Trying Something New (Arting Part 1)

I’ve been drawing much more recently. And I wanted to do a Teespring (now Spring). And then I realized that I never posted much of my art online. I settled on doing what I thought I’d never do –starting a YouTube. It was the last thing on my mind, but here I am. This is part 1 of Arting. I’m making it up as I go. Before I start, I think it should be said that I am not abandoning blogging. Nope, I’ll probably blog more about my adventures in art and my thought process. I’m also going to be adding a page as a sort of gallery; plus, I’m thinking of revamping my Instagram to include both my art and reviews. Today’s post is mostly rambling. The speedpaint will be in part 2.

I’m mainly doing digital speedpaints and it’ll be that way for a long time. I have always been drawing since I could remember. Watching art videos just came along naturally. Eventually, I got my Wacom Bamboo Fun, which was bundled with Corel Painter Essentials 4 and Photoshop Elements 8. That’s when I started watching digital speedpaints to try to learn the software. Also back then, I got Manga Studio Debut 4. (And you can imagine how mad young me was when I found out the cover art was done in Photoshop. I can’t recall, but I’m pretty sure Manga Studio itself had more abilities than Debut. Nonetheless, here’s a fun fact, Manga Studio is now Clip Studio Paint. Okay, back to the topic at hand.) Watching, re-watching, and editing my first video felt somewhat nostalgic to be honest. 

I had a couple of programs to get started. Like AMD Radeon ReLive to screen record and Blender to edit it. That combination was fun until I nearly killed my computer. Recording was constantly crashing my graphics card. I’m surprised I even got as many clips as I did. Especially since the files for the sketching and line art got corrupted. I’m really disappointed because I was happy with them too. I sped everything up in Blender from 7+ hours to 6 minutes. Now, to be fair, Blender is more for modeling and other things, not video editing. But my rendering time ended up being around 4 hours. I let that go over night, but I knew it was too much. So, I then tried to use Kdenlive. I love the layout and user interface a lot. But it wasn’t what I needed. I chopped up the second video I’m worked by a lot. As it turns out, you can’t CTRL + A (select all) and speed up clips nor connect them to do so. To have to manually select each clip to apply speed changes was not efficient. 

I tried so many open source programs. I’m currently taking a chance with Olive 0.1 since it's unsupported. I can’t merge clips, but the speed can be adjusted all at once. I still have to manually slide clips back together, but the render time wasn't too bad. About an hour for 23 minutes Back to the first video, I took the already rendered video and added the final image in Kdenlive. This ended up rendering in 36 minutes. I can’t wait to post it. Anyway, rambling over. Thanks for reading.

Artist’s Loft Necessities Acrylic Review

Today, I'm reviewing the Acrylic that came out of the 126 Gift Art Set by Artist’s Loft Necessities. (There are only ten tubes in the case. Unlike the set of 12, it doesn’t come with yellow ochre and raw umber).

I received the set in 2019. Over time, I have slowly used various things out of it. It wasn’t until recently that I used the acrylic. While my mom was trying to paint a glass ornament, I was trying it out on the paper that came with it. I immediately noticed how thin and transparent it brushed on. The paint dried horribly on the ornament and she ended up coving it with some of the other acrylics we have. Somehow, I managed to get something decent with my first painting (not pictured). Despite my first impression I wanted to try again. The next two painting are on Artist’s Loft Watercolor Pad (you can find that here). 

After I painted over with
other acrylics

Original with Artist's Loft

The first thing I dislike is that these don’t act like any acrylic I’m used to using. As I said above, it’s transparent. And no matter how much paint I picked up on the brush, it always painted thin. I even tried using a damp brush. On my second painting, it streaked badly (left). It became streakier when I tried to build up color. I even let it dry some before applying more color. Still, more streaks. I gave up and lazily filled in the hair. I wasn’t finishing it with these paints anyway.

Not everything was bad. With the next paintings, I changed the way I thought about the paints. Maybe like… a watercolor-acrylic? I started adding a lot of water to them, more than I would to reactivate watercolor. Additionally, I cut down on how many colors I mixed to get my skin tone from four to two. (Honestly, I have no idea if this really affected its performance. But, it did save on paint.)  

I was able to layer the paint a bit better with it watered down. I also controlled the streaking some by doing the wet on wet technique. Despite being hard to layer and my gripe with streakiness, this turned out to be fine for how I paint hair. So that’s somewhat a plus. 

For an attempt at fair comparison I did one more painting. The left side is Liquitex Basics. I used quinacridone magenta and titanium white. The right is Artist’s Loft Necessities. I used crimson red and titanium white. I did this for texture and opacity rather than color.

At the top of the paper is a thick and diluted swatch. I messed up the first swatch (top) for the Artist’s Loft because I accidently added more paint when I was trying to only do one swipe. So I did a smaller one under it. I went back to the paper that came with the set and it is more textured. I’m not sure exactly what type of paper it is. In the end, the Artist loft acrylic fared better but I still like Liquitex Basics (seems creamier). However, I enjoyed using it more on this paper. I struggled less with layering and getting some opacity. 

Overall, it was difficult to work with and didn’t behave how I expected it to.  Especially on smooth paper, glass, or primed canvas. But, still, I don’t think this is the worst paint ever. It would have ended up with a 2 1/2 if it wasn’t for me using heavily textured or porous surfaces –like salt dough and cold porcelain (a topic for another post). Who knows, maybe you’ll like it more than I did. 

