sidewalk tourism: magnolias...

The magnolias had a decent run this year. Usually they bloom and then it immediately snows...

Enjoy your spring!

sometimes I wonder...

Sometimes I wonder what the point is... of blogging.

I wonder why I feel compelled to do it, and yet when I sit in front of the computer or think about what I would blog — my mind draws a blank.

Who's reading this thing anyway? My parents? Some random person who remembers people they went to high school with? People I work with?

I wonder this publicly, perhaps to no one, because after a long absence I wrote a couple blog entries and had changed the posting of comments to moderated... and then looked at the comments that were awaiting moderation and they are 100% spam.

I was on vacation this week... and it was, perhaps, despite many things, very enjoyable.
I had no plans. It rained. I went nowhere. For a day or 2 I had no car because I took it in for a repair.
I didn't blog. I didn't spend hours compulsively clicking on things on the internet. I did nothing on etsy. I didn't set the alarm clock. And in spite of that — I did stuff.

I didn't even finish anything, but I just spent hours doing stuff unencumbered by the notion of having to interact with other people or wonder about opinions and feelings and it was like the greatest vacation ever.

So I do, I wonder why I feel compelled to blog.  What is it that I really have to share? In 7 paragraphs I don't have the answer to that, just that I do still wonder.

Maybe when spring finally hits and I feel compelled to go outdoors and do something, then I will know.

the pageantry of bad photos

If I was more ironic,  then, well, I'd be more ironic... or I might be content with these things because their flaws are an expression of character or something.

I wanted one of those macro shots of a magnolia petal on the ground, but well, it was windy and I was standing at the end of some stranger's driveway essentially photographing leaf litter, and well, that's always weird... I seem to have missed my shot. The cement is in focus though - I mean that little part at the top.

 Over-lit... I mean the "dirt" looks good, but then there's the other 90% of the picture.

 You would think I took this photo on Mars — based on the red glow. Nope, just my camera's aperture not agreeing with my lighting.

 This is certainly not glamorous, but it usually does the trick: natural light.

 ...except, of course, I was interrupting the construction.

...and then there's the wind. Yes, thanks, wind.

 This would have been the previous shot.

 I'm bringing back bad lighting, and 1980's Sears catalog floral bedding selection patterns...

...if I try it indoors I can make it look even worse.
It's a white card and a white envelope - no attempts at photography thus far have provided satisfactory results.

 The inane things that have nothing to do with the actual task at hand are always infinitely more entertaining - look, its lichen or moss or something!

Oh, yes, yes I did. I got a nice shot of some nice green lichen right after it rained, and it's got that macro blur on it... Of course, this isn't a picture of a greeting card, so, its not terribly useful, but at least it was a decent shot. Perhaps its time to put the camera down for a bit and wait for the answer to come to me like the solution to a mystery on House or something. Damn, I'm going to miss that show when its final season ends. And, yes, I had a little school girl crush on Chase...

I sat down and caught up on "The Big C" yesterday afternoon. Somehow since the season premiere I managed to miss an episode. It's a well performed & well written show, I recommend giving it a try.
And maybe later this week I'll muster up the ability to take some usable photos. Maybe.

Anyway, I thank you for enduring the pageantry of bad photos, I actually have a lot more, but, well, I think you get the point...

Outside: magnolia

Magnolia, oh magnolia, you dear dear bush...

magnolia fantasia

magnolia cascade

magnolia skies

intricate magnolia

As I have mentioned before, here in Michigan when the magnolia finally blooms it then usually immediately snows. So, the bushes look fabulous for about a day, and then they are covered with snow and turn all brown and sad looking... and then all the petals fall off in a spectacular mess.

Well, we had 80˚F weather here for a week in March, so, I got my time with the magnolias.  It is a balmy 53˚F presently as I type this.  It rained during the night and the forecast predicts more rain. So, there-yah-go — we had our brief week of spring, and now it's back to weather as usual.

brief almost connected to the post musical interlude: Grateful Dead "Sugar Magnolia"

I was never a Dead-Head, per se, but "American Beauty" is an album that I happen to own. I'm one of those people who usually buys an album for one or 2 songs, and then eventually ends up listening to the entire thing, and well, I become fond of all the songs.  And "American Beauty" was one of those albums that followed that pattern. I'm pretty sure I probably bought it solely for "Sugar Magnolia." But I became quite fond of "Ripple," "Till the Morning Comes," and "Operator." But actually it was "Box of Rain" that I became completely smitten with. (Oh, and I'm pretty sure everyone has heard "Truckin" and "Friend of the Devil," unless, like, you live under a rock or were born after 1990)

Anyway, I could put "Box of Rain" on repeat for hours, I love that song. So, you know, buy the album, you'll eventually find all the good songs.

