Another Medium Mangled

I create cruddy comics, weak watercolors, and now....awful acrylics. 12x12 Acrylic on clearance canvas. I have a more elaborate effort that is, as yet, unfinished (but not yet abandoned) that I will share at some point.

Acrylics are a neat medium - they can be thinned and layered creating a transparent wash effect similar to watercolor, or can be used opaque, even sculpted into objects and 3d works. Acrylics are water cleanable, but are a waterproof plastic when dry.

I'm working up the nerve to try some portraits. Apologies in advance to my victims.

Quick Oats

Don Quixote Tilting at Pinball

Comic Jams

A Comic Jam is a fun stretching excersize for comic artists. Much like a musical 'jam session', two or more comic artists gather and collaboratively create comics panel by panel. Someone creates a panel, and then passes the comic to another artist who adds a panel and passes the comic again. There is not a lot of time to think and not a lot of time to draw.

The results often make little or no sense. Desperation devices such as a pizza delivery and the explosive end to all reality commonly make an appearance. Jam Comics that 'fail' are often still amusing and entertaining.

When they work, they're a bit of magic.

If you have a few minutes to cram full of comicy goodness, check out some of the Comics Jams created by members of the Michigan Comics Network.

I helped start the Michigan Comics Network...geez about 5 years ago now. We meet once a month, usually the first Saturday of the month. Check out the site and the forum for more info.

I created the second and third panel of the jam above. Apologies, I've forgotten who started it.

Veterans Day

Miss you Dad.

Vote Early...

..Vote Often, as they say.

Got to my polling place about 20 minutes before 7am today. Decent line. Groggy people. I seem to live in a fairly Republican area. One gentleman in line asked a poll worker what time the polls close. The worker said 8pm.
"Fox News said it was 9pm".
"No, sir, we close at 8, but if you are in line by 8 you may vote".
"But Fox News said it was 9"
"No, it's 8".
I couldn't help myself. I piped in "No, it must be 9pm. Fox News is neeeever wrong". Grins all around, fortunately.

Old Skool Robot

The Son wanted to be a robot this year. So, we got all DIY and whipped up a classic "robot" outfit.

I soldered my first solders on this project too for the nifty blue LED in the head lamp. I had planned to have several other LED lights on the chest plate, but it seems I melted the plastic battery holders while soldering and broke the circuit somewhere.

Happy Fall

Season's Greetings Everyone! Doodled the dude while I was waiting for the kids to finish dance class. Colored it when I got home. Click the image to see it larger.

Good vs. Evil

A friend of mine sent me a screen grab of the home page he was presented by Amazon. I'm sure this is purely random presentation of ads and not a declaration of allegiance. ;) Interesting to note the percentages are remarkably similar.

Click the image to enlarge.

Happy Halloween!

The 2008 Halloween Card has been mailed out, so I can now post it here! Click the image to see it full size, or check it out in the Art:Composites section of my site.

Google: Oh That? Nevermind.

In response the huge negative response generated by the original section 11 of the Google Chrome EULA, Google has quickly revised the document. Section 11 now simply reads:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

I am a cynic, so Google's explanation that the clause was standard to all of the EULA's and was accidentally included strikes me as suspect at best. Regardless, this, at least formally, relieves some of the privacy concerns regarding use of the browser. Unfortunately, this situation has moved them down the scale, a little closer to Microsoft, on the "Companies I trust" continuum.

Stating the Obvious...

No real revelation here, but wanted to say it somewhere. Watching some of the Republican Convention has me annoyed. I hope Palin does such a good job that the obvious political pandering behind her nomination fades and disappears.

I don't want to see any more convention coverage of people who are behind her solely because she is a woman.

Voting for Palin (and McCain) because she is a woman is no different than not voting for Obama because he is a black man.

Reminder for Sergey Brin and Larry Page

Looks like all it takes is a few billion dollars for Google founders to forget their purported corporate mantra: DON'T BE EVIL.

I'm glad to see others have started voicing concern over Google's End User License Agreement for their new Chrome Web browser. Just got a note of caution from a developer I work with too.

Please note (Taken directly from the Chrome EULA):

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Google is reserving " ...a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide," right to collect, share, profile, and monetize your browsing history. They are watching YOU.

Would you buy a telephone that reserved the right to record and profit from your dialing history and conversations?

And, yeah, now I have the creeps because I'm using Blogger to compose and publish this post.

Night Lights

A thunder storm rolled by last night. I was trying to get a lightning bolt. Instead, I got a fun orange glow in the sky from lightning back-lighting the night sky in my long-exposure shots. Click the image to see it bigger.

"Pink Stinks" T-Shirt Design

There's an exciting new T-Shirt available in my Comics and Stuff Emporium. "Pink Stinks" concept created by my six-year-old son.

His eight-year-old sister was emphatic about being credited with the inspiration.

Child, Julia Child

I love it. Recently declassified government documents reveal that Julia Child served in the O.S.S. during World War II. Man. We just don't have cool "previous lives" like that in our generation. We are NOT going to find out that Rachel Ray was working counter-terrorism 2002-2006.

Do as I Say...

New Family comic over in the comics section. Why don't we adults follow the same common sense rules we drum into our children?

Read the Comic ( You know, if you want )

Farewell

Digital painting I created relying heavily on the reference photos below for features and colors.

Still-Life Drawing

Remarkably Brave Teacher

I'm all riled up.

The Perry Township Board of Education has suspended a high school English teacher Connie Hearman for a year and a half for using The Freedom Writers Diary in her class. The book is a compilation of journal entries written by inner-city students. And they swear a lot.

The Perry Township Board suspended her after she refused to demand the book back from her students.

