Holly Berry Part 2

August Sun 01 2010

Category: For fun, Workshop

Tags: , ,

A while ago I started a new drawing of my cat Holly Berry. A lot has happened since then, but I have started working on the drawing again. These kinds of pictures are a test of patience for me. I love the end results, but they take forever as I decide where I’m going to start colouring, shading, and drawing individual “furs” – and then deleting and deciding the approach isn’t working. But they also help me to get perspective on colours and tones and shapes.

One of the things I love about Holly Berry is that she’s got such beautiful colours in her coat. The white sprinkled all through it makes it seem like she’s going grey prematurely, but she has the funniest little kitten face and these really pretty tans and browns. Also, she has these cute little white paws (which won’t be appearing in this drawing) and one solid black leg (the others are a patchwork of colours).

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Childish reflections

June Fri 25 2010

Category: 60 minute sketch, Workshop

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When I’m sick, I always catch myself thinking that the severity of my “symptom” is not as bad now that I’m older, but lately I’ve decided that my symptoms might be just as bad – I’ve just had plenty of years to get used to them when they pop up. Why do I mention this today? Because I’ve been sick!

And in the process of being sick and reflecting on my experiences as a child, I’ve been thinking about those cool things I used to do in infant (grades k-2) and primary (grades 3-6) school around arts and crafts. Things such a lino printing, screen printing, potato stamps… finger painting…

And then of course, the activity that inspired the 60 minute sketch… coloured paper, black oil pastels and a stick!

I decided venture down the path to find the colours in my life by reflecting on the things I used to find really enjoyable when I was younger and applying them in the digital space. So for the above image was created in Photoshop (and using my trusty webcam), with a mix of brushes, filters, and colour filters.

I feel like I’m a teenager just discovering Photoshop for the first time, but how excellent is that feeling?

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Inspiration Wall

May Wed 12 2010

Category: 60 minute sketch, For fun, Workshop

Tags: , ,

So yesterdays post got me to thinking what I would do with the blank walls in my apartment. Above the desk in our study is a very blank wall… so in what was meant to be a 60 minute sketch, and which turned into about 1.5 hours of “looking for the right photos” time in addition to the 60 minutes…

Those are my cats, Holly Berry (the majority black one on the left) and Karamello (the more white and ginger one). Then it’s a photo of Vincent and I being silly on our engagement shoot (before our wedding). The photographer told us our silhouettes would make a really good photo, so we decided to make shadow puppets. The little inset up the top right hand corner is of the part of the grounds of the Château de Versaille, above which Vincent proposed. The bird and the foliage vectors are what were used on our wedding invitations. The colours used are also the colours I used for my wedding!

There are three quotations. One from James Gleeson, one of my favourite Australian artists. One from the lyrics of the Lifehouse song, “Storm”. And the third is from Martin Luther King Jr.

I did an extremely bad job superimposing this picture onto the wall, but I imagine this is what it would look like.

I could waste hours and hours of my day doing this for each room in my apartment.

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A slow upgrade

May Sat 08 2010

Category: Website, Workshop

Tags: , , , ,

I’ve started to put together the framework for a more “inclusive” website. Look forward to a wider variety of posts as time progresses!

My shoulder is killing me from all the mouse work (when I use programs such as Photoshop I tend to switch back to the right handed mouse rather than using my left handed Evoluent mouse) so it might be a week or so before I put any new images up on to this website, but I’m sure I can think of a few other things that I have been aching to blog about.

Please note this design has NOT been tested across multiple browsers!!

It looks best in Google Chrome and works passably in Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 7 is a total bomb. Firefox has ceased to work on my laptop for some reason, so I’m unable to test it there – let me know how you go! And I no longer have a copy of Safari or Opera, so if you use either of those browsers your feedback is greatly appreciated.

I’m going to fix bugs slowly. This whole cross-browser thing is no longer an enjoyable challenge, so we’ll see how I go…

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Expanding this blogs PoV

May Sun 02 2010

Category: Website

Tags: ,

I have been struggling to update this blog, and have decided it’s probably because of the narrow format I’ve given myself to work in. My job has changed significantly and I think I want the opportunity to start writing about work experiences that don’t have pretty designs and funky flash animations!! And I’ve also started to embrace cooking more (something which  few years ago I had absolutely no talent in at all) and am thinking it might be nice to start sharing my experiences.

So I’m thinking about the ways I can improve it – for myself and for you.

It will take a while, but be on the look out for changes!

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