JFlah's Blunders

So, yeah, they made a decision. I'm glad we're pretty much done with this project. Sure, I've still got to update everything with the new "modern" look, but at least they've settled on a logo. Lots of other things happening around there - exciting stuffs. No time to chat - too much work to do. Merry Christmas all!

Went to one of those great paint and pour parties at church. This is my version of what we did. I loved the short cuts I learned. We used a foam cup to make a guide for the circles. It really helped make this painting work. The party was a huge one! Just over 80 ladies showed up. It was a challenge not to get any paint on my neighbor. I was holding my elbows in so I wouldn't bump into anyone, but I'm telling you I laughed and really enjoyed myself that night. Joy Petty of Joie Petite Designs led the party - this is the second painting I've done under her direction and I've enjoyed both.

Dad brought me a cypress knee to paint. He carved it and told me to go to town. Was a challenge to decide what to do with it since all that was carved was the head and the gifts/teddy bear. I think it turned out ok for my first one.

Sure would love to devote some time to taking a few of these SVS Learn classes. I'd definitely start with this one by Therese Larsson - Painting Fur and Hair. Found SVS Learn one day while doing the customary searches for resources and tutorials. Would love to take one of the classes in real time but the times they offer the classes aren't good for me. Regardless, sometime next year I'm going to do some of these if for no other reason than that I know I'd enjoy doing them.

Needed this reminder again today. It's not me - it's God's work through me. I'm not junk. God's love for me has no end. It doesn't depend on me - it depends on Him. He's overcome everything. I've probably posted this video before, but this is one that's good to revisit every once in a while. Here's another great one - "Grace" The Skit Guys have lots of hard hitting skits - check their site out. I wish they were around when I was in the youth drama group. We did some stuff that put forward a strong Biblical message but their stuff is makes it all super clear.

So, yeah - we're re-branding now that the new boss is here. It's past time for this and I'm excited to freshen up the look we've got now. I created the last logo about four/five years ago. They said they wanted something traditional but more corporate looking than the last logo. Here's what I gave them last time:  This time the boss wants something uber modern but he doesn't quite know what he means by that. Every time he sees something else that he likes he wants to scrap the direction we were working in and run in that new direction. It's a challenge - a good challenge - and although I'm not sure I'm up to the task and am unsure if I will be able to provide the kind of logo he wants, I'm enjoying working on it - especially since the media director is handling the new web site stuffs right now.  The plan is to launch everything for the first of the new year - the new logo, the new website, the new slogan/mission statement and focu...

This is the logo I put together for them - sketches are HERE .   Lots on my creative plate right now - just got done face painting at the fall festival (that was a joy) and now one of the next things I'm working on is something for our preschool ministry. I designed a logo a while back (see above or go here ) and now they're putting the characters that are in the logo onto the fence they have in the preschool worship area. I don't know how long it will take for everything to be completed, but I can't wait to see it done. The preschool coordinator dropped off some primed wooden pieces and some paint, so I'll be working on that off and on for a little while. It will be a challenge to adapt the logo to the wooden pieces because the outline shape isn't quite the same - but that won't matter when they're done - they'll still be super cute. Gettin' started...

Saw the first one of these a while back and was spellbound - I've always liked to watch clouds. Love the way large masses of clouds move across the landscape so I was thrilled to see another of these time-lapse videos from Nicolaus Wegner . here are a few screen captures from the video.

Wow - didn't realize how long it'd been since I posted something. Here's the latest project. I saw something similar a while back and wanted to try my hand so this week I pulled out my felt scraps. It was fun, but now I have to figure out who I'm going to give the cuties to. Here's a link to the inspiration: Wee Mouse House   Didn't use their pattern since it looked so simple, and theirs is much nicer than the one I did out of felt scraps cause they used nice fabric, but I very much enjoyed doing it.

Meredith Andrews - "The Gospel Changes Everything" is one of my favorites right now. Just heard it this week and have enjoyed listening to it over and over again and letting the truth of the lyrics wash over me. I think it's time for me to get one of her CDs.

Sketched this scene a while back. Have considered putting some digital color to it and fixing the strange posture and such, but haven't gotten around to that yet. I missed the official World Art Drop Day, but plan to start dropping some stuff before the end of this month. I got some nice small square canvases this weekend and I think they'll do for the drops.

This is the third option. Added texture to the picture, changed the eye color and levels. This is the second one I did. The first one felt busy, and I wanted to see if the design would work with some negative space. This is the first version I did. Sure, there were lots of text arrangements and such that I tried first, but this is the first one I thought might actually work. So... yeah, sermon title slides. They're the weekly challenge at this job. Sometimes they're fun, but sometimes they're so much of a challenge that I'm right up to the wire working on them. I wish we had a communication team who could help me develop looks for various things - a sort of collaborative environment, but I'm the lone duck designer around here. When the new pastor came on board, we agreed that it would be better to use the SD image dimensions for the sermon slides since they were being shown on an SD projector. I'd been making everything in HD as per the new media...

Jake Parker's idea of the world art drop day sounds like something I'm definitely interested in. I did the crochet heart drop thing and that was fun, but this sounds like even more fun - a scavenger hunt kind of thing. I'm putting it on my calendar  and will be dropping a piece or two of art for this first annual World Art Drop Day on Tue, Sep 2. Keep an eye out...

