Having just linked my E-How articles to fb in hopes of garnering more reads, I remembered that E-How switched things around a little last year, and I left myself out of the loop. Apparently, people love to read about bakin' bread and makin' babies, but potty training is a long-distant choice for passing the time and having a good laugh...now if I write an article on the foibles of potty training, people would line up to read what I've been through! Anyway, I don't consider myself a professional writer, but it certainly is one of my favorite means of expression, and I like to think I can write a mean zinger if and when it's called for. My friend Judy is similar in this quick wit-slinging style, and I think I might mention the opportunity to write articles for E-How to her as well...
My current creative projects here at home are a bit fragmented - I'm knitting a scarf for Chris (with plans to monopolize it ruthlessly upon its completion). The first and last item I've ever knitted for Chris was a sandy colored "sweater" sans pattern that hasn't amounted to much - other than some hilariously funny faux Etsy pics that we posted on fb for laughs (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36906&id=1650505117)... Just this morning, I cut one of my potholders in half in hopes to create a new pair of slippers for my little EB. This child has Huge feet! I picked the potholder for the rubbery material (great for keeping little feet from slipping on hardwood floors), and since it's silicon, he could walk on coals with nary a scorch. Maybe he'll go for shaman training someday. Chris has been playing around designing some fabrics to make purses and cell phone holders, and I'm hoping he will share so I can make these booties spiffy!
Oh, have I mentioned how thankful I am that Winter Break has come to an end? I may have a family of 8, but I'm still an only child at heart...haven't resorted to locking myself in the bathroom for solace these past few weeks, but I did come pretty close. It's just amazing to me to think that we have arrived at the year 2011... How does time keep passing when I continue to live in this perfectly lovely 17 year old body? Well, I'll never know. I have been making some great discoveries these past few days - including Julia Rogers Hamrick's Choosing Easy World: A Guide to Opting Out of Struggle and Strife and Living in the Amazing Realm Where Everything is Easy. I downloaded onto my iphone and read it from start to finish in two days. Having been obsessed and blessed to thirst for spiritual growth, I've read masterpieces from such authors as Neale Donald Walsch, Esther and Jerry Hicks/Abraham, Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Napoleon Hill, Jane Roberts/Seth... and many more (and daily worship the world-spanning influence of Louise Hay!). Hamrick's book is so easily accesible - I recommend it to anyone who would like to switch over into Easy World and make it a habitual home of the heart.
I'm off to work on that scarf I mentioned - or maybe just sit around and eat bon bons. Heheheh...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
A Test of Character
I left my latest copy of Computer Arts magazine lying around, and Nico, our 8-year-old, grabbed it. She quickly found the article on tips for creating a character, and decided she wanted to make her own character. So I told her to make a small sketch, and I would work it up in Illustrator for her.
She must have been in a literal mood, because she returned about fifteen minutes later with a drawing approximately 1/4 inch high of some small, cute animal. It was a black and white ink drawing, which, after some prodding, she told me was named Superbear.
So I began making the character in Illustrator, using basic shapes to imitate her drawing as closely as possible. Or, at least I thought I was doing it as closely as possible. "No Dad, the head is an oval, not a circle." "The body is a square, it's not a circle." So, multiple adjustments later (and making sure the hair, in particular, was exactly to her specifications) I asked her what color she wanted Superbear to be. Keep in mind that what I got from the beginning was only that 1/4 inch black and white ink drawing. The real fun began when she told me she wanted the body (which I had made from several merged shapes) to be half black and half pink. Let's just say it's the weirdest gradient I've ever had to make.
So, without further ado, here is Superbear:
She must have been in a literal mood, because she returned about fifteen minutes later with a drawing approximately 1/4 inch high of some small, cute animal. It was a black and white ink drawing, which, after some prodding, she told me was named Superbear.
So I began making the character in Illustrator, using basic shapes to imitate her drawing as closely as possible. Or, at least I thought I was doing it as closely as possible. "No Dad, the head is an oval, not a circle." "The body is a square, it's not a circle." So, multiple adjustments later (and making sure the hair, in particular, was exactly to her specifications) I asked her what color she wanted Superbear to be. Keep in mind that what I got from the beginning was only that 1/4 inch black and white ink drawing. The real fun began when she told me she wanted the body (which I had made from several merged shapes) to be half black and half pink. Let's just say it's the weirdest gradient I've ever had to make.
