Painting

Over the past few months I have been trying my hand out at painting with varying degrees of success. As this process has developed I have become more and more aware of the fact that I don’t find painting in any way rewarding. This doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate paintings, far from it, it just means that I don’t have the same passion for painting as I thought I might when I started out this road of artistic discovery.

So what do I want to do with my art? Well the one constant that I always come back to is the human face and the joys and frustration of trying to capture a likeness on paper. However, beyond that I am not too sure at the moment – I guess I’m at a fork in the this metaphorical road. So where does this sketch of el Capitan a la Ansel Adams fit in all this? Well at the moment I am not sure apart from an idea keeps coming into my head about trying to do something about Deep Time. Deep Time is a geological term for, well, very old rocks and this idea has been an itch that just wouldn’t completely go away. I have thought of this as a photographic project but perhaps I should start to think outside the box a little and maybe include other art that I might create – indeed as I write this a recent exhibition of John Piper’s work called ‘The Mountains of Wales’ came to mind. Perhaps this is the path I might like to take and see where it takes me?

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A doodling day

Yesterday was just a day for drawing and sketching – as well as making the odd photo. One really positive thing I achieved yesterday was that I took the strapping off my ankle – boy was that starting to irritate my skin. The ankle is really a lot better – all thanks to the work that John did on Sunday.

Photo

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Making Photos and Copyright

Garden_-_kedleston_hall_-_0001

Well I have started to make photos again, slowly but it is all coming back to me.   I think my style has changed but this may also have something to do with the camera gear I have, or rather I don’t have.  Which is really refreshing – its almost a move back to the old days of photography apart from the camera is a Sony NEX-5D so hardly some large plate camera, with a brass lens and wooden tripod but still a lot simpler than the kit I used to cart around with me.

I have debated long and hard with myself about the intrusive copyright but since a number of my photos have been used without my permission I have decided that this action is necessary.  It is a shame but there we are.

Simon Marchini 

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Lwaxana Troi

Over the past few weeks I have somewhat lost my artistic spark, such as it is. After a while an idea struck me…why not go back to what you like doing best? And this is the result – a quick portrait sketch of the indomitable Lwaxana Troi.

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Copy Merged AGAGRGAH!!!! – A Photoshop OS X moan.

Well I have now worked out the action I had lost in the move to OS X and after much giggling about I have got it to work with my iMac.   All things ok until I try and run the action with the f key I allocated to it during the action record process.  Every time I press the combination of keys, in my case cmd & f8 iTunes starts to play!  This is of course is the default function f8 button does on the bluetooth keyboard.  This in itself is not too annoying, I could after all just run the action from within the action drop down.  However, when I come to map the actions for the buttons on Wacom tablet this may cause problems.   If this is so then this is a real bad mark against Adobe or Apple or both.  The mac is supposed to be creative friendly, remember all those patronising “…I’m a Mac and I’m a PC…” ads, and now I find some of the core tools of  creativity on a Mac ie Photoshop and a Wacom tablet may not work as well as on a PC then you do wonder…however, there could be a much more plausible answer – user error!   Only time will well.

Simon Marchini 

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Frustration using Photoshop – Kedleston Hall

Kedleston_hall_-_0001-3

One of the joys of moving from operating system to another is that it gives you a chance to relearn skills from the previous OS all over again.   This morning I have been getting to know Photoshop CS6 all over again in OS X and as usual there have been ups and downs.  Overall the effect was identical to using Photoshop in Windows apart from remembering which key is the equivalent of the windows key on the keyboard.  However, there is one action that I overlooked (Forgot) to back up and therefore wasn’t able to important into OS X.  Of course you don’t realise how much you use these commands until you have lost them.  Equally, because it was a action I can’t remember what the keystrokes were so that I can recreate the action!   I have found a way around this, but it’s long winded and not as elegant as the previous solution.  No doubt over time it will come back to me but at the moment it is very frustrating.

So here is the first image I have created with Photoshop CS6 using OS X instead of windows.

Simon Marchini 

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Who said exercise is good for you?

Actually it is even if from time to time you injure yourself, as I have done today by spraining my ankle. The great thing is my good friend John is top sports physio so was able to treat it for me. Also he is my walking buddy so was on hand when I sprained it this morning. Oh the pain, the pain! Actually it does hurt that much but why let the truth get in the way of a good story!

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Using a Face Detector to Gener… (petapixel.com)

Of course it is not he software at all that does this but we do…we just can’t help it.

Using a Face Detector to Generate Creepy Mugs from Random Polygons
http://www.petapixel.com/2012/08/10/using-a-face-detector-to-generate-creepy-mugs-from-random-polygons/

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Innovate or stagnate: Why your… (digitaltrends.com)

A thoughtful analysis of the mobile device market and what needs to be done…innovate or die

Innovate or stagnate: Why your next phone will suck if Samsung beats Apple
http://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/innovate-or-stagnate-why-your-next-phone-will-suck-if-samsung-beats-apple/

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Olympic Basketball

So the NBA wants to set up its own world cup for Basketball playing nations and then withdraw permission for NBA players to take part in the Olympics.   I am sure there may be some merit in this but really would anyone care?   Well of course one nation will care and that is the USA and especially the NBA who I suspect see this as a way of promoting NBA basketball over international basketball – I’m told there is a difference but not being a huge basketball fan so I wouldn’t really know.   This does also seem to drive a coach and horse through the international governing body, FIBA… ‘ We are Basketball’ (Their website slogan) and it does make one wonder if this is the final power-play by the American organisation to, once and for all, take control of all things basketball for their own benefit.

I guess it would be the same as the Premiership, the richest football league in the world, deciding to set up its own competition outside the control of FIFA or UEFA with the intention of only benefiting their own clubs.  Of course world football is not dominated by the Premiership with at least two other leagues hard on the Premiership’s heels, in money terms at least.  I guess the closes thing to this suggestion is the Indian Premier League in cricket and look how the world cricket game has benefited from that!  

So perhaps the best thing for the NBA to do is shut up and play with the rest of the world on the world’s terms or take all their players home and then see how the US does in basketball at the Olympics with all those one and dones in college basketball in the US.   However, it is far to say – what the hell do I know about this!

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