{"id":5440,"date":"2023-03-21T18:48:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T22:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/?p=5440"},"modified":"2023-03-21T18:48:43","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T22:48:43","slug":"the-creation-of-things-for-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/2023-solar-terms\/the-creation-of-things-for-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"the creation of things, for fun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span title=\"Chinese-language text\"><span lang=\"zh-Hani\"><span lang=\"zh\">\u6625\u5206<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u3002<\/p>\n<p>I started a painting a few days ago. The story of the masonite boards is somewhat long and winding&#8230; I bought them during lockdown (March 2020) in Toronto, and the bag sat in the dank room for a year, unopened. After I returned from my summer at home, it travelled with me to the apartment where it continued sitting in the back of a closet. Then I graduated, came home, and after a month or so I decided to sand and gesso the three boards. They dried and continued to sit in the basement. At some point during the past summer I drew a few pencil lines over one of them, but they were inarticulate make-work. During the renovations, the masonite boards were moved back and forth across the basement. Finally, in March 2023, I decided to pull out the paints.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, I bought three more paints as well as a jug of acrylic medium (for sealing purposes) first, but that was enough. I was motivated after a trip to a wood supply store with my dad. Wood smells really good, especially cedar. Absolutely bangin&#8217; stuff. There were so many different types of products and specialized tools, and everything is so expensive. I figured it&#8217;d be easier and cheaper to just find some offcuts and prep them for painting instead of trying to buy boards or canvases already prepped for painting. I did take a painting course in second year and learned how to stretch a canvas, but the wooden stretchers are expensive and I don&#8217;t have a staple gun. Canvas has a great feel, though.<\/p>\n<p>While painting, I remembered how fun it is. In the two weeks before break, I spent a lot of time in a kindergarten class. The first week was focused on painting and I spent most of my time hovering around\u00a0 one corner refilling paint and cleaning brushes. When there were less kids at my table, I would sit and paint a little with them. Some little kids really like painting and can actually sit for quite a while. I waited on them like those old Flash restaurant management games\u2014every second I&#8217;d hear a tiny voice call &#8220;Gra~ce~&#8221; or &#8220;WE NEED MORE WHITE&#8221; or &#8220;Can SOMEONE help me?!&#8221; and I&#8217;d have to make my way around the table. They&#8217;re very cute so I can&#8217;t get mad&#8230; I&#8217;m weak and fall for their tricks every time. But anyway, back to painting. After helping them out, I felt like painting too.<\/p>\n<p>I think it&#8217;s going alright. I never really learned how to draw &#8220;properly&#8221; but neither do I care about doing things in a certain way. I do things to have fun. That&#8217;s the point of my life. I&#8217;ll only do things as long as it&#8217;s fun or rewarding to me in some silly way. Even if no one else sees the appeal. I got a haircut a few days ago, too, and it&#8217;s super short in the back again. I like how prickly it is, but I also like the longer bangs. It&#8217;s kinda&#8230; Johan from Monster. Great character.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, I also started a block print. In San Francisco I bought two of the soft easy-cut blocks, thinking that I needed the practice, but it turns out that I still don&#8217;t like the super soft stuff. It crumbles and I can&#8217;t get a smooth cut sometimes. I also bought one of the small lino slabs, which is more familiar to me. I&#8217;ll work on that next, once I figure out what I want to make&#8230; Baking is still happening, at a slower pace because only Gloria eats breakfast these days. After that digital drawing for my friend, I haven&#8217;t done anything else. Maybe later today, if I have the focus.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, I kind of just do things whenever. There&#8217;s no real schedule. This applies not just to creative endeavours, but also problems. Yes. I am working hard to be a simple guy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/64.media.tumblr.com\/1d8b333fda9ac8f301c7889f331ce0c7\/487fd39fecb25342-bd\/s1280x1920\/6b6fff2bc104c6bddaa2b66b286641792f9786d2.jpg\" width=\"1280\" height=\"725\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u6625\u5206\u3002 I started a painting a few days ago. The story of the masonite boards is somewhat long and winding&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/2023-solar-terms\/the-creation-of-things-for-fun\/\">Continue Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">the creation of things, for fun<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/64.media.tumblr.com\/1d8b333fda9ac8f301c7889f331ce0c7\/487fd39fecb25342-bd\/s1280x1920\/6b6fff2bc104c6bddaa2b66b286641792f9786d2.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2023-solar-terms","excerpt","even","excerpt-0"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5440"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5442,"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440\/revisions\/5442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yinzhuohan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}