Wahoo - The Board Game

I’ve been telling you about my Granny and Pa, as well as using their portrait to illustrate some photo to line art techniques. I’m working on one final article in the line art series which will tie these all togeather. Until then, let me share with you a game that I played as a child. We called it “Marbles” but most people know it as “Wahoo.” I spent many hours playing this game as a child. I hope that you can find as much pleasure in it as I did.

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Wahoo - The Marble Game

Materials:
Wooden Game Board
4 like colored marbles per player
Set of Dice (NOTE: only one [1] die is used for the game play)

	Set up: Each player starts with four marbles of the same color or pattern, chooses one of the diagonal rows of holes, also known as the holding space, and places the four marbles in the holes.
	Start: Each player gets a turn to roll one dice. In order to move a marble into play, the player must roll a one (1) or a six (6) in order to start. Upon rolling a one or a six, the player can move one marble into the starting position (the first hole in the third, left most column across from his marbles. If the player doesn’t have a marble in play, and he doesn’t roll a one or a six, he forfeits his move.
	Play: Once the player has at least one marble in play on the board, he can roll the die and advance his marble the number of spaces indicated. If he rolls a one (1) or a six (6), he can play again, otherwise, he must hand the die to the player on his left (clockwise). A player can jump his opponents marbles, and if he advances the number of spaces indicated and finds an opponents piece occupying the target space, he can send his opponent’s piece back to the holding space (diagonal line). If, however, a player’s own marble is in front of the marble he wants to move, he can not jump his own piece. He can only move his marbles if there are sufficient spaces between the marble he wants to move and the marble in front of it. If a player finds that he can not meet these conditions, he forfeits his turn.
	Special Note: Note: If a player has a marble on the corner and rolls a six (6), he may jump directly across to the next corner. (Note: Once landing on corner, he can not move his marble any more spaces; for this special case, jumping the corner constitutes moving the six [6] spaces indicated.)
	Winning the Game: To win the game, a player must successfully move all four of his marbles into play, advance them around the playing board, and return them to the “home” position, which is the middle row adjacent on the left to the holding area. The rule about not jumping one’s own pieces applies here, so the marbles must be moved into place, on the home row, in the order which they appear on the board. Once all four marbles are “home”, the player wins.

I have been doing a series of articles about line art. In my first article, I spoke about how to use the graphics editing software to convert a photo into line art. The second article gave you a list of programs and techinques that would save you literally hundreds of dollars in licensing fees while simultaneously giving you the power of professional graphics programs. Now, I would like to show you step by step how I used the GIMP to create a line art drawing of my grandparents.

First, as I took the portrait and scanned it, creating a digited version. To do this, I selected TWAIN from the GIMP menu (File…Acquire).

After the picture was scanned, I used Vidar Madsen’s method described in the GIMPy high pass filter sketch effect tutorial. Vidar shows you how to use the gaussian blur filter, merge opacity, desaturate the colors, then clean up the lines using desaturation. The results were ok, but nothing to write home about. I found a Photoshop plugin called Cleanup which might have made it more useable; however, I could not get it to work with the GIMP.

Next, decided to start from scratch and try to render the line art by hand by “tracing” it from the photo. Melissa Clifton wrote an excellent tutorial about this technique on her website. I created a blank layer (Layer…Duplicate Layer), set the opacity at 50% (Dialogs…Layer…Opacity slider bar), and started drawing using mostly the pencil brush to draw the graphic. Once the drawing was done, I had a little fun and colored it in, making look as though it came from a graphic novel.

I wasn’t happy with the initial results because the details of the face were very unrefined. For example, in my initial drawing, Pa looked like he had alien eyes, and his mouth was all wrong. Granny’s eyes were roughly drawn as well. To fix it, I erase the insides of the faces and started over again. The second time, I experimented with different brushes. For example, I found the pressure brush with a medium or small splatter point worked best for the details. I also took my time. The first go around, I finished in a couple of nights, but when I started over again, I went took approximately a month just to redo the faces. It was worth the wait, though, as I am much more pleased with the results.

All in all, I would consider this a pleasant experience. When I was very little, I remember sitting on my grandparents’ laps, touching their faces and looking into their eyes. Nothing short of having them back could replace that memory, but this was the next best thing. Staring at the photograph, I was able to capture all of the lines of wisdom, all of the smiles, all of the worries, all of the love that gave charactor to two people who will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Now, go enjoy your family and make the world a better place by working on some photo family memories of your own.
Your Fellow “Creative Genius ” ,
Texaiano

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In my post “6 Crafty Photo Ideas for Dad” from earlier this week, I told you about some crafty photo gifts that I found on FamilyFun.com. Gifts are great, but as the kid in all of us knows, the best gifts of all are time and caring.

Some people do not have a father, but honor that someone who was the “father figure” in their life, such as an uncle or grandfather. Some fathers have great relationships with their children and keep their experiences and opinions as an open book to enhance their family’s lives, while other men tend to be stoic and closed off, feeling that, though they love their children, it’s more of the mother’s place to talk about all that “touchy-feely” stuff. To those of you whose Dad is in the latter category, you have your work cut out for you, but might I suggest that when you call or go see your Dad this Father’s Day that you take a little extra time to visit and really get to know him?

