agree to this thing!”
Anyway. We had a showing of the “Love Bug” here and after it ended I asked the young one,
“What’s your favorite Disney character?”
No answer and a blank look.
“Herbie?”
Still no answer.
“Mickey, Donald? The little bug who wanted to listen to classical music?”
Nothing.
“Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Charlie Brown, Snoopy?”
Finally an answer. “Ummmmmmmm… Jake.”
Jake?
These are dime-store soldiers which were produced by the Barclay Manufacturing Company some time in the 1930s. The company was started in 1924 and according to Wikipedia was named after a street in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Barclay was a prolific toy-company, producing hundreds and hundreds of different lines of figures and vehicles. And, being able to take advantage of F.W Woolworth’s vast distribution chain, was able to sell their toys far and wide. Figures were created doing about anything you can imagine. The military figures, in addition to fighting, were also posed eating, carrying passenger-pigeons, baking, digging ditches, taking photographs, writing letters on typewriters, carrying spools of barbed wire, laying out communication lines, lying injured. It is positively amazing how many were made. And how unique they were.
In its time Barclay was the largest toy-figure maker in the United States. Perhaps not something you would put on a list of amazing human achievements. But if you were a depression era young’n with a nickel and bin of soldiers to choose from it was more than a wonder.
In the 1960s Barclay quit selling their dimestore-soldiers in Woolworth’s and started selling them exclusively in hobby-stores. The company survived into the 1970s making figures and vehicles for collectors, but eventually they couldn’t continue competing against plastic toy manufacturing.
The few that have come through here were discovered in different places – antique stores, estate sales, birthdays. One I found in a cigar shop. I’ve never actively hunted for them, I prefer to believe they find me. I find life is peaceful when you don’t strive for things and let things come and go on their own.
I’ve heard stories that there are rare Barclay figures that would bust your kid’s college fund. I’ve never come across them. The ones I have aren’t worth much more than the metal they’re made of. I haven’t paid more than ten dollars for any of them.
The soldiers don’t do anything now except fill the edges of high bookshelves. Something for the kids to gaze up at and covet while contemplating methods of ascent.
They’re no longer allowed to be toys – Too fragile to take much handling. And too much lead and peeling paint to ignore modern parental concerns.
It’s been a long time since they’ve been toys. Generations of time has passed since they began their journey from Hoboken. And here they are. They’re still in the world, they’re just no longer part of it.
But.
If you listen closely.
You can hear them telling the stories of their adventures when they were.
I promised a lesson on painting water in a complicated way and here it is.
Or is it?
This technique really isn’t all that complicated. It’s more time-consuming than complicated. It’s also a great exercise for concentration. I should have called this, “A Time-Consuming Exercise of Concentration while Painting Water”.
There is also a bit about creating clouds. I need a sky for the water to reflect.
So here we go – “A Time-Consuming Exercise of Concentration while Painting Water with a Bit About Creating Clouds”.
First a couple of gradients to indicate where the sky and water meet in the distance.
This is going to be a background for a kids animation so I’m using a saturated palette.
Now I create a new layer and paint wispy clouds in the distance. As a general rule I create a new layer for each step.
Next come the clouds that are closer. This is going to be a silhouette of the clouds. I have this layer set to be a bit transparent so blue sky can show through.
I go over the clouds and paint in where the light hits the clouds. And then I use the blend tool to soften the color into the shadowed parts.
And finally some pure white highlights. Not too much. Enough to define the brightest edges.
Now onto the water.
Water can be reflective and in this image I want it to be. So the first step will be to copy all the cloud elements into a new layer, flip them vertically, and place them over the water as to create a reflection.
And then blur it.
Now it is time to get down to business. In a new layer I’m going to do is paint the water surface in grayscale. I’ll begin with a really dark shade and progressively lighten the grays until they start fading into the blue.
Think of the water’s surface as a series of bumps getting smaller as they go into the distance. I’m concentrating while I do this, but my brain is doing nothing else. You can tell you’re in the right state when your mind isn’t telling you stories about what you’re doing.
First I’ll paint the dark side of the bumps.
And the next gray more of the bumps begin to appear.
The next gray.
The last gray. I know this is the last gray because the next lightest would be a similar tone to the blue.
This is where the digital magic happens. Change the grayscale layer’s blending mode to ‘Overlay’.
If you want to roughen up the water a bit you can paint some white caps on the crests of the waves.
And that, my friends, is the more complicated way create water. I’m thinking my next water tutorial should show how to paint breaking waves. A Hawaiian beach scene perhaps.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful. If you have any comments or questions you can post a reply below.
