The problems between us seem to be ever there; all seems to be up in the air. Life, as they say, is very short, and so is time, especially when there seems to be no reason or rhyme. The solutions to your problems may be one, few or many; perhaps for your thoughts, I will give you a penny.
Let's bring all that is not life to an end; to hell with death, my friend.
Life is very short, and there's no time; for fussing and fighting, my friend. I have always thought that its a crime, so I will ask you once again:
Can we have it our way, and can that way be one? So that, in the end, we can live in days of a thousand healing suns. Let us dance across the universe through days never ending and nights never coming, to a tune we ourselves have written that will leave the angels humming! Let the words of the song be the cry of love, a tune that is holy, where push doesn't come to shove. A song of peace and a song of joy, with a the sound of a thousand guitars a-sounding, we will be in service to the gods be employed.
I don't mean to hurt you, please believe me, my dear friend. I just merely lost my way. Perhaps I lost sight of my goal. Please forgive me, my dear friend, before I'm bought and sold.
To quote the bard, Nothing is either good or bad; thinking makes it so. I believe I can say no more; I hope we don't end up sad.
©2008 Hypnus9 Publications; All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
The examples promised
Now, I have prepared samples of what we talked about three posts ago. I scanned two images, each with several examples covered. Figure 1 has examples 1-10, and figure 2 has examples 11-14. Figure 1
Figure 2
In ex. 1, I have drawn a straight line. What is true of a straight line? There is much of a dynamic to it, is there? I believe that art gains power from dynamics and depth. In a straight line by itself, we aren't saying much, not there is no use for a straight line. Everything has a beginning, and a straight line is a good place to start when beginning to draw.
Ex. 2 shows an angle with a sharp corner. There is how a straight line begins to show a dynamic: simply by moving in a different direction. This is the beginning of the concept of motion in art: an angle.
Ex. 3 shows a curve. it is somewhat like the angle, but it is rounded and soft in its change of direction, giving it a softer and less sudden dynamic.
Ex. 4 shows a circle, a two-dimensional shape, which means it has height and width. So far, not very exciting, but it is very useful, as we will see in our journey, because organic shapes are filled with circular movement. The circle is also the parent of the sphere, which we will examine later.
Ex. 5 shows an ellipse, or an oval. It is, dynamically speaking, akin to the circle, yet flattened. It can also be stood on end and it would be said to be thinned, I believe. At any rate, an oval can be said to be an elongated circle.
Ex. 6 is a triangle. In our example, it is not equidistant on all sides, but only on two, having an elongated dynamic. The baseline of the triangle is much shorter than the two that are equal to one another, somewhat like a spire on a church.
Ex. 7 Here we have a square, which dynamically speaking is to the cube as the circle is to the sphere; it is the parent shape. It is made up of two equal right angles and has four corners.
Next, in ex. 8, we have the rectangle, which is, primarily, an elongated square.
Ex. 9 show a trapezoid that is made up of two non-equidistant lines and two curved lines on either side. There is another type of trapezoid that is similar, containing no curves and is comprised of all straight lines.
Ex. 10 brings to the final example on Figure 1, and this is the parallelogram. It is like unto a rectangle, but the difference lies in that the rectangle is slanted to one side.
Looking to Figure 2, we have a few three dimensional shapes. In ex. 11, we have a sphere, which as we learned earlier, is begotten of the circle. Here we begin, in our journey, applying illusory techniques to give the appearance of depth. When making two-dimensional art, we use highlighting or shading to give the illusion of light or shadow or depth, or any combination there of, or in other words, we are striving to make a two-dimensional work look three-dimensional.
In the next example, ex. 12, we have a cube-like shape that is borne of a square and two parallelograms. It is called, if you were to hold one in the natural world, a hexahedron, but in the virtual world of art, we, when working in only two dimensions, we will look at it as a triplanar shape, a mass comprised of the different planes. It is not the most complex of shapes, but is still a member of the polyhedron family.
Ex. 13 is similar to ex. 12, only it is representative of a flattened hexahedron, a board-like object.
And finally we have the egg-shaped example in ex. 14. I will call it an ovoid sphere, until either I am corrected , or until I stumble onto a truer designation in regards to nomenclature. Is is somewhat spherical, but unlike the sphere, it is not perfectly round/circular in genesis.
