The Socratic Method

I suppose I should start off by telling you that Socrates did not create this method, as Christopher Phillips explains that Socrates merely modeled the practice of philosophy. Christopher Phillips continues on to say that "Those who become smitten with the Socratic method of philosophical inquiry thrive on the question" (24). This seems to be a silly way of saying that this is a practice of asking questions. Depending on your current activity this might be absolutely ridiculous or feasible. Applying this to your own method of thinking will be very situation-based.

So to make up for a lack of application I will use cooking and learning an instrument as examples. Some questions you may ask normally could include, "why am I cooking?", "why am I learning this instrument?". You may have some definite answers, "I am actually interested", or "I have no choice". Why not answer with even more questions instead? Some questions you could answer with could be "why am I interested?", "why do I have no choice", "what makes me interested (if you are)", these are some of the questions that you can expand upon if you wish to do so. As asking questions seems to be the main idea here, I'll ask a question: can questions answer some of your questions?

Basic Baking Rules

When baking, there are certain general rules that should be followed when you are creating your product. Some of these rules include preheating your oven before mixing your ingredients, or having proper measurements and sizes of pans/pots and ingredients. One rule that is useful when your product has been taken out of the oven is testing for doneness.

"Cakes: Use a cake tester (a special thin, metal pick), a wooden toothpick, a wooden matchstick, or a dry, clean fork. Stick it into the center of the cake and if it comes out clean (almost dry), the cake is done. If it comes out with tiny pieces of soggy cake sticking to it, the cake should be returned to the oven for a few more minutes." (Pinkwater 130)

Testing for doneness can be useful when the outside appearance looks done but you want to make sure that your cake or whatever you are baking is actually complete on the inside. This has helped me at times make sure that my baked product is cooked all the way. Although it is a small helpful tip, it will make sure you aren't accidentally eating a very liquidly and soggy cake!
What different techniques do you use to check if a cake is fully baked or not?


Pinkwater, Jill. The Natural Snack Cookbook: 151 Good Things to Eat. New York: Four Winds, 1975. Print.

Post 1--Watercolor Value Scale

The value scale is a basic exercise used to familiarize painters with colors, tints/shades, and brushes. Various values are used not only in paintings, but in sketches, photography, cartoon art, etc. According to Robertson, "when speaking of color value, we mean it's gradation from dark to light and everything in between" (Robertson 17). But how do you achieve a gradation by only using paint, brushes, and water?
To begin, dip one-third of the bristles of a flat, round brush into clean water. Dip the brush into your first color tray until an eighth of the bristles are coated in color. Create a two-inch stroke on clean watercolor paper. This is the hue, the purest color you can achieve.
Wash the brush and dab it until dry. Then place your brush in the middle of the stroke you just created, and drag the color out another two inches. This is your middle value.
Wash the brush and dab it until dry. Place your brush in the middle of your middle value and drag the color out another two inches. This is your lightest value (Robertson 18).
Here's my completed value chart of warm colors. I mistakenly added more water to the red value and created what's called a back run. Notice the gradation of the red is not as smooth because of the back run.

Next, I created gradations for the cool colors in my palette.

I found the value scale very useful because it taught me the ratios of water to paint that I could use to create different values.
What do you think are some reasons why using various values would be important while painting?






Robertson, Jeanette. Watercolor 101: Techniques for the Absolute Beginner. New York: Sterling Pub., 2007. Print.