Sunday Chores -- Cooking and Testing Leica and Rollei Shutter Speeds

Today I cooked up a big pot of vegan stew. With all of the right spices and veggies, it resembles beef stew.

With two new-to-me cameras in my possession, I’m going through the process of testing the very old (70-years old) shutters to see if they’re working correctly. I know that they’re opening and closing properly — that’s not always the case with old cameras — but I need to know exactly how fast the shutter speeds are if I want to get consistent exposures. To do that, I photograph a gray card at every shutter speed, changing the aperture so that each shot has the same exposure value. In theory, each exposure will create a negative of the same density. The only way to know if all is well is to check the negatives when they return from the lab. If the shutter speeds are way off, the gray card won’t be gray — it will be either too bright or too dark, depending on whether the shutter speeds are too slow or fast. With vintage cameras, the shutter speeds usually get slower with age.

Another version of farewell to Easter Island

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Today I tried to paint waves. I think I’m going about it the hard way. It just may be that some references would be useful.

Putting Together A Portable Wacom Setup

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Krita, Wacom One, Windows 10 Laptop

I want a portable graphics station that I can move around the house. When it’s too hectic in the studio and I need a quiet place to think, I’ll be able to go downstairs to work . My hardware is an 8-year old laptop and a 12-year old medium sized Wacom tablet, both of which still can do their job. I have access to a nifty Wacom One pen display that has a drawing area about the size of my large iPad. The Wacom One has a great display and stylus and it has the added advantage that I can use the desktop versions of Krita, InDesign, Clip Studio Paint, and Photoshop.

I drew the picture above at an impromptu, unscheduled Al Fresco Art Club Challenge. I was just sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop experimenting with the Wacom One when my partner joined me to do a pastel drawing. We worked together for an hour for the first time six months. It was fun just sitting there quietly with her, working together.

Page 23 with All Five Characters

At last I have all five characters on the same page. It took me two weeks to get this page in shape. Drawing fire taxed my newbie drawing abilities and I struggled to draw the fiery volcano demon. Everything I tried was ghastly. In the end, I reused the demon drawing from page 22. Perhaps, before the book is done, I’ll revisit this page and come up with something original.

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge: Use Tayasui Sketches Drawing App for iPad

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Today’s art club challenge was to try a new app and use it for one hour. I chose Tayasui Sketches for the iPad. It has a simple interface and pleasing brushes. It also has some convenient shortcuts for comics such as the diagonal hatching I used for the background. The watercolor brushes are convincing, too. As usual, I didn’t bother looking at the documentation, which means I probably did everything the hard way.

The largest image size is 4k by 4k, big enough for my books, but too small for hi-res work. All the same, the app has a good feel and I’ll use it again.

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge: Create a One-Panel Comic

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Today’s art club challenge was to do something amusing — draw a one page comic. I’ve been thinking of drawing a heads-up logo to use at my day job because I’m always using the phrase “heads up!” when I send out emails to my customers to gently inform them of important details about the project that they will probably overlook. My favorite falling piano cartoon is Gary Larson’s. I would link to it on Pinterest, but I know that he detests how people have appropriated his comics on the Web.

Comparing a Graphite Sketch to a Digital Copy

Digital

Pencil and paper

I’m having a hard time creating a graphite feel using digital painting programs. I’m sure it can be done, but I can’t do it. When things get tough and I get lost in Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint, my first impulse is to simplify and removed rendering.

When I look at the two pictures above, the digital drawing looks flat. The pencil and paper version has a gritty texture that I like. I didn’t have to know any tricks to get the texture — it’s built into the paper. The kicker is that the pencil and paper version was completed in one hour, while the digital version is unfinished after three hours. I think my problem is that I really haven’t mastered Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint. I’m still a rookie at digital painting, and pretty much everything else.

I do think the digital version will be just right for my online comix. By the way, I think about that imaginary community college every night before I fall asleep. I’ve given it a name: Subliminal Community College located in the city of Sublime, California.

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge: Woodcut Style

My inspiration: Frans Masereel, "The City", 1925

Today’s Al Fresco Art Club challengewas to mimic the black and white style of woodcut prints. My reference and inspiration was Frans Masereel’s wordless novel, The City, published in 1925. In one hour I was able to capture only the central character, an exhausted manual laborer who represents the men and women who have toiled to build the city. The City doesn’t have a plot, but it captures the feel of big city life in hard times.

Al Fresco Art Club, March 6, 2021 -- Common Objects

Today’s Al Fresco Art Club challenge was to draw a common object. I chose a bottle of nutritional yeast, which is common around my house. I used my iPad with the default Derwent Color pencil brush. The picture above is my second attempt to draw the yeast container— the first was uptight and static. I ditched it and sketched this quickly, casting aside all ideas of being an “artist.”

Al Fresco Art Club, Feb 7, 2021 -- Urusei Yatsura Day

Today’s Alfresco Art Club challenge was to paint a common object, something you would find in most American homes. I figured that everyone must surely have a Lum figure on their mantle, so I painted a bust of my Lum statuette. Lum is the heroine of Urusei Yastsura, my favorite anime, and manga. I’ve watched 75 of the 194 episodes in the anime version, but the site that streamed the videos has disappeared. By the way, I prefer watching Japanese anime with subtitles rather than with dubbing.