Ibis, Dessert, and Orchid

After the big disappointment with the Magnolia, I decided to redirect my interest in other things to sketch.

One of the days I went out to check on the Magnolia, these Ibis were in the back near the tree.  I was able to move around a bit without scaring them taking pictures.  These guys seldom come to the back yard so it was a surprise to me to see them there.

Terry went to get some ice cream for us and knowing I'm trying to watch my calorie intake, he found these mini cones.  Nestles makes mini drumsticks and I have always loved their large cones but Publix was out of them.  So he decided to get these from Blue Bunny for me to try. 

Last month I worked a watercolor sketch and a digital sketch of my orchid at the bud stage.  I wanted to work another digital with it in full bloom and got a bit carried away.  This took me hours starting yesterday morning at 10 a.m. and worked it off and on until 4:30 this morning.  Then I picked back up on it at around noon and finished this afternoon.  Today's work was fine tuning after a few hours of sleep and fresh eyes adding deeper values, blending and smoothing edges.

Big Disappointment - Magnolia Flower

So far I have seen and monitored two buds that opened and went through the stages up to all petals turning brown.  There was another bud ready to open as of last night I was so looking forward to seeing as there were no limbs or bunches of leaves to hinder the flower from opening completely.  

When I woke up, I went outside and took a picture of that bud and knew that sometime through the day, it would definitely open.  And I was right.  UNFORTUNATELY, sometime during the day, something attacked this flower leaving petals on the ground exposing an entire side of the center.  Chances are it may have been squirrels as we have an over-abundance of them this year eating up our growing avocados and causing havoc at our bird feeders.  Neighbors are also complaining about how bad the squirrels are this year.  One neighbor in particular has already trapped over two dozen (just from his yard) relocating them to the National Forest near us.

Last page in journal from Fay.  TWSBI 580ALR w/#41 Brown / QoR and DS watercolors.

Watching and Documenting Growth of Magnolia Flower

When we moved into the house we first rented and then purchased, we cut down all but about 6 feet of trunk of a scraggly looking magnolia we didn't think was doing well.  Our plan was to place a bird house on top hoping to attract Blue Birds.  We never got around to building the bird house and the next thing we knew, we had new growth growing from this trunk to include side branches.  Here a few years later we have a nicely shaped magnolia tree.

The type we have is an evergreen variety (Southern Magnolia??) that is showy with dark green leaves on the front or top surface and a gold/bronze color underneath.  The leaves are large and waxy.

We noticed the last two years the tree had actually produced a few flowers only because we saw the seed pods.  We kept missing the flowers themselves.  This year I was determined to see them and starting around mid April, I started locating a few flower buds.  At first I could only find three but have since noticed several others...mainly up higher.

At first it was hard to distinguish between leaf buds and flower buds but didn't take long to notice the difference.  The flower buds are fuller at the base looking like a bulb compared to the leaf buds.

Over the weekend we saw our first flower open in a cup shape.  Come evening I noticed the flower closed up.   Next morning I found the flower was wide open spilling stamens that would catch on the cup shaped petals.  By evening, the petals were turning a Burnt Sienna like color of brown.  My understanding is that the flower life is basically two full days before turning brown and petals finally dropping leaving a cone shape that continues to develop into seed pods.

As of yesterday we had two fully opened flowers - both at the point of petals turning brown.  There is one bud that is getting close to opening and have found several others at the point in this first sketch.

First two using sketchbook with Fabriano Hotpress paper.  TWSBI 580ALR (F) w/#41 Brown ink.  QoR and DS watercolors.

This one using same sketchbook but using TWSBI Eco (EF) w/Urban Grey ink / same watercolors.

Didn't feel like messing with watercolor so I worked this rough sketch in Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook using mechanical pencil .7

State of flower as of last night.

Monthly Theme May 2021 - Gnomes Pencil Sketch

Continuing with the monthly theme of "Items I tend to Collect," I worked this pencil sketch of three gnomes.  I have two sets of miniature gnomes done up in Gnome Gardens.  One garden has gardening gnomes while the other one has four camping gnomes.  

Outside we have a set made of resin that light up automatically at night.  And one other I have is a plush gnome I have inside one of our curio cabinets.

