scAtterBrain

Mexican Sugar Skull

2011-12-12T23:09:00.000-06:00

This is a design I made for my friend Stephanie who skates on the the Mid-Iowa Rollers derby team. Her number is 311 and her derby name, celebrating her Mexican heritage, is Mex-Rated. I've always liked Mexican Sugar Skull designs and I thought this would be a fun side project.

Shards #3

2011-11-08T16:51:00.001-06:00

Another abstract piece finished today! I'm really digging this style. I like the repeating patterns, texture, depth, and the fact that I'm not trying to tightly render a particular form. It's a very cathartic exercise for me to help me loosen up a bit.

Shards #2

2011-11-08T11:09:00.001-06:00

I knocked this one out on Sunday evening right after finishing Shards #1. It's inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian, but I tried to make it a style of my own. Photoshop CS5.

Shards #1 Finished

2011-11-06T17:19:00.003-06:00

I "finished" my latest abstract piece. I love the angled brushes I created to help give this one some life and energy! I'm very happy with it. I'll try printing it out tonight.

Abstract: Shards #1, WIP 1

2011-11-01T17:10:00.001-05:00

This is a new digital abstract piece I just started in Photoshop. I was fooling around with a base of warm colors and created a new textured triangular shaped brush. I've spent about 15 minutes on it so far. I think it's a good base from which to start.

Fight the Giant - Finished!

2011-10-17T17:49:00.001-05:00

After spending way too long on this one, I'm finally done. I moved the giant up and shrunk the warrior down a little bit to add some space between the two. It looked like the two figures were standing way too close to each other.

I added some grime and wounds to the warrior, and a broken sword on the ground. I also opened up the sky a bit more so that the scene lighting made more sense. A few more background tweaks and I called it finished!

Fight the Giant, WIP #6

2011-10-14T15:34:00.001-05:00

I'm almost finished. I decided I didn't like the giant's mouth. It was just... weird. So, painting on a new layer, I gave him a huge gaping monkey-mouth spewing a loud battle cry. I think it works much better. There was also this weird thing going on with his torso muscles (see previous post); they were all wonky so I fixed that as well.

That background was giving me trouble, but I think I finally nailed it. Now I just need to paint a broken sword on the ground, give the soldier more grime and I think I got it.

The only thing I'm not sure of is the lighting. I think the lighting on the warrior might be all wrong. It seems like he should be much darker, being in the foreground. Especially since he's backlit, which wasn't originally planned, but I went with it because love how it works with the rim light on the giant. I just don't feel like re-painting the warrior, but maybe I need to if for no other reason than to not let my renderings get too "precious" to me. Plus it's not like I'm on a deadline or anything.

Fight the Giant, WIP #5

2011-10-10T18:50:00.000-05:00

I suck at backgrounds, or at least doing them quickly. I seriously think I need to just sit outside for multiple sessions and draw landscapes. It's the middle ground I have problems with. I just sometimes have trouble connecting it to the fore/background. On some occasions I just fog it in with atmospherics or smoke, but I can't always do that.

The composition felt cramped so I opened it up a bit by increasing the width. This also allowed me to shuffle the characters around somewhat. After playing with the horizon line (something that should be established from the beginning, duh) I introduced a more believable perspective. Now I need to fix the giant's left shin and foot because earlier it was obscured by the warrior and thus ignored.

I'm closing in on it! I think if I have sufficient downtime tomorrow I can finish this thing.

Fight the Giant, WIP #4

2011-09-29T18:54:00.001-05:00

I've added color and reduced everything to three layers: background, giant and warrior. I reworked the warrior's leg and arm muscles and shifted the position of the giant's right leg. I'm still not sure what to do with the giant's eyes. Still, I like how it's progressing.

Snowboarder Vector Art

2011-09-29T12:53:00.002-05:00

At work this week I was tasked to create a series of video-game type images of a snowboarder at a 45-degree overhead view in three positions: going straight, steering left, and steering right.

I started out with a pencil drawing in my moleskine sketchbook and threw it on the scanner. I placed the image in Adobe Illustrator and created vector "ink" line art by tracing over my sketch with the pen tool. I love the Stroke Width tool in Illustrator CS5! It lets you have total control over the line thickness at any position along the path.

I could have simply rotated the snowboarder left and right to get the other two poses, but that's bush league and I'm better than that. I made two copies of the line art and scaled, rotated and otherwise modified my paths to create the other two poses. The limb positions and perspective are more realistic this way.

I copied the line art and converted it all to Live Paint groups. Then it was just a matter of dropping in color fills with the Live Paint Bucket tool. After expanding the LP groups I was able to tweak the individual gradients on the helmet and goggles. The snowboards are all on a separate layer beneath everything; I just skewed it a couple times. Done!

Fight the Giant, WIP #3

2011-09-07T14:33:00.003-05:00

Goddamn arm muscles. I always seem to have trouble drawing them. And leg muscles. And anatomy in general. Since I'm not working from a live model or photoreference I have to invent the pose, and that can require a lot of imagination and reliance on knowledge of anatomy and muscle structure.

So here's the latest work in progress. I completely reworked the warrior's pose, and now I think it's much better. Now that I have everything generally where I want it I'll start adding some details here and there and working smaller. Pretty soon I'll start adding color.

Bearshear Hall, Iowa State University

2011-09-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

A drawing of Bearshear Hall at Iowa State University. I've wanted to do a series of drawings of some of the old buildings on campus and I thought I'd start with this one. I like the composition and the ink/marker combination worked well. I hate adding watermarks to images, but I don't trust Google not to distribute this one as per their terms of use (refer to section 11).

Ink and Copic marker on bristol.

Fight the Giant, part 1

2011-08-12T11:02:00.000-05:00

Started on a new fantasy illustration piece this week. I don't plan on spending as long on this one as I did for the Artifact. I wanted to start out as a 10-hour speedpainting, but as usual I've gotten caught up in some details. I think I need to start forcing myself to meet a certain deadline and once it's there, the project is finished and I'm not allowed to continue it. Does that make sense?

New (sort of) abstract piece

2011-08-08T19:07:00.001-05:00

I just updated a digital 3D abstract composition that I had worked on a few years ago. I really liked this one and wanted to print it in large format, but my original render was only like 4000 pixels wide. So I rendered a new image at over 12,000 px and I plan on printing it on Epson canvas. If I can get that to work. The last attempt was a disaster and I had to RMA my Epson R1900 after wasting an entire roll. It's a long story.

At any rate I figured as long as I was rendering this one again I might try a different approach to some shape and texture overlays.

Chainring Tree

2011-07-21T17:35:00.001-05:00

I finished another design project this week. I don't have any tattoos, but if I did this design might be a likely candidate. I also think it would make a cool T-shirt design. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

UPDATE: I submitted the design to Threadless. help me get it printed by scoring it!

The Artifact - Finished!

2011-07-15T16:17:00.001-05:00

This one took more than a few hours. After much work, learning from trial and error, and probably too much nitpicking I'm ready to call it finished. All I can say is that I'm very happy with it. Here are some details:

The Artifact - Stage 4

2011-07-07T17:00:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I posted an update, but I've been busy with paying freelance projects lately. Here's the latest update on the Artifact painting.

So... first thing is that I took a lot of time figuring out how I wanted to render the cave entrance. I tried several different forms and iterations, none of them satisfying. Painting rocks and boulders is harder than it seems. I need a LOT more practice on those forms. The cave is still not even close to being finished, though.

Next, someone told me that the artifact that the thief was holding reminded them of the Shake Weight. That pretty much ruined that for me; I couldn't not think of that every time I looked at the painting. So I decided to change it to an orb-shaped artifact. Then I got the idea of the artifact "activating" somehow, and merging with the thief's arm, changing him in some fashion. Voila! The story changes, and suddenly all hope is not lost for our characters. What his transformation involves, I'll leave up to you.

Now, the monster's arms. I decided I wanted the fleshy part to be smooth and shiny, much like the skin of an amphibian. Rendering glossy surfaces against a cloudy, backlit sky is super tough. You have to pay attention to where the light is coming from, where it's bouncing, and what is reflected on the surface of the material, which more than likely generates a Fresnel effect, making it more reflective at glancing angles. That shit is difficult.

I've also decided that I don't like the intermediate spiky-looking shell joints of the monsters arms, so I'm working on a way to eliminate them and connect the fleshy forearms directly to the patterned shell, which I like very much.

I'm still happy with where this is going, and I'm learning more with every brushstroke. This painting is taking forever, though, and I'm looking forward to its conclusion.

The Artifact - 3D Anaglyph?!

2011-05-24T17:08:00.000-05:00

Alright, now this is just crazy.

Since I'm painting my characters and background elements on separate layers, I had an idea that it would be fun to process this painting as a 3D anaglyph image. This test image is very crude; the characters are all in their own flat two-dimensional plane so they look like cardboard cutouts. I think to make this possible and realistic I would have to use the Puppet Warp Tool in Photoshop. This way I could adjust the perspective angle of, say, the barbarian's sword and the archer's bow.

The basic technique is to have two sets of layers, one for each "eye." Each set will contain a Levels adjustment layer. The red set, viewable only to the left eye, will be positioned slightly to the right. The blue set, viewable only to the right eye, will be shifted to the left. The amount of distance between the two is proportional to how far the object is from the camera.

I already managed to make the ground plane appear as though it's receding into the distance. This was accomplished by applying a skew transformation to the ground layer. Again, it's very crude and will be more difficult to achieve as I add detail, but so far not a bad start with 30 minutes of layer adjustment.

Oh, and you'll need a set of red-blue 3D glasses to see it properly.

The Artifact, Stage 3

2011-05-20T18:21:00.000-05:00

I worked mostly on the center character, refining his torso anatomy and trying to match it to the environment lighting. I also tried a rougher approach to shading, using textured, sharper brushes to not make it so "blendy." I don't want it to have an airbrushed look. I prefer more energy and texture in paintings and I'm trying to develop that approach.

I also changed the sword. I feel like this character, being a "barbarian" type, should have a more organic overall design. The previous sword, although a nice inside joke, just didn't fit. Plus I really like this sword much better. It seems to have real weight to it. It's a nice combination of an Arabian scimitar and Japanese katana. A scimitana.

I also started in on the archer's shading. She needs a lot of work. The whole painting does. I'm enjoying it.

The Artifact, Stage 2

2011-05-11T18:11:00.000-05:00

After a lot of screwing around with the line art, it was time to lay in some color. I started with some broad patches of diffuse color and refined it with shading. It took a while to figure out the different skin tones on a cloudy day, but so far it seems to be working well. I still need to rough in the cave entrance. I'll probably bring it closer to the thief character (left) to make his situation look even more hopeless. I plan on constructing it as the roots of a large tree.

I used compound brushes for the background and horizon. My cloud brushes are working well. The tree line needs a lot of work.

I added the two-handed great sword more or less as a joke (see previous postings), but on second thought it doesn't seem to match the character wielding it. I think he might carry more of a curved, organic-shaped blade, or even sword/axe hybrid. Perhaps I'll address that.

Overall I like how the lighting is coming together. These characters are starting to feel more "real" to me. Although now that I look at it again the big guy's head seems too big. I'll fix that for next time.

