It's Not a Gecko

Sold: Nikon D50 Body

2007-11-06T10:15:00.001-05:00

THIS CAMERA HAS BEEN SOLD.

Thanks to all who showed interest in purchasing it. Although I'm sad that I had to let this camera go in order to buy my new one. I'm looking forward to using my new camera. A nice shiny Nikon D300.

For Sale: Nikon D50 Body
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

The Nikon D50 is a 6.1 megapixel D-SLR camera. It is an excellent camera for someone upgrading from a point-and-shoot or looking for a second body for back-up.

The camera only has 6500 actuations out of a projected life of 50,000 and is just over one year old (Purchased in Sept. 2006). The sensor has recently been cleaned and produces magnificent pictures (See my flickr stream).

This was my first D-SLR and has taught me a lot about photography and is the reason why I have taken up photography as a serious hobby.

Also included in the sale:
- 2GB SD Memory Card
- Pocket Tripod
- Magic Lantern Guide - Nikon D50 (Book)
- Nikon D50 Digital Field Guide (Book)
- Photography Focus Guide - Nikon D50 (Book)

Here is a full review of the Nikon D50:
www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond50/

E-mail me for pricing and other details.

Photo Friday: Silence

2007-10-28T22:18:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Silence
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Please note that this will be my last post to this blog as I will be focusing on my Flickr account. Thanks to all who have visited me here since I started this ride and I hope to see you over at Flickr.

Photo Friday: The City

2007-10-23T23:09:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: The City
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This is a building along Carroll Creek as seen from La Paz.

Photo Friday: Real Life

2007-10-12T21:14:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Real Life
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

I was coming home from training and I was snapping some candid shots of people on the Metro. Ironically, as I took this picture, the song "The Metro" by Berlin started playing on my iPod.

This was my favorite shot of the day.

You must bow to me! I am the Nerd King!

2007-10-10T11:17:00.000-05:00

As I sit here in a Cisco Boot Camp this week, I visited another bloggers site (Thanks, Lee!) and saw that she took this great nerd test. I knew right away that I had to take the test to see how I would score.

My result is:

If you take the test, please stop back and let me know how you did. I love these kind of tests.

Photo Friday: Comfort

2007-10-01T11:30:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Comfort
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This is probably more like the opposite of comfort based on her facial expression. Alice has a necklace and hat on, as well as being hugged. Her overall look is like "Help, get me out of here." All I can say is that she is well loved.

Photo Friday: The Beach

2007-09-22T00:20:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday -- The Beach
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Took this from a pier on Waikiki Beach near my hotel.

Photo Friday: Fantasy

2007-09-17T09:55:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday -- Fantasy
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Played around with Split Toning in Lightroom to come up with this one.

You can see more pictures for the topic 'Fantasy' at Photo Friday.

Photo Friday: Insignificant

2007-09-01T16:05:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Insignificant
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

What is more insignificant than garbage?

Here are some paint cans that are ready for trash night.

Photo Friday: Unfinished

2007-08-24T14:39:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Unfinished
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This was the last week of summer for the boys before school starts next week. They were very invested in their Fisher Price GeoTrax train set this week. They called me out of my office to look at the "huge mountain" that they built out of the tracks.

As I was editing the picture, I saw this weeks Photo Friday topic was "unfinished." It all fell together and here is my entry this week.

Photo Friday: Old

2007-08-21T12:51:00.001-05:00

Deserted
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This is a house in my neighborhood that people really do live in. They obviously do not use the front door often.

The house is circa 1870.

Breakfast time

2007-08-13T12:11:00.001-05:00

Yellowjacket and unknown bug
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This morning, we had a bunch of ants and a yellowjacket eating some unknown bug on one of our sidewalk pavers in our backyard.

I thought it was very cool seeing a bee in action while eating. I cannot remember ever seeing this. Although I only got a few shots off that came out, I enjoyed the experience.

First Published Photo

2007-08-12T07:55:00.000-05:00

Well, not much has happened since my last post.

We've been installing some new kitchen cabinets, waiting for new kitchen countertops, studying for my Cisco certification exam, getting ready for school to start, and got a photo published in an online travel guide.

WHAT! Did I just say that? Yup! I was contacted by Schmap Baltimore for a photo that I had on my Flickr photostream. It was taken at the Holocaust Memorial at the Inner Harbor. The direct link to the website where it is located is:
http://www.schmap.com/baltimore/activities_innerharbor/p=209989/i=209989_2.jpg.

Hopefully, I'll be posting more frequently once things calm down here in the next month.

Photo Friday: Vacation

2007-07-25T00:17:00.001-05:00

Edinboro Landscape
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

We went to Edinboro, PA for a few days as part of our vacation. We dropped the boys off at Cathie's parents for about a week and a half. The boys loved the country and all the adventures they experienced with Granny and Poppa. While there, we were able to visit our all time favorite diner, Taki's. As well as get a ride on Cathie's dad's new Honda Goldwing trike. Cathie was also able to visit the Edinboro University book store and get some swag to wear. She loves her new Boro baseball cap.

While the boys were away and we were back in Maryland, Cathie and I had our hardwood floors refinished. We also got a chance to slip away to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC and many, many places to eat. Our last day allowed us to visit the Johns Hopkins book store to get some JHU things. All this in preparation of her finishing her Autism certificate in just 9 more classes. YEAH! Go Cathie!

If you get a chance, you must try The Melting Pot. The experience is awesome! From the Cheese fondue appetizer, to the salad, to the entree, and finally the chocolate fondue dessert, nothing was disappointing. It is our new favorite place to go and cannot wait for the next occasion to go back.

The boys came back today with Cathie's parents. So, we are all happy to be back together.

