2023.06.04
This past week Jessica and I attended a couple family reunions of sorts. Monday was Memorial Day, and getting back to a blogging routine took some time on Monday morning. I forget what day that I struggled with it. It may have been Sunday, but my emoji Yat reference weblink was not working. I had to settle with adding the blog link on the Yat page, which allows me to share my sole on-fungible token on Ethereum. All my other Ethereum non-fungible tokens are on Polygon. I don’t believe that I have ever truly bought a non-fungible token yet. Yat tells me that it is valued at over 200 dollars; good to know. I was able to achieve my goal to post on my blog daily except for Friday. I got home from serving at the temple about ten post meridiem. I decided to let myself have one day to play Yu-GI-Oh: Master Duel because I realized that I always wish that I never completely forsaken a hobby. I told Trevor that I wish that I still produced podcasts and my world news blog, ran, and played in a local community concert band. I actually intended to post on Friday night, and I couldn’t resist playing Master Duel. Next Friday I plan to leave my Nintendo Switch in the car until Saturday morning. I do little things like this to manage addicting things like social media. I don’t have my social networking applications on my personal phone. I have a separate phone for all my distracting apps, and I leave it at home.
My blog post appear to be received well. People actually react to my Instagram and Facebook Stories, and my uncle-in-law Daniel Ledesma related to my endowment officiating post, mentioning it to me at this weekend’s family reunion.
I say that they are family reunions of sorts because the Rosas family hosted a barbecue for Memorial Day, and we celebrated Grandma Ann’s eightieth birthday this yesterday. Both of these events were chaotic at first, and I didn’t feel confident conversing with people until they settled down a little. I am more comfortable in personal relationships than groups.
At the barbecue, Jennifer Rosas settled down pulling out her art resources and materials. I immediately went to talk to her because I intend to get back into art after I catch up on my blog, which I should be caught up today. She said that she wants to get some commission work, and Annah Ledesma jumped into the conversation, saying that she needs a display produced for her business.
I started listening to a lot of videos for beginner artist. I watched them a second time to write down some notes. I will summarize them. Digital Art seems to be caught up in the hardware a lot, but the acquisition of these products are not truly the foundation of art. I thought that digital painting may be a different path of digital art, but drawing is typically done to lay the groundwork for an art piece. When I start drawing again, I will probably need to learn the computer program, and how it interacts with my hardware; however, I noted these important software concepts. Tablet calibration includes spacial synchronization with the monitor and drawing tablet. The corner of the tablet should mean the corner of the monitor display. Pen pressure is also a must to figure out. Pen pressure is like comparing the piano and organ. Piano plays louder the harder that play on it. Organs have the same volume no matter how hard that you press on the keys. Pen pressure allows the program to recognize how hard that you are pressing on the drawing tablet. The canvas size should be 4K, meaning four thousand pixels. They recommend to print at 9 or 10. I don’t really know what this means it may mean quality. Layers are useful in digital art. Start with a shape layer; then, create an inking layer. Lighten sketch lines. I have written about hardware calibration and setting up the canvas. I will move on to concepts and terminology of actual drawing, but they’re still more basics to understand with art software. Don’t use smoothing. Smoothing reduces the need of dexterity, meaning the program will record less of your input; only use it if you dexterity is impossible to develop. Don’t use round brushes. Square brushes have a better edge. Talking about brushes, brushes should be hard, meaning the edge of more sharp. A soft brush has edges that fad until the edge. Soft brushes can be good for shading. Jitter appears to be a term that may have a mixed understanding. One artist said to turn off jitter as another said to have a slight opacity jitter, meaning that the line will get more see through the more soft that you press your stylus on the tablet. A couple ways to cheat strictly coloring within an area, which we are learned in coloring book, is by using alpha lock on a layer or paint within a selection. Alpha lock may have a different term in various programs. If you want to rotate or drag your canvas, space bar seems to be the universal button. It may be more drag than rotate. Zooming in a great tool, which is unique to digital art. If you don’t think that you have the dexterity to draw a smooth long line, zooming out can help. Reducing the amount of lines to create an image is important, and zooming out can help with that too. Draw big! Don’t get too caught up in the very small details that may not even be noticed zoomed out. Alt appears to be the universal button for color picking; furthermore, color wheels are superior to sliders.