Gnomes are special to me because they remind me of the child's TV show of years past called "David the Gnome."  I used to sit with Travis watching this show and loved the moral lessons the show centered around like sharing, etc.

Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook / Mechanical pencil .7

Working Opal and Jake Three Ways

For my minimum of one digital for the month, I decided to play with different styles using my miniature dog and bear as models.

Using a digital pencil sketch of Opal and Jake, I loaded into a separate Procreate file and worked as follows:

The first is trying to follow how BeeJayDel works his cartoon characters.  He has his ink line sketch and then creates a  layer for a flat base color where he drags and drops a color.  Then he works a layer for shadows and a layer for highlights.  His shadows and highlights are hard-edged.  One of the problems I find myself facing is where and how to place these hard-edged shadows.  He's big in shadows and conservative with his highlights.

The second is using the exact same colors but softening those hard edges of both shadows and highlights.  

The third version is painting the colors in (using gouache brush tool) rather than dragging and dropping a flat base color.  That way the illustration has texture simply by the brush strokes saving a step and additional layer using a texture brush over top of a flat base color.  I also changed the colors used in Jake (dog).

I prefer the soft edges in shadows/highlights so the middle is my favorite of the first two.  Overall, however, I prefer to paint my colors in instead of using a flat base color.  

Pen Versus Paper

For my goal to work at least one straight pen and ink sketch for the month, I started sketching these simple flowers.  I started in one of the hand-sewn books I made year before last using up old stock of Fabriano Hotpress paper.  I've not had issues before but I sure did with this page.

Using my TWSBI 580ALR with fine nib, I felt this drag like I would imagine trying to sketch on waxed paper.  The ink went down very light almost like it had been watered down.  Going back over those lines, the paper then grabbed the ink making areas super dark.  

Not real happy with the results but then I really didn't feel like putting much more effort into this due to the way my pens were behaving on this particular page.  The following two pages didn't give me trouble so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I won't run into this again with the remaining pages in my sketchbook.

Something Totally Different

No idea what prompted me to look into family crests but I spent awhile looking at those, wedding crests, and mono crests.  I was intrigued by those not traditional with shield and armor and started thinking about what I could come up with that fits me.  And rather than designing all new content, I decided to go through my previous sketches and paintings and use some of my favorites.

This would be classified probably as mixed media digital since I used both digital and watercolor sketches to make this up and designed it in photoshop elements.

This represents my favorite bird which is the hummingbird.  It includes my favorite colors which are greens and golds.  Green represents nature and life and golds represent warmth and comfort.  This "crest" represents my love for art, fishing, gardening, and includes my favorite sketching model, Opal.   And the quote is how I live. 

Printed and placed in a magnetic acrylic block using old stock of Arches Infinity Museum Quality Digital Art printer paper (I found another box I hadn't used yet).  My go to for ATC cards before Canon partnered with Arches and that particular paper is no longer available.  This was always my favorite before finding Red River papers.  The one thing I like about the Arches was the texture of the paper.  Red River Aurora that I purchased is more like a hotpress surface but is bright white and makes your prints pop.  Arches Infinity is a softer white with a coldpress like texture.

Monthly Theme for May 2021 - Items I Tend to Collect

Alexa chose the number assigned to "Items I tend to Collect" which covers quite a few ideas I can sketch this month.  I have quite a collection of pens, various trinkets, and stuffed animals to include my miniature bears.  One of my biggest weaknesses is collecting various cases.  

Most normal women get into buying/collecting dozens of shoes and/or handbags but then no one can call me normal.......ha ha.  I find a handbag I like and I'll use it for every occasion until it falls apart.  And shoes......I have two pairs of dress shoes (navy and black), pair of sneakers until they wear out, and pair of flipflops ... given the choice, I go barefoot.  I never got into matching shoes with clothing or handbags like many women do.  And as for clothing, my wardrobe is very simple with maybe a dress or two, t-shirts, a few blouses, and jeans.

Anyways......for my first example for this theme, I went with a few cases I have sitting right here near me that hold mainly pens but also a few other art supplies to include drawing pencils.

Second to last page in the journal Fay made for me / TWSBI 580ALR with Urban Grey ink / QoR watercolors.

Graphite - Magnolia Bud

To start off the month, I worked this graphite sketch.

This is the stage of our Magnolia as of 4/18/21 we tend to miss out on with the few flowers the tree produces.  This year I've been able to spot three buds I'm keeping an eye on.  

