#I have a tutorial I’m slowly learning all the composite parts to one by one

[himbeaux-on-ice]

every day I move a little closer to learning how to make real proper nice gifs, and then you’re all screwed

[theunconcernedembalmer]

*holds up nerf gun* mun how r u so talented gib secrets

The tl dr of all this is really just because I like to draw a lot XD I love to draw, so I wanted to get better at it, and I just kept going at it. I think that’s a pretty good summary of me being a self taught artist. 

More details under the cut because as usual I can’t shut up enough XD also posting this cos I haven’t had the energy to get to replies yet oops

1. Find a thing you really like and draw it for the next uhhhhh 3 years or so of your life. Rinse and repeat. (I hopped from OCs to Undertale and now to IDV over the span of like. idk a decade or so, so whatever that catches your fancy, really. You have to enjoy it, first and foremost XD)

2. Study basic theory, like very basic (as much as you’re willing to learn, or as much as it helps make your stuff look better). Anatomy, composition, colours, maybe even a bit of perspective, depends on what you want to focus on (eg. if you want to draw characters, focus on anatomy. Items and background? Composition and perspective will help greatly).

This is a step that I know most of us hate, because we're lazy like that, but after a while you can only get so far without knowing basic anatomy and the like. There are tons of tutorials floating around, especially on tumblr, so dig up those that you want to learn and spend some time on them. Look at the different tutorials on the same topic and have a look at the different ways of approaching them. Pick the one you like the most/ works the best, stick with it and have fun XD

Also I feel like this step helps whenever you’re feeling incredibly frustrated with your own art. It happens a lot, it happens to me, and usually what fixes that is really figuring out what can be improved. Feeling unsatisfied with your art means you’re ready to improve, but most of the time you don’t know how to, so doing a bit of studying might help, especially in areas you know you need help in.

Again, you don't have to do all of them, just the ones you're interested in/ currently struggling with. I’m just a little hobby artist, I prefer to do things at my own pace, and more importantly I have to like what I do.

I only had the chance to go to a couple of formal classes in university, but I knew that if I had taken these classes any earlier, I would have hated them, and I don't think I would have learnt as much as I have. That's mostly because I used to be lazy and didn't see the need for formal art theory, but now I know I should have a little bit if I want my art to be looking better, so now I’m interested in all the boring stuff. Especially since this is more out of interest than anything, I don't want to do anything to kill it.

3. Study other ppl's art, especially from artists you adore. This is the next best alternative to studying actual theory since it's less technical, but it's more experimental (cos what works for others doesn’t always work for you). Personally I learnt a lot from doing this on my own. Figure out what you like about you favourite artist's art (is it the way they draw a particular part of the body? Backgrounds? Colours, lineart?), and copy it. Like really just try to imitate it to the best of your ability, you will learn what works and what doesn't work for you when you slowly try it out. Steal it, it’s yours now. As long as you don't trace it and post it as your own, you should be fine. 

I should also mention that whenever you see art that you really like, it's easy to feel jealous and inferior. But I think instead of that, you should take the opportunity to learn from them to do something about your own skills. It's okay to feel like that, because everyone does at one point, but it's really whether you want to do anything about it that can help you, or at least that's what I believe XD

Eg. I found an artist that drew hands very very well, so I took some time to copy the way they drew hands for a bit and started incorporating that into my drawing (specifically the way they tend to angle fingers). Another example is that I saw an artist adding insane eyebags to their characters and I decided I wanted that too. So here we are with my signature eyebagsop XD

I haven't found the time to do a painting study yet, so my colours and paintings aren't as nice as I'd like them to be XD

4. Use references when you're unsure. Drawing is difficult, and no one will know if you've cheated to make things easy for yourself (unless it's a trace, which at that point it can hardly count as reference), so just go ahead and use it. I go to the mirror to check angles and positions sometimes, and I use my own hands as references a lot more than you think. (my tip for using hands as a reference: knowing where the thumb is helps a lot)

5. Fuck around and find out. There’s no one fixed rule for drawing, so if you so happen to make your own and you like it and it works, just go for it man. I have some techniques come about very accidentally, like that one time I found out one particular brand of ink wasn’t waterproof, so I ended up using it as watercolour instead. Others times it’s just finding the best way to do things in your style, like how I prevent myself from drawing on the wrong layer by bringing the opacity of my sketch layer down real low, so it’s obvious when I’m drawing on the wrong layer.

Fucking around also means trying new things when your art feels a bit boring XD change up some brushes (for me I gradually started to use thinner brushes for my art XD), try out some tools on your program, switch art styles. Or maybe try something else entirely, like making gifs/ animations, or even comics (winks). If you manage to find something you like, great! If not, at least you’ve tried it, and you know what you don’t like, which is actually just as important as knowing what you like to do uwu

6. Keep going. The art you're seeing now is the result of uhhhhhhhh more than a decades worth of drawing. Every single drawing is valuable exp that helps you level up. The shitty doodles during boring classes, the badly drawn other eye, even the hands hidden behind backs. I promise all these will help, even if it doesn't feel like it, so keep drawing. 

If you prefer to burn your old works because of how bad they are, I’m not gonna stop you because I totally understand the second hand embarrassment, but personally I’d like to keep them as a record of the progress you’ve made. It’s a very nice feeling seeing how far you’ve come.

There was a period of time I stopped drawing for like a year because I had close to 0 inspiration, but I don't regret that at all. Because I'm here now, enjoying myself as much as I used to, and I think it's worth it. So if there's a period you just can't draw, don't stress yourself too much over it, I’m sure you will eventually find the strength and passion to draw again sometime in the future.

And that’s all for now XD if you have any art questions on anything specific, I’ll try my best to help with it XD 

[master-sass-blast]

Painting Pandemonium

Alright, I know this should’ve been part two of “Out With the Old, In With the New,” but I had a bad few days and needed fluff. Part Two of last week’s fic will be up next week, barring any other mishaps.

Summary: You and Piotr host a Bob Ross painting party for your family and friends.

Rating: G for domestic fluff and found family stuff.

Pairing(s): Piotr Rasputin x Reader, Nathan Summers x Wade Wilson, Ellie Phimister x Yukio, Kitty Pryde x Illyana Rasputin (alluded to), and Alexandra Rasputin x Nikolai Rasputin.

Set after “Future: Realized.”

Sidenote: I’m thinking about doing a dedicated arc to Alexandra. She’s got an entire fleshed out backstory for the series, and I love her so much and would love to feature her more. Would any of you be interested in that/some Alexandra-centric fics? Let me know via DMs or asks; Tumblr changed the notifications system and made it too hard to keep up with reblogs.

Taglist: @marvel-is-perfection, @chromecutie, @super-darkcloudstudent, @girl-obsessed-with-things, @nebulous-leo

It begins one sunny, early Spring day, when you’re watching your husband work on his latest painting (one of two hands holding each other, each smeared with the colors of the lesbian, gay, and asexual pride flags) in his art studio.

“Have you ever heard of Bob Ross?”

“Da.” Piotr dabs some more magenta paint on the wrist of the left hand, then looks over at you and smiles. “I watched tutorials to learn English. Why ask?”

“Eh, just wondering,” you say, curling up in the cushy arm chair Piotr keeps in his studio –he says it’s so he has somewhere comfortable to sit when he’s thinking, but it’s as much for you as it is for him. “Wasn’t sure if he’d made it over into Russia’s cultural bubble or not.”

“Ah, that, not so much.” He takes a step back from his easel, eyeing the canvas with no small amount of scrutiny, undoubtedly weighing out whether the distributions of the colors on the two hands–the rainbow amalgam for the gay pride flag where the fingers interlock, and the lesbian and asexual pride flag colors on the separate, untouching parts of the hands and wrists—are up to his incredibly high standards. “Matushka found some for me to watch on tape when I started painting, but I earnest watched when I came to America.” He quirks his mouth to the side, then looks at you and jerks his head at the canvas. “Mysli?”

“Needs more yellow and green,” you declare after a moment of studying the painting. “Otherwise it’s a lot of warm tones and purple-y tones, and that just makes my eyes start glazing without something to liven it up.”

Piotr nods with a grunt of agreement, then adds more yellow and green paint to his palette.

***

 It continues a few weeks later, when the two of you are buying groceries.

“Hey, have you heard about those ‘Bob Ross painting parties?’” you blurt when you two pass the arts and crafts section of the store. When Piotr gives you a blank look, you elaborate. “You know, a bunch of people get together with a bunch of paint and canvases and shit and follow a Bob Ross tutorial while hanging out.”

Piotr blinks rapidly as he processes the concept, then smiles slowly and shakes his head. “I take it you have reason for bringing this up.”

“I mean…” You let your voice trail off, then look up at your husband with your patented ‘I’m-so-cute-you-can’t-resist-me-please-make-me-pancakes’ eyes. “We have a house. We have access to YouTube and Netflix –which are where the tutorials are. We have friends we like to hang out with.”

Piotr chuckles, then grins down at you. “Would you like to host ‘painting party,’ myshka?”

“Well, since you brought it up!” you chirp brightly, which only makes your husband laugh harder. “But yeah, I think it’d be fun! And we got paint right here!”

Piotr shakes his head –still smiling—as you gesture at the Crayola-stocked arts and crafts section, then ushers you away from the aisle. “We can host party, lyublyu –but we can get better paint than that.”

 ***

 It takes a few weeks of planning, gathering supplies, checking schedules, and inviting people –but finally, towards the end of April, it all comes together.

The kitchen counter is laden with snacks –chips, fruits and veggies, cookies, little sandwiches, and the like. The coffee table in front of the couch has canvases, tubes of paint, and jars of paintbrushes loaded on it. The TV that hangs over the fireplace is on and set up to play one of Bob Ross’s tutorials, once everyone’s ready.

Nearly everyone is already here. Kitty, Russell, Illyana, Ellie, and Yukio are milling around the kitchen, jabbering while they down various snacks. Mikhail and Neena are sitting on the couch, looking at something on Neena’s phone. Piotr and his mother, Alexandra, are talking about one of Piotr’s latest paintings, while Nikolai stands nearby quietly, only throwing in the occasional comment.

You grin when the doorbell rings multiple times in a row, then skip over to the front door and open it with a sunny grin. “Hey!”

Wade greets you with an enthusiastic bear hug. “Howdy yourself, pardner! Hope you saved some yellow paints for me; I’ve always found those ones to be the best tasting.”

You and Nate exchange a fondly annoyed eyeroll over Wade’s antics, in addition to a hug. “Glad you could make it, Dad.”

“Like we wouldn’t come.” He pats your shoulder, lips quirking into an amused grin. “Like he’d—” he nods at Wade “—let me skip out. He’s been talking about it nonstop for the past two weeks.”

 ***

 It takes no small amount of shuffling to get everyone situated so they can all see the screen. Kitty, Illyana, Russell, Ellie, and Yukio all cram onto the couch together (which Piotr drapes with towels beforehand), Neena, Nathan, Alex, and Nikolai take station behind the couch with barstools and easels, you and Piotr set up on either side of the couch, and Mikhail and Wade…

Well…

“This is fucking overkill,” Wade gripes as Piotr ushers him and his brother to an area he’d prepped by taping newspapers to the floors and walls before hanging plastic shower curtains over the walls and putting down one of his thick drop canvases over the newspapered floor.

“Language, Wade,” Piotr says. “And it is just small precaution.”

“Nebol'shaya predostorozhnost', moya zadnitsa,” Mikhail grumbles.

“You two are… most chaotic,” Piotr says, attempting to be diplomatic. “This will minimize clean up, at end.”

“Sounds like someone wants paint in his shoes,” Wade stage-whispers to Mikhail.

“Agreed,” Mikhail faux whispers back with a nod. “We wait until tutorial puts him to sleep, and then we put purple paint in shoes.”

“I was thinking red, but purple works, too.”

You laugh along with everyone else, then blow your husband a kiss when he sighs heavily and shakes his head. “Alright, are we all ready?”

 ***

 “Fu –freaking… why does he switch colors so much!”

“Relax, baby.” Yukio smiles at her frustrated girlfriend, then kisses her shoulder. “It’s just for fun.”

“Fun is playing Mariokart… or studying string theory,” Ellie growls through gritted teeth as she jabs at her canvas with a paintbrush. “Not… dab some stuff here and some other stuff there and making little blobs look like things.”

“Come on, Negasonic the Hedgehog!” Wade coos teasingly from where he’s swiping at his own canvas. “Think ‘happy little clouds’ and ‘happy little trees!’”

“Douchepool, I will jam this paint brush up your—”

“Language, NTW,” Piotr says warningly –though not without a good dose of fondness. “And, Wade, no harassment, please.”

“Harassment? Pretty sure your little protegee there was just threatening to harass my—”

“Wade.”

Kitty just laughs as she works on her own ‘mountain sunrise’ scene. “Relax, Ellie. There’s no right or wrong way to do it.”

“Incorrect,” Illyana retorts, brow deeply furrowed as she works on her own painting. “There is tutorial. That is right way.”

“Tutorial is only reference, to show distribution of colors and shades,” Piotr corrects his younger sister as he leans over to look at his mentee’s canvas. “You are loading brush too heavy, Ellie. Start with less, then add more if needed.”

“I think I am less ‘sunrise’ and more ‘disco rave,’” Nikolai chuckles as he peers down at his own canvas.

Neena lets out a ‘whoa’ when she looks over at Nick’s canvas, then laughs lightly. “It’s long distance art. Meant to be seen from far away.”

Nick laughs along with her. “At last, I have found niche.”

The corner of Alex’s mouth turns up in a smile, and she reaches out and pats her husband’s thigh with her free hand.

***

 Once you’re all done –which takes a lot of pausing and rewinding the tutorial video—you all set your respective canvases on the dining room table, then admire each other’s works.

Piotr’s, unsurprisingly, is the best. He’s the most experienced artist out of all of you, and very familiar with both the materials and Bob Ross’s work.