Here we have the inception of Project Everest, as I spoke of a few posts ago. I am going to blog my artistic progress as I (hopefully) improve and refine my draughtsmanship, the art of drawing. Talk to you soon.
Jasz
Christmas
The Book of Revelation says, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Do you realize that had the Magi, who came and worshiped the new-born Messiah, the Christ child, the Baby Jesus, not brought their gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh, Christmas would not have become the thing it is today where gifts are given. Those gifts laid at the Manger of Christ were so integral to what Christmas was to become, that had they not been brought to Jesus, humanity would not have the Christmas hope it has today.
God has turned Christmas into a boon to humanity, and I believe that Christmas is perfect in intent, and that the celebration of Christmas is a good thing, especially if it is done faithfully to God. Furthermore, I am not opposed to the aspect of St. Nicolas, our much venerated Santa Claus, despite what some believe about him. Nicolas was a real man who was martyred in the second-century AD who actually gave gifts to children on Christmas in Asia. I surmise that he was thinking of Jesus' "Parable of the Sheep and the Goats," wherein Jesus stated, "Whatsoever you have done unto the least, you have done unto me." How blessed Nicolas! Look at how God has blessed the memory of him! This is how God treats the obedient and the loving. I thank God for St. Nicolas, our much beloved Santa Claus.
I believe that we ought, instead of complaining about something called "the over-commercialization of Christmas," we ought to give thanks to God for every one of the celebratory aspects of Christmas, Santa Claus included. If we did, we would see a greater burgeoning of prosperity the world over. Praise God for Christmas and every good thing that comes with it!
Father
Lord of heaven and earth
We thank you and praise you for Christmas and all of it trappings. We thank you for Nicolas, the Christmas saint, and that in the Name of Jesus, Your Son. We ask, in His Name, that you would Send, in even greater measure, upon all humanity, during this Christmas season, and every Christmas season to come, an even greater measure of the spirit of Christmas upon the earth. We ask this that you may be seen as superior in every way, and we thank you for having done this already.
We ask also that you would forgive us our sins that may hinder us all in enjoying Christmas as you intend for it to be through Jesus. Amen. We ask also that you would forgive the naysayers of Christmas and show yourself to be good among them in even greater measure.
We praise you for the Spirit of Christmas in Jesus' Name. Amen.
We ask also that you, in your Divine omnipotence, would even more greatly bless the memory of St. Nicolas for his loving obedience to you in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. In the Name of the Father, and that of the Son, and that of the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen and amen.
Merry Christmas everyone! Thank God it's Christmas! God bless us, everyone!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
I changed my mind
It is said that "truth is beauty; beauty, truth." How does this relate to the fundamentals of art? We need only a little truth to gain a great, or even a very great, thing. I have always believed that one truth opens a thousand doors. when I first started believing this, it was when I was a guitar instructor for a small music store in Macomb, Illinois. And I found that I was a better teacher when I would give free lessons than when I charged for them. The student got more out of it, and I got more out of it. Education ought to be free, at least in part. We may charge for a service, but knowledge ought to be free. Solomon said, "Buy the truth and do not sell it." But, by the same token, he also said, "The wise keep their knowledge to themselves."
Before we move on, ( I changed my mind on posting some drawings) I want to talk about something called line quality. This has nothing to do with shape, necessarily. It can, but neither shape or line quality are dependent upon one another.
A line, in order to be visible, must have a degree of weight, whether minimal or not. A drawing comprised of invisible or near invisible lines probably won't have much impact. There needs to be, most usually, variation in the quality of line in a drawing in regards to weight in order for the drawing to be truly effective, although there are exceptions to this rule. But, generally speaking, it is best to have variation in line quality in order to define movement of form as the eye moves over the surface that is being described in the drawing in order to give the illusion of three dimensions. By movement of form, I mean how there is variation in the surface that is being described in the drawing.
