Mixing colors

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Whenever I empty out a black ink cartridge that comes with one of my beloved brush pens, I think about adding another color to my set. This week I added a green by filling about 2/3 of the cartridge with lemon and the last 1/3 with blue:

It’s pretty, but it’s also interesting how easy it is to get green by drawing yellow and covering it with blue. Also, I really like the constraint of the CMYK brushes.

What I could really use is an orange. (Magenta on top of yellow just gets a vibrant red.) I think the same mix ratio (2/3 lemon, 1/3 magenta) should do the trick. Will report back later!

Update (6/2/2022) I mixed some orange, too:

Not bad!

PS. Here’s how I fill them using a blunt-tipped syringe:

Bicycles and re-enchantment

Monday, May 30, 2022

a picture of a river and a bicycle — A picture from this morning’s ride

In an essay called “Talking About Bicycles,” C.S. Lewis recounts a “friend” telling him about the different “ages” of his riding a bicycle: first, the bike meant nothing to him, then he learned to ride it, and became enchanted, then, by riding it to and from school, he became disenchanted. Now, taking up the bicycle again, he became re-enchanted.

I think there are these four ages about nearly everything. Let’s give them names. They are the Unenchanted Age, the Enchanted Age, the Disenchanted Age, and the Re-enchanted Age. As a little child I was Unenchanted about bicycles. Then, when I first learned to ride, I was Enchanted. By sixteen I was Disenchanted and now I am Re-enchanted.

I feel this very deeply. I also feel it in terms of the city in which I cycle: I’m not sure I was ever fully enchanted with Austin, but I certainly became disenchanted with it. And now, somewhat thanks to the bicycle, I am re-enchanted with Austin.

There is magic here because there is magic everywhere… if you know how to look for it.

(Thanks, Alan!)