Anyway, as it is every year with the magnolias:

"Such a long long time to be gone

And a short time to be there."

—Robert Hunter

Enjoy your weekend!

so beautiful or so what

So beautiful or So what? So, I'm a little behind on my musical releases... that's just kind of how I am. You know what? I didn't go out and buy skinny jeans whenever those became "stylish" again. It is what it is. Right now I have this song —  so beautiful or so what — stuck in my head. So, that's so what.

 Paul Simon's website...

Truth be told, I just took a shower. So, as I type this I'm waiting for my hair to dry.  Normally, I default to TRESemmé shampoo and Pantene conditioner.  I'm a creature of habit. But every once in a while one must be adventurous, or just wash all the residue out of one's hair. So, I liked the way this smelled. Yes, as a consumer of hair care products, these 2 Herbal Essences products had all the necessary marketing tricks:

√  purple stuff comes out of the bottle

√  the bottle is purple

√  alleges to smell like "wild cherry"

√  use of the word "orchid"

Okay, so I actually think it kind of smells like grapes. But, well, it made my hair all snazzy when I used it. In the event that it's not apparent — violet (and by proxy all purple derivatives) is my favorite color. I love cherries, and I have long curly hair.

 

I also like cake. Strawberry with cream cheese frosting... mostly because that's what I found in the cupboards. Mmm, cake.

I decided, on a whim, that I wanted to do some watercolors... which might have something to do with the sudden influx of watercolors to my sarahknight etsy shop.  You know, when I list them I have to leaf through the pile and make sure that I've scanned them, and then I'm probably day dreaming about my fantasy house with all my paintings on the wall or something.

Anyway, yesterday  when I got home from work I sat down and caught up on the last 2 episodes of Californication and cleared off a good area on the floor in order to get out my case of paints, the box of watercolors, the box of gouache, the set of gouaches, the watercolor palette, the gouache palette, the bowl of salt... and then I spent a good 10 minutes cleaning up paintbrushes so that I would have something with which to fling wet pigment at the parchment...

I highly recommend Californication as a series.  I always enjoy being surprised by the plot twists on this show... and like Hank, I can't exactly say I have any fondness for Tyler...

I painted 14 yesterday, and four so far today. And now I'm waiting for them to dry. That's probably the hardest part.  There's a difference between the way they look when they're wet and how they look when they're dry. And even though I've been using this painting technique for 12 years — there's always an element of surprise, and it's usually the good kind.  I already scraped the salt off the 14 I painted yesterday, and it's going to be hard to not put most of them in the "keep pile."

Some notable keep pile escapees... here, and here, and here, and here...

It's unseasonably warm here in Michigan right now. A couple days ago I got my bike out of the shed and pumped up the tires. The first ride after the winter lay off is always the toughest... anyway, the crocuses have already bloomed, and now the daffodils, the forsythia, and the magnolia are going at it. I'm convinced it's going to snow tomorrow, even if the calendar indicates that spring has now begun.

Anyway, I recommend having a nice slice of cake and then going out to wander about and look at all the springy things popping up here and there... and maybe catch up on some Paul Simon too.
: )

the anonymous sale

8X8 inch photos are on sale at sarahknight.etsy.com
browse here

"into spring"

Every now and then, I suppose in the hopes of selling something or perhaps amusing myself, I put things in my etsy shop on sale. And I make an announcement on a couple of etsy teams and on twitter... and I rarely, if ever, actually sell anything that is on sale. It's like an exercise in futility.

I think, sometimes, that blogging is like an exercise in futility as well. And that in a way we're all anonymous on the internet, and on some levels we'd like to connect with other people (let's keep it platonic) and then there are all the things we consider to be personal... keeping that separation between the two takes some kind of discipline. Disregarding it is often more fun, at least for the moment in which it happens.

