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| "Drifting" |
A small drawing from my figure study class today. The model had great features to draw (that hair!), and it was fun to watch him fight off taking a nap while posing.
Hair Cut
Someone got her first full-fledged haircut last weekend! Grace's hair had reached the length where it just looked messy all the time, and since she has very fine hair, just like I did at that age, no hair tie or clip would stay in place. The tangles were starting to form bringing with them flashbacks to my childhood of painful hair brushings and headache-inducing french braids. (You know I love you mom, but those things hurt!) So I decided that a chic little bob was the answer to Grace's hair dilemma.
The haircut itself went alright, although I've learned my lesson that cuts right before bedtime are not the ideal time! John helped wrangled Grace into a semi-still state, but she did make a sudden turn during the bang trim that resulted in them being extra short. Thankfully, hair grows, and she's too young to be embarrassed.
Thinning shears have turned out to be my secret weapon when it comes to Grace's fine hair; they help soften up any hard lines and are much faster at the process (less cuts = fewer chances of head turns = less bald spots/head wounds) then trying to thin her hair with regular scissors. I see us keeping with the short hair until Grace is old enough to have an opinion on way or the other, but for now I'm enjoying the ease and clean look of her cropped do.
Learning Web Design
Lately, if you look at my side table you'll see the same collection of objects: a pen, notebook, and a copy of HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett. While graphic design is traditionally about setting type and images for print, the expectation by most people these days is that you can also create a website. In the near future I intend to start offering freelance graphic design services and don't want to feel limited in the what I can provide clients.
Before I purchased this particular book I did a lot of research to find one that was both technically current as well as easy to understand. I'm halfway through and have been really impressed by how clearly Duckett presents the HTML portion of the book (CSS is covered in the second half). In college I'd been exposed to some basic web design and got scared away by confusing instructors or introductory books filled with technical jargon; thankfully, this book has yet to leave me feeling overwhelmed or lost in the learning process.
As far as the freelance work goes I'm still in the early stages of developing my brand, website, and portfolio. I've spent a lot of time making sure that this is really the direction I want to head, and, now that I feel settled in that, it is both exciting and scary to start taking those first steps. You'll definitely hear more about the process as things like business cards and a website take shape, just don't expect to see anything popping up in the immediate future as I still have lots of work to do!
Typeface Logo: Wisdom Script
In the interest of brushing up my graphic design skills I'm starting a new weekly exercise for myself in which I pick a typeface and design a logo based off its style. I think this will also be a fun way to use some of the interesting typefaces I've collected over the years that haven't been quite right for the occasional church graphics work I do.
This week I picked "Wisdom Script" designed by James Edmondson. I saw it as a dressy, casual typeface that reminded me of the embroidered name tags on mechanic's uniforms.
Lighting Project Part 1
Remember project #2 that I mentioned last week? Well the ceiling light I ordered arrived on Monday. After a quick check to make sure the inner workings were set up properly for my lighting hack I set about measuring, calculating, and internet surfing to find the best deal on the many, many beads I'll need.
It turns out that calculating how many beads in each size I need was more involved than I originally anticipated. First I had to get a general idea of how big I wanted my largest beads to be; then I quickly found that limited size selection and pricing would play a big roll in the process. After several rounds of searching I found a good starting size. From there I dusted off the semi-upper level math section of my brain and started thinking all hemispherically.
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| aerial and cross-section sketches to help visualize the problem |
The circumference of the light (96 cm) and initial bead width (1.2 cm) were used to calculate how many strands I'd need (I estimate 50), and a quick measurement of my light told me my strands would need to be 19 cm long. Now that I knew my strand length and height of the first bead I could just add on the height of beads which will steadily decrease in size (so that my strands form smaller and smaller concentric circles as they reach the bottom of the light) until the strand reached 19cm in length.
I don't care what any of those math-haters say; math is fun and cool! Or maybe I'm just a dork. Either way applied mathematics is totally my idea of a good time.
But how many beads does this add up to exactly? 1,250 beads.
That's a lot of beads.
And I actually had to order more than that since beads come in 15 inch strands. So at some point a little over 1,400 beads will be arriving on my doorstep.
Of course I've done all this yammering about bead calculations but left you in the dark as to what type of beads I ordered. Well the chandelier that inspired my lighting project is made up of turquoise, and that's the look I really wanted for mine as well. But 1,400 real turquoise beads come with a price tag to match, and I am beginning to see why this chandelier is priced at $3,780.
That's hundreds of dollars worth of turquoise just hanging from a ceiling! At any rate I wasn't about to pony up a couple hundred dollars for turquoise on this project. I opted for imitation turquoise instead and got my beads for about $50 with shipping costs. The beads actually cost more than the light fixture itself, which was only $30.
When all this knock-off turquoise arrives you'll surely hear about it, along with pictures of the light making process. In the meantime I'll be watching for the UPS man!
LIttle Pigs
Sometimes it takes me awhile to decide if a painting is done. I stopped working on this one over a month ago. It got shifted from place to place during the room swap, and it wasn't until I found Grace carrying it around commenting over piggies, which she will tell you say, "gonk gonk," that I finally gave it a good look over and declared it finished.
I'm beginning to get more comfortable with the idea of my art not needing to be brought up to the same level of finish in every section. It's still difficult for me to make that call though, so I end up taking a long break from a piece before I'm able to decide if it really needs something more.
Side note: My inspiration for this painting was a picture taken by the writer of the blog Cannelle et Vanille. The original photograph can be seen here. When I use photographs taken by others as painting inspiration I have no intention to put them up for sale unless I obtain express permission by the photographer; they are purely for practice and personal enjoyment.
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