Here’s the latest watercolor painting for the Gex book:
As you look at this painting, imagine turning round to your left and a few paces back down this same street, then you would see the view of the Gex Town fountain, which is in a small square to the left of this street. You can see the painting of the Gex Town Fountain in the previous DweezelJazz blog post.
Yesterday I finished another painting for the Gex book. Walking uphill on one of the main streets in Gex, there are wall-to-wall two to three story buildings hugging the sidewalk on either side of the street. So it’s quite unexpected when, on the left, a small square opens up, and it’s possible to see the Jura mountains in the distance and in the square there’s a fountain with running water.
I finally succumbed and tried Corel Painter 11, and this scene is painted with Corel Painter watercolor brushes. It is really a very nice way to paint digitally. I don’t find it easier than painting with normal paint brushes and pots of paint. In fact for the style I’ve used in painting the Gex fountain, I find it’s much more time-consuming to paint digitally than with watercolor on paper.
This is the photo used as reference:
Gex Town Fountain
The ability to experiment without worrying about the cost of materials or if the painting will be ruined, allows much more room to let it flow and try different things. I tend to spend more time going after colors and light that I want to see in the painting.
It’s very nice not to have washing or clearing up afterward. This makes it much easier to start painting even if there is only a short interval of time available for painting. I’m much more inclined to turn on the computer during those times than I am to dig out all the paints and brushes for a painting session.
When painting digitally, I paint pretty much how I would on paper, building up from washes to more detail. I saved backups when I finished an area, so it doesn’t demonstrate much gradual buildup within any given area, but below is a sequence showing the progression in terms of which sections I tackled in what order (click on image to enlarge).
I highly recommend Corel Painter 11 for anyone wanting to paint digitally. It’s potential seems limitless, and it’s very interesting to experiment to see what can be done with it.
Do you like digital artwork, or do you prefer traditionally created artwork? Which do you prefer to see? Which do you prefer to create? Why? I’d love to know your thoughts.
Here we are at the end of another year. This year has gone very quickly!
It has been a year filled with many challenges and also beautiful things. 
As nature sheds its leaves, resting and in preparation for a new beginning next year,
I hope that this coming year will be even better, and that we can each, in our own way, make the world a better place.
Thanking all of you who take the time to read this blog and wishing you a very good holiday season and new year.
Snowy Peaks Jura Mountains, France
best wishes,
Nat Wildish, aka DweezelJazz
Productivity is something we’re all interested in. How can we optimise our time so that we can do more, achieve more and have fun while we’re doing it? There are all sorts of ways to become more efficient, and they work well, but sometimes we have a health issue that holds us down. Most everyone has something of this nature at some point in their lives.
This post is about Temporomandibular Joint Disorder and having a short upper lip. Jaw joint problems seem to be fairly common and the symptoms that can arise from jaw misalignment are many. Yet it’s rarely considered by doctors or dentists as being a possible cause for a disconcertingly large array of otherwise unexplained symptoms.
Last February during a routine dental checkup a dentist alerted me to the fact that I had jaw problems. Consequently during this last year I’ve had to learn about it and how to deal with it. I’m hoping that this post might be helpful to others in raising awareness of this condition. I’m not a medical doctor so I can’t advise in a medical capacity.
It turns out that I’ve had jaw problems all my life, with severe symptoms to go along with it. I had braces from the age of 7 until I was 16 or 17 years old. I’ve had regular dental checkups throughout my life and then I had braces reapplied seven years ago for a couple of years to attempt to stop my teeth moving around so much and having teeth pain.
No one ever mentioned the possibility that the jaw could be out of alignment, nor did they ever mention that having a short upper lip could cause problems. I’ve had to live with intense pain and many other side-effects from this most of my life. With each passing year, it was getting harder to keep going and I was beginning to lose hope of ever accomplishing my goals, so I’m very grateful for the timing of the dentist I went to see earlier this year.