You wrap your arms around your husband’s waist and kiss his side. “Very nice work, honey.”

He wraps a strong, muscular arm around you and kisses the top of your head. “Spasibo, myshka.”

Alexandra’s is also a “top contender” (even though it’s not a contest, which means there really aren’t contenders, but whatever). It’s not as technically proficient as her son’s –none of yours are—but in balance, composition, and contrast, it’s one of the strongest.

The painter herself, though, regards her work with neutral indifference while everyone else ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ over it. “It’s alright. Average.”

You watch as Nikolai wraps his arms around his wife’s shoulders, murmuring something in her ear that you can’t make out –it’s likely in Russian, anyway, so it doesn’t make much of a difference—before kissing her temple.

Alex’s hand trembles as she places it on her husband’s arm. Just a little.

Before you can make anything of it, Kitty busts out laughing.

“That is amazing!” she guffaws as she studies Wade’s painting –which looks less like a ‘sunrise’ and more like…

Well, it’s somewhere between a ‘LSD trip realized’ and ‘inside of a rainbow.’

(Granted, they might just be the same thing.)

“Very Picasso,” Kitty adds, grinning and shaking her head.

Wade preens theatrically. “I always felt a calling the abstract.”

She moves to Nikolai’s next. “I actually really like this. I think the intensity of the sunrise colors really sets off the greens in the trees.”

Nikolai grins when Illyana translates for him, then does a little bow to Kitty. “Spasibo, tigrionok.”

You can’t help but smile as you watch everyone –the people you love so much—laugh and talk to each other and admire each other’s paintings. This is home.

 ***

 “You seem happy.”

You look up from admiring everyone’s paintings –night has long since fallen, and everyone’s headed back to their own places, but you and Piotr had offered to hold onto the paintings for a few days so they could dry. “Huh?”

“You are happy, lyublyu.” Piotr smiles softly as he watches you. “Glowing.”

You smile bashfully as you look up at him. “I mean… I am happy. We’re making a home.” Tears well up in your eyes, and you smile broader even as grief –well-papered over, but there all the same—rises in your chest. “And it’s so different from the one I grew up in. It’s warm and loving and friendly… and that makes me happy.”

Piotr smiles, melancholy tears shining in his eyes, then draws you into his arms and kisses the top of your head.

Yeah. This is home.

[comicteaparty]

April 4th-April 10th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble  chat that occurred from April 4th, 2020 to April 10th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is something you’ve improved with in regards to writing or comic creation thanks to working on your story?

carcarchu

Oh this one i can answer definitively. it's 100% lineart. forcing myself to have to do lineart for hours everyday is definitely a way to force yourself to get better at it while i still don't like it it's something that i can do now without being scared about it

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Colouring. I had to get really creative in expressing emotion and hinting plot devices with colour. Also got much better with drawing gesture drawings due to looking at a lot of references!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Either writing dialogue or drawing/painting backgrounds... I used to be particularly awful at writing dialogue. It was too stiff and formal, and sounded a lot like old prose. Now, because of writing a comic and going through several scripts, the dialogue is a lot more natural, and the pacing is more realistic to actual conversations. And the other: backgrounds. I really used to not even draw them at all, and doing a comic forced me to have to think about environments in scenes. So I went from drawing floating characters to having to consider where they are and how it affects the story/mood.(edited)

Feather J. Fern

Paneling! That was my main focus to figure out how to do good paneling to have clearer pages

Deo101 [Millennium]

Honestly? Everything. It's all gotten better and I've learned so much. I would say my biggest improvement is probably in my time management, and art wise is probably composition and layouts. But it's hard to pick because I've grown so much in every aspect!

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Biggest thing I learned was to keep the story small and focused - and that the smaller, more human struggles are much better in creating tension than the whole default "the world's gonna end!" thing. Mind you, I still love a good "world's ending" story, but you gotta make people CARE about the people in that world first!

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

ohohohoooo I have done more drawing in photoshop in this short time I have worked on Wayfinders, than the rest of my life! That has given me some skills for sure! Coloring is another one, and generally just efficiency and flow in a comic

Nutty (Court of Roses)

For me it's been my use of color, and getting more confident in experimenting with it to really drive home a scene's mood!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

The clearest improvement I always notice is my layouts - I’ve gotten more adventurous with panel shapes and placement as time has gone on, experimenting with more interesting designs for the whole page. Some of those experiments haven’t been totally successful but it always feels like a worthwhile try. I’ve gotten some really, REALLY cool layouts out of these experiments, and I love seeing how dynamic the panels have become compared to my first chapter. Also speed. I’m so much faster now. Thank gooooooodness (edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) I've definitely noticed the experimental panel layouts! They're really cool.

AntiBunny

Planning. Book 2 is when I started using sketchbook thumbnails to plan ahead. The luxury of that first draft meant I could rethink panel layouts and how to best express the events happening if I first had an idea of what was happening laid out.

Also digital art by necessity since I switched to digital during the current arc. I was decent at lineart already, but other aspects have really challenged me to grow as an artist. I had to totally rethink the way I create backgrounds for instance. During this time the background quality actually declined a little while I got used to a new method, but experience has improved my skills greatly as I force myself into new methods.

DanitheCarutor

Hmmm maybe paneling, speechbubbles and backgrounds? My current project is my second real attempt at doing a comic, but I have learned a lot of stuff from the community and general art and story tutorials. Backgrounds and bubbles were the worst for me when first starting out, I only read manga before starting so the speechbubble shapes did not fit with how English is written. Plus I've only drawn wooded fantasy settings before making my comic, so using a ruler, figuring out perspective points and drawing buildings was very new to me. I still hate drawing cities and such, but I've gotten a lot better at it and it is easier to do now. Since I mostly stuck with B&W before my current project, coloring also kind of improved? Depending on who's looking at it. Lmao If I were to think about story/characters/dialogue, I have no idea if I've improved. Honestly, I don't pay much attention to the quality. Also my brain kinda says it's all bad regardless of what I make.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

For my Improvements: I'm getting better at my comic panels, as I adjust to the vertical style. Before I've always drawn the standard format. It's more than just boxes, I try to keep a variety of sizes. I'm picking up roughly how much 'gutter space' I need per 2-3 panels.etc I'm also improving on choosing colors that fits my love of detailed linework.(edited)

OH! I'm also learning about Clip studio shortcuts, how to use the assets they provide which makes the process, abit easier on me. Things I need to change, is I want to get a good speedy coloring style, without referring to my usual coloring.(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

the more I worked on the comic, the more I feel ambitious in making different angles and perspective. So it's really hitting me out of my comfort zone which is good! lol Though I'm trying to keep in mind of my speed, what I feel like I've improved a bit is trying to keep in mind of paneling and dialogue.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Process! Space and i have definitely figured out the most productive way to produce content at the rate and quality that also provides us with time for our own projects. Comics are a useful tool that helps you discover ways to better organize your creative workflow for sure!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I think probably scenery. I used to dread drawing inanimate objects but now I feel more confident in filling in a scene & even look forward to it sometimes. Maybe also page composition and paneling but I still have a lot to learn there

eli [a winged tale]

One of the reasons I embarked on the webcomic journey is to push myself to improve not only storytelling but also utilizing art to create a reader experience that would be difficult to replicate with just words. I’d like to think that 9 months into making A Winged Tale, I’ve improved on deciding when is a good opportunity to invest more into backgrounds vs character dynamics and when should be focused more on sequences of panels and composition. While the comic is written in a four panel format, more and more I’m finding areas where the story could be told by breaking those rules (attached pic). It’s a balance and I hope going forward I will improve more in pushing the limits of panels and find ways to express the story in fun and interesting ways.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Wow that's a very good description @eli [a winged tale] I look forward to reading more of your story journey

eli [a winged tale]

Thanks so much Joichi! I’m eager to keep learning~

Capitania do Azar

I'm gonna go with planning and actually getting it done. I'm so much faster because now the process is much more streamlined to me

kayotics

My whole comic was started s an exercise to just get better at comics generally so I’d probably say every part I’ve improved at? The biggest things are probably colors and the upfront planning process

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

Ooof hard question. I think my main improvement lies with page and speechballoon layouts and writing natural feeling dialouge. I'd say maybe also character acting?

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'm slowly learning how to create more engaging comic narrative. I read and research in the polished prem webcomics to see what makes them engaging? Like I'm going to challenge myself by creating a series of short stories with a reoccurring set of characters. Every new comic series I create is an experience, trial and error. Sometimes I skip the writeup and just go in blind, trust my own instincts. I'm glad to reach out and talk about it than in my own head. I hope by this year, I'll have at least 2 chapters of Hybrid Dolls out.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I've definitely gotten better at planning/ outlining multiple chapters ahead of time. I did not even do this when I was doing the first 10 something chapters. (I did attempt an outline before I began the comic, but the story changed significantly from the outline by the time I started the comic, and I did not try to do it again for a long while.) I can't remember when I started, but I do recall having a lot of trouble the first time I tried to do it. It's gotten a little easier each time, though. In fact, I just spent the past few days outlining the next few very important chapters, de-tangling some big tangles. I'm really glad my outlining (and overall writing) skills had leveled up, because HOO boy, I don't think my 2014-2015 self could have done this!

I also became friends with enviros. I had already become somewhat comfortable drawing perspective when HoK started, but I had a sort of mechanical approach to it, like "oh I need some enviro for these establishing shots, guess I'll draw them." But now I LOVE drawing enviros! (some types anyway...) It's my comfort activity, something I treat myself to after a long day! In the thumbnails for my next few pages, there's a few enviro-heavy panels that I have to remove, because I drew too many of them (and the pacing got too slow as a result). I have to stop myself from drawing too many of these.

My biggest improvement is probably I've come to understand my characters and my themes much better, but that's more of a "I got better at making HoK" than a "I got better at making comics." There's definitely a difference between the two.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) ah I totally understand I tried the outline method before I start but my story changed alot after I drew it. So it start to feel like a waste of time for me, but I'll still write an outline to make sure to plan where my story heads(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! I needed to draw those first few chapters to understand the direction of my own story.

The drawing part is an essential part of self-reflection, to try to understand what it is that I want out of the story. The answer has always been there in my heart, but I'm not able to see it clearly from the get-go.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I end up breaking scenes and put them in for future episodes, since I want to get a certain flow in the story.

It could be tricky to see what it is you want out of the story until you are in at least 3 chapters in?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I needed way more than 3 chapters -- though granted, my chapters are short, so that could be a part of it

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I see the early first script as testing the water. like a test to figure out the characters personalities. Unless you are bringing in old characters which you knew before?(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Even if the characters have been with you for a while, unless I have made a comic with them, there is a big chance that the characters will completely change, too.

DanitheCarutor

You know, I was thinking about about this, mostly about how I wouldn't have been happy if I was able to finish my comic the day I started. Then I realized I'm happy that I didn't. The first chapter wasn't the best, I was just learning how to coloring a comic, still fleshing out my characters and was still brainstorming small kinks in the story. I also still didn't have as much of an understanding of perspective, or panel and bubble layout. Even though I still have a lot I need to work on, I've gotten a lot better in all those aspects. Even though my use of color is weird, I've definitely gotten much more confident in it, enough so that I experiment and take a lot more risks with style. Even though my panelling can be boring, I have a much better understanding of how I want a page to look. I've improved a lot with my planning as well, like even though my thumbnailing/storyboarding only takes maybe 30, I've learned to step away for a bit if I don't like a layout, or analyzing why I don't like it and brainstorming ways to make it better. If I had magically finished the comic all at once, it would look really bad and may have been less readable.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

That is inspiring to hear about your improvement @DanitheCarutor

Natsu-no-Hikari

Chiming in! Just this week, Miko (my co-creator) and I were discussing how far we've come from when we started our first comic (https://liarsgotoparadise.com/) vs. where we are now. I think there have been a lot of learn experiences, such as art, dialogue, general editing - but especially with pacing and character interaction. We regret that we didn't stop to focus more on that interaction, as we wanted to move ahead in the story...and now we can't change that, except to start now and not allow ourselves to grow impatient. Take our time and enjoy the journey - that's our new motto. There's a time to rush ahead in perilous moments, but there's also definitely a time to catch our breaths and let the characters mingle and speak. It's an improvement that will become more noticeable going forward in Liars and our second comic as well.

[riisinaakka-draws]

No one asked, but I made a little recap of the “Safe again” gif & drawing, if you are interested. I hope it adds some light to the process without destroying the magic, lol.

Before going futher, I must admit that I cannot remember all the details and there were a lot of trials and errors. I made the first sketch at the end of April, continued it a bit in May and left it alone for weeks until finally finishing it in June. Also, the psd file with all the layers is such a mess that it would not help you, so no screen caps about that.

So, this is not a tutorial but more like a recap or the backstory of the thought process and the finished drawing.

Preparations: - watch the best show in the world (Black Sails) - reach episodes 4.01 & 4.02 and weep at the beauty - let the season finale destroy you (and lift you up)

Ingredients:

- an idea, textures, references, time, drawing software, pen tablet

Steps:

Initial idea. Silver surrounded by the light and warmth of his two important people, him radiating golden light and illuminating the others’ features (the other two are relieved after getting him back safe and sound)

- or all three of them as gods, stories, legends, constellations etc.?

- or just Silver's sad dream years later when he is gazing at the stars, figures on the night sky etc...?

- sketch a doodle in a hurry, think about the stars and how to add them quickly to try the initial idea

-> remember the picture serie of noodle soup you took a while ago. Remember how cool "the whirling galaxy" aka “oily broth before adding noodles” looked like in the kettle (I have used or considered using other food textures before, e.g. blueberry-pie, the remains of burned macaroni casserole, foam, tea). Keep your eyes open and collect your own cool textures :D Or use free textures etc.

- edit in photoshop to bring out dots, shapes, whatever (or just skip this part and paint the splatter on the get-go with brushes...lmao). I just like to find surprises with textures, like the randomness or what sort of new things and ideas they may add or provoke. You can do this with any abstract splatter or shape and so on...

