In the US

I am in Maine.  There were multiple complications with my flights, but I'm here.

I am packing for college now.

Dance, typhoon

I've been practicing dancing with the Neili High School dance club.  The students in this club are super nice, and there is always a student showing me what to do.  We practice under an overpass.  At 3PM, classes end, and we roll out 6 mirrors from the basement/parking-lot, and get the speakers.  An iPad holds the music.  We start with stretches and exercises.  Then, we break off into the group that rehearses the dance-routine, and the group that I'm in, to practice some basic footwork and exercises.

I have attended 3 practices, from 3-6PM, 6 days a week.  It's a 30 minute trip to NLHS (walking and train-ride).

On 2August (Thursday) was a typhoon, so there was no practice.  I couldn't go that day anyways, because I had previously done 2 consecutive days of practice, and my body was recovering; I couldn't really move; I was a zombie that day.
At night, I took some pictures of the outside, from inside.  Above is one of the photos that I took that night.  I enjoy looking outside at night, especially when there's a storm.

I'm practicing the arm-wave now.  My flexibility is better than before, and I have more strength.

NLHS dance performance

Flower painting 3

This is an observational watercolor.  I painted too many lightly-tinted (watered down) layers.  But, the sketch of it works.

Swim

On Wednesday, I swam 60 laps (3000m, almost 2 miles) in under 2 hours.  The next few days, I was sore from the exercise.

Saturday (yesterday), I swam 66 laps (2 miles) in 2 hours.  I bought/brought a counter to click for each lap.

I think that 2 hours is a while to swim 60-66 laps.

I was muscularly able to do the swim, but it was difficult in a cardiovascular way.  I had to take many breaks to catch my breath, and to cough less.  I coughed most of the time that I swam.

It feels great to swim this distance!  I had thought that I could only do 10 laps.

I plan on working at swimming 66 laps.  I don't want to increase the number of laps until my breathing gets better.

I wish that I could listen to music underwater.

Flower painting 2

Drawing and painting the last flower watercolor was fun, so I wanted to paint another flower watercolor.  This one is not based off of a photograph.

Yesterday morning, I walked to the farmer's market, a 2 minute walk, to buy some flowers.  I chose the ones that had the fewest petals, because I didn't want to paint many petals.  I thought that fewer, larger petals would make it easier to begin to learn paint 3D.

I chose two strands/things of flowers, and one greenery.  I don't know flower-speak.

At home, I positioned the flowers/leaves.  Some parts of the plants were tied to be in a certain position, and I casted a bright light on it (from the left).  Then, I lightly sketched it out (large shapes to details).

After lunch, I put down a base-color/base-coat.  I think that the base-color has two roles: to make it easier for the artist to distinguish what is what (the grey sketch is hard to follow), and to cover for any parts that the artist might later forget to paint.

At night, I painted most of it.

To get a "complicated color" (to make colors look more "artistic"), add any different color to the main-color.
Or, seldom wash the paint-pallet; the older-colors dry up, and the newer-colors mix with some of the random older-colors to get a "complicated color".  I do this so I that don't have to wash the pallet much, and to get more "artistic" colors.
To get a more "natural" color (to tone the main-color down): add a little of the opposite color to the main-color.  Or, add sepia/tan to the main-color.

Things can be added or omitted.  I left out a purple flower in this painting (it was above the bottom pink-flower.

Realistic paintings look more realistic from a distance.  Close-up, this painting looks a bit abstract.

Clear thinking is key.  You have to know where a leaf begins/ends, even if you can't see it, then make it up where the leaf is placed, and remember.

Everything casts a shadow.

Don't outline.

I think that the red-parts were successful, and the rest of it could've been done differently.

I think that the purple-flower petals in both of the red-boxes are the best because of there are shadows.

This week

We're joined here with George Will and Donna Brazile, in This Week, at the round table... 

Wednesday, from noon to night, I was with a few students/friends in Taipei.  We saw a Lego exhibition of lego art by the artist Nathan Sawaya.
See "Popular": http://brickartist.com/category/gallery/
I missed the Salvador Dali exhibition, because I met up late with them, but I'm planning on seeing that gallery.
Later, we took a 90 minute bus-ride to a place, and had lunch at a casual restaurant.  Each dish was 40yuan (aprox. $1.50) for a good serving of rice-porridge or oolong noodles in soup.  I had noodles, and the cook made a vegetarian version for me.

Thursday, I biked about a mile to the English school, that hasn't been used for a few years.  I brought my sketchbook and laptop.  When I got there, I played Turisas (folk/death metal), and drew pictures for about an hour.  I drew 6 pages (I can usually only draw 1-2 pages in a day).  Then I biked back home, and took a break from drawing.  Later that night, I drew another 2.5 pages, listening to Lady Gaga and Britney Spears.  It was mentally tiring to draw.
I found that my drawings while listening to metal looks different than drawings when listening to Gaga/Spears.

Friday was the first time that I met up with 2 high school students to swim at their high school.  They swim from about 7AM-9AM every Wednesday and Friday.  I'm trying to take up this activity because I usually exercise.

Saturday, I finished my flower watercolor.  It took 2 classes, 4 hours total.  It's about 4'x2', and based off of a photograph.  Since I used a photo, I don't think highly of this painting.  I want to get some real flowers and paint them using watercolor.

Yesterday, I visited a Buddhist organization that reuses things, based on the belief that most things can be reused.  It's a recycling and redistribution place, similar to the idea of the Salvation Army.

I found out today that parmansan cheese is not vegetarian.

30 Challenge

The challenge was originally called "The 30 Day Challenge".  It was posted on the facebook MassArt class of 2016 group.  You're suppose to draw one thing everyday for 30 days.  I draw 30 things in 2 days, because I didn't want to wait 30 days.

The 30 Day Challenge