New Toy – Casio Exilim EX-Z750
Originally uploaded by pigpogm.

New toy!

Still to see if the lens actually works. I’ve read about some problems with these things and ‘lens error’ messages. Didn’t inspire much confidence when the display model in the shop kept giving lens errors, but it did also have a big dent in the front. This isn’t that one – they had an unopened one in stock.

Charging…

Update: It’s working ok so far. Very fast. See details on the Wiki.

Psycho-beastie! Incoming! Run Away!
Originally uploaded by pigpogm.

I took quite a few pics at Attenborough today (all are in my Flickr Photostream) but I just had to post this one here too.

Scary.

404 – Mojo Not Found
Originally uploaded by pigpog s.

Pretty much sums up how I was feeling yesterday. This is the first Manikins comic done with Copic markers. Certainly less fliddly than the watercolours.

What is it?

Guitar Pro is a program designed to make reading and writing tab a lot easier. We’ve been using it to help us learn, rather than for writing tab, so we’ll concentrate on reviewing it as a learning tool.

So, as a learning tool, is it any good?

It’s great because instead of struggling with printouts or an ‘E-Z-play’ book, this program lets you see and hear the tune you’re trying to learn. Also, you can slow the song down without altering pitch, so you can slow the song down to half the speed and work your way up. You can view your tune being played on a fretboard, a keyboard or in standard notation.

The tab is divided into parts, so if you’re learning a rhythm part, for example, you can gradually turn down the volume on the midi for that part as you gain in confidence. Before you know it, you’ll be giving Hetfield a run for his money.

Where can you get Guitar Pro tab from?

There are a few sites offering tab in GP format. We tend to use My Songbook because it has thousands of songs available and is being updated all the time.

As a learning tool, does it work?

Sam can now play Enter Sandman and Seven Nation Army. Michael can now play riffs from Gay Bar, Theme From Peter Gunn, and Steve Vai’s For The Love of God. A year ago, neither of us could play much at all.

As a composition tool – an expert writes

Michael Brandenburg, better known as Beatallica‘s Krk Hammettson, gave me his 10 cents on Guitar Pro:

“I’ve used Guitar Pro since about 1999, and have seen it evolve tremendously. For a guitarist, especially one who has grown up on tab as well as standard notation, the program is a pretty smooth ride. Easy to learn, and you don’t hafta go through fifteen steps to get one freakin’ note on the screen (sorry – that’s what learning Finale was like for me). It works kinda like a guitarist’s version of Microsoft Word. You choose your string, select the note duration, type in the fret, and repeat about 80 billion times. My only major pet peeve is when I need to type in chord rhythms…you hafta type in the whole chord over and over again in the measure, whereas on the other program I use, Tabledit, you can copy even a single 64th note chord and paste until the cows come home with bleeding ears. Other than that, though, it’s pretty killer. Almost every little guitar trick can be at least represented in the notation, if not actually playerd by the midi instruments. I’m talking about a full range of custom controlled note bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, two-hand tapping, whammy bar tricks, variable speed upstrokes and downstrokes (wow, to a non-guitarist, this all must sound kinky), palm muting, grace notes, dead notes, natural and artificial harmonics, vibrato and tremolo, etc…and for bassists there are pops and slaps. You can set up your instruments from four to seven strings, with tons of alternate tunings, as well as customize the tunings.

It’s the program I use primarily for composition, because you can choose from the full array of midi instruments (including a decent drum module…it doesn’t sound fantastic, but at least our drummer knows what to do and when to do it, if not the exact FEEL of HOW to do it). I’ve used it to score pieces for my Renaissance consort (lute, recorders, flutes, ducimers, etc.), Rock Theater orchestra, “Contemporary Classical Avant Garde Ensembles”, solo guitar, and full-on furious death metal/hardcore punk bands.

Highly recommended…and now if only they’d give an endorsement…”

Irene & Tim’s Back Garden, originally uploaded by pigpog s.

I’ve joined Michael Nobbs’ excellent Drawing Club, so I’ve made a Drawing Club photoset on Flickr.

Click here to check out my progress.

An excellent article on BBC News about how the ability to create and share is getting into everyone’s hands thanks to the Internet.

Specifically mentions such things as tagging and Wikis, which we love.

Manikins – 17 July 2005, originally uploaded by pigpog s.

An important message to artists everywhere. Don’t neglect your Manikin and force him to find work as a loo roll holder.

We saw a lifesize Manikin at the Art Shop in Darlington last week. Life size and with realistic moveable toes. Creepy.

