Day 72 – Progress on Axonometric City
I’d like for this to go as a wall mural for our bedroom in Kheiran. Of course, it remains to be seen whether I can even finish it – at the moment it seems I might’ve bitten more than I can eat. The canvas is 600 dpi 14000px wide, and I can literally draw enough detail to get chairs showing in the windows of the houses…
Day 71 – WIP
Isometric City project.
Day 70 – Laso instead of brush
Just playing around with PS tools. Used laso and bucket tool only…still kind of waiting for some motivation boost. Been dragging in the block for a week now.
Day 61 – Value study
This was supposed to be a warm up sketch before I draw Cullen but I suppose she wanted to be finished :)
How to Start (Arting)
Art wants you for the long haul. Pace yourself. An athlete is old at thirty-four. Artists are catching their stride at sixty.
There’s a famous anecdote about Anders Zorn. It may be apocryphal. Zorn went to art school eight hours a day, so the story goes. Not enough for this prodigious talent, so he went home and painted for four more. Twelve hours a day: that’s how much dedication Zorn put into his craft.
Good for him, and good for you if you can do it. And you may be the type that can. But, if you’re not …
You’ll try it for […]
Little People
It turns out my little people are becoming…not so little. A. is about to start his first school soon, and D. is already a fifth grader; to her relief, fifth grade still does come along with a pink uniform, rather than the work-cloth blue of higher grades. She does love her pink; and any pastel colours.
Sea Fun
We had a little bit of fun before the heat rises up back to unbearable levels and any seaside activities will be akin to staring out of a mall window into the horizon.
We had a rather terrible tea that we enjoyed nonetheless, beautiful weather and all. Beaches do have a soothing effect, after all.
From Eid al-Fitr Celebration
We’ve had a lovely (and relatively small this year) Eid lunch at my mother in law’s house few days back. It was busy as usual, with kids running around and playing, and people chatting and celebrating the end of the Islamic month of fasting, Ramadan. I’ve managed to take few pictures which I deem worthwhile, while plenty others were just a blur of motion and darkness (sadly!); but all in all, not a bad day at all ;)
We all brought sweets of various sizes and tastes, strong tea and coffee was served, majboos with meat and chicken were for lunch, […]
Eid Mubarak, from Ovenhill to You
Went out (after a month spent indoors, because Ramadan) today; well, if checking our building and whether it still stands is counted as outing. It does stand, bar few bricks which got blown out from a part of the wall. As we’ve found out by a casual stroll through that brand new neighbourhood, a lot of the houses suffered from similar problem, all on one side, so we’ve simply assumed it has been cause by exceptionally strong wind – which isn’t impossible, considering it is still a deserted place and pretty much no trees mean it’s an open desert. Plenty […]
From Sand to Castle (Sandcastle!)
Ok, maybe not a castle. It is somewhere between villa and a castle in my puny European eyes; it is, however, considered a rather small family house here among the Kuwaitis. Angle of view, origin of upbringing? Maybe. Nonetheless, it’s a house, it’s big enough for all of us, it is our home (well, maybe. ‘Bu Abbas is still deciding whether to move in or not once it’s done.) It’s got all the space and convenience we could muster up ourselves – and order the architect around to conform to it. True, there are some changes. Some are fine, some […]
Progressing…
…on the rough building of our house, and losing nerves and a carload of dinars in process too. This for that, I suppose. And since it’s slightly over a hundred kilometers from our current residence to the building site, there’s plenty of time for desert viewing ad photographing (although it does get rather monotonous after a while, even my joy from seeing camel herds looses it’s boost nearing Khairan, and quick car shots aren’t up to my desired standard either).
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Art
The principle of true art is not to portray but to evoke.
— Jerzy Kosinski (born on this day in 1933)
How to Start (Arting)
Art wants you for the long haul. Pace yourself. An athlete is old at thirty-four. Artists are catching their stride at sixty.
There’s a famous anecdote about Anders Zorn. It may be apocryphal. Zorn went to art school eight hours a day, so the story goes. Not enough for this prodigious talent, so he went home and painted for four more. Twelve hours a day: that’s how much dedication Zorn put into his craft.
Good for him, and good for you if you can do it. And you may be the type that can. But, if you’re not …
You’ll try it for a week—fail miserably. You’ll give up your dream, convinced you never had it, whatever it is.
Just as there’s an art […]
Finishing Art
Every time a new student asks me how I know when a painting is finished, my answer is, “It is never finished. You just stop working on it in time.”
(Landscape Painting Essentials with Johannes Vloothuis: Lessons in Acrylic, Oil, Pastel and Watercolor)
Drawing
“Accentuate the subtlety of your stroke by applying your pencil with a soft pressure, as if you are caressing the drawing surface.”
( The Artist’s Complete Guide to Drawing the Head – William Maughan )
Thoughts, Memories, Chatter…
Art Tumblr Import
Over the next few hours (or days) I will be importing all my ‘art’ Tumblr posts back to here. It may break the site a little as I might fiddle with settings and the theme, as I always do and always break it (and then spend three days trying to fix it!).