07_07_07

2007-07-07T21:21:00.000-05:00

Well, this is a day that only occurs once every 100 years.

So, what did I do to celebrate it. I walked around downtown with my boys and took some pictures to upload to the Flickr group dedicated to this day. The group is hoping to put together a book of photographs where all proceeds will go to UNICEF. Looks like a good cause. I'm excited.

It was a great day. We started with a mid-morning snack at the local bagel shop and them went to the library. We relaxed in the pool and finished the day with a nice dinner out. Tomorrow will be more relaxation by the pool and not much more.

What did you do today?

Da Blimp

2007-06-16T00:10:00.001-05:00

Goodyear Blimp
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Well, I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that I am loving Adobe Lightroom. What used to take me quite a while in multiple programs to get just right, now takes me a few minutes. I did learn something very frustrating about Lightroom this week, however. It doesn't like compressed folders. I was not able to save any of my changes until I uncompressed my folders with my pictures. No big deal (for now).
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
The blimp was seen a few times by us tonight. We first saw the blimp as we were heading home from Party City and Pizzeria Uno's. Later, while we were at home playing in our back yard, it flew over our house. That was when I took his picture. It was surprisingly low to the ground it was.

Now, for the bad news. The Cavaliers lost the NBA Finals by a sweep no less. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for Tim Duncan and team, but Lebron James was AWESOME this year. It only makes me excited to see what they will do next year after another year under their belts as a team.

My Lightroom Software is Here!

2007-06-10T07:32:00.000-05:00

I know how much you all have been waiting in anticipation since my last post for my copy of Adobe Lightroom 1.0 to arrive. Well, you'll be happy to know that it arrived in the mail yesterday. I was so excited about its arrival that I almost couldn't wait to open it and install it. But alas, we had other plans that kept me from playing with it until later in the evening.

Along with the software, I purchased Scott Kelby's "Lightroom book for digital photographers." This book was an addition to "Adobe Lightroom Workflow" by Tim Grey that I already purchased a week ago. From what I have read so far, I would recommend both books. Grey's book helps you get familiar with the different sections of Lightoom. While Kelby's book is more focused on "how to" tips for different projects that you can do in Lightroom.

Now, to the meat of why I did this post.

The Adobe Lightroom package comes with a CD in a jewel case. The Users Guide, and a coupon for Adobe Photoshop Users magazine subscription.

Okay, enough with all the pictures. I think we have all seen what comes in a box of software. Can we get to the software discussion already?

Boy, your testy this morning.

No, your just irritating me with this nonsense. We want to hear your thoughts of Lightroom.

HMMPH!

Adobe Lightroom falls under the new Photoshop family. The difference is that it is far easier to work with for usual photography changes. If more elaborate modifications or major customization is required, it interfaces nicely with Photoshop CS2 (I know because the books say so and I own CS2 and have tried it).

Lightroom takes a new approach to handling photos which is different than any other software I have used on a Windows machine. (I have never worked on or owned a Mac since I started getting into digital photograhy.) The workflow is to have a library of photos that you can work with, makes changes to, and output them to some format. The five stages, or modules as Adobe calls them, of the Lightroom workflow are: Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print, and Web.

Library

As you can guess by its name, the Library module collects all of your photos into a single place. You can view your photos as thumbnails in a grid or a single image at a time. This is the file management module and how you Import your files into the program. Once the photos are imported, you can work on photos directly in your Library module for simple changes.

The one issue that I have found with Lightroom is a feature that I have come to like with Picasa is the "Watched Folder" feature where is recognizes changes to files in a given folder and adjusts the library accordingly. In this version, Lightroom cannot do that since it works off its own database and not the actual folders and files. This seems to be a common gripe among users on the Internet. I see this as minor and only requires some rethinking in my workflow process.

Another issue that I have found is that I cannot use my network server as the Library. Adobe chose not to support networked drives with Lightroom. I see this issue as my way of keeping a backup. I have all my photos local on my laptop and then use Karen's Replicator to backup the files to my network server. No big deal.

Develop

The Develop module is where all the magic happens. You can make all of your heavy duty changes to your photos in this module. What I really liked about Lightroom is that it supports changes to both RAW files as well as JPEG files in a non-destructive manner. This means that it saves changes to it database without actually modifying the original RAW or JPEG files. Once you are happy with the changes, you can export the changed image to either en external editor such as Photoshop CS2 (or CS3), or select a third-part editor for additional rework, such as airbrush touch-ups. The exported images are separate files from the original so you still have a copy of the original in addition to the new copy. Another gripe I have seen on the Internet has been that Lightroom does not allow multiple copies of the same file even if they have different extensions, i.e. JPG, DNG, NEF, TIFF. I can see where this can be confusing or an issue, but right now, I don't have this gripe.

Slideshow

I have not used this module, so I don't know what it does. Therefore, I cannot write anything about it.

So, off to the next module.

Print

I have only used this feature once and I must say it was pretty cool and fairly easy. I added a watermark to my photo and looked really good, even though Cathie was not please with the picture of her that I chose to print for my office desk.

I haven't tried it but I thought that I read that Lightroom can interface directly with online developing companies. This would be cool if it can happen. I'll have to update when I play with that module more.

Web

I have only played with this feature once as well. I found a trick that allows me to upload pictures directly to flickr using their flicker uploader program from within Lightroom. Very cool, although I found some of the limitations of the uploader tool, but that is a different discussion.

Conclusion

All in all, I am still very pleased with this program. I know as I get more accustomed to its features and understand its capabilities more, I will love it more and more. If anyone makes changes to their photographs and is looking for a great program to both manage photographs AND edit them, this is the program.