We’re looking at a slightly simplified version of perspective here. Partly because it’s much easier to start out that way, and it’s probably as much as most people will need, and partly because it’s all I know

Sorry for the quality of the pictures – they were supposed to be rough, but not this rough. Still, if I wait until I get around to doing them again, this will never get written. And if you’re reading it, it did get written, so it’s obviously impossible for me to redo them without creating a loop in time. We don’t want to end up in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

Some people think perspective is vital to make your drawings work, others think it does nothing but get in the way, and you should just draw what you see. I think you have to find your own way, and your own style. That might involve knowing how to use perspective, and it might not.

Single Point Perspective

Used when, for example, you’re looking straight down a road, vanishing into the distance. Think of American road movies, or train tracks.

Starting Off

Take your sheet of paper, and work out your drawing area.

Mark the Horizon and Vanishing Point

You need a horizontal line for your horizon, even if you’re not planning on having a straight horizon – just so you know where the ground level is in the far distance. Mark off a cross for the vanishing point – this is where everything will appear to vanish at the horizon. If it’s a scene from a road movie, the road will end here. If it’s a railway, the tracks will vanish into the distance here.

Pencil In Your Guides

Your Guides will go to the vanishing point, and they should be straight lines.

Draw the guides very lightly – using a relatively hard Pencil is best (see our article on Pencil Hardness). You need a line anywhere there will be a line in your picture – each side of a road, the line down the middle, the top and the bottom of a fence, the top of a line of trees, the bottom of a line of trees. If there’s a person walking down the road close to you, and another walking a distance ahead, use guides to see how tall they should be relative to each other.

Draw Picture Following Guides

Now draw in the picture, following the guides.

You can erase the pencilled guides afterwards if they still show up.

Two Point Perspective

This is usually used for drawing buildings or boxes that are at an angle to you.

Mark the Horizon and Vanishing Points

It’s quite common for the vanishing points to be off the drawing area. You often want them off the paper altogether. If so, you can use masking tape to attach the paper firmly to your desk, and mark the vanishing points on another bit of masking tape stuck on the desk.

Once you’ve got the hang of it, quite a bit of this marking out can be done in your mind – the horizon certainly doesn’t really need to be all there, and if you can keep in your head where the vanishing points ”would” be, you might be able to skip marking them entirely.

Pencil in a Vertical, and Mark Guides to Vanishing Points

If it’s a building or box, this will be the corner closest to you. The guides will form the walls or box sides.

Pencil in Other Verticals and Mark Guides to Vanishing Points

We’re now marking in the other two corners, then drawing a line from them to the opposite vanishing points. Draw in the verticals of the corners first, then a line from where they meet the guides to the vanishing point on the other side. The first bits of these lines will be the top of the back walls.

Where they cross is the furthest corner.

Ink in the Real Lines

Now we ink in (or just heavier pencil) the real lines of the building or box.

If they’re still showing, you can erase the guides now.

Mixing Perspectives

Depending on what you’re drawing, you may have more than one set of vanishing points, and maybe even more than one horizon. Any further boxes in the example above would only use the same vanishing points if they were sitting at exactly the same angle as the first. If you’re drawing a room full of boxes, or a stage scattered with flight cases, each one could have its own vanishing points and guides. Doing them one at a time and erasing the previous guides before moving on should keep things simple.

Once you get used to perspective, you can usually skip the full length of the guides and the vanishing points entirely.

Pencils are available in different grades, with letter and number codes to identify how hard or soft the lead is. A ‘normal’ pencil is HB, or in the American system, a #2.

Different Systems

UK

In the UK, and (I think) most of Europe, pencils are always labelled with one scale – H for Hard, or B for soft, with a number to say how hard or soft. HB is the middle of the range, and by far the most common type. For sketching, though, a softer lead is usually preferred, often 2B or even 4B. For more technical drawing or very light lines, a harder lead works better, like a 2H. The scale goes up to 9 at each end – 9B to 9H, with the extreme ends of the scale being a bit too extreme for most uses.

Sometimes, you’ll also find an F pencil – Firm – between the HB and the H (the 1 is missed off).

US

The US usually follows the UK system for drawing pencils, but for office use commonly refers to HB as #2.

Equivalents

#1 is B, #2 is HB, #2 1/2 is F, #3 is H, and #4 is 2H.

This is why the UK system is used for drawing pencils – the US system doesn’t cover the sort of range used for sketching. I usually draw with 4B lead – well off the scale.

Related

• Article on Pencil Hardness on Pencil Pages.

It’s a beautiful day out there. It’s Saturday. I’m sitting here writing reviews of erasers. Only two of them so far – the classic Staedtler Mars plastic, and the rather nifty Schneider Erase-o-matic.