Look! There is a thing!

 

Title quote is from my dad; he often complained that the new iteration of anything was less useful/convenient than the now "outdated" model. My experience indicates that that's very often true.

Explanation -- Kindle and iPad woes.

Requesting advice -- use of Calibre and Calibre Companion.

( I'm cutting the whole thing for pics and length. )
 

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Although it's not that dire. The thing is, I don't know what I don't know.

A few days ago, I saw this delightful piece of art at AO3. Part of the comment I left for the artist said, "Did Joe lose a bet? Is he sleeping and staying asleep through the procedure because his subconscious is comfortable with Nicky right beside him? Are they going to some kind of gay gala tonight? Oh, the possibilities..."


And I left it at that -- I thought. Unfortunately, the idea won't let me go, and my muse insists that I write the story. But I have a big problem... I've worn makeup maybe six times in my entire life, and the last time was 30 years ago. (Stage makeup doesn't count; it's a whole different beast. But that also ended 30 years ago.) As regards makeup for going to some big shindig, I know nothing, and don't even know what I don't know.  I've been searching google images and youtube, and I'm floundering. 



So I'm hoping some of my friends' list have experience -- or just ideas of what you'd like to see -- and can offer some suggestions and/or good links to research. I don't even know what to ask.  Do you think heavy "glam", or subtly enhancing the eyes?  What colors? 

And -- it just hit me this morning -- Nile wears beads in her hair. (No not in the movie. But post-movie, hair-beads could definitely be a thing.) Would Joe wear beads in his beard?  (I want Joe to wear beads in his beard.) 

Any help you can offer would be deeply appreciated. And not just for Joe -- once Nile gets started, everyone will want her to do them, including Booker and Quynh. (Everybody lives, nobody dies, they're all back together and we don't need to know how or why.)

I feel kind of silly, tackling a subject about which I know so little, but I can't stop grinning about the idea of Nile doing makeup for everyone, so onward and upward. 

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I have plans to finish Fandom Snowflake, by my muse hijacked me with another cover idea. Okay, that will fill in the "create a fanwork" part of the challenge, but there's a lot of bits and pieces, so it will take a few days.

The thing is, I use Photoshop Elements, which is less flexible than the full Photoshop, and I use an older version -- 9, I think; I bought the program outright, when that was still a thing. I don't need much more flexibility than I already have, and I refuse to pay a yearly subscription fee to be allowed to use the newer versions. But, many times, I don't know what I don't know, so I make things harder for myself.

My method is to choose my elements (cup of coffee, plate of cookies, whatever), then use a neutral color to paint over the entire background of stuff that I don't want in my finished cover. When that's done, I can tell PS to "erase" (make transparent) everything of this color. Then I can "slide" that image onto the background I've chosen, and play with sizing and positioning until I'm satisfied.

The really time-consuming part is painting next to the edges of the item in question. I have to enlarge the picture hugely and use a tiny "brush" -- 10 to 25 pixels, depending on the degree of enlargement -- and creep along the edge of the item, trying to produce a smooth line. It ain't easy; my finger tends to drag on the mousepad of my laptop, and my stylus control is shaky; I have less smooth lines when I try to use one. I even bought a mechanical mouse, thinking that would help, but it didn't. So I just go slow, then enlarge even more to smooth out the 'bumps', one click at a time.

For most picture-elements I've chosen, there's no other way; the edges are irregular (someone's hair, a leaf, a cookie), and the standard round "brush" -- which may hit the edge of the element with only 3-5 pixels is okay. (Though if I had my way, the brush would be pen-nib shaped instead of round -- 3-5 pixels at a point, with the "brush" streaming back from that point in a kind of V-shape, or even a U. A round shape makes it hard to get into the teeny spaces, like between tufts of hair.)

But occasionally, I need to clean a straight-edge -- the side of a building, or a book, or something similar. Making a perfectly straight line with a round "brush" is impossible, at least for me. Gee, if I had a square brush, I could click-move, line up-click-move, etc, etc. So I went Googling to see if I could find a square brush.

<sigh> I found that it should be possible... if I had a newer version of Elements, or the full PS program. The problem is, even when I specify "Elements" in my search, many of the articles I click on are giving directions for the full program. <sigh>

But then I stumbled across this wonderful hint:

To draw a straight line, click a starting point in the image.
Then hold down Shift and click an ending point.


Wheeeee!!!


All of a sudden, straight edges are so easy; my time to clean those edges has decreased by at least 75%. I still have to line up carefully, or try again when I wasn't quite close enough, or do it in short sections because it's not completely straight, but it's a huge time-saver. My current cover has straight edges on two pens and a notebook. (But it's spiral bound; cleaning between those spirals is a real treat.)

I'm so pleased to have found this... but I sure wish I'd gone looking a year ago. I just went through my previous covers; 23 out of 51 -- almost 50% -- had elements with straight edges, where I could have used this technique.

Oh, well. As always, better late than never. And now... another hour of spiral-cleaning, then I'll eat supper.

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It occurs to me that, if I want to see content on DW/LJ, I should provide some.

I've always been content with my own company, so staying home is no biggie. And of course, I have plenty of space to roam outside if I want to. But in the past few months, I've added two new hobbies to help me keep busy.