- This was the noodle broth and there’s the used area. (The circles and green clumps didn’t look as good as I first thought, so I used the area without them).

Some other examples, not used in this one:

- let it marinate and haunt you for weeks, do other stuff, learn new things, read fanfiction, rewatch earlier episodes, hone your skills, cry

- start working with the idea, look at references (important!), figure out how six hands work?? what's visible, what's in the shadows etc... what doesn’t need to be shown and still have the composition work...

- continue the doodle, add layers, shapes, slowly build the composition, let it alone for a day, a week, a month...

- Look at it with fresh eyes and remember to mirror image once in a while to see any mistakes. Grunt with frustration, re-do things, look more references

I couldn’t quite decide where to put James’ hand, so I kept testing. Madi’s hand was always supposed to be over John’s heart (yeah I know the heart is more in the center, but you get the gist ;) I also wanted James and Madi to have some sort of connection -> in the final piece their pinkies are touching :) 

- add another texture layer (I had colour dodge on), move it around to find the best place and see the sparks flying accidentally (this was actually done quite early on but anyway)

-> go WOAH! (ʘ‿ʘ)

- continue drawing, occasionally play with the texture layers, try giffing, listen to Finnish (symphonic / power) metal music, have an epiphany, cry about feelings

- Stop at some point. Let it brew more, do not look at it. Next time you look at it, is it ok? No? Yes? Ok, good. Spent a while concising all the thoughts to a few obligatory sentences to have an explanation, fill the tags with ramblings, post it, go for a run walk, preferably to see the sea. Look at the sunset, listen to seagulls and sigh. Return to read other people crying about their feelings that the drawing evoke. Grin and eat more cheap noodles.

Some random notes:

Flint’s blinking moon was a last minute addition (the tattoo was there, but I thought it would be cool to emphasize it more and it fit the overall theme)

To mirror that, Madi’s shining earring represents the sun (or a bright star)

All three of them have their rings, although it may not be clear

that splotch that flies past them has no special meaning, I just liked it. Not sure if it’s a piece of leek or something in the soup. At some point I considered making it look like a crown or a shooting star or a lantern or something.

Working music ended up being Nightwish’s “Nemo”:

Oh how I wish For soothing rain All I wish is to dream again My loving heart Lost in the dark For hope I'd give my everything 

My flower, withered between The pages 2 and 3 The once and forever bloom gone with my sins     (ಥ‿ಥ) Walk the dark path ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Sleep with angels   (˵ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°˵) Call the past for help   (*whispers* get Thomas to end Flint’s war...) Touch me with your love And reveal to me my true name

(and so on..)

“Nemo” is Latin for “nobody, no one”. Silver is “a nobody from nowhere”.

favouritealias also pointed out the BS quote:“There is freedom in the darkness, once someone has illuminated it." and I can’t believe I didn’t realize that 8D

Lastly. Silver can’t quite believe the luck he has (to have these two in his arms again and in overall), Flint’s finally able to sleep peacefully now that he is back and Madi and John cannot stop smiling at each other. Madi inspects John’s little scratches and wounds and he’s happy to have had a bath before they laid down for the night. Flint keeps sniffing his hair. He also made secret unspoken promises with Madi to keep Silver (and each other) safe in the future (pinky promise).

tl;dr: read later then, lol ;) (if interested in the first place)

I’m not very good at putting my thoughts into words, but there you have it. Thank you for reading! ( ˘ ³˘)♥

[momentumgo]

Arielle Ray

Motion graphics journalist/Art Director www.arielleray.com/ New York, NY

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

My start in motion graphics was definitely odd; I didn’t really know it was a job that you could have. In high school I knew that animation was a profession and that I could work at Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network or Disney, but that seemed impossible to achieve. I’ve always liked to draw but not THAT much. I didn’t have a stellar art portfolio (mine was pretty mediocre because I didn’t have a style or apply myself) and I knew I needed a scholarship if I wanted to stay out of debt. I was also a little be terrified of the perceived impracticality of art school (my whole family is in STEM), so I ended up going a more academic route.

I ended up in a Visual Journalism program with a double major in English Literature and an Art Minor within the communications school. While there I slowly gravitated towards all of the design classes, and I thought I would end up in infographics/dataviz or doing editorial layouts online.The project that landed me in motion graphics was part of an independent study. I was supposed to be building a whole interactive site based on census data to showcase my dataviz skills...then the government shutdown happened. Fun fact, no government, no census data. So my professor told me that the science department needed an educational video aimed at middle/late elementary schoolers about aphids.

It was 5 minutes long and completely illustrated. It honestly looked like a highly animated powerpoint. My professor didn’t know how to use After Effects and neither did I. I had no idea how to parent or pre-comp things, and I think I just did a crash course in Lynda tutorials and selective googling.The project has over 200 unparented layers in one very long comp. There is no easing and the aphid has the weirdest, wobbliest walk ever. There were tears. It ended up being oddly charming though, so I got an A in the class.

Early career: I moved to NY the summer after college for a paid internship at a magazine. I was the art department intern and mostly ended up digitizing archival photos. I used my extra time to brush up my portfolio and do personal projects so I would be job-ready. I dropped off my resume at a few booths at a journalism career fair (pro tip: designers, make your resume super extra. Have a designed version and a Microsoft Word version, you’ll stand out that way) and I got a call back from the Wall Street Journal. Based on my wonky aphid video I got hired as a video department “illustration” intern doing day turn around, graphics-forward news videos. I spent a lot of time making assets, and then slowly began to edit entire videos. When I was hired on as a staff member, I made 1.5-4 minute explainer videos on everything from opioids to ISIS to Hamilton. I now work for Quartz, another media outlet and I art direct for the video department, do a lot of branding work as well as occasionally writing reporting and producing my own videos.

I use basically all of the skills that I learned in college, my English Lit major helps when writing scripts, I use my journalism background when interviewing people and doing research, my fine arts background comes in handy when it comes to illustration, my graphic design background helps with composition, art direction and color theory.

I’ve never freelanced and just moved from journalism outfit to journalism outfit doing motion graphics and I feel like I stumbled into the perfect career. I get a ton of freedom in that my team kind of lets me animate what I want, and I don’t have brand guidelines or a client brief to follow. That being said, the story is always king in journalism, so my visuals will always take a backseat to the reporting and changing timelines are common. The script/voice over is never truly locked. Your animation can get cut and it doesn’t matter how hard you worked on it or how much you love it.

I’m also on staff, and that comes with stability and health insurance and I really love that. I think I could ultimately push myself to be more creative and make more money if I freelanced, but I am very risk averse and cannot handle living in a city as expensive as NY without a steady paycheck.

At the end of the day, I really love my job, and I feel very successful doing what I’m doing. I don’t know if I’ll ever have time to produce Motionographer level work, or do a short film, but I feel creatively fulfilled and am really proud of a lot of my work.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I was lucky enough to go to high school in a place that allowed for a lot of AP classes so I started college with a bunch of credits, allowing me to finish a double major and minor in 4 years. Those AP classes also got me a scholarship and between that and my parents help, I didn’t have to take out any loans. I worked some to take care of minor living expenses but because I was financially secure, I could choose jobs that helped my design skills and I took on 3 unpaid summer internships. I landed my internship through an alumni of my college, and that internship paid me a lump sum that covered my living expenses. I would not have taken the NYC leap without the money. My parents stopped supporting me when I moved to NY but I always knew I could move back home.

Starting out in journalism is a bit rough, and it is very, very hard to do if you have debt. You are expected to work 10-14 hour days on an intern’s salary (sometimes minimum wage) for that 3-6 months, and you are also expected to be grateful to be there. From there, there is often another level of indentured servitude called a fellowship, where you are paid under $45k (sometimes as low as $30k) and locked into that for a year. After that you have to hope you do a good enough job for that outlet to hire you/or that the outlet has the budget to bring on another staff member (they often don’t).

I was able to skip the fellowship stage but was still being paid a fellowship salary. The benefit was, I was able to negotiate a slightly better salary within 6 months. I would not be able to have reach where I am without my parents’ financial help in college, and I would not have taken such risks if I had debt.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

I don’t know that I would want to do mograph without the journalism, but I also wouldn’t necessarily advise getting into journalism. You have to really, really love it. I personally do love my career and feel extremely fulfilled by it. I love that I have so much control over my work and sometimes tackle subjects that really make a difference, and I’m constantly intellectually and creatively stimulated. I also wonder if staying in journalism is worth it. Layoffs are always imminent and getting paid what you’re worth is a constant political game of competing offers and posturing. You can never really look past the next 6 months for guarantees. Unfortunately, journalism is a contracting industry and in New York City there are a million new Columbia grads every year who would be very willing to replace you for pennies. A graphics background makes you special, but not special enough to make you irreplaceable.

In your design work, be flexible, be multidisciplinary, and don’t be intimidated by other people’s work. Figure out that unique thing that you bring to the table and don’t be afraid to volunteer for things that are only tangentially related to what you do, you’ll be amazed what you can learn in the process. Don’t be afraid of negative feedback, it’ll make you better, but also don’t take it completely to heart. Communication is key, and that, more than software and design skills will make you invaluable to your team.

[theblueroute]

Poet Cynthia Dewi Oka visited Widener on Nov. 12 through 14 as a part of the English and Creative Writing Department’s Distinguished Writers Series.

Oka, a three-time Pushcart Prize Nominee, published her debut collection of poetry with Dinah Press called Nomad of Salt and Hard Water in December 2012, celebrating journey and its relentless precision of language. A second edition with new and revised poems was published in April 2016 with Thread Makes Blanket Press.

Much of her poetry has been published online and in print in such places as The American Poetry Review, Guernica Magazine, and Apogee Journal. In addition, Oka is a contributor for anthologies such as Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism and Who Will Speak for America among others. She has also been awarded the Fifth Wednesday Journal Editor’s Prize in Poetry as well as the Leeway Foundation Transformation Award and is currently pursuing her master’s in fine arts as a Holden Fellow at Warren Wilson College.

Oka’s latest collection is titled Salvage: Poems. Published in December 2017 with Northwestern University Press, Salvage interrogates what it means to reach for our humanity through the guise of nation, race, and gender.

On campus, Oka was the feature speaker at the Honors Freshman Composition Forum. She also met with several students within the department for tutorials and visited numerous creative writing courses. For many students, Oka’s visit was transformational and eye-opening.

Rohan Suriyage, a senior English and communications studies double major, found Oka’s presence and communication to be like that of a friend. Suriyage, along with several students in the Creative Writing department that received tutorials with Oka, believes he gained so much incredible insight from the visiting writer in such a short amount of time.

“Her prowess for effective writing, aesthetic, and finding a writer’s voice is truly incredible,” Suriyage said. “I’ve rethought the way I approach my writing, for the better, of course, and I thank her.”

Oka concluded her visit with a public reading during which she read new, never before published work surrounding Indonesian history and culture, specifically the mass killings that took place in the 1960s which the Indonesian government and citizens now act as if did not happen. She utilized documents once deemed to hold classified information on the killings to formulate a narrative, bringing to light the tragedy of what happened as well as the integration of Indonesian culture. After the reading, Oka took time to answer questions regarding politics and poetry, sign copies of her book, and speak to students.

Domenic Gaeta, senior Anthropology major, found Oka’s new poetry on the tragic killings in Indonesia to be powerful, rich in detail, and attention grabbing.

“I would have never though to use classified documents as the general vocabulary makeup of a poem, nor would I think to write about such tragic events,” Gaeta said. “Still, I knew each time she was telling a story that needed to be told.”

Oka also sat down with me for an interview with The Blue Route during her interview. The full conversation will be featured in our 21st issue set to be published in the next couple of weeks. For a preview of the interview, read below!

I was reading some of the reviews on Salvage and some of the descriptions were that it is almost as if you have “one foot in time, the other in timelessness”, that the poems exhibit “mythical depth, civic outcry, and lyric inventiveness”, and that the collection is almost as if “entering a dream world”. This is what other people have said about your work. I’m curious as to how you view this collection and what your vision was in building it. Every project I’m working on is an effort to grow and transform. That is the superpower of creative writers. We get to remake ourselves. For me, Salvage is an enactment in life, it was happening parallel with life. What was happening on the page was an attempt to sort of recuperate, to integrate a lot of the worst things that I’ve seen or have been through.

My first book, Nomad of Salt and Hard Water, was really an affirmation of strategies of survival. Part of the process of surviving difficult or traumatic things in our lives is that we end up having to bury a lot, so you can keep moving. Salvage was an effort to actually unearth those things and to bring them back into conversation, to reintegrate them, to repurpose them, to make them useful again.

I think of the structure of the book like an onion where you’re looking at the most external forms of violence, war, displacement, gentrification. Then you move inwards to the family, the legacies, and the exchanges that happen in that space. The final layer is intimacy, relationships. That was the vision. It is a trajectory moving inward.

I find that if I’m writing something from a darker place or something that is slightly out of my comfort zone, a little less like me, it takes me a bit to get into that headspace. Are there any poems in Salvage where you had to remove yourself and get into another headspace? How did you get there and then how do you shake it off? For me, it feels less like going somewhere else and more like being your whole, true self at a given period of time. I give space for all that I am, everything I shut out to arrive when I’m writing.

I tend to be one of those people where, if I finish something, I’m like, “Okay, on to the next thing!” Salvage really taught me that I can’t just do that. A rest period is important. For example, when I finish working on a poem, I can’t necessarily switch out of it. There has to be a transition period where I’m slowly moving back into the pace of my daily life and I think it’s good to plan for that rather than feel cut-off. This is why I stress it is so important to have a writing practice, because then we learn what our tendencies are and what is optimal for us in how we take care of ourselves after we finish. It’s labor, so much labor when we write, and we need sustenance after it. If you’re an extrovert, your sustenance might be from surrounding yourself with people, whereas introverts need alone time. We have to build that into our writing practice so that we don’t become—at least for me—so that I don’t become a terrible person to the people that I love.