What I’m going to show you today is a quick and simple way to create water using Photoshop. This is a great technique when you don’t have time to do it in more complicated ways.
We’ll play with more complicated ways way in future tutorials.
The first step is to think of which colors the water might have in the distances, and then which colors it would have close up. From those colors, create a gradient.
Pretty. Now we’re going to put color aside and work in grayscale.
Create a new layer and fill it with whatever color you like, It doesn’t really matter what color you choose. Next use the ‘Add Noise’ filter. Filter->Noise->Add Noise
In this same layer apply the ‘Gaussian Blur’ filter. Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur
Don’t worry too much about getting yours to look exactly like mine. This is a very forgiving technique. If yours is similar, you’re doing fine
Next apply the ‘Emboss’ filter. Filter->Stylize->Emboss
With an application of the ‘Motion Blur’ set to blur things along the horizontal and it’s beginning to looking like a grainy photo of water. Filter->Blur->Motion Blur
We’re almost there. Now select the layer and use the ‘Perspective Transform’ to create some depth. Edit->Transform->Perspective
Last step! Change the ‘Blending Mode’ of the layer to ‘Overlay’ so the gradient can bring color in.
There you go. An easy way to create water. Now you get to play. Experiment with what happens when the filters are at different settings.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful. If you have any comments or questions you can post a reply below.
Hey! It’s a day of the week!
I’m just going to begin typing randomly. We’ll see where it goes. So far it seems to be a much safer random activity than stuffing one’s sweater with soggy bunny-kibble and pine-needles.
…
That’s a little too random.
I’ll select a subject and go with that. It looks like this is going to be about a book recommended to me recently. A book about the nature of experience.
“The Transparency of Things” by Rupert Spira.
I’d like to share this bit from the preface;
“If our attention were now to be drawn to the white paper on which these words are written, we would experience the uncanny sensation of suddenly becoming aware of something that we simultaneously realise is so obvious as to require no mention. And yet at the moment when the paper is indicated, we seem to experience something new.”
I love that.
Did you notice your awareness shifting?
If you follow this experience thing further – In addition to perceiving what you’re perceiving visually, there are thoughts, emotions, and whatever else is being perceived that you may not realize you’re aware of. If I mention the air on your skin, as your attention shifts, do you sense that you were aware of it all along.
Maybe you’re hearing my voice. Or a voice as you read this. Is the voice like the words on a page?
What else is present during this experience?
Do you notice there is an awareness within all this that is aware of what you’re aware of and also aware of you being aware.
At some point, as you try to direct your awareness your brain is going to step in and make all this a story. Which isn’t the same as the awareness that’s aware. That’s not something your brain is going to be able to conceptualize. It’s beyond the brain’s ability to see. Like a camera trying to take a snapshot of it’s film plane. It doesn’t work that way.
Maybe that’s a bad analogy.
Anyway. Every now and then, when you think of it, wherever you are, allow yourself to slip into the present moment and experience what’s there. Think of it as taking a moment to feel the warmth of the sun.
Anyone can draw. That includes you. There is no need to fuss over whether or not you have a talent for it. I certainly don’t and I draw very well. Seriously. I have no talent. I wouldn’t know talent if I’d been married to it for twenty years and it was poking me in the eye with a Lego-block while yelling it’s name. And that’s a great way to get to know something. Though not a nice way.
(sigh) If only I could have been talented. Many’s the time I sat myself down and lectured me about why this drawing stuff didn’t come as easily to me as it did talented people. I’d go on and on to me about how I should be able to draw this or that and how easy it should be. But no matter how good the drawings were or how much I suffered over it I just couldn’t be talented.
So I quit trying.
I just let things be as the were.
When I gave myself a break, tuned myself out, removed the word ‘should’ from my vocabulary, and spent every day for years drawing my skills readily improved.
What I’m trying to express is that I draw well because I have a lot of experience doing it. It’s not because I possess something no one else does.
All-righty then. Now it’s time for you to ignore your ego and start building some experience.
In this first tutorial I’m going to show you how to use spacing and size to make better, more interesting, characters. It doesn’t really matter what style you’re drawing. Whether you’re drawing stick figures or fully rendered people these principles apply.
Let’s get started by drawing a face. A simple face.
It’s not a bad face, really. It’s just not very interesting. It lacks individuality and character. It’s a ‘blah’ kind of face.
Here’s why it’s not a great face – The features are evenly spaced. There’s no variation.
There is nothing inherently wrong with designing a character with regularly spaced features. This might fit a character that represents everyman, or a character that doesn’t stand out.
I want this fellow to be a bit more unique. Watch what happens when I change the spacing of his features. I’ll move the eyes and nose up, and the mouth and ears down.
