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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Sleep Tight Y'all

     


To sleep, to dream, to check out, to catch some ZZZs, that was Saturday, after the physical trainer put me through my paces non stop. On his last visit, he pushed my limits and I passed. I was rewarded with a cane.  

When I came too, I attempted this self portrait on the iPad in ArtRage.  It's the most challenging drawing i attempted. I learned a lot more about what the tools can do. The tools are the key to respectable iPad drawings. Using your finger to direct them is what causes confusion and errors. Using it to guide the tool you selected makes you think your finger is making the mark; it isn't. It's the chalk, the pencil, the air gun, the paint roller that's leaving the mark. It's how the tool is set that makings your mark extra thin or thick, sharp or soft. Naturally, a lot of erasing goes on as you stumble about familiarizing yourself with  the scope of each item in the tool box and a lot of "undo" clicks.

As I'm writing, my eye lids are growing heavy. The new pain pill really knocks me out. While I was told to take it every four to six hours, I think "as needed" is what I need. Out patient physical therapy starts next Tuesday, I have to be able to operate a machine a lot more complicated than a cane. Ellis is a great guy. I'd like to keep him that way. Sleep tight friends.

15 comments:

  1. Oh, I love it Linda! Great drawing, it will make a very nice painting! I'm so glad you're feeling better. Your doctor gave you good news, so that's the best encouragement of all. I admire your stamina, even if I know you're not top shape yet. Have a wonderful Sunday!

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    1. Thanks Helen. I'm rather surprised how well it came out. Drawing with my fat finger, I couldn't see exactly where I was guiding the tool. I used the air brush mostly. The app offers four settings for it. I chose tendrils to do most of this. I also used the paint roller, a flat paint brush and the eraser. For this drawing and the Stepping Stone piece, the eraser came in handy--not for making corrections as much as for drawing be subtraction. You have a wonderful Sunday too. Mine is going to be delightful; my son is coming over.

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    2. great job on these ipad drawings...I love this one. Good foreshortening! Sounds like you are making excellent progress with your recovery. What an ordeal it has likely been....but so worth it in the end! Looking forward to the next drawing/painting.

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    3. I spite of medication problems, I am very pleased with my decision to do this thing. Whatever pain I'm having now, I know it will go away. As for anymore iPad drawings, I'm playing it by how I feel and how much stamina I can muster. Standing at the easel is still out. The IPad is attractive because I am curious as to how the art apps work and how skilled can one expect to get. Today's drawing was pretty advanced for me. It called for me to take the shot, email it to my computer where I edited the photo and then print it out. That was the most advanced preparation I did all week. I am definitely on the mend.

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  2. This painting describes a woman in repose so perfectly it held me in fascination.
    What I am learning is the IPad is a marvelous distraction and bridge from your sphere of confinment Into your love and need for art.
    Another area you are leading me into. I bought an IPad this week.

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    1. The iPad has been a godsend. The app I've been experimenting with is ArtRage. I have a few more. When I got the device, I went to the App Store and requested all of the art apps. I installed the ones jean Spitzer used. She is fantastic on the IPad. Then learning how each one works takes time. I had the time these last couple of weeks and did not feel energetic enough to get out any of my real mediums--Tombow markers, pencils, etc. I couldn't do those things while in the reclining position the knee bending and knee icing machines required. I'm surprised and pleased with my production. I also have a long way to go.

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  3. I spent some time catching up on your posts. I admire your ability to do art and post despite everything. Great drawing for sure, and a wonderful subject - fascinating, somehow, to see the artist/subject in repose. And the writing, memorializing this time in your life - step, by painful step - so well done!

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    1. I told y'all about it all in case some one out there is considering a knee replacement not to memorialize the event. A orthoscopy is a worthwhile procedure to have to see exactly what is going on in there. That's how my docs learned I was a candidate for the newest procedure called a MAKOplasty. Whereas 7 years ago I needed a total knee replacement because I was walking bone on bone, this year, the second year the MAKOplasty has been around, I only needed cartilage between the bones. This is known as Knee Resurfacing. The recovery period is much shorter than a total replacement. The 12th day after surgery, I walking with a cane. I came bend my knee 110 degrees back. I can lift my leg perpendicular to the rest of my body. I'm doing great and when this last ache disappears, that's the end of my knee problems. I'm thrilled. AND I KEPT ON DRAWING THROUGHOUT IT ALL.

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  4. Great drawing iPad or not, I love the gestural lines and color, textures! Get well soon!

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    1. Fun to do. Easy to do in these circumstances. The one regret is an iPad drawing is never an original; it's always a print, which has no limits with regards to the number of reproduction. In that respect. It isn't Fine Art. It's a graphic.

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  5. Hope you're feeling better Linda.

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    1. Thanks Agnes. It's nice to hear from you. Travel life, I take it, has slowed down. You did take some incredible photos that aroused my "vanderlust."

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  6. Hope you're well Linda! I don't have an I-pad and can't imagine painting on one....this is wonderful...someday you can teach me..LOL

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    1. If you've had an Etch-o-sketch as a kid where you use a wooded stylus or your finger bail to draw on a gray backed piece or urethane, you had something very similar to an iPad drawing app. When you lifted the urethane, your drawing would disappear and you had a clean sheet ready for your next drawing. You'd take to it like a duck to water. Unfortunately, while an iPad drawing app is free or just a few dollars, the iPad is costly. An Etch-o-sketch was a couple of dollars at the drug store in the toy aisle.

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  7. Hello Linda!
    I am loving this computer art medium!
    I love this self portrait!
    You captured so much with lines and colors!
    Love the eyes closed.
    Be well my art buddy!
    Michael

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