The foundation/fundamentals of art are the following: Perspective, Gesture, Construction, Anatomy, Color and light theory, Story telling, Composition, and Design; however, sketching needs to have a purpose. A digital painter recommended to paint with shapes not lines. Start with two values; then move up from there. Artists should start with basic shapes and modify from there to make an identity based on the fundamentals. Perspective establishes the angle in which the object is viewed. This angle is chosen by deciding the vanishing point of the shape. Gesture is the natural movement of a creature or object. Construction is the details of the object. How is it built? What are the parts required to create the object? Anatomy is similar construction, but it is more particular to living things. It must be learned. Color and light theory is self explanatory. I don’t think that I need to go in a definition the terms are understandable to a layman. Story telling in an image is obvious too. Composition is where you put objects in the image. Design is how one makes the composition appealing.
There is a lot to learn, and the establishment of your art education’s sustainability is important. One can easily be overwhelmed or burnt out. One should start with a goal. Have an overarching goal, and many short term goals. Have the goal be specific and compelling. Keep it in mind consistently. Give yourself a timeline and schedule short term goals.
One morale principle is not to compare yourself to others. A practice recommended related to this is to not throw away or delete previous works of art, so you can study your previous work and see your progress. You should worry if the quality of your work got worse within a year.
The practice dexterity appears to be the starting point to learn drawing. Start by drawing circles and parallel lines. Draw using the least amount of lines possible. Learn to sketch quickly. References help one develop design skills, a library of creativity. Draw using references.
A starting point to learn is good, but how should one learn art? The Art Learning Method was explained as follows: There are two method one for beginners and the other is more advanced artists. Beginners should copy what you see. Study what you copied’s fundamentals. Draw it from imagination. Repeat with new perspective after learning. Advanced artist should construct what you observe. Study what you observed’s fundamentals. Draw it from imagination. Repeat with new perspective after learning. Draw what observe. Don’t draw just to copy. Observing is more than seeing. Observe references with an educated eye.
Self-educators who teach others accelerate their learning. Learn deliberately without distraction. Understand the 80:20 rule. 80% of results is a result of 20% of causes. Focus on what is most impactful. Don’t get too caught up in the details.
I have a note to block in colors, but I don’t really know what that means. Block in colors appears to be something that I need to study.
That is the start to my foundation, learning art again.
Yesterday we celebrated Grandma Ann’s eightieth birthday. She is Jessica’s grandmother. It was well organized. It was a surprise birthday. It was so surprising that there were many waves of surprises based of the distance that the various families traveled. This series of surprises was designed to give the grandmother is opportunity to hug everyone. After hugging grandma, we had family photographs. Some families came with quality cameras, and some people took pictures with their phones. John Ledesma, the oldest son, lead the program after dinner. He read the testimony of his father, and how he met their mother; then, the opportunity was given for everyone to share a message to their mother and grandmother. It was a cherished sight to see all the cousin catch up and commune with each other.
In my more comfortable personal conversations, I got to know Olivia Rosas. He told me about her art and books that she works on. She loves dragons. She told me about three books that she wrote. She carried about four cards that are part of the Demon Slayer anime; I believe. I told her about my card hobby. I actually bought a display for my cards earlier that day, and Olivia said that her cards typical fall down when she sets them on display. I told her about by science fiction book.
I also spoke with David Ledesma, learning about his profession in the sheet metal industry. I worked for a sheet metal company at one time; but a different division. I also spoke to one of Aaron’s daughters to learn about Oklahoma. She said that they need to keep track of the weather, and seek shelter in the tornado closet regularly. She didn’t recall a time that they had incurred extra expenses after a tornado.
2023.06.25
I had a goal to start practicing art once I catch up on my journal, but my productivity at home is limited. I am usually happy if I accomplish one thing after work. I have developed a habit to give my attention to Jessica once I get home.
The main thing that has happened recently is that I helped Jessica catch up on recycling. The house is more clean. It has been my focus recently to develop these habits.
Jessica and I went to the Utah Art Festival and the Salt Lake Farmers Market over the past couple weekends just looking at all the booths. I actually got a picture with Jessica that she was finally happy with at the art festival.
We ran into Hayley and Austin Lopez at the farmers market. Jessica and I also ran into Hayley months ago. Hayley is Jessica’s half sister. We were actually walking into a Target store at the exact same time. I was looking for a community to join at the Utah Art Festival, but there were just a lot of artists there, trying to sell art. I think that the booth that sold the most product was a puppet stand. Many people walked around animating their furry puppets by them to appear as though they are walking too.
My new assignment in the Jordan River Temple as an ordinance worker is to assist the person that gets the initiatory going. I realized that my callings take me away from performing ordinances, and my position at the initiatory will be for three months. I haven’t served the sacrament for months because I count the people attending the meeting, and I am probably not going to do any in the temple either. I thought that this situation is unique.
I have learned to keep my Nintendo Switch in my truck until Saturday morning to manage my relationship with Yu-Gi-Oh: Master Duel. I only play the game on that day. I do the same thing with social media. I keep it on a separate phone from my personal phone to limit its distraction in my life.
