A Musical Interlude

Posted on September 5, 2022 by SusanG

I wanted to write a post about music because it has been a while since I last posted about music and some things have come up recently that have spurred me to play more. Now that I can reach the strings again.

At first, I was thinking that I haven’t been playing much during the pandemic, that I had kind of, not abandoned playing but really took and intense break. Then I remembered that I did finish a couple of online guitar courses, that I learned some good stuff from, not all of which has stuck. And I’ve played a bit here and there. Just nothing as intense as the two to three years before the pandemic hit. Oh, and then there was the wrist injury this year that made playing not an option. I couldn’t reach the strings to strum them when I was in the brace. So as much as I want to take myself to task about not playing, it’s not as bad as I first thought.

Cordoba

However, I do feel like the enthusiasm went south on a vacation for a while. That’s because, though I was playing, it wasn’t to near the extent I had been the couple years before the pandemic. Adding to that, my intense interest in listening to music had even waned. That made me feel like I wasn’t really playing much and that I had sort of “given up music”. But recent events have started to turn things around. So, I thought I’d share.

As you likely heard by now Olivia Newton-John passed away in early August. As a result of that there have been loads of media tributes to her and her career. Some of the tributes are fabulous. There are a couple from Australia that, if watching other people break down in tears makes you do the same thing, well you might need a tissue or four. She was beloved there. The state of Victoria has even offered a state funeral/tribute. (No date yet). I was watching one of the tributes and listening to whichever song, they were highlighting, and I thought about how good some of her songs are, and how much I like them. It turned out to be a great reminder.

I had been playing guitar a little bit because I finally could. But I’d mostly been trying to play some classical pieces, or simple arrangement of them. Just to start playing again and because my sister took up cello and if she’s going to be playing music and getting better, well, I need to keep up or better. We’re not at all competitive. Really.

That reminder wasn’t so much about Olivia Newton-John’s music. Not totally anyway. I do love many of her songs and her voice. It wasn’t even a reminder that I needed to play more. It was a reminder of how much I really love to play and listen to music. It was also a reminder to play the things I love. And listen to the things I love. The songs that make me smile, or want to move, or want to sing along. (Queue first verse of ‘Yesterday Once More’ by the Carpenters.) Now that I can play again, and importantly, I really want to play, things could get complicated. Playing music is one of the things that can make me completely lose track of time. I can get so lost and involved in it that hours go by, and I’ve forgotten to eat and I’m two hours past when I needed to be in bed sleeping.

C.F. Martin

This renewed interest in playing and actual playing has not been without its challenges. Since I haven’t been playing for so long, particularly because I was in a brace the first half of this year, I’ve lost some of the strength needed for fretting. I thought that if I played my classical guitar for a while, it would let me build up that strength before I tried to tackle the steel string. But when I found I still had trouble fingering a set of notes for this one song I decided to see if I could do it on the steel string. In the event you are unaware, the neck of a classical guitar is wider than most steel string acoustic guitars as well as most, six string electric guitars. So just that will make a difference in how easy things are to finger depending on your hands. As it turns out the notes are easier to finger on the steel string and sound much clearer. They sound like music notes and not some dull thunk. It also turns out that the scale of the neck of the steel string is just a little shorter than the classical. And a little bit can make a big difference. So. I’ve started playing the steel string much sooner than I thought I would. And much more in general which means, the fingertips are feeling it so much worse than they might have otherwise.

One of the interesting things I’ve realized about the steel string guitar is that the neck has a V shape and much of what I play is either more of a U or C shape. So, I’m having to work to get many of the barre chords to sound good. I’m also going to have to be more precise in my fingering. I’m finding the lazy fingering that I have been doing doesn’t sound near as good as if I take the time and make sure I get my fingers on the strings properly. Yep. I’m going to have to work on my technique not just my strength. Oh no.

That’s not a bad thing. In fact, I’m finding myself working on a lot more technique and fundamentals. Which I’m glad of. When I was playing with the Blues Jam, I had the opportunity to learn a lot. And as much as I learned and improved in my playing, I was very aware of how much more I needed to learn if I was going to be able to play the things I want to and at the level I want to. Of course, I don’t just work on the fundamentals and technique. I spend plenty of time just playing what I can for the joy of playing and the love of the sound of it. I mean that’s some of what that reminder was about.

