FF Classical Guitar, circa 753 BC

FF Recorder 5

Year ago I was repairing chair pieces for people. I drew them up first. Never threw them away--I found them artful in their own style. And I gained an appreciation of the art of the lathe designer.

FF Recorder 1

First attempt at PS-ing a drawing. I used "fill in." And some fudging. Will try the the better instructions.

GLEANINGS ON THE WAY: Simplifying

"Look for the major shapes to help you simplify your subject. Pretend you're doing a collage rather than a sketch." Cathy Johnson, "Sketching in Nature"

GLEANINGS ON THE WAY: Ruskin's Saw

"Everything that you can see in the world around you presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colours variously shaded." John Ruskin 1857. Oft today an assumed principle, rarely is it known he was the source.

KEEPING AT IT CHALLENGE "Music & Poetry"

These are not assignments, they are meant to be fun. And to keep us at our five minutes a day. And possibly to stretch us. No guilt in not participating.

Whoever will, let's try our hand at a musical instrument. Any (wink, wink), and all or any part of it. Here's the thing--do at least two pictures, one approaching photo-realism, and two--here let you mind go free, try for the poetry, the magic, the music, make it abstract, make it stained glass, make it a mechanical drawing, make it a mosaic, make it stylized, make it any way you can imagine--apart from photo-realism. Let's see what comes. Two weeks. Post at will. See you here on "M&P Saturday," Feb 13.