West Coast Rhythm Kings

Duck Decoys are constructed of different materials. Most of which are factory manufactured of molded materials such as plastic. I've seen some made of a rubber like material you can inflate to use them and deflate them for easy transportation. You can factory manufactured duck decoys made from cork like material.
There are very good carvers out there who carve decoys from wood. Their artwork can really make those pieces of wood come to life once they have them painted up. Many people look for these decoys and pay good money to get them. This type of decoy is mostly used as art for collectors but there are people out there who carve working decoys for duck hunting. There is a self satisfaction and great admiration by other waterfowl enthusiast for people who carve there own decoys and find them really work for them as a duck hunter or even a wildlife photographer.
One problem that occurs when using decoys is the paint comes off after time. After a while those life like decoys can become very un-life like. Once this problem comes to affect you, there are a few choices you have to remedy this. You can purchase new decoys or you can repaint the old ones.
Don't get all frustrated this can be fun and you can purchase books on the subject to learn how to paint your own decoys. Think of the satisfaction you will get when the decoys you paint up yourself come back to life once again. When you put them in the water and they actually work for you.
Why not get into carving your own duck decoys. Think of the pleasure that would bring whether you want to put them on your mantle or in the water and use them as working decoys. You can get books on carving duck decoys as well.
Whatever your enjoyment is, duck hunting, collector, photographer or hobbyist, carving and painting your own duck decoys can bring you great pleasure.

Cartoons are fun. Well almost. If you are like me you certainly love to watch cartoon figures. But drawing cartoons is another story particularly if you are not aware of the basics.
If the thought of creating beautiful cartoon characters gives you high, read on, here you will find some tips that you can readily use to improve your skills and reduce the time taken to create beautiful cartoon characters.
There are certain things that are same for every style of drawing, be it realistic drawing or cartoony, now we will go quickly through the basics before getting specific to cartoony style.
1. Select your tools wisely. Clean your hands before starting your drawing. The paper you use for your work should be of good quality. Low grade, off colored paper will make your drawing look pale. Your first sketch should be made with light lines and for finalizing you should use deep-colored and prominent lines --so choose your pencils carefully.
2. Many times beginners find drawing a smooth line difficult. Remember drawing smooth lines will be easier if you do not support your hand on your wrist like we are used to do while writing. Doodling and drawing some circular shapes just before you start will also help you to draw smoothly.
3. Learn to draw facial features and hand carefully. Hands are more difficult. Experts often judge a person's drawing ability from how well he can draw human hands. So practice drawing hands with care.
4. Study about basic forms and proportions of human body. Learn about basics of human anatomy and various ratios of human figures.
As a cartoon creator you will have certain liberties, you do not need to bind yourself with strict body proportions rules. You can draw four fingered (Thumb + Three) hand that makes your work a bit easier.
But one challenge you will face while drawing cartoons --cartoon characters needs to be more expressive and certainly you have to create this expressiveness with some lines drawn with your pencil.
Keep in mind that three areas of human face that play major role to express emotions are
1. Eyelids (wide open, half closed, almost fully closed etc.),
2. Eyebrows (raised, normal, crooked etc.) and
3. Lips (forming downward bow, upward bow etc.).
Other than these you can also use, hair (properly combed or ruffled), garments (well kept or torn) to create characters that tells a story.
Hope you find this tips useful. Coupled with some practice these tips will help you to take your cartoon drawing skills to a new level. Enjoy the fun of drawing beautiful and expressive cartoon characters.

Gold is back and it's back big time! For a while, gold has been pushed into the background being replaced by other metals like silver and platinum. But now, gold is everywhere - from shoes to bags and even clothing, but most noticeably gold is back in jewelry. For over a decade the diamond set in platinum was the staple "Will you marry me?" ring. But now we see jewelers coming up with impressive gold and white gold pieces. Even Faux gold jewelry is getting a minute in the spotlight, but we all know - nothing beats the real thing, and with the real thing comes real responsibility- it is then up to you to take care of your gold items. Below, you will find some tips on cleaning gold jewelry.
Unlike some myths, gold is a precious metal that does not tarnish. It can get dirty over the years because of exposure to biological matter like oil and sweat. Makeup, lotion and other substances can also dull gold jewelry. Dulled and dirtied gold jewelry is not at all pleasant to look at and may even end up causing irreversible damage to your jewelry and stain your clothing or irritate your skin. That is the main reason why periodic cleaning for gold jewelry is necessary. There are commercial gold cleaners available that you can use for your gold. Just make sure that the gold cleaner is gentle and non abrasive so that it won't damage the gold in any way. If you do not want to use commercial cleaners, there are a lot of homespun ways that you can clean your gold.
When cleaning gold yourself, you will need the following items: Soft or Kiddies toothbrush, Dish Detergent (Mild), and a soft rag or polishing cloth. What you need to do is to dilute a little bit of dish detergent into a bowl of warm water. Soak your gold jewelry in the warm water for a few minutes to soften the dirt that has attached to your jewelry over time. After soaking, you can take the soft brush and gently remove the dirt. Dry the jewelry afterwards and polish gently with the rag or the polishing fabric.
Once you have cleaned your jewelry, there is one basic tip that you need to follow so that you can keep your gold shining as long as possible. It is advised to put your gold jewelry after you have sprayed on perfume. Most perfume contains either oil or alcohol. These compounds can attach themselves to your gold jewelry and make it attract dirt. Another is to wash your Gold jewelry before retiring at night and pat it dry. This way you will stop any reaction or corrosion from happening due to body sweat thereby preventing damage to your gold jewelry.
If you find that you do not have the time to clean your gold jewelry, you can make professionals do the job for you. However, it is important that you find a good jeweler. Look for a jeweler that has been around for a long time, or one that comes highly recommended.