So, without further ado, here is Superbear:
Monday, July 26, 2010
Fabric and Family
My great-grandfather on my mother's side was born in Germany. He died when I was in the seventh grade, but I've always felt close to him somehow. I think it might be because of all my relatives, he is the one I most physically resemble.
In high school, we had to complete a family history project, so I found all the information I could about Poppet's family, which wasn't much. But what I did discover is that when Hitler came to power, my great-great-grandfather shipped both of his sons out of Germany--one to America and one to Australia. My great-great-grandfather owned huge textile factories; my great-grandfather was sent to America to learn more about American textile manufacture. This didn't happen, however.
Maybe it's some errant gene, but I've always found myself fascinated by textiles. Not clothes, per se--mainly the highly patterned types of textiles that go into furniture, wallpaper, etc. Last summer I found myself creating patterns that would make interesting fabrics, but then I had absolutely no idea what to do with them. I started learning about screenprinting, but that seemed more suited to single images, like t-shirts, and not for repeating patterns. I gave up, more than a little frustrated.
This summer, as I began to prepare for a new course I'll be teaching this fall, Digital Illustration and Typography, I wanted to make a side-by-side comparison of drawing in Illustrator and in Corel Paint. But I couldn't think of anything to work on, so I grabbed one of my oldest son's books--a collection of drawings by anime artists. I worked on a couple of figures, but I kept getting drawn to the work of one artist in particular, who placed his characters against these highly patterned backdrops. I abandoned the characters and starting working on the backgrounds instead.
About the same time, I stumbled on an article in ReadyMade Magazine about an illustrator who had been commissioned to design printed fabric for the furniture in a children's art center. Unfortunately, the article didn't include any information on the manufacture of the fabric, and I found myself getting frustrated once again.
Luckily, I had to revise my book order for the fall. One of the texts I had chosen had gone out of print in the US, and the publisher sent me a pdf of a new title. I didn't want to search through the pdf for the ISBN number, so I went to Amazon and did a search there. And after I got all the info about that book, I saw the list of recommendations. Among them was a book on digital textile printing. I don't know how I didn't stumble on that particular combination of words during my previous search, but plugging them into google produced a mother lode of useful returns, including some great companies for outsource printing, Spoonflower in the US () and Stoffn in Germany ()
And now I am eagerly awaiting a test swatch of my first fabric from Spoonflower. Here's a peek at the pattern:
Needless to say, I can't wait.
In high school, we had to complete a family history project, so I found all the information I could about Poppet's family, which wasn't much. But what I did discover is that when Hitler came to power, my great-great-grandfather shipped both of his sons out of Germany--one to America and one to Australia. My great-great-grandfather owned huge textile factories; my great-grandfather was sent to America to learn more about American textile manufacture. This didn't happen, however.
Maybe it's some errant gene, but I've always found myself fascinated by textiles. Not clothes, per se--mainly the highly patterned types of textiles that go into furniture, wallpaper, etc. Last summer I found myself creating patterns that would make interesting fabrics, but then I had absolutely no idea what to do with them. I started learning about screenprinting, but that seemed more suited to single images, like t-shirts, and not for repeating patterns. I gave up, more than a little frustrated.
This summer, as I began to prepare for a new course I'll be teaching this fall, Digital Illustration and Typography, I wanted to make a side-by-side comparison of drawing in Illustrator and in Corel Paint. But I couldn't think of anything to work on, so I grabbed one of my oldest son's books--a collection of drawings by anime artists. I worked on a couple of figures, but I kept getting drawn to the work of one artist in particular, who placed his characters against these highly patterned backdrops. I abandoned the characters and starting working on the backgrounds instead.
About the same time, I stumbled on an article in ReadyMade Magazine about an illustrator who had been commissioned to design printed fabric for the furniture in a children's art center. Unfortunately, the article didn't include any information on the manufacture of the fabric, and I found myself getting frustrated once again.
Luckily, I had to revise my book order for the fall. One of the texts I had chosen had gone out of print in the US, and the publisher sent me a pdf of a new title. I didn't want to search through the pdf for the ISBN number, so I went to Amazon and did a search there. And after I got all the info about that book, I saw the list of recommendations. Among them was a book on digital textile printing. I don't know how I didn't stumble on that particular combination of words during my previous search, but plugging them into google produced a mother lode of useful returns, including some great companies for outsource printing, Spoonflower in the US () and Stoffn in Germany ()
And now I am eagerly awaiting a test swatch of my first fabric from Spoonflower. Here's a peek at the pattern:
Needless to say, I can't wait.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Explosions in the Sky
What a weekend! It began on July 2, which was Isobel's 12th birthday. After years of having everyone be out of town on her birthday, we decided to postpone her party for a week. But in place of the party, we brought everyone over to our friend Sandi's house. Her neighbor puts on the biggest fireworks display in the county, and we more or less had front row seats. I spent the hour running up to the fireworks taking pictures of the clouds and the sunset. Haven't gotten around to doing anything with those images yet. But I did have fun taking images of the fireworks themselves. This time around I used my telephoto lens, so things are a bit crisper than last year.
