Ingela Bohm's Blog, page 42

Happy accidents

A failed photograph that I can’t bring myself to toss

So much in (at least my) life is the result of happy (or not so happy) accidents. So let’s focus on the happy ones.

I don’t know if the picture above speaks to anyone but me. It’s not supposed to, because it’s just an accidental out-of-focus shot that went off before I’d arranged the picture I meant to take. But the result is kind of… beautiful. The blurriness actually manages to convey the early evening calm of the forest. Also, it diminishes the impact of what looks very much like (and is!) a random arm movement. Instead of an actual scene where something happens, the viewer is left with a vague feeling.

At least, I am.

And so many positive things in my life are like that. Not the big things, necessarily, but the small details that make every day easier – like the perfect place to hang your keys, or the accidental discovery of an unorthodox but tasty spice in a dish that has fallen into dull routine.

I like it. I like learning by making mistakes, by trial and error, by taking a metaphorical handful of gravel and tossing it at a target, hoping for the best. Most of the time, it’s a bust, but when one stone hits the bull’s eye, it’s magical, and there’s no guarantee that careful planning would have resulted in the same haphazard perfection.

Sure, I can consult an instruction booklet, but only until I get bored (usually after a couple of minutes). After that, I want to go out there and test it out – whether it be my new camera, discourse analysis, a creative way of hanging drapes, or a dramatic scene in a book.

And while the result may not always appeal to anyone – what’s the point of an out of focus photograph, some will ask themselves – it makes me happy. As happy as the magical glow of twilight.

Forests and streams

I think best when I’m on the move. Every time my husband and I go on a trip, we both get loads of ideas. Our outdoor musical about the fossegrim was born on a river boat. The idea for Cutting Edge came into being on a long-distance bus. Release was brainstormed during a walk in the woods, and almost all my actual writing takes place on forest paths like this one, with my phone in my hand and the Dragon Dictation app running.

Right now in semi-northern Sweden, trees are budding, but at a distance, they still look grey and drab. The mountains shift in shades of dark blue and smoky green. At a glance, nature can seem dead, but deep inside twigs and roots, new life is growing, and in the sunshine, the fir trees gleam warmly, hinting at the summer foliage to come.

This is one of my favourite walks. I love a bit of hilly horizon, and the absence of human artifacts allows me to pretend I’ve travelled back in time.

No bathing yet, but this is only a stone’s throw from the tiny little beach at the centre of our village, where you can take an evening swim when all the hurly-burly’s done and the sun filters through the leaves. The water that glides over the rocks and breaks into froth looks a bit like a dark blue silk sleeve with tattered old lace at the cuff.

I really do love the place where I live.

Morning mist and memories

The view from my train station can be truly stunning when the weather’s right. And this is just an iPhone pic without filters! (Yep, I regret not bringing my new camera…)

It was on a morning like this (slightly misty, with a cold sun just barely breaking through) that I walk-dictated Xavier’s initial Guy-confusion in All You Can Eat, and that waterside path will always make me think of those scenes.

It’s funny how the brain works. There’s a park in Gothenburg that will always make me think of the Beatles, because I used to listen to them while I walked to university early in the morning, and our downstairs kitchen will always hum Ghost because I listened to them while I painted it.

Some things are branded on our memories because our brains deemed them miraculous or life-saving enough to store forever – and apparently, for me, the hazy horizon of this harbour is one of those things.

Worker’s day resolution

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I have the utmost respect for people who are good with their hands. I wish I was able to look at a piece of wood and just know how to make it into a staircase or a house, but I don’t. So when I master something manual, it’s always a big victory – much more so than finishing a book. Because it’s hard. (It’s hard to write a book, too, but you know…)

So if yesterday was a kind of New Year’s Eve, I suppose today is the day for implementing some kind of resolution. Mine will be to learn to drill in concrete, because no human being in possession of a house can live without this skill. So now it’s out there, in black on white, and I won’t be able to put it off any longer. I’ll pop back in with proof when I’ve put up all the wall candlesticks that lie waiting in our Mediterranean style spa…

Walpurgis night: goodbye winter

On this night, the 30th of April, we traditionally light a giant bonfire and set off crackers and fireworks. We celebrate that winter is finally over – there’s even a traditional song that begins “Winter has raged its last among the mountains” (roughly).

Our personal little Walpurgis fire.

It’s almost like a second New Year – because now life truly starts again: trees are budding and the ground is thawing, and all those things that seemed impossible to do during the winter now take on a more alluring cast as the sunshine warms us again and we can maybe, maybe leave our jackets open.

Spring walk

Ants on a twig

I was only going to photograph the furry buds of this bush (osier?), but then the ants stole the show. They walked towards each other, stopped and high-fived (that’s what it looked like!) and then went on their way.

Last year’s grass

The water is cold. Very cold. But so beautiful.

Lichen

This type of lichen is everywhere. It mostly hangs off half dead tree branches, and it looks like hair. We call it beard lichen.

Coltsfoot

These little darlings are practically the only spring flower we have. The rest come when it’s already summer. But since these are the first sign of spring, they spark a tiny explosion of sunshine in your heart when you see them.

How to make a starry vault in paint.net

To start with, choose one or several colours for your background. I chose two shades of purple as my primary and secondary colour (bottom left). Then I used the gradient tool to create the sky.

I wasn’t happy with it, so I changed the hue.

Then I used the paintbrush, 5 points white, to dot the sky with stars.

Then I used free plugin Starglow to make the stars shine.

You can tinker with the length etc of the “spikes”, and you can choose whether to add the diagonals (which I did).

I fiddled a little with the Mini, Maxi and Radius. Don’t ask me what those mean. You can trial and error your way to a kind of star you like.

And, um… done![image error]

How to make fiery letters in paint.net

On all my Pax covers, I’ve used fire in both text and image. Over the top? Perhaps. But if you want to use the fiery idea to make your title or any other text more vivid/dynamic/eye-catching, this is how you do it.

First, you need a picture of fire. I took this one during an evening when hubby and me were grilling with friends.

As you can see in the box to the right, I’ve added a new layer on top of the fire image. That’s where the text will go.

I used the font One Fell Swoop, which is free and can be found here.

Write the text anywhere you like, just remember that it’s what’s in the image underneath that will make up the letters once you copy it into a new document. Move it around if you’re not happy with the colours, or change the size.

Next, you use the magic wand to select the letters (still on the second layer, otherwise you select the fire instead).

Then you switch to the Background layer again and copy your selection. What you’re doing now is, you’re using the text from the second layer as a template for what you want to copy from the fire image.

Create a new document and paste the copied fire text.

If you’re not happy with the colours, remember you can go back and move the text around and copy new versions.

When you’ve chosen the best version, you can modify the colours and contrast by using Hue/saturation and Brightness/contrast.

And now you’re ready to copy the text onto a new layer on the cover or whatever it is you’re making!

If you want, you can change the orientation and size of the text by pulling on the bent arrow thingumajig that appears when you hover close to your selection.

Done![image error]

Of course you can use other images besides fire to make your text pop. In this one, for example, I used rainbow watercolours and changed the hue to mostly blue and green, in order to create the impression of a stream.

Dirty spring

Not saying this is Darian…

… only that I wouldn’t have drawn him if I hadn’t read Glitterland. *sigh*

(Alright, yes, we get it, now move on to the next damn book, will ya? Plenty more fish.)