Chapter 167 . An Evening in a Life

It's hot...

The fan is working almost 24/7, and it's hot the same...
Most people think that it's always cold in Canada, but it ain't. In fact, it's bloody hot in the summer, except here, close to the ocean, continental weather, which allows the islander to have a warm but not heat wave type of summer.
But, once every few years, it's hot...
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a bit. I come from a place where it's scorching hot, so, summer for me has to be hot to be a real summer.
I'm certainly not complaining, but barely stating the facts.
-smile-

Nevertheless, it's hot...

My fiancé is playing some music which is supposed to keep us cool...
She's in full activity mood, organizing her workshop, discovering forgotten old friends...
And I'm sweating...

The good news is, it should be cooler in the evening, as soon as the sun sets, the breeze and humidity from the Ocean bringing down the temperature to a more enjoyable level.
It's the perfect time to do anything you have to do outside.
In our case, it goes from getting grocery to having our daily evening walk.
One day we go to see the ocean in Oak Bay, another one we climb the Fairfield Bluff to admire the sunset. Another one, we go to Dallas road, and chill while the light fades...
Yesterday, we went to The Bluff.

We arrived, this time, quite before the sun disappeared behind the hills.
The light was gold, the heat not too bad.

Steph Climbing Up the Bluff - Fairfield - Victoria BC

The sky as blue as it could, not a cloud in sight.

Victoria BC

The horizon was bathed in a sort of peachy/pink colour, with the blue of the sky and the reflection of the ocean, once again, it was magical!
I had never seen the mountains from the States that clearly, you could spot details, little houses, life...
And the majestic mountains, immuables, they seemed eternals...

On the opposite side, the Sun:

Sunset - Victoria BC

The lines of the hills, clear and blurry, waited like they had done so many times before.

We sat.
Let the last warmth of the day paint our bodies red and gold.
Listened to the sound of the city, right below.

Slowly at first, the colours started to change:

Victoria - BC

A white almost full moon showed up, the contrast in between the land and the ocean, and those purples who started to appear.
We became very relax, I felt like being part of it all.
We smiled.

Stephanie

The Sun, on it's last legs, was still giving as much heat and light that he could, but the gold was becoming older with every minute passing by.

Us - Victoria BC

The colours kept on changing.

Sunset - Victoria BC

The contrasts increased.

Sunset - Victoria BC

The different levels of mountains, each of them with a very specific shade of blue or purple, changing every second now, we're getting close to the last light of the day...

I got up and stranded on the tip of the Bluff.
Around me, pure beauty was in action.
I marvelled to the simplicity of it, with an incomprehensible complexity...
I thought one had to be crazy to even attempt to reproduce what I could see.
Then, I looked at my fiancé and smiled again:

Stephanie - Victoria BC

She looked at me and got up.
We looked around one last time.

Sunset - Victoria BC

The sun disappeared, and the humidity kicked in almost immediately.
Even without the help of the direct sun, the sky will continue to have some astonishing colours for quite a while.
We climbed down, and started to walk home.
Played in the kids park, looked and commented on people's garden, talked philosophy a little, and enjoyed the breeze.

Right before our arrival, the sky had turned dark blue and yellow and pink, and purple.
I stopped, wondering how this could be possible, then remembered that I never understood this kind of things.

Sunset - Victoria BC

Finally, we arrived home, it was starting to get cool.
Inside, it was 33 degrees celsius.

Serge
30th of June 2015

Chapter 166 . Skies & Water in the City I Live In

Where is the inspiration coming from?
...

Is it our surrounding?
All of it?

Without a doubt, the answer is:
-" The surrounding is part of it."

I find myself, more and more inspired by my surrounding, physical and metaphysical.
The place I live in has a "powerful nature", and by this, I mean the nature has an amazing power towards all and everything.
It is omnipresent, it is everywhere, from the little flowers by the side of the road, to the great and immuable ocean.

Yes, that's it, skies and water!
I live on an island.
Water surrounds us all.
It's not easy to leave, nor to come.
It's an island.

The good part of it, one of them at least, is that we get to see a lots of water, especially that I live in a port, at the edge of the southern part of Vancouver Island.