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by Carlie Sisco

Poet Cynthia Dewi Oka offers insight on creative vision and the labor of writing. Check out this preview of an interview with Oka soon to be published in Issue 21! Poet Cynthia Dewi Oka visited Widener on Nov. 12 through 14 as a part of the English and Creative Writing Department’s Distinguished Writers Series.

[darwinbigelow]

DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing

I’m building a floating deck in my back yard! Catch the whole thing, start to finish, right here.

Hey guys! It’s time for the next post in this long-awaited (at least, for me!) update. I’ve finally gotten enough coffee in my system and quieted the dogs long enough to finish this post and give you another written + video combo.

Brace yourselves, we’ve got a lot to cover!

If you recall from the first post where I talked about the deck plan, I shared the overall design, explained some of the decision making that went in, and where my challenges/research led.

Once I’d come up with my overall plan… it was time to get to work!

Recommended tools and materials

May contain affiliate links or links to related posts

miter saw

drill

drill bits

impact driver

GRK 2 1/2-inch screws

GRK 3 1/8-inch screws

GRK 4-inch structural screws

4-ft level

Ground Contact lumber – 2x6s, 2x4s, and 1x4s (more on why below)

composite shims

3 3/4″ concrete screws

hammer drill (if you don’t have one of these, you can get a kit like this that will adapt your impact driver)

deck blocks

landscape fabric

gravel

shovel or mattock

stainless steel brackets/joist hangers

Ground Contact lumber

One of the biggest new pieces of info I picked up as I made my deck plan was discovering that I would likely need to use Ground Contact lumber for the entire project. I was excited to bring Wood Its Real onboard as a sponsor, and I’m so glad I did when I did, because it was through them that I learned about these new recommendations.

As common sense would tell you, outdoor wood projects need more protection than the stuff you’d use on the interior. And most of you probably also know about using “pressure treated” or PT wood for common outdoor projects to make them last longer. But as of 2016, there are new guidelines designating what kind of pressure-treated lumber should be used, and when. As you might guess, part of it is in the name. Since termites and fungi and all sorts of nasty critters live in the ground, that type of contact is especially important to protect against. There are a few other scenarios where Ground Contact is recommended:

Wood will come in contact with soil, vegetation, leaf litter, and debris that can hold moisture for extended periods of time.

You don’t expect good air circulation, especially on the underside and between decking boards.

Wood components are installed less than six inches above the ground and are supported by treated wood or concrete without a moisture-transferring barrier/break.

Wood is in direct contact with material that already shows signs of decay.

Wood gets wet on a very frequent, recurring basis and doesn’t have time to dry adequately.

You are building in a tropical climate.

Well, whaddya know… my new deck is going to meet a LOT of that criteria!

I noticed that my local Lowe’s was kind of half-and-half about having Above Ground and Ground Contact lumber, but the nearby Home Depot seems to have switched out almost all of theirs for Ground Contact. Honestly, it makes sense with a store’s limited shelf space.

Building a floating deck frame

Build outer frame

I began by cutting and building the outer frame. I could have started with the deck blocks and supports and laid it all out, but for whatever reason, this way just seemed to make more sense to me.

For the outer frame, I pre-drilled each hole and used exterior screws. Don’t waste your time like I did! Use exterior screws that don’t need pre-drilling. Like the Ground Contact lumber, you spend a little more for better quality materials. It’s worth it.

Elevate and level out

The frame, at this point, was screwed together, but it was still a rickety mess. To keep the corners square, I reinforced them with a piece of scrap lumber. I would later discard these once the rest of the frame and other supports went in.

I also lifted up the frame using some scrap lumber and my 4-foot level (one of my favorite hand-me-downs from my grandfather). It’s normal for things like this to still have a  s l i g h t  slope for water runoff (it only looks level, but isn’t), so I noted the way the level looked when laying it on the patio and tried to match the same slope with the deck frame.

Space out supports

I marked every 16 inches and placed another 2×6 in the frame. The longest boards I brought home were 12 feet, but the deck is longer at one end. So, I added another board a couple of feet from the end to give the 12-foot boards something to screw into. Kinda easy, but it helps to have someone assist by holding up all the other ends.

At all corners and in the one spot where I used a 4×4 to help elevate the deck, I added self-tapping structural screws (at this point, I finally bought better ones that didn’t require pre-drilling). For the rest of the structure, I went back through and secured with self-tapping 3 1/8″ fasteners (you can just do this the first time and avoid the double effort!). I also added some stainless steel brackets on some of those joists that I thought were high enough off the ground to add it.

Note: hardware not pictured — I did a lot of second-guessing myself at one point and chose to add more hardware/brackets on the joists of the highest side as the deck boards went on. But since some of my research argued against using it in areas with direct ground exposure, I used them only where I thought applicable. I can really only say “use your best judgment and consult a structural engineer” if you have questions, since this is still my first time building something like this —  and, of course, I’m a homeowner messing with her own house, not a professional contractor. This thing mostly sits on the ground, so I’m not super worried about falling down and/or not lasting for as long as I want it. But as with any large build, one tutorial is never enough! It’s always best to read multiple tutorials and make the most informed decision possible. <3

Waterproofing a deck

Somehow, a deck, the Wicked Witch, and cotton candy have the same greatest foe: water.

To combat this (at least, in the deck’s case), there are a number of different options. While we may call this “waterproofing”, what we’re really talking about is adding moisture barriers to help the wood dry out as quickly as possible. Rot is still a natural inevitability with just about everything; we’re just trying to prevent that as best we can. They’re all good suggestions, but doing a combination of more than one seemed like the right option for me:

Using ground contact lumber (6 inches or less above ground, in contact with concrete, etc.) –

Laying down landscaping fabric and gravel under the deck –

Brushing a sealant on cut joist ends

Using flashing tape on the frame (prevents water from sitting in between the deck boards and the joists) –

After spacing out the deck blocks and digging them down, I surrounded everything with landscaping fabric and gravel. K did most of the hauling, so he gets full credit on that (we wound up thinning out the gravel a little from these pictures to use under the shed too, but you get the idea).

I spent some time adding more braces to reinforce the structure as well. Then, I began adding flashing tape.

In order for the flashing tape to stick, the surface needs to be clean and dry. However, this whole deck was built as the spring rain storms swept through, so that was much easier said than done. In Georgia, spring can often be a full day of threatening rain (but not actually raining), or intermittent storms, or blazing sun. It’s always a toss-up. Hard to plan for outdoor projects when the rain is exactly what needs NOT to happen in order to get to the next step!

Whenever the rain splashed dirt on the wood, we’d wait for things to dry out and then apply the tape. A cheap dish brush (that I’ve used for outdoor projects in the past) made quick work of getting things clean.

Since the weather wasn’t always the best assistant, there was a lot of skipping around. We basically spread out the gravel, applied flashing tape, and put in a bunch of braces between the joists all at once… whichever was the easiest to accomplish in the moment.

Building a deck over a concrete patio

I put off what I thought was going to be the hardest part until the end. I’d been reading and researching a lot on this part, and I found my answer on Family Handyman. In order to create a small section over the concrete patio, I would have to screw wood “sleepers” into the concrete. Then, after lining it up with the rest of the frame, I could add the decking on top.

But, once again, one of the more important things to keep in mind is wood touching (or rather, not touching) concrete. I had already built the new frame to have a gap between the outer frame and and the sides of the patio, to which I also added gravel. Then, we drilled a drainage hole in the corner and fit a plastic pipe through (this is potentially where we might try to run power in the future out into the yard, but we didn’t actually do any of that yet… it’s more of a “let’s plan to maybe do this just in case we want it later” type deal).

In my research, I found that if I put some type of composite/plastic product in between the wood and the patio, the deck would last longer. But the thinnest composite trim I was able to find at the store was still too thick to fit the 2×4 on top and still have it line up with the rest of the frame. Enter: plastic shims.

As a solution, I stacked the 2x4s on top of 1x4s (yes, Ground Contact!) and cut them to length at 45-degree angles. I then used the plastic shims to elevate them and get to the correct height.

Using a hammer drill and specialty drill bit (it comes with the concrete screws), I slowly found a way to screw through and line it up. Basically, I put the 1×4 in place and marked for screws every wo feet. Then, I pre-drilled through the wood with a normal drill bit. Next, I drilled through the hole with the concrete drill bit into the patio. This marked the hole in the right place so I could continue with just the hammer drill.

Tip: drill a little bit at a time and deeper than you’ll need. Pull the drill bit back out of the hole periodically to help remove dust and drilling the hole a little deeper will prevent the remaining dust in the hole from clogging things up when you fasten the screw down.

Once the 1×4 and shims were fastened to the patio, I stacked the 2×4 on top and screwed them into the 1×4.

In some cases, shims were needed multiple times, but the main objective was to get it all to line up with the rest of the frame.

You can see in the pic below that I had cut composite trim to attempt to use them as spacers… oh well! Guess now I have to find a use for a long piece of plastic trim that I can’t return (I already have an idea for use in the kitchen).

Once things were all in place, more flashing tape went on top (though I cut the roll in half this time instead of thirds, since the boards were wider here).

I also wrapped corners where I thought screw holes or joints would allow moisture.

And just like that, we were ready to start adding the deck boards! In the next post in this series, I’ll cover the decking process in detail, along with a nifty tool that worked extremely well and kept things evenly spaced. It was a little extra work to get an angled deck instead of laying the deck boards straight, but in the end, I think it’s totally worth it!

Thanks so much for following along, friends! I hope you found this helpful so far. If it’s beneficial to you, I’d love it if you subscribed for more updates so you don’t miss the next deck post. There will be a few DIYs in between that I’ve been meaning to cross off my to-do list for summer (plus, it’s nice to break things up, because it feels like my whole LIFE has been about this deck for the last month!

), so you’ll see those next!

The post DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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[georgeycowell]

DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing

I’m building a floating deck in my back yard! Catch the whole thing, start to finish, right here.

Hey guys! It’s time for the next post in this long-awaited (at least, for me!) update. I’ve finally gotten enough coffee in my system and quieted the dogs long enough to finish this post and give you another written + video combo.

Brace yourselves, we’ve got a lot to cover!

If you recall from the first post where I talked about the deck plan, I shared the overall design, explained some of the decision making that went in, and where my challenges/research led.

Once I’d come up with my overall plan… it was time to get to work!

Recommended tools and materials

May contain affiliate links or links to related posts

miter saw

drill

drill bits

impact driver

GRK 2 1/2-inch screws

GRK 3 1/8-inch screws

GRK 4-inch structural screws

4-ft level

Ground Contact lumber – 2x6s, 2x4s, and 1x4s (more on why below)

composite shims

3 3/4″ concrete screws

hammer drill (if you don’t have one of these, you can get a kit like this that will adapt your impact driver)

deck blocks

landscape fabric

gravel

shovel or mattock

stainless steel brackets/joist hangers

Ground Contact lumber

One of the biggest new pieces of info I picked up as I made my deck plan was discovering that I would likely need to use Ground Contact lumber for the entire project. I was excited to bring Wood Its Real onboard as a sponsor, and I’m so glad I did when I did, because it was through them that I learned about these new recommendations.

As common sense would tell you, outdoor wood projects need more protection than the stuff you’d use on the interior. And most of you probably also know about using “pressure treated” or PT wood for common outdoor projects to make them last longer. But as of 2016, there are new guidelines designating what kind of pressure-treated lumber should be used, and when. As you might guess, part of it is in the name. Since termites and fungi and all sorts of nasty critters live in the ground, that type of contact is especially important to protect against. There are a few other scenarios where Ground Contact is recommended:

Wood will come in contact with soil, vegetation, leaf litter, and debris that can hold moisture for extended periods of time.

You don’t expect good air circulation, especially on the underside and between decking boards.

Wood components are installed less than six inches above the ground and are supported by treated wood or concrete without a moisture-transferring barrier/break.

Wood is in direct contact with material that already shows signs of decay.

Wood gets wet on a very frequent, recurring basis and doesn’t have time to dry adequately.

You are building in a tropical climate.

Well, whaddya know… my new deck is going to meet a LOT of that criteria!

I noticed that my local Lowe’s was kind of half-and-half about having Above Ground and Ground Contact lumber, but the nearby Home Depot seems to have switched out almost all of theirs for Ground Contact. Honestly, it makes sense with a store’s limited shelf space.

Building a floating deck frame

Build outer frame

I began by cutting and building the outer frame. I could have started with the deck blocks and supports and laid it all out, but for whatever reason, this way just seemed to make more sense to me.

For the outer frame, I pre-drilled each hole and used exterior screws. Don’t waste your time like I did! Use exterior screws that don’t need pre-drilling. Like the Ground Contact lumber, you spend a little more for better quality materials. It’s worth it.

Elevate and level out

The frame, at this point, was screwed together, but it was still a rickety mess. To keep the corners square, I reinforced them with a piece of scrap lumber. I would later discard these once the rest of the frame and other supports went in.

I also lifted up the frame using some scrap lumber and my 4-foot level (one of my favorite hand-me-downs from my grandfather). It’s normal for things like this to still have a  s l i g h t  slope for water runoff (it only looks level, but isn’t), so I noted the way the level looked when laying it on the patio and tried to match the same slope with the deck frame.

Space out supports

I marked every 16 inches and placed another 2×6 in the frame. The longest boards I brought home were 12 feet, but the deck is longer at one end. So, I added another board a couple of feet from the end to give the 12-foot boards something to screw into. Kinda easy, but it helps to have someone assist by holding up all the other ends.

At all corners and in the one spot where I used a 4×4 to help elevate the deck, I added self-tapping structural screws (at this point, I finally bought better ones that didn’t require pre-drilling). For the rest of the structure, I went back through and secured with self-tapping 3 1/8″ fasteners (you can just do this the first time and avoid the double effort!). I also added some stainless steel brackets on some of those joists that I thought were high enough off the ground to add it.