Bud with a leaf behind it.  

Mechanical pencil .7 in Stillman and Birn Alpha journal.

Printer Paper for Art Reprints - Red River Paper

Just wanted to share.........

Over the years I have tried various papers for printing art projects and frameable reprints.  Most of the papers I've tried I didn't like the texture or the results (often way too dark regardless of printer settings I could change). 

Years ago, I did find one paper I fell in love with called Arches Infinity Digital Art and Photo paper which is Museum Quality paper.  I had several boxes of 25 sheets and thankful that when I purchased that paper, I purchased several boxes because you can no longer get it.  I understand Canon is somehow involved with that and maybe they have an equivalent or use a different name for the same paper but I've tried various Canon papers and not impressed.

Running out of my stock of Arches, I started doing some research reading forums and reviews from photographers and other artists.  I came across a company mentioned by several called Red River Paper that specializes in Digital Art and Photo papers.  After spending some time on their website and reading comments by people who have purchased from them, I decided to give them a try......and soooo glad I did!!!

I ended up going with their Aurora Art White 285 which is 285 gsm / 72 lb paper.  It has a smooth (not slick) texture to it and is bright white, which I prefer.  

The site has specific information about their paper and my printer make and model (Epson XP-15000) as well as the program I use (Photoshop Elements 11) to print from.  The company provides printer paper profiles for each of their paper products and step by step instructions I was able to easily follow for installing these profiles on my computer and then a video showing the steps within my program for proper printer settings.

The results were better than those from my previous favorite paper!!!  I now have a new favorite!!

I was impressed by how quickly the company processed my online order.  I ordered after their cut-off time on Friday afternoon so I knew I would have to wait until Monday before it was even processed.  Monday I received an email stating my order was on its way with expected delivery by Wednesday (from Texas to Florida).  I chose their lowest priced shipping which ended up being via FedEx and not USPS.  

Also impressive was their packaging!!  It seems many companies these days do not take proper care in packaging things like this resulting in dinted corners or worse.  I've ordered reams of paper through various places and either paper corners are dented from bouncing around inside the box or the paper packaging around the sheets of paper busted at the seams (as in my last order from Staples).  Another issue is when at the businesses, people opening the cases using box cutters slice through the top reams (also from my last order from Staples) resulting in several sheets unusable for printing.  With Red River, that was not the case.

The paper I ordered came 50 sheets to a box...a nice sturdy box with lid that is sealed with shrink wrap (or whatever it's called).  They added a piece of cardboard for additional padding and packed in yet another box for shipping that fits tight around the box of paper (at least in my case with one box ordered).  Inside the paper box was an information sheet about the paper and general recommendations on using the paper in one's printer.

So by sharing this and anyone reading facing a choice in art printing paper, maybe consider this company.  And I'm sharing this strictly on my own behalf knowing what it was like with all the hours of research I went through to find this paper as well as the money spent on trial and error of other papers.  

Chrysalis Two Different Methods

One of our neighbors with children raise Monarchs and while Terry was out walking Miya, he was called over to check out butterflies emerging from their Chrysalis.  He came back to the house to get his camera and went back over taking pictures and learning more about the process.

This family plants Milkweed in pots to attract Monarchs.  Eggs are laid followed by the caterpillars.  These caterpillars are fed the leaves of the milkweed to keep them around so they create their Chrysalis in the plants.  The family moves these plants inside a pop up screened housing you can purchase for this purpose and enjoy the time when the Monarchs emerge.  The wife also created a board with rope they hang under their outside porch light.  It's evident that the family takes a few of the Chrysalis by hand and tie to the rope where they stay until the butterflies emerge.  

How neat for those children to be apart of that experience!!!  I learned a lot from this as well.

Terry was told this continues until around October so we have plenty of time should Terry follow through with trying this himself.

From photos, I worked these both digitally and in my sketchbook.  I wanted the digital to be more like how I work in my sketchbooks rather than in depth or formal like I've been doing lately in Procreate (like the portraits and flowers, etc.).

This follows one of the photos Terry took - using Procreate and Gouache brush tool for color work and BJD's Standard Inker for line work and writing.

