Visitor


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By the tilt of the streetlight, it could be that he is visiting the windy city. However, I personally think it is NYC because the pizza is soo much better there.

This is the second in an attempt to conquer this pen style thingy I have been struggling with. I like this one. I think I'm on to it.

(ps: the secret: pen, then scribble, then paint!)

and now, here is the first one...


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The zebra is just a visitor to the cow field. He actually lives in the brick ranch just down the street across from the widow Cooper’s house.



Hey, this pen thing is proving harder than I thought, which is good, I guess. Keeps me on my toes. If I can figure it all out, I think it could be a pretty neat goings on.

Cow Three



After doodling my cows with black ballpoint pen, I decided to try to color them. I toyed with several different techniques and media. I even jotted down notes to remind myself of what I thought worked and what I thought didn't.

After I was done, I liked this one the best. So now I have a baseline. I would do more tonight but I’m pretty tired from playing hockey last night. We played in the championship game and lost. I took a total of 55 shots in 60 minutes of play. That's too many shots to draw cows tonight.

Ballpoint Pen



See, that’s what I’m talking about.



I want to create art that loose, that free but I want it to look like the image in the banner… colorful, bright, energetic. How do I do that??

Moo?

Worried Zebras


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During a meeting, I started doodling (shhhhhh, don't tell the boss) and I asked myself, why are your doodles so loose and free? Why can’t your art be like your doodles? So tonight I decided to create a painting like my doodles.

I still didn’t pull it off. I think a ballpoint pen is just something you can’t recreate or imitate with any other media. I think maybe I’ll try another one with a ballpoint pen.

Turtle Hatching

To be on an island… to be at a nest… to be there the day, the hour, the minute, when a sea turtle hatches. A once in a lifetime.



We walked down to the nest. The area is protected so all I really expected to see this evening was this, a bunch of tape.



The turtle volunteer people were there. Said, some of the nest had hatched the night before but they were expecting a few more tonight. Their mission, guide the hatchings out of the nest using lights (simulating moonlight reflecting off the water) into a cooler.



Probably would have left but then one of the volunteers, “You got one hatching” spotted a head peeping out of the sand.



It took the little guy a long time to bust out of the sand but once he was free he boogies right down the sandy path.

I have to tell you he was pretty stupid. Even with those big lights shinning in his face, he still veered off course. The volunteers re-adjusted him. Soon he was in the cooler.



The cooler was then carried to the surf where the little guy was released. It was amazing but sort of sad. He looked like a spec. I thought a juice box might have a better chance. Here was this tiny little turtle being released into this giant ocean to make a 50 mile swim to some seaweed island floating who knows where. I hope he made it.

Raleigh SCBWI Schmooze



Last Sunday, the Raleigh Area SCBWI held a schmooze at Quail Ridge Books. This was our second (annual) schmooze and it was twice as big as last year with about 50 people attending, and me.



Stephanie Greene, the alpha female for the Carolina SCBWI and author of one of my favorite moose books, was our guest speaker (the one all the way to the right of the photo). She is a cool bean. I like the way she talks because sometimes she doesn't finish a sentence. Instead, the thought sort of floats there for a minute. Then it melts into the next one.




Some of the people in my crit group and host-ers of the schmooze, Jenn, me, K-Lee, Christy and Linda.

The third in my Jesus Freak posts. I could post the interface design stuff I’m doing for BASF but it is so much more less fun and duller.



This is an invitation I’m working on for a One Day service my church is holding. The idea is, if you only go to church one day a year, or perhaps you don’t go to church but you have thought, one day I’ll go, this is the service for you.

So this is just a mock up for the front cover to give them an idea of how it could look. On the other side of the invitation would be more content, directions, maybe a map, and stuff.

Anyhow, One Day should be fun. I think we are going to hand out some good coffee (anyone know where can I get some good coffee?) plus there will be a rocken’ band (anyone know of any musicians that want to play with me that Sunday??), plus other cool stuff (anyone have any ideas that would could be labeled other cool stuff?)

Logos. So not my thing.

But my pastor, Billy, asked if I could come up with something. So I tried. I tried a lot. I did a whole bunch. I hated them all.

Then Billy asked me how they were coming along. So I figured I better try, again.

And so this is what I came up with.

What do you think??

Just Me & My Mac
By ian sands

It seems every time I make a major job move, I purchase a new computer. I purchased my first Mac when I was teaching. I purchased my first PC when I switched to programming for Nortel. Later, I upgraded to a Gateway when I took a job as GUI designer for TeleHealth. And now, that I have come full circle, I have a Mac.

Switching platforms from PC to Mac was easy. Switching all the software, now that is something different. I’m right in the middle of all this new software. New Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), which also came with Entourage (sort of like Outlook). Even had to download new FTP software, Cyberduck (cute rubber duck icon).



But the big switch so far… PhotoShop CS3. My previous version was 7! But wow, what a great tool! I’m sitting here playing with all the new smart filter stuff. Three weeks till school starts and I’ll be teaching this thing!

Look, it’s my kitchen, which I should be cleaning. Or maybe I’ll just airbrush it clean. Who’ll know the difference?

If you are interested in the technique, I stole it from PlanetPhotoshop.