I’m sharing here what I’ve learned in the hope that by raising awareness of the difficulties that can arise through simple jaw misalignment, perhaps it can save others from going through years of misery. Below, I briefly describe the effects of TMD, having a short upper lip and how I’ve managed to fix these problems for myself. If you have no interest in this topic, you could stop reading at this point.
Temporomandibular joint disorder – that’s a real mouthful. It’s often abreviated to TMD or TMJ disorder. Whatever you call it, it can be a huge problem. What it boils down to is that for some reason the jaw joint is not working the way it should.
There are many things that can cause the joint to become misaligned: an injury to the joint itself, poor posture, an accident, injury to the spine, the need for orthotics, orthodentistry performed without consideration of jaw alignment with respect to the teeth,…and perhaps some combination of these things. This means that it can be tricky to find out what’s causing the problem.
Symptoms resulting from jaw misalignment can also vary from person to person, both in severity and in the number of symptoms. It can cause havoc with a person’s ability to function, and when the symptoms are significant, it can even result in a person being essentially disabled. If the source of the problem is identified, that person can recover and the symptoms can be eliminated.
A brief description of some of the symptoms that can occur: severe migraine-type headache pretty much most of the time, eye pain and blurred vision, light sensitivity, jaw pain, tooth pain, inability to swallow properly, ear pain without infection, severe constant dizziness, nausea, neck and shoulder muscle strain resulting in inability to move neck, sore throat, difficulty breathing with asthma-like symptoms, inability to sleep for more than a few hours at a time, teeth clenching, teeth grinding,…the list goes on.
It’s much more complicated than this, and this isn’t a technical medical explanation, but if the symptoms are bad enough the scenario can go something like this: to cope with the pain and these symptoms, the body pumps high levels of adrenaline; in the long-term the adrenal glands eventually become fatigued; this affects the production of other hormones in the body and before you know it, you’ve got allergies, digestion problems, the body can’t clear toxins effectively, chemical sensitivity can develop, energy levels hit rock bottom and it’s virtually impossible to exercise.
Then if you go to a doctor, they typically can’t figure out what’s causing the problem because the body is actually healthy, so no test will uncover anything inherently wrong. And there you are at a dead end, always in pain, unable to sleep, not knowing why, but unable to live. Well, that might sound rather grim, but it really is. What does a person do then?
I was super lucky. Last February I went to the dentist for a routine checkup. He took an interest in me because he specialises in TMD and recognised just by looking at me that I could have a jaw problem.
It has been a hard path trying to understand the problem and figure out what to do about it. There were many days when it seemed nothing could successfully be done about it.
I learned where my lower jaw needs to be positioned relative to the upper jaw, in order for me to not experience the TMD symptoms. In my case the upper front teeth and lower front teeth coincide in position. If I bring my teeth together in a normal bite, then the lower jaw is too far back.
Each person has a different jaw alignment position. Usually it coincides with the bite placement of the teeth, which makes things easy. If it doesn’t, then it’s important to find the correct alignment. Of course, it’s possible to have injury inside the jaw joint and then this would need to have proper attention.
The goal is to align the jaw correctly and relax the facial muscles. In my case, I have a further complication in that I have a very short upper lip. There’s an 8 mm gap between my upper and lower lips when they’re at rest. This is a real problem. It means that the facial muscles can never be properly relaxed. Closing the mouth under these circumstances requires constant muscle work, pushing the lower lip up to meet the upper lip. This is like constantly holding your arm out horizontally. Eventually you’d experience difficulties trying to hold that arm out all the time; it could cause cramps in the arm and back muscles and who knows where else. The jaw joint and all of its attendant ligaments and muscles is the most complicated in the body.
This year I have learned not to attempt to close my mouth. But this still isn’t enough in itself. The muscles can’t relax because they have nothing to rest on. This means that the face muscles still contract and tense all the time. In my case, this tensing of the muscles in the face is enough to pull my lower jaw backwards relative to the upper jaw, the face muscles constrict and tighten, resulting in TMD and all its symptoms.