July 3rd took me out of town to Oswego, where Isobel and I attended the bon voyage picnic for her trip to Australia. I'll post some of those pics closer to her departure time.
July 4th found us at Trout Lake, as Ginger's family's camp. Between the two picnics I've really gotten in touch with my inner George Hamilton. Or should I say my bottle of aloe is now my bff. The Norwood fireworks display was a bit anticlimactic, especially since all the kids were way overtired by that point.
July 5 has found me in either a heat-induced stupor or torpor. Whatever word best fits lying prone on the breezy front porch all evening. I did manage to muster up the energy to process some of the fireworks images. I've been thinking for a couple of weeks now about contributing to an art project being run by some of my colleagues. They purchased an old cigarette vending machine and have turned it into an art vending machine, featured during the summer Artwalks in Saranac Lake. Nifty idea, but the art pieces have to be small enough to fit inside a cigarette box. My original thought was to use my Superman leaps image, as I already have a screen. It would have been easy enough to print out a run of twelve for the machine. But the dimensions would not have worked without rotating the image into portrait orientation, and I just didn't like the composition.
So instead, I'm processing 12 images of the fireworks into small art pieces I'm calling Skylights. Here's a preview of all 12 together in a collage:
Each segment is 2X3. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to print them--I'm going to try some giclee prints and some color laser on black paper first. All for now.
July 3rd took me out of town to Oswego, where Isobel and I attended the bon voyage picnic for her trip to Australia. I'll post some of those pics closer to her departure time.
July 4th found us at Trout Lake, as Ginger's family's camp. Between the two picnics I've really gotten in touch with my inner George Hamilton. Or should I say my bottle of aloe is now my bff. The Norwood fireworks display was a bit anticlimactic, especially since all the kids were way overtired by that point.
July 5 has found me in either a heat-induced stupor or torpor. Whatever word best fits lying prone on the breezy front porch all evening. I did manage to muster up the energy to process some of the fireworks images. I've been thinking for a couple of weeks now about contributing to an art project being run by some of my colleagues. They purchased an old cigarette vending machine and have turned it into an art vending machine, featured during the summer Artwalks in Saranac Lake. Nifty idea, but the art pieces have to be small enough to fit inside a cigarette box. My original thought was to use my Superman leaps image, as I already have a screen. It would have been easy enough to print out a run of twelve for the machine. But the dimensions would not have worked without rotating the image into portrait orientation, and I just didn't like the composition.
So instead, I'm processing 12 images of the fireworks into small art pieces I'm calling Skylights. Here's a preview of all 12 together in a collage:
Each segment is 2X3. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to print them--I'm going to try some giclee prints and some color laser on black paper first. All for now.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Erma and me
Hello my long-lost friend...
Having recently learned of people making a mint by blogging, I've decided it's time to expand on my facebook stati and get a-pecking here on our very own BB&B. Trying to keep posting upbeat was somewhat of a challenge - plus I'd run out of steam/ideas for what to write about. Now I'm just gonna let it all hang out, considering our ongoing experience with comic writing, thanks to the Norfolk Hepburn Library. Among the 10 or 20 books I took out earlier this week is "Aunt Erma's Cope Book" by Erma Bombeck. It's retro, about 3 decades, and for lack of anything better to do (hehe), Chris decided to read it. This morning, I awoke to what sounded like sobbing, only to find that it was - Chris was laughing so hard he was crying. He's been reading sections of it to me all day, and it clicked that perhaps reading about our crazy life, foibles and all, would be kinda fun. At least it's fun for me to write about how there's something in the toybox that talks - but only when you are far enough away that it's impossible to find it.
