Flying Colors

I read the Harry Potter books and really enjoyed them. But I was also taken by the illustrations executed by Mary GrandPre for the covers and the beginning of each chapter. She uses pastels for all her work. I thought that could translate to colored pencils, so I did a little test. I loosely copied a bit of her Chamber of Secrets cover just to see. I did use a little pastel (hair highlights) but otherwise this is just colored pencil. I was more interested in the layering of color than duplicating the drawing. You can see a little more of the tooth of the paper maybe than I would like, but that isn't a bad thing. Overall I'm happy with what I'm getting with colored pencils.

Artist's Hand

I think I can work with these. Next step: design a cover for well known children's story...

Colored pencil experiment

I was looking for a new medium to try, and so I broke out my old colored pencils that I never really used before. I started very tentatively - afraid I would "mess it up" even though I was just taking them for a test run. Layering is going to be the key and where my learning curve will be the greatest. Anyway, this just kind of came about - it isn't anyone - it's just a bald dude with a 5pm shadow. i'm not crazy about the ear, and I forgot to give him irises. Oh well. I'll do another one maybe tonight and see if I can improve a little.

Cottonwood Seed

Inspired by some of Andrea's images.

I'm a believer(?)

Maybe it's because we've won two games in a row over two very good teams in the Redskins and the Cowboys. Maybe it's because I've been kicking but on Madden with the Rams. Maybe it's because I just want to, and I've wanted to for so long, but I'm beginning to think the Rams can make some noise this year in the NFL! We've got as much talent on offense as any team in the league in terms of skill players. If we can find a way to give them opportunities to do their thing, who knows?! But in reality we've been bad for a really long time. That Super Bowl victory is an increasingly more distant memory. I'm still here Rams. I haven't jumped ship. Not that I haven't thought about it. But I'm still here.

Anyone else out there find it interesting that when Jim Haslett was the Defensive coordinator our defense stunk? To the point that the head coach got canned... And Haslett (the aforementioned Defensive Coordinator) became the head coach... And now the defense is fixed all of the sudden... Haslett couldn't have planned it any better if he'd wanted to... Just an observation.

Maybe you’ve heard

There are these books about a wizard kid named Harry Potter… I’m not into wizards and spells and pointy purple hats with stars and moons on them, so it took me about 10 years to get over that and give Harry a try. Since people I know and respect have enjoyed these books so much, I finally went for it. And, after reading a couple of the books, YES they are really fun!

The characters and plotlines are so solid that you find yourself really involved and invested in a way that allows you to be okay and even have fun with the magical/mystic world this all takes place in. This surprised me. I didn’t think I could “go with it” like I’ve been able to, and I doubt I’m alone in this. I think it is because the author treats the characters as if they live in our contemporary world. And it helps that the heroes are learning about magic and spells, etc. for the first time as are we.

I’ve always found that the best stories, be they fiction or non-fiction, are those where we find the protagonist in a seemingly impossible situation and we get to read how they manage to come out on top. And what makes this a fun and fast read in my opinion is the way J.K. Rowling (I guess I should mention the author!) allows us to stay just a step ahead of Harry and friends so we can figure things out just before they do.

In the eyes of some, my cool-factor has taken a hit – yes. But its not like I’m memorizing spells or dressing up like a wizard on the weekends. These are well told stories with characters we can all relate to. Good fun.

Jimi

This one goes out to Fritz. I stepped outside my artistic comfort zone to paint this one. One of my largest works since college (about 5' x 5' I think). It's a pretty common image of Jimi, but I thought of all of them out there this one would translate best on this cinder block wall. Kind of sloppy and abstract. It was a lot of fun too. I had Jimi and some other bands from the Monterey Pop Festival playing in surround sound while I did it, and found myself painting to the rythm.

Albert Cassens Elementary School Mascot

I recently had the opportunity to develop the mascot for the new elementary school that my girls will go to. Below are the two concepts that didn't get chosen (as voted on by the students). And above is the mascot they chose; the Albert Cassens Cougars!

