Sometimes I Need an Elephant

I, like many of you, am often forgetful. When I'm in the middle of doing one thing, I will remember or think of something else. I'm pretty sure if I could just recall all of those forgotten ideas, I would have accomplished something pretty amazing by now, maybe invented something, or cured something.

Apparently elephants don't forget anything. It must be frustrating to have so many great ideas, but not be able to execute on them, because of the lack of opposable thumbs.

Maybe if I had a pet elephant, he could remind me of all the great things I forgot.

Let's Go Camping!

When I was a kid, my grandparents had a camper mounted on the back of a pickup truck. In those simpler times, my brothers, sister, and uncle, would ride in the camper. The best seat was stretched out in the top level, looking out the front window. In hind-sight, not safe. But fun!

Empty Bird House

As families grow in the spring, these places are going to go fast.

Snacks Anyone?

Staying at home all the time, I find my mind often wandering to what snack would I like...right now! A lot like this guy.

Social Distancing, With a Friend if Possible

Now that everyone is inside learning to make sourdough bread, and eating it, it can be easy to get some uninterrupted exercise. Include a friend if you can.

Trying to Stay Cheerful in a Crazy Spring

Maybe these birds can bring a smile.

Work Uniforms: Once Upon a Time

Growing up in the '60s and '70s, I remember that men wore hats and ties, daily if they worked in an office, or in sales, and of course to church on Sundays. I can still see the cloak room in the back of our church, with overcoats on hangers, and hats stacked on the shelf over the coats.

I wonder now about those hats. What kind of bird provided the feather? How did people keep them clean? And with all the men using Brylcreem (A Little Dab'll Do Ya!) how did the hats not end up slimy?

Where did they all go?

Research in Noise-Making

There are so many ways to make a ruckus all by ourselves. Writing, singing, drawing pictures, playing loud music, and so much more. And now we can impress (annoy) people all over the world with our output!

I hope you all take some time to be creative. (It doesn't have to be great, to be fun.)

Essentials of Towing

I don't know a thing about towing cars. But I have had a car or two towed before. Long ago, when I was in high school, tow trucks looked a lot like this one. The truck would lift the front of the car and pull it to where it needed to go. Now most of the tow trucks seem to be flatbed trucks, and the car that needs to be moved rides on top.

But I like the way this looks...

Fast Typing

In high school, I took a typing class. Typing wasn't considered an essential skill, unless you wanted to be a secretary, author, or maybe a news reporter. At home we had a manual typewriter. My dad could type really fast on it. He learned in the Air Force, translating Morse Code.
Most of the machines in class were manual, I liked the smack the keys made as they hammered the letters against the paper.

In art school, I didn't need typing skills be a designer or illustrator. I left the typing to typesetters. When the Macintosh came along, I was grateful for my personal typing class.

Now I can type very easily, and reasonably quickly...maybe not as fast as this guy...

A Self-Portait

Without the glasses.

 

Spring 2020

Cold and rain outside. A Saturday afternoon, in the spring. The bad weather certainly helps us all with social distancing. Here is a drawing of a bird. I hope you enjoy it!

Honest Labor

Another drawing completed in Gimp, the open source photo editing software. I started with a rapid sketch in a sketchbook. I photographed it with my iphone, saved it to a pc, opened it in Gimp, and added a lot of rough coloring.

I like it!

Alternative Tools in an Open Source World

I have known about Inkscape for years, but since I have always had a functioning version of Adobe Illustrator, I haven't bothered looking into it.

Through my (many, many) years of graphic design, I have had the opportunity to use a lot of illustration software. My first copy of Adobe Illustrator was version 2. It worked sluggishly on my first Mac LC. (anybody else remember that one?) The Mac LC was the cheapest color-capable Mac available at the time, and I was cheap, so it was a perfect choice. Other software I used over the years included, Macromedia Freehand and Corel Draw. Plus I drew things in Flash.

Previously I wrote about experimenting with Gimp while I stayed at home to avoid a virus. This time I used Inkscape. I was impressed with all the features available. I started by importing a line drawing and using the autotrace to convert it to vectors. That worked great, I was off to a good start. I then used layers to organize the colors. That also worked well but I wish there was a way to open each layer and see the sub-layers, like you can in Illustrator. There are a lot of filters available. I found the controls for those confusing, but I was able to find a helpful youtube video.

All in all, it was a successful experiment. My pc was pretty sluggish, but it did the job. Here is picture of a dog. As you can see, I have helpfully labeled it as a "dog."

Time On My Hands, With No Driver

Turns out I have some time on my hands, so I thought I would return to making some things to share on my blog.

I have an old pc at home, that is limping along. I originally got it so I could practice coding on a system similar to what I would be using at a new job I started a few years ago. The past few years have seen the rise of open source software. With that in mind, I have avoided loading anything on this machine except open source software. One of the things I have installed is Gimp. I have opened it a few times in the past, but never really used it extensively. I am so familiar with Photoshop that using something else is frustrating. But I thought I would try out Gimp to see if I could do something similar to what I have done before.

Embrace the frustration! Collect a new experience! Be a beginner!

I started with a sketch on newsprint, using a Sharpy marker. I scanned it, opened it in Gimp and finished the drawing shown here. The "B" on the left stands for "Big fella being driven by his chauffeur." I think it looks pretty good! And it was cheap!

Yellow Bird On the Prowl

I made a mindless sketch long ago in a sketchbook. I scanned it for later fun. Finally, I added some color and texture over the last couple of days. And today, I put it in a post for you, the viewer, to enjoy. I hope you do!

Turkey Trot

Looking through old pictures, I found a mixed media turkey. Since we are still eating left-overs from this year's Thanksgiving I thought I would post this one. This started as a drawing that I silk screened with black acrylic ink. After it was dry, I added watercolor. Note the dance steps at the bottom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rain Barrel

Summer time, collecting the rain. Seems like a great idea! The rain runs off the rooftop, collecting in the barrel. Ready for distribution on the vegetable garden.

This is another painting done on the mystery paper I mentioned in previous posts.

Grasshopper

Summer is coming, and grasshoppers will soon be here.
When I was a young lad, our family had a cat who went by the name of Tiger George.
Tiger loved to stalk grasshoppers. And sometimes he would catch them...and eat them. I preferred peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

From the Archives

Long, long ago I started a teaching gig at the Columbia Art Center in Columbia, Maryland. I was invited to teach a drawing class. After the agreement was reached, I got a call from the Center. I was told that they had a silk screen class ready to begin, with students, but no teacher. Would I like to do it?

How could I say no? After all, I hired screen printers for some of my graphic design projects, so I knew in general what it was. However, I had never actually done screen printing myself. I told the Art Center of my (lack of) experience. But they were convinced I could do it...

And so my teaching career began.

The classes went very well, at least for me. I learned a lot and had a great time, and I was able to produce some prints that I still like very much.

This sample was a stencil cut print. After printing several and letting them dry, I then added watercolor.

I only taught the silk screen class for a year or so, but I have been teaching painting classes ever since.