The future is that nebulous place where we'll remember to clean the grout or better organize the office or regret things.

So, I make things, and I have a shop online, and I'm having a sale. The sale ends 2-14-2012, or whenever I get around to changing the prices back. Evidently Valentine's Day is on a Tuesday this year. Yes, I just walked over and changed the calendar to February. Things move slowly here like that sometimes. And yet time marches on regardless of my calendar.

It's still cold here, even though it is a mild winter. The days are shorter. And since I work midnights it's dark out when I leave for work and it's dark still when I'm driving home. Winter is always kind of a dark time. Truthfully, it's a lot of time indoors with artificial light, so, in a way it seems like an unreal period.

I like my television though. So I've really enjoyed Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, the Finder, Californication, and Archer. Yes, I'm 32, and that's my demographic. Plus, I think I have a slight crush on David Giuntoli. Yeah, he's dreamy. Don't worry, Jared Padalecki and Geddy Lee — I still have crushes on you too.
That's probably the over-sharing part that I'll consider regretting later... but won't. I'm a lazy crush, it's not like I write letters or visit fansites. Yeah, I watch the tv shows and I buy the albums, that's it.
So, anyway, if you enjoy passive entertainment - then check out those shows.

A few days ago I also got out my copy of "Atom Heart Mother" by Pink Floyd. In case you were unaware, Pink Floyd is the greatest band on earth. Yes, that's right: Pink Floyd is the greatest band on earth. Damn, they were awesome. I don't think I've listened to that record in a couple years. It's refreshing to just press play and be blown away by artistry.

Anyway, things may be a little lax here from time to time, as this is my blog about me on the internet. And as it turns out, my life is basically working a full time job, driving to and from work, the occasional spurt of cleaning around the house, taking pictures when the weather is nice, painting, drawing, illustrating, watching television and the occasional movie, buying groceries, doing laundry, feeding the fish, and trying to get to bed on time.
Oh, and I write too; and I don't exactly mean this blog. I mean fiction.

I started a project about 10 years ago. And now is apparently the time when I feel compelled to work on it. It's exciting to embark on a new endeavor, even if it's an old endeavor that you've been shuffling around in piles on the floor or desk for years.

So be well, and keep yourself entertained.

Outside: magnolia

As many of you know — we had some severe weather here in the United States this past week, including tornadoes in the Southern States. Well, I live in Michigan, so we just had rain, rain, more rain, and finally one giant thunderstorm that overflowed every river, stream, lake, and farm field or low area. I was at work listening to the rain pound on the metal roof when it happened... and then drove home on those country highways punctuating farm fields that looked like they were full of chocolate milk. Weather is not to be taken lightly.

Anyway, it finally stopped raining — just in time for the art walk. It was nice to finally participate in that event without rain.

In the mean time, the magnolias around these parts have been ready to bloom. That always seems to happen right when we're having inclement weather. Magnolias just have the weirdest timing. They're such pretty bushes, but it always seems to be gloomy out when they bloom, so, there was some photoshopping that took place with these photos... to make them seem less somber.

They are actually all other people's magnolias, since ours has yet to open. Hopefully it doesn't snow tomorrow or something equally wacky like that.

Outside: birds in spring

Well, Happy Easter!

Maybe since it's technically Easter Sunday as I begin typing this at 2am EST — I'll get around to coloring some Easter eggs today. It just wouldn't be me if it wasn't done at the last minute.

Truth be told, I've been sick. I seem to have acquired some sort of cold. I never seem to just get the sniffles, no, every cold has to be some sort of hacking / coughing nightmare with a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, and a fever. I slept for 11 hours today... and believe me, I did not wake up feeling well rested. I think I want to go back to bed.

Anyway, the weather seems to have decided to coordinate with the way I feel. It's cold and rainy and dull, and rainy, and then it hailed... You know, c'mon, weather — it's April, could you act kind of springy already? Could we have some sunshine and some calm skies.

Anyway, before I was hit with this virus, I wandered out and took some photos. The red-winged blackbirds are holding steady to their territory in the marsh. And yes, that third shot is a sandhill crane — believe me it is not a Canada Goose. We have Sandhill Cranes and Great Blue Herons in these parts — so when a giant bird flies over I always have to pause and wonder which one it is. Sandhill cranes fly with their neck fully extended. Great Blue Herons fly with their neck tucked back to their bodies.