What I did at work today.

2011-04-19T17:49:00.000-05:00

Actually, the last couple of days. We need icons for a new project. This afternoon I worked on a generic menu interface, but it's not really interesting enough to post here.

The Artifact, Stage 1

2011-04-13T14:59:00.000-05:00

The characters and composition are set for my latest digital fantasy painting. Hopefully by just the pencil drawing you can tell what's going on. Each figure has been drawn with pencil separately and scanned into Photoshop. I realize the big guy in the center needs some clothing; I'll draw that in digitally because I haven't decided how to dress him. I'll figure something out.

Here's a closeup of the female archer.

And here's the thief.

Check back for more updates! It feels good to be "on the board" as my instructor used to say.

Water Glasses Vector Art

2011-04-12T16:06:00.001-05:00

Here is some vector art I made this morning at work. The client needed it for a visual aid. Adobe Illustrator.

Concept art: Female outfits & hair

2011-03-16T14:12:00.000-05:00

I'm working on another digital fantasy painting and wanted to figure out the design for a female archer. I wanted to avoid the standard elvish-style outfit but still suggest that this is a fantasy world. I have a female template drawing on file to which I can add clothing and hair if I want to simply work up an outfit. This eliminates the need to constantly redraw a female body every time. Of course, if I'm trying to nail down characteristics like race/species, attitude and so forth, then I have to start from scratch, but the dress-up doll approach is a handy tool for stuff like this.

Holding Hands #1

2011-03-11T10:28:00.000-06:00

It's good to be drawing regularly again after a stretch of just "being too busy," which I'm aware is no excuse. I think as an artist you ignore your basic drawing skills at your peril. This is Prismacolor pencil on toned paper. I used white for the highlights, burnt sienna for the shading and Tuscan red for the darkest values. I love how this one came out.

Amy at Border's

2011-03-02T16:38:00.000-06:00

Graphite on moleskine sketchbook paper.

Jimi Hendrix Poster Updated

2011-03-02T16:31:00.000-06:00

I was finally getting around to updating my website with the Jimi Hendrix concert poster and decided that his face looked too ashen and gray compared to the rest of the image. This should be a bright, vibrant celebration of music and art. I rendered his face again, this time taking a more loose, colorful approach. However, I found that this came dangerously close to making him look like he slopped a bunch of face paint on, so I added some colorful texture to the shirt, guitar and hair. I think this works much better than the previous draft (see below). I'm calling it done.

Previous version.

Jimi Hendrix Concert Poster

2011-01-24T17:54:00.000-06:00

This started out as a sketch in a coffee shop; I was looking for something to draw, so I grabbed the Dec. 2010 cover of Vintage Guitar Magazine and started sketching Jimi on the cover. From there I decided I wanted to do a stylish version in Art Nouveau style but with a modern CG twist.

Then I thought it would be fun to redesign an old Hendrix concert poster. This was an actual concert. The dates, location and participating bands are all real. I might do a post that shows the entire process later.

Abstract art: Geometryst

2010-12-30T16:56:00.000-06:00

This started as an experimental 3D composition. The base 3D geometry was rendered in 3ds Max with VRay global illumination. I created the semitransparent shapes in Adobe Illustrator CS5 using the new Perspective Grid tool, a very useful addition to the program. Then I brought everything into Photoshop and started playing around with color overlays, textures, and blocks of text arranged in perspective. I love what I ended up with. At least for now.

More concentric circle abstract art

2010-12-20T16:55:00.001-06:00

I really like making this style of abstract art. The chaotic arrangement of geometric technical shapes really appeals to me. I've done another one like this in watercolor, but it takes soooooo looooong to dry, especially as I'm waiting to add layers of color. This whole piece took about six hours to finish. I'm very happy with the results.

Tiny wall art

2010-12-19T17:31:00.002-06:00

This is the smallest piece of wall art I've ever made. My friend Amy Dreyer works at the Frame Shop in Ames and she had this small sample frame with a pre-cut mat sitting around the back room. The art area measures 3" x 3". So she gave it to me, figuring I might be able to make something neat to fit inside it. So that's one of the things I did this weekend. Ink on bristol paper.

Sketchbook: Amy at Café Diem

2010-11-21T23:27:00.001-06:00

Graphite on moleskine.

I've been paid with weaponry.

2010-11-04T17:08:00.001-05:00

So the folks at Cold Steel loved my painting of the Awesome Sword so much that they agreed to send me one of their Two-Handed Great Swords in exchange for a full-size framed print.

They're not kidding. I would not want to be at the business end of this thing. Lance brought in a bunch of pumpkins to work, so we took it out by the pond and had fun slicing them to ribbons.

Fuckin' pumpkins anyway.

BPMI club Figure Drawing

2010-10-20T12:38:00.000-05:00

I started once again going to the Tuesday and Thursday night two-hour figure drawing sessions hosted by the Iowa State BPMI Club. Last night I brought my laptop with me and knocked out this piece. I felt like doing more of a portrait.

Awesome Sword is Awesome.

2010-10-12T00:40:00.000-05:00

In order to fully appreciate this painting, you need to watch the video that inspired it:

Ames Flooding Panoramic images

2010-08-11T19:54:00.004-05:00

I took some photos today of the flooding in Ames.

The new Aquatic Center.

University Blvd (formerly Elwood Dr) looking south toward Lincoln Way.

University Blvd looking south toward Jack Trice Stadium. The ridged-dome building in the distance is the indoor football practice facility.

Digital Abstract

2010-07-27T16:08:00.000-05:00

I had some downtime today. My day job has me temporarily working at a law firm in Washington D.C., producing last-minute graphics. After working 182 hours in 12 days I finally had a little downtime today. Unfortunately I couldn't leave the office, so I walked around and took some photos of the building's architecture. I used some of the shapes I found to make this little abstraction in Photoshop. Hope you enjoy it.

There is no solution.

2010-07-13T17:29:00.003-05:00

This generally sums up my entire experience with Windows Vista. This is a real error message. Fortunately we'll be rolling out Windows 7 at work soon. Maybe.

Catalog sketching again

2010-06-30T11:20:00.000-05:00

Another portrait sketch; not much to say about this one. I liked her hairdo.

Machinimal concepts 2

2010-06-25T16:01:00.000-05:00

More silhouette ideas for the Machinimal project. I think we've narrowed it down to body type. We thought about going with a more insect-look, so I came up with variations of a grasshopper-like head. Then we decided we didn't want it to look too much like an insect, because then we would just be modeling an insect. We're happy with the quadriped body type and want to take that further. We also like the big knife-like mandibles. I think I'm ready to start some detail sketching.

Machinimal concepts 1

2010-06-15T20:20:00.000-05:00

I started a new collaborative character design project that I hope to complete to finished 3D model with Joel Lueck. The plan is for me to come up with the character designs and concept art, model sheets, color/material studies and textures. Joel will do most of the 3D modeling, materials, lighting, and if we decide to take it further, character rigging for animation. If it gets that far (and I hope it does) I plan on helping with the environment design and extra scene modeling.

The idea is to create a biomechanical organism that may or may not be a weapon; haven't decided yet. Not just a cyborg or robot shaped like an animal, but a living thing made of composite tissue, muscles, metal, cables, nano-fibers, stuff like that. I'm taking some inspiration from the works of H.R. Giger, among other places.

This is just a silhouette sheet, to give me an idea of what the general shape of the creature will be. So far I like the bottom-left two. I like the idea of a creature that moves like a primate. I've always found the image of a gorilla charging very intimidating and scary. I thought of that, only much faster and sleeker. We may or may not incorporate guns into the creature; perhaps the creature itself needs no firearms. Blades, however, might be cool.

Catalog sketch

2010-06-07T13:43:00.001-05:00

I've found that sketching from clothing catalogs is a great way to practice drawing people. They contain great references for fashion, hair, anatomy and so forth. This sketch was from the Talbot's winter catalog. It keeps getting delivered to my house, addressed to the previous owners if you're wondering what I'm doing with a women's clothing catalog.

Art Nouveau Heather

2010-05-05T17:20:00.004-05:00

I finished this portrait of my ex-girlfriend about 5 days before we broke up. I thought I'd post it here anyway. It was inspired by the art of Alphonse Mucha.

3D Bacteria

2010-04-07T12:37:00.002-05:00

One of my tasks this week was to create some realistic-looking bacteria. This is what I came up with. I created a capsule with some mesh optimization and a VRayDisplacementMod modifier using a cellular procedural map. My material has a Diffuse map with a falloff and a Self-illumination map with a falloff and adjusted output levels to get that "overbright" look. The field of view and background effects are done in Photoshop.

3D Cell Phone Model

2010-03-24T21:00:00.007-05:00

This is what I did at work last Tuesday. I built and modeled a cell phone in 3D for a project at work. Using my LG enV3 phone as a loose reference, I started with a box, 10 segments long, 6 wide and 3 deep.

I added an Edit Poly modifier and moved some vertices around.

I then added a TurboSmooth modifier.

I added another Edit Poly modifier on top of that, extending the length of some of the lower vertices and separately beveling the groups of polygons that make up the buttons and the screen.

I created a cylinder for the navigation/OK button.

I added an Edit Poly modifier, insetting and beveling polygon groups as needed.

First render pass, using VRay global illumination.

Second render, with preliminary materials.

Final render, with refined materials and texture map. The entire process, including waiting for test renders, took about 3 hours. Boom. Cell phone. Give me something hard next time (that's what she said).

Final Bullet - Finished!

2010-03-03T20:38:00.008-06:00

After a few more days of tweaking and adding detail, I'm calling this one finished. First, I decided I didn't like the direct lighting on the dreadlocked figure in the background. His definition just made him look too much like a foreground figure. So I restricted my background hunters to silhouettes with rim lighting. They look much more sinister that way.

I adjusted the cloth wrappings around his ankles based on some photoreference sources. I added detail to the vertical pipe. I like that smaller pipe that snakes around; it adds interest. I also added a layer of grime to the main character and refined his hair and facial blending.

Then came the ground itself. Man, I need some training and tutelage on how to draw ground junk. I spent most of today working that up, with lots of false starts. Nothing looked right to me. Junk, rubble, clutter, detritus, I've always had a problem with that. Maybe I'm sweating it too much, because it's not the focal point, but I'd like to get better at that area of painting and concept art. I think I just need to practice painting from real scenery or just go to a junkyard and take a whole bunch of photoreference. Overall I'm quite happy with how it turned out, though. I think this is one of my best paintings yet.

Final Bullet work in progress #6

2010-02-28T20:48:00.002-06:00

It took me a while to hit my stride today with this, but I made some great progress. Mostly concentrated on the background, blocking in some middle ground textures & shapes. I always have trouble somehow with connecting the background to the foreground, and too often I think I end up just adding a layer of fog or ground smoke. I'd like to avoid doing that with this one, although it is a dirty environment and there's going to be a lot of atmospheric dust.

I refined the man's pistol a little, but that's about it for him today. I really like what I did with that crane thing in the mid/background. And I started adding in my hunters. I like the lighting I added to the hatchet man, but I worry it's a bit much and maybe I want to keep these figures as mostly silhouettes. At any rate, this is really coming together.