The summer creates amazing colours in the sky when the sun rush to disappear, and the ocean, its water, makes marvels at reflecting those skies and colours.

Maybe inspiration comes from there, in a great deal, maybe...

Here's a sunset from The Bluff on Fairfield, some kind of hidden place, not a popular one yet.
No water here, but the sky, the city and my wife facing the sun:

From The Fairfield Bluff - Victoria BC

Then, we go to the opposite direction, where the sun sets in our back, Haynes Park in Oak Bay:

Haynes Park - Oak Bay - Victoria BC

The calm of those images is real, it exists.
And that is the real beauty of this place, and, like many other places, the place makes the people, the moods...

Yes, we have to be honest and recognize it, some of us are indeed lucky...
Yes, we are lucky to have made the decisions we have made.

Have a great day folks,

Sincerely,

Serge Foglio
July 29th 2015

Chapter 165 . New Prints, New Drawing Tablet, New Drawing & New Marvel Movie.

Good day folks,

It's been a while since I wrote here, but then and again, I have been busy...
So I guess, I have few things to say.
Let's start if you will.

First and foremost, after a nice break, I went back to drawing.
The thing is, when you stop drawing for a while, you forget how to draw. Or to be more precise, "I" forget how I use to draw, especially the technical level, the tricks, the method.
The good thing is, this comes back quite fast with practice, and then, it's like:
- "WOW, that's really how I did it? So much work!!!".
Truth is, that's in those situations that you find new ways, new tricks, new paths, a new way of looking at your own work in a certain way.

All of that bla bla bla to say that I sat back at my desk and I simply draw.
I wanted to do something simple, relatively simple, some drawing without any deep message, just a doodle, something that I'll enjoy, something that is not crushing, because, massive pieces always are.
I wanted to go for a portrait.
I like drawing portraits, it's very fulfilling for some reasons that I can't really explain, it just is.
The choice of the subject often depends on the picture I choose as a model.
Out of the great choice I had, I choose Laurent, my wife's sister husband if you're still following me.
The character is great, he carries an incredible positivity, and such a vivacity in life, it's good to see and a pleasure to experiment first hand.
And, I had the picture which came with the character.
So, I sat and drew.

Now, and I'll get back to it later, but my Wacom tablet was giving me some challenges.
In short, I couldn't draw straight lines across the screen, they would be wavy, and I would have to readjust them over and over.
A real pain, so darn frustrating!
In the end, a drawing that should have take me 2 to 4 hours ended up taking 10 hours...
But, the result was worth it, I believe I captured the character perfectly!
I'll get back to the tablet issue later, and how to fix the issue.
Here's the drawing:

Laurent

I should definitely keep on doing portraits like that, not only do I enjoy it, but it really fulfills me, and, I just love people when they are lovable.
The portraits make me love people, as I explore their visage during the process, bringing something oh so human, it touches me deeply.
Time to make myself happy!
-wink-
Something to keep in mind!


On a different subject, my dear wife reminds me often that, my drawings are made to be printed.
Well, she's right of course...
But this is something that is easy for me to forget, I draw those things, then I forget about them almost immediately. In fact, in my subconscious, when the drawing's done, the work is done.
But that's only partially true, the drawing is done when it resides on a piece of paper, hang on a wall, looked at by people.
So, and she had to work quite a lot to convince me, it's time to get stuff printed.
A step at the time, of course, but regularly, we will get some of my pieces printed, in different size and flavour. This, not only brings some more happiness to my life, but also will allow me to do some exhibits, as I will have something to show on a different support than a bloody computer.
There is nothing like having artwork in a material form, just like receiving a letter instead of an email.
After all, we are also grounded beings, we touch and smell and we relate to all of our senses....

We did 3 prints.
The first one is the poster I did, a while ago, of my wife Stephanie.
It's a poster/advertisement for a show in Japan. To add the Japan's feeling, I worked the entire piece keeping in mind a great Japanese master, Mr. Miyazaki.
The piece is quite large, 24x18, framed and already on a wall.
Here it is:

Stephanie in Japan

And here is another picture, just to place it in it's environment:

The Bathroom

Then, there was the print for Mr. Kyle McLachlan.
A while ago, I did a poster related to the character he played in the second season of Marvel Agent of SHIELD. My wife suggested I contacted him to show him the piece.
Turned out he answered and liked it quite a lot.

