thinkfetti

One of the principal lessons from my drawing study so far is that it is very effective to start with the general and then add increasingly specific details. When I started my drawing course, I made the same error common to many beginners: I started with details. The inevitable result was that these fancy, particular details, as well as they might look in isolation, never fit together properly. The proportions of the whole ended up off, or the details from one part of the drawing never matched up with those from another part of the drawing when they met.

If I started from the bottom and worked consistently upwards, the details fit together (more or less), but the overall proportions of the drawing didn’t work.

If I started in more than one place, such as from the top and bottom working toward the center, there would be a collision of mismatched details somewhere in the middle of the page.

What has worked, over and over again, is to start with only the most general, global features of the drawing, and then layering in increasing specific pieces across the whole field of the drawing. Sometimes, I will focus for awhile on one portion of the drawing, but not to the point of “finishing it” before moving to another part of the drawing.

The experience of drawing this way is to see the drawing emerge from the page. It’s very satisfying when it works.

Visit change.gov to learn more about the Obama administration’s current plans and list of issues. Transparency doesn’t happen overnight (I don’t know what would happen if ever there were complete transparency in government), but launching this website is refreshingly proactive.

Take a look around the site. I see it as an invitation to continue being a citizen. Not all ideas are created equal, but because there is a difference between needing to win an argument and needing to be heard, an ability to listen can be mutually empowering.

November 10th update: It looks like all of the substantive agenda content has been taken down. Propublica.org reports that the Obama administration is “retooling” the content.

November 15th update: The website is back up; I haven’t read enough to see what has changed (besides the YouTube weekly address link).

We’re enjoying our first fire of the season in the fireplace of our new house in Albuquerque. My five-string banjo (don’t get any ideas) is a few feet to the right of the fireplace, so every time the wood pops, it sets off sympathetic vibrations in the banjo strings, giving us a “pop” with a ring in G major.