ART BOOKS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

I have been scouting the web for information on Oil on canvas and other painting techniques.Its amazing the amount of information you can obtain from the web if you have the patience to really look for it.

Here is a tutorial that taught me more than I learnt from the course I am taking.


This is my favourite.

The exercises are really helpful and I was filled with a sense of acievement once I learnt these basic techniques.

Here another wonderful tutorial.

Field's Chromatography, by George Field has a lot of information on
colour.

You can learn about the various whites like zinc white and titanium white,lead white and when and why you should choose one over the other etc.

The picture below is from the book A Colour Notation- Project Gutenberg



HISTORY OF ART FOR BEGINNERS AND STUDENTS is another book I found in the Project Gutenberg collection. The size of the book is 25.22 MB.

There are quite a few black and white pictures in it. The two pictures below, I liked best.





Here is how you download books from project Gutenberg.

HOW TO SET YOGURT.

You need milk and fresh yogurt either shop-bought or borrowed from a friend or neighbor.

STEP 1: Boil milk and cool it until it is tepid.

STEP 2: Take ¼ tsp of yogurt drop it into the tepid milk. Stir well.

STEP 3: Keep in a warm place. It takes between 6 to 12 hours for the yogurt to set. It is usually set overnight.

Note: It very cold climes, you can keep the vessel containing the yogurt to be set inside your microwave oven without switching it on.

CONSISTENCY

Consistency! That's what I lack. I am unable to stick to a formulated schedule.

Given my interest in various activities (I have currently signed up for a course in Mural painting of Kerala- I am halfway through an oil on canvas course), I am always doing something or the other but unfortunately not what my schedule says I should be doing. My cousins agree with my husband in saying that I am a Jack of all trades and master of none.

Letting that bother me is an excercise in futility - as I find that I usually enjoy every second of everyday.

A few days back, my brother sent me a couple of links about procrastination.

STRUCTURED PROCRASTINATION
GETTING THINGS DONE DESPITE PROCRASTINATION

These amusing and insightful articles describe my general attitude towards everything to a tee. And looks like I am not alone!

In my experience, things do get done - just not as and how I plan it or somebodyelse wants it. It is like as if some invisible force takes over my mind. I do make to-do lists. Just don't ask when I actually strike off the contents of my list. I can never tell - maybe an hour from now - maybe this day next year...

HOW TO DOWNLOAD BOOKS FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG

STEP 1: OPEN THE PROJECT GUTENBERG CALALOGUE PAGE

STEP 2: IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR BOOK BY A PARTICULAR AUTHOR, FILL IN THE BOX UNDER AUTHOR ON THE TOP LEFT OF THE PAGE AND CLICK GO.
TRY OUT ALL THE OPTIONS - ONLY LAST NAME, BOTH FIRST NAME AND LAST NAME, LAST NAME FOLLOWED BY INITIALS ETC. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE SPELLING RIGHT.

ALTERNATELY, YOU CAN FILL IN THE NAME OF THE BOOK YOU ARE LOOKING FOR.
IF THE LIBRARY HAS BOOKS BY THAT PARTICULAR AUTHOR,YOU WILL GET THE LIST OF BOOKS


STEP 3: CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THE BOOK YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD. THIS WILL TAKE YOU TO THE NEXT PAGE.

IF YOU HAVE ENTERED THE TITLE OF THE BOOK YOU CAN SKIP THIS STEP.

STEP 4: NOW, UNDER DOWNLOAD THIS EBOOK FOR FREE, LOOK UNDER THE COLUMN TITLED COMPRESSING.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR ZIP. RIGHT-CLICK ON MAIN SITE IN THE ROW THAT CONTAINS ZIP.

STEP 5: SELECT THE OPTION SAVE TARGET AS FROM THE DROP DOWN MENU AND YOU ARE READY TO DOWNLOAD AND SAVE THE FILE.

NOTE: YOU NEED THE SOFTWARE WINRAR TO OPEN AND VIEW THE DOWNLOADED FILE. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT FROM HERE.


YOU ARE NOW ALL SET FOR READING YOUR DOWLOADED BOOKS.

WHY IS DOWNLOADING ZIP FILES BETTER?

-FOR ONE THING THE FILES ARE SMALLER HENCE THE DOWNLOAD FASTER.
- SECOND, I HAVE FOUND THAT IF THE BOOK CONTAINS PITURES, THEY ARE RETAINED ONLY IN ZIP FILES

RIGHT HO JEEVES- P.G. WODEHOUSE

Quaint phrases and words I have never before come across marked my introduction to P.G. Wodehouse.

In an asolute contrast to modern writing style, almost every sentence is amusingly round about.

Reading those days was obviously a pleasure enjoyed by ladies and gentlemen of leisure.
Here's the link to the book RIGHT HO JEEVES

WARNING: Make sure you have a dictionary on hand - and one other thing, make sure you are alone - you don't want startled glances shot your way when you suddenly burst out laughing.

EMBROIDERY BOOKS

Back again after a long break. Have signed up for oil painting classes. so I haven't had time for needlework. I am now halfway through the course and hoping to find some time here and there for needle and thread.

Speaking of needle and thread, here is a lovely book I've unearthed while digging through the archives of Project gutenberg - Embroidery and tapestry weaving by Grace christie -this book is simply crying out to be shared.

I simply loved the interesting uses the buttonhole stitch has been put to.




I haven't read the book as yet - just browsing through and took me a while to realise that the design above is composed of the buttonhole stitch.







The pictures below are the closed herring bone stitch and some of its applications







When I see such lovely, painstakingly laborious work, I sometimes wonder if, in this quick fix world, we have forgotton that there is joy and immense satifaction in painstaking work.