Oddly enough, though, for every rule, there is an exception, somewhere. I am but one person, out of a whole planet of artists and students of art. But, I hope to find some adherents to this line of thinking of mine, and maybe we can have a school of us and we can all progress together, even if only two, or a few more than two. A question comes to mind: What is better? A school of thought that is progressive and elite with only a few adherents, or a widely accepted thing that has a great degree of commerce attached to it? I would say the former, the more obscure one, but that is just one opinion. Please post your comments. I'd like to get into discussion on this blog. BTW, my Yahoo! is Hypnus9, as you can find in my profile. feel free to hit me up there, and we can discuss art on Yahoo. That would be really cool, in my humble opinion. Maybe we could get a fellowship of artists happening, and we can all grow together.
Art is a form of liberty and freedom, as it is solely based on truth. There is truth to everything, at least to the praiseworthy and the worthwhile. Any shortcoming in anything you can name is due to a lack of knowledge: yours, mine, anyone's. Where can the truth be found? Opinions vary. Truth is like water: sometimes you can't find it, and other times, you can't escape it, but neither situation is permanent. I personally often refer to Jesus because, as I am a Christian, He is my Touchstone. Others refer to what Buddha said, and so on. No matter what, truth is truth. The Bible says, "The Spirit is truth," and Jesus Himself said, "Flesh counts for nothing. Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit gives birth to spirit." Therefore, I would say, adhere to that which is spiritual. What is spiritual? I guess that is all relative to what an individual believes. At one point, truth is relative, but there is absolute truth, either simple or complex. For instance, one simple simple truth is the fact that 1+1=2. That is an absolute truth. Every word carries with a truth, or perhaps more than that. I guess truth becomes relative when the truth is not plainly seen. But, once we learn the truth, we can do something based on that truth. Truth is active. I believe that the greatest complacency and shame is when a truth is evident and not acted upon. Even I am guilty of this. What is to be done when this is the case? One must digress to that erstwhile thing and re-examine it, and then act upon it. The greatest of men never relent from acting upon the truth. What is our matter at hand? For the purposes of this blog, it is creativity: in regards to art and music and writing. Let us delve further into the truth. It seems to me that whenever truth is discussed, Jesus is inevitable like no other. Among other things, to me, Jesus is the Great Reference Point. There are many great reference points in many paradigms of many disciplines, but Jesus towers over them all as Lord and God, lording over not one, especially the child. Wherever you find truth, inevitably, you find Jesus. God bless the child. Jesus said, "The truth will set you free; everyone who sins is a slave to sin, but if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free indeed"
It is said that "truth is beauty; beauty, truth." How does this relate to the fundamentals of art? We need only a little truth to gain a great, or even a very great, thing. I have always believed that one truth opens a thousand doors. when I first started believing this, it was when I was a guitar instructor for a small music store in Macomb, Illinois. And I found that I was a better teacher when I would give free lessons than when I charged for them. The student got more out of it, and I got more out of it. Education ought to be free, at least in part. We may charge for a service, but knowledge ought to be free. Solomon said, "Buy the truth and do not sell it." But, by the same token, he also said, "The wise keep their knowledge to themselves."
Okay, onto shape and form How many shapes are the basically speaking? We have the circle, the oval, the square and the rectangle, the triangle and the trapezoid, which is like a triangle cut in half from either the bottom point or the top point, depending on how the shape is situated. We have six of them. We have also organic shapes, which are shapes with less definition, if you will. We also have the parallelogram, which is like a slanted rectangle.
Let me say here that we all ought to journal, both publicly and privately, on opinions and classical definitions. Let me say here that opinion is not so strong as accepted definition, but, as Jesus said, "Wherever two or more of you agree, it will be done." Therefore, even if it is just you and one or two others, based on the words of the Master, which is to say, Jesus, there is the potential for a new paradigm that is exclusive. "Great minds think alike," one great saying goes. BTW, a paradigm is, simply put, a school of thought. It isn't necessary for there to be more than one for a new paradigm until after one person has thought it through and authored it, then, if his ways become accepted, then it becomes a paradigm (pron. para-dime, or paradim) The "g" is silent. Onward and, hopefully, upwards.