1. Ms. Hearman waited for 3 months for administrators to make a decision about use of the book. They would not.
2. Ms. Hearman sent home 150 permission slips to parents. 149 parents approved the use of the book with their child.
3. Oh, and guess what? The book was and still is available in the school library
   

The politicians on the Perry Township School Board are worried about a vocal few making it harder to get re-elected next time around. And for that they are willing to prevent students from getting adult guidance and educational framing for a book that is available without either in their library. You see, this would be utterly blatant censorship if they tried to remove the book from the library. That is hard to do. And that would take courage.

Watch the CNN story and feel free to let the fine educators on the Perry Township Board of Education know what you think of the fine work they are doing.

In fairness, I read that Barbara Thompson, School Board President, has "...sought adult education through Ivy Technical College and other Insurance related courses..." , so it's hard to argue with her appreciation of the theory and practice of education. Yeeesh.

Another Manufactured Musical Group

As I have said, robots are cool.




Behind the Music:

Parental Guidance

So, latest Indiana Jones movie. PG-13. "Admission will be granted to persons of all ages but that parental guidance is suggested in the case of children under the age of 13"

This does not mean you should bring your 5 year-old daughter to my screening, sit directly behind me in a nearly empty theater and then provide your parental plot guidance throughout the entire film in a tone that would be too loud for your living room.

1. Please don't bring your child if the plot is going to be utterly beyond them.
2. Please teach your child how to whisper, regardless of the film.

All I ask. Thanks.

By the way, I enjoyed the film in spite of the blameless little girl and her incredibly rude slouch of a mother. Went in looking for a fun ride and that's what it was. Three thumbs up.

Ugh

Busy lately. Deadlines. Trade show in Vegas. Between flights on my return trip I stopped for dinner at an airport food court in Minneapolis. I finished my pizza and grabbed my drink for another big sip. What? Why is my diet Coke all watery?

Yeah, I accidentally drank from a cup abandoned in an airport food court. Still gives me the heebie-jeebies. Hoping it does not also give me the Avian Flu.

DANGER! "Orphan Works" Copyright Bill

This sounds quite scary. I have not read everything available, but this does sound like an important issue for independent creatives of all varieties.

I've edited this post to add some info and cut back on the alarmist quotes of others. My point is just make people aware that these bills exist and to have us keep an eye on them and/or make your position known to your respective lawmakers.

I'm still trying to wade through the bills, but I have an inherent distrust of ...well everyting, but in this case specifically of people monkeying with copyright law. The little guy never seems to benefit from changes.

Some Info:

A more level-headed analysis by my friend Todd VerBeek in his blog. Todd thinks this legislations may be a good thing on the whole. ( Thanks for the comments and the info Todd - Info incorporated in this post. I think I got swept up in some of the alarm-ism. I try to avoid "ism"s as a rule. )

The American Society of Media Photographers' site and the Illustrators Partnership group's sites seem to think this is extremely dangerous, saying things like:

"Under current copyright law, in effect for the last 30 years, your visual art is copy protected whether or not it is registered or carries the copyright symbol.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to introduce the Orphan Works Act of 2008. If you care about protecting your work, you're against it. It will have the effect of wiping out any copyright on visual art now in existence, throwing your work into the public
domain. If you wish to protect your work (each and every separate piece) you will have to digitize it and register it with private sector registries as yet uncreated, for a fee as yet unestablished. I say registries because this bill places no limit on how many separate registries there could be.

And so on in scary fashion. Check it out, form an opinion, sign a petition, contact your congresspeople and senators. Go to http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml to quickly find the phone number, address and e-mail of every U.S. senator, U.S. representative, and state legislator.

And, pass this info on!

If You Insist

My original voice bubble said "I'm here to pick up a gun" , but I got feedback that perhaps that was too subtle. So, I went way in the not subtle direction. Can anyone come up with a middle ground?

Going in a New Direction

Had lunch with my friend Dan Cooney today. Strolling down the street in Ann Arbor we spotted this smart car using 1/3 of its metered parking space. Everyone walking by took a second look. Seemed an effective attention-getter. Photo courtesy of Dan.

In Memorium

It is with a heavy heart and considerable drowsiness that I report the passing of a coworker. He expired quietly yesterday afternoon and was cold by the time I found him. Mr. Coffee and I have been a team since mid-1999. He was the driving force behind so many of our projects. He will be missed.

Willies & Wonder

I'm a member of the Star Wars generation. I am male. Ergo, I think robots (AKA 'Droids') are really cool.

My daughter asked to search the Web for a furry and "real" dog robot. Only 3 months left until her birthday, you can't leave this kind of thing until the last minute you know. Info and video about "Big Dog" came up in our results.

My daughter waited quite patiently while daddy watched this video and muttered "oh, wow" again and again. Robotics researchers have long been modeling their creations on examples from the animal kingdom, but this is the first time I've seen something that behaved close enough to a living thing to creep me out a little.

While We're Playing With Color...

A nifty color-scheme generator that uses good old-fashioned color science. Tool compliments of wellstyled.com.

Color Challenged? Things Just Got Kuler

Ever wish you could collaborate with another talented designer when formulating color schemes? Well, the kind folks at Adobe Labs have introduced 'Kuler' - a color community. Check it out!

Yes, I did.

Click to enlarge...or turn off the lights and pretend you are not home.

Another Einstein Schtick

Things wont for some of us.

Click the comic to enlarge.

Karma's Little Helper

Click the comic to see it enlarged. Toying with an idea I had awhile ago.

Tip-Toe Through the Splinters

Error-gonomics

So, uh, irritating your sciatic nerve can be really painful. May I suggest feet together on a riser, knees together and above hips, back straight, and frequent strolls away from the computer.

Happy New Year

Getting back into the blogging swing of things. Kept shuffling this doodle around my desk. Decided to slap it up here.