Spanish Words Learning System

 

Find a way to remember each word

I muddled up hair and brush even when both words were in Spanish on the screen. 

Then I made up my memory aid. Both words start with c - which adds to the confusion. They both look so similar.

One word has a p and the other has a b. One word has the second letter the vowel a, the other e. A brush pulls on your hair. Double ll.  

Hair is under a cap and beautiful. Turn the p upside down like an upside down cap.

The order of vowels. Think of ae io u.

cabello is a then e. 

Cepill is e then i then o.

Hair brush, the word starting with a, like hair, ike the first letter in hair, which is first of the pair. 

The brush is seen in the pillow. cepillo.

English - Spanish

brush - cepillo

hair - cabello

Why You Should Book A Brilliant Art Course At Writers' Holiday in Fishguard

Sunset on Fishguard, inspiring aspiring artists at Fishguard Bay Hotel on the course run by Susan Alison at Writers' Holiday. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problems
1 What to do when you have already been on umpteen writer's courses, poetry writing, novel writing, short story writing and songwriting? 
2 What if you can't draw or paint, except for painting by numbers? 
3 What if your partner wants to do a writing course and you don't?

Fishguard Bay Hotel through trees, at night. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Answer
The course I took at Writers' Holiday in Fishguard, Wales, only a long weekend in spring, started with dinner on Friday night at the hotel, ending with a packed lunch and a free lift down to the nearby Fishguard and Goodwick station. Over the four sessions on Saturday, and two on Sunday morning, we learned to draw and paint:
1 Light and shade to show distance and perspective, through the day,
2 Light and shadows, a landscape, 
3 Animals from dogs to horses, 
4 The human face proportions, and 
5 The human body proportions.

Here I am in the art room, wearing my waterproof apron, showing my painting. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Susan adapts her course to suit you.
Last year on a longer course I asked to do a caricature, without a sitter (everybody else was busy painting) I wanted a self-portrait. Susan found me a mirror. If I had thought in advance I could have emailed her in advance (which I did about one animal I wanted to draw, and I could have packed my own paints, or sizes of paper - such as miniatures or blank greetings cards.

Surely you can get all this from books, and from buying an online course? Yes, they are all good. But it's a great help to have somebody showing you what you can add to enhance your picture.

What did I learn?
Fill an empty sky with flying birds.
Put a bird on a branch.
Put a bird on a rooftop.
If you are the sort who likes the tragic and mournful, draw cemetery scenes.
If you are into motivation, draw lone characters trudging uphill through snow, with sunlight to guide them on their way to distant cities or buildings with lights.
If you like to uplift add couples at tables, put dancers in doorways and windows, or postman delivering parcels.

You may say, that's all cliché stuff. Every Christmas card does that. Every painting from medieval times does that. Or you might think - but of course - why didn't I think of that? Why did I not think of that when I started my sketch, my painting?

Susan starts you straight away with painting a background. It's so tedious to start with a sketch and not have painting until later, just as I gave up piano as a child when my first hal a dozen lessons were just playing scales and I never played a tune. Susan gets you painting straight away. Then we go back to sketching with a soft pencil before painting, and trying three or more versions of everything until we have a favourite, the one which looks exactly right.

Having a teacher on hand is such a help for all the practical stuff. I am painting and Susan comes over to advise me to change brushes. She says I'll get more control with a brush with shorter bristles. One big surprise is how much you can do with a huge brush, even fine work and parallel lines and curves.

There is so much to learn. As with everything else, getting started is one hurdle to overcome, Practising what you have learned is another. Having a finished product to take away is the 'icing on the cake'.

Painting by Angela Lansbury, reading for mounting. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Lessons Learned
What other mistakes did I make and learn from, besides using a different brush? Try your mount first.

Oops. Mount cuts in half bird and building. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Susan was very generous. She donated to everybody a mount and a backing board to take home your best picture, or all your pictures, with the best sandwiched in the middle, or as the flat base in a flat hard-sided suitcase, or in a briefcase. (Artists often have a dedicated bag which they carry themselves to guard against loss.)

