Monday, December 31, 2012

52 Stories



New Year's Resolutions were made to be broken, but I will make this one anyway. I propose to make 52 short stories with an illustration to accompany each one. There will be 52 stories and illustrations for each week of 2013, so if I miss a week, I'll need two for the next, etc. If I fall off the horse the best thing is to get back on, so I will try to keep it going all year long no matter how I am doing as I near the end.

Why do this craziness? Because! I want to work out my storytelling and illustration (as opposed to concept design) muscles. I will try to keep the stories limited to the realm of sci-fi/sci-fantasy since that seems to me to be the broadest palette to paint with creatively. There will surely be a lot of misses, but perhaps there will be a few hits, too.

Phew. Alright. No more thinking, just jump!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Run to the Hills









I needed inspiration and some time outside, so my wife and I trekked up to the Alpine Ridge trail on the Peninsula, always a place to find solace. A few hours usually does the job nicely.

Friday, December 28, 2012

iPad Funhouse



My little brother found my iPad and started playing with the camera. He started laughing up a storm, so I went over to see what he was cracking up about. He was using the funhouse mirror effects on the camera to take wacky pictures (a feature everyone knows about...I'm late to the game). There were some pretty pushed effects as a result, so I sketched them. Caricature artists can do this instinctually and to better effect, but I can see how this sort of tech could expand someone's understanding of what "pushed" can mean in a portrait.

2012 Apocalyptical



The end of 2012 is nigh and there was a lot of this and that about the end of the world. In any case, it was a pretty grim year. May 2013 be a happy one free from the end-of-the-world doom and gloom.