Final Bullet part 5

2010-02-25T17:22:00.003-06:00

I wasn't quite happy with the shape of his gun, so I altered it a bit and extended it out. I still need to give it the small details bu I'll come back to it later. I resolved some of the lighting in his left pant leg, but it's by no means finished. I also modeled his right forearm further and carved some more realistic cast shadows in front of him.

The boots were problematic because I didn't know what kind of shoes I wanted him to wear. I wanted to give him military-style boots but took care to avoid making them look too much like shoes I usually draw, which are usually of the generic utility boot variety. I'll need to go in and change his ankle wrappings; at this point they look too "neat." I want to make them a bit more tattered and blasted. His shoes too; they need some grime. He needs to look like he's been through hell.

I'm really happy with where this is going. At this point I only have two layers; the background and the man. I love just painting over my mistakes; it makes the art more interesting.

BPMI Figure Drawing

2010-02-25T15:04:00.003-06:00

I tried some color with this one; warm shades of flesh tone for the light areas and cool shades of violet for the skin shadows. Mixed it up with some greens, etc in the midtones. Not much else to say about this one, except I wish I had more time to refine both of her feet a bit more.

Final Bullet part 4

2010-02-18T11:08:00.003-06:00

More progress on the digital painting this week. I worked out the folds and lighting on his shirt and right pant leg, and refined his face, which is by no means finished. His left hand (your right) is holding the bullet, and I had my co-worker Liz take a look at this to see if it made sense. She informed me that the bullet may be a bit hard to see (she thought it was some kind of detonator, mostly from the way he was holding it), and that I might want to change the pose of the hand so that he's holding the bullet with his fingertips. This would bring the bullet out of the shadow of his hand and give it more focus. I was a bit dismayed by this, as I was very happy with the lighting and pose of the left hand but at the same time I know she's right.

So I may paint a new version of his left hand (on a new layer of course) and see if that works. This is, I have found, where a good artist can really shine. It comes back to having the will to destroy your work and remake it into something better. And it's not like I'm on a deadline for this, so I'll give it a try.

Final Bullet part 3

2010-02-11T17:29:00.003-06:00

After finishing up some freelance obligations, I made some more progress on my painting today. I like how the tactical vest is coming out, with all the pouches. I had to consult some photo references of soldiers- Marines, SAS and the like. I added some refinement to his face. This is a tricky painting because he's mostly in shadow, which requires pulling off very subtle changes in value. I'll have to make sure I rough him up a bit and not make him look too clean, because he's been chased and shot at for some time now.

Final Bullet part 2

2010-01-24T17:36:00.006-06:00

Made some more progress on my illustration today, after a few false starts. I wasn't sure what to do about the background, or the color palette. But I think for now I'll concentrate on value and composition above everything else. The trick is to try to make a cool futuristic dystopian landscape and do it quickly. Again, this is a learning project, so I was trying some new things. Repeating shapes here and there, skewing, transforming, trying to match the perspective, etc. I figured a patrol vehicle would be a nice touch.

I never know how to go about doing the ground plane. I want to avoid just putting in atmospheric mist all the time to obscure the ground surface, and I want lots of junk and clutter in this one. That should be fun. Overall I'm happy with how this is going.

Final Bullet

2010-01-20T17:08:00.004-06:00

This week I embarked in earnest on my latest digital sci-fi/fantasy painting endeavor. It's about a man being hunted and chased by a pack of enemies. He has put up quite a fight so far, but now he's tired, trapped and down to one last bullet for his pistol. I wanted the story to suggest that this man wants so badly to avoid being taken alive by these people (or things) that he's contemplating what to do with his final bullet, and seriously considering using it on himself.

I started with a thumbnail composition and value study, trying to set the tone of a dark, post-apocalyptic environment in which savage beings roam the landscape. I blocked in the main character easily enough, hiding in shadows with the enemy searchlights casting upon him a nice outline of rim light. Then I blocked in some distant silhouettes of characters, and that's where my first hurdle appeared.

I wasn't sure how I wanted these fiends to appear. Are they human? Alien? Machine? Animal? I started putting together character studies involving mostly silhouettes to try to see which type of character cuts the most threatening profile. I'm still unsure about which one I like the most, but I do like several of these - particularly the dreadlocked rag-wrapped person carrying a hatchet. I might give him a gas mask as well. He looks like he might be some sort of cannibal. I also like the tentacled alien-thing, who looks as though it might want to experiment our protagonist. But then I've always thought that the most barbaric creature to man is man himself, so perhaps that's how I'll proceed.

So I started painting the actual illustration in high-resolution this afternoon. I am, as one of my art instructors used to say, "on the board". I've got a nice composition, I think. His face is supposed to be the focal point of the painting, and I've got that smack in the center. I've got his body shape and hands fairly well blocked in, and I added a layer of rim light to see some contrast and separate him from the background. I'll be posting some more updates soon.

Heather sketch

2010-01-15T15:16:00.004-06:00

My girlfriend and I were sitting in the living room last week waiting for the AAA van because my truck wouldn't start. She got out her knitting, so I busted out the Moleskine. This is my first honest effort at drawing her. I hope you enjoy it.

New Bathroom Sink Installation

2009-12-23T09:36:00.008-06:00

So I had originally intended to replace the seals in my bathroom faucet because it was dripping, but I also noticed that I was getting barely any hot water pressure, so I decided to just go ahead and replace the faucet, shutoff valves and supply lines. I went to Lowe's and purchased new shutoff valves, new supply lines, and a new faucet to fit the 8-inch spread on my sink.

I also figured out I needed a basin wrench because there is no other way I could have loosened the lock nuts from underneath. No big deal, just $15 for one of those. I got the old faucet out and saw that the new one came with a new popup assembly. So I decided to take out the old one. Unfortunately the old one was very corroded and the only way to get it out was to cut above the T-junction that houses the ballcock (I laughed too) assembly.

Halfway through I realized my hacksaw blade was dull and I didn't have a replacement. That stopped the project for a week because I had an insane deadline at work for a big client. So I was brushing my teeth in the kitchen sink for a little while.

Once I got back to the store and got rolling again, I finished cutting through and was able to put a wooden block underneath the drain flange and knock it out with a mallet. It popped out with a shower of rust flakes everywhere and I realized that the sink itself was badly corroded. Might as well replace the entire sink. Back to Lowe's.

They had a big selection of sinks, but unfortunately they don't make bathroom sinks with a 4-inch spread anymore. You can get them, but they have to be special ordered and the're a bit more expensive. So I just decided to buy a 4-inch spread faucet while I was there and return the 8-inch faucet later. The good news is the 4-inch faucet was a lot cheaper ($85 compared to $150).

After cutting the seal around the old sink I lifted it out. Being made of cast iron, that thing was HEAVY. I applied a new bead of plumber's putty around the rim of the counter hole and installed the new sink with the faucet already attached. Then it was just a matter of installing the new shutoff valves and supply lines, and applying a bead of silicone caulk around the edges of the sink and faucet. Done! I am officially a plumber. You can check out the complete photo gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com/petersen1973/BathroomSinkInstallation#

Someone is illegally selling my plans on eBay.

2009-12-16T15:24:00.005-06:00

Several years ago (i.e. 2002) I designed and built a drafting table and posted the instructions and drawings on my website, free to download. Earlier this month someone brought it to my attention that some douchetard from Hollow Rock, Tennessee is selling a pdf of my plans on eBay:

http://tinyurl.com/ydpkdqg

I sent a Notice of Copyright Infringement to eBay and a message to tabd123. Here's the exchange so far:

From: petersen1973
To: tabd123
Subject: You've received a message from an eBay member
Sent Date: Dec-16-09 10:27:44 PST

Dear tabd123,
I am the copyright owner of the drafting table plans that you are selling on this site, in violation of U.S. Copyright Law. I am sending a Notice of Copyright Infringement to eBay and am considering legal action against you.
- petersen1973

From: tabd123
To: petersen1973
Subject: You've received a message from an eBay member
Sent Date: Dec-16-09 10:55:14 PST

Dear petersen1973,
i went and search yr plans on net and the plans that are here www.petersenart.com/drafting_table_20071113.pdf
are not the plans im selling,as a matter of fact my booklet has a ISBN number that is well documented.yr copyright has 2007 on it i have been selling these over 5 years now.
- tabd123

From: petersen1973
To: tabd123
Subject: You've received a message from an eBay member
Sent Date: Dec-16-09 11:09:12 PST

Dear tabd123,
The pdf on my site is a modified, updated version of the original plans I made in 2002, to which I still own the copyright. I still have the original 3D models and high-resolution rendered images. The text in your advertisement is taken verbatim from my previous html files, and the image in your posting is identical to my original as well.
- petersen1973

From: tabd123
To: petersen1973
Subject: You've received a message from an eBay member
Sent Date: Dec-16-09 11:22:55 PST

Dear petersen1973,
u seem to be giving away yr plans anyways not sure what yr argument is that u are losing something.one could still sell yr plans legaly and mearly charge a fee for printing them out and shipping them,as long as they still gave aurther the credit for writing.
- tabd123

Dear tabd123,
That is incorrect, and the fact that I'm not selling my plans is beside the point. You are making a profit from selling someone else's intellectual property. Copyright ownership means the intellectual property may not be mass-distributed or sold without the owner's written consent under any circumstances, profit or no profit. I gave you no such consent, and you are therefore in violation of the law.
- petersen1973

More from the BPMI co-op.

2009-12-10T10:50:00.002-06:00

Not much to say about this one, apart from attempting a more interesting composition. Again, Photoshop CS4.

More figure drawing

2009-11-13T18:23:00.005-06:00

Last night's pose was a bit easier because I didn't have to worry about attaining a facial likeness, and her arms and legs were out of view. I could just concentrate on the back muscles and hair mass. Not a bad session.

BPMI Figure Drawing

2009-11-11T14:09:00.003-06:00

We had a three-hour pose on Monday night . One of the Figure Drawing classes had to make up a studio due to a model being sick, so they overlapped it with the BPMI coop. So I had some extra time to refine the proportions and facial likeness adding a few more details.

BPMI Figure Drawing

2009-11-03T15:38:00.003-06:00

Another two-hour Photoshop sketch of Valerie, an excellent model. She held this pose like a statue with only a 10-minute break. I like the result; I wish I had more time to detail the legs & feet more. I'll have to work faster next time. Like I say, a great exercise in working fast.

BPMI Figure Drawing

2009-10-30T11:11:00.000-05:00

I brought my tablet to the figure drawing coop at the design center last night, and was pleased with the results. I had forgotten what a good exercise live figure drawing is because with a two-hour limit I'm forced to work fast. I started painting in color but I don't think it was working out very well so I desaturated everything and went to grayscale. That enabled me to block the values in faster. I also cropped the composition so I could pay closer attention to the head and torso. With 15 minutes left I wanted to see what some color would do, so I created a layer with an overlay blending mode and quickly laid down some skin and hair tones.

I have been sketching, but I haven't had time to scan my moleskine and post to the blog. Next week I'll try to catch up.

Daily Sketch: upset on the phone

2009-09-20T20:00:00.000-05:00

Another idea for the pinup series of females I have planned. She's on the phone and somewhat unpleased. I'm anxious to get working on these, but I move into my new house this week and am going to be busy moving, painting and cleaning carpets. Hopefully I'll have a little time to sketch.

