To live in a beautiful world free of crime,hunger, and sickness was Once Just a Dream. To live forever and enjoy eternal youth was Once Just a Dream. To be at peace and enjoy the company of all the animals of earth and have the time and opportunity to develop talents and learn new things forever was Once Just a Dream. Now it is as close as tomorrow.
This is the latest version of a painting I have been working on for about12 years, mainly because I don’t even know another artist and I have been trying to figure it out on my own in my spare time.
Perfection and eternal youth in a peaceful world free of sickness and filled with friends and adventure.
Lit., “according to its kind (genus).” Heb., lemi•noh´; Gr., ge´nos; Lat., ge´nus. The term “kind” here means a created or family kind, its older meaning or definition and not as present-day evolutionists use it.
I would like to start by talking about how grammar relates to symbolism, and in this case the article which comes before the noun. It is the article which determines whether the noun is definite or indefinite. For an example I might ask the question ” Am I sitting on “the chair” or “a chair”?” If I say “a chair” what I mean by the use of the indefinite article is that this is a type of chair; “type” meaning that this chair represents all members of it’s group, or other chairs. If I say “the chair” then I am implying that this chair is identifiable unique in some way, so that it is separate and distinct from anything comparable.
“Type” is something representative or symbolic of something else, and if you look it up in a dictionary “type” can also mean “kind” or “sort”. Thus if I point to someone and say “He is a type of man”, then what I am also saying is that this one human is representative of all others of his kind, or those related to some degree in a family. In this sense I would be very close to a “Genesis kind”, for the kind mentioned in Genesis is similar to the modern scientific usage of the word “Family”. Family is the entire available gene pool which can be combined by sexual reproduction, though there may be some damaged individuals which have a mutation that makes them unable to do so.. You can breed a wolf and a coyote, but not a wolf and a tiger. Some of these combinations are more stable or persistent than others and may do so for many generations, and in modern usage are referred to as “species”, with “genus” being groups of species being most similar and a variant or variety is what results from species which are less stable.
Genotype is like the definite article, for it is the unique blueprint of each organism , the representation or symbol of the “Phenotype” which is both all the physical traits and the guide as to how it interacts with the individual environ. Similar plants which grow today may have reacted much differently to their environment in the past because the environment was much different. There is not enough surviving DNA contained in fossils to positively state that ancient organisms are a different genotype than those which survive at this point in time, if this statement were not true then it would be possible to clone ancient life forms, but so far even the attempt to clone mammoths have failed because even perfectly frozen DNA have been bombarded by cosmic rays through the centuries and have had too much accumulated damage.
So “type” is indefinite or representative of the antitypical kind , the “family” of which it is a part, and a genotype is the definite blueprint for an individual representative of the kind to which it belongs. Of course it does add to the confusion somewhat that if you look up genotype in a dictionary a secondary meaning is the larger group to which it is a member of, but I was using “genotype” in the more limited sense, for I referred to “the genotype inherited from both parents.”
In recent years, the term “species” has been applied in such a manner as to cause confusion when it is compared with the word “kind.” The basic meaning of “species” is “a sort; kind; variety.” In biologic terminology, however, it applies to any group of interfertile animals or plants mutually possessing one or more distinctive characteristics. Thus, there could be many such species or varieties within a single division of the Genesis “kinds.”
I believe that I am finished with this painting. It is time to move on to the next project. The girl and the tiger are drawn to the same scale. The girl’s eyes are drawn on a scale 7/6 times the rest of her face. It is called “Harmony”, which is what the Chinese word in the background means. 
A double begonia sempervirens on my kitchen windowsill.
Most of the plant is Carbohydrates, which are any of a group of organic compounds that includes sugars, starches, celluloses, and gums and serves as a major energy source in the diet of animals. These compounds contain only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, usually in the ratio 1:2:1., with the general composition ratio of CH2O, such as Glucose, C6H12O6, and Cellulose, (C6H10O5)n . The C and O come from carbon dioxide which is the main source for the dry mass of the plant. The H comes from H2O (water). The atomic weights of Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen, are 12, 16 and 1, respectively. The molecular
weight of CH2O is 30 so 2/30 x 100 =3D . So 6.7 % of its mass comes from water and 93.3 % from Carbon dioxide. This figure is apart from the water itself, of which a living plant may contain about 50%. About 5% of the dry mass consists of mineral nutrients from the soil although this can be higher in some species.
