random sketchbook drawing

My cat will never sit still long enough for a complete sketch.

Shoe Mix 3

Red Cat

Street Photos II

More nighttime shots from the street.

The Animal Kingdom

There's nothing wrong with volume 5, Animal Kingdom, all it needs a little update on some species from the latest research. Otherwise this is a good book for kids to read up on animals and start them out on their basic information.

What really got my attention were the illustrations throughout the book, the full page ones were really impressive. All of them are done by hand with realistic details and great colors. I wish I could do illustrations like this. I hope I got the links to the artists right (at least the ones that exist).

Experimenting

These pieces were when I was experimenting with Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown and Gum Bichromate processes on 140lb watercolor paper. It's important to start with good negatives and the ones I made from the 35mm originals were not of the best quality. When the final product didn't come out so great I redrew back into some of the pictures with watercolor and pencil crayon.

When the process is done properly the results are amazing and can produce great texture, as well as experimenting with black & white and color. Black and white prints can be given a unique texture and depth of field from the process as well.

What's influencing me right now

I love old radio shows, even though there's no visual there are some crazy stories to give you ideas. Some of my favorites are the plucky girl detective Candy Matson, the creepy Hermits Cave, Nightfall, and the Witch's Tale who was actually voiced by a 13 year old girl at one point.

Journey to the bottom of the sea

Some shots from the Vancouver Aquarium.

World and Space

This volume is not too bad, perfect for the young budding scientists to get their basics from. The pictures from space would probably be better today and a couple of subjects are out of date but mostly a very helpful book for starting a kid out on the mysteries of space and the planet Earth.



The article related to these illustrations wasn't bad, it was just how the sun helps to produce food. I just find that the little sparkly magic photosynthesis stars make the cows look like they are riddled with gunshot wounds or parasites. It doesn't make the food that appetizing either.

Digging in the closet I found this old mag from 1995, and yes it's only $2 ($2.50 can). I really can't remember why I bought it cause none of the articles in it interest me. But I did find a couple of interesting things.

Zen Bunny

Look and Learn

Volume 12 Look and Learn is actually a pretty good book. Half of it is more timeless kind of information, like the origins of the meaning of red tape when referring to paperwork or minding your p's and q's. The other half is dated info related to technology and outdated processes.



This is a pretty good entry talking about how the different types of fonts relate to different things, although in a cliche way. If you're a designer and I say the word papyrus you know what I mean! Cute illustrations by Carl Yates.

Blue Bike Diptych

Nighttime Photography

Places To Know

This was actually an okay book. The photos are typical 70's quality though, yellow tinted color pictures and dull black and white photos that lack good contrast. Aside from that the photos are of interesting spots. This is a good book to introduce young kids to landmarks and famous places.

random sketchbook drawing

Street Photos

Some old photos from walking the street, sadly these two stores don't exist anymore.

How Things Work

Flipping through How Things Work, Volume 7, it's easy to see that everything is very out of date (this is the 1979 edition after all), there are a few things that the future generations of the 21st century will never learn about and a few things that are too over simplified by today's standards.

Shoe Mix 2

Black & White Diptychs

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here's what Holidays and Customs had to say about St. Patrick's Day:



Apparently not a lot.
(That float actually says Moonlight in Mayo ?????)

Black & White photo dump

Primary Seating

There are so many chairs, sofas and seats in the back alleys of Vancouver, documenting them just seems natural.

Design project limbo

Where do all the projects that no longer have any purpose go? Limbo, aka this blog. This was a mock up that went with a proposal for a project that I unfortunately didn't get. It will forever now here reside.

Choose your own adventure, educational style

This immediately caught my eye in The Green Kingdom,Volume 6 of the series. A "choose your own adventure style" game that is suppose to help kids learn to identify different trees and plants while making their way through the illustrations. Heed the clues and choose your path wisely or else you may regret it!

random drawing from my sketchbook

How We Get Things

Today its How We Get Things, Volume 8. Flipping through this book it has some great pictures, very dated but still a lot of fun to look at. I have to admit as a book to actually get information from it fails completely. Mostly all the writing is wussy little poems and very brief descriptions any kid nowadays would know. I don't know the age group this was originally aimed at but it must have been very young, but I remember when I was little I wanted to look at colorful drawings in books, not drab black and white photos.

The lost art of coloring photos

It occurred to me that over 10 years ago I did all of my work by hand, and the invention of wondrous programs like Photoshop, Illustrator and all other related programs now has me working on the computer at least 90% for any project. Working on a computer is great; its fast, doesn't waste materials and all mistakes can be quickly corrected. Still there's something to be said about working by hand on something, the happy mistakes that happen and a larger area for experimentation that can produce unexpected results. One such experimental project was hand coloring a photo with various materials and seeing the different outcomes, many of which can't be replicated in a digital format.


Top row: acrylic ink & black pen, gel pens, watercolor pencil crayons
Middle row: traditional watercolor, various black & brown pens, acetone markers
Bottom row: Pebeo Vitrail paints and outliners, oil paint sticks, photo dyes

Celtic Tarot

Another find from the closet clean out was a set of tarot cards I got back in the 90's when I was a moody teenager. I recall there was a big craze for Celtic culture when I got these: Lord of the Dance, Celtic cross tattoos, plaid/flannel, The Cranberries.

Illustrated by Vanessa Card, at first glance each looks the same but upon closer examination you can really see how each plant's own characteristics influences the details of each card.

The Sea card reminds me of The Tea Party's "Splendor Solis" album cover done by Steve Cole.

Make and Do

I recently liberated our old set of World Book Childcraft Encyclopedia set from my mom's storage room. This set is the 1979 edition and all the kids in the pictures are sporting bell bottoms, crocheted sweaters and pigtails tied with that thick colored wool only kids from the 70's would remember. Of the set of 15 my favorite was No.11 "Make and Do", the one with all the crafts. I would spend more time flipping through the book looking at the crazy pictures than actually doing the crafts.

I'm not sure how to start this thing, so let's just start.

SHOE MIX 1


In cleaning out my closet I've stumbled upon a lot of small pieces I've done in the past; pieces not suitable for my current portfolio but at the same time I still like them.

A while ago I became obsessed with shoes, in particular heels. I personally don't where heels out of the knowledge that if I did I would hurt myself, a lot. Also I don't like the idea of heels for health reasons; my Grandma has horrible foot problems from wearing high heels for half her life, and the heels that are coming out now look even more uncomfortable than my early shoe work. At the same time heels are aesthetically pleasing, duh they're designed to be, and I enjoy drawing them so I did a series of work dedicated to my contradicting obsession. With the styles that have been coming out lately I will more than likely pick up this series again .

The first 12 I did of this series were accidentally left on a bus in Vancouver many years ago, and even though I never got them back I hope someone out there found them, hung them on their wall and have been enjoying them since.