Another complication that can occur is that if the muscle contraction is sufficient to cause nasal constriction then it can become difficult to breathe freely through the nose, especially if the mouth is open. This encourages mouth breathing, which causes the tongue to assume a tensed position, which in turn can cause further tensing of the facial muscles. All of this serves as a feedback loop, one effect aggravating another. If the nose has been broken through injury in the past it’s well worth getting it checked to see if there is a deviated septum or some obstruction that needs correcting.
In my situation, the problem that needed solving was: what to do about having a short upper lip. If orthodentist treatment is started at an early enough age, then the growth of the bone above the front teeth and below the nose can be halted. I believe this is why I was given orthodental treatment at such an early age, but we moved country every couple of years and maybe something got lost in the treatment along the way.
As an adult, it’s possible to operate to shorten that bone, but there’s controversy as to how well this works. I’ve chosen not to take that route.
I found something else that works. I had taken up playing the trumpet a few years ago, and when I asked my dentist if it was ok for me to play it, he encouraged me to do so, saying it might help to strengthen the facial muscles. Playing the trumpet regularly through the day really helped remove many of the symptoms to a workable level. 
Pulling the upper lip low to play the trumpet caused it to press against the upper gums, even though the trumpet mouthpiece was placed very lightly on my face. The shortness of the lip requires that I really need to pull it down much more than would be necessary with a more normal length upper lip. Eventually this caused discomfort to the gums. I decided to take a break from playing the trumpet to rest them.
Within a week of not playing the trumpet I sank deeply back into the TMD symptoms and had lost the improved productivity that I had maintained for much of this last year. It was a devastating loss.
Soprano Saxophone
Desperate to find another solution so that I could at least function and have a life, I looked at all the other wind instruments I might be able to play, with less need to pull the lower lip down so far. I decided to try the saxophone. It works to control some of the muscle and TMD problems even better than the trumpet did.
In time though, as I lost the strength of the trumpet muscles through not playing the trumpet at all, I discovered that it’s also necessary for me to continue playing the trumpet regularly to maintain what it does for the facial muscles. So now I play both instruments and the result allows me to function well and live an active, normal productive life. I sleep well and have loads of energy. The balance of how much time playing, how often, and which instrument, is something I work out by trial and error for the most beneficial results.
I’ve tried to think of some way to invent something that could be put between my lips to prop them in a similar manner to having the lips contact with one another like they would in a normal mouth. The complications of how to shape such an object and how to keep it in position have thwarted me in pursuing it. It would be costly and I don’t have access to a workshop to create such a device. But I think it could solve the problem without the need to play an instrument to help the muscles.
Tenor Saxophone
It’s hard to believe that playing the trumpet and saxophone regularly through the day could reduce the symptoms to nearly nothing, but it does. If I go beyond much more than a couple of hours without playing, I’m soon reminded by the tightening of the facial muscles, jaw pain, a blocked nose and a deep headache for starters. Playing the trumpet and saxophone is an odd solution, and certainly not a perfect solution, but it’s enabling me to live life fully and with energy.
I’ve experienced TMD difficulties all of my life without knowing the cause. Each person will likely have a different set of methods to solve their problem, but if relating my experience here can be of help in some way to you or someone you know, that would be great.
Here are a couple more watercolor paintings for the Gex book. The first one shows the side of a house with roses growing along the wall beside a window.
I really liked the wild, free, rugged beauty the place has. It’s part of an old farmstead in the countryside on the outskirts of Gex. In a previous post, Walking In The Pays de Gex, France, you can see photos taken in the same area, and there’s also a photo taken on this same farm of a tractor with ducks and geese all round it.
The painting below is of the Marie, or Town Hall, of Gex. 
I love the variety of colors used to paint buildings in this part of France. The buildings are often painted in pale pastels, and occasionally, as in the case of the Town Hall, they’re a bit more vibrantly attired.
