The Pull of Print

I've lately started making myself read on the days there is energy left. On a low, rainy day such as this, it has been a sort of calling. My resumption has been in familiarity, choising my reads on color theory and drawing. There is only so long I can look at a screen until my mind goes into its own sort of terror of a sustained presence there. I can't say I've found my happy place because the sense of engagement is not yet there.  What I absorb is a struggle that's always been, one paragraph blurring to the next before ceasing to exist.

The best I can do is reread, looking for the general context of what the words on the page are trying to scream at me. Yet, I still crave it in its silence, in its monotony, in its satisfaction. What I want and what I seek is to do something that may spur me to do other things. That spurring has to come from within. It's why I've even moved to pick a book up once more.

-- -- -- -- --

What

Color (Origin/System/Uses) by Harald Küppers.

I found my way to this book in my intended work toward studying color theory. It is the English 1st ed. and is 50+ years old. I really wanted a hardcover. Though I'm early in, I plan on reading more contemporary perspectives on the subject of color theory. Despite being a traditional artist, technology will always be a factor to consider whether I stay with physical media or begin to work digitally. But for now, when I begin my practical application, via what I gather from the book, gouache is what I'll use to study.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.

Way back in 2001 when I had my first drawing class, my mother gifted me this book, and my instructor highly recommended it. On the other side of the debacle that was my experience in education, I am finally reading it on an inherited Kindle 2. Some time ago, I'd bought the "workbook" that accompanied the text. I feel, a chapter in, I'm likely about ready to roll on the "assignments" as I make my way through the "mother book." It is a shame though, that I gave up my physical copy. The e-reader screen isn't doing any favors for the finer detail in the illustrations throughout.