Daily Sketch: Arm Proportions

2009-09-20T09:31:00.000-05:00

I was messing around, constructing a new pose for a female in my Moleskine. I was having trouble remembering the arm proportions so I looked up some photographic images of a human skeleton.

Bringing some images into Photoshop and using the Measure tool I figured out that if you consider the length from the shoulder joint to the elbow as one generic unit, then the distance from the elbow to the wrist joint is 0.8 units. In turn, the distance from the wrist to the tip of the longest finger (if the fingers are extended) is roughly 0.6 units. That's a handy ratio to remember. 1 - 0.8 - 0.6. I should do the same for the legs.

Daily sketch: dressed up and bored

2009-09-15T23:43:00.000-05:00

A sketch out of my Moleskine this evening. I realize her head is way too big, but I wasn't quite going for absolute realism. I think I have an idea for a new series. I've recently been inspired by the work of Jack Vettriano and am in need of art for my new house. I plan on making a series of vector art pieces depicting beautiful women in a manner similar to this one. Perhaps with smaller heads.

Daily Sketch

2009-08-31T17:22:00.000-05:00

I've decided I'm going to try to do at least one meaningful sketch per day, either digitally or traditionally, and post it to this blog. I do not sketch nearly enough, and it is time to change that. This is a ten-minute head color and value study in Photoshop CS4. Dark environment, one backlight.

Guns and Political Rallies

2009-08-18T12:50:00.000-05:00

William Kostric, the man brandishing a pistol outside Obama's town hall meeting last week in Portsmouth, N.H. also carried a sign that read "It's time to water the tree of liberty!", referencing Thomas Jefferson's quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Consider we have progressed, as a nation, in the last 8 years. Can you imagine, shortly after September 11 carrying a firearm to ANY political rally, much less one anywhere near the president? Don’t think for a moment that you wouldn’t have been shipped off to Guantanamo in a heartbeat.

Why has this man not been arrested and charged with threatening the life of the president (18 USC Sec.871)? I realize he wasn’t technically breaking any local firearm laws, but we all know that’s bullshit. Gun-rights advocates everywhere are praising this man as a true patriot exercising his 2nd Amendment rights, yet if Bush was still the president they’d be calling this guy a terrorist. The slogan he was displaying was nothing less than thinly-veiled provocation of armed insurrection.

Would this man have received the same courtesy from police if he was of Middle-Eastern descent? A muslim?

Argue all you want to me about his constitutional rights, but my point is this: when you bring a gun to a political rally you are sending a very clear message indeed.

This has also created a disturbing trend, as now more people are bringing firearms to public events with the president, like the wingnut in Arizona carrying a goddamn assault rifle among a crowd of protesters. Reportedly there were over a dozen people in that crowd carrying firearms. Does anyone realize how pants-on-head INSANE this is? What do you think is going to happen when tensions escalate and one person decides to actually use his weapon, or a car backfires? Picture it. You’re in a crowd of angry protesters, all armed. Suddenly there's a loud bang. Everyone scatters, everyone pulls their pistols and starts aiming them in all directions. You don't think anyone will get hurt or worse? A safer nation indeed.

And all this because Obama wants everyone to have equal access to health care. Oh, what an evil concept! What tyranny! Where were these "patriots" when Bush was authorizing warrantless wiretapping and suspending habeas corpus? Fight the power, brothers.

Infiltrators finished

2009-07-27T13:30:00.001-05:00

I forgot to post the final version of this piece. Basically I added layers of detail to the building and grass.

Some CD/Logo artwork.

2009-07-02T16:19:00.000-05:00

I created this logo for a band I was in recently, until we went on a hiatus. I had fun playing with these guys; hopefully we'll get together again soon!

Concept Art: Infiltrators

2009-06-07T19:37:00.000-05:00

This started out as a quick speedpainting exercise but it's quickly turning into a worthwhile portfolio piece. I have 10 hours into it so far. The only thing I need to finish up is the structure in the background and maybe mess up the grass a bit to make it look not so much like it was painted with a scatter brush. I might noodle on the guy standing to the right a bit more, give him some more detail.

I like how concept art changes as you work on it. Originally it was just the one guy sitting on the ground, meditating on the mission before him, which is to quietly infiltrate this big, heavily-defended structure in the distance. Then I thought it needed more people, so I added two companions. All three people were going to be roughly the same: ninja-type intruders all with the same blade weapons, but as I worked I thought it would be neat if each person has his own specialty, i.e. the silent ninja type, the ballistic weapons/sniper expert to the left, and the tech/computer specialist to the right. Maybe their mission is to enter and grab data undetected. The tech guy is holding a device that could be a communicator, waiting for the go-ahead text message or something.

Taught myself some more Flash today.

2009-05-28T14:56:00.000-05:00

So I wanted to figure out how to make a navigation bar in which an indicator would move in a fluid fashion toward whatever you just clicked on. This could be for a website, interactive timeline, game menu, etc. This particular example I wanted the arrow to just move to the same horizontal (x) position as the mouse at the instant of the click. I also wanted to constrain it to a range of x values, specifically, to the width of the navigation bar. So when you click anywhere to the right or left of the bar, the arrow will only travel to the bar's edge.

Just for shits I also made a dynamic text field that constantly refreshes the pointer's x position as a percentage of the width of the bar.

Here's the code:

import fl.transitions.Tween;
import fl.motion.easing.*;

trackerMC.x=navBar.x;
trackerMC.y=navBar.y;

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, comeHere);

function comeHere(event:MouseEvent):void {
var xTarget:Number=mouseX;
if (xTarget>navBar.x+navBar.width) {
xTarget=navBar.x+navBar.width;
} else if (xTarget < navBar.x) {
xTarget=navBar.x;
}
//trace(xTarget);
var xTween:Tween=new Tween(trackerMC,"x",Quartic.easeOut,trackerMC.x,xTarget,1,true);
xTween.start();
}

addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, refreshXPos);

var xPos:Number;

function refreshXPos(event:Event):void
{
xPos = Math.ceil((trackerMC.x - navBar.x)/navBar.width*100);
positionTxt.text = xPos.toString();
}

New Prius!

2009-05-15T11:55:00.000-05:00

I finally got fed up with driving my 12-year old pickup truck on long road trips and bought a sensible, reliable car this week. I've been looking at the Prius for some time now and couldn't hold out any longer. Work started to pick up again last month and I decided I had waited long enough. I rode my bicycle to Wilson Toyota and test drove a 2009 Prius Option 6 Touring Edition in Spectra Blue Mica. After driving it for a week I couldn't be happier.

It it's got Vehicle stability control (which is good because my rear-wheel drive light pickup handled like ass in the winter); backup camera; smart key system; Anti-theft system; Auto-dimming rearview mirror with HomeLink garage door opener. Not that I have a power garage door, but I might eventually.

Its interior features are leather trimmed seats and steering wheel; Voice-activated DVD GPS navigation system; JBL AM/FM 6-Disc CD/MP3/WMA changer with 9 Speakers, Aux audio input miniplug, Satellite radio capability, and hands-free phone capability via Bluetooth. It didn't come with a peeing Calvin sticker though.

Digital Fantasy Painting part 7: Finished!

2009-02-28T15:09:00.001-06:00

The lighting on his left leg was bothering me. With the sun at that angle, his right leg would be casting a shadow on his left so I painted it in. I added a curves and hue/saturation adjustment layer to make him pop just a little more. I moved to the background layer and adjusted the levels to a cool violet. Then I painted in the colors and clouds into the sunset.

I started in with the boulders, as the subject of this illustration is the idea of some kind of destroyer angel/demon being unleashed from a stone prison or cocoon in an explosive manner. Lots of loose brushing at various opacity, with some scatter brush texturing. I wanted to avoid using any photographic textures for this and keep it 100% Photoshop painting.

I took the layer with the smallest stones and ran a radial zoom blur filter at a value of 10, then took the medium-sized rocks and ran the same filter at 5. I really like the energy this motion blur gives to the painting.

I painted the shading and wrinkles on the (tunic, I guess?) and gave him a waistband with a kind of wizard-language gibberish written across it. I added some blue flames to his sword by painting a jagged shape of blue, burning and dodging it, then using Filter > Distort > Wave, and then Edit > Fade Wave at 50%. I did this several times, airbrush erased here and there, then set the layer blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add). After minor tweaks here and there, shuffling stones around and some color and level adjustments, I think I’ll call this one finished.

Digital Fantasy Painting part 6: Details and Effects

2009-02-27T13:45:00.001-06:00

After some more futzing around with the deltoids and general torso area I started adding some detail. I realized I didn’t quite allow room for the sternum, so I separated the pectoral muscles and added the serrations. It is quite amazing to me how I can walk away from this for a while, come back and find something so obviously wrong.

I worked a little with texture brushes just to break up the smoothness and apply a more painterly style. I think I FINALLY have the anatomy in a pretty solid place. If not, screw it; I’ll get it right on the next painting; it’s time to move on and finish this thing.

I detailed the hair and more of the anatomy, refined the left foot (thanks Teresa), then I started adding some special effects; I wanted some sort of glowing rune etched into his chest, and gave him glowing eyes. I repainted the sword at an angle that works better than the old one.

I desaturated the background because it was bothering me a little and I wanted to make sure the values were good above all else.

3D Stereoscopic Test

2009-02-23T10:43:00.000-06:00

I've been tasked with creating some marketing animations at work. We're trying out a 3D stereoscopic rendering technique for a particular client. I've been producing some test images and movies using a 3D anaglyph process of rendering a scene with 2 cameras and color processing each image in Photoshop. Here's a little test image I made today of a disintegrating teapot (Note: You will need a pair of red/blue 3D glasses to see it properly).

Exposure doesn't pay the bills.

2009-02-20T12:29:00.000-06:00

I've been spending a lot of time on freelance websites lately, in particular ifreelance.com, and I am baffled by the number of potential clients who want artwork but don't want to pay for it. I've seen several project postings asking for full-color, detailed illustrations and budgeting $250 for artwork for which any decent artist would charge at least $1000.

Here's a typical example of this sort of posting:

Hi, I’m creating a series of kids books for ages 3-7 and need a very talented artist...each book will have roughly 16 illustrations per book, and I’m talking about full spread large illustrations... [etc. blah blah] As you can see... I would certainly keep you busy full time job, so please give me your best pricing you can do. The pricing is extremely important for me as this is a high volume venture and I can’t afford a lot per illustration but on the other hand I need excellent quality. I need 50 books illustrators over next 2 months alone and then 1-2 per week which will eventually grow to 3 books per week. I look forward hearing from you.
In your response, let me know if it’s just you or if you have a team of artist and if so how many. Also how long will it take to do per illustration on the level I’ve given above and are there any styles you can’t do?

Estimated Budget: Not sure/Determined by bids

"I can't afford a lot per illustration but on the other hand I need excellent quality" seems to be the mantra among most of these clients. I realize the economy is in the toilet, but that doesn't change the fact that professionals ought to be paid appropriately for their services.