If you are in a car, better still. But don't put your wedding table plan with the decoration you have drawn at the top and border, on a car seat. Somebody in your family will sit on it.

I had forgotten to take a kitchen roll holder for protecting paper. I usually try to remember to pack either a cardboard support from the inside of a toilet roll, or a long box for coffee capsules. I would use them to roll up a painting or certificate at a speaking contest. You end up with a curved piece of paper, unless it's just a ten-minute journey home.

Mounts
To go back to what I learned during the course. When I came to add the mount to my picture, I found it covered the outside inch or so at the edge of my painting.

The mount hid my signature. I had to cover the first signature with tree roots.

I then added a second signature further into the painting. I didn't want my signature conspicuously in the middle, in case I decided to display the painting without the mount. So I tried putting my signature inconspicuously on a boat, or a signboard, or the side of a building.

The picture overlapped the mount right or left. I tried moving the mount around, right or left, up or down. One way it obscured a window showing figures dancing. In fact, the mount hid an entire building!

The moral is, select your paper size, frame, and mount, before you start. I seem to remember that last year on another of Susan's course (a longer course lasting over a week) she taught us this at the beginning. Somehow I had forgotten. I should make myself a painter's checklist.

After several courses, or art school training, or being a professional artist like Susan, you will automatically do this.

So, if you want to start doing art, or would like a refresher, or a holiday with like-minded artists and aspiring artists, check below.

Answer
Go on an art course to learn how to illustrate book covers and illustrate your own books and DIY Christmas and birthday cards and gift cards.

I looked at Susan Alison's Facebook page showing a painting by another artist.

I wrote: That is brilliant. 

Yes, the trick is to add human interest to every landscape picture. A tiny person dwarfed by menacing or protective trees. Plus the determination of the protagonist, continuing their journey, through the sunrise and the sunset, despite the lonely trek, nothing to help, except nature, the shade from the trees, the light from the sun, but still continuing dauntlessly.

Susan Alison
Susan is an all-round artist but specialises in dogs and humorous pictures of her dog on cards, mats and all sorts of gifts you can buy for yourself and others.

Sunshine on Pagodas, painted at Writers' Holiday, Wales, 2018. Painting and Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Angela Lansbury
I specialise in caricatures - funny faces, not always a likeness, but usually a likeness, not necessarily flattering, on the first attempt. If you don't like the first drawing, and you have invited me to dinner, I will do one or two more, in between courses. One person I drew, complete with all his wrinkles, looked at my first version and said, "It doesn't look like me ..." However, he conceded, "On the other hand, it looks just like my father!"

Speaker at lectern, caricature and photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

You might like to click on each of these links in turn:

To contact Susan Alison, look at all her work, maybe buy a card or other item or get interested in a painting course:
https://www.facebook.com/susanalisonart/posts/

To contact Writers' Holiday and /or book an art course:
I could give you all the details but better that you go straight to their page and read all the facts and can sign up if you are interested.
www.writersholiday.net

To contact Angela Lansbury:
http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/angela-lansbury/quick-quotations/paperback/product-21259011.html
https://www.amazon.com/Angela-Lansbury/e/B001K82R2A
Use Facebook, Linked-in, What's Ap. NB, there are thirteen people called Angela Lansbury including the actress. You will recognize my websites and my blogs and books on Amazon and Lulu my picture, the word Singapore, the word Toastmasters or the name of one of my books, such as: Quick Quotations, Who Said What When, Wedding Speeches.
I have many more posts on painting, photography, writing, Wales, learning Welsh, hotels, food, restaurants. See more posts in this blog and others on blogger. Please follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

YSL Handy Travel 'Lip Twin' Lipstick Update - and a Photography Tip

Problem
I lost a lipstick, and looked on line and now I see potential replacements. However, now I have found them, I don't know what to buy.

Answer
I noticed that my lipstick had an end label and took a photo. The print was too small to read but I was able to blow up the photo and could read the name, Lip Twins.