But, at least, I am back to Randomly Mad, after a very long break and only occasional maintenance.
Tumblr…is an odd universe.
I’ve spent more than a year over there by now and still can’t decide whether I like it or not. It has some good tools for self-promoting, once you are capable of building up a bit of a follower base, similar to Instagram; but the pitfalls come nearly immediately, […]
Day 48
Also called the day I failed at art.
No picture today, tried three times, ended up scraping it all as it was disastrous… today is not a good day for my creativity.
Important is, I did draw…right?
Here’s one of my ‘year ago’ pictures, instead…
Happy National Day, Kuwait!
And happy second birthday to my youngest one. She’s a big girl now!
Not much celebration here except a fancy red velvet cake, but when you’re two years old, you don’t really give a toss about candles and presents just yet. For which I am grateful, as the other two birthdays are coming up shortly, and with kids that do care.
A Drop By
I know I haven’t been updating the blog on regular basis these last months, but life flows slowly and mostly peacefully here on the desert. I fell deep into a Bioware fandom for a while (well, I am still there, so to say), and it brought me back to writing a little, and drawing a little more.
So much, in fact, that after doodling on my Samsung for some time, my dear husband decided to buy me Wacom, and I have spent last few weeks re-learning drawing. Using a really good website – Ctrl + Paint. I recommend itto anyone who’d like to refine his skills with digital media, or even who wants to start from scratch like I did. After […]
Clean
The day when the lice came. My waist long hair gone to shoulder, the rest of the household… well, on pics.
Not happy at all!
Hookin’ in Barrens
Crocheting (along with some uncomplicated knitting, WoW and Sims) is my go to option when trying to relax a bit. It is not easy sometimes, as there are three kids trying their best not to let me do anything which doesn’t include them, but small projects work fine. Granny squares are great for that; or slow Ironman challenge in the games.
Sometimes I tend to crochet while playing; or watching movies. Sitting at the TV alone these days, with my husband enjoying himself in Europe while I grow slowly insane from my own children (did you ever try to wean a stubborn, hysterical two and a half year old with an Arabian temperament and Czech thick-headiness off a bottle without his […]
Pozemek, potomci, a tak
Tož se nám ten rok zase přehoupl, další škola začíná (tedy, pro Doubravku až příští týden, ale Abbáse jsme poslali do školky už nyní… to snad ani není lidské, jak ten pidičlověk ječí a ječí a ječí). Pět peněz za školné a dvojí výbavičku, protože batole odmítá nemít to samé, co starší sestře; a dvacet peněz za Daniela, neb kocourek onemocněl a momentálně tráví dny ve zvířecí nemocnici na kapačce a katetru, což v Kuvajtu není levná sranda. Snad ho vyléčí, bylo by tu tuze smutno, a jeho bratr se momentálně jak tělo bez duše jen toulá po bytě a z depky ani nechce jíst.
Když už jsme byli tak daleko v poušti, jukli jsme taktéž na pozemek nám přidělený v […]
Advent na písku
Aneb jako každý jiný poslední čtyři léta.
I, možná ne. Tento rok jsem se rozhodla dovézt jako dárek pod neexistující stromek své rodiče, sem na poušť. Ať jednou také konečně vidí, jak se tu máme a jak tu žijeme. Trochu spálí ústa při tradičním jídle, jakožto lidé nezvyklí čemukoliv kořeněnému (a tady se přeci koření o sto šest!), vyfoukají tváře namísto v řezavém zimním větru a sněhu hezky na pláži při jemném vánku s vůní soli… to zní romanticky, dneska fujaví a písek lítá všude; ale hodlám předstírat i nadále příjemný vánek s mořskou vůní. Zní to, koneckonců, o něco líp. Vánoce v teplých krajinách. možná i ten umělý stromek někde vykutáme – navzdory tomu, že je Kuvajt islámská země, je […]
No wealth is more useful than intelligence and wisdom;
no solitude is more horrible than when people avoid you on account of your vanity and conceit or when you wrongly consider yourself above everybody to confide and consult;
no eminence is more exalting than piety;
no companion can prove more useful than politeness;
no heritage is better than culture; no leader is superior to Divine Guidance;
no deal is more profitable than good deeds;
no profit is greater than Divine Reward;
no abstinence is better than to restrain one’s mind from doubts (about religion);
no virtue is better than refraining from prohibited deeds;
no knowledge is superior to deep thinking and prudence;
no worship or prayers are more sacred than fulfillment of obligations and duties;
no religious faith is loftier than feeling ashamed of doing wrong and bearing calamities patiently;
no eminence is greater than to adopt humbleness;
no exaltation is superior to knowledge; nothing is more respectable than forgiveness and forbearance;
no support and defense are stronger than consultation.
(Imam Ali, a.s.)