Now the character has a more dynamic appearance. He’s much more interesting to look at, don’t you think?
I can push this further by changing the size of the features. Check out what happens when I shrink his eyes a bit, enlarge his nose, and stretch his smile.
That’s a character with a lot of character.
Does this work with more realistic characters? I dunno, let’s find out.
Yep. It sure does.
Keep in mind that I took it to an extreme. You don’t HAVE to go as far as this to create an interesting character. In fact if you go too far the design will fall apart.
The same principles apply to the character’s body. First I’ll sketch a character in which everything is evenly-spaced and the same size. His torso is the same size as his head. His belt is exactly in the middle of his belly. There you go. The character is friendly enough, but even wearing a leisure-suit doesn’t make him very interesting.
With a few changes in spacing and size and we’ll see some magic. A character becoming a character with character.
(Feedback from a young critic – he felt I needed an action drawing with a sound effect in the tutorial.)
Ka-Zapp!!
Let’s see what’s happened to our character.
The variations are nearly endless. I say, ‘nearly, because, things really can be pushed so far that the character won’t work.
Now a little game. You can probably guess what this game entails.
Draw a character. It can be as simple as a stick figure or as real as you like, then start playing with size and spacing. I like to draw animals so I’m going to make a dog.
You know, it’s looking more like a bear. So it’s going to be a bear.
Some size and spacing changes to the original bear-shape and I have three unique characters.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful. If you have any comments or questions you can post a reply below.
Check back in the weeks ahead for more tutorials. In the next character tutorial we’ll delve into shapes.
For the folks looking for more advanced tutorials, I’ll get into silhouettes, expressions and action-lines. From there lessons on life-drawing, giving characters life and animating them. If you’re into painting I’ll be showing how to paint skies and water.
Posted in History on August 12, 2011
After the armistice of November 11, 1918 Coblenz became the seat of the Inter-Allied Control Commission for the Rhineland until 1929. The armistice didn’t actually end World War I; it was merely a truce that allowed the peace negotiations needed to end the war to take place. Condition V of the armistice agreement stated, “The areas of the left bank of the Rhine shall be administered by the local authorities, under the control of the occupation troops of the Allies and the United States Armies of Occupation.” Over 250,000 doughboys were sent to occupy this area of Germany.
That’s when and where the following postcards and photos originate.
Coblenz train station just before the war. A time of overlapping transportation. Trains, trolleys, bicycles, and horses.
Festhalle, the center for Coblenz social life, was turned over to the Y.M.C.A as a place soldiers could find entertainment, reading rooms, billiards, and a cafeteria.
Coblenz taken from the East side of the Rhine.
Turn around and take a picture across the river from Coblenz and you see,
Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.
This last one is a photo taken by an occupying Doughboy from the 38th division. battery E, who was on leave for a few days in 1919.
Greetings, my little chip-a-dees.
Amongst the bedlam of desk-drawer clutter at my parents house I found this former mascot.
WC Frito.
He topped my graphite-scrawling implement when I was in elementary school. Threw the balance right off. He was a much better distraction than writing aid. I recall among the many things that frustrated me about myself at that time was my pencil-manship.
Anyway.
This particular style of pencil topper appeared in the world in 1971 as a Frito Lay mascot.
Wish I could say more about him, but what more is there to say. He was kid’s toy which was a caricature of WC Fields. And this caricature probably was as obsessed with snacking as the mascots which came before him.
WC Frito replaced the Muncha Bunch as Frito’s spokes-cartoon. I don’t remember what they looked like, but I’ll never forget their song.
Remember? “Muncha Buncha, Muncha Bunch, Fritos go with lunch”.
I can’t seem to forget it. Seems like an odd thing to remember. Seems odd I can remember it at all when so many other more important memories have dissolved. Or been blocked. As I practice inquiry I’m discovering how well I’ve protected myself.
Anyway. To continue;
The Muncha Bunch and their unforgettable song replaced the Frito Bandito.
The Frito Bandito was a Mexican bandit who stole Fritos. The silly bandito didn’t realize that Fritos were for kids. He wan’t mean, in fact he was a very friendly bandit. He’d sing, “”Ai-yai-yai-yai! Oh, I am the Frito Bandito!”" The message in the voice-over was that viewers should buy an extra bag of Fritos and stash it where other family members won’t find it, because there might be a Frito Bandito in your house.
Well. You can imagine the outcry when this stereotyped character was declared offensive. Frito Lay was pummeled with protests and lawsuits until they retired the Bandito.
Anyway. He’s now been passed on to one of the kids in the neighborhood along some spare pencils. The only kid in class with a WC Fields pencil-topper.