And the winner is...

Dan Layus, vocals, piano, guitar - Josiah Rosen, lead guitar, vocals - Jared Palomar, bass, keyboards, vocals - Justin South, drums

I went to a Maroon 5 concert Saturday night and after it was all said and done, I found that I liked the opening act better than Maroon 5 or Counting Crows (who also played before M5). But I have to say, I really enjoyed CC too. Augustana's sound has been described as a "fusion of European rock and organic Americana." I don't know what that means, but I liked them. It seemed very soulful and genuine to me. And if Wikipedia is to be believed, two of the founding members are from Greenville, IL - just a few miles away from where I'm sitting! Fun.

Maroon 5's show was very static and "canned" in my opinion. They sounded great, but the show was lackluster.

Counting Crows' show was really good! They just didn't know when to stop playing. It kind of dragged on too long with montages of Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel... i dunno. Still very good though.

Deal or No Deal

I'm normally not one to pontificate on political matters, but hey, my retirement account is taking a hit! This bailout of these key financial institutions is sending up red flags for me. I know something needs to be done quickly, but I think our president and congressmen are in the knee-jerk reaction phase. It seems to me there should be a way to entice public sector money to swoop in and facilitate the buyout. To mix metaphors, these institutions are wounded ducks, ripe for the picking! And as for the political grandstanding going on, McCain had a play to make here, and I think it was the right thing to do for his campaign, but he has played it poorly and is coming off like an oaf. Obama is kind of milling about in Washington because that's where McCain went, but he really has nothing to do, so he also is coming off as inept. And thanks to our American media, we're getting a smattering of unrelated soundbites from Sarah Palin sounding dumb as well. I'm not aware of what Biden is doing, so that's clearly in his favor.

Ultimately, I'm glad we're not taking the first deal to come along. I want to get this as right as we can. And I want capitalism to come to the rescue, not the federal government. But it doesn't look like that's in the cards. But who knows?! I don't expect any deal for a few days. I doubt it is in place by Monday. I really am not worried about a "panic" either though.

What if...

What if we rode this out and let the natural progression of a capitalistic economy process this downturn. I wonder what would happen. Depression? Probably. But I heard a line in a movie that actually resonated with me. I'm paraphrasing here, but, "It's only natural for an overgrown forest to have a purging fire." But if it means I'll go broke in the process... well I wouldn't be fan. Pun intended.

[Trumpet Fanfare...]

It's a new header for my new blog! Very album-cover, isn't it? And how about that haircut... what a nice block in the back - where my mullet used to be. Ahhh. All kidding aside, I think its a good design for a blog. Oceans of possibilities, thoughts, ideas. Or sometimes a big blank.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I have control issues, I guess.
I live in Glen Carbon, IL. Each summer our little village celebrates "Glen Carbon Homecoming." It's kind of like a street fair - carnival rides and games, etc. So I thought it would be nice to give it a graphic identity. The village events committee agreed and I donated my time and skills to create this sort of logo for the event. I gave them the graphics files and explained what each file should be used for. Some versions work best for web, some better for print, and some better for being cut in vinyl. As my boss says so eloquently, "It's like throwing pearls before swine." Every time I saw it in print or on the web, it was distorted and/or pixelated! I was not happy. Because after all, I put a lot of time and effort into the design, only to see it bastardized. And a lot of my friends/coworkers, etc. knew I created it - and it looked awful! So the village wants me to update the logo with subsequent years - all the way up to 2011 (I think they believe the world is coming to an end in 2012...) and I'm leaning toward not doing it. Bad thing is, they'll do it themselves and it will look even worse most likely. What to do, what to do...

Halloween Illustrations

I've illustrated our favorite monster in action. It seems like every year at this time Frankenstein's monster is run out of town. The poor fella is always misunderstood.

This started as a pencil sketch during a moment of boredom and got me on the road to creating 4 more Halloween illustrations. I scanned the sketch and brought it in to Illustrator and Photoshop to paint it. I used the same process to complete the following illustrations. I learned a lot while working on these images.