New Desktop Wallpaper

2007-06-09T05:56:00.000-05:00

I haven't been doing much lately besides work and studying. Well, that's not entirely true. We had James' birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with Cathie's parents and some friends from school. They had a blast and really enjoyed meeting Chuck E. Cheese.

I also created this desktop wallpaper from a photo I took during our trip to the Baltimore National Aquarium in March. Since the screen on my laptop is 1920x1200, the original is that size. I submitted it to InterfaceLIFT, a website who posts widescreen high resolution wallpapers and it was accepted. They have it offered for dowload in other screen sizes as well.

I'm off to finishing the kids breakfast and waiting for my new software, Adobe Lightroom. I REALLY liked the beta and 30-day trial, so I'm excited. More to come on that once I have it installed and have played a little more with it.

Photo Friday: Purity

2007-06-08T11:29:00.000-05:00

I'm not really sure if this is purity, but when I downloaded it from my camera, I just felt that it fit this weeks Photo Friday theme.

This is the new stone bridge along Carroll Creek in Frederick, MD. It was taken on our way to get some Ben & Jerry's in celebration of James' birthday. The whole evening just seemed perfect.

Something High, Something Low

2007-05-23T02:59:00.001-05:00

Today, I saw two interesting things in my backyard. A blimp (something high) and a snake (something low).

This blimp was first seen by my wife, Cathie. She called in to me to come out and see it. The kids were already outside getting ready to play in their kiddie pool. We were all excited about this cool event.

I actually saw this guy earlier while getting the kiddie pool filled. He was in our garden hanging out in the sun on the warm dirt. I felt lucky that he allowed me to get so close to take his picture. I was only able to get four shots before he had enough and took off into our neighbors yard. He sure was beautiful.

Photo Friday: Large

2007-05-19T12:54:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Large
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This is a very large mural at our local library. It is located in the Children's Reading Room.

This room is great because it also has puppets for the kids (and adults) to use and a little stage to perform stories with the puppets.

Illustration Friday -- Citrus

2007-05-14T14:38:00.000-05:00

When I saw this week's topic was Citrus, I had a pretty good idea what I was going to draw. I did my second favorite drink of the summer, lemonade. (Iced tea being my first:) )

Here is the sketch of a cut lemon with a glass of lemonade.

I thought it needed more color to it because it looked like fruit next to a glass. So, I added color. Here is the color version.

Photo Friday: Amber

2007-05-13T16:33:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Amber
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Here is my submission for this week's Photo Friday challenge.

This was taken in our backyard during our first fire of the season in our new fire bowl.

Vote for Me

2007-05-09T08:36:00.000-05:00

Today I submitted two pictures to JPG Magazine for their upcoming issue. You can vote for them to be included in that issue.

I've been wanting to submit something ever since I found out about their magazine a few months ago. I think they fit the themes. Hope you agree and vote!

Photo Friday: Smoke

2007-05-06T15:36:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Smoke
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Looking across Constitution Ave down 10th Street.

Sock It to Me

2007-05-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

No, No, I'm not quoting Full Metal Jacket or a 2 Live Crew song. I'm talking about homemade socks.

Not sure if anyone remembers the great socks that I got from my Mother-in law. They are ones that she knit for me. My recent round of new socks from her can be seen over at my Flickr Account

Well, she has made the blogging plunge. You can see what she has to say over at her site.

Hope you visit!

Still alive... and finally inspired!

2007-04-16T07:29:00.000-05:00

I know its been close to a month since I posted anything. A number of things have contributed to this. First and foremost, I have been uninspired. Second, I have been pretty busy at work. And last, we have been busy with projects around the house.

However, I finally felt like getting out my camera, the colored pencils, and pens this weekend. Maybe this was because Cathie's mother was in town and seeing her knit inspired me to do something. Also, I think that because Cathie's birthday was on Saturday and I needed to make her a card helped with my inspiration.

Whatever it was, it felt good. And I think what made me feel the best was that we were able to REALLY clean our house this weekend.

Living Room

Reading Room, a.k.a. the middle room

Kitchen

Our list of projects for the next few months is pretty aggressive. We hope to build "built-ins" on either side of the fireplace, paint all of the ceilings, and get the hardwood floors refinished.

Photo Friday: Sentimental

2007-03-23T13:30:00.001-05:00

Photo Friday: Sentimental
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Cathie's grandfather gave this to her when she was a little girl. It has TONS of sentimental value to her.

Since the core of the body is plywood, the head broke at the neck. She was very upset about this and was thrilled when I has able to fix it.

What are people thinking?

2007-03-22T09:37:00.000-05:00

I was just on another blog and he was talking about penny stocks arriving in his e-mail as spam and who would ever take these offers. This made me think of all the stupid, waste of time e-mails I get in a day. I'm glad most of them get filtered into my Junk Mail folder.

I cannot stand these people who forward e-mails about the war, pictures that are "too good to be true," poems that need to be forwarded, and god knows what other crap I choose not to read.

Most of these e-mails can be proven to be false just by going to one website, www.snopes.com. Just do a quick search on the subject of the e-mail or a phrase in the e-mail and you will most likely find it to be completely false.

A recent e-mail I got showed a soldier with a black patch on his shoulder which says, "Doing the work for" and the flags of Germany, France, and Russia below it. A quick search on "black patch" proved the picture of be false and gave an explanation of where the original, unaltered photo came from.

My other favorite is when I get a poem or feel-good story that needs to be forwarded to 13 people in the next 15 minutes or you will have 7 years of bad luck. I'm sorry, I have never forwarded a damn thing and I have a never had a bit of bad luck. I have a beautiful wife, 2 healthy, handsome sons, an awesome job that I love to go to, and a house in a wonderful town. Where is the bad luck in that life?

