Leaves and Layers

Getting back to the ABC of #Inkscape series here's a background file
This is not the full size I will upload it to my DeviantArt as well

I generated a SVG object with the rectangle tool and added a gradient and then another layer with gradient and both layers had the Scatter leaver filter applied but in different tonal patterns.

EASTER ART - Dieric Bouts

For #Easter and Christmas I like to draw your attention to a relevant piece of European art if I had no ideas for e-cards so this year something Flemish and Northern.

This is by Dieric Bouts founder of the Louvain school. Note the contrasts of red and white against the pale dawn colors. The road leading our eyes towards the sunrise. The  grays and greens. The grace and power. The exquisite draperies. The quietly confident Christ stepping forth.

After Chaos

I can't find a filter I like starting with L so I may have to skip a few letters in my #Inkscape filters ABC sequence but here's something else that shows how #choas is #related to #complexity and vice versa

This was made with #gimp

#turbulence no pattern yet but lets add #smalltiles

patterns begin to appear from random pixels so next some cut and paste and rotating and flipping etc

We have a pattern but its kinda gaudy and glarish so color and texture edits 

definitely better but could be even better

less texture more dark tones for contrast or I can change the colors again

either of these last two tiled or enlarged should work for my #redbubble shop or as a screensaver maybe  I'll use both variants?

Oh I'm thinking for doing some screensavers for my patreon too

Send feedback would you like this as a #Patreon reward or a #Redbubble product ?

Some thoughts on Hiragana

Normally this would go in my #Technozi blog and I may well repost it there but I'm here because I want to share some observations and speculations about #hiragana.

Now many textbooks note in a general way that the  Hiragana #syllabary sysyem was developed from cursive forms of #kanji but how ?

This diagram shows the kanji at top the cursive form in red and then the hiragana
Lexicographers not being calligraphers or typographic designers don't comment on HOW elegant the process of developing simple forms is !

And the influence of media on form. Hiragana was primarily a script to be used with a BRUSH and written top to bottom and right to left in columns.

HI which is 4 strokes in Kanji becomes one continuous curve likewise Ni and Shi and others

but there seems to have an element of deliberate design too for angular NAI becomes one form NO  too!

Traditionally men learnt kanji and kana and used both but hiragana was associated with women

WHY

One of the reasons for the development of kana was explaining and recording sounds both for those learning Japanese and Chinese.

While there was probably several generations of scribes and scholars involved in its development I wonder if at one stage some frustrated woman fed up with having to sneak into a male relatives study and wanting to share what she had learnt with other women played a role in simplifying the forms further?

Whoever worked on the development of hiragana somewhere someone who had studied both kaishu and the cursive scripts was part of a team and given they opted for a syllabic system probably Buddhists familiar with Sanskrit were consulted. Some Japanese Buddhists use a form of written Sanskrit script that can be brushed.

There are no stories claiming one person created hiragana so I think it was a group of experts and interested amateurs over a few generations. Happily for the Japanese they had an eye for form.

The system matched Japanese sounds so well only a few have dropped out of usage because the sounds they represent are not used in modern speech.

A few symbols have been added such as the side stroke used  to mark the differences between ka and ga or s and zo sounds and the symbol used to indicate a final nasal in a syllable but over all given hiragana's been in use for nearly 1500 years ... think about that and consider the differences between the earliest Greek and Roman alphabets and modern Roman ABC scripts and letter forms !