JFlah's Blunders

This afternoon the student minister asked me to put some Elvis hair onto a photo of the preacher for their Elvis hair contest that they're having tonight at the 50s Nite youth event. It took about an hour and a half and ended up with two fun options for them. Source File 1 Source File 2 I found these two images online and used them to make the final once I found a decent photo of the pastor. Last Source File Elvis Reginald 1 Elvis Reginald 2

I donno about most of you artists out there, but one of the TV personalities that made painting seem like something I could do was Bob Ross. Today the Google doodle was of him - apparently today would have been his 70th birthday. I loved how he could make a quick decision and say things like "this is where a tree lives". The way he simplified his techniques made oil painting sound like so much fun. Maybe that's why I prefer it over acrylic even now.

In addition to the preschool logo, they asked for a nursery logo too. Since they have a "take a train ride through the Bible" sort of thing going in that area of the building they decided on "Nursery Depot" as the name. Here are some preliminary sketches. Here are some of the glorious failures... Here's what they settled on.

Sometimes I leaf through my sketchbook and find things that could do with some color. Here's one of those. I sketched it several years ago when I was working out a few wardrobe ideas for a book I was working on at the time.

The original sketch for "Hang a Star". I love to draw snowmen and little animals in scenes. Here's the completed illustration - colored digitally in photoshop.

Did this a few weeks ago after studying a photo of AHepburn with her hair pulled back in a pony tail. It doesn't look at her, but I got the hair down.

Was just a doodle I scanned and colored in photoshop. Not sure why he doesn't have arms - just thought he looked cute without them.

Check out this article: Obama's Real Unemployment Rate: 14.7% And then tell me you don't think something stinks in Denmark... to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare. That article shines some light on the figures. Specifically how many people of working age are still unemployed, how many people have just come of working age, how many jobs have been created throughout the whole of Obama's reign and other such things that most of the thinking public already know, though we may not have the number data in our heads. We know this because we still have our adult children living under our roofs, or we are those adult children living under our parents roofs regardless of our college educations. We know this because we're having to accept part time jobs (or accept jobs that are, let's face it, "underemployment") because we've given up finding a full time job within our field, or for that matter, within any field - some money is better than no money. Here&

I did some cut paper designs for my sister's baby shower a while back and thoroughly enjoyed myself (especially since they were inspired by Alice in Wonderland). I came upon this man's work today and was stunned. It's beautiful and makes me want to do some more cut paper pieces - though I'm not sure what I'd do with them once they were done. Carlos Meira , currently working in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, does some amazingly beautiful paper work. I have seen things similar to what he does but nothing done so masterfully. Check out the video to get a peek at how he creates his magical scenes.

I sketched these critters a while back. I colored them digitally while listening to Mustang Man by Louis L'Amour.

Not the most successful attempt, but I sure learned a lot.

Lily Annison - Sketch didn't turn out looking enough like her for me to be happy with it, but I enjoyed doing it.

Here's another screenshot from The Last Templar movie. The lighting was strange and the angle of the head was difficult to get right, but the result was encouraging. It's not perfect, but it was one of the sketches that actually had a strong likeness to the original.

A short while back they asked me to make some classroom signs for the new Sunday school classrooms. The rooms had cute names and they wanted cute signs to fit. Here're a few I ended up with: I made most of these from scratch but for some of it (background elements mostly), I found inspiration online.

Old Man Sketch - Ran out of room for his chin so I kept sketching onto the sides of the previous pages... turned out very interesting and surprised me by looking very much like the man. If I keep sketching like this, I may turn into a "real" artist sometime soon.

Can't help myself - drew another turtle. Didn't make it into digital form though... I've been struggling with this logo for a while. It's a good kind of struggling, of course, but you know sometimes things just don't come together quickly and you have to wait until things start to flow. Well, thankfully this week ideas started coming. Here are some of the sketches I did in prep and then an image of the proofs I'm sending. Alligators are hard to make "cute". I didn't give this one any visible teeth, though I wanted to. Anyway, on with the images, right? Here's one of the first few gator sketches - it was too grown up for the preschool logo so I put it aside. Here's the concept they liked most. So, after a lot of sketches and some head scratching, I ended up with a wooden sign type thing with a gator on top. I thought putting the frog peeking around the side would be cute. I'd have to add some of the usual swamp grass

I did this one a week ago. It's from a screen shot from a movie called The Last Templar.

Ran across this and had to share. It's so creative and the graphic designer in me loved it. When I see things like this I want to push my typography treatments further, and though there's not much use for that in my current work environment I begin to think I should do a few of those kinds of images anyway. Text Me Bluebirds by Kristin Stein

I've been reading the "Redemption" series by Terri Blackstock. ( Last Light is the first of that 4 book series.) Basic synopsis is that it's about a series of events that occur after the world's electronic gadgets are destroyed by "pulses". I don't want to give much away if any of you think you may like to check the story out, but I can say that near the end of the fourth book, I found my eyes tearing up and my nose running while I read the events leading up to the end of the series. I kept having to clear my eyes so I could continue reading. If you're looking for a few good books to read, I would recommend the series - though not perfect, it taught me things and challenged me in ways few fictional books have. Candle Light by Marie Toutoule Some of the things in the story surprised me, particularly by how believable they were. The main thing was how she depicted the Christian characters and their individual struggles - it was realistic - n

In doing some research today for a slide I was creating I ran across Jean Francois Rauzier 's work. It's utterly amazing the amount of insane detail that he includes in those photo collages. It's like he is able to somehow open a window for us to experience a surrealistic and surprisingly detailed dream world. Here are two examples of his remarkable work. Click on the images to see them on his site where by clicking on the image you can zoom in and check out the magnificent details he's added. Dedale by Jean Francois Rauzier La Pedrera by Jean Francois Rauzier