What we can say is that a plant is designed to construct itself from mostly air and water, with elements from the soil needed in only minute quantities, as in, for example, catalysts. The main elements needed from the soil are potassium and phosphorus, and every element which makes up a plant has its own unique cycle for reuse by other plants and animals. In some soils where they is a lot of rain it is better for these elements to be in a living organism than for them to be freely available in the soil where they would be leached out by rain, or just the opposite where these elements would be concentrated into a dangerous level in the ground water. All of this gives evidence , to me at least, of a supremely wise designer.
Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
Free Graphic Software Program
SmoothDraw is a natural painting and digital free-hand drawing software that can produce high quality pictures. Support many kinds of brushes (pen, pencil, dry media, airbrush, bristle brush, image hose), retouch tools, layers, image adjustment, and many effects. Works great with tablets and Tablet PC. Includes: Many customizable brushes (pen, pencil, airbrush, bristle, dry media, image hose, spray, watercolor and so on); Retouch Tools as blur, sharpen, smudge, dodge, burn; Image transform, adjustments and effects; Draw and paint in super quality, with special subpixel level smoothing for thin lines – better than Painter some time; Layers and Layer blend modes; Free canvas rotation; Tablet pressure support.
http://download.cnet.com/SmoothDraw/3000-2192_4-11164592.html
The download button at top is an advertisement for "Spy Doctor", the "Smooth Draw" download is the green icon. It is a nice little program that is easy to use.
Here is the approach to perspective I used in "Aly’s Lion".
To figure out the scale at any point by measuring to that point from the horizon:
(( 1- (( horizon height from base – y from the horizon) divided by horizon height from base)) times base scale)
To figure the distance:
(1 divided by (1-(( horizon height from base- y from horizon) divided by horizon height from base)) times ground distance)
However, the problem is that it is not convenient to measure from the horizon, or where the eye level falls on the paper, because often you can’t see where it is, and because the measuring of it from there would smudge up the drawing.
So we can measure from the ground instead:
((( the value of the horizon height from base – y from the ground) divided by the value of the horizon height from the base) times the base scale)
This would correspond to a one point perspective. I figured the station point at the corner of her eye on your right side. For the scale of each point of x (what is to your right or your left) , and how it would diminish with distance from the viewer (the z ) I visualize two imaginary lines running through the station point. One is the horizon, which is the y line, and the other is perpendicular to it which is the x. The base scale on this picture was 35/138 of life and the ground is 11 and 1/2 feet away. The way I figured that is by measuring from the corner of the eye to the chin . when the head is level and not tilted up or down this chin to eye corner distance this is usually 20/39 of the chin to crown distance of the head, and the head here is 9/70 of the figure height. The face here is based on Alyson Michalka. I figure her head is 8 and 3/4 inches from chin to crown and that would make her 68 inches tall. I haven’t done a detailed study of her proportions yet though. So it is just my working theory at the moment.
There are some problems with my perspective approach here. Imagine that you are looking at a wall. If it is the same height of your eye line and perpendicular to you then the top of the wall marks your horizon. The ends of the wall to your right and left are farther away from you than is the center, and if you drew a wide enough scene of the wall you would have to diminish the scale to the right and left towards the horizon. The way I drew "Aly’s Lion" wouldn’t do that, that is diminish with the distance of positive X or negative X
So I think that I need to re-think it a bit. I’m thinking about use rho, which is the square root of radius squared plus distance (z) squared. The radius is the square root of x squared plus y squared. On my calculator you could also say that rho is the square root of x squared plus y squared plus z squared. There is a small difference in the results but this is literally not rocket science. It is really hard to mentally fathom a three dimensional triangle but basically rho is the hypotenuse of the three dimensional right triangle where the other sides are x (right or left), y (up or down), and z (the distance straight in front of you.)
So what I would like to do is use rho to determine scale, and have a formula which includes angles of view. Our normal angle of view that is in sharp focus id considered to be the arc tangent of 1/4 from the horizon (the center vertex of our cone of vision) , to the ground ( where the cone intersects it). I think it would be great to draw a scene with a "fish eye" view where the scale diminishes quickly with distance from the station point, or of a telephoto view where the scale diminishes slowly from the station point.
