Red Means Go and Green Means Stop

Or wait! Is that right? No, it doesn't seem right. It must be wrong. I must be remembering it wrong. Wait a minute. Let me think. Now, I'm confused.

That is a fairly typical conversation that I've had with myself while recording workshops.  When I record, I place the camera on a tripod over my shoulder so that the student can see the drawing happening from my viewpoint.  But as I move the paper around and zoom in sometimes, I can get out of the camera range.  So, I hook my camera up to a small tv that allows me to see what the camera sees.  The screen shows a light when the camera is on and another light when it is off.

The red light is on when the camera is recording and the green light is on when the camera is turned off.  HUH?!!!   This has confused me for a long time and I have to check and recheck myself.  I have tried to rethink it by telling myself the Rrrrreeed means Rrrrreeeecord.   And Green means Ready to Go!  But, alas, that idea has never stuck for more than  the length of time it took me to think of it.  Red for stop and green for go is too deeply embedded into my  brain from those first grade reading lessons about Dick and Jane and Sally.  Jane, watch Sally Go.  Go, Sally, Go!   Go, Go, Go!

Go happens on GREEN!

So, anyway, I've stumbled around with that for all these months of recording workshops.  It has caused me some glitches here and there.  But they were always small and fairly fixable.  .......until this last week.

I don't know what happened that day.  Maybe I didn't eat enough lunch.  Maybe I didn't sleep enough the night before.  Maybe I packed my brain in one of those moving boxes already taped up.  I don't know.  But whatever it was, it wasn't funny!

I recorded for 4 hours working on my upcoming Dog Portrait in Graphite workshop.  But when I started to download from the camera to the computer, there was only about an hour's worth of material.  What?  How could that be?  And then, I began to get nervous.  Surely not.  SURELY NOT!  

I waited patiently (haha!  Yeah, right!) until the downloading was complete.  And when I checked my imovie program, I about cried.  Every time I had stopped the camera to sharpen my pencil or get a drink of water, the camera was on.  And every time I started the camera to teach, I had turned it off!  Sigh..........

I finished checking the download at midnight, went to bed, got up the next morning and promptly made myself a
sign to put on the tv.  And then I recorded the whole thing again.... or for the first time, as the case may be.

Believe me when I say that I checked and rechecked my little sign and the light colors many times during this recording session.

I hope you'll join me for the dog portrait workshop.  It opens April 21 at Creative Pencils.  It comes to you with much effort.  HaHa!  You will learn how to draw the dog portrait of your choice as I teach you the basics for dog features.  There will be lots of instructor help for you.  You can ask questions and show me your work in progress.  It'll be lots of fun and very informative.

So, Go on Green or Go on Red.  But either way, Go to Creative Pencils and sign up.   There are other workshops going on now that you would find enriching too.


***CREATIVE PENCILS HAS MOVED TO CREATIVE WORKSHOPS***



Wind and Honey Creations