14°C, rain.

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Fingers crossed: typo’s are getting excessive here. My fingers seem to disagree about the order inwhich they press keys. It’s a shame that msn spaces are blocked at work- I used to log on in th emorning to spot typing errors.

 

Did you know: Americans think "disinterested" means "Unbiased"?

 

Picture comments: read them! there are a few really positive ones there. Very encouraging- so a big thankyou to the authors: Kong’s ring,

Big number: well it seems like a lot to me:

15°C

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The air is full of pollen, the car is covered in a powdery dust. Even the weather forecasters have been showing off satellite photos of the cloud of pollen blowing over from Holland & the low countries.

 

Yesterday I gave a lift to a Greenfly from Shire Oak to near home. It enjoyed the best seat – on the rim of my glasses.

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Linseed: Almost finished, it only needs about 15 minutes, miostly on the right hand & elbow.

This update skips a day, but still there is onl;y about an hour’s work since the last photo.

what next…

11°C, a lot of rain but now breaking up.

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3DS Max: Walrus, added new details, including a new engine, exhausts etcetera.

Linseed: the handprop picture- which maybe if you’re lucky I can post later.

18°C, was , now rain.

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3DS Max: the Walrus. Just some test renders, the shadows on the ocean aren’t as deep as they should be.

 

In a few weeks we go to Kefalonia. It’s famous for the place "Captain Corelli’s Mandolin " was set & filmed in. I less touristy Greek island. the cloudless sky this morning inspired me to get a polarising filter for the new camera. they are by far the most useful filter to use in photography- the onhly justification for its rather high cost. Autofocus lenses need a circular polarising filter, the traditional linear ones are only about£15, this was double.

Not a good month for my money.

22°C,

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Monster dumper truck: passed me on the way home from work yesterday. It was on the back of a trailer, towed by a much-bigger-than-usual lorry. It passed me between tweo roundabouts that are quite small, so being wary of long trailers on corners- I was very cautious. I needn’t have been. It had steering rear wheels. Wow! (in that little-lad admiring big machines way). The rear wheels turned and made the trailer swing round the roundabouts without much overhand- so no squashed cycling-art-teacher. 

I can’t find a picture of one on a trailer right now.

 

I suspect many women don’t understand the pleasure blokes get from this stuff. How they miss out.
 I got overtaken by a machine as big as a house! It’s true I tell you! You have to envy the ability to enjoy this.

 

Look now! there’s a moth bouncing off my monitor.

 

Music: "The lemon Of Pink" by The Books has arrived. Not sure if it’s a compilation or just contains some different mixes of tracks on the new album. It sounds delicious though.

7°C, rain clearing from NW

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The rest of today: a big chunk will be a cycle ride for 4 or 5 hours; Another layer on the painting; try to figure out why FB+Pe2 is crashing: got a RAM test to run on that; and finally – send April some photos of school. 

14°C, clouds.

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Bost:

Actually it’s not, but it was- I fixed it about an hour ago. I like the sound of that Brummie word, it deserves wider use. In comparison to its origin, it is more omomatoepeic.

*Thinks* that doesn’t look rightly spelt.

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13.4°( the thermometer is stuck again), rain.

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Network rail are keeping us awake at night. They start work on the line at about 11.30, and run a machine on the tracks that runs a noisy desiel engine in a train thing. It moves up and down the track in a pendulum motion, each time tichanges direction it enits a double blast of a horn. this goes on for hour after hour all night.

I’m tired of it now, but apparently they are doing this for a further month. Night after night.

Anyway- saw some interesting sculptures in Birmingham art gallery today. They are old, but back in those days no-one was ashamed of skill in making things.

Finally…

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I love the soulders in that last one. Hmm. I wonder what I can do with that….

*wanders off thinking*

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Dog trouble: Rosie is a dog that barks a lot; it’s loud too. She likes to bark at the nieghbour’s cat the most, it’s so exciting that she jumps up at the window while making that terrible racket. She has the technique of opening the door to the living room making it hard th keep her out of there, the room where she barks most. She thinks that barking at that cat is the best fun you have have with your coat on.

We’ve tried many things to restrain her, the latest being "to the shed!". That is shut her in the outside loo for five minutes then let her out. She always comes out looking a bit sheepish- which, if you had a poodle you’d understand.

I wonder though, what she thinks when I go to that loo and shut myself in. Does she roll her eyes while I’m in there?

6°C, it’s snowing now!

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Painting: The SubSveins picture is now complete and posted in the "Oil paintings finished" section. It’s the second one( or at least until I finishe another one) – press the square to restart the slideshow.

 

Won: I got the older camera of the two Sonys. See the bigger picture in the previous post.

I hope I made the right decision with that. The one I got is more versatile, but the one I didn’t feels more natual to use. Oh well… 

On the subject of photography, below are some photos of dramatic skies taken with  my current 2 mp camera. 

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Aviation Art: interesting website(Robin Smith). It seems that the best painters of this gentre began as landscape painters.

And another one, Wade Meyer– an especially interesting page, he describes the technique. Drawings of aeroplanes with the slightest errors of geometry can look hideously wrong.