My two limitations are time, and the fact that I am not very good at math. If anyone enjoys a little challenge, and is good at math I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks
I remember when I was in school many years ago a teacher told me that I was born in the wrong century. She wasn’t talking about art, but the statement would apply to that too, since our culture, and intellectual approach to the world we are in is partly dependant on where we are in the stream of time. One of the most artistic things that I have ever seen is a photograph of a sculpture of a Japanese woman in a Kimono kneeling and serving tea. It was done in pink quartz by an artist who lived in the fourteenth century. That is the epitome of what art is to me, but of course to the mainstream art world my view would be considered simplistic.
I guess some people would call it art simply because of the technical difficulty of depicting realism in that medium, but to me that is besides the point. It is something beautiful to look at, but more than that also. What that type of artist does is to capture something intangible and communicate that idea, feeling, philosophy, and that moment, to someone else who simply looks at what they have done. Let me illustrate what I am trying to say with another art form, and a bit of history:
A parable of tea master Sen-no-Rikyu (16th century):
Sen-no-Rikyu built a garden enclosed by a tall hedge that blocked the view of the sea. The client was unhappy – until he bent to wash his hands in the water basin. The sea then became visible in a gap between the hedges and the client smiled. As the tea master had hoped, the client realized the intent behind the design. His mind made the connection between the water in the basin and the great ocean and thus between himself and infinite universe.
I’m a Christian, but I can still appreciate the symbolism. The reason why I use "bamboo" in my artist signature is because of the symbolism. One description of it is this: " A humble but upright man who bends with adversity but maintains his integrity". This is a symbolism often found in Chinese culture whixh historically is very artistic and built upon symbolisms. Art may not be a thing made, for instance, but simply an arrangement to observe nature and learn to live in harmony with it. Consider the idea of the gallery and the borrowed view.
Perhaps I am thinking in the past. Have you heard of Leon Battista Alberti, the Philosopher, architect, musician, painter and sculptor? He wrote "Descriptio Urbis Romae", the first systematic study on the reconstruction of the Roman city. Inspired by the art of antiquity, he elaborated the theory of beauty being harmony, that it can be expressed mathematically in every way and that the "proportions" of the Roman buildings contain the basis of architectural design.
Measuring and scale are important aspects of the Art form of sculpture where a small scale model, or Maquette, may be designed first and then the larger one be measured from it
Then Alberti wrote on painting. Inspired by the order and beauty inherent in nature, his groundbreaking work, Della pittura, sets out the principles of distance, dimension and proportion; instructs the painter on how to use the rules of composition, representation, light and color to create work that is graceful and pleasing to the eye; and stipulates the moral and artistic pre-requisites of the successful painter.
Alberti regarded mathematics as the common ground of art and the sciences. "To make clear my exposition in writing this brief commentary on painting," Alberti began his treatise Della pittura, "I will take first from the mathematicians those things which my subject is concerned." In both Della pittura and De statua, a short treatise on sculpture, Alberti stressed that "all steps of learning should be sought from nature". The ultimate aim of an artist is to imitate nature. Painters and sculptors strive "through by different skills, at the same goal, namely that as nearly as possible the work they have undertaken shall appear to the observer to be similar to the real objects of nature".
That is how I think too. I use a mathematical model sometimes, a form of “Maquette”, to design and portray a face, a figure, or a scene, and my long term project is to make a simple description of curvilinear perspective.
The native Americans believed that not only every living thing, but also objects have a spirit. There is a waterfall named Manitou falls: it is French, from the Ojibwe word "manitou."In Algonquian religious belief, a supernatural power that permeates the world, possessed in varying degrees by both spiritual and human beings. This is a little but similar to the belief of some people that God is "omnipresent".
I don’t believe exactly the same, as far as God is concerned, but to me part of what an artist does is to capture the spirit of a place or thing, through the symbol of it, and communicate that spirit to another person.
One thing that was interesting to me in reading about art history is how many artists used the camera obscura to try and capture and portray realism, but most of them hid this fact from the art world in general because if it came out they would lose their reputation.