Because cubic zirconia jewelry is designed to imitate the perfect diamond, its most important characteristic is the sparkle. If you want to keep your cubic zirconia rings, pendants, earrings and other jewelry flawless, learning how to properly care for them will go a long way in helping your jewelry to shine as brightly as the smile of those who see it.
In order to protect the brilliance of your cubic zirconia rings, remove them prior to washing your hands, applying makeup or hand lotion, washing dishes or other similar activities that may result in a cloudy film coming into contact with the cubic zirconia. In fact, jewelry should be the last accessory that you put on before walking out the door.
If you own sterling silver cubic zirconia wedding rings, perhaps you never take them off except for regular cleaning. If that's the case, a polishing cloth or mild jewelry cleaner should be used to maintain both the silver's brightness and that of the cubic zirconia. If you need a homemade solution, try warm water and dishwashing liquid in a cup. You can dip your cubic zirconia jewelry into the water and gently polish it using a towel or other soft material.
When cleaning your jewelry, especially cubic zirconia rings, take extra care to use a soft object for polishing to prevent scratching. If you are a wearer of cubic zirconia wedding rings, it's especially important to remove your rings for frequent cleaning as constant wear can result in everyday particles and grime finding their way into every crevice of the ring's design and will create a buildup that's difficult to remove.
If you feel that your cubic zirconia jewelry, including cubic zirconia wedding rings and other designs, is in need of a professional cleaning, consult with a local jeweler.

Gemstones are one of the most precious substances known to mankind. Their worth alone is reason enough for us to care for them. A gemstone can cost a fortune and one scratch or impurity can ruin there value. As strong and durable as they may be, they can be scratched, dirtied and even broken if mishandled. There is not much we can do to care for them, but some precautions are necessary.
Physics teaches us that no matter how hard a substance is, it can be broken down to bits if applied some pressure at the right points. During exercise, we sometimes strain our muscles at various points, particularly our fingers. Therefore it is advisable to remove any rings before attempting any strenuous exercise.
Cleaning gemstones requires a simple knowledge about gemstones. There are generally two kinds of gemstones; transparent and opaque. Transparent gemstones will make dust visible even if it gathers behind the stone on the ring or any form of jewelry that holds them. These are mostly single crystal stones and therefore application of water will not affect them too much. The use of a soaked cloth to clean the dust gather behind the stone is therefore not a bad move. You may even use a brush to clean the dust if you like.
However, opaque gemstones or organic gemstones are affected by water or any chemical substance. These are usually porous and will allow the water or chemical to flow inside the gemstone. Once inside they can either build up inside, make the stone loose its color or even cause it to crack. Therefore these kind of gemstones should be kept away direct contact with any kind of chemical in sprays, cosmetics and even from water.
There are advanced methods using certain technology to help clean gemstones. Expert jewelers and dealers are well-versed with all these methods and know how to clean each specific kind of gemstone. Therefore it is advised that you do not do the cleaning yourself and rather, have it done by someone who knows more about how to deal with them. If you can afford to buy a gemstone, why not spend a little more money on keeping them safe and clean?
Gemstones are hard materials. In contact with some other gemstone or the metals which contain them such as gold, they can crack each other or the metal. Therefore care must be taken with jewelry how it is kept and handled. Jewelry is expensive and valuable, especially those with precious gemstones in them, therefore they should be treated with care.