Gibson

I am very much enjoying playing again. I would and sometimes do play much longer than I plan on and longer than my fingers have tolerance for. And it is not at all unusual for me to have stopped playing for the night and have something come up that I want to look up or try and then I find myself right down the rabbit hole and lost playing something again. And yes, now it’s past my bedtime. Oh well. I can and often do the same thing with a piece of art I’m working on.

Which reminds me, even with my renewed interest in playing guitar, I will still be doing art. I’ve got a digital piece in the works as well as a piece that is part of some stylistic experimenting I’m doing. Oh, and another piece that is a media experiment. I’m looking forward to seeing how things turn out. I’ve even solved my dilemma regarding the digital painting software. I’ll tell you all about it next time.

And in case you are wondering what guitars I’m playing these days; my steel string acoustic is the C.F. Martin 00-28 that I bought last year. It’s strictly acoustic. It has no electronics in it at all. A shock I know. I’m also playing my Gibson Les Paul Studio with a 60’s neck that I’ve had for a little over 11 years. I bought it the day after I moved here. I really like the feel of the neck. I find it very comfortable to play. My classical is getting a break, it’s a Cordoba C5-CE. I do love the sound of it and as I get back in shape, I will likely get back to it. I’ve got at least one arrangement I want to do that I think it will be better for than the Martin. As you can see, what I’m playing right now is mostly based on comfort or ease of play, steel strings notwithstanding.

I have more art stuff to share next time, and I could even have more music stuff to share. Though, I try not to mix the two in one post very often. Join me again to see what I’ve gotten myself into and if I’ve completely given up on sleep because of obsessive hobbies.

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More Digital Painting Fun

Posted on August 24, 2022 by SusanG

At least that’s what I’m calling it.

I finished watching the one digital art course I wrote about last time. It was really informative. Not only did he cover how to use the tools and how to create some of the effects, like water, that you might want, but he also covered some different art styles that you might use for digital paintings. I liked that. It helps me understand a little better what style I might be working in, or close to.

At the end of the course, I worked on one of the ideas that I’ve been holding in my head for a few months now. The course made a big difference. Yes, the original rough sketch was just that, a rough sketch but it also lacked a lot of the extra that I ended up adding. I’m happier with the new version. It feels more finished.

As soon as I get it up on my Zazzle store, I’ll post the artwork and the product here so you can see it. It’s a fun piece and I’m looking forward to getting it out there in the world.

Next up, after the general digital painting course, I decided to watch a course on just painting in Photoshop.

I have known for a long time that you can paint in Photoshop. I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with it. Not so much because I had trouble with it. More a perception thing. I wasn’t sure it was “right” to be painting in Photoshop. And if I did, I was somehow doing something wrong or taboo. Don’t ask. I have no idea where I get these ideas.

So, the Photoshop painting course. Again, the first half or so was spent on the tools and how to use them. And the brushes and how to adjust them. And now I’m all in a mental lock up because I can’t decide which program to use to practice my digital painting.

The course was shorter than the previous one I watched. And it really only covered creating one piece of art as just a painting. It was the part that covered the tools at the beginning of the course, and then about the first three or four lessons after that that showed them in use that were the gold for me. Now, like with the other course, it is a matter of practicing what I’ve learned.

On a more practical note, I suppose. I have a PC that I have the Adobe software on, including Fresco and Photoshop and I have an iPad that I have the Adobe software one including Fresco and Photoshop, and I have Procreate on the iPad as well. Fresco on the PC and the iPad don’t appear to be any different, however Photoshop seems to be much more robust on the PC. This is part of what causes my quandary about what to use to practice. I can practice on the iPad, using any of the three programs, and I can take the files into Photoshop from any of the three programs. If I want the full effect of what Photoshop can do it appears that I have to use it on my PC. I don’t yet know if this is really an issue or just me thinking too far ahead and worrying about it unnecessarily. I’m probably worrying about it unnecessarily. At least until I really get to doing something with the digital painting. I do have a couple more ideas in mind that I want to work out as digital paintings along with the sketch work that I want to do. As I said, I’m a little stuck as to which software to use. Though I think the more important thing is going to be just to get started.

I don’t have any digital art or sketches to share this time. A couple days after I started writing this article I got wrapped up with trying out some stuff with non-digital art and haven’t finished the digital art piece I am working on. I hope you enjoy this piece that I did to test out some new art paper. I’ll fill you in more on the experimenting soon.

