Russian artist

            <a href="http://ontarioexploration.com/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Capture.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45875" src="http://ontarioexploration.com/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Capture.png" alt="repainted" width="582" height="433" /></a><a href="http://rt.com/news/242881-russia-graffiti-street-art/?__scoop_post=bc8f8841-d0a2-11e4-f147-90b11c3998fc&amp;__scoop_topic=159355#__scoop_post=bc8f8841-d0a2-11e4-f147-90b11c3998fc&amp;__scoop_topic=159355">'The living walls': Russian artist breathes life into abandoned &amp; shabby buildings (PHOTOS) — RT News</a>.             

Adventures in Video

            <h2>Please turn off/ pause/ rest your camera while you are walking around. Bouncing images make me wish they were all still photographs.</h2>

I can’t read in the car. Each time I get car sick, or nearly so. So I don’t read in a moving vehicle. I can listen to music because I don’t have to look at anything to hear it.

Sometimes I get that swimming inside my own head feeling when I watch urban exploration videos. The bouncing images are hard to follow, often not in focus and move onto something else before I have seen as much as I want to see.

I haven’t tried making videos, more than twice. None of them were exploring videos. One was a woodpecker we watched in Orillia. Another was a video of family and that’s when I discovered my camera doesn’t auto correct direction when I take video. So I am not going to offer advice on how to take better videos based on all my years of experience.

I will say… one thing you can do is stop filming while you walk around. Turn the camera on when you are standing at the location you want to be and can take a moment to focus yourself and the camera.

Eventually I may be lured into trying exploring video making. I’m not keen on it. I really prefer a photograph I can take my time looking at. There are so many details I want to see and so many things I missed in the moment I was taking the photo but see later when I upload it.

 

Tom Carter – Art from Vancouver

            Tom Carter, artist, Vancouver, BC. His style reminds me of the old postcards, hand drawn looking with that sort of range of colours. I would call it muted, for lack of a better word. They look like something you could find (if you were lucky) in a thrift shop, a little time worn and dated but a treasure still.

Tom Carter Gallery

Tom Carter Artist on Facebook

I made screenshots of two of his set of Christmas cards, posted to Facebook, this year. I am far too late to order a set of cards. If I can afford a set, they would be great for next year.


Have a Vibrant, Creative Blog with Simple Art you can Make Yourself

A blog needs to be visually appealing to stand out, attract and keep readers. The content, navigation and spelling alone don’t get noticed in that quick, first impression. Illustrations get noticed right away.

Of course, not everyone is an artist. Not everyone can draw or take time to learn to use graphic software. So most people borrow photographs and other images from other sites and people. Mostly everyone does it… kind of expected… even standard and sort of boring. Some of the images really have nothing to do with the post they are attached to. The image is just there for the sake of having an image. A place holder.

A great blog can do better. You can do better and, you don’t have to be a great artist or spend time learning anything complicated. You won’t need to spend money on new hardware or software (in most cases) either.

Here are ideas to get you started. With the following you can create a vibrant, unique and individual blog which will attract visitors to your blog.

If you have a digital camera get out there and take some photographs. Look at small things and see them up close and from different angels. Looks at groups and large quantities of things and photograph them. If you’re writing about building shelves, photograph one of the nails up close. Just put a white background (a sheet of paper works) behind the nail. Make sure you have enough light in the room and take the photo. Try a few at different angels and see which turns out best.

Scanner art is simple and straight forward too. Clip pictures from old magazines, advertising flyers. Turn them into a collage, arrange them on your scanner, use that same white sheet of paper over the top of your images before you scan. The white paper gives you an all white background, like a fill. Your image will be clean and ready to save for the web.

Hand drawn images will also work as scanned art. Draw a cartoon image. Use a real image, clip art, as inspiration. If you don’t feel comfortable with your drawing skills write out words in your own handwriting instead. Scan your drawing or your written words just as you did for the scanner art. Don’t forget the white paper as background.

Pixel art and ASCII art take some time to learn. Neither are really hard if you have some patience. Both will give you unique and creative images which no one else but you will have.

I have used all of these at one time. I continue to mix up ideas and create my own images. It doesn’t take a lot of time or effort. Of course, there is some time to learn the sills needed. However, you’re not making masterpieces to sell for millions, just an illustration for your blog.

I Used to Write The Busy Person’s Guide to ASCII Art

This is what is left on the site, other than some links to other sites. I wrote a newsletter for this site but I didn’t think (at the time) to keep any copies of them. Wish I had! I can remember thinking of good ideas to write about but not what the actual ideas were any more. Now and then I try to find the newsletters, somehow. But, they are gone, just sent as email and not posted to the Internet. I’m not sure what year this would have been. Probably the early 2000’s.

Meet Your ASCII Art WZ-ard: Laura Tripp

Laura Tripp: ASCII Art was a mystery I had to solve. In July, 1996 while still a Net newbie, I thought the pictures made with keyboard characters were amazing. But actually making the pictures myself seemed so out of reach. I didn’t even know what they were called.

Finally, I found a site answering newbie questions and they emailed back and told me: ASCII Art! The mystery was solved! I made my first keepable picture January, 1998 (with the help of Albert and Joan on the Sig-List). ASCII Art became my special outlet for the drawing I have always wished I could do.

Some people, like my husband, say it’s outdated, a throwback to the 70’s. Little does he know, ASCII Art is still evolving and it started before computers. If you want to find out more and get help making your own ASCII Art and signatures, visit my Realm often.

And be sure to subscribe to my weekly 45-Second Newsletter. Explore the possibilities of ASCII Art as website promotion, an art form and a challenging but cheap, hobby.

LauraTripp@wz.com

Ghostly Sighs in Cemteries

            <img class="size-full wp-image-36 aligncenter" src="http://strangeontario.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cemeterysighs1.png" alt="" width="652" height="818" />I don't know if ghosts hang around cemeteries. I would think not. If you were deceased, there would be better places you could spend your time, if you were hanging around. But this illustration caught my attention today. Maybe a ghost would be sad, just about being not alive and not feel like being among the living. There have been stories about jealous ghosts, those jealous of the living. Not for any particular thing just the fact of being alive at all. So, ghosts might hang around cemeteries and graveyards. Maybe they would find friends there, those they had known before and those who they have things in common with now.

Image from The Gorgonist on Etsy.