Way back last May or thereabouts, I started making title art for stories I enjoyed. At first I just researched pictures of characters from other shows that I didn't know when they showed up in crossover stories before I started reading said stories. But my visual memory -- especially for faces -- isn't strong. So I started copying and pasting the pictures of those characters into a Word doc so I could refer back to them at need. And then one day I was baby-sitting N's dog while she and her hubby had to be out of town. (The dog had had back surgery several months previously, and seemed like she might be heading for a relapse a couple of days prior to this, but my friends had doctor's appointments in Lubbock, so they couldn't ignore the trip. I stayed with the dog so I could rush her to the vet if she had sudden problems. Fortunately, she was fine, and so were my friends.)

So there I was, reading a story that I'd been waiting for the author to finish, a crossover of NCIS and Teen Wolf. Now, I've not seen even one episode of TW; I have only the vaguest notion of what it's about from things I've read on DW/LJ. So I looked up what the main characters look like and jumped into the story. But, within a couple of chapters, my muse wanted me to make cover art. (I still don't know why. My theory is that I'd seen so much good art connected to so many good stories in the months prior to that it just sparked something; I dunno.) Anyway, I spent the entire rest of the day -- before I'd even finished reading the story, you'll note -- producing this title art.

( Cut for long, meandering story. )

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Here's a site with pictures of "flame fractals". Some gorgeous patterns!

I grew up listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford (among others); I know all the lyrics to "16 Tons". Here's a youtube vid of John Denver singing "18 Holes" to the same tune. The sound isn't great, but any golfers in your life might get a kick out of it.

And here's a site with the questions of the US Citizenship Test. (I got 96%; don't always know which president went with which war.) Saving it mostly to pass on to the teachers at school; they might like to use it as extra credit for students, or something.

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So, school started last week. (I know; way too early. OTOH, we also get out early -- end of May.)

Anyway, some of the art projects in school last year were cute and/or innovative. I know some folks who watch me are connected with a school, or have family members who are connected. So, if anyone needs some ideas for art projects this year... have at it!

( Read more... )

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Copying my picspam post...

The first or second week of March, several of us speech therapists traveled to Austin, TX for a speech conference. Thursday was good, Friday was a mess, and I took Saturday off for pictures. Went to the "zoo", but it wasn't much -- smaller even than Moonridge, and little opportunity for good pictures. So when the cabbie picked me up, we went looking for the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center (or something like that). It was too early in the spring for a lot of flowers to be blooming, but I got a few nice pictures, nothing spectacular.

However, they were advertising an art show at the on-site 'Learning Center', and I went in to see. Wow! The blurb at the entrance read, Wildflowers... Butterflies... Hummingbirds. Shou Ping creates her art with watercolors, but her real specialty is what she calls "paper sculpture". With a pair of scissors, she expresses herself and transforms an ordinary painting into a 3-dimensional work of art that speaks to the heart and the senses. Each unique, intricate piece is created over a lengthy period.

That doesn't do her artwork justice, and neither do these pictures but, oh well... Not only are the colors lovely and delicate, and the subjects rendered with an amazing realism, they're in 3-D!!! The folds and curves of the leaves and petals stand out from the background, giving each picture an amazing depth. Unbelievably beautiful, and I really considered buying one... but the prices started at $1,200 and went up. *sigh* (Not that I don't think they're worth it, but I couldn't afford it.)

Because of the 3-D work, each painting had a glass front, and it was difficult to get decent pictures while avoiding the glare from lights and windows. I could only manage eight out of a couple of dozen pieces, and two of those were poor quality, so deleted. And some of these proportions are a bit wonky, because I had to angle the camera to work around the glare. But I think you can get the effect, especially if you click through to the larger picture (link provided). Remember, the foreground curled leaves and petals really are; the butterfly's wings were free-standing from the background. Most of the shadows you see are cast by the 3-D parts of the picture, not painted in. Truly, truly gorgeous.

( Right this way. )

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Hobbs is hosting one of its twice-yearly Arts and Crafts Fairs this weekend. N and I had lunch together, then went out to wander past the booths. I was particularly eager to see if one particular vendor would be here again. The mother/daughter team makes "horsehair" pottery. The pots, animal figures, angels, etc are white, with twisty/curvy black lines on the surface, and sometimes a barely-there smoky-gray haze on part of the white background. It's made by removing the piece from the kiln and dropping actual horsehair (mane and tail) on the still-hot piece. The horsehair burns off, leaving the distinctive lines, and the smoke causes the hazy shading.

Since I "discovered" these ladies a year ago, I've bought a couple of their pieces -- a horse-head pair with manes flying for Mom at Christmas, and a dancing-on-his-tail dolphin for me. I have looked at a couple of wolf and panther figures, but none of them were quite *right*.

So, I was quite pleased to see them here again. I looked around and selected a diving-dolphin to go with my standing-on-his-tail dolphin. I paid the lady, chatted a bit, was walking away and... OH MY GOD!! How did I MISS it??? There was a wolf, lying down with head and ears erect, with BLUE eyes. He is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Wolf on Arrowhead Rock shows the same figure, but *mine* has prettier markings on the wolf, and color shadings on the base. *g* (And I bought it for a LOT less; the guy running the website really marks them up.)

I'll be patient; one of these days I'll find a suitable panther figure to match the wolf. Maybe next time -- I told her I really want a compatible panther (size and attitude) also with blue eyes, and gave her my e-mail addy.

Meanwhile, Wolf will sit on top of the VCRs (yes, plural) right next to the TV where we can keep an eye on each other.

::sigh:: He is so-o-o-o pretty!