My frustration come from thinking about these things too much. What kind of person creates this kind of fictitious information and puts it out in the Internet? I guess more importantly, why do people believe this and forward the e-mails along to others? Do people actually read these fucking e-mails before they forward them along? Do they actually believe in this shit? Again, what are people thinking? And then there is my favorite situation -- when you hear someone talking about these e-mail topics in public as if they heard it on CNN or some other national news program the night before. This actually was a conversation I heard where they were talking about a flight formation at an Air Force Base. I had seen the e-mail a few months before and knew that the photo was altered by Photoshop. Idiots!

Working in the IT field, I guess you can say I have the inside edge. This crap is polluting our Internet. It is preying on the naive. And most of all IT IS REALLY PISSING ME OFF!

On a better note, our weather finally has changed for the better. We will be getting into the 60's the next few days and hopefully stay this way for the remainder of the season. Anybody have any exciting plans for this summer?

My new toy

2007-03-17T14:59:00.000-05:00

I know that I haven't been around much. Not dead, just busy.

Since I will be working from home more, I felt it was worth upgrading my home office. The upgrade that I decided to get was a new monitor.

When I worked from home in the past, I just plopped my laptop on my desk and did my work. It worked all right for me, but I wanted some additional desk space to spread out on.

This is what my desk looked like before the new monitor. (My old 15" CRT monitor was shoved below the desk for when I had to view my network server in order to fix any of my shares or print jobs.)

After doing a lot of research, the Samsung 22" monitor was best in its class. Additionally, it was on sale at Circuit City online. Therefore, I had to get it since the sale price was in my budget.

This is the box after bringing it home.

Yup. That's 22 inches of LCD flat screen, baby! It also has a 2ms refresh rate and 3000:1 contrast. The color and clarity of the 1680x1050 native resolution it awesome!

Nice packaging. Very clean and not over done.

Everything looks to be there.

And finally. This is what it looked like after everything was set up. I'm loving it!

I broke out my old 2-port KVM switch so I can use this monitor on both my network server and my work laptop when it is on its port replicator. (Anyone want to buy a Linksys 4-port KVM switch with cables? Let me know.)

Now, I just need to clean up and do some cable management then the work space will be perfect.

Last couple of days

2007-02-27T14:19:00.000-05:00

This is what our Sunday looked like in front of our house. The snow came down so quickly that by the time I had a path shoveled, the walkway behind me was already covered. There were not too many people out on the road. This was a good thing because I'm not sure a snow plow was down our road until the afternoon.

If you are interested, more pictures of the storm can be seen at my Flickr account.

Today, Cathie and I were sitting eating lunch at the kitchen table when we heard some birds screeching outside. I went out to investigate and saw some birds in the trees fighting and yelling at each other.

I went back inside and got my camera. Since we have a second floor porch, I went out there to see if I could get some good pictures. This was the best one I could get. I am not sure if he was the instigator or not, but there were also blue jays and another bird that resembled a Flicker (Real long beak) flying at each other.

Our Personal Frozen Tundra

2007-02-17T23:18:00.000-05:00

This is our backyard. It is completely frozen solid. I spent over 15 minutes with a garden pick trying to chop the ice so we had a pathway to our cars. I never made it deep enough to reach our cement patio pad. I only made it about 3 inches deep and still have another 2 or 3 inches to go. I also only made it about 10 feet out of about 80 or so feet. Instead, I gave up and decided to take a few pictures of items around the yard frozen in place.

This is a Fisher Price bicycle that my boys parked near the swing set. As you can see, it is not going anywhere for a while.

This soccer ball was under the swing set. Now, it only peeks out of it snow prison waiting for spring to come and have someone play with it again.

Here is the bicycle from above as well as another bike.

Today, it reached 40 degrees. I thought a lot of the ice would melt. Unfortunately, next to nothing melted.

Frederick, Maryland on the Rocks

2007-02-16T09:15:00.000-05:00

I finally decided to dig out my car yesterday since I had to go get rations for the family unit from the store. The first thing I noticed after our snow/sleet/freezing rain event was that my 180 lb. frame was not sinking in the "snow." Instead, I have a nice ice rink in my back yard. Feeling how hard the surface was, I knew I was in for a big task getting the car out at this point.

When I got to my car, I noticed that it had about 5 inches of an ice mixture stuck to it. Notice there are no foot indentations going to my door and the accumulation is up to my rims. The above picture was taken AFTER I walked around the car, "scraping" the ice off the roof, trunk, windows, and hood.

Now that the car was cleared off, it was now time to get it unstuck. I initially attempted to just put the car in gear and "rock" the car out of its resting place. This was a technique learned during the winters in Erie, PA. This was unsuccessful. Instead, it drew the attention of a neighbor kid who was willing to help. My first thought was that this kid would slip and fall on the ice as I was backing up. It turned out okay and there were no casualties.

Finally, after the neighbor kid and I dug out my front tires, I got the car moved. To my surprise, the car did not make deep tracks in the snow as I reversed out of my parking space. Instead, it drove ON TOP of the snow. My 1999 Honda Accord was sitting on the snow and not sinking in it. We were both amazed and had never seen such a sight. In my 20 some winters up north, I had never experienced anything of this nature. WOW!

This last picture just shows the tire resting on the snow with no indentations surrounding it.

I'm still in awe of this. Can you tell?

Celebrating the number 100

2007-02-11T15:31:00.000-05:00

Friday was a special celebration for my son at school. It was the 100th day of the school year.

This post is a special marker for me since it is my 100th post on this blog.

So, in celebration of these two events, I thought that I would post some art my son did at school on Friday. His hat has 10 circles and each circle has 10 unique items drawn in them.