Depending on if your father is the first guy or the last guy that I described, starting the dialog may not be easy, but don’t sweat it. Just start out by asking how week was, or start talking about the latest sporting event. (HINT: The NBA finals were this week. Find out who he was rooting for.) Once you start talking, just go from there. Hopefully, this will be the first of many talks with your dad

While your are with your dad, ask things about him that you don’t know such as him tick and what makes him the man that he is. Treat this opportunity as if you were a reporter who was granted a once in a lifetime, one-on-one interview a famous person. You don’t have to be Jimmy Olson sitting there with a pen and pencil jotting down everything that comes out of his mouth. Just take good mental notes.

Here are some ideas about what questions to ask:

What are you top 10 “rules for life”? (ex: “I don’t do anything in life where there is no margin for error, such as jumping out of a plane.”)

While you are there with Dad, ask yourself if you have a recent picture of you with your dad. What about pictures of your dad when he was a child? This is the perfect photo-op to break out the camera and record a memory. Speaking of recording, you can also tape or video tape “interview”. Pictures are great but having your Dad’s voice recorded or even a “moving picture” of him will be priceless years after he is gone.

I myself have a good relationship with my father, and especially now that I am grown and have a family of my own, I enjoy talking with him and hearing him talk about his life. (Imagine that!) Nonetheless, almost every time I talk to my dad on the phone, I learn something new about his life. This Father’s Day, I too am going to make a special effort to fill in some of those missing details of my Dad’s life.

Until next time,
-Texaiano

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Babyzone.com is a great website for young families, but it’s not just about babies. It also has a ton of family photography and scrapbooking information (because what mom or dad does not want to record those precious memories before they’re gone?.)

One cool feature that I wanted to highlight is the ”
What’s Your Family Photo IQ?” quiz, which tests, among other things, your knowledge about the best time to photograph a baby, light sources, the best focal points when doing a close up of someone’s face and the use of props and backgrounds. Take the quiz and and find out if you are a photographic genius (scores 18-21 points on the quiz), or if you need to brush up on your craft. (HINT: If score below 18 and are in that last category, a good way to learn new photography skills is to subscribe to my RSS feed, that way, I can constantly update you with new ideas and techniques on how to take the best family pictures and to enjoy them everyday.)

Once you know your photo IQ, post a comment below to let us know how you did, and while you are on Babyzone.com, you should also check out the other cool features. There is the recently added “What’s His Fathering Style?” quiz, the weekly Photo Contest for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and children under 5 years of age, and loads of relationship advice.

Good Luck with the IQ test. (Don’t worry. MENSA will not revoke your membership if turns out that you are not a photo genius.

Now, go make some photo family memories. -Texaiano

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It’s now the middle of May, and one day after Mother’s Day. May is full of family activities. There’s high school and college graduation. Most high schools put their prom during May. As I mentioned in my “Foto Memory Minute” yesterday, there are a lot of local festivals and rodeos to attend. So, what have you done to strengthen your family this month? I wanted to highlight two or three opportunities in particular.

Perhaps this is a day late, but yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the U.S. Did you do something nice for your mother? Did you call her and let her know that you were thinking of her and tell her thanks for all of the sacrifices that she made while she was raising you and for all of the nice things that she did for you? If not, it’s not too late.

I know it’s not a perfect world. If it were, every one would have a dear mother who met them at the door after school with a hug and a plate of warm, homemade cookies. In reality, divorce and sheer economic realities have forced many mothers out of the home. So…if you don’t have a mother to show your appreciation to, what about your grandmother, aunt, sister or wife? Even if you have daughters, they will grow up to be mothers some day. Mother’s Day is a day to recognize not only our mother, wife and grandmother, but all women in general - that special aunt, not to mention our daughters, cousins, and nieces. So, go ahead and reach out to the women in your life. Aside from the usual flowers, jewelry and chocolate, you can make a unique gift by putting together a photo montage of all of your favourite snap-shots to present to her. Don’t forget to call or visit them too. As mom always says, the best and most thoughtful gifts don’t come from the store.

Memorial Day, at the end of May, is another special day set aside for honoring special people - the nation’s fallen veterans. Now, I don’t want to get into a debate about the merits of the current conflict. What I do want to do, however, is to remind you to support the troops. Remember and honor the men and women who serve in the nation’s military, both in the present conflict, as well as the past. Draw your family together and do something for the troops - write cards, put together care packages, raise a flag to pole and fly the flag…whatever. Just do something together. By honoring the veterans as a family, you instill a sense of pride, community and ownership in your children. You also build memories. Even though technically Memorial Day is designated to honor fallen veterans, and Veterans Day is meant to honor living veterans, you can still take this opportunity, if someone in your family has served in the military, your father, uncle, grandfather, brother, or son, make them the guest of honor at a family awards banquet that focuses on their story of heroism. You can also interview your veteran and record their story in your family history. If you don’t have any veterans in your family, and don’t have any desire to get involved with today’s military people, pick a military conflict in our nation’s history and have each family member research it. Try to be as fair and unbiased as possible and then get together to share the history that you have discovered. You can get pictures of past conflicts from the National Archives to add to a scrap book or digital scrap book.

Memorial Day is also the start of the summer bar-b-que season. Gather all of your family and friends around. Have everyone bring their favorite outside dish. And enjoy good food, good company, and good weather. (Even our VEGAN friends can enjoy a backyard bar-b-que, since there are no rules limiting a cook out to sausage, hamburgers, ribs and brisket.)

Now that you are armed with some new ideas, go out and make some memories with your family.

-Texaiano

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