Having the correct name found me items to buy. When I typed Lip Twins into the internet I got results on both Amazon and Ebay.

No Brushes
The ones on ebay were cheaper. However they had no brushes. Why?

I seem to remember that I enquired once before. I think I phoned and asked why - where was the brush? The lipsticks without brushes were testers.

So maybe somebody no longer selling the product did not need the tester for customers and was selling it off. Or the item was discontinued. So no point in having a tester displayed.

YSL Website
I went onto the YSL website. However, they don't stock it.

Old Or New Internet Offers?
That leaves me with a question. Are the ones being sold as new, of new appearance and condition, unused, but literally past their sell by date? Maybe rancid?

Some reviewers say the product is dry and dries their lips. That could be because it is old.

Or it could be discontinued because customers didn't like the product. When travelling, you need to moisturise your lips, not make them drier.

Impractical?
I have to agree with one reviewer that the rotating part rotates by itself in your make up bag, then falls agains other projecting items and leaves lipstick, sticky stuff, all over the make up bag contents. Or gathers dust and fluff.

Is This Gadget Useless?
You don't get a lot of lipstick either. You get a more liquid gluey lipstick in a little tray. It has to be soft for application by the brush, I imagine. One other reviewer said the brush application took ages.

One reviewer commented that colours are not as bright as the regular lipstick. That may depend on which colour you order. On line, it's hard to tell if they only show the case and not the contents.

The idea of mixing the colours is amusing.

At least I have the old one - but not in the colours I want. £32 is a lot for a lipstick in my opinion.

Photography Tips
My internet research has tight me one interesting thing. You can photograph a cylindrical lipstick and maybe other items the same shape by standing it on the flat end, instead of trying to stop it rolling.

You can't do this with a rolling pin which has projecting ends, only one with flat ends. But it just shows, when taking photos, try to turn the item to balance on all sides.

What other lessons have I learned? Always remember to photograph all sides. Take a picture of labels, brands and expiry dates.

Angela Lansbury travel writer and photographer.

Good News - I Found A Used Version Of The Travel Lipstick Lost At Heathrow

Problem
I lost my YSL lipstick with brush at Heathrow. When I lose something I'm like a child with a popped balloon.

Answer
But there's a difference. Now that I am an adult, if I get another balloon, exactly the same, just a different colour, I am happy.

When my car was a write off after another vehicle rear-ended me on the motorway, I was depressed, until I got another car, same make and model, same colour.

I have just found an old double lipstick with brush like the one lost at security at Heathrow.  One side is nearly empty. So is the other side. But the brush and mirror still work. I am so happy.

Lost and Found Departments
I still think that to dispose of items after three months is not right. Many people travel overseas for three months or more. You might not pass through the airport again for another year.

Safety Of Using Old Lipsticks
You should not be using lipsticks and eyeshadows more than 3 months after issue, some people say. The reason is because the ingredients go rancid. In addition, the bacteria from your mouth and skin will multiply.

Will YSL Re-Issue Lipsticks With Built In Brushes
I have asked YLS if they would consider re-issuing these nifty lipsticks. But they have no plans to do so. That's a pity. I thought they were great. I liked them so much I bought two.

Sold Off?
I was hoping mine would be found and sold on ebay if it was found, even if it was past its sell by date. I've looked and no such luck.

Copy Cat Products
One last possibility. Maybe some entrepreneur, maybe in Asia, will say, that's a great idea. If YSL does not want to produce them, we could make something similar.

Double Lipsticks For Travellers
To save space, the nearest items travellers can buy are double colour lipsticks. They have  different colours at each end with two lipstick caps, one at each end.

Lipstick Cases
You can also buy a lipstick case with a mirror in the lid to hold a lipstick. However, it has to be a narrow lipstick to fit the case.

They come in pretty colours, but they are bulky and heavy. No brush. Unless you can find a tiny brush from an eye shadow box.

Learn From My Loss
Don't Put Any item of value, even sentimental value, through a security machine in a little see-through plastic bag.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.