We have an ongoing battle these days in the Sweeney household - it rages on weekdays between the hours of 3:30 and 4:30. It's the battle of the scentses, meaning that for some reason, the god who gave me the ability to smell cigarettes from a mile away is also the same god who gifted me with Nico, Sterling, and Troy - 3 human beings who, individually, can put another human into a coma with the stench of their feet. I wish I was that human, but alas, I am awake to endure the hour-long accusation, denial, and subsequent relenting and foot-scrubbing that is our collective reality during said time period. If it were not for that damn PE class, I would have thrown away every last pair of sneakers, but as it stands now, I may resort to throwing all the sneakers and newly purchased sandals away. If only I didn't fear being labeled and uncaring, cruel mother for sending my children to school shoeless... My next tactic involves an aerosol can of antiperspirant for the offending feet and a bleach-dip for the shoes. I sure hope the battle is won and I can focus my energies on what to make for dinner when there's no food in the house - even though it's Friday, and on Wednesday we spent $300 on groceries for the week.
Having recently learned of people making a mint by blogging, I've decided it's time to expand on my facebook stati and get a-pecking here on our very own BB&B. Trying to keep posting upbeat was somewhat of a challenge - plus I'd run out of steam/ideas for what to write about. Now I'm just gonna let it all hang out, considering our ongoing experience with comic writing, thanks to the Norfolk Hepburn Library. Among the 10 or 20 books I took out earlier this week is "Aunt Erma's Cope Book" by Erma Bombeck. It's retro, about 3 decades, and for lack of anything better to do (hehe), Chris decided to read it. This morning, I awoke to what sounded like sobbing, only to find that it was - Chris was laughing so hard he was crying. He's been reading sections of it to me all day, and it clicked that perhaps reading about our crazy life, foibles and all, would be kinda fun. At least it's fun for me to write about how there's something in the toybox that talks - but only when you are far enough away that it's impossible to find it.
We have an ongoing battle these days in the Sweeney household - it rages on weekdays between the hours of 3:30 and 4:30. It's the battle of the scentses, meaning that for some reason, the god who gave me the ability to smell cigarettes from a mile away is also the same god who gifted me with Nico, Sterling, and Troy - 3 human beings who, individually, can put another human into a coma with the stench of their feet. I wish I was that human, but alas, I am awake to endure the hour-long accusation, denial, and subsequent relenting and foot-scrubbing that is our collective reality during said time period. If it were not for that damn PE class, I would have thrown away every last pair of sneakers, but as it stands now, I may resort to throwing all the sneakers and newly purchased sandals away. If only I didn't fear being labeled and uncaring, cruel mother for sending my children to school shoeless... My next tactic involves an aerosol can of antiperspirant for the offending feet and a bleach-dip for the shoes. I sure hope the battle is won and I can focus my energies on what to make for dinner when there's no food in the house - even though it's Friday, and on Wednesday we spent $300 on groceries for the week.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Retro Five
So here is the last of the Sister Mars 2009 video retrospective (unless I manage to stop fighting with Flash long enough to make another.)
Of all the video work I've done in the last year, these three connected videos are my favorites. They were all made using Blender 3d for the character modeling and then Final Cut for the editing.
The first is entitled Ink. I modeled this sort of abstract spaceship vessel and let it loose in a brightly colored flashing world. Although the silver surface of the vessel reflects the happy colors of the outside, the object's inner alienation is revealed in the clouds of ink it releases:
The next video moves from the loneliness of Ink to the beginnings of a courtship dance. The Path of Flowers Lights My Way finds two abstract paper cubes floating in a world filled with flowers while we look in, as if through a lens:
The final segment of the trilogy, Behold! continues as our two abstract objects, this time spheres, welcome a third into their expanding universe:
Of all the video work I've done in the last year, these three connected videos are my favorites. They were all made using Blender 3d for the character modeling and then Final Cut for the editing.
The first is entitled Ink. I modeled this sort of abstract spaceship vessel and let it loose in a brightly colored flashing world. Although the silver surface of the vessel reflects the happy colors of the outside, the object's inner alienation is revealed in the clouds of ink it releases:
The next video moves from the loneliness of Ink to the beginnings of a courtship dance. The Path of Flowers Lights My Way finds two abstract paper cubes floating in a world filled with flowers while we look in, as if through a lens:
The final segment of the trilogy, Behold! continues as our two abstract objects, this time spheres, welcome a third into their expanding universe:
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Retro Part Four
In today's video retrospective installment, I first offer Panorama. This video was made one warmish early spring day when I went out to our front garden to take some macro pictures of the dead flowers. It had been perfectly still, and of course as soon as I got out there the wind started. After a couple minutes I gave up trying to focus, but I was intrigued by the twitchiness of the flowers in the breeze, so I decided to capture it on video. I used the splitscreen because the song features several interwoven melodic lines:
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