Mahjong Crab

In mahjong crab, working the "feet", from top down, against the center stacks on the crab's "body" clears the tiles fairly quickly.

Mahjong Fortress

Similar to the dragon layout, the mahjong fortress layout has a lot of "stacking" of the tiles. Again, same as with the dragon layout, the fastest way to clear all of the tiles is to focus on the tiles at the ends of the long horizontal rows, and the inside tiles of each square.

Mahjong Cat

In mahjong cat layout, the fastest way to win is to play the tiles on the cat's "body" against the "tail" tiles and the "head" tiles. Once all of these pairs have been eliminated, then focus on the body.

Mahjong Dragon

The best way to beat this game is by clearing the tiles at the row ends first. This seems obvious but it is not quite that simple. Rows end tiles are even more important than the top tile as in the stacks. The dragon's "mouth" has three end tiles but only two are very important to clear first - the ones at the top and bottom of the triad.

Mahjong Turtle

The turtle arrangement of computer mahjong can be best,and fastest solved by the following strategies:

• If all four matching tiles are unblocked clear them all in any order.
• If you have a choice, try to match tiles that are in the center stacked area with ones on the edges. this way, both will be decreased as you progress which is required for winning.
• If you can not clear one of the center stacked tiles with an outer edge tile, then clear the center stacked ones first and then wait to clear the outer edge tiles.

Mahjong and Wikipedia

When it comes to computer mahjong, Wikipedia simply has some things wrong! Not all layouts are equal in difficulty! Fortress and Dragon are definitely more difficult than the others. I am not even sure if they all have the same scoring scheme; but perhaps that is because I am slower at some arrangements than others.

All arrangements seem to be solvable 100% of the time if you use CTRL Z to redo until you get it solved. Redoing to a solution requires remembering the arrangement of the tiles and analyzing what is required to win.

I have also figured out that if all four related tiles are unblocked, you might as well clear them out as the order in which you clear them will not matter in reaching a solution. Following posts will cover a possible strategy for each arrangment to increase your score.

Creating Dark Green

During the summer of 2008, I took a painting class at the local community college. At the same time, I was studying the works of John Singer Sargent and noticed that he often used a very dark green background for his pieces such as "Lily, Lily, Rose". I did a bunch of paintings with this dark green background ("Study on Sargent's Poppies" is on the right.)

I am beginning a new painting, "Ketones 1" that will be done similarly to "Study on Sargent's Poppies" but I could not remember exactly what I did to create the dark green. I googled and found a recommendation to add black to the green. I practically never use black, so I was sure this was not what I did. After some thought, I remembered mid-tone green and mid-tone red make charcoal grey. So, if I add a little more green than red, would I have dark green?

It worked! And created a very rich wonderful dark green - much darker in value than each of the two original colors in fact. I will have to experiment with complimentary colors more!

Beauty of Math and Science Series

I have never felt so close to my art before this series. And yet, I do not feel the emotional closeness that sometimes prevents me from selling a piece. Each piece so far has been a challenging intellectual adventure! I look forward to working on them each and every day. They also give me a wonderful excuse to study math and science along with art! What a wonderful combination....

Sound 1

Although battling eye pain for days now, "Sound 1" is turning out really great. I am using the concept from a painting I did in the 1980s but it is working beautifully for this new series. Nice to love what you do!

Alien Life

A common TV sci-fi theme is: an Earth space probe, or such, goes into the depths of space and brings back a deadly virus or bacteria thus creating wide-spread havoc here on Earth. What are the chances?

Years ago, I read Lewis Thomas' book, "Lives of a Cell". Thomas makes an excellent point about the small chance that alien life could impact life here on Earth. In order for it to impact Earth-life, it would have to have DNA (or RNA) similar to ours. The chances that on a separate planet located in the reaches of space the same genetic structure would evolve are so tiny that, ... well ... probably wouldn't happen. And it is through either DNA or RNA that the various microbes interact with us either giving us a cold or the flu or a sinus infection, etc.

