3/4 view male and reflections thereon

3/4 view male – 5
Originally uploaded by anselm23

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As you’ll see from these images, I still have a lot of trouble sizing eyes and aligning them. Likewise, from simple shapes, are larger shapes built and full faces created. But errors in the sketch are magnified in the drawing, as Brunelleschi might have said — when I start with junky rough-outs, I get a poorly composed face.

A more seasoned artist might say, “why’d you build the whole face out if you knew it was starting in the wrong way?” I draw on my friend Daniel’s experience though. He said, “when you’re prototyping… build the whole prototype. See what other errors you make along the way to the finished product.

I take from this image sequence that I started with a roughed-out egg that was the wrong proportions, height to width; and that my eye line was not level; and that I didn’t position my eyes correctly on it; nor made them the same size.

I’ll correct these things with much practice, but I’m beginning to sense the underlying proportions — even if I don’t quite get them right by instinct yet.  The full set of images is available here.

Update: My lady said of this image: “That’s the face of a man who’s been kicked in the face by a horse… recently and repeatedly.”

Progress on the Sons of Zeus

Dioscuri poems & icons
Originally uploaded by anselm23

Back a number of years ago now, my Father and I visited Sicily. One of the places that we both had a deep reaction to was Agrigento — in ancient times the city of Akragas, called by Pindar “the most beautiful city of the mortals.” About a mile inland from the sea, the southern edge of the city served as the acropolis, where a high cliff was edged with temples.

One of the temples that resonated deeply with me was that of the Dioscuri, the Sons of Thunder or the Sons of Zeus, Castor and Polydeuces (more commonly known as Pollux). These are the twins of the constellation of Gemini, and it turned out that, on the day we visited these ruined temple complexes, that it was the anniversary of my grandmother’s death, and we saw a double rainbow, AND we were staying in the Dioscuri Hotel facing Dioscuri Bay. My father and I came back to the hotel. I was drunker than I’d ever been before in my life, and probably never again, in the middle of a Mediterranean March thunder-and-rainstorm, and I said to myself, “this is Dioscuri weather!”

Shortly after we made it back to the hotel, the sky cleared enough that we could go outside, and see the Dioscuri stars, Castor and Pollux, glimmering in the night sky. Out across the water, we could see the lights on some huge container ship glimmering, and there was a moon in the sky, as well.

The Dioscuri were not just protectors of horses and shipmen, as the Homeric Hymn recorded here documents. They were also (later) identified with Sts. Cosmas and Damien of early Christianity — holy men who took the form of physicians, and went house to house curing the sick for free. Their feast day was/is October 25, and I’m thinking I’d like to do something in their honor. In particular, I’d like to finish this pair of pages to them, with images of them an all, and work them into the Kavad somewhere. In the meantime, maybe you, my readers, can think how we can honor this divine pair, and restore some of their ancient honor and celebrity.

Sun Pages

Sun Pages
Originally uploaded by anselm23

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While I figure out if I can/should alter the image of the Sun talisman I made earlier today, I decided to use the second hour of the Sun today to write out the Orphic Hymn of the Sun, and do a bit of illumination around it. I think it turned out pretty well.

Sun sign

Sun sign
Originally uploaded by anselm23

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This morning there was a 20-ish minute window for doing solar ceremonial work, which i learned about from mu friend Cole, and from Renaissance Astrology’s Christopher Warnock. Given that I’m doing a lot with artwork these days, I figured I would try duplicating Warnock’s icon for the day in one of the frames I’d already created. Here it is.

I don’t feel it’s the best such image I’ve created, nor the worst. I varied somewhat from his design, while keeping the core essentials. I wish I’d proportioned the figure correctly in the window, but — given that the working window was a little less than 20 minutes, there wasn’t much time to correct my errors.

The question I’m wrestling with, now, is can I color the image? My understanding is that once an image of this kind is made, one shouldn’t mess with it too much. I could wait for other windows in astrology to color it… Or I could just color it in right now… Or I could… Well, I don’t want to go into it. Peregrin, do you have an opinion? You’re a names-and-images person, yourself.

Taiji day 161: strong legs

During each of the elements of my daily practice, there are deep knee bends. During the Five Gold coins, it’s part of a routine called carry milk to heaven.. During the Eight Pieces of Silk, it’s called sink down on knees, and they’re meant to be slow. During the form, there are several. First comes grab needle at sea bottom, followed by snake creeps down a little later.

When I started, all these postures were challenging. I had difficulty doing more thank sinking partway down, and then bouncing right back up. I worried that if I ever sunk down and hung around too long, I’d be stuck and couldn’t get up. Isn’t there a commercial about that? Easiest just to do the posture in a half-assed way, and bounce right back up again.

Except now, it’s getting to be easy to sink down and stay down. My legs are stronger and my balance is better. I can hang around without worry of failing over or being unable to rise again. I walk differently because of how much stronger my legs are.

It’s weird to me that I can have a woo-woo experience like yesterday’s reiki outflow, and today I’m thinking about musculature and body strength, but that’s sort of the way of it, isn’t it? Some days are gym days, some days are library days, some days are church days. There’s a predominant insight that empowers a day, each day, if you let it.