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one has to exaggerate characteristics
Wednesday, December 4 2019
As you may recall, some weeks ago I wrote a Python script to automate the production of an entire set of C# services for a web app I am working on. Due to issues with changes to the parametric count of a set of stored procedures, I was forced to supply this script to a remote colleague I am working with. That ended up being kind of a mistake, because it made him want to start optimizing the programmatically-generated stored procedures immediately, which to me was premature. The whole point of the automated creation of the backend was to have an instant set of services to target when building the Angular frontend. But I think we'll eventually reach some sort of understanding about the time and place for optimization.
Given that the indoor firewood pile was dwindling away and that I was trying to put off (for as long as possible) eating into the two years' worth of dry firewood out in the woodshed, I needed to salvage more immediately-burnable wood from the forest. This is the kind of work that really cannot be done in the darkness, but at this time of year nearly all of the daylight hours on weekdays are devoured by my workday. But I go to work early and leave at 4:00pm, so there is about a half hour of murky light remaining when I get home at around 4:30pm. Tonight I took full advantage of that light to salvage a dead standing chestnut oak only about 150 feet southeast of the house. It wasn't a very large tree, but there was probably about 200 pounds of dry ready-to-burn wood in it. It was so close that I didn't end up using my backpack, though I only brought somewhat less than half of it into the house this evening. I brought some of the thinner branches back as long pieces which I cut up with the chop saw out in the garage. Today's salvage should provide enough wood to last into the weekend, when I can make a major push to replenish the indoor wood supply.
My next task was to paint a new tiny four by four inch painting with the hope of giving it to Sarah the Vegan this weekend for her birthday. I would've liked to have painted something specific from Sarah's life, such as her old calico cat with an absurd name that I have forgotten. But she's not on Facebook, so I don't have an easy place to get photos of things that are important in her life (like I can with all my other friends). So instead I decided to paint a picture of a cardinal perched on a branch, based on a photo from November 30th. For whatever reason, the painting did not go well. I kept working and overworking everything, particularly the background. What ultimately saved the painting was when I added a stripe of highlight to the beak and some extra-natural illumination to the upper chest. I've often found that one has to exaggerate characteristics found in an original photo for it to work as a painting.
Today's painting of a male cardinal.
Here's the double-flip version for those who like to tile planes.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?191204 feedback
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