Today is also my half way point in the computer programming class that I am taking. I finished my mid-term last night. My brain is mush today from psuedocodes and structure charts and flow charts.

Now we start the week preparing for a possible blizzard moving in Monday and Tuesday. No one is posting accumulation numbers, but let's hope it is not the 100+ inches they saw in New York state this past week. 6-12 inches would do nicely, though. At least the kids would love it!

Duck Colors

2007-02-04T10:04:00.001-05:00

Duck -- Humphrey's Half Moon Inn
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

These ducks were so tame that you could walk right up to them. I was probably 18 inches or so from them when I took this picture.

I love the color of this male (drake), the green seems to change colors with the angle that you look at him.

The female (duck) has a nice brown color to her, as well. However, it just is not the same boldness as the drakes color.

Pacific Portal at Shelter Island

2007-02-03T09:03:00.000-05:00

I know that I haven't posted in a few days but I've been in San Diego for work. Although it was a business trip, I did have a chance to see a few sites. My Flickr account will be updated later this weekend with pictures from the trip.

This is the Pacific Shelter on Shelter Island in Point Loma. It was right across the street from the hotel where I stayed. Pacific Shelter is a sculptural gazebo. It was designed by James Hubbell and constructed for a May 2006 opening celebration. The structure is sprayed concrete with mosaic tile detailing. The adjacent trellis has concrete columns, timber beams and wrought iron ornamentation.

The Art of Relaxation

2007-01-28T22:51:00.000-05:00

When it comes to laziness, Nigel has got to be King.

Nigel is the type of cat that will not move from the step he is laying on if you are coming up the stairs. You actually need to step over him. He is not a small cat, so he takes up the entire step. Although, he looks to have lost weight, he is probably still a good 14-15 pounds (down from 18).

In this picture, Nigel probably would not move if you went to the bedroom door and opened it. Instead, he would look up at you annoyed.

Some days, I wish I could just lay around and do nothing but look annoyed at the people around me.

Portable Art Supplies

2007-01-27T21:49:00.001-05:00

Portable Art Supplies
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

I carry this around with me when I just want a couple pencils, pens and an eraser.

I've had this case for at least 20 years and it is still in great condition..

Illustration Friday -- Red

2007-01-26T22:40:00.000-05:00

Today's Illustration Friday topic was Red. This was the first thing that crossed my mind.

Backyard Art

2007-01-23T22:26:00.001-05:00

My neighbors
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

One of the things I love about living in downtown Frederick are the backyards. The different colors and styles show the individuality of the homeowners as well as the different architectures of the houses.

This shot was taken from my backyard while on the kids fort.

First Snowman of Winter

2007-01-22T17:32:00.001-05:00

First snowman of winter
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This is about as much snow as we got. The boys enjoyed making a snowman today.

It consists of hair made out a pine tree limb, arms made from twigs, nose and mouth made from carrots, and eyes, mustache and beard made from Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp cereal.

Doodle of the Day -- 2007.01.21

2007-01-21T18:56:00.001-05:00

2007.01.21 -- Doodle of the Day
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

I did this while the kids were playing on their L-Max's this morning. Mac saw me drawing and decided that he wanted to draw something, too. It eventually turned into Mac and I drawing pictures while James played his L-Max.

It started out with the box. I then added the first tear drop, then the second tear drop. Finally, I added the details to the eye and sort of paisley.

Illustration Friday - Super Hero

2007-01-19T23:50:00.001-05:00

2007.01.19 -- IF - Super Hero
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Wasn't sure if I was going to do it this week, but this came out while watching TV tonight.

Thanks for stopping by!

Art at Work

2007-01-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Since I have not really taken any pictures or drawn anything lately, I figured that I would post something that I did at work. This was a simple network diagram I did for one of my customers to connect their East Coast and West Coast Satellite networks together as well as their Network Operations Center.

I know its not much, but its the only "art" that I have been doing the last couple of days.

Stay tuned. I hope to have something more interesting up soon.

Sunset in Northern Virginia

2007-01-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

Driving home from work yesterday, I saw this out my drivers side window. I thought with the tree silhouetted like it is, I had to stop and catch this shot.

This was taken on Route 15 between Lucketts, VA and Point of Rocks, MD.

Mr. Angry Eyes

2007-01-15T23:34:00.000-05:00

When I took Spot and Alice out last night, Spot went crazy and tried to climb the tree next to their kennel. When I shined my flashlight into the tree, I found this opossum looking back at me.

As you can see, he was not happy to be disturbed. As my kids would say, "He has his angry eyes on."

I wish I took this picture :(

2007-01-14T22:54:00.001-05:00

I wish I took this picture :(
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Instead, this was a picture that I downloaded from my five year olds camera.

He took his camera in the car while he and I ran errands. I hear him snapping pictures, but I never knew he was taking pictures like this from the back seat. There are actually a dozen or so more just as good.

I'm thinking of playing around with it and cropping and changing it to sepia or something like that. I want to keep the angled look of it though.

Prehistoric Sesame Street

2007-01-13T21:03:00.001-05:00

Prehistoric Sesame Street
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Todays post is about "Children's Art."

This morning, James was playing with his dinosaurs and had them take over Sesame Street. This was not the first time I saw them do this. I really enjoy when they combine different toys together and come up with something like this.

Personally, I like the yellow one climbing the building.

Did you have the Sesame Street building? Did you combine different toys together when you played with them?

Spot

2007-01-12T23:54:00.001-05:00

Spot
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

I was trying out various depth of field settings and liked this the best (f/8). I can't believe how crisp this lens is!

Doodle of the Day -- 2007.01.11

2007-01-11T21:19:00.001-05:00

2007.01.11 -- Doodle of the Day
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Yesterday was an uneventful day. I took no pictures and I did no drawings. Just went to bed early.