Then I decided to split between two pages as seen in my handsewn journal using old stock of Fabriano Hotpress paper (140lb).  One page worked with Urban Grey in TWSBI 580ALR and the other using #41 Brown in another TWSBI 580ALR foutain pen (both with F nibs).

Side Note:  When I started working on the hotpress paper with my fountain pens, I didn't like the feel of the nib moving across the paper.  I've worked on hotpress before and do not remember this at all even with EF nibs.  It felt like I was trying to draw or write on a paper with a coating somewhat like you'd find on wax paper.  And whatever it was appeared to collect on the nib and cause thicker lines and tiny blobs I didn't like.  At first my lines were real light and when I went back over them, it's like the grooves the nib made on the paper grabbed the next pass of ink and was really dark.  Was really weird. 

The first page I worked (out of three) was like this and I stopped what I was doing leaving the sketch unfinished.  I may return to that page later.  I decided to work on the next page for the above illustrations/writing and it was different.  I didn't have the issues on either of the next two pages.  I'm wondering if when making the books oil or something didn't end up on that one page.  Or maybe the old stock of paper I used is inconsistent with its sizing properties.  I won't know until I continue using this journal book.

Art Journaling with a Purpose

I read today where someone was asking for advice dealing with creative blocks.  We all go through them and one way I've managed to work through those times is to view it in a positive by rethinking as "Recharge Periods."  Not so negative which can make us feel worse when those times hit.  Sometimes we just need a break and that's OK.

However, sometimes we develop negative thoughts in general and one of the biggest culprits in my hitting slumps or blocks has happened when this negative voice inside my head starts asking "why do I bother sketching and painting or what purpose does this have when all I do is work in sketchbooks or Ipad tucked away out of sight"?   Many teach, sell their work, or write books on what they do.  Their artwork has a purpose.  I'm not into any of these things except maybe sharing steps that might help another viewer from time to time.

My work has always been therapeutic and that was enough for the longest time.  Then over the last two years I found myself questioning this reason as being enough.  I struggled for months with that which only dampened my desire to do anything.  That's when I started working out creative ways to bring my work OUTSIDE the closed journals lining my bookshelf or hidden inside the Ipad as gifts and unique ways of displaying for myself and family here at home.

So when that negative voice tries to bring that question up again, it's time to squash it by stepping away from sketching and painting and doing something creative with what's already been done.

One of my favorite ways is by creating ATC size prints I can exchange with people or place in 2.5 x 3.5 magnetic photo sleeves for personal use and gifts to family members.

Last night and today I spent my time working on new ATCs to print since the last batch printed early 2020.  I place these throughout the house using file cabinets and refrigerator/freezers as art displays.  It adds a little something special to otherwise plain looking appliances and office furniture. 

Key Largo Souvenir Gift from Terry

When the guys returned from their trip to Key Largo, both came into the house bearing gifts.  Yesterday I shared the Iguana that Travis brought me and today is what Terry brought me.

This is an actual yard ornament that weighs quite a bit.  It's heavy as if made with concrete and yet the feel is resin.  Not sure what it's made of....maybe a combination of both.

Procreate - Gouache and soft air brush tool.  Rough skin brush tool used for a hint of texture here and there on the frogs.

Worked in black and white and then created another two layers with nothing but color and using the layer color blend mode.

Travis' Souvenir Gift from Key Largo

When the guys returned yesterday from Key Largo, they both had souvenir gifts brought back for me.

Travis brought back an iguana and Terry brought back a frog statue (to be sketched later).  They had tried to capture some pictures of iguanas but only saw two small ones and couldn't get photos taken quick enough.  So Travis bought the figurine for me.  Travis had seen it first snatching it up and Terry said had he seen it, he would have bought it for me.   Both the guys were on the same wave length as far as gift idea for me.....lol.

Procreate:  4B pencil for linework; BJD's standard inker for wording; soft air brush, gouache, crayon, and old skin brush tools used.

Two Different Fruit Growing - Two Different Methods

Attempting again to work in my journal, I managed this page of lemons at their early stage of growth.  I worked this thinking and writing about Terry and Travis as they headed to Key Largo for the first time.

Timing was evening before the sun set so there were no real shadows to capture.