There are many stages involved in creating a painting of a scene. I’m an indoors type of painter so I like to use the convenience of a camera to record the details of a subject for future reference. Using photographs for reference is really great, if a few things are kept in mind and a couple of pitfalls avoided. The main elements that I have found to be of vital importance are:
The first thing to do is to capture the subject or place that you’re interested in with the camera. This can be a bit tricky. The number of photos I’ve taken only to find, when I get home, that they just don’t have what I’m looking for to inspire me to a painting. I’ve written a few posts about what I look for and strive for when taking photographs.
Cropping a photograph can make a tremendous difference to the feel of the subject. Understanding composition and using it to show off your subject in the most flattering way can change a prospective painting from dull and commonplace to really eye-catching.
I really liked this photo of trees in a park in England.
"Stourhead Majestic Trees" Reference Photo
Cropping it to an oval brings focus and a kind of movement to the trunks as the eye is drawn into the painting.
You can see more about the park that inspired this painting in a previous post: Egg Tempera Painting of “Stourhead Majestic Trees”.
It’s also fun to put together a composition from a variety of reference photos, as was done with the “Knight and Monument” watercolor painting shown below.
The monument is a war memorial from a photo I took in London from a double-deck bus; the trees are from the French Jura mountains; the greenery in the foreground was taken from a flowerbed in Geneva; and the Knight and his horse are taken from a variety of shots of people on horses from a movie – the man on the horse is different from the one on that horse in the movie. Creating this painting was a lot of fun.
Another facet of composition to be aware of is to exclude any details that are present in the photo that aren’t essential to the meaning of the piece, or may even be distracting from it. In this reference shot of a road in the town of Gex, France, the removal of the trash cans and cars, along with all the markings in the road, helped to focus on the real essence of the scene.
Reference Photo for View of Gex Town Hall from houses and church
Below you can see the watercolor painting, “Gex Church View”, that resulted from using this photo as a reference. The lamp that you can see at the top of the photo wasn’t included because it distracts from the main focus of the scene and draws the eye up, when it’s important for the art to draw the eye into the painting. 
The painting is for the Gex Book. The back of the Gex Church is to the left, and there are houses to the right. Looking down the street you can see the dark grey turret of the Town Hall; it has the same distinctive clocks on all four sides. Beyond is the Geneva valley. In the distance, Le Saleve is visible to the right.
Color is one of the things that is probably the most influential of all factors in a painting. At least, I’ve discovered that this is true in my perception of artwork. If the colors are appealing to me, I am often immediately drawn to a painting, and then I look closely at the subject of it.
Even though I’m strongly driven by color, it has taken me quite some time to begin understanding how to use color to the most benefit. A short, but very clear article, that I’ve found very helpful is at Indezine.com: “What Is Color Theory”. I have also found the image of the color wheel shown on the book called “The Color Star” by Johannes Itten to be useful.
I haven’t read Itten’s book however, since one of the customer comments on Amazon.com mentioned that his books are extremely good, but that they are rather heavy in theory and somewhat complicated. Perceptions of complication are somewhat subjective, and whether it’s the case or not for this book I don’t know, but I decided to wait and see if I could achieve what I wanted with paintings before committing myself to further study!
The thing about cameras and computer screens, and printers for that matter, is that most of them all portray the same colors a bit differently. Some cameras are set to give a very bright, colorful rich image, while others tone down a lot of colors and almost give a blue tint to everything. My larger camera does the latter.
So it’s important to remember the colors and lighting of a place or subject that you saw as best as you can. Some artists do quick sketches and watercolors on site so that they can better remember the essence of the light and atmosphere of the place. Then they combine this with the use of photographs to provide more details. James Gurney has good articles on this and many other subjects at his blog Gurney Journey; one in particular on this subject is Using Photo Reference.
The reference photo shown below is somewhat limited in its color appeal. And there’s a tourist in the way! (No, I didn’t take this photo, but I was there.)