The last three shots were taken in the backyard. The bluebirds have returned (sometimes we wonder if they really ever leave). They're scoping out territory in the backyard and waiting for warmer weather. The pussy will has been waiting to bloom. It got all fuzzy and cute... and then the weather got cold. Hell, it even snowed one day. Yes, there was the magnolia bush out back covered with buds which were blanketed with snow. Really, weather, c'mon, enough with winter already.

It seems to be warming up, so hopefully I can ditch this cold... particularly by Friday - because that's the Art Walk. If you're anywhere near Tecumseh, Michigan: Friday 29 April 2011 is the annual Tecumseh Art Walk. I'll be at Timeless Stitches, so if you're in town, then please stop by. The event is 6-9pm. Hopefully this year it doesn't rain!

Picture Story: spring sing

Technically, I was on vacation this week. Vacation, as it turns out was mostly about sleeping and not having to wake up at the sound of an alarm clock. Plus it was about getting some work done on some projects that I have been procrastinating on for a long long time. I am a hell of a procrastinator. But, I did finally take all the snowflakes down — my winter decor consists of my ginormous collection of plastic / resin glitter covered snowflakes (see this post for my hilarious prediction).

Anyway, now I have to hang the butterflies and the hummingbirds... which I just haven't quite gotten to yet.

In the mean time — a picture story: spring sing.
I finished this illustration in the spring of 2009 (see last graphic), but I probably technically started it around 2005. This first graphic is actually a painting. It was painted with acrylics with details done in prismacolor on illustration board. The original is actually 11X14 inches. But via the magic of a scan and a size format change in photoshop it became an 8X10.

What I actually did was I flipped the image horizontally, and then lightened the resized copy of the painting in photoshop and then printed that and drew an outline around everything. Then I scanned that outlined copy and adjusted the file until all I had was the outline on a white background.

When I have an inked copy, then I make a sample fill of every part as a separate layer. So I fill all the tulip flowers with one color, all the petals with one color, the grass, the tree trunks, the leaves, the sky, and the clouds. Because I am going to use scans or paintings or drawings, or digital photos to actually fill in the those parts.

This is a size reformatted portion of a scan of an 11X14 acrylic painting called "geranium sunrise." It's what would eventually become the background of "spring sing." Of course, I had to reformat it 8X10, and then I would go on to lighten the entire painting by creating a layer of white, playing with its opacity and then merging that to the layer of the scan of the painting.

The yellow warblers that appear in the painting were drawn separately. They were drawn with prismacolors. That drawing was scanned, and all the white space was removed. The clouds were created using the paintbrush in photoshop, and then using a layer fill style over the background. The sheet music that appears in the background was scanned, and then manipulated using the warp tool so that it is wavy instead of linear.

The leaves of the trees were created from a digital photo that was manipulated and resized. The original image is actually of maple leaves on the ground. The tree trunks were created from a layer I created by layering several different colors with several different brushes and then using filtering effects in photoshop.

The grass was also created from a photo. It's actually a picture of the grass in my neighbors yard (and this particular photo has been used in a number of my illustrations when I need grass, which I always think is kind of funny since my neighbor will mow his lawn on a diagonal and this shot is clearly of some grass that hasn't yet been cut) . The tulip flowers and leaves were both taken from the same scan that was used for the background.

And through the magic of layering styles all these things come together to create the illustration. You can see the finished piece here in my "sarahkdesigns" shop on Etsy.

If you're anywhere near Tecumseh, Michigan: Friday 29 April 2011 is the annual Tecumseh Art Walk. I'll be at Timeless Stitches, so if you're in town, then please stop by. The event is 6-9pm.

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring : )

weekend watercolors

On a leisurely Saturday a few weeks ago I sat down with the remainder of a pad of watercolor paper and got out my watercolors and a couple bottles of acrylic paint and sat down on the floor in front of the paper cutter. I had this idea floating around in my head that I wanted to experiment with mixing some very watered-down acrylic paint with my watercolor pigment and see what happened. You know, there's a first time for everything.