Now that we have identified the different shapes, what are their three-dimensional counterparts? We have the sphere, which is round and related to the circle. For the oval, we have the ovoid sphere, which like an egg. There is the cube, which can be built of squares exclusively, or of rectangles, or a combination of the two. From the triangle progresses the pyramid, either three-point based or four-point. Anything beyond this wherein the trapezoid or the parallelogram are concerned, we will call anything based on them in the three-dimensional crystalline.
Three-dimensional shapes that are organic are, I believe, for the most part, are either nameable or not. It depends on what the artist is describing, and we will leave it to the individual artist to name the shape, if necessary and not self-evident.
Let me say here, we have, through deductive reasoning, actually come a long way, potentially, from the original questions on line. Next time, I think I am going to post some drawings of mine showing line(s) and the different shapes.
Let me say here that we all ought to journal, both publicly and privately, on opinions and classical definitions. Let me say here that opinion is not so strong as accepted definition, but, as Jesus said, "Wherever two or more of you agree, it will be done." Therefore, even if it is just you and one or two others, based on the words of the Master, which is to say, Jesus, there is the potential for a new paradigm that is exclusive. "Great minds think alike," one great saying goes. BTW, a paradigm is, simply put, a school of thought. It isn't necessary for there to be more than one for a new paradigm until after one person has thought it through and authored it, then, if his ways become accepted, then it becomes a paradigm (pron. para-dime, or paradim) The "g" is silent. Onward and, hopefully, upwards.
Now that we have identified the different shapes, what are their three-dimensional counterparts? We have the sphere, which is round and related to the circle. For the oval, we have the ovoid sphere, which like an egg. There is the cube, which can be built of squares exclusively, or of rectangles, or a combination of the two. From the triangle progresses the pyramid, either three-point based or four-point. Anything beyond this wherein the trapezoid or the parallelogram are concerned, we will call anything based on them in the three-dimensional crystalline.
Three-dimensional shapes that are organic are, I believe, for the most part, are either nameable or not. It depends on what the artist is describing, and we will leave it to the individual artist to name the shape, if necessary and not self-evident.
Let me say here, we have, through deductive reasoning, actually come a long way, potentially, from the original questions on line. Next time, I think I am going to post some drawings of mine showing line(s) and the different shapes.
There are times, in our lives as Christians, when the Word is our only sustenance, and there is no one to talk to, times when only we talk to God. It may even seem that God isn't listening. What do we do when God is silent and seemingly unresponsive? Well, might I suggest we devote ourselves to study, of either Scripture or another praiseworthy discipline, such as music, art or literature, and learn the creative aspects of our focus of study. For instance, you, as do many, may believe you are not able to draw, paint or sculpt. You may be befuddled at the very sight of art supplies. But Jesus said, "If you believe, nothing will be impossible for you." I tell you, while I'm not very productive right now in my life, artistically speaking, not only do I believe, but I know I can draw. My technique has slipped after years of artistic inactivity, but I pray God renew my zeal for art and the pursuit of it, and the same thing goes for music and the composing of it.
What is, or what are the fundamental elements of art? Line, light, shade, tone and color. Well, if one wants to paint well, or sculpt well, they must first learn to draw. Would you like to draw? Perhaps we can learn together. I'm hoping to come out of my creative dormancy, and do greater things than I have ever done before, and maybe I'll turn this blog into a public journal of my creative progress. And I believe Jesus in what he says: "If you believe, nothing will be impossible for you." I believe that there is no challenge that is too daunting that I cannot master the thing before me, be it an empty drawing pad, the neck of a guitar. If I were so inclined, I could climb Everest and scale it to its peak. Maybe that is what we can call this journey: Everest; or Project Everest, better yet. By and large, I have taught myself nearly everything I know how to do. I have had little human instruction, but as you can see, I am a competent writer who knows how to conjugate the English language, and I will tell you, I nearly failed high school, earning little more than D's as my passing marks. But, while I have yet to graduate, even now at the age of not quite 45, I have gone on to do quite well at the college and university level, having taken only one college level writing course, and that well over ten years ago. The rest, I have been taught, by the grace of God, by myself. I say these things not to pat myself on the back, but to encourage someone who wants to improve upon themselves who hadn't erstwhile believed that they could. Genius, as they say, is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. I believe that wholeheartedly. All one needs is a good idea and the resolve to refine it and develop it. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the word, " and, "All hard work brings a profit." This is a gathering of two Biblical sayings that support, and confirm, the saying about genius.