Reference Photo for View of Le Saleve and French Alps from Gex
I decided to portray what I know of the atmosphere and feel of the place in the following way with the painting, “Gex View Across The Valley”:
This painting too is one I’ve just completed for the Gex Book. There are spectacular views from the town of Gex, which is located in the foothills of the French Jura Mountains. In this painting you can see to the south of Gex, across the valley towards the city of Geneva in Switzerland. Le Saleve is the first set of hills on the other side of the valley. Le Saleve is in France and not Switzerland, the Swiss border ends pretty much at the foot of Le Saleve. The mountains beyond it belong to the Mont Blanc Massif.
Draft page layout Gex Book
Here you can see how it looks in the page layout for the book. In a previous post I mentioned that the other sketch that wasn’t yet completed on this page (which happens to be this painting, and is now completed) would be of a view down the valley towards Bellegarde – well, turns out it wasn’t – this one also faces towards Le Saleve! But there is a view looking down towards Bellegarde in at least one painting still to be done for the book, and it will be painted and shown here on DweezelJazz Art blog eventually.
Many camera lenses distort. Even with anti-distortion on, the distortion of lines, especially towards the edges of the image, can still be very pronounced. I was so surprised when I started looking more closely at just how much distortion can go unnoticed by the casual glance at a photo. It’s almost as if the eye makes up for it. But in a painting, I think it’s a different story. If the perspective is odd, then it most likely will get noticed, especially if it’s unintentional!
It’s super easy to get lost in all the detail that a photograph provides. It can become an all-consuming goal to try to portray the scene or subject in all it’s complexity, with the utmost accuracy. Unless this is done with extreme care, this can quickly kill the feeling, life, and atmosphere of a piece. It’s very good to consciously decide in advance how much detail is wanted, and how it will advance the aim of what the painting will convey. Always staying aware of atmosphere, feeling, and even the emotions of the piece will help to maintain the focus of the goal for each painting. It will also help to consider these things when choosing the predominant colors for a painting.
More important than detail or accuracy is the conveyance of meaning, atmosphere, life, and what the artist finds uniquely interesting in a scene or object, rather than to present all its details in accurate duplication. Individual expression and viewpoint is what makes creating and observing art so endlessly fascinating.
Last week I did six more watercolors for the Gex book, completing the paintings for two more pages and starting a couple more pages.
There are many walking paths in the mountains and foothills just behind Gex and every once in a while there are signposts showing directions and, sometimes, distances or walking times. Here’s one such sign (click on photos to see larger image):
Gex Country Walkway Signpost
A river runs through the lowest part of the town (as rivers often do) and right next to the river there’s a fountain. This is sometimes used by a nearby car repair shop to check where the holes are in punctured tires. The river runs just below, to the right of the railing; the house on the right is on the other side of the bank.
Fountain Near River In Gex
Close to the fountain on the other side of the river, and on slightly higher ground, there are very old parts of the town that lead upwards behind the old town wall. The next painting shows the view looking up one of the narrow staircases from the street.
Narrow staircase leading up to house in Gex
These last two paintings make up a page in the book. The page is shown below; it’s a rough draft of the image layout just to give an idea of what it’ll look like.
Rough Image Layout Draft of Page in Gex Book
I’m painting whatever scene appeals to me at the time of choosing, so the pages aren’t being completed in book page order. Higher up the town the streets are steep, and some are fairly narrow and are pedestrian walkways only.
View from Gex in direction of Le Saleve
Looking over the wall of one such walkway the view is expansive, looking out towards Le Saleve, which is also in France, but is on the other side of Geneva, Switzerland. If you’d like to see more about Le Saleve you can see previous posts: A Car Trip Up Le Saleve, Part I and Part II.
This painting fits on the page of the Gex book shown below. This week I’ll paint the other scene that you can see as a sketch on the right hand side of the page, showing a view from the town looking south down the valley towards Bellegarde.