Fabriano Artistico / TWSBI 580R w/#Urban Grey ink

This is the stage of our first grapefruit tree, which is a Ruby Red.  It was planted two years ago and I thought I'd do this before Terry pulls all the fruit off in order for the energy to feed the tree itself.  We read it's best to do this the first two years of growth.  Terry did say he might leave a few on the tree but hasn't made up his mind yet.

Procreate using the Gouache brush tool

This is early afternoon in very bright sun showing strong shadows from over-hanging leaves (as seen in top left leaf) and from the fruit itself on the leaves.

One of the positive attributes of working digital is the ability to render color pretty true to life.  Unlike fighting with paint trying to mix the right color and with me seldom hitting the right combination or mix.  The other major plus for me with digital is the blending attribute.  I can't say it enough how much I love blending.  You can take your time without fear of paint drying too fast as you try to blend your colors.

Although I do not plan on giving up on pen and ink and watercolor, I honestly feel I've found my niche in digital art.  Unlike other mediums that have both advantages and disadvantages, I have yet to find any disadvantage I can state with digital.  If there is a disadvantage to it, it's in how people (particularly traditional artists) might view it as an art form.  To me it's just another medium we have in being creative with its own set of techniques and challenges.  

For me, I feel so much more relaxed while at the same time challenged with selection of brush tools and how best to apply them for various textures and results I'm hoping for.  There is no fear of messing up and having to start over again (which I don't handle very well and often just say forget it).  You are free to experiment along the way without having to start fresh with each trial and error....just create a new layer and if it works, keep it and if it doesn't, delete the layers.  There's no rush trying to beat drying time for various techniques to work properly.  There's no long wait for paint to dry before being able to move to the next step.  And there's no frustration with color mixing to get the right color nor fear of mixing mud.  It does take more time (at least for me) in working these sketches/drawings versus using watercolor (as an example) but that's a positive for me.  There's no major set-up involved or space requirement for a work area...plus no clean-up afterwards.  You can work anywhere.

And as much as I love graphite, even rendering graphite digitally is a positive over traditional because there's no fear of smudging like traditional graphite.  I tend to often work right to left (which may sound strange to most people as I'm right handed) and I'm always dealing with smudges and having to clean up afterwards.  Then have to spray the page which can have mixed results depending on the spray I use.  I am very sensitive to smells/fumes, etc. and always have trouble even if spraying outside.  And here in Florida, spraying outside you might find a bug stuck to the page as it dries.  

So, yeah.........I'm finding I am leaning more towards grabbing the Ipad and Apple Pencil before pencil, pen, and brush on paper.

Catching Up Sharing Sketches

Think I'm heading into another possible "recharge period" I evidently need after being so productive the last few months.   Although it's been a push to do anything of late, I did manage these using Procreate.  I just haven't felt like messing with paper, ink, and paint so instead if the mood strikes me, I just grab my Ipad.

This is from what I could make out on hubby's favorite T-shirt.  With him being part Indian, things like this mean a lot to him.  I wanted to sketch the design before it completely faded away.

Peppermint brush tool and cloud brush tool.

I saw a post on Facebook where brother-in-law shared a moment back years ago when I sketched him a giraffe.  Giraffes are his favorite animal and when I saw the post, I went to my photos from 2009 when family went to Busch Gardens Safari.  Decided to work this as I love the expression!!

Several different brush tools as I was trying to find the right one for the effect I was hoping for.  I ended up using the water brush tool and 4B pencil tool plus some smudging.  Cloud brush tool for background and BJD's spatter brush tool with adjustments I made to it for a touch of texture.

This I worked through the night.  It represents Terry's first haircut after the pandemic hit March 2020.  His hair was long when I met him 20 plus years ago.  Upon a return trip from overseas, he surprised me with a hair cut and his pony tail saved to give me.  I kept it for years until Neal's cat got ahold of it.  He's kept his hair short from that point on until last year when the pandemic hit.

So yesterday Terry gets his hair cut and brought this home for me.

Procreate 4B pencil brush tool.

Side note:  Blogger is doing strange things........for some reason these won't open like normal when clicking on the images.

Follow by Email Being Discontinued

Thought I would make a post to inform those who follow my blog by email that after July 2021, that feature will be discontinued.  At this time, I have no idea what to suggest for those who rely on the email they have been getting when I add to the blog.