Supplies: Drum carder or hand carders
Dyed wool
Dyed silk noils
Angelina
Luxury fibers like cashmere, angora, and alpaca
And, if you are like me, a color wheel.
I need a color wheel when I am working with color blending to avoid making mud. Joseph Itten identifies seven color contrasts. The contrasts I use when dyeing are hue, light and dark (as opposed to saturation), and warm and cool. I avoid complements unless the color areas are large. For instance, complements work when dyeing large areas of spaced dyed yarn, but may not when applying many colors in a painterly fashion.
Complements may not work in carding for color because the colors don't juxtapose, but blend and mud may result!
Light and dark may get lost in a blending situation.
Analogous colors and monochromatic colors are great tools to use when choosing colors for color blending.
Equal parts of most colors work well together. A small amount of one hue may be lost in a blending unless it is shining, metallic, hairy, or in some way will stand out from the rest of the fiber.
Some things to remember about carding for color and texture is the resulting yarn will have the same characteristic as the fibers you are blending. If you want a smooth yarn, it would be best to avoid noils, silk waste, or short fibers such as cotton in the blend.
When spinning for a specific project, the carding process may have to take place over several carding sessions. It is a good policy to plan how much of each fiber you will need and also to weigh out what you will use so that you can maintain some consistency in the project from skein to skein.
I like to use undyed, bleached luxury fibers for blending because they stand out. You can SEE the little bits of cashmere!
Layer luxury fibers in between layers of wool when using a drum carder unless you have fine carding cloth or the finer fibers may ride on top of the wire teeth.
Thoroughly card silk noils before adding them to a blend unless you want the very nubby look of the noils.

How come painting cars is so hard compared to lets say a flower? Well the main thing with cars is that every little line has to be perfectly proportioned one little mistake and it can screw up the whole painting. This is because our brain is very good at remembering shapes and details around it. While a red rose can have different shades, come in different sizes, different leaves etc, a car model stays the same, so we will spot the difference rather quickly when something isn't correct.
When you do your next car panting, do not rush the early parts of it, the part when you try to get all the proportions right before starting to shade or paint. It doesn't matter if you are extremely good with colors, or your shading technique is superb when you draw cars. If you don't get the proportions right, the end result will not be very good. That is how important it is to get the proportions right. How do you do it? How do I do it?
Start out with a clean sheet of paper, preferably a pretty big one. Find a good picture of that car you want to draw, this picture will be used as reference for your car painting / drawing.
Start by doing some soft lines on the paper, try to get the general box proportion right. By box proportion I mean the most basic lines, like the cars bottom and roof. After you have done that, start by adding the front or rear of the car. (Depending on how the car is positioned on your reference picture)
When this is done, and you feel you really nailed these lines well, then move on to the small details like the headlights, door handles, windows etc. My advice is to not start doing the wheels to early because those are usually the hardest part. Do the wheels when you are happy with the overall lines of your car painting. Then take a break. Yes take a break for it all! This is good because when you come back an hour or so later you will probably notice small things that needs to be corrected, which you didn't notice while you were drawing the car. Add this small details and remember don't start to shade and paint the car until you feel very satisfied with the cars shape and details. When you do, then I would suggest you start to shade it carefully. How you shade it correctly is another topic, which I will cover on my next article.

Painting a car well is what makes the whole artwork look like it was done by a pro. When I started drawing cars I focused to much on painting the cars right instead of looking at the proportions of my car painting. So before you start shade and paint be sure that you are satisfied with the cars lines so far, because once you start paint and shade it will be very hard to change any lines. So if you are absolutely sure, then let's start shading the car.
One big tip here is that you start at the upper left corner (or upper right corner if you are left-handed). This is because it reduces the risk of the car paintings to get all messy. So start from the upper corner! Think about how you want the whole painting to look, try to get a image of it and then you start slowly adding with your pencil this to the background. If you need reference photos then go a head and get those, these will help you not to mess up to much on the background proportions. Don't start with the darkest area, instead start coloring the lighter area of the background of you car paintings, and then go to the darker areas gradually. Then when the upper corner is done, then start moving the center area of the car painting and continue with that area and then next and so on.
A trick for making the car look very well shaded is to exaggerate the contrast. Where you want it to be black, be sure to make it black and not some "grayishblack", this is a little trick lots of gifted artist miss out on. Same goes with the different shades on the car, going from dark to light, be sure to really make the dark areas dark and the light areas light.
And remember to take some breaks from your car paintings, don't rush it and try to get it all done within an hour or so. Take a break after an hour or so and then come back later and you will probably spot some small mistakes that you didn't see while you were doing them! And my last tip is the most important one: Be sure to have fun!

