Self portrait? Me and the graffiti

Self portrait? Me and the graffiti

Nice day to wander about with a camera. No rain, for a change.  Was down on Bloor and Bathurst taking a few shots – it’s one of my favourite areas to lurk because it’s always busy. I was standing outside Honest Ed’s (former discount department store, now vacant) looking at all the graffitti that has proliferated. CIties are quirky creatures – they seem to abhore a blank canvas. Leave something long enough and it will be filled.

Some of the graffiti was imaginative; the wall art is spectacular in spots. And then you have the garden variety idiot with a spray can and zero talent. Those are the ones who tag the windows. While standing in front of one of the large windows, I thought the reflection would make a great non-standard selfie. I actually loath selfies for a variety of reasons. I do enjoy self portraits – shots that speak about the neighbourhood and person taking it. When I was standing there looking at the window, graffitti and people striding by, I was struck by how the image captures the empty building. So, I grabbed a couple of shots. When I sat down for a coffee to look over the photos, I ran one through a couple of basic routines – saturation, contrast, increasing shadows yada yada yada and here it is: Photo of graffitti on window - self portrait

Motion Project – Self Portrait of an Urban Scribbler July 07 2017 Bathurst and Bloor, Toronto. Originally meant the scribbler tag to mean me, but after looking at the tagging, it seems to have a double meaning. I’m including it in the Motion Project because it has a kinetic feel to it and fits with what I think of as a city in motion. Kind of cool shot.

Over 100 Zeppelin LZ 127 covers coming up for auction this month

Over 100 Zeppelin LZ 127 covers coming up for auction this month

I spotted a couple of interesting covers up for auction. If you’re a Zeppelin collector, Daniel F. Kelleher auction house might be worth a quick look. Hell, even if you aren’t looking to buy, go look anyway.

The first one is a nice US Lakehurst to Lakehurst cover with an excellent US airmail/ Zeppelin cancel and Eckener cachet.  The current bid is sitting at $100 with the estimates between $200 and $300. The cover lacks Zeppelin stamps but the cachet and cancel make it worth a bid. If you’re just starting your Zeppelin collection, this would be a great starting point.

Zeppelin cover US Lakehurst to Lakehurst - image Daniel F. Kelleher Auctions

The one that floats my boat is Lot 5015 – Zeppelin mail to Canada airmail by way of the US. Ok, a bit convoluted so I’ll let the catalogue do the talking:

Canada, 1930 (May 18-31), Europe-Pan-American Flight, Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst (Michel 66 G), cover franked with 15¢ Canadian postage canceled Vancouver, 15 Apr, flown to New York where U.S. $2.60 Zeppelin was applied and canceled 29 Apr; German & U.S. flight cachets, backstamped green Lakehurst Zeppelin receiver; then returned by Airmail to the sender/addressee in Vancouver; 5¢ Canadian Airmail with corner neatly replaced, otherwise Very Fine. Sieger 64 Ib.
Sieger €2,000 ($2,120).

Zeppelin cover to Canada by way of US - image Daniel F. Kelleher Auctions

Kelleher puts the the estimate at between $1,000 and $1,500. But look at that beauty – both a US Zeppelin stamp and a Canadian airmail,  and absolutely brilliant cancels and cachets. Be still my beating heart. That’s the cover of Canadian airmail collector’s dreams. As of this writing, the opening bid is already $500.  I’ll be watching this one.

Kelleher Auctions has a large number of Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 flight covers available.  Even if you aren’t looking to bid or these are beyond your stamp budget, check the offerings out anyway. It’s a great way to see what’s out there and learn more about this specialty.

I’d love to be in Danbury, Connecticut to watch this lot go on May 18-19, 2017.

** Both cover images courtesy Daniel F. Kelleher Auctions.

 

 
A Canadian stamp that collectors dream of having – rare stamp emerged for auction

A Canadian stamp that collectors dream of having – rare stamp emerged for auction

Canadian stamp collectors had a rare chance to see the first British Columbia & Vancouver Island stamp go to auction last week. Daniel F. Kelleher Auctions, a US house, handled the sale of 21/2 pence imperforate stamp. The catalogue price lists it for $25,000 Cdn. It was described as F to VF condition with “brilliant, deep color”.  Kelleher Auctions estimates were far more conservative than the catalogue price – placing estimates between $10,00 to $15,000.

