Sketchbook, page 30

(Other pages)

The process of filling a 120 60 page sketchbook and posting it all by year's end continues:

"p.16 Learn to Draw with Commander Mark"
May seem goofy, but watching Commander Mark on PBS when I was in elementary school was fantastic for my drawing skills. The book you could send away for? Totally worth it.

Any of you watch him? I've yet to encounter anyone else who did.

Bonus points if you can name which past sketch in this series I learned from watching Commander Mark.


A year ago on TTaT: 20 self portraits from 1996, day 17

Life of Art SitRep #16

A series to mark what I did to further my pursuit of a life sustained by my art each week. Committing to these posts is a commitment to action, because to have content for them, I have to do something. Every week. If you have any sort of goal you're pursuing, feel free to share your efforts of the past week in the comments. Or encouragement, that's good too.

*******

This week, I

• Shot 303 photos.
• Did 5 loads of Legos. I know it sounds wrong, but it's oh so right.
• Tweeted, FB'd Memorial Weekend Sale info:

50% off posters
20% off postage
at my shop until June 1, 11:59 pm PT with code MEMORIALSALE
(Sale details)

• Added bulk discount, promo code page info to shop page on TTaT.
• Added bulk discount, promo code page to product info and card folders. Revised prints & posters folder a little.
• Revised shop intro to include link to product info folders.
• Continued to mull over my store URL, its name, possible site URLs and got some useful feedback.
  
  For simplicity and consistent branding, it makes sense to have my store's name and URL match. This potentially means setting up a new zazzle account because profile names (from which they create your URL) are unchangeable. It's still doable at this stage albeit inconvenient. Or I could change my store's name to "Claire Skinner Photos" which is my current URL sans spaces.
  
  I'm not entirely sold on making my name the brand. Thinking ahead, the dot com of my name is taken and I prefer not to add underscores or dashes to it. So there's also that. One thing I'm also conscious of from my blog is the benefit of keeping URL's short. I did not have that in mind when I named Taller Than Average Tales.
  
  Are you dissuaded from typing in URLs of sites with long names? How long is long? Any other thoughts on URLs, store names, branding, and the like?

*******

What did you do to pursue the life you want this week?


A year ago on TTaT: Once more into the fray, Done and done.

Abstracted flight

Well, going back for the moon with a better camera and tripod in tow was a bust for reasons I've yet to fathom. I take it back. Just looked at weather underground again and moon rise changes by 59 minutes each day, much more than I'd thought. So even though I was at the right place a bit after moonrise today, about the same time as yesterday, the moon still needed about another hour to clear the mountaintops. Even if I'd timed it correctly today, I wouldn't have been able to get the nice dusk sky.

Even now the moon refuses to clear the trees in my backyard, so I'll have to try that another day.

Despite my miscalculation, I did get a few cool shots of geese flying overhead.

A year ago on TTaT: 20 self portraits from 1996, day 16

Moon over mountains, essentially full

Not too bad considering the junky old camera I took these with, but not as awe-inspiring as it felt in person I'm afraid. Ah well. Maybe I can go back Friday and get it with a better camera, weather permitting. However, perhaps not to the private housing complex one might allegedly enter thinking their no trespassing sign is merely a deluded attempt at warding people off a public road. Except apparently the road is private. Allegedly.

The boat ramp has its own perks. There was a snapping turtle hanging out in the parking lot. He was rather dark and I was just hoping to get a halfway decent shot of the moon so I didn't try to get his picture though.


A year ago on TTaT: Where are the bears when you need them?, I knew it was a possibility, I'll just say this

The train's a'comin'

Shot these about a month ago. It'd been a warm day so I was wearing shorts, but the temperature dropped along with the sun and it was super windy by the tracks. Couldn't pass it up though.


A year ago on TTaT: 20 self portraits from 1996, day 14

Sketchbook, page 29

(Other pages)

The process of filling a 120 60 page sketchbook and posting it all by year's end continues:

"Bulldozer"

Yes, I noticed the missing line in the drawing; I fixed it in the original but didn't feel like re-scanning it. Left off the shading in that area for now.


A year ago on TTaT: Reprieve

A time for sorting

(Another batch of Legos out to dry.)
Turns out you really can put Legos in the washing machine.

Why would you want to? Well, mine have been living in the garage until last month.

Water alone isn't enough to get off the dust/grime. I washed a few batches in a dishpan filled with warm water and dish soap in the sink, jostling the whole concoction (scrubbing with a tooth brush when needed) and then rinsing off bits in a colander. Pretty time consuming.

Hence, washing machine.

I'm sorting out pieces with stickers, printing, metal or electric bits, and tires to do in the sink later. The rest I stick in a mesh lingerie bag for the machine.

My washing machine has a small load basket which sets inside of it so I'm using that. Warm wash/cold rinse, gentle cycle, laundry detergent. Surprisingly, it's not even loud. Might get more of a racket with no small load cylinder thing though. You could always try throwing in a few clothes to muffle the sound.

When the wash cycle is done, I shake out excess water from the Legos in the bag and then I lay them out to dry. I haven't noticed any color loss. There may be some scratching from the pieces hitting each other in the wash, but it's not like mine were mint pieces to begin with. One piece with printing on it that got past me also turned out fine.

Note the yellow and white pieces don't get as refreshed-looking as the other colors post-wash. The plastic doesn't age as well with the white, so sometimes there's yellowing that doesn't come off.

Not sure what I'm going to store them all in once I'm done, but for now, I'm sorting them into various containers I have around as I go. Keeps me out of trouble.

Anyone have any great Lego sorting techniques/methodologies?