With the increasing growth in the Tech Industry and the undeniable appearances of new and unique musicians, it is difficult not to get attracted to different approaches we can carry music and make it part of almost every second of our daily lives.
Car Amplifiers Benefit Safety
Give that most of us spend increasing hours in our cars traveling from one place to another, many are now installing car audio amplifiers to bring music with us. Car amplifiers allow drivers to listen to their music on the road while still having the ability to hear what's happening outside and inside of the vehicle. Even though many now own portable music playing devices, the increases safety car audio amplifiers provide as compared to straight connection to headphones are far more advantageous.
A simple tape adaptor or station channeling system can transfer music from walkmans, CD players, Ipods, etc. to the car audio amplifier. Through this, users riding inside their car can still listen to their music without having to plug their earphones/headphones on. Though the speakers and the subwoofers driven by the car amplifiers provide high music volume levels, it does not completely block all other sounds within the drivers range taken that it is adjusted in proper levels.
Types of Car Amplifiers
Car stereo amplifiers come in different types. There are 2-channel amplifiers which support and power a pair of speakers and subwoofers, multi-channel amps equipped to power an entire audio system, and sub-woofer mono amps providing efficient power to a sub-woofer. As there are different types of amplifiers, it is important that we gain understanding on steps on how to install a car stereo amplifier before spending any money for it.
Knowing what we want to install in our automobiles would be the first step. Identifying the products to purchase and running through the installation steps can save a lot of time and energy, not to mention money. It is recommended that one should look at car amplifier reviews to gain knowledge about the performance and capabilities of certain products. Not only will you understand the product's functions but you will also be able to prepare for negative performances and problems users experienced with a certain model or type.
Car Amplifiers Installation Guide
Audio car amplifier installation is usually an easy process. However, it is important to be careful in following directions in order to ensure best performance from your product. Below is a common step by step guide on how to install a car stereo amplifier.
Step by Step guide: INSTALLING CAR STEREO AMPLIFIERS
1. Decide where the car audio amplifier would be placed in the car according to its function.
2. Prepare and purchase the wiring of the amps
3. Prepare tools such as pliers, knives, wire cutters, etc.
4. Position your car speakers.
5. Unplug the negative cable from the battery.
6. In the positive terminal of the battery, attach the cable with the fuse
7. Place the fuse in the fuse holder
8. Run the cable to the car amplifier.
9. Remove head unit.
10. Run signal and remote to the amp.
11. Connect RCA connectors and remote to the head unit
12. Connect the amp to the speakers
13. Reconnect negative cable to the battery.
14. Test system.
15. Play your music!
The steps above should help you gain more understanding on how to install a car stereo amplifier. In addition to this, it is advisable to request a manual on audio car amplifier installation tailored for the product you purchased. This will ensure that your music entertainment system will provide you with the best quality music on the go!

Wide angle lenses are best suited for landscape pictures. A great landscape view for a picture depends largely on the amount of light falling on its location.
Action, Lights and Location
After selecting the location which you feel will enable you to capture a great picture, evaluate the amount of light available in the area. If this is for an important picture, make the effort to consider the effects of light at different times over the course of 24 hours and decide during which part of the day the light will be most beneficial.
Once you have done this, you can then determine which features or additional components added to your camera foreground will help to produce a more enhanced effect and depth for the picture. Don't discount the possibility of using other nearby areas as well for an even better shot. Sometimes the greatest landscape backgrounds are available in locations you might not ordinarily consider. You might also try taking pictures from different angles to weigh their impact on the snapshots, positive or negative.
To avoid any shadows or darkness appearing over the picture as you take the shot, it is best to capture a view early in the morning or in the latter portion of the afternoon.
Once you have determined the time of the day to shoot, set up your camera using a tripod. After all, you don't want a shaking hand to diminish the beauty you are attempting to capture. Also, use a light meter to gauge the amount of light, and adjust the aperture and shutter speed accordingly.
Using Natural Effects
You can always add parts of nature in your pictures to help produce a very different, though natural, effect on your picture. For example, sunset moments can be best captured when the sun is touching the horizon. Take the picture about five minutes after this point. It is also advisable to take the picture from as high a position as you can find. And you can also make use of a polarizing filter to highlight sky color and tone. Making use of these techniques can produce an effect similar to a postcard.
Equip Yourself with Necessary Supplies
Normally, to capture a landscape view a photographer will likely need to travel out of the confines of city life. However, any time you travel some distance to take photos, bring extra personal and photography supplies, such as a water bottle, flash light, additional rolls of film, etc. You definitely do not want to migrate several miles from home only to discover you have neglected to bring a sufficient supply of anything you will need!
Finally, determining which lens is best suited for snapping a particular view is really a matter of experience, skill, and taste. Mastering landscape photography is not a difficult task but requires practice, interest, and skill development. Locating that jaw-dropping view and then capturing the right shot takes both persistence and patience - traits of which many frustrated photographers fall short.
If you are not able to capture that stunning landscape photograph the first or second time, don't give up. The landscape isn't going anywhere.