Another common phrase I encounter is "this will be great exposure for you". As far as I know, exposure doesn't keep the lights on. One of the first freelance jobs I got was designing a website for a local startup company: a secure off-site data storage facility. They bought an old underground Cold War-era government command bunker and converted it into huge rack space. Their concepts are security, isolation, and protection. The owner asked me if I'd be interested in creating some paintings for their facility; corporate art stuff. He told me that he couldn't pay me but it would be great exposure for me.

Great exposure?! You're an underground, impregnable fortress designed to keep people out! What the fuck is it going to be exposed to?! Fortunately I handled it more delicately than that. Footnote: for a complete 5-page html site, with layout and links, I got paid $150. This was long before I knew what I was doing.

Imagine this pitch: "I'm an entrepeneur with a small start-up company. We need a lawyer to help us draft an agreement with investors, one that would be specifically tailored to our needs. Unfortunately we can only afford to pay what amounts to $20/hour for attorney's fees, but we have a great product and it's going to be really popular and we're going to blow up and be the next Amazon.com and we promise to tell everyone we meet who our attorney is and you're going to get a ton of work from this." Any self-respecting attorney would laugh them out of the room. Why should artists be any different? We have a skill, and we've worked hard to develop it.

That's not to say I've never worked for free. Three years ago I submitted artwork for a contest held by Random House to have an illustration published in the paperback edition of the New York Times bestseller World War Z. The contest terms also stated $800 prize money. I won the contest, and was published, but they somehow forgot to send the $800. I contacted the publisher about this, and never got a response. At the time I didn't care much; I was just happy to be published in such a popular book. I figured the jobs would start rolling in, and they would more than make up for getting fucked out of $800.

Well, that didn't really happen. I did have a few people give me props on deviantart, but otherwise I haven't gotten any work as a direct result of that "exposure".

So from now on, when somebody offers to pay me with exposure, I literally start laughing. Especially now that I've become familiar with the notion of speculative, or "spec" work, which is the completion of a body of work with no guarantee of payment for said work, or even that the work itself will be used. Before I entered the World War Z contest I had never heard of spec work. Now that I've done some more reading on the subject, I'm almost ashamed of myself for entering the contest in the first place.

At any rate, spec work itself deserves another post, and perhaps I'll write more about it later (especially how it relates to my day job more each day). For now I'll just say that if you want art, bite the freaking bullet and pay for it.

Digital Fantasy Painting part 5: Almost ready for detail

2009-02-13T17:57:00.001-06:00

I decided I didn’t like the position of his right arm, so I bent it back a little and rotated the forearm up a notch so that the arm is in a more relaxed position, but still powerful. I thought his left upper arm looked a bit squat so I extended it some. More refinement of the shoulders and left elbow and started adding details and blending the open hand and face.

I haven’t had much of a chance to hit this painting all week since I’ve been tasked with busywork at my day job. Work is still slow so they’ve got me on marketing stuff, which is always hard or me to get motivated on, especially since I know we’re not getting paid for it.

Digital Fantasy Painting part 4: Refining again and again

2009-02-05T16:58:00.001-06:00

More work on the arms and neck; I just couldn’t nail down those deltoid muscles. I paused, took a step back and thought about anatomy basics; where does the muscle insert, and where does it wrap around? After some more re-evaluation I think the neck and shoulders are at a good point.

I’m really noodling on this guy’s anatomy (that’s what she said). I repositioned the left arm by extending the humerus and tilting it down a bit. I lengthened the torso a little, re-sculpted the abs and repainted the neck again. I’m doing a LOT of repainting to get this right. I’m pretty happy with the face at this point (see inset).

I’m discovering that painting skin tones at sunset is quite difficult. There’s a lot of subtlety in tonal variations, and it’s easy to go too far with shadows and highlights. Dropping the opacity of my paintbrush has given me more control. I also deepened the red hues in the skin.

Digital Fantasy Painting part 3: Reworking the Anatomy

2009-01-29T22:10:00.000-06:00

I started in on the sword and probably went into too much detail, but oh well. I decided the abdominal muscles needed some refinement, so I referred to some photos for reference. I’m starting to build up a library of photoreference images, both anatomical and architectural and every subject in between, something I should have been doing years ago.

I added the right foot, something I temporarily overlooked. I also tweaked and repainted the serratus (rib) muscles, lats and obliques. The torso is really starting to come together. The arms and legs are still going to need some refinement, and I’m still not sure about the deltoids. I’ll refer to my anatomy books...

I started getting a bit frustrated with this painting tonight because I’ve spent 13 hours on it so far and I feel like it should be farther along by now. At times like this I think about artists like Marta Dahlig and how much better she is than me, and ten years younger. I look at a painting she made for Corel Painter Magazine that supposedly took her 6 hours and looks like it took weeks.

Okay, with that out of my system, my frustration came from having to repaint the head because I felt it just looked awkward. I’m glad I did, because this new angle works much better, and my proportions are much more solid.

I also reworked the legs quite extensively, looking at more photoreference images to identify corrections to the muscle groups. Runner’s World is a great resource for leg muscles. Weightlifting magazines are rather useful too. I also reshaped the left foot and hand. A couple good digital painting habits I’m developing:

1) Ditch undo. If you make a mistake, paint over it unless it’s something really destructive. It makes the work more interesting and gives it more texture. Thanks to Marko Djurdjevic for giving me this idea.
2) Constantly evaluate your work and don’t get too attached to it. If something’s wrong, it’s wrong. Repaint or redraw it.

Digital Fantasy Painting part 2: Initial color and blocking

2009-01-23T13:37:00.001-06:00

I started with a dark blue gradient, and then with a large airbrush started filling in the yellow glow of the sunset. Then I established the horizon line with a low-saturated brown, getting darker as I approached the foreground. A little more airbrushing and I have my very basic background; I'll use this as the foundation for now to set the light source, tone and color palette.

I began blocking in the figure’s silhouette, using a standard round brush, and again paying attention only to basic proportions at this stage.

I made some color adjustments to make the figure warmer, as the sun is low in the sky. I roughed in some shadows and highlights, thinking about where direct light would hit the figure. I’m still not sure about these skin tones.

After refining some of the inner forms by overpainting and using the liquify filter, I used Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and adjusted the shadows to a more blue/cyan. I think I’m happy with this overall skin tone palette, but I’ll still mix in some purples and greens here and there to mix it up a bit.

I then added the basic shape of the hair just to get away from the flesh for a minute. Some more refinement here: I noticed some problems with the deltoids; both were a bit out of place and too small. If nothing else I’m getting better about not being so “married” to the art and painting over something that isn’t right, starting over if necessary.

Digital Fantasy Painting part 1: Rough Composition

2009-01-21T17:37:00.000-06:00

This week I started a new illustration. I’m trying a couple new approaches with this project. One is that I’m drawing and painting entirely digital, with no pencil or ink drawings to scan in, and the other is that I’m documenting the entire process, capturing still images along the way and describing my method. This should be fun!

I have a rough idea of my subject matter, and that is of a winged character in mid-flight, holding a sword. This could be an angel or demon, or just perhaps a superhero-type character or even an alien; I don’t know yet.

My software is Adobe Photoshop CS4. I start off with a blank 480 x 640 canvas. This phase is strictly a composition and value study and I don’t want to get caught up in the details yet. I’ll create a much larger canvas for the actual painting. I lay down a couple gradients for the sky and establish the horizon line with a large airbrush.

On a new layer I start blocking in a silhouette of my character, mindful of only basic body proportions for now. Again, avoid details. At this point I know my character will be some sort of winged person in mid-flight, so I think of what would make an interesting pose; is he ascending or descending, or somewhere in between? I’m thinking about triangle shapes in my composition, and energy in the pose.

Here I added the wing shapes and decided he needs to move up and to the right. I also decide that our main light source will be the low sun in the horizon and thinking about how that will light the figure; which areas of the body will receive direct sunlight and which will be in shadow. There will also be ambient sky light from above, reflected off clouds.

I decided to move the horizon line up so we can see more of what type of landscape he’s flying over and to possibly add some sort of building or battle scene below. I also thought his foot in the previous version was “resting” on the horizon. This composition is more interesting and gives us a stronger sense of vertigo. The sun hasn’t really moved that much in relation to the figure, so the direct lighting remains about the same.

I refined some of the figure’s inner shapes, roughed in some hair and clothing, gave him some flaming eyes and changed the pose of his left arm, as I didn’t care for how it was reaching off-canvas; it looked like I was trying to avoid painting his hand, or he could have been hanging on to something. With this pose, there’s no question that he’s floating in air. And if he’s a magician as well I can paint him holding a ball of energy or a lightning bolt or something. I also bent his right leg further back; this gives the pose just a little bit more energy. The composition is starting to come together. I think it’s about time to start laying down the actual painting.

You should see the other guy.

2009-01-05T22:20:00.001-06:00

Alright, so I've been a lousy blogger. I could list many reasons why I haven't updated, but they're all lame.

Anyway, I got a nice little wake-up the other day from my cat. I like to keep a glass of water by the bed at night. It's usually in a bottle or other spill-proof container because my cat Vincent likes to drink out of people glassware, even though he has plenty of his own fresh water.

I felt him climb up onto the pillow to get at the glass, which was on the windowsill behind my head. Not wanting him to knock over the glass, as he has been known to do, I lifted him up and over my head. I'm not sure why, but it was 5 a.m. and I wasn't thinking clearly.

He squirmed and overbalanced in my hands, kicking out with his back legs and accidentally planting a good one across my right cheek. He still has his back claws, so it was quite painful. I yelled and tossed him away, cursing. I chugged the water in the glass and laid back down on the pillow.

Lifting my head up, I noticed a big streak of blood on my pillowcase. I ran to the bathroom mirror and discovered I had a huge gash on my cheek. Not deep enough for stitches, but it was significant. I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and applied a styptic pencil to stop the bleeding.

"Well, I'm up," I said as I shuffled into the kitchen to make coffee.

The good thing is that it looks kind of bad-ass, so I've been telling people I got into a knife fight over the weekend, in a story involving multiple attackers and a damsel in distress.

I love it but...

2008-11-24T12:55:00.000-06:00

The new MacBook is fantastic, and I'm quickly learning the ropes concerning all things OSX. And Creative suite 4 has excellent new features that I love, except one. The new help environment. Back in the day, when you hit F1 it would open the built-in help documentation. You could use the index to look up your problem, or search for keywords to find a topic to help you, and 99% of the time you found what you were looking for in seconds.

Now, the help command takes you to the Adobe Community Support forum, which is basically just a collection of forum topics and blogs that may or may not be about your problem, or may in fact be three FUCKING years old.

Evidently the whole thing is powered by a Google search, but if that's the case, why even bother with an Adobe community page if I can just jump on Google? And what if I don't happen to be connected to the internet at the time?

It seems you can download a complete PDF of help documentation. But it's only 40MB, so why not just bundle it with the software and make that the default F1 help environment? I'm not suggesting a big thick paper manual. Then you can have an additional Help menu item that will take you to Adobe Community. In fact, I think that's the way it was done in previous versions. Adobe new help and support = FAIL.

I love it I love it I love it.

2008-10-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

I an officially a Mac user as of yesterday. I spent several hours getting used to the new laptop, and I love it. OSX Leopard is so much better than Vista in so many ways I don't even know where to start.

