SelfiesHad my hair cut today so I thought I would take a selfie using Apple’s Photo Booth. Here is a sample. It raises the hoary old question : what is real and what isn’t. Talking of selfies did you know there is a museum in the Philippines dedicated to selfies? And here is a Twitter stream all about selfies in museums.

I had my hair cut today so I thought I would take a selfie  using Apple’s Photo Booth.

Alien

Here is a sample.

It raises the hoary old question : what is real and what isn’t.

Talking of selfies did you know there is a museum in the Philippines dedicated to selfies?

After Andy Warhol

And here is a Twitter stream all about selfies in museums.

and now for something...original

Over to Delta Studios for three hours Life Drawing.

We had a male model, John, with a suntan  you could die for- result of  six weeks in Australia. 

As a mature model now retired from his professional life he has discovered there is a great demand in Scotland for models so he has got himself a new career modelling for colleges ( those that still teach it), art clubs and studios.

I am not surprised he is in demand. He has an amazing body.

Life Drawing is no longer taught in most art colleges, or if it is then its minimal (I got two weeks at Glasgow School of Art) yet the demand from artists for drawing from life continues.

There is something very fundamental for an artist when you are confronted by a nude model. Mistakes are instantly recognizable. You can’t fudge lack of observation.

I would argue there is still a role for Life Drawing . What do you think?

New currency for Scotland-Queen Nicola the First

The Bank of Scotland issued yesterday a limited edition of the new currency, the merk, along with the smaller coin, the bawbee.

Professor Gavin McTaggart, a former chief economist at the Scotland Office, welcomes the re-introduction of the merk and the bawbee saying it helps to re-establish Scottish identity by reverting to the original coinage used in the 16^th century.

 In fact the bawbee, Scotland’s best-known coin, was first issued in 1539 and continued to be struck until 1697, but it died finally with the Union of the Parliaments in 1707.

The re-introduction of these ancient Scottish coinages is yet another symbol of the growing confidence of Scotland as a country prepared for the 21^st century.

Already the merk has become a valuable collectors item retailing well above its market value of £1 on e-Bay.

Get one while you can. Be sure to check though that you have the genuine article and it bears the correct date: 32^nd March 2015.

Symmetry- whelk

I collected this   giant whelk in the Caribbean some time ago hoping that one-day I could use it in some photographic project.

Well today it has its three seconds of fame- as my contribution to mono Monday Symmetry, in my online photographic journal