If any other blogger knows an alternative, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Off Day - Watercolor Sketch Failure vs Digital

After working on my Ipad, I wanted to do some work in my journal.  This started out with a pencil sketch which was off a bit on the two right flower buds.  Instead of doing what I normally do by going over the pencil with ink (correcting proportions or lines), erasing pencil, and then adding watercolor, I proceeded to add color first..........BIG Mistake.

Working right to left, as soon as I laid down some color over the graphite, I knew I was in trouble.  The graphite muddied the paint and I tried to over compensate resulting in the two buds being over worked.  Then thought maybe adding the ink lines might help.  Nope!!!  I didn't have those two sketched in correctly and the ink lines magnified that fact.

The two left flower buds I took my kneaded eraser shaping it like a rolling pin and rolled across the pencil lines picking up excess graphite hoping that might work better, and it did.  My state of mind was already "ehhhh" with what I was working on but pushed through it and finished painting.  Then added the ink lines.  I do not care for ink and wash with ink after color because it's too stark looking to my eyes.  If I'm going to work ink and wash, I want the ink lines down first.  I also prefer to "slap" on color to give life to ink sketches as I don't tend to over work my watercolor.

Being totally dissatisfied with how things turned out, I decided to work this again in Procreate.  The results for me were much better.  I love the ability to stroke and blend like one would using oil paint.  

With this digital, I worked differently than I normally do.  Instead of working multiple layers, I only worked on one.  It worked out OK but I prefer stacking layers working each color on its own layer as well as individual components.

My Orchid as of 04/11/21.  It didn't flower last year after being repotted in 2019.  This year it's flowering but flowers are deeper in color and smaller.  I only ended up with four buds with one appearing it may not open.  While the buds were forming, I lost two leaves.

Watercolor Sketch in Journal:

 

Procreate Version:  The color is better with it leaning towards purple.... not as pink as the watercolor version.  I never have liked mixing purple watercolor as it always looks dingy no matter the mix combination I choose to use.  Gouache brush tool was used exclusively for this to include smudging.

The pencil sketch I had worked in the journal was scanned before adding color.  I uploaded that scan to my Ipad and used it as my reference for the digital version.  At the same time, I had the photo on my computer for reference which helped with how off I was on the two right flower buds in my sketch.

As much as I have enjoyed watercolor in the past, I am finding myself feeling really hesitant in wanting to use watercolor anymore.  This is one reason if I want color, I find myself grabbing my Ipad instead.  I am also finding I prefer NOT to mimic ink and wash but instead leaving ink out altogether when painting on my Ipad using Procreate.

Another Rose from Neighbor

Yesterday our neighbor gave Terry Tai dumplings, Tea Eggs he makes, and a cake of some sort made from tea with a cream center.  The cake is green and you can definitely taste the tea.  The cream center is mildly sweet.  

Along with the food, our neighbor's wife cut a rose off their rose bush and gave to Terry to give to me.  These roses have a heavenly scent but do not last long once cut.  I like sketching these roses as this is my way of keeping them alive.

Procreate / Gouache brush tool

As a way of thanking them, I printed off the vase I painted that they gave me last year along with a painting of Bougainvillea that represents a memory of our neighbor's father before passing.  Thomas used to come over and tend to our Bougainvillea training it to climb the Oak tree that was out front.  I used one of the square acrylic photo blocks with the Bougainvillea showing on one side and the vase on the other.

Cross-Hatching Procreate vs Paper

Well, the jury's back............cross-hatching is proving to be my least favorite thing to do...at least with ballpoint.  If I have to do this much cross-hatching to fill in a subject, I prefer digital.  

As mentioned in a previous post, one doesn't have to worry about ink pooling resulting in ink blobs working digital.  You don't have to worry about constantly wiping the point on tissue which I find is disruptive in workflow.  One can set the opacity rather than totally relying on pressure holding a pen.  With the Apple pencil, you can use both to your advantage.  And due to the fact you don't have to rely on pressure, it's easier on the hand.

Not sure I will actually produce a portrait using cross-hatching as it would probably take me days versus hours to complete but that might change.  In comparing the two below, I do like the results of the pepper worked in Procreate but not sure I have THAT much patience to work something as complex as a portrait.  We shall see.  I do admit that this can be therapeutic....very relaxing (if not having to constantly worry about blobs).

 Just for fun, I took my original and added color blending mode layers to produce the following.