Answer from Kyle McLachlan

I offered a print, and he accepted.
So, the print is done, looks fabulous, and ready to be sent to him at the beginning of next week.

Myself and the print of Calvin Zabo aka Mr. Hyde

Third and last for now, there was a print that many people asked me for. But I was reluctant to do so, as, it was only a part of the bigger piece, which, I haven't worked on in a very long time...
Time will tell, as far as this is concerned.
Nevertheless, someone very dear to my heart asked me for a print recently, and I just couldn't resist.
I got it printed, and it looked rather good.
So, another gentleman, also very dear to my heart, did some huge favour for me and my family recently, and he had asked for this print as well, a hell of a long time ago.
Do I did...
I can hardly wait to give it to him, such a pleasure to offer what I do best, or one of the thing I do best in life.
-smile-

Myself and the print of the piece called We

And now, the bloody story of the bloody Wacom Tablet.
First, I have never been a huge fan of Wacom, not that their products are not of quality, they are, but their prices are nothing short than ridiculous.
I guess, when you have a monopoly for so many years, you get used to do whatever you want in your field of business, and are able to argument it properly and adequately.
My present Wacom had a drawing surface of 12"x8" or so, I had it for many years, and for the past year I had started to notice a lack of precision, going from slightly annoying to a real nightmare.
As I said earlier, when I had to draw in diagonale, which I do an insane amount of time, the straight line would become wavy, and there is simply no fix but to rework those line many many many time...
This is a real pain, because it brakes the flow of creativity, which, in itself is all that really matters.
I did my researches on the net, and I am not the only one with this issue.
And there is no fix.
Wacom would not answer any of those concerns, and so, it looked to me like a perfect time to make a new move.
Plus, Wacom are starting to not support some of their old tablet, and you have to partially run some application in 32 bits instead of 64 and it is another real pain.
Let's make it clear, I don't use a computer to be able to trouble shoot.
Once and for all, I use this medium because I enjoy it. And to enjoy it, it has to be working properly.
So, ciao Wacom, and hello Huion.
After some new researches, I choose to try the Huion W58:

Drawing Tablet Huion W58

The drawing surface is a tad smaller, 10"x6.5", but frankly, I don't believe I will notice a difference after a tad of practice. How much did I really use from the Wacom? That would be a very good question.
And, because there is almost always a "and", the price is more than affordable, the whole thing, shipping included for a mere $100.
I don't even want to look at the equivalent for a Wacom, but we would probably be looking at 4 to 6 times more expensive...
Did I mentioned that Wacom had ridiculous prices?!!

Tablet is ordered, and I will keep you updated of the use of it when I will have this lovely possibility!


And we, slowly but surely, arrive at the end of that post.
One more thing though, this week was my younger son's birthday.
He just turned 13. Don't even ask me how this is possible, life is simply incredible.
Even though, there is a party today, on the very day of his Bday, we had a small special day.
He didn't have to do his daily chores, -wink-, we cooked what he likes, and we went to see the new Marvel movie, Ant-Man.

Ant-Man

And again, it was great!
Very funny, entertaining, and I just love feeling like the kid I once was, again...
I like and admire the way they introduce their characters, the way they turn those comics book into movies.
I read some bad review, among some good ones, but I think people who are displeased are waiting for something that Marvel is not. How can you expect what is not?
This is a great big question that can be asked for many many movies and such, adaptations in general.
Also, I read a post online of someone who said that he went to see Ant-Man and he goes to see Marvel movie to see when they are going to screw it up, to mess it up. And, as per this gentleman, it's not for that time!
What a weird way of thinking did I think...

We had a great time!

Ant-Man Tickets

Us after seeing Ant-Man

Voila folks, I think that's enough for now, more to come soon, hopefully, have a great week end, and, may the Force be with you!

Sincerely

Serge
25th July 2015