It's nice to fire up a computer, install a peripheral and have it just... WORK. No ridiculous permission issues, none of this automatic attempt to find and install your driver for you (which NEVER works, by the way) no more antivirus software hogging system resources. Sorry, Microsoft, you done fucked up and lost a customer with your bloated new OS. Once you go Mac, you never go back.

On a funnier note, I had to do some dumpster diving this morning. I had left the box the MacBook came in on the floor next to my wastebasket, which the cleaning crew took as a signal to throw in the dumpster. I can't blame them, but it was unusual because most of the time you can't get them to throw empty boxes out. At any rate, I started to panic because the box had all my software and a couple accessories in it. Fortunately I was able to find it in the big dumpster out back, but I had to do some crawling. I was also fortunate that it was all office waste, which is mostly paper, and not everyone's kitchen garbage and broken glass.

So I am thoroughly enjoying the new MacBook Pro, and checking out all the new features of Adobe Creative Suite 4.

More vectors!

2008-10-27T16:27:00.001-05:00

Some more downtime at work today so I decided to flex some Illustrator muscle. Almost everything I know about graphic design I've learned on my own since graduation. They just don't teach much of it at all in the BPMI program at Iowa State.

My laptop should get here Thursday. I'm like a child before Christmas.

Ilea iacta est.

2008-10-23T13:03:00.000-05:00

The die is cast. I am about to become a Mac user. I just ordered a MacBook Pro:

320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive @ 7200
4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
Accessory kit
iWork '08 preinstalled
2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
MacBook Pro 17-inch Antiglare Widescreen Display

I think this is going to actually replace my desktop as a work computer. I can still hook up a second monitor to it, and I still have all my peripherals. Wacom tablet, NuLOOQ Navigator, external hard drive, etc.

The only thing is that I'm going to have to upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 4 since I can no longer do a cross-platform switch with my current Adobe Software. But CS4 looks fucking AMAZING. Just the new features in Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash gave me a hard-on. Especially Flash, which now has, among other things, inverse kinematics. You can make complex character animation without having to use a ton of script. Awesome. I can't wait.

My latest gripe with Vista.

2008-10-13T10:55:00.001-05:00

I'm working on a Photoshop painting, doing a lot of heavy, hi-resolution brush work. I noticed I was getting a lot of brush lag; that is, when you make a stroke it takes a split second for it to register on screen. If you aren't a digital painter it doesn't sound like a problem, but trust me, it is a HUGE problem.

I need my graphics program to be responsive and provide instant feedback, otherwise what's the point of all this expensive technology? When your computer boasts a 2.41 GHz CPU with 512MB video memory and 4GB RAM it had better goddamn perform.

I did some forum searching and found that if you change your display theme from Vista Basic (solid-color windows, no fancy effects) to Vista Aero (transparent window frames, animated window opening effects, more of a "Mac" look), the problem is fixed. Sure enough, after I did that, no more brush lag.

Leave it to Microsoft to design an OS in which the more basic graphics scheme makes your computer run LESS efficiently. "What's that? You say you just want a basic interface with no fancy animations and eye candy? You're missing out on the whole Vista Experience™! Look pal, we spent a lot of money and man-hours programming these advanced display features, and dammit, you're going to use them. Alright, alright, if you MUST have a no-frills interface, I suppose we have some leftover source code we can paste on top of everything."

Mint chocolate swirly vectors

2008-09-17T16:42:00.001-05:00

Had some more downtime at work today, so I played a bit more with Adobe Illustrator. I used some of my calligraphic art brushes to make the swirly lines, added some leaves, and then mirrored some blend objects on the top and bottom. Voila. I think it makes a nice decorative pattern. I'm not gay.

I almost bought a Mac Pro today.

2008-09-11T11:44:00.001-05:00

Today I was probably less than two clicks away from purchasing a Mac Pro. This, when I am one payment away from paying off my credit cards. All I'm waiting on is payment for the Mr. T book project (or my next paycheck, whichever comes first) and I will have completely eradicated all of my consumer debt.

I've carried a credit card balance since 2000, when I custom-built a PC for college. I've come close to paying it off several times, but time and again I've succumbed to the pattern of buying stuff. Woodworking equipment here, electronic drums there, computer monitor, furniture, toys, stuff stuff stuff. Some of it has been necessary for my profession, like Adobe CS3 software, but much of it has been just... stuff. At one point I had a balance of over $6,000. I know that's actually below average in this country, but it's still unacceptable. So over the last year I've disciplined myself to pay that sonofabitch down, and now I'm one payment away, and I'll be damned if I didn't just almost shoot it right back up into the thousands.

Not today, baby. They almost got me, but not today. My mantra from now on shall be "If I don't have the money for it, I probably don't need it." I'm holding to my plan, which is - wait for it - saving money until I can afford to buy something. What a crazy concept! Besides, in a few months, when I actually have the money, the price might come down, or I might get more bang for my buck. And don't give me any business like, "well, just put it on your credit card and pay it off when you get the bill." I'm not falling for that ballyhoo.

Two quad-core 3.0GHz Intel Xeon processors with 4MB RAM is going to be pretty sweet, though.

Mavericks to nowhere.

2008-09-05T17:30:00.000-05:00

"As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?" -Sarah Palin, June 25, 2008

When my sister asked me what I thought about McCain’s choice for VP I didn’t have much to say on the matter, because I honestly didn’t know much about Governor Sarah Palin. I gave a non-committal answer and told her that it wasn’t surprising that he would choose a young photogenic woman to try to balance the ticket. Say what you want about her experience... whatever. I’ll concede that not everybody elected to public office has to be a 20-year Washington veteran .

However, the more I learn about Sarah Palin the more she scares me.

In her acceptance speech at the GOP Convention this week she claimed that she “told Congress thanks but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere”, a term she said she was insulted by when she was running for governor in 2006. She indeed did reject federal funds, but only after the fiasco gained national attention and it became politically expedient to do so. She forgot to mention that she originally supported the project and secured a $223 million earmark for it in 2005. In fact, she supported the bridge in 2006 at the time the Republican Congress opposed it. The money, consequently, stayed in Alaska. And she claims to be a fiscal conservative.

Apparently she does when it comes to social programs. As Governor she used her line item veto to reduce funding for Covenant House Alaska by over 20% earlier this year, before her teenage daughter became pregnant. I guess fornication is not as much of a sin when your own daughter is doing it. Too bad not all teenage mothers are from wealthy political families, then I guess we wouldn't need halfway houses at all, would we?

Here’s what that exemplar of objective, non-partisan journalism Bill O'Reilly had to say on the issue of teenage pregnancy. Pay attention to the dates:

“Millions of American families are dealing with teenage pregnancy and as long as society doesn’t have to support the mother, father, or baby, it is a personal matter. It is true that some Americans will judge Governor Palin and her family… for the sake of her and her family we hope things calm down.”

- Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor, September 2, 2008

And this, directly from foxnews.com:

”On the pinhead front, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. The sister of Britney says she is shocked. I bet. Now most teens are pinheads in some ways. But here the blame falls primarily on the parents of the girl, who obviously have little control over her or even over Britney Spears. Look at the way she behaves.”

- Bill O’Reilly, December 20, 2007

Sarah Palin believes that Roe v Wade should be overturned completely and irrevocably, and that women should not have the choice to end their pregnancy in any situation. These are arguments that should have ended twenty years ago. What’s that? You were raped? Tough stuff, sweetheart, you’ve got to have that baby no matter what. Your pervert father molested you and knocked you up? Too bad, so sorry, you and your unwanted child are screwed for life.

She also appears to be unfamiliar with the First Amendment, judging from her attempt to fire the Wasilla, AK city librarian because the she refused to consider removing from the library some books that Palin wanted removed. Censorship is not what this country is about. Fortunately the people of Wasilla banded together and came to the librarian’s defense, and Palin withdrew the termination.

And goodness gracious, fuck me, she also thinks that public schools should teach creationism.

Are these policies what she was referring to when she talked about eliminating big government in her much-heralded acceptance speech? Conservatives love talking about getting government out of our lives when it comes to their money, but on all other matters they don’t mind telling you how you should live.

I’m not buying any of it. She looks good in front of the cameras. She can deliver a speech well. What's it been, 11 days since she accepted the VP nomination? She hasn't held one interview, not one press conference. But then again, what's the point? Any word out of her mouth in an interview or press conference would just be more window dressing, fearmongering, meaningless phrases like "small-town values" and outright lies, to say nothing of her avoidance of speaking about policy issues and things that matter.

I want to end this with a question. What would you rather spend money on, four more years of war in Iraq, at a cost of $6 billion per MONTH, or affordable health care for children (at a comparatively low cost of $1 billion per month for five years, a bill that Bush vetoed in 2007?)

I could go on, but I'm getting pissed. More lies, more aggression, more of the same.

Vectors!

2008-09-04T17:34:00.000-05:00

I've been getting into a lot of swirly vector art lately. I know there's a lot of swirly vector design out there lately, but it's a lot of fun. I had some downtime today and I knocked out this design. I also found some great illustrator tutorials in general at this website: http//www.vectortuts.com.

Another project in the can.

2008-08-28T14:22:00.000-05:00

Last night I finished up illustrations for the "Mr. T vs. Chuck Norris" book. There are still a couple drawings with which I'm not entirely satisfied, and I'd like to dress up some of the backgrounds a bit more, but I was under a huge time crunch and yesterday was the deadline. That's the way it is with every project; you always find little details that bother you after it's done. It's especially true with multiple-illustration projects. When you're on a tight deadline sometimes you just can't give each one the love it deserves.

It reminds me of something my BPMI instructor Dean Biechler used to say. There's a lot of "C" work available, a fair amount of "B" work and very little "A" work to be found in the illustration field. Clients need drawings, and they need them yesterday. Each one doesn't have to be a 30-hour masterpiece, it just needs to "look good".

Take this one for example. The concept is "There are only 4 horsemen of the apocalypse because Mr. T is going to walk." I think I did a good job with the line work, but I know there are some issues with the shading. I didn't have time to go into super detail, so I used some digital speedpainting techniques I learned from watching several Gnomon Workshop DVDs, and just roughed in some background texture, clouds and assorted hoo-hah.

Either way, I think I delivered a good service in a very timely fashion. I'm anxious to see the end result (and get paid for the job). In the meantime, I'm going to Dubuque to visit my family for Labor Day weekend, play some Rock Band, watch my niece in the parade, ride my bicycle and relax a bit.

A similar Wed-nes-day in Feb-ru-ary

2008-08-21T10:05:00.001-05:00

There are certain words in the English language that I still struggle with. I've always used grammar reasonably well (see?) and I've always been a good speller, but some words continue to trip me up, and always will.

Some days I just can't seem to get a particular word right, like ~~baloon~~ balloon. Does it have one L or two? Even now I can't get it right. ~~Carreer~~ career is another one. One day I managed to convince myself that the word "similar" was in fact not a word. I kept saying it over and over, and it just did not sound right. For an entire week I avoided using the word for fear of embarrassing myself.

To this day, whenever I write the word Wednesday I have to phonetically separate it: "Wed-Nes-Day", I'll say to myself. Same thing with the word February. I am unaware of the origins of these words, but I hope the person(s) who coined them centuries ago died horribly.