I also participated in two events/festivals in Yu-Gi-Oh: Master Duel these past two weekends. The themes were Legacy Academy and Synchro summoning. I played Counter Fairy. Counter traps have not aged well because most are triggered with the word “when,” which can easily be played around, so that was an odd realization. I played Ghoti in this year’s Synchro Festival. There may have been three already. It took my several duels to learn Ghoti. Maybe my opponents were weaker over time. I don’t know, but the deck did much better than my experience with Counter Fairies the previous week.
I posted a few weeks ago on Twitter that I have typically regretted forsaking past hobbies. I said that I wanted to balance my life around them more. These hobbies would be running, world news blogging, music, art, Yu-Gi-Oh, podcasting, and so forth.
I have started micro-blogging the world news with the Door+ app. I collect their crypto coin too. My goal is to get three thousand, so I can export them to my non-custodial wallet. The pace that I collect the coin changed the projection of my goal from decades to about a year. The Door+ gives coins for viewing news articles. If you use my referral link, that would shorten the time drastically. https://doorcoin.com/refer/?r=9123Hick
My goal is to play music instead of sing for Family Home Evening. I think that singing is awkward without a piano with just the two of us. Jessica and I finally opened our musical instruments from high school a couple weeks ago. We just need to get some things to clean and maintain the instruments before we start playing them again.
Another thing that happened is that we celebrated Victoria’s birthday. She is also known as Stephania. I mentioned that Trevor is dating her. Jessica and I have a joke that we may start a cake delivery company because we traveled so much moving with our wedding cake during the first year of our marriage. It is tradition to eat your wedding cake after the first year. The reality is that we forgot it at an apartment when we moved for an internship. We have deliver cakes to other events, and we delivered the cake that Trevor bought because he had Jessica’s friend make the cake. At the party I dueled Stephania’s brother in Yu-Gi-Oh: Master Duel. I knew that I would lose because he plays Sky Striker, and they are very good against Dinomorphia because they have a link monster that can attack directly. I almost played around her twice, but he negated my second attempt. It was good to meet her parents, and somehow Jessica and I were the Latin dancing experts in a Venezuelan home. It was good to get to know Stephania’s parents.
2023.07.02
This week I actually have stories to share. I actually played the Yu-Gi-Oh: Trading Card Game. I have a miracle story to write about from the temple. I have a four day weekend because of the Fourth of July, and the wards of my chapel met yesterday for a lunch. I also hung out with Trevor in Saturday evening.
Trevor started hanging out during the week with a couple coworkers, who play Yu-Gi-Oh, and I joined them on Monday. I let Jason look through my bulk, and take whatever cards that he wanted, since he is getting back into the game. I was slightly worried yesterday that he may have taken some of my most valuable cards. The last time I went to a Yu-Gi-Oh event. I put all my most valuable cards in my deck box to possibly trade or sell, but when I looked in my deck box it only had my cards from my TCG Legacy Packs and my Cyberstorm Access cards; however, I looked through my bulk box, and I found all my most valuable cards. I played two matches on Monday. I defeat Tristan easily, and I defeated Trevor too. I had a harder time against him because he main-decked Lava Golem. I played the match defining duel last night after we opened his StarCrossed cards.
The temple miracle story is this. I was assisting at the initiatory, and a brother came in looking to serve with his father, who is serving as an ordinance worker. We thought that he didn’t show up, but it appeared that he was late because the son said that he saw his father’s car outside. Although he was not assigned to serve at the Initiatory, he showed up about ten minutes later. I told him that his son came to serve with him, and he is in booth two. The father didn’t know that his son came. He asked if he could serve with him, and I permitted it, telling him to send out the ordinance worker that he is replacing. Both the son and the father thanked me for the opportunity. I told the father that “It is definitely a miracle.” The miracle showed God’s guidance of the work in the temple by the Holy Ghost.
One thing that I never imagined happened yesterday. At the Fourth of July barbecue I walked through the potluck line seeing homemade kimchi, and I exclaimed my excitement to find the person who made it standing in front of me. She invited me to eat her kimchi pancakes. I was even more excited. I never heard of kimchi pancakes. It was tasty.
Jessica and I was asked to lead a doctrinal discussion in Sunday school. It turned out that we were going to do it three times. We got better each time that we conducted the conversation. The first attempts were a little rough. I learned that Luke 24:13-35 can be an analogy to teach Sabbath day worship. As we commune and talk of Christ, the Lord will come and teach us. When we depart from communing with each, we should invite the Savior to come and abide with us, taking him to our homes.