JFlah's Blunders

  I'm so excited to share that I'm fast working towards having AI narrated books available for those of you who prefer to listen to books. They will be available through Google Play to begin with. I haven't decided where else I'll be making them available. Here's the first one.  Books one and two will be available starting January 31, 2023.

     I've been watching a lot of Ace of Clay on Youtube recently and really wanted to try some of his techniques but I wasn't at home that day.  Dad has some super soft stanky clay that he uses to work out some of his carvings and so I got into that this week. Maybe it's time to pull out my sculpture stuff again. Really do miss it - I enjoy that more than I do writing or drawing or... probably even eating LOL  Anyway... this clay was really soft stuff and it was hard to keep from smashing it or doing any real detail work - I mean, look at those ears HA!  

 Just got the new mini-series info this morning and after a short discussion with the guys, we settled on 'The Bible Says...' as the series title and that the message topics would be revealed in some kind of blank each week.  One of them mentioned it could be like Family Feud but when I looked up those graphics, I didn't see how that would work, but I liked the simplicity of the Jeopardy board. I went looking for some fonts [that I didn't use LOL] and put something together but it was a flop - just one look and you'll be able to tell me why...  Yep - although it was eye catching - it wasn't the message we're trying to get across so I ran in a different direction and ended up with this for the first message in the series... Now my talented co-worker will get to do a bumper but I might do one too.

  Click for reference by Mike McCarthy   Click for reference by Mike McCarthy   Click for reference by Efrain Malo   Click here for reference by ".mb. 2018"  

    So - thought I'd post the second chapter of Lena's story too. Let me know if you're enjoying it?  Could possibly release the first installment of this 2 novella story before the end of May. With this story, I feel like I'm flopping around outside of my comfort zone and although it's uncomfortable, I'm assuming these are 'good' growing pains especially since the gospel is a bit more central than in the last story I put out there.   .2. Picked Up Just before sunrise, clouds lumbered off to the northwest. I shivered in my damp clothing and stepped onto the glistening onyx ribbon of road to consider my options: one, follow it to civilization and risk running into Ted or his crew, or two, risk a slow death by turning from the road into the dehydrating desert. I couldn’t tell how far I was from where I had started, and didn’t want to risk meeting anyone along the road once the sun had fully risen, but before I had made a conscious choice, I heard the grave...

 Have really enjoyed doodling in Procreate. There are so many brushes that are already great and so many ways to refine those brushes in ways that I want - yep, more fun than Photoshop as far as that goes. Procreate can never replace pencils, paint and paper for me because there's something amazing and therapeutic about the tactile use of those, but I can work on color theory, values, and brushstroke placements in Procreate without making as much of a mess as I would with traditional media. That and I LOVE the undo function. I find myself wishing for an undo button when I physically draw on paper... I'm really no good at working painterly in digital yet but am loving the process - this is my version of "Tempest" by John Larriva    And this one is my version of Eilidh's "Passage" - Could definitely use more work, but it definitely has the same 'feel' for me as the original.

Started working on this while things were quiet around here in 2020 and the minister wanted to revisit the design and update it, get some quotes, etc. Boss brought me some sketches [he's talented and plenty creative himself] and talked through changes to the previous design. Was fun to work on and I hope the project gets approved and that I get to put on my painting apron sometime this summer. This place is chock full of stuff - took a while to clean up the photos and then put the designs on the walls. Rough photoshop mockups   Door wall and left of stage wall Main Stage Right of stage and then the wall at right of stage, perpendicular to previous   Media booth at back of room and back wall Here are the illustrator mockups for the design - idea would be to paint the bulk of this ourselves and then get some printed vinyl for the text   wall at left of stage - door wall Left of stage - books of Bible would be printed vinyl ...

 For a while now Valerie 's figurative sculptures have been on my radar - love the hair and the long limbs of her pieces - the lithe poses. Lots of fun to look at and draw.  Here's another from Valerie 's studio. And a few bonus sketches - from images I found on Pinterest .

  Now that Curse of Royalty is FINALLY published, I've pulled out a strange urban fantasy novella I wrote as an exercise while I was stuck at home in 2020. It's in a very different writing style than what I used for the curse series - a much needed change. I got to explore a few ideas I'd been mulling over and present the gospel in a way that was different than I did in the curse series. Still playing around with what title to use but the story has an interesting twist and end, but it's a little open ended. Was also thinking I might narrate it since it's kind of short - maybe 4 hours long.  Anyway, for those of you who are interested, here is the intro chapter. Will be working on getting this one brushed up enough to publish. I'm super close - might even be able to release in time for summer reads.   .1. Escape A thousand angry ants stung me while I ran from him. Hair whipped me in the wind, sloppy rain-soaked ropes that stuck at odd angles, sometimes partially ...

Had fun with the title slide design this week - here's a progression... the glasses imagery, although nice and clean just didn't work thematically with the key passage which is about Jesus telling them to wait for the Holy Spirit and then they'll be sent into all the world - so I started thinking road trip, goals, etc and with the helpful input of the Church Creatives FB Group I was rolling towards something better.

Got to do a fun video today - check it out. Just a few phone video clips to work with - the children's minister had some fun music and we had a title template that worked - might should have shortened that bit... anyway - was fun. Our new AVL guy should be showing up soon so I won't get to do as many videos like this. And he'll probably take over creating the bumpers :)  

Each year I have the privilege of making HD slides out of photos that parents send in for the Parent/Child dedication. I extended a lot of backgrounds this year but this one was one of the most challenging. Thankfully, this year, I didn't have to add any elbows or shoulders.   This is the original   And here's the finished slide - painted in the bench end and some bushes/grass Probably should have done something about the overexposure on her skin - it was a bright day but it turned out cute.

Help me decide on the omnibus cover - this one or the following one? And would one of those work better for volume 4?     Omnibus cover option 1   Omnibus Cover option 2 These are the volume covers:     Book 1 Cover Redesign     Book 2 Cover     Book 3 Cover     Book 4 Cover - Should I nix this surprised expression for something a bit more subtle? Which ever image doesn't end up on the omnibus?

 

  Had a blast digitizing this character that our children's minister drew for me. I changed a few things but not much - he's got skills LOL