I also finally got around to watching "Shutter" from the OnDemand menu. "Shutter" was one of those movies that when I saw the preview commercials on tv — I was like "oh, I want to see! that" Of course, I never get around to actually going to the movies. So, either I'll see it 5 years later at 2am sometime on cable, or maybe I'll find the dvd bin at Walmart. So, yes, there it was on the OnDemand menu, beckoning me. I like horror movies and well, I watch Joshua Jackson as Peter on"Fringe" (which is an awesome tv series).

So, I sat down in front of the papercutter with my paints and began experimenting. For the most part, I kept the two types of pigment completely separate from one another until I had them on the paper. Most of the acrylic paint I was using was either white or a milky sage green color. So, there was a sort of pastel / spring feel to all the paintings. Plus the other colors I was using were blue / periwinkle / purple / rose colored, so there wasn't like red or orange or anything dark or citrusy. The colors are saturated, and yet the tones are muted... at least — that's what I think of as "muted."

I suppose it's kind of strange to know that I make such colorful springy paintings while watching scary movies...

As usual, I sat down and named them. And generally, this is when I realize there are a couple of them that I can just never part with... and those end up is a special pile.
And sometimes when some time has passed and I'm sitting there listing them I think "really, this didn't end up in the keep pile?"

This is one of the ones that I'd probably rather keep. Of course, purple is my favorite color : )

“midnight plum phantasmagoria”

These are the others:
“mulberry mauve morning”
“violet morning glory”
“violet morning dew”

Is it spring yet?

I wish it was — spring. It snowed again this week, the day after we had fog as thick as pea soup (at least, I assume it was as thick as pea soup — I've never had pea soup, I've never really been into peas). So, yes, hey there Weather, I'm ready for spring if you're getting tired or being all wintery.

The calendar indicates that Spring begins on Sunday, 20 March 2011. Living in Michigan — I'm skeptical of this. I suspect it will still snow in April. However, in the spirit of spring, and well, because I was working on cards this week, I've been rifling through my photography.

Last year I decided to take a lot of pictures of the Bradford pear tree blossoms. And so, they sit there in my iphoto, and every now and then I look through them. And a few weeks ago I decided to experiment with the Photoshop, as it were.

When I take pictures, I don't exactly consciously think about all the things that go into an image, like composition, placement, focus, visual focus, balance, color, lighting, atmosphere, oh, and then all those 'photography' concepts. Unconsciously, I'm sure they occur to me. But, a lot of the time when I'm taking pictures the immediate thought is: hey, green focus box, let's come up now, buddy.

When I was taking the pictures of the Bradford pear I wanted close-ups of the blossoms, and was hoping for some cool looking bokeh in the background. The lighting is provided by nature. The best natural light for photography happens in the morning, it changes by the season, but it's after sun-up but before noon. At noon, when the sun is high — the shadows will be severe. When the lighting is atmospheric — the shadows are less severe. Obviously, if you're going for high contrast, then this wouldn't be the lighting for you.

So, yeah, blossom close-ups, bokeh, atmospheric light. My camera is an autofocus, and I just go with that. It's digital, if I don't think it focused the way I wanted, then I can just take more shots from the same angle. I have a memory card and plenty of rechargeable batteries.

The first shot is the original photograph. The second shot is the result of cropping, manual color adjustment, manual brightness adjustment, manual application of a filter, and layering effects.

before

"spring nostalgia" by Sarah Knight

There's something about the way the background blurs, combined with the color palette, and the subject matter that just reminds me of images from long before I was born (yes, I know, to some of you I am so just a kid) but to me the image I created reminds me of sixties photography. You can find "spring nostalgia" in my 'sarahknight' shop on etsy.

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Now, on a related but different note...
A large part of my week was consumed by the creation of an Etsy Team: Artists

It's a treasury team for Artists. If you've ever read my etsy profile, you may know that I've been making art since I was a toddler. So, I don't just think of art as paintings, drawings, sculptures, or statues. Photography is art. Collage is art. Prints are art. Illustration is art. I could rail off media all day long, but I think you get the point. Art isn't limited to media that happened to exist in the year 1200. Besides, there's ceramics, fiber art, embroidery, art jewelry, fashion art, domestic arts, etc. So, the Artists team is for folks on etsy who make art & are interested in promoting art through making 'artcentric' treasuries.

If you're interested, then come check us out.
And you can see some of our treasuries here.

Have a fun week, and find some art in something!