The loneliness of the long-distance writer

Do you have something of a love-hate relationship with writing for a living? I know I do. But there are some things we can do about it.

 

The advent of the web and its arrival in mainstream society is both a blessing and a curse for freelance home-based writers.

 

On the plus side, it makes doing the job so much easier, and making the contacts to try and get the work is infinitely easier than it was in a pre mass internet world. On the other hand, the quality has dropped as so many people are doing the same thing – as witnessed by the increase in price of rural properties relative to urban property over the last 12 years or so.

 

A more subtle problem, though, is the loneliness and isolation many web-based freelance writers face. This has always been a problem for writers, regardless of the web. But the ease of briefs and research and the lack of a need for face-to-face conferences and meetings etc., exacerbates it. Put this together with the very logical decisions freelance writers make to live in beautiful rural locations, or abroad, and the sense of isolation can be worse still.

 

But in many ways, it’s a nice problem to have. The trick is to make oneself leave the house for whatever spurious / invented reasons, on a daily basis – and to make a commitment to do so to other people. Making a resolution oneself simply doesn’t cut the mustard, as it’s too easy to break. Similarly, the commitment must involve meeting other people in the flesh and not talking about a professional area of expertise. In this way, you’ll return to your professional work refreshed and ready to work.

 

Alternatively, travel to meet people in your professional sphere in whatever capacity you can afford – conferences / corporate entertainment business seminars etc. These will connect you with people and it’s simply that human face-to-face connection which really is vital for your sanity.  Take it from one who knows!

Sizing Patterns

Line Drawing
Line Drawing

Line Drawing

Let’s say you have a line drawing or a pattern or an image you want to resize. You wish to make that line drawing fit onto a certain surface. But the line drawing is either too little or too big.

Now, I am no maths genius but I discovered this very helpful measuring tip. ( people who can balance check books and do mathematics in your head can stop giggling now ) EXAMPLE FOR REDUCING : Your pattern is 15-inches long and you’ve got to make it 12-inches long.

Simply take twelve, divide by fifteen which equals 0.8, then multiply that by a hundred for a total of eighty. Now you can set the copier or scanner to reduce at eighty percent. EXAMPLE FOR ENLARGING : Your pattern is 12-inches long and you wish to enlarge it to 15-inches. Take 15, divide it by twelve which equals 1.25, then multiply that by a hundred for a total of 125. So now you can set the scanner or copier to enlarge by 125%.

Visual Arts – helping the disabled

art therapy

art therapyWhether for the intellectually challenged or the physically disabled, an introduction to the Visual Arts has long since been considered extremely beneficial.  Fine art can have an undeniable calming effect on those with anger management issues.   In addition, the physical effort involved in painting can offer exercise to those with physical challenges.

So it’s no little surprise that there are a number of “rising stars” among visual artists with disabilities in the United Kingdom, and indeed, all over the world. 

 

Visual art has been able to help students with normal intellects do better at school.  It has been claimed that the selection of colours or the acquisition of painting and drawing skills can help make neural pathway connections.  Even photography and sculpture can be beneficial: Molding clay can help to strengthen weak limbs, and painting or photography can have a calming effect.

Once these skills are established it’s easier to acquire different ones in the years ahead.  So, with children who have learning disabilities these neural connections can help forge developmental skills and offer opportunities for self-expression and individual development.  All this can eventually even help them grow in confidence and forge a career for the future. 

Just a few of the incredibly long list of Visual Arts activities that can benefit the disabled or challenged, are lantern making, comic book drawing, mask making, personal maps, sculpture, making puppets, water colour and acrylic painting.  Groups who can benefit can come from state or private school, the homeless, children in care or adults/young people with learning disabilities.  In recent years people recovering from strokes and other illnesses have also found comfort and a renewed interest in life.

In no small part the ARTISTS who dedicate their time and their art must be applauded.  Some of them have never worked with the disabled before.  Occasionally they have to face up to their fear of the uncomfortable or unknown.  Some artists have been known to say “I didn’t know how I’d react, how they would react to me? How would we communicate?”  They soon discover that the language of Fine Art, craft and sculpture is one that most people can speak whatever their background or limitations.  Just a couple of afternoons teaching and helping those in need, by sharing their talents, can be more rewarding than they ever dreamed.

What is a visual Artist?

Visual arts a created for an audience to observe and look at them, the visual arts field is contrasted with performing arts which are performed in front of an audience. Two dimensional and three dimensional arts are included in visual arts, this includes drawing, graphic design, painting, decorative arts, photography, sculpture and printmaking. Shortly put a visual artist makes visual art.

A visual artist could specialize with any of the visual arts named above and work in many different ways for example a painter could work with one type of pain or a mixture such as acrylics, oil paints and watercolours. A photographer could choose to specialize in just black and white photography or both and work with highly edited shoots using computer photo-editing software programs. Sculptor artists might choose to work with wood, marble, granite, clay or stone or they might choose to just specialize with the one. A drawer might choose to specialize in pencil, charcoal, pastels, crayon, felt markers and pen and ink. Some visual artists like to mix things up and use bits of all the visual arts, this is known as mixed medium.

Visual artists can go to art school through college or university art departments. The degree achieved at the end will most likely be a fine arts degree. Whilst studying its most likely that art history and art theory will be taught as well as a variety of medium before the student will choose a chosen art form to specialize in.

There are many different types of jobs on offer that a visual artist may do apart from or aside just the job of making art. A visual artist, who draws, takes photographs, makes prints or paints could work in the illustration field. A lot of visual artists become teachers, either in schools, colleges or universities. Other artists may get jobs in museums or become art critics.

‘ Most Subjects–like An Animal Or A Landscape–can Be Broken Down Into Easy, Basic Shapes.

Shapes
Shapes

Shapes

Perceptual drawing is actually the facility to see those things which are basic necessities in an exceedingly direct way. It has a specific notion of where to start the original drawing and what emotional reaction would be fascinating, just as significantly, it is knowing precisely when to stop. So what emotive reaction are you wanting? How many drawings have you seen where the artist has overworked the drawing to such an extent the original emotive effect has been fully lost? It isn’t what you put into your drawing but instead what you leave out. It is using an inventive term called ‘economy of line.’ more times than not, beginning artists get heavily involved in detail long before any basic structure is drawn in and so all private traits are lost or have been wiped out. To be presented with a blank sheet of drawing paper can be dismaying and the greenhorns ‘ question is always ‘Where do I begin?’ Most subjects–like an animal or a landscape–can be broken down into easy, basic shapes. This cad drawing permits builders in viewing any designed building element from each possible angle. CAD drawing is employed all though entire process, beginning from conceptual design 3D design and architectural layouts of products to the end.

An architectural engineer first understands the detailed specs about the building structure. He has got to be acquainted with different type of steel and other materials, architectural details of construction and be in a position to produce numerous sorts of beam-beam or column-column connections. For this, he deserves to be well informed about architectural engineering ideas and should have extensive understanding for a similar. During checking comments stemming from approval and corrections must be determined, and the first drawing must be updated appropriately. The store drawing structure must also be checked for precision and completeness by another detailer. The littler scale details are typically included in the primary drawings while full-size details are furnished only to the pro employee who makes a speciality of a selected trade e. G the finishing framer, plumber, or H.V.A.C. After this, the drawing could be released to be used in construction. Installer. A. Vertical wall sections describing all horizontal mouldings, the sill, wall thickness, system of framing the floor into walls, windows, cornice, and roof lines at the cornice.