Draft Image Layout for a page in the Gex book
I chose a couple of bright, colorful little paintings for the sheer fun of it. There’s a very nice cafe on the main street in Gex. Every weekend there’s a market on this street, so this cafe is very popular with the market stall keepers and customers alike. There will be a couple of paintings, for the book, of both the inside and outside of this cafe coming up in the future. Their cups and saucers have always been a great source of fun.
Gex PMU cafe coffee cup
And there are often very interesting sugar cubes, bright and cheerful.
Sugar cube bowl at the Gex PMU cafe
These two paintings are arranged on a page to the left of the page that will show the inside of the cafe.
Draft Layout of Images on a page in Gex book
Stay tuned to DweezelJazz Art blog to see the painting of the inside of the cafe, and others, as the Gex book is being completed!
A couple of weeks ago we were in town and we went to the Place du Bourg de Four (in Geneva, Switzerland) for a coffee.
Place du Bourg de Four in the Old Town Geneva, Switzerland
As we were leaving we noticed an ice cream bar and decided, on the spur of the moment, to get one.
Place du Bourg de Four. The ice cream bar is on the left in a row of cafes and shops.
They had these very cute napkins:
I brought a few different designs home for fun; it turns out there are a total of eight different designs in this series.
On the back of the napkins is a link for the design company Camal.
This week I’m back to painting in watercolor – the next batch of drawings are ready. You can see the last set of paintings for the Gex book in the post, “Watercolor Paintings of Scenes in the Pays de Gex, France“.
Drawings for book about Pays de Gex, France, ready for painting in watercolor
There are many many views from the shores of Lac Leman. Town views, beach views, home-front views, country views… There’s no end to the variety of scenes that can be found along the lake. It’s approximately 73 km (45 miles) long and 14 km (8 miles) wide. It is the largest body of freshwater in continental Europe, and 60% of it belongs to Switzerland, with the rest belonging to France.
There are quite a number of beaches along Lac Leman. There are sandy ones,
A Beach on Lac Leman, France
…and then there are more pebbly beaches. You can see the Jet D’Eau in Geneva, in the distance:
Distant view of Jet D'Eau, Geneva, Switzerland
Many homes have gardens that end right at the waterfront.
Corsier, Lac Leman, Switzerland
Some of the homes are large and private, in beautiful spots.
Lac Leman, Switzerland
The towns along the lake often have many yachts and boats moored at the water’s edge.
Ouchy, Lac Leman, Switzerland
There are also many quiet coves with piers for docking the boats.
Cove at Bellerive, Lac Leman, Switzerland
It’s a great place to sit and watch the water. Last week I painted an egg tempera painting (10″ x 18 “) of one such tranquil scene, “Rocky Shores of Lac Leman”, where the water seemed to laze under the rays of the sun.
Egg Tempera Painting "Rocky Shores of Lac Leman"
I have completed a set of watercolor paintings for a two-page spread in the book. It’s a book about the town of Gex, France, and will have a total of 82 paintings in it, including scenes of the town as well as the surrounding countryside.
I’ve completed 68 drawings for the book and have 14 left to do. Last week I chose a two-page spread at random and painted the scenes for it.
There are fields dotted round the outskirts of the town and many of them are filled with beautiful tall corn.
In amongst these fields are also many pastures where cows graze, and sometimes they’re provided with hay to chomp on, like this very young one.
There are many bright flowers growing alongside the country roads. One of these, the thistle, provides stunning color, like a tiny firework exploding in the grass.
There’s a story about these four cows and what they were looking at… but this will remain untold for now, so that there are fun things to look forward to when the book is finished and complete with text.
Outside some of the country homes, there are more cultivated flowers set close to the road, showing off their delicate finery.
Putting all these paintings together, below you can see what the two-page spread looks like with all the paintings set in place. (By clicking on any of the images in the post, you can see them in larger format.)
Stay tuned to DweezelJazz Art blog to see more paintings that will be in the upcoming book.
