LifeStyle

Japanese Kanji symbols are very popular as tattoos as they are unique and they can convey a very personal and meaningful message in an artistic and exotic way.

Complex language

Kanji is one of three different types of alphabet character symbols used in a complex system of writing. The other two are Hiragana and Katakana. All three are used in different ways. Kanji conveys ideas in picture form, which may not always convey the exact meaning. Hiragana is sometimes used with the Kanji to modify or clarify the meaning.

Hiragana is used more for everyday use while Katakana is used mainly when dealing with foreign names.

The Japanese language contains literally thousands of characters. These were adopted from the Chinese, which have anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 characters. Scholars disagree on the number but, as you can see, it is a lot. In everyday use in Japan there are around 2000 – 3000 characters.

Multiple meanings

One of the major pitfalls in choosing a Kanji tattoo is the actual meaning of the symbol. The meaning can depend on the context and can have up to ten different meanings. It is essential to do some research before having a permanent symbol on your body. Make sure you get an accurate translation or, better still, use an artist who understands Japanese. Some artists are reluctant to do Kanji because they are not sure of the meanings.

There are no definitive standards for art in art licensing, what a manufacturer needs will vary from company to company. While greeting cards have a pretty standard 5″ x 7″ format, other product size requirements cover a wide range. If you are designing a quilt top, your art might need to be 40″ x 80″ and a magnet manufacturer may need 2″ squares. Size depends on where the art is going.

Size gets trickier in licensing since the goal is to license the same designs to multiple manufacturers for use on multiple products. The design you first license for a magnet may later become a card. If the original image is 2″ square, you might lose resolution and have to start over to fill the 5″ x 7″ card parameters.

Then there is the actual artistic process to take into account.

Every artist has a different process and you need to do what works for you. Some art that is licensed started out as large canvas, others did not. If you paint or draw too small, the resolution will suffer and not reproduce well if enlarged.

I have a large format scanner and dislike having to scan art in pieces and get them to go together seamlessly on the computer. It just doesn’t work for me! So I never paint larger than 11 x 15. But I don’t paint full “paintings” either. If I create a holiday scene for example, Santa, the tree and each and every gift are painted and scanned separately then put together in Photoshop. So they may not all be on the same piece of paper to start with. An entire collection of images never fits on a single sheet of watercolor paper.

Famous black and white photography prints go for a lot of money in the art market. Have you ever wished you knew about an artist’s work when it was cheap enough for you to invest in before it started going up and up like a red hot stock tip? Well you can. The black and white photographs of Alfred Cheney Johnston, a contemporary of Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz are gaining steam.

Alfred Cheney Johnston was the famed photographer of the Ziegfeld Follies. During his reign with the Follies, Cheney shot some of the most famous and beautiful people in the world – Lillian Gish, the Barrymores, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the Madonna of the Jazz Age – Louise Brooks known by her fans back then and today as just “Lulu”.

Cheney shot thousands of stunning black and white photographs. They’re stunning because of his fine art training. ACJ started out as an art student in New York City and was a protege of artist Charles Dana Gibson, who created the “Gibson Girl” modeled after his wife. While Cheney was still in art school the medium of photography was gaining ground as an acceptable art medium. It was Gibson who brought Cheney’s attention to photography in the first place and encouraged him to explore it as a new way to express his artistry. Thankfully Cheney listened.

George Washington Carver was a lecturer at the Normal and Industrial Institute of Negroes in Tuskegee in 1897. Carver was mainly involved in studying the problems faced by the farmers who grew cotton. He developed a method through which the farmers could retain and conserve the nutrients in the soil.

This was also famous as crop rotational method. It is considered as one of the most important inventions in the field of agriculture. George Washington carver suggested that the farmers plant peanuts, pecans and sweet potatoes so that the soil can be enriched for cotton harvest.

Carver also created a market for peanuts by discovering hundreds of uses for it. He did the same for sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans. He also invented various dyes of hundreds of shades and mainly used the agricultural crops for them. Before that textile dyes were always imported from England. Carver also invented the process of manufacturing paints and stains from soy beans and he was allowed to patent this invention. However, George Washington Carver did not patent most of his inventions and as a result he did not reap any profits from his numerous inventions and discoveries.

He also invented the cook stove chemistry that helped to improve the diet of families that were not able to buy meat. Carver was also the main person who developed the peanut butter, shaving cream, cloth dye, leather dye, wood stain hair tonic and laxative. He also invented several food products that were made form peanuts and soy beans. He also invented flour, sugar, and yeast. His contribution to the society in terms of agricultural products has been immense.