A preview of some experimenting I’m doing
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Harder Than It Looked

Posted on August 7, 2022 by SusanG

I mentioned in the last post that one of the things I’d like to explore is improving my digital painting and drawing. As part of this I have been watching a course on digital painting. The first 25 to 30 percent of the course has been just going over the tools or most of the tools that are available in most of the digital painting software. Things like the select tool, and how to select items, the layer tool, and layer modes, and the types of brushes, you get the idea.

During this whole process of demonstration, and even demonstration of certain techniques, like painting glowing objects, water, things like that, the instructor has been using the select tool to select parts and then paint in that area on either the same layer or a new layer. He does this to keep from painting outside the shape, or painting over the shape. In this case it has mostly been to keep inside the lines so to speak.

I’ve seen this used in many other demonstrations that I have watched. I’ve always thought that it was so cool and useful. I’ve never been able to figure out how to do it. Finally, after watching four or five hours of the course I decided it was time to figure out how to make this work. It took a while to get it. I’m by no means as adept at it as he is. However, I can do it. Wow. That was harder than I expected.

It’s enough to get me interested

I couldn’t figure out, if I used the automatic option, how to tell it what I wanted to select. That took probably 10 minutes just to get to work. Then I had to figure out how to tell if it was masking the inside of the shape so it couldn’t be painted on or the outside of the shape so that couldn’t be painted over. My head wanted to explode at least once. And my dinner got cold while I was determined to figure it out.

I have noticed that no matter how close I think I am paying attention to what the instructor is doing, I still miss exactly what he is clicking on to get to where he wants to be. I had that trouble with the select tool which is part of why I think it took so much for me to figure it out. And I discovered that same issue with the layer modes. I watched that whole section and didn’t see exactly what he was clicking on to get to the different modes for the layers so when I tried to play with it, I had to do a lot of poking to find it. Of course, now it makes sense where it is at. I guess I didn’t pay close enough attention to that. I’m trying to do better.

I have started to do a sketch or two digitally. I worked up a frog, mostly from memory. That is actually what started me thinking I should practice more digitally. It came out good shape wise and even with a little shading. So, I was encouraged. After watching just, a bit of the digital painting course I decided to do a sketch on the iPad just to try to get more comfortable with the digital tools. I chose Adobe Fresco since it saves as a photoshop file and to my cloud account which means I can easily access it from my PC. I also have Procreate, which is the software being used in the course I’m watching. I’ve done other work in Fresco and like it fine. However, I may spend more time with Procreate while I’m getting more comfortable with the digital realm. I’ve noticed a few things in Procreate that seem to be a little more streamlined than Fresco. Then again, the visibility of the tools in Fresco is a little better. Ultimately, I expect I will bounce between the two for a while. At some point I will probably settle on one that I like the best. The nice thing is Procreate can save in .psd (photoshop) format as well.

Hmm… ok. I’ll keep practicing.

Another part of using the select tool that I have known was a benefit I just hadn’t grasped to what extent, is the ability to select a section you’ve drawn and move it over a little or rotate it or scale it up or down to get it closer to right without having to erase and redraw, and then hope you don’t make the same mistake. You may still need to redraw everything on a new layer, with the previous layer underneath as a guide. Doing things that way it’s more like tracing than redrawing. Mind you, I’ve only watched this happening so far. I haven’t used it yet. I do know exactly where I could have used it though. Remember the sketchbook project I did of the body in motion. I had so much trouble with proportions on a few of those sketches.

Because of the revolution of the select tool, ok that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Anyway, the power of the select tool has me considering revisiting the body in motion references and perhaps doing a few in digital. They would be good reference and it would be a great exercise.

I think it might be time to get to work on some digital painting practice. I’m not going to master any of what I’ve learned until I start using it.

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A Little Off Track

Posted on July 29, 2022 by SusanG

Again. I have gotten a little bit off track again. I was doing ok, getting a post published every week to ten days and then these last couple of weeks happened. Nothing bad happened. Just regular stuff and some studying.

For the last three or four weeks, maybe five, I have been actively studying for a test in relation to the day job. It isn’t one they asked or suggested I take it was something that came up more on a whim. While I was on vacation last September, I took a one-day course that was for this certification. I was just taking it and didn’t realize, until after, that because it was instructor lead that I would get a voucher to take the test. Yay. Well, I’ve been putting it off. For a lot of reasons, one of which was that my preferred testing place was unavailable.