My Pros and Cons

Pro

• Doesn’t dry fast when thick on the pallet
• Dries somewhat quick on paper
• Fine if you don’t mind thin paint

Neutral

• I somewhat like it for painting hair
• Works fine on heavily textured or porous surfaces

Cons

• Transparent and thin
• Hard to layer, and sometimes waiting until mostly dry to get some layering
• Streaks easily
• Overall difficult to work with
• Small tubes

Thanks for reading.

Book Review: Treasure Island

Title: Treasure Island
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson; Forward by Avi
Source/Format: Purchased ; Paperback
Publisher/ Release date: Aladdin; Feb 1, 2000 (First Published 1879)
Goodreads     Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Climb aboard for the swashbuckling adventure of a lifetime. Treasure Island has enthralled (and caused slight seasickness) for decades. The names Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins are destined to remain pieces of folklore for as long as children want to read Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous book. With it's dastardly plot and motley crew of rogues and villains, it seems unlikely that children will ever say no to this timeless classic.

What I Thought:

This review is going to be on the shorter side. A long time ago, when I was younger, I tried to read Treasure Island but stopped around page 124 or 125. I decided to give it another go recently. Starting over from the beginning I found that it is an exciting adventure story. The first half of the book bored me. But, I still somewhat enjoyed it. This is because the first few chapters served as an in-depth introduction to the main characters and the relationships they had with each other. Otherwise, it seemed to drag on. It was better once the characters set out to sea.

There’s not much else I want to say, so I’m going to leave it here. Overall, I did enjoy Treasure Island. It’s a classic, fun, treasure hunting story, so if it sounds interesting to you, I recommend checking it out.

Thanks For Reading!

Book Review: The Genome Odyssey (ARC)

Title: The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them
Author: Euan Angus Ashley, M.D.,Ph.D.
Source/Format: Celadon Books and BookishFirst; Paperback ARC
Publisher/ Release date: Celadon Books; (Expected) Feb 23, 2021

Goodreads     Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In The Genome Odyssey, Dr. Euan Ashley, Stanford professor of medicine and genetics, brings the breakthroughs of precision medicine to vivid life through the real diagnostic journeys of his patients and the tireless efforts of his fellow doctors and scientists as they hunt to prevent, predict, and beat disease.

Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, the price of genome sequencing has dropped at a staggering rate. It’s as if the price of a Ferrari went from $350,000 to a mere forty cents. Through breakthroughs made by Dr. Ashley’s team at Stanford and other dedicated groups around the world, analyzing the human genome has decreased from a heroic multibillion dollar effort to a single clinical test costing less than $1,000.

For the first time we have within our grasp the ability to predict our genetic future, to diagnose and prevent disease before it begins, and to decode what it really means to be human. (read the rest on Goodreads)

What I Thought:

The Genome Odyssey by Dr. Euan Angus Ashley is a wonderful ride through the world of genome sequencing. How it can help the field of science/medicine, the patient, and the patient’s families. And finally, it shines a light on the life changing impact that genomics can have. I was excited to get into to this since I have heard about the Human Genome Project over the years. Spoiler alert: it did not let me down.

Early on in the book, readers get to know Ashley’s background as he becomes interested in medical field at an early age. Also introduced are the many colleagues that joined him and their quest together to sequence genomes. Everyone got some type of introduction, so it didn’t feel like it was just random name dropping. It was the same thing with the patients too. Right off the bat, I loved that it was not overloaded with pure medical and scientific terminology. It was informative but not overly simplified. There were often brief explanations, analogies, or a short overview of the history concerning each term. Additionally, Ashley relates back to the past when researchers didn’t know much about/couldn’t figure out exactly the disease their patients were suffering from. Slowly, but surely building up to how the genome sequencing helped solve those mysteries for patients of today.  This was a slower read for me, but I still enjoyed my time reading this. 

In the end The Genome Odyssey was an interesting and informative read. It combined past and present medical history, historical achievements, personal and patient stories, technology, and company startups among other things. With everything that’s in it, I’d say it’s a well-rounded book. If this sounds interesting to you, I recommend checking it out.

*I received this book from Celadon Books and BookishFirst for this review.

Thanks For Reading!

Book Review: Finding Freedom (ARC)

Title: Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking A Life From Scratch
Author: Erin French

Source/Format: Celadon Books; Paperback ARC
Publisher/ Release date: Celadon Books; (Expected) Apr 6, 2021

Goodreads     Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:

From Erin French, owner and chef of the critically acclaimed The Lost Kitchen, a TIME world dining destination, a life-affirming memoir about survival, renewal, and finding a community to lift her up

Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad's diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. This singular memoir--a classic American story--invites readers to Erin's corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the "girl from Freedom" fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin's life triumphant. (read the rest on Goodreads)

What I Thought:

Finding Freedom is Erin French’s story and journey about not only finding freedom, but also rediscovering  herself in the process. Ironically from Freedom, Maine, she found ways to overcome the storms of her life. And in doing so, she also made more friends and family along the way.

The first few pages open casually, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. French introduces the reader to herself while she is hard at work. In part one, she often went back and forth from her young adult life, to her time as a teen, and then to her childhood. This made it somewhat repetitive. However, subsequent chapters in each part (chronologically starting in part 2) pertained to specific events in her life. At this point the book flowed freely and at a better pace. Eventually, I found that it was hard to put down. And, before I knew it, I had finished it. 

In the end, Finding Freedom is a riveting yet inspiring memoir. French takes the reader through her trials and tribulations; sometimes feeling devoid of hope. Slowly, but surely, she takes back control of her life; and, most importantly, never stops dreaming. This memoir may make you laugh, cry, and hungry… very hungry. I recommend checking out Finding Freedom, especially if it seems interesting to you. Or maybe if you would like to know more about the woman behind The Lost Kitchen.

*I received this book from Celadon Books for this review.

Thanks For Reading!