This year I've simplified the design for the student calendar a great deal - it's been a relief to focus on making cleaner looking designs - though that's not my first inclination. My first inclination has always been to "fill the space" leaving no room for the design to "breathe." Anyway, in the new calendar design I've gone from upwards of 100 layers from last year's Windows 8 and iPad based design to just over 50 for this year's simplified one and that makes things much easier to move around and keep up with. Not to mention that I'm happier with the overall layout when I dump all of those logos in favor of text. Speaking of dumping logos, I think the next thing that needs to be considered is simplifying/consolidating the logos around here - link everything (or almost everything) stylistically to the main logo. It's that age old House of Brands vs Brand House vs Mixed Brand House issue. I know that before I arrived various minis...

A former co-worker called earlier this month wanting to know if I'd do a logo for them. They home school their kids and having a "school name" helps them in the state they've moved to. I'm such a slow designer. I didn't sketch anything for this one - mostly because I thought I could work faster if I just edited some open source stock art I had. But the process was still slower than I'd have liked. I spent a good long while on research and looking for inspiration, more time gathering useful bits and pieces, and then at several hours fiddling with things to see what direction I should go in before I had anything worth looking at. So yeah, this project has a lot of time invested in it - which for a simple design like what they wanted, is pretty normal. I'm glad I didn't need to sketch and then digitize because I'm even slower when it comes to that now that I don't have access to a graphics tablet (boo-hoo - I really miss that tool - ma...

A friend of mine wanted this plaster pot she had gotten in Mexico painted. I can't tell you how many little thumbnails I did trying to decide what color arrangement would be best, but the pot is finally done and I'm looking forward to sending it home so I can start on another project.

One of my nieces is having a Frozen themed birthday party and so I've made a few crochet crowns and a little tutu for the birthday girl. I thoroughly enjoyed putting those things together. The tutu was inspired from some pintrest posts I'd seen. At first I thought I'd put some sparkles onto the tulle but realized that the spray adhesive I had purchased wasn't going to work for that. It turned out pretty good. Sewed on the jewels... can't wait to see it on her. And this is what my dog was doing... Here's a pic of my cute little niece - she was my model so I could be sure it was going to work. She's wearing her crochet crown and as soon as I tied on the tutu, she started calling herself a princess. It was sweet.

If they created a unicorn, would it be cute or scary? Ok, here's some food for thought - or, for nightmares. I can't wrap my head around the possibility of researchers making fantasy creatures like unicorns or griffins or trolls become reality, and think I'm going to leave that for God to worry about, but the idea is intriguing. We'd in essence be creating a kind of X-Men type situation - guys with wings or x-ray vision... creepy, really. So initially while listening to the below radio interview, I thought this was silly, simply alarmist mumbo-jumbo, but was surprised by the articles from "reputable" sources even I could find that backed up what they were talking about. I know researchers have been doing stem cell research and DNA tampering for ages (well, for as long as I can remember anyway) and I have seen those pictures of how scientists have grown human ears on the backs of rats and how they have been trying to grow various human organs i...

Stumbled across this video a while back and one of these days, I'm going to actually study it and use the great tips it showcases. I've been chatting with my sister. She has a great camera. I think one day this summer we'll set something up and have a workshop. The video tutorial is a bit long if you're not interested, but it was fascinating to me. And I enjoyed listening to her accent.

Found a pattern for a simple bear on pinterst - decided to do one of them yesterday evening. It didn't take long and I think it turned out ok. What do you think? I'm not crazy about the shape of the arms - am going to make those a little different next time. I enjoyed doing it so much that I think I'm going to re-purpose those millions of old shirts into cute little plush dolls I can send with our church members when they go on various mission trips. And I should have enough left to put into an Operation Christmas Child box or two this fall.

Another sketch - I really need to practice! Fudged on the hands and toes this time... Ha! Oh well...

I'm so rusty at this it's pathetic. Wish I could get out of my head and actually draw what I see. It's so hard to stop thinking when I draw. Maybe that's why I need to be listening to something to get pieces that look like the resource material. Started with pencil, and when I put the white color pencil to paper the rest of it looked dull - that is why I colored it all. Click here for the inspiration picture.

I'm going to deviate from the usual artwork stuff and share an apologetics video that came across my desk. This guy clearly expressed an even handed, calm view of atheism and various other things. It's worth watching for any thinking person. Everybody knows there are moral absolutes...

I had the pleasure of making child dedication slides for my sister's children. They were on a very long list of children to be dedicated this year. Every year I take pics parents send for the dedication service and add the dedication verse along with the name. Often it's a challenge. This year the slides are kind of plain, but I think they work. We do child dedication every Mother's Day at work - making the week before Mother's Day a rough one for me. Come to think of it, the month of May is a rough month for that matter. We have Easter either in April or May so there's always extra music ministry work, then the children's choir usually does their spring musical on the first weekend of May. Also in May we have HS Grad recognition service, this baby dedication service and two luncheons (Daisy Chains for Bereaved Mothers and Pearl Girls Luncheon for Single Moms). It's an insanely busy month for me both from a graphic design standpoint and from the typ...