Beeny Kids ....

Just a quick visit.

 

Left is another picture I did for my daughter.

 

It was a quick sketch of what was, at the time, one of her new dolls (A Beeny Kid)

Frankie

Been on Holiday

-

 and all I have to show for it is a picture !!

Sorry about being so glib, but it is almost true, in some ways at least.

The holiday was good, and it was just what we, and especially I, needed.

  In some ways it was a traditional "Family" holiday, with not only the occupants of "Chez Smudger" going. My Sister and her young family, along with my Mum, we all went for a week by the seaside - and we went to Bridlington.

No pressure, plenty of "no hurry".

Sand castles. Paddling and Football on the beach.

There were walks, Museums and Sewerby Hall

There was, of course,the "traditional" British summer weather.

But what I do like , as many of you will already know , is drawing.

I tried buildings for the first time. It was OK, but nothing special. But all the Kids (both mine and my sisters) spent time drawing. There were birds. There were cartoons (which our Liam was particularly into). There were houses, gardens, flowers.

There was also plenty of :

"Dad, look at this"

and

" Uncle David, look at my house?"

My new Fujifilm S5000 camera worked like a dream. The images were clear and sharp, and what was even better, any of the "iffy" images could be deleted without having to pay for the film to be developed first (  although a man of my caliber would never take a dodgy picture -     )

 

What worked even better, was a quick visit to Boots. In there was a dandy little machine that processed images from digital camera cards directly to prints. The Kodak machine worked a dream, and my Mum got immediate piccy's of all her Grand kids - it was smart.

 

Back to my picture. 

  As you can see, it is an image of the "Hollywood" Frankenstein (based on a photo of Boris Karlof used as a Base image on the front cover of the Sunday Express S3 magazine of several weeks ago).

 

Now, this is one of the first times that I have used a mixture of Charcoal and Chalk that came in an "Artist Sketching Kit" that came a lovely price (£2.50 for a good size box).

What do you think?

I think it's OK-ish, maybe a few too many "finger prints" and smudges around the edge.

They were the un-intentional marks - although it doesn't seem to detract from the picture , and, to be honest, I had not taken into account how "dusty" (or had I forgotten?) the chalk and charcoal could be.

All in all I like it myself.

Your Fav Browser?

Hi Guy's.

 

I know I haven't been by for a while, but I haven't had much to say, and, to be perfectly honest, there hasn't been very much happening at " Chez Smudger"

 

However, don't you find it a little "odd" (if that's the way to put it?), how things cycle through life.

 

When I first started browsing the Internet, I did, as most people did (and still do), use Internet Explorer.

 

But it soon became apparent, even to a novice Smudger, that there must be something better out there.

 

I tried Netscape, which was still the "next big thing" out there at that time (no comments about how old I am please -  ) but didn't really find that to my tastes.

 

So I just kept on looking.

 

 Then, after reading a magazine article by a chap called Davy Winder in PcPro I found the Opera Browser.

It was many of the things Internet Explorer wasn't (and never has been). It was small in size ( and even smaller if you already had the latest version of Javascript), it was quick. The only downer was the fact that it has adverts on the free version, but even they didn't seem to be a major issue - to be honest I barely even noticed them.

 

 But as time went on the love waned as Opera lost its way. I found a new love (the now growing "infant" that is FireFox  ), I dabbled with other browsers, but the Explorer dominance has infected the world.

 

 But now Opera is back - and it is everything it used to be and more .

 

It is substantially smaller in size than IE6

 

It is quicker to use than IE6

 

It has a shortcut bar on the left (that move back, out of the way, when you want it to)

 

My true (Internet) love has returned.

 

But my heart is torn.

 

  Should I continue my love for Firefox?

 

   Should I rekindle my love for Opera?

 

I know what - I'll love them both - and the pity?

 

Using Windows XP - I CANNOT remove IE6 - Oh well, maybe I'll just let it hide in the background