Wow, the importance of getting enough sleep is never more apparent than when you aren't getting enough. Sometimes I wish I was like that little battery. Just plug me in overnight and I'm juiced and ready for the next day! “Refresh” for Illustration Friday. Dang. I just realized that it's STILL Friday. It's been a while since I actually did the I.F. on F. T.G.I.F! O.M.G! P.D.Q! A.S.A.P! L.O.L! B.F.D!
A little revenge for the ducks I guess. This is the first thing that came to mind for “Flood-ed, or, er, swamped” for my Illustration Friday entry this week. Not sure where it comes from as usual, but, I think that’s a good thing. The subconscious is much more interesting and possibly revealing than the expected, or obvious, first conscious, literal idea. One of my biggest motivations for keeping a blog, as a professional illustrator and designer, is that I always have an outlet for pure creative freedom. I created this fairly quickly on my iPad 2 using Adobe Ideas (the latest version with the eyedropper tool, yay! finally!) then, took into Photoshop on my mac for quick finishing.
We're all God's chillun, all the same shades of a different hue-- or is that same hue with different shades....on.
Leftover "turkey" the day BEFORE Thanksgiving!
Coincidence-- I was editing an old post to save time with "save as" and just noticed that I had used "vanity" (this week's Illustration Friday subject) in the description. Almost a year ago to the day: "I know it isn’t officially US Thanksgiving yet, but, with travel coming up etc. I thought I would go ahead and send pre-turkey day greetings. Watch out gobblers! Your tan-vanity may get ya cooked!"
Not sure if it applies at all to the Mark Twain quote I decided to use, but it might be worth exploring later on. "It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Mark Twain"
Scary is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday. Had to get this done, of course, TODAY. Deadlines are deadlines and today is Halloween, so, it had to be today! Trick or Treat!
Boy oh boy, wish I wasn't soo busy this week, but, at least I finished this the best I could under the circumstances. “Contraption” for this week’s Illustration Friday!
Just heard about the passing of Steve Jobs, and although I felt his time was probably short for a good while now, I have to say I actually got a wee bit emotional while watching a retrospective about him on TV. As an illustrator and designer for well over twenty years, I feel like I was right in the thick of the Apple revolution. Although, admittedly, I am not, by any means, an “early adopter” of the latest and greatest technology. I saved for a long time to purchase my “own” Mac computer. At the time, in the early 1990's, I spent well over 10 grand for a
Mac Quadra 950, and scanner, and printer. The fastest machine at the time. I don't get that attached to machines and things. However, the more I reflect over the heart of my life and career over the last 25 years, I get a glowing nostalgia thinking that most whatever I've done in that time has been supported by Apple products. Even in light of the fact, that in the mid nineties, while Apple was struggling, I unashamedly purchased a Mac clone. I can remember waiting for a flight to Europe in 1997. The cover of the glossy American news weekly in the waiting area was about Apple, being “rescued” by BIll Gates and Microsoft with a crucial influx of cash. The deal also, in my recollection, was that any legal matters involving the suit Apple had against Microsoft and their Windows operating system be dropped. That one hurt. I remembered the sound of the soft chime of the original MacIntosh I was fortunate enough to learn on, in the first office I shared with others in the late 80's. I winced to know, that the genius of the Macintosh OS was it's friendly, approachable, interface; (the easy to navigate “windows,” and the mouse; that made a non-computer designer an instant devotee. Now that I reflect, I realize that a machine, in a subtle way, had actually given a young designer a little hope that maybe, just maybe, he could make it on his own. Thanks, Steve.
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Side note: Funny, I recently had toyed with the idea of creating a caricature every week to post on my blog. Well, it seems to be apropos that Steve Jobs be the first.
Combining two themes again! Oh well, I just didn't get this to where wanted soon enough to stand for "lesson," so, it works fine for the both. Ole' sasquatch isn't quite the ruffian brute we thought, now is he? Hope you like it. Happy Mother's Day moms!
"Bicycle" is this week's Illustration Friday theme. And since I've wanted to contribute to the Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis' "Banjo Pig" blog for quite a while now, I decide to kill two pigs with one bicycle. I mean two birds with one... never mind. http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/
OK, so I remembered this week's Illustration Friday topic incorrectly. It was supposed to be "Stir," and I remembered it as "Swirl." Well, at least I got around to doing SOMETHING. A last gasp for Ole' Man Winter. It IS Spring after all. I HAVE already had an "Oh, good thing I went around changing all the clocks in the house yet still found a way to be late to an appointment because the ONE clock I did not set to SPRING forward was the one I ACTUALLY LOOK AT ALL DAY" moment. Oh well, tomorrow's St. Pattys. We'll ALL be swirlin' then by golly. "Once you reach the summit, you can see the land of banana splits, and chocolate parfaits."
Some universal signs are subtle. Some, not so subtle. Illustration Friday's theme this week is “Warning.“ Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight, Red Sky in Morn, Sailors Better
Watch their Backside or else they may end up in one of those Huge Whirlpools in the Middle of the Sea like you used to see in Old Movies. Or something like that...
This week’s Illustration Friday subject is “Swarm.” I had an immediate idea for an illustration, and intend to render that, however, I have been a bit tardy getting them out lately, so, I thought I'd post this recent spot illo cartoon I created for an auto parts company. Written, as always, by Joe Scibetta of Agency South. “Look out Albert!”
Nowadays, with the digital medium being fairly de-facto in an artist's toolbox, I am not surprised that the actual first thing to come to mind for this week's Illustration Friday subject was something having to do with a multi layered illustration in Photoshop or Illustrator. Thank goodness that's not the avenue I pursued. Ahh, the delicate layers of a young vegetable. Sometimes so sensitive as to shed an equally delicate tear.
(And, of course, the young fruit, Tom Ato, is first to notice.)
So in a hurry was I to get out this week's Illustration Friday entry, I combined my "line" layer in ps with my "sketch" layer. Ooops. I hope it's not noticeable in the final version. Don't think it tiz. Since I was almost two weeks behind (again,) I almost combined the one before (surrender) with this week's "reverse." But, somehow I cam up with a "push-me-pull-you" riding a skateboard. The second sketch
I worked on, I used the new Sharpie brand "liquid pencil." Not sure I like it that much so, far. It smeared the gunky stuff on my hands, and although, it erased even easier than a pencil from my paper, it wasn't so forgiving on my table and hand. Strange. Oh well, another in my huge pen collection.
"Savour," this week's Illustration Friday theme, made me think of a kid savoring an ice cream cone. Somehow,
it was a rough sketch of a boy, then a girl, then I noticed the shape of the cone could form a "V," so, I added type to what eventually became a little logo or label. Although, this is still a "rough," I would love to take it to a tighter, finished form. I think it could make a great ice cream flavor or brand. "Savour the Flavour!" Yum!, creative freedom!
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