I stole a few minutes today and drew this at work. I'll let you guess what was going through my mind today.

Doodles of the Day -- 2007.01.09

2007-01-09T23:12:00.000-05:00

When we were in NYC last year, I picked up a sketch pad at MoMA. Its really cool with different colors pages versus the plain white ones in most sketch pads. I have finally got around to using it.

Here is one of the pages from it.

Illustration Friday -- Buzz

2007-01-08T22:28:00.001-05:00

Illustration Friday -- Buzz
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Here is my interpretation of this week's Illustration Friday topic, Buzz.

A 3 year olds view on life

2007-01-07T23:49:00.000-05:00

I gave my old HP digital camera to my sons to use since they have both shown an interest in taking pictures. Today, I noticed that the memory card was getting full and downloaded them to my laptop.

This was the very first one that came off the card. This was taken under our kitchen table of our dog, Spot. My 5 year old is in the foreground.

I know that this one was taken by my 3 year old since this is my 5 year old in the red shirt. I think that his view on life is so interesting. It is such a different perspective. I'm glad that they have shown this interest and that I can see what they do from their point of view.

C. Burr Artz Public Library Lobby

2007-01-06T22:31:00.001-05:00

Library Lobby
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

We went to the library today and for some reason, this was the first time I noticed this art work in the lobby of the C. Burr Artz Public Library. Apparently, this art has been there since they remodeled the building over a year or two ago.

The art was done by Dennis Anderson. It consists of six murals (only four are shown since the other two are to the sides of me) named 'Small Paradise.' In my opinion, it's very simple. However, it has some very interesting features within it. I'm not sure how it fits with the library theme or why it was chosen, but I like that he library has chosen to support the arts. The library actually has a number of pieces displayed around the entire building. the Children's Room has has a "Storytime Room" which includes a full wall mural of various children's book characters and a humongous tree (I think its called the Story Tree) where staff members can sit under and read to the children.

Honestly, I know nothing about the artist Dennis Anderson or any other work that he has done. If you know who he is and what other things he has done, please let me know.

Difficult Run Stream Valley Park

2007-01-05T23:34:00.000-05:00

Difficult Run Stream Valley Park
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

I drive by this scene every day -- twice. I see this as nature's way of making art.

The history behind this is quite recent. This stream has a swamp area to the one side of it. This swamp flood often. Maybe 3 or 4 months ago, it flooded so bad that it washed the asphalt right of its base. Instead of removing it when they fixed the road, the road crew left it there to become part of the landscape. Now, its a constant reminder of how damaging running water can be.

Moon over my Maryland

2007-01-04T23:56:00.001-05:00

DSC_3323_cropped
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

I love nature and everything about it fascinating. The moon and stars have always intrigued me with their own forms of art. The forms that the stars create and the "face" on the moon are just a couple of examples.

Today, I'm posting a picture of the moon and its beauty.

Man in Rain Doodle

2007-01-03T22:06:00.001-05:00

2007.01.01 -- Man in Rain Doodle
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

While on a conference call today at work, this man in the rain appeared on the post-it note.

Blue Light District

2007-01-02T22:55:00.001-05:00

Blue Light District
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

My goal this year is to try to post a new piece of artwork every day.

This shot was taken in my kitchen VERY late at night. I was walking back in and saw the light from my Wacom tablet shining through the vase. I had to get my camera and take a few shots.

The only thing that I did not like about this shot is that I realized the next day that the ISO setting was on AUTO and it chose 1600. I would have done the shot at 400. The result is too much noise. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Merry New Year!

2007-01-01T00:10:00.000-05:00

Billy Ray: Merry New Year!
Beeks: That's "happy." In this country, we say "Happy New Year."
Billy Ray: Oh, Ho! Ho! Thank you for correcting my English which stinks!
... from the movie "Trading Places"

Well, it's 2007. Another year.

I know it has been quite a long time since I have been around. Thanks to everyone who asked where I was and how I was doing in the past 5+ months. Although things are still busy, I am hoping to put some artwork up on my site in the next year. Since I have taken up a new hobby, photography, you will see a mixture of hand drawings and photos.

I hope everyone has had a good 2006 and looking forward to seeing more of you in the next year.

For my first piece of art this year, we all make hats to welcome in the new year. Here is mine.

Illustration Friday -- Skyline

2006-07-08T21:45:00.000-05:00

This week, I thought I would try the oil paints in ArtRage 2.

I originally started my Illustration Friday topic with a NYC skyline that included the World Trade Center towers. I was excited about doing this classic skyline at first since Cathie and I are going there at the end of this month. Then I got depressed about doing that particular scene and decided that I wanted to do something a bit more cheerful.

I'm not sure if it necessarily cheerful, but in the end, I chose a skyline from Beach 6 at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA. The cheerful part came because Cathie, the boys, and I were there over Memorial Day weekend and I remembered this was how the skyline looks. We had a blast and everyone was happy playing in the COLD water and sand.

Growing up in Erie, I remember going there when I was a kid and there were no stone monuments blocking the view of the boats that were out in the lake. I even remember on a clear day you could see Canada.

I guess you could say, "Skylines are like life. You never know when and how much they will change."

Fireworks at Baker Park

2006-07-07T12:26:00.000-05:00

Since we had great weather for the Fourth here (the rains hit south of us -- Sorry DC), Cathie and I walked to Baker Park with the boys to see the fireworks. We were not sure exactly how the two of them, especially James, would react to the loud booms, but they were both great. The boys actually loved the fireworks so much that, without prompt, we heard a lot of "oooo's" and "ahhh's" from them.