Note: hardware not pictured — I did a lot of second-guessing myself at one point and chose to add more hardware/brackets on the joists of the highest side as the deck boards went on. But since some of my research argued against using it in areas with direct ground exposure, I used them only where I thought applicable. I can really only say “use your best judgment and consult a structural engineer” if you have questions, since this is still my first time building something like this —  and, of course, I’m a homeowner messing with her own house, not a professional contractor. This thing mostly sits on the ground, so I’m not super worried about falling down and/or not lasting for as long as I want it. But as with any large build, one tutorial is never enough! It’s always best to read multiple tutorials and make the most informed decision possible. <3

Waterproofing a deck

Somehow, a deck, the Wicked Witch, and cotton candy have the same greatest foe: water.

To combat this (at least, in the deck’s case), there are a number of different options. While we may call this “waterproofing”, what we’re really talking about is adding moisture barriers to help the wood dry out as quickly as possible. Rot is still a natural inevitability with just about everything; we’re just trying to prevent that as best we can. They’re all good suggestions, but doing a combination of more than one seemed like the right option for me:

Using ground contact lumber (6 inches or less above ground, in contact with concrete, etc.) –

Laying down landscaping fabric and gravel under the deck –

Brushing a sealant on cut joist ends

Using flashing tape on the frame (prevents water from sitting in between the deck boards and the joists) –

After spacing out the deck blocks and digging them down, I surrounded everything with landscaping fabric and gravel. K did most of the hauling, so he gets full credit on that (we wound up thinning out the gravel a little from these pictures to use under the shed too, but you get the idea).

I spent some time adding more braces to reinforce the structure as well. Then, I began adding flashing tape.

In order for the flashing tape to stick, the surface needs to be clean and dry. However, this whole deck was built as the spring rain storms swept through, so that was much easier said than done. In Georgia, spring can often be a full day of threatening rain (but not actually raining), or intermittent storms, or blazing sun. It’s always a toss-up. Hard to plan for outdoor projects when the rain is exactly what needs NOT to happen in order to get to the next step!

Whenever the rain splashed dirt on the wood, we’d wait for things to dry out and then apply the tape. A cheap dish brush (that I’ve used for outdoor projects in the past) made quick work of getting things clean.

Since the weather wasn’t always the best assistant, there was a lot of skipping around. We basically spread out the gravel, applied flashing tape, and put in a bunch of braces between the joists all at once… whichever was the easiest to accomplish in the moment.

Building a deck over a concrete patio

I put off what I thought was going to be the hardest part until the end. I’d been reading and researching a lot on this part, and I found my answer on Family Handyman. In order to create a small section over the concrete patio, I would have to screw wood “sleepers” into the concrete. Then, after lining it up with the rest of the frame, I could add the decking on top.

But, once again, one of the more important things to keep in mind is wood touching (or rather, not touching) concrete. I had already built the new frame to have a gap between the outer frame and and the sides of the patio, to which I also added gravel. Then, we drilled a drainage hole in the corner and fit a plastic pipe through (this is potentially where we might try to run power in the future out into the yard, but we didn’t actually do any of that yet… it’s more of a “let’s plan to maybe do this just in case we want it later” type deal).

In my research, I found that if I put some type of composite/plastic product in between the wood and the patio, the deck would last longer. But the thinnest composite trim I was able to find at the store was still too thick to fit the 2×4 on top and still have it line up with the rest of the frame. Enter: plastic shims.

As a solution, I stacked the 2x4s on top of 1x4s (yes, Ground Contact!) and cut them to length at 45-degree angles. I then used the plastic shims to elevate them and get to the correct height.

Using a hammer drill and specialty drill bit (it comes with the concrete screws), I slowly found a way to screw through and line it up. Basically, I put the 1×4 in place and marked for screws every wo feet. Then, I pre-drilled through the wood with a normal drill bit. Next, I drilled through the hole with the concrete drill bit into the patio. This marked the hole in the right place so I could continue with just the hammer drill.

Tip: drill a little bit at a time and deeper than you’ll need. Pull the drill bit back out of the hole periodically to help remove dust and drilling the hole a little deeper will prevent the remaining dust in the hole from clogging things up when you fasten the screw down.

Once the 1×4 and shims were fastened to the patio, I stacked the 2×4 on top and screwed them into the 1×4.

In some cases, shims were needed multiple times, but the main objective was to get it all to line up with the rest of the frame.

You can see in the pic below that I had cut composite trim to attempt to use them as spacers… oh well! Guess now I have to find a use for a long piece of plastic trim that I can’t return (I already have an idea for use in the kitchen).

Once things were all in place, more flashing tape went on top (though I cut the roll in half this time instead of thirds, since the boards were wider here).

I also wrapped corners where I thought screw holes or joints would allow moisture.

And just like that, we were ready to start adding the deck boards! In the next post in this series, I’ll cover the decking process in detail, along with a nifty tool that worked extremely well and kept things evenly spaced. It was a little extra work to get an angled deck instead of laying the deck boards straight, but in the end, I think it’s totally worth it!

Thanks so much for following along, friends! I hope you found this helpful so far. If it’s beneficial to you, I’d love it if you subscribed for more updates so you don’t miss the next deck post. There will be a few DIYs in between that I’ve been meaning to cross off my to-do list for summer (plus, it’s nice to break things up, because it feels like my whole LIFE has been about this deck for the last month!

), so you’ll see those next!

The post DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

More Where That Came From

Quick Patio Patch

4 Easy Tips for Growing Hydrangeas

How to Make Your Patio Look New Again for Less Tha...

Game of Stones

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[alexrodriguespage]

DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing

I’m building a floating deck in my back yard! Catch the whole thing, start to finish, right here.

Hey guys! It’s time for the next post in this long-awaited (at least, for me!) update. I’ve finally gotten enough coffee in my system and quieted the dogs long enough to finish this post and give you another written + video combo.

Brace yourselves, we’ve got a lot to cover!

If you recall from the first post where I talked about the deck plan, I shared the overall design, explained some of the decision making that went in, and where my challenges/research led.

Once I’d come up with my overall plan… it was time to get to work!

Recommended tools and materials

May contain affiliate links or links to related posts

miter saw

drill

drill bits

impact driver

GRK 2 1/2-inch screws

GRK 3 1/8-inch screws

GRK 4-inch structural screws

4-ft level

Ground Contact lumber – 2x6s, 2x4s, and 1x4s (more on why below)

composite shims

3 3/4″ concrete screws

hammer drill (if you don’t have one of these, you can get a kit like this that will adapt your impact driver)

deck blocks

landscape fabric

gravel

shovel or mattock

stainless steel brackets/joist hangers

Ground Contact lumber

One of the biggest new pieces of info I picked up as I made my deck plan was discovering that I would likely need to use Ground Contact lumber for the entire project. I was excited to bring Wood Its Real onboard as a sponsor, and I’m so glad I did when I did, because it was through them that I learned about these new recommendations.

As common sense would tell you, outdoor wood projects need more protection than the stuff you’d use on the interior. And most of you probably also know about using “pressure treated” or PT wood for common outdoor projects to make them last longer. But as of 2016, there are new guidelines designating what kind of pressure-treated lumber should be used, and when. As you might guess, part of it is in the name. Since termites and fungi and all sorts of nasty critters live in the ground, that type of contact is especially important to protect against. There are a few other scenarios where Ground Contact is recommended:

Wood will come in contact with soil, vegetation, leaf litter, and debris that can hold moisture for extended periods of time.

You don’t expect good air circulation, especially on the underside and between decking boards.

Wood components are installed less than six inches above the ground and are supported by treated wood or concrete without a moisture-transferring barrier/break.

Wood is in direct contact with material that already shows signs of decay.

Wood gets wet on a very frequent, recurring basis and doesn’t have time to dry adequately.

You are building in a tropical climate.

Well, whaddya know… my new deck is going to meet a LOT of that criteria!

I noticed that my local Lowe’s was kind of half-and-half about having Above Ground and Ground Contact lumber, but the nearby Home Depot seems to have switched out almost all of theirs for Ground Contact. Honestly, it makes sense with a store’s limited shelf space.

Building a floating deck frame

Build outer frame

I began by cutting and building the outer frame. I could have started with the deck blocks and supports and laid it all out, but for whatever reason, this way just seemed to make more sense to me.

For the outer frame, I pre-drilled each hole and used exterior screws. Don’t waste your time like I did! Use exterior screws that don’t need pre-drilling. Like the Ground Contact lumber, you spend a little more for better quality materials. It’s worth it.

Elevate and level out

The frame, at this point, was screwed together, but it was still a rickety mess. To keep the corners square, I reinforced them with a piece of scrap lumber. I would later discard these once the rest of the frame and other supports went in.

I also lifted up the frame using some scrap lumber and my 4-foot level (one of my favorite hand-me-downs from my grandfather). It’s normal for things like this to still have a  s l i g h t  slope for water runoff (it only looks level, but isn’t), so I noted the way the level looked when laying it on the patio and tried to match the same slope with the deck frame.

Space out supports

I marked every 16 inches and placed another 2×6 in the frame. The longest boards I brought home were 12 feet, but the deck is longer at one end. So, I added another board a couple of feet from the end to give the 12-foot boards something to screw into. Kinda easy, but it helps to have someone assist by holding up all the other ends.

At all corners and in the one spot where I used a 4×4 to help elevate the deck, I added self-tapping structural screws (at this point, I finally bought better ones that didn’t require pre-drilling). For the rest of the structure, I went back through and secured with self-tapping 3 1/8″ fasteners (you can just do this the first time and avoid the double effort!). I also added some stainless steel brackets on some of those joists that I thought were high enough off the ground to add it.

Note: hardware not pictured — I did a lot of second-guessing myself at one point and chose to add more hardware/brackets on the joists of the highest side as the deck boards went on. But since some of my research argued against using it in areas with direct ground exposure, I used them only where I thought applicable. I can really only say “use your best judgment and consult a structural engineer” if you have questions, since this is still my first time building something like this —  and, of course, I’m a homeowner messing with her own house, not a professional contractor. This thing mostly sits on the ground, so I’m not super worried about falling down and/or not lasting for as long as I want it. But as with any large build, one tutorial is never enough! It’s always best to read multiple tutorials and make the most informed decision possible. <3

Waterproofing a deck

Somehow, a deck, the Wicked Witch, and cotton candy have the same greatest foe: water.

To combat this (at least, in the deck’s case), there are a number of different options. While we may call this “waterproofing”, what we’re really talking about is adding moisture barriers to help the wood dry out as quickly as possible. Rot is still a natural inevitability with just about everything; we’re just trying to prevent that as best we can. They’re all good suggestions, but doing a combination of more than one seemed like the right option for me:

Using ground contact lumber (6 inches or less above ground, in contact with concrete, etc.) –

Laying down landscaping fabric and gravel under the deck –

Brushing a sealant on cut joist ends

Using flashing tape on the frame (prevents water from sitting in between the deck boards and the joists) –

After spacing out the deck blocks and digging them down, I surrounded everything with landscaping fabric and gravel. K did most of the hauling, so he gets full credit on that (we wound up thinning out the gravel a little from these pictures to use under the shed too, but you get the idea).

I spent some time adding more braces to reinforce the structure as well. Then, I began adding flashing tape.

In order for the flashing tape to stick, the surface needs to be clean and dry. However, this whole deck was built as the spring rain storms swept through, so that was much easier said than done. In Georgia, spring can often be a full day of threatening rain (but not actually raining), or intermittent storms, or blazing sun. It’s always a toss-up. Hard to plan for outdoor projects when the rain is exactly what needs NOT to happen in order to get to the next step!

Whenever the rain splashed dirt on the wood, we’d wait for things to dry out and then apply the tape. A cheap dish brush (that I’ve used for outdoor projects in the past) made quick work of getting things clean.

Since the weather wasn’t always the best assistant, there was a lot of skipping around. We basically spread out the gravel, applied flashing tape, and put in a bunch of braces between the joists all at once… whichever was the easiest to accomplish in the moment.

Building a deck over a concrete patio

I put off what I thought was going to be the hardest part until the end. I’d been reading and researching a lot on this part, and I found my answer on Family Handyman. In order to create a small section over the concrete patio, I would have to screw wood “sleepers” into the concrete. Then, after lining it up with the rest of the frame, I could add the decking on top.

But, once again, one of the more important things to keep in mind is wood touching (or rather, not touching) concrete. I had already built the new frame to have a gap between the outer frame and and the sides of the patio, to which I also added gravel. Then, we drilled a drainage hole in the corner and fit a plastic pipe through (this is potentially where we might try to run power in the future out into the yard, but we didn’t actually do any of that yet… it’s more of a “let’s plan to maybe do this just in case we want it later” type deal).

In my research, I found that if I put some type of composite/plastic product in between the wood and the patio, the deck would last longer. But the thinnest composite trim I was able to find at the store was still too thick to fit the 2×4 on top and still have it line up with the rest of the frame. Enter: plastic shims.

As a solution, I stacked the 2x4s on top of 1x4s (yes, Ground Contact!) and cut them to length at 45-degree angles. I then used the plastic shims to elevate them and get to the correct height.

Using a hammer drill and specialty drill bit (it comes with the concrete screws), I slowly found a way to screw through and line it up. Basically, I put the 1×4 in place and marked for screws every wo feet. Then, I pre-drilled through the wood with a normal drill bit. Next, I drilled through the hole with the concrete drill bit into the patio. This marked the hole in the right place so I could continue with just the hammer drill.

Tip: drill a little bit at a time and deeper than you’ll need. Pull the drill bit back out of the hole periodically to help remove dust and drilling the hole a little deeper will prevent the remaining dust in the hole from clogging things up when you fasten the screw down.

Once the 1×4 and shims were fastened to the patio, I stacked the 2×4 on top and screwed them into the 1×4.

In some cases, shims were needed multiple times, but the main objective was to get it all to line up with the rest of the frame.

