A Tulip Study in 3 Different Mediums

For the last little while i have been doing healthy and kid-friendly recipes, now it is time to vary things a little bit with some art – a study of a subject. In the past, I have done studies of one subject in the same medium. This time I did one subject, tulips, in 3 very different mediums – a photograph, a pencil drawing and a vector drawing. This just happened spontaneously and in retrospect, I believe it would be good to do this more often.

How To Do A Study of One Subject in Different Mediums

1. Take pictures. Start with a close up view of your subject and take pictures. – whatever camera you have will do. Take the time to compose it and in different angles.
2. Sketch. I carry a small sketch book with me and use it when there’s opportunity to do even a quick sketch using a printed photograph or straight from a phone camera. I find that sketching by hand really helps in understanding the shapes, proportion and subtle colour shifts and gradients. Do  more than one if you can.
3. Create a vector art without looking at your reference material (photograph or sketch).  Use the reference material only after you’ve tried digital drawing from memory. You’ll be amazed how much you can remember of the subject.
4. Fine tune. Now you can refers to the reference materials and make changes to your vector art.
5. Compare all your art work, just as I did here side by side.

Try it! You’ll get to understand more about your choice subject and as I found it, the approach I took in creating each art improved.

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FREE desktop wallpaper calendar for April 2013

Another desktop wallpaper calendar for April 2013. This picture is so pretty to look at and so appropriate for this season. Happy Spring!

The dimension for this image is 1200 x 800 pixels. Feel free to download and share with others. Download by saving (right-mouse click and select Save As.. ).

Naturally dyed Easter eggs

This year we dyed our Easter eggs the natural way using vegetables and things we found in the kitchen. It was my first time to make it so it was as like a fun science experiment which you can get your young kids involved in.

We used Omega-3 hard-boiled eggs and approximately 1 tablespoon of vinegar for every 2 cups of liquid.

Suggested materials:

• red cabbage – cut into pieces and boiled in two cups of water. Add vinegar
• 1 medium beets – cut into chunks and boiled in 2 cups of water. Add vinegar
• paprika
• turmeric
• white vinegar
• rubber band
• glass jars

Here’s the result:

Yellow – used paprika and a pinch of turmeric. Add boiling water and approximately one  teaspoon of vinegar. I used a small jam glass jar good to fit one egg.

Light blue – red cabbage after 4 hours

Deeper light blue – red cabbage after overnight

Light lavender – mixed equal parts red cabbage and beets dye bath after overnight soak

Molten blue – white egg rolled in the boiled red cabbage pieces from the dye bath

Molten blue with white streaks – We experimented with wrapping rubber band on white egg then soaking it in the red cabbage dye bath for 4 hours then rolled it in the boiled red cabbage pieces.

Dark Red Brown – I was expecting this to be deep red but instead we got a deep red-brown from using red beets. Next time, I will use glass jars for all the dye baths, since we used a clear plastic container for this one.

FREE desktop wallpaper calendar for April 2013

This year I have found it useful to have a desktop wallpaper calendar. I find it refreshing to change the wallpaper and have quick access to the month’s calendar keeping my desk free of clutter with a paper calendar. For the last 2 months I have just been using other people’s work and it dawned on me that I could easily do this myself using some of the photos I have taken.

This photo was taken on the coast of Oregon last spring (2012). I find beauty in this simple dried up leaves. I hope you find some enjoyment in this photo as well. Let me know if you would like to have this same image for the month of March and I will post it as well.