If you go here, you can see some of the pictures I took of the fireworks. The pictures of the crowds did not turn out as well as I would have hoped, but there were probably a thousand people in and around the park that night.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday.

Happy 4th of July

2006-07-04T07:50:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone has some fun plans today. We are taking the kids to Baker Park for some fun. We will be spending most of our time in the Kids Tent making PB&J sandwiches, controlling remote control cars, and playing in the air tents. We will probably also sample some of the great vendor foods they have and maybe even get to enjoy some of the bands that are playing.

If for some reason, you are looking for something cool to do on the Internet, check out this site. ZoomQuilt is a collaborative art project. It has a slight MC Escher look and feel to it. The main website has a HTML version and screensaver in addition to the Flash version linked above.

Have fun! Enjoy! And be safe on this holiday!

Doodles of the Day -- 07.02.2006

2006-07-02T22:03:00.000-05:00

For someone who said they would probably not be posting much due to projects, work, and school, I seem to have posted a lot lately. :)

Anyway, I had some opportunities to play with my Wacom tablet and ArtRage today.

"Chalkboard Doodles" was created using a chalkboard canvas and chalk as the medium.

"Fruit Doodles" was created using the Oil Paints tool on a basic canvas.

Art of a Different Kind

2006-07-02T01:25:00.000-05:00

When I took the dogs out to do their business the other night, I had an interesting surprise at the doorway of their kennel. A spider had spun a web across the opening. Luckily, it was high enough that the dogs did not disturb it when they entered it and I could sneak under it in order to get this picture.

I really like spiders particularly because of their webs. Most of it is due to the fact that I am fascinated by fractals, especially those found in nature.

Illustration Friday -- Sticky

2006-07-01T08:08:00.000-05:00

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this week's Illustration Friday theme was a pancake with some nice sticky maple syrup.

My second attempt at 'Sticky' is a person eating glue. I would say that this would leave him in a pretty "sticky" situation. :-)

Doodles of the Day -- 06.28.2006

2006-06-28T16:13:00.000-05:00

I recently upgraded my free version to the full version of ArtRage 2. I thought it was very cool before and thought I would give the full version a try since it was only $19.95.

I must say that I was not disappointed. I played around with it and my tablet and came up with the follow drawings.

"Paint on Wood" started out as three bugs on the canvas and quickly became paint smears on a brown background and then finally this.

"Blackboard Doodles" is just a compilation of different drawing tools on a black canvas.

Meme -- Fake Past

2006-06-25T07:20:00.000-05:00

I am not a meme person, but when I saw this over at Tit's List, I thought it was hilarious and would give it a try. So, all you creative people out there, refresh my memory on some things we did in the past. My mind is a little hazy right now and need all the help you can give me.

If you read this, please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me.

It can be anything you want - good or bad - BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember about you.

Illustration Friday -- Rain

2006-06-24T22:31:00.000-05:00

I was originally going to do something with a line from my favorite movie for this week's Illustration Friday's theme, "Rain." The quote, "It can't rain all the time," is from the movie 'The Crow.' There is just something about that movie that I still enjoy to this day. However, I could not think of anything that would do the movie or quote justice.

Then I read Cathie's recent post "Confetti" and instantly knew this is what I would draw. Below is a snippet of our back yard after a recent rain storm. Branches, leaves and daisy petals "littered" the back patio.

BTW, sorry I haven't been around much. Work has become very busy. Also, working on some "art" projects at home. I've been painting our bedroom and getting ready to paint the boys bedrooms in August when they are away at their Grandparents. I should also apologize if I am not around much in the future as well. Classes start Monday, so, I'll have yet another thing on my plate to keep me busy.

Here is something that I worked on this morning while playing around with my tablet. This one goes back some to my original concept somewhat.

Illustration Friday -- Jungle

2006-06-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

Skyscraper: A Haiku

Our concrete mountains
scaled by pressing a button.
Crowded peak, then sky.

This week's drawing for Illustration Friday's theme "Jungle" was inspired by Cathie's current submission to One Deep Breath.

Illustration Friday -- (Self) Portrait

2006-06-07T21:52:00.000-05:00

From the moment I saw the topic, I knew that I wanted to do a self-portrait. I have not done one since high school. I took the picture of me from the family photo that Cathie posted on her site and did the head shot.

I did it in my 11x14 sketch book, so this is the digital photo versus a direct digital scan.

Doodle of the Day -- 6-6-2006

2006-06-06T17:43:00.000-05:00

"Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom: let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number. Its number is six threescore six" -- Revelation 13:16-18

The marking on the Beast's right hand is the Greek symbol for six hundred sixty-six (666).

New Books

2006-06-05T13:47:00.000-05:00

Cathie went to NYC with her mother this past weekend. In her adventures there, she picked me up a couple of really cool books while at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"The Art Book" is a list of 500 artists and describes one of their typical works. The work ranges from early medieval to modern times. It is alphabetical order so it makes finding an artist easy since you do not need to know what period his/her work is from. Very educational.

"The Wisdom of the Buddha" seems to be more of a historical book than any philosophical teachings. I am not a practicing Buddhist, but I do enjoy reading and learning about the religion. This book certainly looks interesting and looks like it adds a lot of additional information that I was not aware of from other reading I have done on the subject.

I think both books are great and cannot wait to read them.

Hopefully, I will have my IF drawing up later this week. It is taking me longer then expected.

Doodle of the Day -- 6-1-2006

2006-06-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

These four doodles came while on a conference call for work. The bottom one with the mohawk is based off of the Microsoft MSN Messenger icon. I just added my twist to it. The bug with the leaf started out like the scene from Dr. Strangelove but turned it this instead. The other two were just random doodles.

