Zeno~SPARTA~

Thanks. The Mosquito is an all time favourite plane for me, but in terms of critique, although the hard line edges of that drawing help clearly define it, it steps away from reality. So far the Phantom is closest to the real image, but the Spitfire is getting there. I am struggling to get the black down, I think its a combination of cheap photocopier paper and graphite pencil. Better paper and/or charcoal would help with the contrast. I have also been practising still life, water droplets, the hand and eye. I have a variety of colouring pencils (including water soluble) but I have to practice to get satisfactory results, so far the results are consistently unsatisfactory. Creating the illusion of depth for water droplets in fun. Realistically, drawing is going to end up being a fad for me. It currently holds my interest, but I imagine that will pass. But I have gone further with it this time than any of my previous artistic attempts. Today we live in an age where we can explore so many interests, because everything you want to learn is just a few keyboard clicks away.

This is what I have done so far. The Spitfire is not finished and the Phantom still needs a little correction. But its been fun to explore this interest. I am waiting on a Tombow eraser which will let me pick out highlight more precisely. My sister was furloughed last week, so she is looking to develop a hobby, I think she wants to digitally organise/archive/classify her photos. Weird times, looking like the end of May before we are out of Lockdown. Apparently it wont happen until we have the antibody and PRC tests in place.

Very tidy setup!

Happy birthday.

I am sorry to hear that Halli. I hope that doesn't last too long!

I have fixed it up a bit, but because i tried to do it too quick and because I dont have all the pencils I cannot do much better than this Here is my attempt next to the reference picture. This is a Royal Navy Phantom from the Ark Royal.

I cannot speak to your missing post, but the forum has been performing fine, there just aren't many posts. If you click on the activities tab you can see all the latest posts. I monitor the forum frequently, but haven't noticed posts disappear.

I thought I would have a bash at another plane I admired when I was a boy. It still needs some tweaking and a couple of fixes but here it is.

If I were you, I would learn how to build by setting the world to Survival, then, using the admin feature, enable creative tools. This will allow you to learn all the mechanics realistically but forego hunting for minerals and welding. This will speed up your learning process. Use it as a learning tool, so that you can participate in survival from a better knowledge base.

As our lives change due to corona virus, the world can adapt in a variety of ways, we can hoard toilet paper, a pretty shitty thing to do, we can stock our bunkers for the collapse of society, or we can help each other. As you know there is a global shortage of ventilators. But an intermediate aid for respiratory distress is the CPAP, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure device. The Mercedes F1 team are gearing up to produce 1000 a day if trials are successful, this will release Ventilators for those suffering from more extreme respiratory problems. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52087002

I always thought you were more of a practical person, I would never have guessed you were interested in art. For my part I am interested in a lot of things, not bad at a few things and generally poor at the rest. Art is not one of my talents, but I always enjoyed drawing.

When I have raced, I found that car class to be the best. The cars have adequate power and decent brakes. I could try to scare up some interest in PCars2 Sunday racing, but we have not been able to duplicate the enthusiasm of GTR2 and Grid. We tried an endurance race with mandatory fuel stop, but ended up with many DNFs due to fuel. I cant race, or play any game, with randoms, It's much more enjoyable to race with friends.

My nephew uses pastels and where I have seen them work well is for countryside scenes. They are rich and vibrant. With no experience I don't think I could get the subtle colour variations to create the illusion of depth. If I progress to pastels I will start with an apple!!. For now I would like to get on top of shading, so I will try to practice that first. More importantly do you still dabble, I found it quite calming as I had to focus 100% on what I was doing. As Halli said, we are lucky, because we can adapt to social distancing but still be social and entertain ourselves with games. As for the Mosquito it is my favourite plane of that era. I am familiar with the Goering quote “In 1940 I could at least fly as far as Glasgow in most of my aircraft, but not now! It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy. The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that? There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. After the war is over I’m going to buy a British radio set – then at least I’ll own something that has always worked.” – Hermann Göring, 1943 The reason I am so fond of this plane is indeed the ingenuity of creating a sleek, fast plane made from wood at a time when Britain's back was to the wall. We are all going to need some of that ingenuity when we come out of the other side of this pandemic.

We have talked about reading and fishing, although that is not allowed here at this time, but I thought I would try my hand at pencil drawing. I did a line drawing which I then copied and tried to colour using pencils that I have.. It turned out awful and childlike. I took another copy of the line drawing and used pencils to shade it. It's not great but much better.

Happy Birthday bud, have a great day!!

Amazing it looks so real. Great game.

I don't remember ever throwing a book I have bought away, so I found the paperback and will read it again.

Obviously there are many books you could read, but our current situation reminded of a Sci Fi book I read long ago called "The Naked Sun", by Isaac Asimov. At its core it is a detective novel, but it take place on another planet in the future where people are taught from birth to avoid physical contact and only communicate with each other via holograms. This book was written in 1957!!! in a time where, television was a luxury and enjoyed in fuzzy shades of grey! Stay well, especially if your older and in less than perfect health. Hopefully our confinement will be temporary and we wont end up living like those people in the book.

Happy Birthday

I do time trials with my family using project cars 2 when they visit me in the summer. Invariably I lose (badly) to my nephew, soon I will also lose to my grand nephews as well, so my experience with project cars is that it makes me feel old, lol. I was sure I was the best driver in the world, probably!

It turns out the material for Yes Minister was obtained from secretaries and under secretaries actually working in government at that time, so it's very realistic. But at the same time they manage to find the humour in this very dry subject. By the way, sir Humphrey (the civil servant) learnt his very complicated lines by heart and did not read from a prompter. Here is an example (officially official speech starts at 2:15)

Hi Rocky! Nogripracing was the site that I used the most but it appears to be dead. I have project cars 2 but have not made the leap to VR yet. I am considering it, however I absolutely do not want to set up stations around the room. If I get one it will only be for racing and flying, I get the impression that the stations/sensors are for games where you move around, which I do not want to do. I will consider getting a VR headset this year.

I jest, this is british comedy at its best. This reminds me of the expression "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit", although this level of bullshittery is brilliant in of itself!!

Hi, the group is relatively quiet. There is some activity on teamspeak, but not so much on the forums.

I wasnt clear. The old base is lost no matter what you do. The settlement you went to is the new base and has recalibration etc.