So here is an idea for a great sci-fi novel: the sands here on Earth, and they are vast, begin to disappear. And, of course, it is an alien life form that was causing the destruction! The impact og losing our sand would much greater than you might think. In fact, sand is so important that Saudi Arabia had to import some from the US years ago for industrial uses -- their sand was too fine to use. Food for thought.

New Paintings

I am embarking on a whole new direction with my art. I am beginning a series of paintings - my first real series. They are going to reflective me - my thoughts, my interests, etc. They will be different which is a bit scary, and they will be difficult to execute. Adventure is good!

Primes

Primes are defined by the fact that can only be factored into 1 and themselves. All other numbers can be factored into a series of prime numbers. If you look at the pattern of primes being dependent on the pattern of multiplication (method creating prime factorization) then this means that the pattern of primes is based on the pattern of primes. The pattern itself is prime!

Coal Miner's Spring continues

My fractured thumb has finally gotten good enough for me to begin "Coal Miner's Spring". I began by applying the layers of green in the background and then worked on the large trunk to the left. The next layer was the yellow leaves, followed by dabs of a color called "Linen". Final dabs of lavender and turquoise were then applied to the leaves. The last thing I worked on was the large trunk on the left again.

When I first started this technique, I was not sure if all of the complimentary colors on the base layer would be covered up or if I could successfully visually blend this layer into the layer placed on to of it. I like the results.
In the photo to the left (click to enlarge), you can see some of the base lavender showing through the layers of the leaves.

Coal Miner's Spring

This photo was taken years ago during an early spring day near our local coal mine relic.

This image is going to be used as the basis for an experiment. The painting will be completed in acrylic on a 30" by 40" canvas.


I began the painting with a very simple pencil sketch of just the landmarks in the photo.

The experiment part is that a layer of complimentary colors will be applied first and then covered with the natural color. It is "iffy" as to whether this will work as acrylic "covers" the under-layers without blending. I have tried using various colors other than white as the base for acrylic paintings with some success.

The image above shows the beginning of the painting where orange is applied instead of the natural blue colors.

Below is the final version of the under-painting. It is intentionally detail sparse.

The next step will be to begin the natural colors starting with the background and building up layers.

"Reflection" Partially Done

"Grape Juice" Continues

This drawing is taking SO long but I am pleased with the results. Unfortunately, today I am fighting vision so bad that i can not read or even see the TV. Tomorrow is another day...

Progress on "Grape Juice"

I feel good about the progress on my latest drawing although it is slow. I doubt if I will end up doing four pieces during January!
Above is the beginning of the third stage for this piece. [The white pieces at the top are tape.] The first stage was to do the pencil drawing while the second stage was to apply watercolor in select areas. Then I began the colored pencil portion. This piece has plants, but not the pot, on the right finished. The rest of the colored pencil are has been begun but still needs detail and color making appear more 3-D.

The above here is just a bit further along than the one above. The plants and pots in back are finished, and the back of the baby's chair is partly finished.

Mixed Media

Right now I am completely enjoying doing mixed media pieces. I have sent for some new materials and will follow up with articles on them. Many of the art materials companies are developing new products all of the time and it is exciting. The new products are usually safer (many art supplies have heavy metals in them like cadmium and cobalt) and longer lasting. Many are eliminating solvents and using water instead so clean up is easier.

Pastel Journal Oct. 2009

I finally got around to reading the October issue of Pastel Journal. On article I found very interesting was on why you should paint the same scene 100 times. It was about really stretching yourself as an artist to go way past what you typically paint.

Another article covered a pastel painter who does semi-abstract pastels Frederick D. Somers - really gorgeous pastels.

Meadowdale Show

Meadowdale library is brand new. As my son and I approached it for the first time, I looked around to see where the Vivaldi was coming from and then realized it was coming from the library. My art is hung in their large conference room -- nice display area!

People are voting there today so maybe there will be sales!