And if I ever have to write "Wednesday, February 12th is Career Day! There will be ~~complementary~~ ~~complamen~~ ~~comp~~ free balloons" I shall run screaming from the room.

I pity the fool!

2008-08-14T11:55:00.000-05:00

I landed another illustration contract this week, making art for the book Mr. T vs. Chuck Norris by Ian Spector, the guy who started the whole Chuck Norris thing. He already has a book titled The Truth About Chuck Norris. Angelo Vildasol, the illustrator of that book, worked with me on The Alphabet of Manliness. He recommended me for this project, so I owe him a thank-you. I have 10 illustrations to complete for an August 27 deadline, so the rest of this month is going to be busy for me, to say the least.

Just so you know, it's a fact that Mr. T once punched Chuck Norris in the face at the exact moment Chuck Norris roundhouse-kicked Mr. T in the chest. The result was the 80's.

RAGBRAI 2008, Part 2

2008-08-07T16:05:00.000-05:00

After a much-needed 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in comfortable beds, Denny and I were ready to bid Ames farewell in the morning. We took our time leaving, dropping our bags back on the NAD bus and rolling out of town at about 10:00. By that time, most everybody was gone and the cops were clearing out the barricades. Other late riders were asking us where the route was. We weren’t too sure about where the actual route through town, but we knew that it was Lincoln Highway to Nevada, so we just told everyone to follow us.

It turns out that starting late was a good thing, because early that morning somebody thought it would be funny to throw down a bunch of thumbtacks on the road in between Nevada and Colo. By the time we reached that area, the Highway patrol had brought in a street sweeper to clear them out.

Most of the day we biked into a headwind and it was quite slow going. Colo to State Center to Green Mountain, we just kept our heads down and hammered into the wind. After Green Mountain we hopped into a paceline with Los Bastardos, and then another big paceline after that. This gave us a much-needed speed and morale boost, as we were really dragging. By this time we had caught up to the bulk of the Ragbrai riders. We stopped in LeGrand to reapply sunblock and get some munchies.

We slipped into another big paceline on the way into Montour, where we stopped again. Denny had a burger and a brat while I decided to wait until the end to eat a meal. I tried this stuff they were selling in a miniature tube, the end of which you crack off to open. It was some sort of energy gel/fluid that had glucosamine sulphate (“like WD-40 for your joints!” it advertised). It was quite bitter, and had been sitting in the sun all day, so it was really hot as well. I suppose I should’ve just passed, because I don’t have bad joints in the first place, but I figured what the hell, I’ll try it for the energy boost. Meh.

We caught up with the other fast riders in our group and I started another paceline, pulling us most of the way into Tama/Toledo. By this time we were ready for the day to be over. We got to the house, and the owner was there with deer sausage and crackers on his deck. Man, that was some good stuff. His 8-year old daughter was driving a golf cart around his big yard, offering rides. She was a little firecracker.

We showered and changed, then went off to find a place to eat. Denny, Matt and I hit this Mexican restaurant, where Denny and I had the biggest goddamn margaritas you’d ever want to drink in your life. My arm actually got tired while holding this thing as we waited for a table. After a huge enchilada dinner we went back to the campsite and collapsed.

On day 5 we woke to a steady rain, and I had left my rain shell in Ames. Everyone had left, but Denny and I watched the radar from in the house and decided to wait it out for a while. After thanking our hosts we left after the rain had stopped, but the pavement was still wet. We also had a headwind and rough road, so the first half of the day was an absolute chore that I’m not too fond of re-telling. After a long stop in Blairstown we started to make some good time because it was mostly downhill to the Amanas. We stopped for a smoothie in Homestead, listened to another cover band play “Sweet Home Alabama” and hit the road. We made a short turn north, getting a much-needed tailwind and downhill stretch. It was here that I set a new personal top speed record of 44.5 mph. From here we just hammered into it, ready for the day to be over.

We rolled into North Liberty and found the house, and with it a huge spread of goodies. I swear the accommodations just kept getting better and better with each house we stayed at. Nachos, taco casserole, pasta salad, cookies, and a nice big yard to pitch the tents. These people were fantastic. The husband used to DJ, so he had a big sound system set up, blaring tunes into the night. We could’ve just stayed there, but Denny had made plans to meet up with his old college friend Nikki. She took us to her friend’s house in North Liberty, and we had burgers on his grill. Everything always seems to taste better after you’ve just ridden 76 miles on a bicycle.

They dropped us back at the host house and we sat around with the team for a while, having cocktails from the drink machine and talking about the day. We collapsed in the tent, and I actually got good night’s sleep this time.

Day 6 was much better. Low 80’s and low humidity, and a slight tailwind. We had breakfast burritos in Solon (go Spartans) while listening to a high school cover band. Afterwards Denny, Matt and I blazed through the route. None of us really felt like stopping much, because it was a welcome change of pace compared to the previous day’s slog. We stopped briefly in Mount Vernon to use the kybos, and the next thing we knew we were in Mechanicsville with only about 12 miles left in the day.

Mechanicsville was too funny. The whole town was one gigantic beer garden. Nobody, as far as we could tell, was checking IDs. Folks were partying on the roof of one of the buildings, Mardi-Gras style. I was anticipating exposed breasts, but alas none. Perhaps we got there too early. We had lunch (hamburger and a slice of apple pie from the American Legion Hall – fuck, it was delicious), stretched and hit the road.

To my concern I noticed I started getting a bit of a tickle in my throat. Ignoring it, I started another paceline and traded off taking the front with a guy from Team Road Show. A line of about 15 of us flew into Tipton, averaging about 22 mph. Day 6 was in the can. We destroyed it.

The owners of the house weren’t home, but they left a note telling us where everything was, and to feel free to throw our sleeping bags on the floor if we were tired of tents, which we most certainly were. After a shower and a nap we had some Tender Tom’s Turkey for dinner and checked out the block-long beer garden. Team Road Show was putting on an impressive juggling and hula-hooping display. The headlining act in the last, and therefore biggest party town was a stand-up musical comedian who was supposed to be really good, appeared on Comedy Central, etc. He sucked big-time. People were leaving the crowd in droves. We all ended up standing around and talking, met a couple young ladies (too young for Denny and I, plus we’re taken). Actually it was more like yelling, since the band and crowd were so loud. This was doing wonders for my throat tickle, which by morning had developed into a full-scale sore throat/chest cold. I think the damp, cool weather on Day 5 did it.

At any rate, Day 7 was by far the easiest. Mostly tailwind and only 53 miles. And the weather was gorgeous. As we crossed Highway 61 it was weird seeing the sign “Davenport: 3 Miles”, knowing we were just kissing the north edge of the Quad-Cities. We blasted into LeClaire, barely stopping at all that day. As we hit the outskirts I had stopped to shoot some video, and Denny had gotten way ahead of me. This was another situation in which we tried to find each other, but ended up missing. I coasted into town with Matt, Joe and Nick and we hit the riverfront with a warm welcome and congratulations from the locals. We got into the huge line to dip our front tires. I managed to contact Denny’s phone, and he came to join us in line. We dipped our front tires into the Mississippi and breathed a sigh of accomplishment.

In all, Denny and I had ridden exactly 500 miles that week. The extra 35 miles trying to find the Missouri River put us over the half-grand mark. We had a couple of hours before the bus would arrive, so we stepped into Sneaky Pete’s for a celebratory late lunch. I had a salmon entrée with a Corona that never tasted so good. Denny had a steak. Afterwards we went to find the bus, which hadn’t arrived yet. The rest of the team was in a roadhouse tavern, so we joined them, having some cocktails and playing pool.

The bus finally arrived, and we threw our bikes and bags on top, some of us using the camp showers we brought with us. Knowing I’d just get sweaty again, I instead wiped off with a Klenz towel (those things are great; they’re like gigantic baby wipes for when you’re camping without shower access). The bus ride home was loooonnnng. Just outside of LeClaire we had passed a team bus that was stuck perpendicularly in the median ditch, digging themselves out. It looked like they had tried making a U-turn; who knows what the hell they were doing, poor bastards. We honked and waved, but they understandably didn’t seem to be in a very friendly mood.

After over 4 hours of jostling down the interstate we finally rolled into Napier at 11:00 pm. Denny and I transferred our stuff to my pickup truck, bid everyone farewell, and drove back to Ames, stopping at the grocery store for breakfast stuff because I was damned if I was about to step outside the next morning. We were both looking forward to a lazy day of sitting on our asses and playing Rock Band.

RAGBRAI 2008, Part 1

2008-07-31T23:01:00.000-05:00

Ragbrai XXXVI has come and gone, and it was a fantastic time. I forgot how much fun it was. The last full Ragbrai I participated in was in 1991. All the years since I’ve come up with a myriad of excuses why I couldn’t do it (busy with other things, don’t own a tent, put it off, I hate camping, etc.) When I heard that Ragbrai was stopping overnight in Ames this year, I knew I had no more excuses.

My good friend Denny Smith drove up from Corpus Christi to participate. The longest he had ever ridden his bicycle was 14 miles, so I knew he was in for a challenge. Ragbrai averages about 68 miles a day, rain or shine.

One thing I noticed is how much easier it was. The weather, mileage and climbing were all about the same as they were last time. I was 18 then, I’m 35 now, and it wasn’t nearly as challenging. I think because now I ride my bike every day and am just in generally better shape. I have a better bike, but not that much better.

We rode with Team N.A.D. (Not Against Drinking), which consisted of a couple guys from my work and a bunch of their friends. The bus got into Missouri Valley late Saturday afternoon, and Denny and I decided to ride our bikes to the Missouri River, which was about 13 miles away. We ended up missing the turn into the state park and went 4 miles too far. We eventually got to the river and dipped our back tires in the Missouri, a Ragbrai tradition (at the end you dip your front tire in the Mississippi). When we got back into town at dusk we had ended up doing about 35 miles.

The first night we didn’t get much sleep. It was terribly humid, and we had to keep the rain fly on the tent because thunderstorms were near. Denny and I ended up sleeping outside on the grass. Day 1 was a good start. It was hilly, but calm, so we didn’t have a headwind. I had to stop and wait for Denny several times, which I expected. He was doing well. We rolled into Harlan at about 2PM. It was hot and humid, but we pitched the tent.

Team NAD had arranged a host house in each of the overnight towns, which makes a world of difference. We had a place to pitch our tents on their lawn and they let us use their showers and bathrooms. It was fantastic. The Kastens, the family that hosted us in Harlan, were wonderful. They had cookies, lemonade and other goodies waiting in their basement. A group of us hung out there all afternoon in the air conditioning after a shower. The house was two miles west of the actual town, and none of us felt like riding into town and getting all sweaty again, so we ordered pizza. That night we were in the tent, and we woke up at about 2:30 to howling wind. The sky looked awful. Just then a sheriff’s deputy rolled through the neighborhood and on his loudspeaker announced that all Ragbrai campers were to take shelter immediately. So we all packed into the Kasten’s basement. After a while some people went back outside to their tents, but Denny and I ended up crashing on the floor.