I use whatever tools I can. I don’t like tracing paper, and so far do not use any form of projector either, but sometimes I use a modified grid made up of triangles and plotted reference points for accurately getting down the form of things. I also do not use vanishing points, since one of the goals of my approach is to avoid the use of them. I do believe that visual art should be beautiful, interesting, or educational, and that is where my personal philosophy comes in. i do not believe that my tastes are superior to that of anyone else, but i do not apologize for it either, or consider it the less of another’s opinion: it is what it is.
I
n 1955 the United States Department of Agriculture was trying to control soil erosion in Puerto Rico , and towards that end they planted slash pine seedlings . However at first these refused to grow. So after some investigation the scientists came to the conclusion that these pines had a symbiotic relationship with certain fungi in their native habitat and so when these were introduced into the soil the pines trees grew and flourished. This is called the “mycorrhizal association” and means that the finest roots of the vascular plant become joined to the fungus threads so that each one can benefit the other. In this case the fungus is called an “ectophyte”, a plant which lives upon the surface of another. If you look the word up, or entophyte, it is usually described as a parasite, but in the vast majority of cases it is really a partnership. Even when a plant is described as being a parasite there may be something else to the relationship. An example which comes to mind now is that of the plant commonly called “Indian Paintbrush”.
Castilleja, commonly known as Indian paintbrush or Prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes, as well as northeast Asia. These plants are classified in the family Orobanchaceae, They are hemi parasitic on the roots of grasses and forbs.
What is general mentioned is that in soils containing selenium this is taken up and concentrated in the roots and leaves of this plant. I have also read that this is true of heavy metals in general. Perhaps further research will show that this is of benefit to the plants which are in a partnership with Castilleja,. The dry alkaline soils where this native wildflower is found are high in minerals which can make it hard for the osmoses method which plants use to take up water more difficult.
I first read about this as a teen ager in the 1970’s when I borrowed books by Sir Albert Howard through the Texas inter-library loan system.
Endophyte
An endophyte is an endosymbiont, often a bacterium or fungus, that lives within a plant for at least part of its life without causing apparent disease. Endophytes are wide spread and have been found in all the species of plants studied to date; however, most of these endophyte/plant relationships are not well understood. Many economically important forage and turf grasses are infected with fungal endophytes (Neotyphodium spp.) which may improve the ability of these grasses to tolerate abiotic stresses such as drought, as well as improve their resistance to insect and mammalian herbivores.
The wide range of compounds produced by endophytes have been shown to combat pathogens and even cancers in animals including humans. One notable endophyte with medicinal benefits to humans produces taxol, and is found in the Pacific Yew tree. Endophytes are also being investigated for roles in agriculture. Inoculating crop plants with certain endophytes may provide increased disease or parasite resistance. It is speculated that there may be many thousands of endophytes useful to mankind but since there are few scientists working in this field, and since forests and areas of biodiversity are rapidly being destroyed, many useful endophytes for curing disease might be permanently lost for medicinal use before they are discovered. The effects of climate change on endophytes is being investigated. Studies of plants grown at different climates or at increased carbon dioxide levels have different distributions of endophytic species
Epiphyte
Now we come to my favorite. An epiphyte is a plant which does not grow in the soil, terrestrial, but which grows upon (hence the Greek prefix epi ) something else, but only as a support. I read once that in Latin America the old telephone wires were cloth covered and there was a problem with tillandsia ( a type of bromeliad ) growing on them to the point to where the wires would break.
There also ferns which are epiphytes:
Then there are epiphtes which are Cacti:
But my favorite are the orchids:
The orchids pictures here and at the beginning are cattaleya types, but there are many kinds. The easiest one to grow for the average person lacking a green house are the phalaeonopsis, which will bloom reliably if you give them their basic care, and the ones which have flowers of a good substance make excellent subjects to be worn by your fair lady on a pin or comb. About ten percent of vascular plants are epiphytes, or so I’ve been told, though they are a lot more common in the tropics. I read that in tears past a person who lived near the rain forest would go and pick one of these plants and plant them on their house. Perhaps if we could figure out how to grow vegetables as epiphytes we could better feed people in these regions.
 | Chantal on A Memorial |
| Chantal on Pointing to a Deer and calling… |
| Rita on The Fine Phyte |
| charles on Three dimensional perspective |
bambootiger 