Finished Rhinoceros

I finally decided, a few weeks ago that it was time to get this test done and move on to other things. When I looked up my testing options, my preferred testing location was available again, but only on Wednesdays. So, I decided to take the test. I thought about doing it while I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago and decided not to because, I was on vacation, and I didn’t want to use up more vacation time on this. The short version of the rest of the story is that I have taken the test and passed. Yay me. Now, onto other things.

While I did spend more time studying for the test, I also spent time working on some art. I finished the Rhinoceros. It did need a little extra kick to make it pop a bit more. And now it is finished.

I continued to work on the Gretsch. I got the tailpiece completed and decided that the body needed one more layer of black. I should have stopped there.

Gretsch almost finished w/extra dark body

I managed to finish that extra layer of black and then move on to the final details, the strap button at the bottom, the trim, and the strap. It was done and looking sharp. And I think I got a little too excited about how close to being done I was. I was impatient to do the varnish so it could dry and move off my art table.

Unfortunately, I had some trouble with the varnish. It wasn’t going on quite right, so I decided to take it off. This turns out to have been a bad idea. I lost at least some of the work I had done most recently as far as the fill in layers. I thought about trying to restore it to what it had been just minutes before and then decided not to. For one, the test areas that I did try to add to, didn’t seem to want to take. For two, my hands don’t have another week to ten days of working on this in them.

I have been looking forward to finishing up the Gretsch for a couple of weeks now. Mostly because working on it makes my hands really sore and tired. And, because I wanted to see it complete. Though I am a little disappointed in the results, due to my impatience, I am glad to finally have the piece finished.

With the Gretsch piece finished I’m at the ‘what next’ stage of things. And I’m not sure. If I had answered that question a day or two ago, I would have said, artistically, I think I’m going to do some experimenting. I have some photos that I took when I was in Australia that I would like to work up as paintings, drawings, or whatever. I am planning on exploring some mixed media work for them, and maybe some of the other photos my sister sent when she sent the picture of the rhino.

Gretsch Finished

I’d also like to improve my digital painting skills. I’m thinking of doing some exercises like I did in my sketchbook projects only for digital. My goal for that is to get more familiar and comfortable with the digital tools that I have available and to improve my work on digital. There are things that I haven’t attempted digitally that I do on paper just fine. I’d like to get as comfortable doing those things on digital.

And I am going to return to the sketchbook project that I had to take a break from when my wrist got bad. There is a change to it though. I am not going to be doing it as a daily sketch. My goal is going to be to get at least one drawing complete per week. I am not going to set a time limit, other than 7 days, for how long it takes to finish. This means, I’ll have more time to correct things that I discover are off. And the quality? Accuracy of the drawing will hopefully be better.

And a day or two ago that would have been exactly how I was going to proceed next. Now, having passed that test and finished the Gretsch, I feel like I have some space freed up in my brain and I kind of want to ‘start fresh’. That’s the nice thing about having a big or time-consuming project finally end. We don’t realize how much space they have been taking up in our brain and then it’s done, and that space is all freed up again. It’s like having a big open warehouse space that you just shipped everything out of and now you can sweep up and get ready for the next shipment, or project. That’s where I’m at. I’m ready to sweep up, stack the boxes, take out the refuse and then decide what I want to bring in to work on. It may take a few weeks; I have a several weekends in a row that I will be doing work for the day job, and that may slow down my sweeping up and such. Then again, I could get a bee in my bonnet one day and suddenly be armpit deep in the next project.      

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Expanding on That Comment

Posted on July 8, 2022 by SusanG

I was going to write this article to clarify or rather expand on my comment a couple of posts ago about something I like about oil paint, acrylic paint, etc over watercolors and sometimes markers. Which I will still expand on. In moment. As I worked on the article and rewrote it more than once, I realized it just sounded like a bunch of whining and such so here I am, starting a new article to expand on that comment.

What my comment was regarding was that with media like oil paint, acrylic paint, some pastels, and some colored pencils, if, you make a mistake, decide something needs to be lighter or that the light-colored shape needs to be adjusted, say bigger or a slightly different shape, you can do it. Those mediums are generally opaque enough that you can cover dark with light. Unlike watercolors or markers which tend to be more transparent and for which you need to plan a bit and either mask off your lighter areas or work light to dark. At least this is my understanding of the different media.

Watercolor Central Florida Winter Park Orlando area Nov 2000

Right or wrong, as self defense I decided I would include some pictures of some watercolor paintings I did several years ago. Not because they are that good. It was to show that I had experience with them and was not blindly offering criticism of watercolors. Because that is what my first four drafts of this article were going to do. I dug through things and found the paintings and then things started to get interesting.