We woke up at 6:00 again in an effort to beat the heat. We packed up the tent and got ready for the next day. After emphatically thanking our hosts, we hit the road, more or less ready to ride 83 miles to Jefferson. Day 2 was more of the same. Calm, sunny, mid-80’s and hilly. I had pulled ahead of Denny and came upon a food stand called Pastafari. I dedided to grab a spot in line and wait for Denny to pass, intending to call out when I saw him. Minutes passed, and no Denny. I tried calling him a couple times, but his cell couldn’t get a signal. Sprint sucks. By this time I was halfway through the line, so I decided to grab some pasta on my own. I had a tomato penne with cucumbers that was delicious. I hopped back on the bike and rode ahead, passing riders and scanning for Denny, hoping that he wasn’t in either of the two ambulances that passed me.

Later I heard that one of the ambulances was for a guy who was one of the self-contained riders (hauling his own equipment). He hit a parallel crack in the road, lodged his front wheel and went over the handlebars. Audrey, I’m sure you can relate to this.

After a while Denny called me. He couldn’t even get a roaming signal until he reached the next town. He told me he had hauled ass trying to catch up to me, and he had been walking around Coon Rapids for about 30 minutes looking for me. “Well, you caught me alright”, I said. We took a break and had some bananas and Gatorade. We then pressed on to Scranton, making jokes about The Office all the way (“Hey, I wonder if Scrantonicity is playing a gig there!”). Scranton ended up suckin’. We noticed a storm front up north, complete with lightning, and decided we could make the 9 miles to Jefferson if we hurried. We got back on the road and with Denny on my back wheel we burned into Jefferson. The rain started falling right as we rolled into town, which felt good. 83 miles in the can. The longest day was done!

Day 3 was cake compared to the previous day. 57 miles, mostly flat. We replaced Denny's rear inner tube due to a slow leak, but fortunately that was the only mechanical problem the entire trip. We made good time, stopping at a smoothie stand on a farmhouse lawn outside of Ogden. Best smoothie I think I've ever had.

We hit the Des Moines River Valley and the monster hill that came with it. I stopped at the top to film Denny's ascent, but he must have passed me while I was farting around with the camera. I guess he wasn't that far behind. Anyway, the same thing happened as it did on Day 2. I pressed on to Boone and walked around for about a half hour looking for him. Called him twice, but again, Sprint sucks a fat one. I decided to press on alone to Ames. Denny called right as I left Boone; he finally got a signal.

Me: "Where are you?"

Denny: "I'm about 2 miles from your house!"

It seems he hammered again, trying to catch up to me, not knowing that I was way back looking for him. I still had 18 miles to go, and he was already in Ames. So I hammered on, passing everybody, with nobody passing me so I couldn't even get into a decent draft line. Finally I hooked up with Team Air Force and drafted them all the way into Ames. I thanked them for the pull and headed to my house. Denny wasn't there, but he had left his water bottle at my garage door. I went into the apartment and said hi to the cats. He came in 5 minutes later. Seems he couldn't wait so he took a shit at the convenient store around the corner.

After showers I threw in three loads of laundry and we crashed for two hours. I was going on 8 hours of sleep in the last 3 days. I could've slept for 12 hours straight. Later we had dinner at West Towne Pub. Afterwards we went to Jax Outdoor and picked up all the camping stuff we should have brought with us in the first place. Stopped by Skunk River Cycles so I could pick up a new bike computer. Mine had crapped out. Later we went to Welch Ave. Station and met up with some of Denny's friends. I'm so glad you can't smoke in bars in Iowa anymore. Sorry, smokers, but it was pretty annoying. Anyway, we wanted to see Styx but we decided a good night's sleep in a proper bed in air conditioning was in order.

Part 2 coming soon…

Return to San Francisco

2008-07-31T09:34:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend of the 12th I visited the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I’m thinking of getting a Master’s Degree in Illustration, so I took advantage of their hospitality weekend, and stayed a couple of nights on campus. I love that city. I arrived Thursday afternoon and the first thing I did after riding the BART into the city was to sit down on the steps at the plaza by the Montgomery Street BART Station and just take in the sights and sounds. The weather was beautiful, and it stayed that way all weekend.

I checked in at the housing office, and they gave me my room assignment; the Commodore on Sutter Street. Freshman dorms, but it was surprisingly quiet all weekend. Probably because of summer. I read a book while having dinner at a Thai restaurant. I had been up since 4:00 AM, (2:00 AM Pacific). By the time I got settled and talked to everyone on the phone, I was so tired that I collapsed around7:30. I slept for nearly 12 hours.

Woke up at 7, had breakfast at the Taylor Street Coffee Shop. One of the best in SF. Read the paper, walked around for a bit snapping photos and trying not to look like a tourist. Found a spot at an outdoor café named La Boulange on Market Street. I drew in my sketchbook for a bit. That's a great spot to sit and watch people go by on their morning commute, especially the cyclists. SF is an incredibly bike friendly city.

At 10 I met up with an admissions advisor, and he told me that I have a killer portfolio and I should have no problem getting in. Then I met with a financial aid advisor. Money is the big issue for me, but I was pleasantly reassured after meeting with him. This isn’t going to be impossible. After a lunch of sushi I took a tour of the Schools of Illustration, Interior Design, Fashion, Animation/Visual Effects, and Film. I was very impressed. Lots of great facilities and student work.

Afterwards I had dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the Nob Hill district. Tired again, I went up to my room and read for a while before going to sleep.

Saturday morning I got up and had breakfast at the Pinecrest Diner. I checked out of the Commodore and into my room at the King George Hotel. I dropped the bags in my room and went to Bay City Bike to pick up a bicycle rental. Now that’s the way to go. Much quicker getting around than walking and you don’t have to rely on bus schedules. At first I was a bit nervous about cycling in a big city, but like I said, SF is very bike-friendly. There’s a rhythm to it, and I was able to keep up with vehicle traffic. Some of the hills are BRUTAL. I was hammering up Taylor Street, and even in the granny gear I had to stand up in the cranks. Then I rolled down crooked Lombard Street, because you can’t bike in SF and not do that.

I went to City Lights Books on Columbus Avenue, right next to Jack Kerouac alley. I could’ve spent hours in there. Almost an entire wall on the second floor was devoted to Beat literature. I picked up Roomanitarian by Henry Rollins.

Afterwards I rode down to Brannan Street to check out the Academy of Art Spring Show. I was blown away by the quality of student work. Overwhelmed, really. This is an annual show where industry professionals from companies like Pixar, BMW, Canon, Adobe Systems, Cisco, Mercedes Benz, Lucasfilm, Nickelodeon, Microsoft Games, THQ, ILM, Walt Disney, Sony, EA Games and more are flown in to review portfolios and interview graduating students. I’m definitely going to school here.

After a hamburger lunch at Dottie’s Diner I got back on the bike and pedaled down to the Haight-Ashbury district. It was about what I expected. Gentrified and commercialized, but still carrying the ghosts of hippies. Street musicians and bums nested between clothing stores selling $100 jeans. And Ben & Jerry’s of course. I found a great used clothing store and bought a couple shirts. Then I cut into Golden Gate Park and checked out a drum circle, one of the coolest things I saw on the trip. All types of people playing all types of percussion instruments in tempo. Clean, dirty, old, young, white, Hispanic, everybody just getting into the beat. A young woman in a long skirt danced in the center. This is what it’s all about, I thought.

I rode through the park to Ocean Beach and sat in the sand for a while and looked out over the edge of the world.

The sun was getting low so I made my way back to the hotel. I showered, changed, and went out again to find a place to eat. Not a problem in SF. Another Italian place, this time a calzone and salad. I walked around some more (I left my bike at the hotel) and found a bench at Union Square. I observed a crowd of teenagers sitting in a circle. It didn’t look like they were doing anything illegal (i.e. drinking, drugs, etc) They just seemed to be talking. I thought of how different it must be growing up in a big city like this as opposed to a small town in Iowa. I envied these kids and their environment.

One thing I wouldn’t have envied is the panhandlers. As I was sitting on the bench trying to make some sketches a bum (probably a junkie from the way he was fidgeting) came up to me and asked if I had any spare change so he could get something to eat. I told him no. Twice, because he approached me a second time.

One thing I learned quick is to not give money to panhandlers. You might say, “oh, what’s a few coins?” Ordinarily nothing, but these people are everywhere. Every street corner, every park, every store entrance. The only people I give money to are street musicians because they're at least performing a service. The only negative thing I've experienced so far in San Francisco is all the panhandlers. Anyway, I walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Sunday morning I slept in a little (9:00) and checked out. I left my bags with the front desk and took my bike out. Breakfast at Taylor Street Coffee Shop again (I love that place), and then I went up to Chinatown. I bought a wall hanging for Rose to replace the one her dog destroyed. Walked around some more and observed a rally protesting the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China. I spent some more time strolling around Chinatown, checking out the goods. Some stores had really interesting things, some had touristy crap.

Then I rode over to the Embarcadero and watched a preteen rock band playing a show at Justin Herman Plaza. Very spirited, that’s all I’m going to say. Alright, they sucked, but I gave them an A for effort. They were collecting donations for their future “tour”. I crossed Embarcadero and watched an awesome percussionist banging on rubber trash cans, pots, pans, and bowls while wearing tambourines on his feet. Made my way north to Pier 39, but didn’t go in there. Fell into that tourist trap last time. My mom called, and I talked to her for a while.

I must not have zipped up the phone pocket in my backpack when I replaced my cell because later I realized that my phone was gone. I retraced my steps and couldn’t find it at all. I borrowed a phone a couple times from people and called the number, but no answer. I was a bit upset at my own stupidity.

I went to a coffee shop later, and would have enjoyed the rest of the afternoon sitting outside and reading (great weather again), but the damn phone was bothering me. I went to return the bicycle to the shop and called the police station from their phone, but the cops told me I had to file a report in person. For the hell of it I tried my number again. This time a guy answered! He told me he had already talked to my mother (oh great). We agreed to meet at the Embarcadero BART station. A very nice man met me there with his two kids. Evidently one of his sons found it next to a bush. I slipped him $20 for his trouble, happy to get my phone back.

All things being as they should again, I hopped a cable car back to Powell Street. I walked around some more, talked on the phone with my sister and watched a quartet of young boys singing out of a third-story window. It was beautiful. There must have been some music school in that building. After some Chinese dinner I returned to the King George Hotel and took the airport shuttle back to SFO for my red-eye flight to Des Moines. I went right into work on Monday, a little more certain of my future.

Hi there.

2008-07-09T12:11:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome. This is a page for me to stay in touch and let everyone know what's going on in my life. I'm taking off for San Francisco tomorrow to visit The Academy of Art University and start deciding if I want to go to graduate school for an MFA in Illustration. I'll probably have trouble sleeping tonight; I love San Francisco, and whether I decide to go there for school or not, this will be a fun and exciting weekend.

The week after next is RAGBRAI. My friend Denny is coming up from Corpus Christi. The crazy bastard is driving the whole trip, but with airfare the way it is I can't say I blame him. It's going to be a great time. I'll have my camcorder, and I might bring my laptop to post updates throughout the week. Depends on how much room we have and whether I want to deal with it. It seems odd to have a laptop while you're "roughing it".