You can see in the pic below that I had cut composite trim to attempt to use them as spacers… oh well! Guess now I have to find a use for a long piece of plastic trim that I can’t return (I already have an idea for use in the kitchen).

Once things were all in place, more flashing tape went on top (though I cut the roll in half this time instead of thirds, since the boards were wider here).

I also wrapped corners where I thought screw holes or joints would allow moisture.

And just like that, we were ready to start adding the deck boards! In the next post in this series, I’ll cover the decking process in detail, along with a nifty tool that worked extremely well and kept things evenly spaced. It was a little extra work to get an angled deck instead of laying the deck boards straight, but in the end, I think it’s totally worth it!

Thanks so much for following along, friends! I hope you found this helpful so far. If it’s beneficial to you, I’d love it if you subscribed for more updates so you don’t miss the next deck post. There will be a few DIYs in between that I’ve been meaning to cross off my to-do list for summer (plus, it’s nice to break things up, because it feels like my whole LIFE has been about this deck for the last month!

), so you’ll see those next!

The post DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

More Where That Came From

Quick Patio Patch

4 Easy Tips for Growing Hydrangeas

How to Make Your Patio Look New Again for Less Tha...

Game of Stones

.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing published first on https://vacuumpalguide.tumblr.com/

[petraself]

DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing

I’m building a floating deck in my back yard! Catch the whole thing, start to finish, right here.

Hey guys! It’s time for the next post in this long-awaited (at least, for me!) update. I’ve finally gotten enough coffee in my system and quieted the dogs long enough to finish this post and give you another written + video combo.

Brace yourselves, we’ve got a lot to cover!

If you recall from the first post where I talked about the deck plan, I shared the overall design, explained some of the decision making that went in, and where my challenges/research led.

Once I’d come up with my overall plan… it was time to get to work!

Recommended tools and materials

May contain affiliate links or links to related posts

miter saw

drill

drill bits

impact driver

GRK 2 1/2-inch screws

GRK 3 1/8-inch screws

GRK 4-inch structural screws

4-ft level

Ground Contact lumber – 2x6s, 2x4s, and 1x4s (more on why below)

composite shims

3 3/4″ concrete screws

hammer drill (if you don’t have one of these, you can get a kit like this that will adapt your impact driver)

deck blocks

landscape fabric

gravel

shovel or mattock

stainless steel brackets/joist hangers

Ground Contact lumber

One of the biggest new pieces of info I picked up as I made my deck plan was discovering that I would likely need to use Ground Contact lumber for the entire project. I was excited to bring Wood Its Real onboard as a sponsor, and I’m so glad I did when I did, because it was through them that I learned about these new recommendations.

As common sense would tell you, outdoor wood projects need more protection than the stuff you’d use on the interior. And most of you probably also know about using “pressure treated” or PT wood for common outdoor projects to make them last longer. But as of 2016, there are new guidelines designating what kind of pressure-treated lumber should be used, and when. As you might guess, part of it is in the name. Since termites and fungi and all sorts of nasty critters live in the ground, that type of contact is especially important to protect against. There are a few other scenarios where Ground Contact is recommended:

Wood will come in contact with soil, vegetation, leaf litter, and debris that can hold moisture for extended periods of time.

You don’t expect good air circulation, especially on the underside and between decking boards.

Wood components are installed less than six inches above the ground and are supported by treated wood or concrete without a moisture-transferring barrier/break.

Wood is in direct contact with material that already shows signs of decay.

Wood gets wet on a very frequent, recurring basis and doesn’t have time to dry adequately.

You are building in a tropical climate.

Well, whaddya know… my new deck is going to meet a LOT of that criteria!

I noticed that my local Lowe’s was kind of half-and-half about having Above Ground and Ground Contact lumber, but the nearby Home Depot seems to have switched out almost all of theirs for Ground Contact. Honestly, it makes sense with a store’s limited shelf space.

Building a floating deck frame

Build outer frame

I began by cutting and building the outer frame. I could have started with the deck blocks and supports and laid it all out, but for whatever reason, this way just seemed to make more sense to me.

For the outer frame, I pre-drilled each hole and used exterior screws. Don’t waste your time like I did! Use exterior screws that don’t need pre-drilling. Like the Ground Contact lumber, you spend a little more for better quality materials. It’s worth it.

Elevate and level out

The frame, at this point, was screwed together, but it was still a rickety mess. To keep the corners square, I reinforced them with a piece of scrap lumber. I would later discard these once the rest of the frame and other supports went in.

I also lifted up the frame using some scrap lumber and my 4-foot level (one of my favorite hand-me-downs from my grandfather). It’s normal for things like this to still have a  s l i g h t  slope for water runoff (it only looks level, but isn’t), so I noted the way the level looked when laying it on the patio and tried to match the same slope with the deck frame.

Space out supports

I marked every 16 inches and placed another 2×6 in the frame. The longest boards I brought home were 12 feet, but the deck is longer at one end. So, I added another board a couple of feet from the end to give the 12-foot boards something to screw into. Kinda easy, but it helps to have someone assist by holding up all the other ends.

At all corners and in the one spot where I used a 4×4 to help elevate the deck, I added self-tapping structural screws (at this point, I finally bought better ones that didn’t require pre-drilling). For the rest of the structure, I went back through and secured with self-tapping 3 1/8″ fasteners (you can just do this the first time and avoid the double effort!). I also added some stainless steel brackets on some of those joists that I thought were high enough off the ground to add it.

Note: hardware not pictured — I did a lot of second-guessing myself at one point and chose to add more hardware/brackets on the joists of the highest side as the deck boards went on. But since some of my research argued against using it in areas with direct ground exposure, I used them only where I thought applicable. I can really only say “use your best judgment and consult a structural engineer” if you have questions, since this is still my first time building something like this —  and, of course, I’m a homeowner messing with her own house, not a professional contractor. This thing mostly sits on the ground, so I’m not super worried about falling down and/or not lasting for as long as I want it. But as with any large build, one tutorial is never enough! It’s always best to read multiple tutorials and make the most informed decision possible. <3

Waterproofing a deck

Somehow, a deck, the Wicked Witch, and cotton candy have the same greatest foe: water.

To combat this (at least, in the deck’s case), there are a number of different options. While we may call this “waterproofing”, what we’re really talking about is adding moisture barriers to help the wood dry out as quickly as possible. Rot is still a natural inevitability with just about everything; we’re just trying to prevent that as best we can. They’re all good suggestions, but doing a combination of more than one seemed like the right option for me:

Using ground contact lumber (6 inches or less above ground, in contact with concrete, etc.) –

Laying down landscaping fabric and gravel under the deck –

Brushing a sealant on cut joist ends

Using flashing tape on the frame (prevents water from sitting in between the deck boards and the joists) –

After spacing out the deck blocks and digging them down, I surrounded everything with landscaping fabric and gravel. K did most of the hauling, so he gets full credit on that (we wound up thinning out the gravel a little from these pictures to use under the shed too, but you get the idea).

I spent some time adding more braces to reinforce the structure as well. Then, I began adding flashing tape.

In order for the flashing tape to stick, the surface needs to be clean and dry. However, this whole deck was built as the spring rain storms swept through, so that was much easier said than done. In Georgia, spring can often be a full day of threatening rain (but not actually raining), or intermittent storms, or blazing sun. It’s always a toss-up. Hard to plan for outdoor projects when the rain is exactly what needs NOT to happen in order to get to the next step!

Whenever the rain splashed dirt on the wood, we’d wait for things to dry out and then apply the tape. A cheap dish brush (that I’ve used for outdoor projects in the past) made quick work of getting things clean.

Since the weather wasn’t always the best assistant, there was a lot of skipping around. We basically spread out the gravel, applied flashing tape, and put in a bunch of braces between the joists all at once… whichever was the easiest to accomplish in the moment.

Building a deck over a concrete patio

I put off what I thought was going to be the hardest part until the end. I’d been reading and researching a lot on this part, and I found my answer on Family Handyman. In order to create a small section over the concrete patio, I would have to screw wood “sleepers” into the concrete. Then, after lining it up with the rest of the frame, I could add the decking on top.

But, once again, one of the more important things to keep in mind is wood touching (or rather, not touching) concrete. I had already built the new frame to have a gap between the outer frame and and the sides of the patio, to which I also added gravel. Then, we drilled a drainage hole in the corner and fit a plastic pipe through (this is potentially where we might try to run power in the future out into the yard, but we didn’t actually do any of that yet… it’s more of a “let’s plan to maybe do this just in case we want it later” type deal).

In my research, I found that if I put some type of composite/plastic product in between the wood and the patio, the deck would last longer. But the thinnest composite trim I was able to find at the store was still too thick to fit the 2×4 on top and still have it line up with the rest of the frame. Enter: plastic shims.

As a solution, I stacked the 2x4s on top of 1x4s (yes, Ground Contact!) and cut them to length at 45-degree angles. I then used the plastic shims to elevate them and get to the correct height.

Using a hammer drill and specialty drill bit (it comes with the concrete screws), I slowly found a way to screw through and line it up. Basically, I put the 1×4 in place and marked for screws every wo feet. Then, I pre-drilled through the wood with a normal drill bit. Next, I drilled through the hole with the concrete drill bit into the patio. This marked the hole in the right place so I could continue with just the hammer drill.

Tip: drill a little bit at a time and deeper than you’ll need. Pull the drill bit back out of the hole periodically to help remove dust and drilling the hole a little deeper will prevent the remaining dust in the hole from clogging things up when you fasten the screw down.

Once the 1×4 and shims were fastened to the patio, I stacked the 2×4 on top and screwed them into the 1×4.

In some cases, shims were needed multiple times, but the main objective was to get it all to line up with the rest of the frame.

You can see in the pic below that I had cut composite trim to attempt to use them as spacers… oh well! Guess now I have to find a use for a long piece of plastic trim that I can’t return (I already have an idea for use in the kitchen).

Once things were all in place, more flashing tape went on top (though I cut the roll in half this time instead of thirds, since the boards were wider here).

I also wrapped corners where I thought screw holes or joints would allow moisture.

And just like that, we were ready to start adding the deck boards! In the next post in this series, I’ll cover the decking process in detail, along with a nifty tool that worked extremely well and kept things evenly spaced. It was a little extra work to get an angled deck instead of laying the deck boards straight, but in the end, I think it’s totally worth it!

Thanks so much for following along, friends! I hope you found this helpful so far. If it’s beneficial to you, I’d love it if you subscribed for more updates so you don’t miss the next deck post. There will be a few DIYs in between that I’ve been meaning to cross off my to-do list for summer (plus, it’s nice to break things up, because it feels like my whole LIFE has been about this deck for the last month!

), so you’ll see those next!

The post DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

More Where That Came From

Quick Patio Patch

4 Easy Tips for Growing Hydrangeas

How to Make Your Patio Look New Again for Less Tha...

Game of Stones

.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing published first on www.uglyducklinghouse.com

[lowmaticnews]

DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing

I’m building a floating deck in my back yard! Catch the whole thing, start to finish, right here.

Hey guys! It’s time for the next post in this long-awaited (at least, for me!) update. I’ve finally gotten enough coffee in my system and quieted the dogs long enough to finish this post and give you another written + video tutorial combo.

Brace yourselves, we’ve got a lot to cover!

If you recall from the first post where I talked about the deck plan, I shared the overall design, explained some of the decision making that went in, and where my challenges/research led.

Once I’d come up with my overall plan… it was time to get to work!

Recommended tools and materials

May contain affiliate links or links to related posts

miter saw

drill

drill bits

impact driver

GRK 2 1/2-inch screws

GRK 3 1/8-inch screws

GRK 4-inch structural screws

4-ft level

Ground Contact lumber – 2x6s, 2x4s, and 1x4s (more on why below)

composite shims

3 3/4″ concrete screws

hammer drill (if you don’t have one of these, you can get a kit like this that will adapt your impact driver)

deck blocks

landscape fabric

gravel

shovel or mattock

stainless steel brackets/joist hangers

Ground Contact lumber

One of the biggest new pieces of info I picked up as I made my deck plan was discovering that I would likely need to use Ground Contact lumber for the entire project. I was excited to bring Wood Its Real onboard as a sponsor, and I’m so glad I did when I did, because it was through them that I learned about these new recommendations.

As common sense would tell you, outdoor wood projects need more protection than the stuff you’d use on the interior. And most of you probably also know about using “pressure treated” or PT wood for common outdoor projects to make them last longer. But as of 2016, there are new guidelines designating what kind of pressure-treated lumber should be used, and when. As you might guess, part of it is in the name. Since termites and fungi and all sorts of nasty critters live in the ground, that type of contact is especially important to protect against. There are a few other scenarios where Ground Contact is recommended:

Wood will come in contact with soil, vegetation, leaf litter, and debris that can hold moisture for extended periods of time.

You don’t expect good air circulation, especially on the underside and between decking boards.

Wood components are installed less than six inches above the ground and are supported by treated wood or concrete without a moisture-transferring barrier/break.

Wood is in direct contact with material that already shows signs of decay.

Wood gets wet on a very frequent, recurring basis and doesn’t have time to dry adequately.

You are building in a tropical climate.

Well, whaddya know… my new deck is going to meet a LOT of that criteria!

I noticed that my local Lowe’s was kind of half-and-half about having Above Ground and Ground Contact lumber, but the nearby Home Depot seems to have switched out almost all of theirs for Ground Contact. Honestly, it makes sense with a store’s limited shelf space.

Building a floating deck frame

Build outer frame

I began by cutting and building the outer frame. I could have started with the deck blocks and supports and laid it all out, but for whatever reason, this way just seemed to make more sense to me.

For the outer frame, I pre-drilled each hole and used exterior screws. Don’t waste your time like I did! Use exterior screws that don’t need pre-drilling. Like the Ground Contact lumber, you spend a little more for better quality materials. It’s worth it.