First. The paintings. I had forgotten just how they looked. I remembered them being landscapes because that was what my companion who took me out painting, painted. He was an oil painter but all I had were watercolors so that’s what I used. He knew enough about what I was using that he was able to explain to me some basics of how to get started with a watercolor painting. This is really the only instruction in watercolor painting that remember having. Anyway. Unlike so much of the watercolors I see, it turns out my paintings are comparatively vibrant and saturated with color. I see a lot of nicely done watercolor paintings and sketches that have much more transparent coloring. Nice work. Not my style. Maybe because it doesn’t let me paint the eyebrows on a nat?

Watercolor Central Florida Winter Park Orlando area Oct 2000

A day or a few days, after finding my paintings, I happened upon an Instagram post by David Morales H. (@dava22) where he painted a zucchini using watercolor with some extra, colored pencil touches. Even before he touched his painting with the colored pencils it was rich and vibrant. The other thing I noticed was that he was using a sketchbook and the paper didn’t appear to be buckling.

This is important because it is one of my frustrations of paint on paper. Even markers can get that way if you get the area too saturated, though alcohol-based markers don’t do it quite as quickly. But my experience with watercolors and even acrylic paints on paper is that the paper buckles easily. I suspect, it has something to do with the quality and weight of the paper. And probably the control of the artist.

Then I remembered the visit my friend and I made to the Victoria Museum when I was visiting Australia. I made note of some watercolor paintings they had that were rich and vibrant and detailed and looked not at all like what I consider typical watercolor paintings.

There are so many things that, if you had asked me how I felt about working with watercolors, I would have said I didn’t like. You would have had to ask me that before I started working on this article though. Because. As I have worked on this article, written, rewritten, rerewritten, every time I have come up with what I thought was a valid reason to not like watercolors, I’ve then encountered something that negates it. So, now I’m not so sure how I feel about them, other than, some of my past experiences have been frustrating. To have any sort of defensible opinion I would have to try using them again.

Rhinoceros WIP July 2022

A quick note for why I started thinking about paints again although I have said painting isn’t something I think I would do, for a lot of reasons that are probably just as feeble as my reasons against watercolors; as I’ve worked with the markers, that are so much fun and quick, I have encountered how very transient they are under intense light. They are tints and are not lightfast, so anything created with them needs to be scanned to use digitally or it needs to be protected under UV glass and have special lighting. Thus, in my opinion, limiting the enjoyment of the original art. Most paints are pigmented and tend to be more lightfast. Even watercolors. This means that, there are greater opportunities for the enjoyment of the original art.

And, I like to have options. Different ways to create art. By leaving out painting altogether, I limit my ability to express myself visually. For some people and situations, limitations are good and lead to greater creativity. I find it frustrating. Or maybe I’m looking for that silver bullet of a medium that will magically make all my art stunning and irresistible.

Gretsch Stippling Painting WIP July 2022

Whatever the case or reason, at least this whole process has given me an opportunity to rethink how I see some things, watercolors specifically, though I suspect it will spill over into other things as well. That’s good. Re-examining our biases occasionally is a good thing. Even for something as seemingly inconsequential as watercolor paints.

Now, lest you think I was spending all this time writing, rewriting, rerewriting, and navel gazing, I have gotten a bit of work done on both the Gretsch and the Rhinoceros.

The rhinoceros is nearly done. Just a bit more and then some time to sit so I can see what final touches it needs. And the Gretsch coming along. As I mentioned I was going to be doing, I’ve been working on another layer of the black on the body. It makes such a huge difference that as I’ve gotten more done, I can see how much work there is to do on the badge area on the bridge. I’ll really need to work on that. It’s looking rather faded at this point.

I have another stippling painting piece I did of a guitar several years ago and I had a look at it to see how filled in the black of the guitar part on it is. I was looking for a reference to help determine if I’m going to want or need another layer of the black after I finish this one. I’m still not sure. I’m getting close on the Gretsch and could probably stop after this layer, but I would really like to cover as much of that pink background as I can. (I wish I could remember my motivation for painting the background pink because I’m really starting to despise it.) Unfortunately, I think I’m going to have to wait until I get this layer done, and most of the remaining details finished before I have a good determination if it needs another layer of black. Oh well, it’s just a few more dots.

HI!
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