Let's spend a little while talking about drawing, and then move on to headier aspects of art. First, we need to spend some time discussing the fundamental of art. What is the artistic definition of line? According to Wikipedia (ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line), in geometry, a line is an indefinite, one-dimensional figure that has no curvature. That is a good starting definition for the artist, but how many different kinds of line are there? There is such a thing as a thick, or heavy, line; there is the outline, which is also known to artists as 'the arabesque.' We could say there is such as thing as the curved line, but let's simplifiy our vocabulary and save ourselves some steps, and just refer to that as a curve. What other kinds of lines are there?
Much like the outline is the contour of something. That might be a tricky one. Let us look to a classical definition of contour. Again, according to wikipedia, a contour is "any drawn outline, especially if curved." a question comes to mind: What is the contour of a square or rectangle? Of a triangle? It may seem very abstract to ask such questions this early on in our journey together, but I don't think so. The point I want to illustrate is this, and it is sheer deductive reasoning based on the last definition given: a contour doesn't necessarily have to be curved in order to be a contour. A contour can apply to a rectangle, a square, a circle, an oval, a triangle, a trapezoid or shapes that would be classified as organic, the organic perhaps being the most complex of all the aforementioned. Which brings us to another step in our evolution and progress as artists: shape and form. That will be left to the next post.
What is, or what are the fundamental elements of art? Line, light, shade, tone and color. Well, if one wants to paint well, or sculpt well, they must first learn to draw. Would you like to draw? Perhaps we can learn together. I'm hoping to come out of my creative dormancy, and do greater things than I have ever done before, and maybe I'll turn this blog into a public journal of my creative progress. And I believe Jesus in what he says: "If you believe, nothing will be impossible for you." I believe that there is no challenge that is too daunting that I cannot master the thing before me, be it an empty drawing pad, the neck of a guitar. If I were so inclined, I could climb Everest and scale it to its peak. Maybe that is what we can call this journey: Everest; or Project Everest, better yet. By and large, I have taught myself nearly everything I know how to do. I have had little human instruction, but as you can see, I am a competent writer who knows how to conjugate the English language, and I will tell you, I nearly failed high school, earning little more than D's as my passing marks. But, while I have yet to graduate, even now at the age of not quite 45, I have gone on to do quite well at the college and university level, having taken only one college level writing course, and that well over ten years ago. The rest, I have been taught, by the grace of God, by myself. I say these things not to pat myself on the back, but to encourage someone who wants to improve upon themselves who hadn't erstwhile believed that they could. Genius, as they say, is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. I believe that wholeheartedly. All one needs is a good idea and the resolve to refine it and develop it. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the word, " and, "All hard work brings a profit." This is a gathering of two Biblical sayings that support, and confirm, the saying about genius.
Let's spend a little while talking about drawing, and then move on to headier aspects of art. First, we need to spend some time discussing the fundamental of art. What is the artistic definition of line? According to Wikipedia (ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line), in geometry, a line is an indefinite, one-dimensional figure that has no curvature. That is a good starting definition for the artist, but how many different kinds of line are there? There is such a thing as a thick, or heavy, line; there is the outline, which is also known to artists as 'the arabesque.' We could say there is such as thing as the curved line, but let's simplifiy our vocabulary and save ourselves some steps, and just refer to that as a curve. What other kinds of lines are there?
Much like the outline is the contour of something. That might be a tricky one. Let us look to a classical definition of contour. Again, according to wikipedia, a contour is "any drawn outline, especially if curved." a question comes to mind: What is the contour of a square or rectangle? Of a triangle? It may seem very abstract to ask such questions this early on in our journey together, but I don't think so. The point I want to illustrate is this, and it is sheer deductive reasoning based on the last definition given: a contour doesn't necessarily have to be curved in order to be a contour. A contour can apply to a rectangle, a square, a circle, an oval, a triangle, a trapezoid or shapes that would be classified as organic, the organic perhaps being the most complex of all the aforementioned. Which brings us to another step in our evolution and progress as artists: shape and form. That will be left to the next post.
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