Elevate and level out

The frame, at this point, was screwed together, but it was still a rickety mess. To keep the corners square, I reinforced them with a piece of scrap lumber. I would later discard these once the rest of the frame and other supports went in.

I also lifted up the frame using some scrap lumber and my 4-foot level (one of my favorite hand-me-downs from my grandfather). It’s normal for things like this to still have a  s l i g h t  slope for water runoff (it only looks level, but isn’t), so I noted the way the level looked when laying it on the patio and tried to match the same slope with the deck frame.

Space out supports

I marked every 16 inches and placed another 2×6 in the frame. The longest boards I brought home were 12 feet, but the deck is longer at one end. So, I added another board a couple of feet from the end to give the 12-foot boards something to screw into. Kinda easy, but it helps to have someone assist by holding up all the other ends.

At all corners and in the one spot where I used a 4×4 to help elevate the deck, I added self-tapping structural screws (at this point, I finally bought better ones that didn’t require pre-drilling). For the rest of the structure, I went back through and secured with self-tapping 3 1/8″ fasteners (you can just do this the first time and avoid the double effort!). I also added some stainless steel brackets on some of those joists that I thought were high enough off the ground to add it.

Note: hardware not pictured — I did a lot of second-guessing myself at one point and chose to add more hardware/brackets on the joists of the highest side as the deck boards went on. But since some of my research argued against using it in areas with direct ground exposure, I used them only where I thought applicable. I can really only say “use your best judgment and consult a structural engineer” if you have questions, since this is still my first time building something like this —  and, of course, I’m a homeowner messing with her own house, not a professional contractor. This thing mostly sits on the ground, so I’m not super worried about falling down and/or not lasting for as long as I want it. But as with any large build, one tutorial is never enough! It’s always best to read multiple tutorials and make the most informed decision possible. <3

Waterproofing a deck

Somehow, a deck, the Wicked Witch, and cotton candy have the same greatest foe: water.

To combat this (at least, in the deck’s case), there are a number of different options. While we may call this “waterproofing”, what we’re really talking about is adding moisture barriers to help the wood dry out as quickly as possible. Rot is still a natural inevitability with just about everything; we’re just trying to prevent that as best we can. They’re all good suggestions, but doing a combination of more than one seemed like the right option for me:

Using ground contact lumber (6 inches or less above ground, in contact with concrete, etc.) –

Laying down landscaping fabric and gravel under the deck –

Brushing a sealant on cut joist ends

Using flashing tape on the frame (prevents water from sitting in between the deck boards and the joists) –

After spacing out the deck blocks and digging them down, I surrounded everything with landscaping fabric and gravel. K did most of the hauling, so he gets full credit on that (we wound up thinning out the gravel a little from these pictures to use under the shed too, but you get the idea).

I spent some time adding more braces to reinforce the structure as well. Then, I began adding flashing tape.

In order for the flashing tape to stick, the surface needs to be clean and dry. However, this whole deck was built as the spring rain storms swept through, so that was much easier said than done. In Georgia, spring can often be a full day of threatening rain (but not actually raining), or intermittent storms, or blazing sun. It’s always a toss-up. Hard to plan for outdoor projects when the rain is exactly what needs NOT to happen in order to get to the next step!

Whenever the rain splashed dirt on the wood, we’d wait for things to dry out and then apply the tape. A cheap dish brush (that I’ve used for outdoor projects in the past) made quick work of getting things clean.

Since the weather wasn’t always the best assistant, there was a lot of skipping around. We basically spread out the gravel, applied flashing tape, and put in a bunch of braces between the joists all at once… whichever was the easiest to accomplish in the moment.

Building a deck over a concrete patio

I put off what I thought was going to be the hardest part until the end. I’d been reading and researching a lot on this part, and I found my answer on Family Handyman. In order to create a small section over the concrete patio, I would have to screw wood “sleepers” into the concrete. Then, after lining it up with the rest of the frame, I could add the decking on top.

But, once again, one of the more important things to keep in mind is wood touching (or rather, not touching) concrete. I had already built the new frame to have a gap between the outer frame and and the sides of the patio, to which I also added gravel. Then, we drilled a drainage hole in the corner and fit a plastic pipe through (this is potentially where we might try to run power in the future out into the yard, but we didn’t actually do any of that yet… it’s more of a “let’s plan to maybe do this just in case we want it later” type deal).

In my research, I found that if I put some type of composite/plastic product in between the wood and the patio, the deck would last longer. But the thinnest composite trim I was able to find at the store was still too thick to fit the 2×4 on top and still have it line up with the rest of the frame. Enter: plastic shims.

As a solution, I stacked the 2x4s on top of 1x4s (yes, Ground Contact!) and cut them to length at 45-degree angles. I then used the plastic shims to elevate them and get to the correct height.

Using a hammer drill and specialty drill bit (it comes with the concrete screws), I slowly found a way to screw through and line it up. Basically, I put the 1×4 in place and marked for screws every wo feet. Then, I pre-drilled through the wood with a normal drill bit. Next, I drilled through the hole with the concrete drill bit into the patio. This marked the hole in the right place so I could continue with just the hammer drill.

Tip: drill a little bit at a time and deeper than you’ll need. Pull the drill bit back out of the hole periodically to help remove dust and drilling the hole a little deeper will prevent the remaining dust in the hole from clogging things up when you fasten the screw down.

Once the 1×4 and shims were fastened to the patio, I stacked the 2×4 on top and screwed them into the 1×4.

In some cases, shims were needed multiple times, but the main objective was to get it all to line up with the rest of the frame.

You can see in the pic below that I had cut composite trim to attempt to use them as spacers… oh well! Guess now I have to find a use for a long piece of plastic trim that I can’t return (I already have an idea for use in the kitchen).

Once things were all in place, more flashing tape went on top (though I cut the roll in half this time instead of thirds, since the boards were wider here).

I also wrapped corners where I thought screw holes or joints would allow moisture.

And just like that, we were ready to start adding the deck boards! In the next post in this series, I’ll cover the decking process in detail, along with a nifty tool that worked extremely well and kept things evenly spaced. It was a little extra work to get an angled deck instead of laying the deck boards straight, but in the end, I think it’s totally worth it!

Thanks so much for following along, friends! I hope you found this helpful so far. If it’s beneficial to you, I’d love it if you subscribed for more updates so you don’t miss the next deck post. There will be a few DIYs in between that I’ve been meaning to cross off my to-do list for summer (plus, it’s nice to break things up, because it feels like my whole LIFE has been about this deck for the last month!

), so you’ll see those next!

The post DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

More Where That Came From

Quick Patio Patch

4 Easy Tips for Growing Hydrangeas

How to Make Your Patio Look New Again for Less Tha...

Game of Stones

.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing published first on https://landscapingmates.blogspot.com

[rolfpetronaz-blog]

DIY Floating Deck, Part 2: Frame & Waterproofing

I'm building a floating deck in my back yard! Catch the whole thing, start to finish, right here.

Hey guys! It's time for the next post in this long-awaited (at least, for me!) update. I've finally gotten enough coffee in my system and quieted the dogs long enough to finish this post and give you another written + video combo.

Brace yourselves, we've got a lot to cover!

If you recall from the first post where I talked about the deck plan, I shared the overall design, explained some of the decision making that went in, and where my challenges/research led.

Once I'd come up with my overall plan… it was time to get to work!

Recommended tools and materials

May contain affiliate links or links to related posts

miter saw

drill

drill bits

impact driver

GRK 2 1/2-inch screws

GRK 3 1/8-inch screws

GRK 4-inch structural screws

4-ft level

Ground Contact lumber – 2x6s, 2x4s, and 1x4s (more on why below)

composite shims

3 3/4″ concrete screws

hammer drill (if you don't have one of these, you can get a kit like this that will adapt your impact driver)

deck blocks

landscape fabric

gravel

shovel or mattock

stainless steel brackets/joist hangers

Ground Contact lumber

One of the biggest new pieces of info I picked up as I made my deck plan was discovering that I would likely need to use Ground Contact lumber for the entire project. I was excited to bring Wood Its Real onboard as a sponsor, and I'm so glad I did when I did, because it was through them that I learned about these new recommendations.

As common sense would tell you, outdoor wood projects need more protection than the stuff you'd use on the interior. And most of you probably also know about using “pressure treated” or PT wood for common outdoor projects to make them last longer. But as of 2016, there are new guidelines designating what kind of pressure-treated lumber should be used, and when. As you might guess, part of it is in the name. Since termites and fungi and all sorts of nasty critters live in the ground, that type of contact is especially important to protect against. There are a few other scenarios where Ground Contact is recommended:

Wood will come in contact with soil, vegetation, leaf litter, and debris that can hold moisture for extended periods of time.

You don't expect good air circulation, especially on the underside and between decking boards.

Wood components are installed less than six inches above the ground and are supported by treated wood or concrete without a moisture-transferring barrier/break.

Wood is in direct contact with material that already shows signs of decay.

Wood gets wet on a very frequent, recurring basis and doesn't have time to dry adequately.

You are building in a tropical climate.

Well, whaddya know… my new deck is going to meet a LOT of that criteria!

I noticed that my local Lowe's was kind of half-and-half about having Above Ground and Ground Contact lumber, but the nearby Home Depot seems to have switched out almost all of theirs for Ground Contact. Honestly, it makes sense with a store's limited shelf space.

Building a floating deck frame

Build outer frame

I began by cutting and building the outer frame. I could have started with the deck blocks and supports and laid it all out, but for whatever reason, this way just seemed to make more sense to me.

For the outer frame, I pre-drilled each hole and used exterior screws. Don't waste your time like I did! Use exterior screws that don't need pre-drilling. Like the Ground Contact lumber, you spend a little more for better quality materials. It's worth it.

Elevate and level out

The frame, at this point, was screwed together, but it was still a rickety mess. To keep the corners square, I reinforced them with a piece of scrap lumber. I would later discard these once the rest of the frame and other supports went in.

I also lifted up the frame using some scrap lumber and my 4-foot level (one of my favorite hand-me-downs from my grandfather). It's normal for things like this to still have a  s l i g h t  slope for water runoff (it only looks level, but isn't), so I noted the way the level looked when laying it on the patio and tried to match the same slope with the deck frame.

Space out supports

I marked every 16 inches and placed another 2×6 in the frame. The longest boards I brought home were 12 feet, but the deck is longer at one end. So, I added another board a couple of feet from the end to give the 12-foot boards something to screw into. Kinda easy, but it helps to have someone assist by holding up all the other ends.

At all corners and in the one spot where I used a 4×4 to help elevate the deck, I added self-tapping structural screws (at this point, I finally bought better ones that didn't require pre-drilling). For the rest of the structure, I went back through and secured with self-tapping 3 1/8″ fasteners (you can just do this the first time and avoid the double effort!). I also added some stainless steel brackets on some of those joists that I thought were high enough off the ground to add it.

Note: hardware not pictured - I did a lot of second-guessing myself at one point and chose to add more hardware/brackets on the joists of the highest side as the deck boards went on. But since some of my research argued against using it in areas with direct ground exposure, I used them only where I thought applicable. I can really only say “use your best judgment and consult a structural engineer” if you have questions, since this is still my first time building something like this -  and, of course, I'm a homeowner messing with her own house, not a professional contractor. This thing mostly sits on the ground, so I'm not super worried about falling down and/or not lasting for as long as I want it. But as with any large build, one tutorial is never enough! It's always best to read multiple tutorials and make the most informed decision possible.

Waterproofing a deck

Somehow, a deck, the Wicked Witch, and cotton candy have the same greatest foe: water.

To combat this (at least, in the deck's case), there are a number of different options. While we may call this “waterproofing”, what we're really talking about is adding moisture barriers to help the wood dry out as quickly as possible. Rot is still a natural inevitability with just about everything; we're just trying to prevent that as best we can. They're all good suggestions, but doing a combination of more than one seemed like the right option for me:

Using ground contact lumber (6 inches or less above ground, in contact with concrete, etc.) –

Laying down landscaping fabric and gravel under the deck –

Brushing a sealant on cut joist ends

Using flashing tape on the frame (prevents water from sitting in between the deck boards and the joists) –

After spacing out the deck blocks and digging them down, I surrounded everything with landscaping fabric and gravel. K did most of the hauling, so he gets full credit on that (we wound up thinning out the gravel a little from these pictures to use under the shed too, but you get the idea).

I spent some time adding more braces to reinforce the structure as well. Then, I began adding flashing tape.

In order for the flashing tape to stick, the surface needs to be clean and dry. However, this whole deck was built as the spring rain storms swept through, so that was much easier said than done. In Georgia, spring can often be a full day of threatening rain (but not actually raining), or intermittent storms, or blazing sun. It's always a toss-up. Hard to plan for outdoor projects when the rain is exactly what needs NOT to happen in order to get to the next step!

Whenever the rain splashed dirt on the wood, we'd wait for things to dry out and then apply the tape. A cheap dish brush (that I've used for outdoor projects in the past) made quick work of getting things clean.

Since the weather wasn't always the best assistant, there was a lot of skipping around. We basically spread out the gravel, applied flashing tape, and put in a bunch of braces between the joists all at once… whichever was the easiest to accomplish in the moment.

Building a deck over a concrete patio

I put off what I thought was going to be the hardest part until the end. I'd been reading and researching a lot on this part, and I found my answer on Family Handyman. In order to create a small section over the concrete patio, I would have to screw wood “sleepers” into the concrete. Then, after lining it up with the rest of the frame, I could add the decking on top.

But, once again, one of the more important things to keep in mind is wood touching (or rather, not touching) concrete. I had already built the new frame to have a gap between the outer frame and and the sides of the patio, to which I also added gravel. Then, we drilled a drainage hole in the corner and fit a plastic pipe through (this is potentially where we might try to run power in the future out into the yard, but we didn't actually do any of that yet… it's more of a “let's plan to maybe do this just in case we want it later” type deal).