Some interesting things about the stamp:

Vancouver and British Columbia stamp that went to auction May 2017

It was designed before Vancouver adopted decimal currency, hence the pence value. The first decimal issues for BC were issued in 1865.

According to the Canada Post Archives, the stamp was “probably” based on a design by William Driscoll Gosset and “probably” engraved by Jean-Ferdinand Joubert de la Ferté. A lot of probables, but that’s the problem with history, sometimes information is misplaced. Or, what we consider important now, wasn’t at the time. Archives can be such a crapshoot.

It’s suspected, Gosset based his sketch on renowned engraver William Wyon’s famous 1937 engraving of a young Queen Victoria, the image that graced coins for years and was the model for the Penny Black. The engraver, Joubert de la Ferté worked for De La Rue, the printers of the Vancouver stamp, so it isn’t much of a stretch to think Joubert de la Ferté was the engraver.

Gosset’s involvement is a bit more straight forward. He was an officer in the British Army’s Royal Engineers, so was trained in sketching. At the time of the stamp’s inception, Gosset was both Colonial Treasurer and Post Master for the colony of British Columbia. It’s not difficult to believe he was deeply involved in the overall design.

There are two version of this stamp – imperforate (the first printing) and the 14-perf version. The imperforate version was never officially used for mail and it’s unknown how many exist. Most sites generally agree that #1 was as a proof and never released in the wild.

So how did the stamp do? It sold for $11,400 US so the estimates were pretty spot on.

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Frankensteining my way towards a full body – drawing eyes

Frankensteining my way towards a full body – drawing eyes

Learned something valuable the other day. If you’re going to take a close up of your own eye, make sure the flash is off. I get the type of migraines that are triggered by bright lights (especially flashes) and well, let’s just say there was a bit of cursing when the flash went off, rapidly followed by the usual pain.

I said in my last post, Still sulking, I needed to go back and examine eye structure closely. I wasn’t happy with my output, so I lurked around all sorts of medical sights and Bing images for super quality close ups. I dabbled with them and then flipped over to a couple of Youtube channels for some help because I just couldn’t get it right. I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong.

Here’s the original sketch (posted on the previous article):

Scan of original drawing of human eye

After watching videos I figured out I was too heavy handed. I didn’t leave any wiggle room for darkening and shading. The eye lid was too high and should droop down over the eye a bit. I went back to the original drawing and tried correcting it:

Scan of second drawing of human eye

Better, but no, not right. The shape of the eye is off. It droops unnaturally down and the eye is too perfect along the top.  I’m struggling with this aspect of drawing the eye. It’s not easy getting the shape correct. As well, I was puzzled about how to approach the white part of the eye as it merges with the edges.  I started a new sketch, trying to pull together what I’d learned:

Sketch 3 of the human eye. Not much better

In this one, I over compensated for the bottom and the eye looks like it’s bulging. If I owned that eye, I’d be trotting off to a specialist right about now. And once again, I’m too heavy handed with the pencil. I started off far too dark and literally drew myself into a corner. I abandoned this sketch and  decided I’d rather try drawing my own eye and went to take a photo of it. FLASH! and I had to go lie down until the migraine settled. Sunday I took a series (without the flash) of photos of my right eye and printed a couple out. I sat with a ruler and looked it over carefully, then settled down to draw it. Here’s the result:

4th sketch of a human eye - much better this time

Now, I’m happy with the progress of this sketch. Starting with a ruler to get a basic idea about placement and sizing helped immensly. I started out with an F pencil for all the basics, including the preliminary shading. Then moved onto HB, 2B and a 4B. Now I have to work getting the blending a bit smoother. The eyebrown is a bit of a bodge job, I haven’t quite figured out how to do the fine hairs, but the shape is correct. I think the bottom of each hair should be a bit heavier so they look rooted in the brow. The other thing that’s hard, is getting that slight watery look along the bottom rim. I’m going to pick up a white pencil this week and see if using that helps.

So, things to work on:

– basic roundness of the pupil and placement of the iris.

– shape of the eye itself.

– smooth out blending techniques

– work on the eyebrow

Just wait until I try to do a pair of eyes. Maybe I’ll keep Frankensteining and cut and paste eyes instead.

I found this video helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbgYr_10Rfs Leonardo Pereznieto has a number of tutorials on realistic eyes that are excellent.

I also found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQo7P9VkFaA by Makoccino useful. She uses a step by step approach that covers the real basics, things first time drawers get wrong.

Now, aren’t you glad I lost my Wacom tablet?

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