In my research, I found that if I put some type of composite/plastic product in between the wood and the patio, the deck would last longer. But the thinnest composite trim I was able to find at the store was still too thick to fit the 2×4 on top and still have it line up with the rest of the frame. Enter: plastic shims.

As a solution, I stacked the 2x4s on top of 1x4s (yes, Ground Contact!) and cut them to length at 45-degree angles. I then used the plastic shims to elevate them and get to the correct height.

Using a hammer drill and specialty drill bit (it comes with the concrete screws), I slowly found a way to screw through and line it up. Basically, I put the 1×4 in place and marked for screws every wo feet. Then, I pre-drilled through the wood with a normal drill bit. Next, I drilled through the hole with the concrete drill bit into the patio. This marked the hole in the right place so I could continue with just the hammer drill.

Tip: drill a little bit at a time and deeper than you'll need. Pull the drill bit back out of the hole periodically to help remove dust and drilling the hole a little deeper will prevent the remaining dust in the hole from clogging things up when you fasten the screw down.

Once the 1×4 and shims were fastened to the patio, I stacked the 2×4 on top and screwed them into the 1×4.

In some cases, shims were needed multiple times, but the main objective was to get it all to line up with the rest of the frame.

You can see in the pic below that I had cut composite trim to attempt to use them as spacers… oh well! Guess now I have to find a use for a long piece of plastic trim that I can't return (I already have an idea for use in the kitchen).

Once things were all in place, more flashing tape went on top (though I cut the roll in half this time instead of thirds, since the boards were wider here).

I also wrapped corners where I thought screw holes or joints would allow moisture.

And just like that, we were ready to start adding the deck boards! In the next post in this series, I'll cover the decking process in detail, along with a nifty tool that worked extremely well and kept things evenly spaced. It was a little extra work to get an angled deck instead of laying the deck boards straight, but in the end, I think it's totally worth it!

Thanks so much for following along, friends! I hope you found this helpful so far. If it's beneficial to you, I'd love it if you subscribed for more updates so you don't miss the next deck post. There will be a few DIYs in between that I've been meaning to cross off my to-do list for summer (plus, it's nice to break things up, because it feels like my whole LIFE has been about this deck for the last month!

[luciegould-blog1]

Moving Image Evaluation

I found it really hard to start this project. I didn’t really know what to research or look for. I started researching title sequences on YouTube – mostly those produced by amateur designers rather than professional, genuine movie trailers. I found some good ones that inspired some of my initial ideas. However, I just didn’t know how to progress. That’s when I contacted my cousin. He is a graphic designer working in Australia and has a lot of experience with producing title sequences. It was actually incredibly useful to talk to him and he gave me some starting points for my research. He gave me some websites to look at – the most useful being the Art of the Title website which has hundreds of title sequences that you can watch. He also recommended that I look at Danny Yount. It was looking through the title sequences on the Art of the Title that really informed my design decisions. One particular title sequence “Trapped” really inspired me and formed the basis of my design decisions. I kept referring back to it throughout my project to get ideas on how to successfully animate stills as well as getting an idea of music choices. When trying to improve my end frame which is the title of my short story, I used the same website as well as YouTube to research different movie trailers to see how they approached it. I found this incredibly useful and consequently changed the end frame and think it looks a lot more professional. I also had to research how to glitch a still image in After Effects as I had no idea how to do it. I found a tutorial on YouTube which was really helpful.

I made changes throughout the project. At first I had to cut out bits from my storyboard as I realised that I couldn’t fit everything that I wanted in to the 30s that we had to work with. Therefore I drew another storyboard – omitting the frames that I didn’t like as much, and worked from that. As previously said, I changed the end frame massively and am so glad I did. I also changed some of the sound effects so that it would fit better with the visuals. Mid way through, once I had all of my visuals and audio in place, I had a tutorial with Jeanne and she advised that I change one of my stills which I did – I went out and took more photos of different subject matter. I think this change really altered my composition as before I changed it I felt that there was a break in continuity with this one particular still and after I’d changed it the whole composition worked so much better.

I feel my time management with this project was good. I always write out a sort of gantt chart when I get the project brief detailing when I need to complete certain things by and I find this exceptionally useful in both my time management and stress levels. I feel like I was prepared for each tutorial and crit which meant that I could get the best possible feedback from each. I always work slowly at the start as I find the idea generation aspect the hardest, but once I have an idea that I’m happy with, my pace speeds up.

I found that in this project in particular, that the feedback was really important as I sort of felt like I was walking in the dark for some of it, so to get ideas on how to improve my composition was definitely needed and I listened to all the suggestions that were made and implemented all of them. I think this definitely helped progress my project and made it a lot better than when I started out.

I think there are a lot of things that need more practice with this certain subject area. I have never done any animation before and the only experience I’ve had with moving image was the moving Adshel poster that we had to create for the Ballet project. I think with more practice using After Effects and being exposed to more moving image examples will really help me progress with these skills. Part of the problem with this particular project was that I never really watch films or TV series so I haven’t been exposed to a wide variety of trailers – therefore I had no memories of trailers that I could initially draw inspiration from which is why I found the ideas generation aspect so hard. I will definitely make time to expose myself to this subject area, rather than just focusing on editorial/layout design which I love, as I think this will help me later on.

I have learnt so much throughout this project. Mostly After Effects skills – that adjustment layers are key when wanting to apply an effect to a still image, the importance of audio in a composition to set the tone of the piece, that animation should be done sparingly i.e. don’t move things too much – a more subtle approach is often much more effective than throwing every effect on that you possibly can. I also learnt that in this particular instance, simple typography was 100 times more effective than heavily animated typography (which just looked tacky). It’s also been a real eye opener as to how quick 30s is! When I was drawing my initial storyboards, I estimated that I needed about 10-12 frames, however I think in the end I only used about 6 – time goes fast when you have to animate in fades/frame changes and I didn’t even think about that at the beginning.

One of the improvements that comes to mind would be the quality of my images – I would have loved to have taken some close up shots for some of my stills, really focusing on the detail, however I only had my phone and the close up shots that I took just didn’t cut it. I definitely felt out of my comfort zone throughout this project as I didn’t really know what I was doing, however I do feel that I played it safe in my production methods as I wanted to produce something that looked good and was manageable rather than spending days learning how to produce something more complex/challenging. If I were to do the project again, I would definitely try including film clips as well as stills instead of just animating stills. I did try filming some of my shots but just couldn’t get it right and because it was a short project, I felt that I needed to keep on track with timings and couldn’t spend ages getting the perfect video shots (which is why I ended up using just still images).

[ryazand-blog]

 Here are some photography tips for beginners that I can share based on my experience.

I love Photography. Pictures can tell a good story and can paint a thousand words. Who doesn’t want to take good pictures?

Even before I started my blogging life, I loved taking pictures on my point and shoot camera and mobile phone. Growing up in the Philippines, where everyone loves to take photos. Getting used to be in front of the camera was a norm.  There was even a point that I have to borrow our neighbours or relative’s camera to capture special family moments like birthdays, graduation, etc. My family was not privileged enough to buy our own camera.

Anyway, I always ended up with hundreds and hundreds of photos of the places that I’ve been and lots of selfies. I know, I’m guilty. However, not anymore! Good thing, we were using a digital camera, so you can quickly erase photos.

During my trip to Istanbul, I met my friend / co-blogger  JP Licudan of The Rustic Nomad. Like me, he is into photography. He inspired me to do more and enhance my skills in photography.

Here are the things that I reckon will help anyone who intends to improve their skills in photography.  Trust me, the process of learning photography is never ending, and I’m merely at the beginning.

Interest and Passion

Whether you want to pursue photography as a hobby or as a professional, passion is the key. The interest in learning photography should come from within you, not because your friend told you so, keeping up with the Joneses or because it’s a trend!

Remember, you will have to learn and understand by heart all the rules, concept, style and techniques of photography. Not to mention the post production of editing your photos.

Knowing the Exposure Triangle

On your quest to learn photography, you will have to familiarise yourself with the three pillars that comprise the Exposure Triangle: the ISO, F-Stop or Aperture and Shutter Speed.

ISO

ISO is the sensitivity of the camera to the light. It can make your photos go light or dark and determine the noise of an image.

F-Stop or Aperture 

Understanding the F-stops / Aperture is also an important thing to learn in photography. F-stops are one of the things that will determine how sharp or blurry your photos will be. Aperture helps you to separate your subject from the background and give a blur effect which is known as Bokeh.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed determines how quickly or slowly the light hits the camera sensor.  The shutter speed can also give you the creative effects of long exposed images and can freeze the moving subjects.

Depending on they type of photography, getting the balance of these three will give you an excellent image every time.

The composition is also an important part of a beautiful image. The one that will give you sense and feeling to the image with its leading lines, texture and proportions. As a rule of thumb, following “the rule of third” is important however rules are made to be broken.  So be creative! Depending on the subject and goal of the image this golden composition rule can be broken.

Support Group and other resources

Having a support system in photography is important.  There are plenty of youtube tutorials that you can watch to understand all the nitty-gritty details of photography.

Instagram is one of the famous visual type social media platforms. I love browsing pictures on IG that tell a story, gives inspiration and push you to be more creative.

Follow me on Instagram — @everythingzany

A photo posted by Ryazan Tristram (@everythingzany) on Dec 30, 2016 at 10:25pm PST

Photography books are also an excellent source of information. Since I’m interested more in travel, nature and portrait photographies, I find that these books from lonely planet really helps a lot.

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I also joined a local photographic society to help me enhance my skills. It’s nice to be surrounded by people who are also passionate about their craft. I recently joined a PDI photo competition where I won a photographic award for the Long Exposure theme.

Snooker

I also took few photography courses and photo walks here in the UK. It is definitely worth doing it! The photography class prices vary if it’s a classroom or online.

There are also loads of Facebook groups and channels on youtube that can give you support and help you to develop your photography skills. Here are the groups that I actively engage with:

I Shoot People! Photographers by Joe Edelman 

If you want to learn more about portraits and wants to take your photography skills to the next level.

Links: Youtube channel and Facebook group

Michromatic by Mark Ryan Sallee

This channel will give you loads of handy insights about Micro Four Thirds a.k.a MFT. I own an Olympus camera which is MFT, so I find his videos really helpful.

Links: Youtube channel and Instagram

Digital Rev TV

When it comes to product reviews, I really enjoy watching this channel. Started by Kaiman and Lok, the reliable duo from Hong Kong.

Links: Digital Rev TV channel, Kaiman’s Youtube Channel and Lok’s Youtube Channel

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

As it says on the tin, this channel will help you to develop your post-production skills with Lightroom.

Link: Youtube channel 

Digital Photography School

When it comes to photography blog and FB page, I love reading stuff from DPS. A reliable resource for learning photography.

Links: Digital Photography School Blog

Gear and Post process

There is a myriad of choices on which camera and gear you should buy to get into photography. Before I bought my MFT Olympus camera, I used a Samsung smart digital camera (point and shoot) and my mobile phone.

Micro Four Thirds is a mirrorless type of camera. The MFT pertains to the size of the photographic sensor of the camera.  The popular DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) has the 35mm full frame sensor size.

RAW vs. JPG

Shooting in RAW and JPG has their own merits and disadvantages. RAW files can give you a great option to manipulate your images on the post processing stage, but the files can take up so much storage space on your memory card. The JPG files, on the other hand, are compressed files with a limited amount of colour data stored in your image. Hence, the post-processing of JPG files can be challenging at times. On a good note, since the JPG files are pre-compressed by your camera it takes less storage space on your memory card.

My Photography Gear:

My Cameras

Olympus Pen EPL – 7 and Go Pro Hero 4 ( Silver)

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I started using my PEN EPL-7 for almost a year now.  I love MFT because of its portability and performance as if I’m using a full frame DSLR. The MFT range also has a variety of lens to choose from. I use Go Pro Hero 4 to take action and underwater images.

My Lenses

Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm 1:1.8 Prime lens, Olympus M. Zuiko 12mm ED 1:2.0 Prime lens (Manual focus), Olympus M. Zuiko 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 (Kit lens) and Olympus M.Zuiko 14 -150mm 1:4.0 – 5.6 (Zoom lens)

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Each lens has their specific expertise:

The 45mm prime lens is excellent for portrait shots. The 12mm Prime, Kit and Zoom lens are for my travel – landscape and wildlife photography.

Other Photography Gear and Accessories that I use: 

These are the other products that I use on a regular basis for the type of photography I do.  I will try to make few more post about these to explain in depth.

Sandisk 32GB Class 10 memory cards

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I prefer using class 10 memory cards as it has a quick capabilities to record heavy data. e.g. HD, raw photos etc.

Manfrotto Pixie tripod (Travel tripod) and Manfrotto Camera bag

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As I do a lot of walking with the type of photography I’m doing, having a little tripod and small camera bag to carry around is pretty handy.

Hoya Polarising filter –  SMC Cir PL and Neutral Density Filter

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These filters are my saviour! For landscape/travel photography, these are the accessories you should have in your bag. The Polarising filter will help increase your image contrast, and the ND filter will help you for the long exposure shots.

Hahnel battery (Spare battery for EPL-7)

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As a standard, I always have an extra battery.

Reflectors

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An excellent way to bounce the light as a filler or sometimes the main source of light. Especially, when you are shooting outdoor where you can’t fully control all the lighting.

Photo Studio Kit

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Since, I’m trying to practice more of portraiture, so I’ve decided to set up a little home studio. This kit has got everything that you need to start shooting.

Editing Softwares

Adobe Lightroom 

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A powerful editing software tool. Probably the most popular one.  I edit the majority of my photos in Lightroom. It’s an easy to learn editing software yet very powerful.

Adobe Photoshop

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I only use photoshop if I desperately need a heavy pixel manipulation, otherwise I use Lightroom or Canva.

There you have it! If you have other handy tips on photography, please leave a comment below.

Be Creative and keep shooting!

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  Tips On How To Enhance Your Photography Skills Here are some photography tips for beginners that I can share based on my experience. I love Photography.