Cathie bought me a Boyd's Bear for Christmas one year. The figurine is of a bear working on a laptop with a bunch of computer books around him. While sitting at my desk, I doodled the head of the figurine with my new pencils.

Illustration Friday -- Cake (and Edith, Too)

2006-05-31T21:45:00.000-05:00

This weeks topic for Illustration Friday is Cake. Instead of doing the traditional drawing of a cake, I wanted to do something out of the ordinary. While in Edinboro this weekend, I drew this and titled it, "Cake and Edith, Too."

Not sure if I'll color it or not. Maybe coloring it will be a Photoshop project for me one day.

Doodle of the Day -- 5-24-2006

2006-05-24T09:29:00.000-05:00

Well, this will probably be my last post until next week. We are all off to Edinboro, PA for Memorial Day weekend. I plan on packing up my art pads, pencils, and pens. Hopefully, I will be inspired by the trees and animals around Cathie's parents house and I will have lots of things to share upon my return.

With that said, I leave you with three things I have done in the last few days.

This first one I call "Shadow Lady." I wanted to try out my new pencils (Prismacolor Turquoise 7B, 4B, 2B, and 2H) that I just bought. They were on clearance at JoAnn's. How could I resist. So, this little lady appeared.

The next thing I drew was "King Doodle." I guess it is a character inspired by a deck of cards. He, or she, was done using a .45mm Micron pen. I started with an oval and the rest just happened.

This last one is called "RFP Doodle." I did this as my eyes started to glaze over from reading this RFP for work. The words and letters started to "lift" off the page. I grabbed my .45mm Micron pen again and went to work. My eyes are better now.

Weekly Photoshop Challenge -- Fixer Upper

2006-05-21T16:55:00.000-05:00

Since I used to be in the construction field when I was younger, this theme really excited me. It also pushed my knowledge of Photoshop and helped me with learning new things that it could do.

The house that I chose to use is right around the corner from ours. We live in the Historic District of the city, so you cannot use "new" products to remodel. Windows, doors, roofing all has to be authentic to the year of the house. As you can see, one side of this building has been remodeled and is currently being lived in, the other half... well, it needs help.

I decided to make this duplex into a single family home. I converted the roof into a common color. I removed the second door and replaced it with a window. I also removed the window air conditioner unit. The last thing I did was remove the neighbor and gave them some more yard.

For more Fixer Uppers or to participate, visit the Weekly Photoshop Challenge hosted by TXArtcGal.

Illustration Friday -- Sorry

2006-05-20T11:58:00.000-05:00

Wasn't sure at first how I was going to accomplish this week's theme. Usually, I like action words versus emotion words. However, I thought of my dogs and how they look when they get in the garbage or have an accident in the house. Although, my dogs have never broke a vase, they have done their share of damage. Their eyes have that "I'm sorry" look to them and you instantly forget your anger.

This one's for all you pet owners out there.

Illustration Friday -- Angels and Devils

2006-05-14T22:49:00.000-05:00

Before Photoshop work

After Photoshop work

WOW! Can you believe that we got another tough topic this week?

I don't think it was tough because of the lack of potential subject matter, but instead the vast amount of ways this could be taken. I had so many thoughts going through my head -- Dan Brown's book of a similar title, kids trick-or-treating, or an angel and devil fighting over good and evil to name a few.

In the end, I chose to do a rendition of the Tao, aka, Yin Yang, which is a Chinese symbol for unity and universal harmony. It shows the compliments between dark and light, good and evil.

I'm extremely disappointed in the way it scanned, so I had to take a digital photo of it. However, this photo still doesn't come close to how this looks in person.

The side which represents "Angels" has a light blue background with clouds, a sun which resembles the Compass Rose, a symbol for guidance, and purple flowers. All of these items have a light, soothing feeling.

The "Devil" side has a Pentagram, which often represents occult or satanic beliefs, a dark ground, with a glowing magma represented between the cracks, and a saw blade tooth pattern that could represent torture. All of these have very dark feeling.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day.

UPDATE: Here is the scanned version after some Photoshop work.

Weekly Photoshop Challenge -- Colorization

2006-05-10T20:43:00.000-05:00

TXArtcGal started the Weekly Photoshop Challenge over at http://weeklyphotoshopchallenge.blogspot.com/. I am very new at all of the different "tricks" that can be done with Photoshop. I am hoping these challenges will help me learn what can be done with this program.

The above photo is a black and white photo of Cathie's dad when he was a young boy. I added color to the trailer and the ground.

Doodle of the Day -- 5-9-2006

2006-05-09T13:58:00.000-05:00

Here are some of my superheroes, villians and aliens I doodled today. I liked the guy in the middle so much I just had to add color. Not sure where the bug listening to music came from. Maybe he is a superhero in training.

Doodle of the Day -- 5-8-2006

2006-05-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the horrible scan job, but its tough getting an 11x14 sketchbook scanned on one intended for 8x11 documents.

Anyway, these are some doodles of heads that I did. I was trying for different looks and emotions.

Illustration Friday -- Fat

2006-05-06T19:29:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest. When I saw this week's theme, I was not inspired in the least. I was actually a little offended by the topic.

"Fat" is such an ugly word. The thought of becoming "fat" causes both young boys and girls to do abnormal things to themselves. They can either starve themselves, make themselves throw-up after they eat, or worse get addicted to diet pills. None of these are good for a healthy body and a healthy mind.

People also look at those who are overweight and immediately come to the assumption that they are lazy, uninspired, or just a below average individual. They never get a second glance. Or worse yet, they become the butt of a joke. This saddens me.

I tried to take a comical approach with this using a dog. This is how I feel after eating a large meal.

Doodle of the Day -- 5-3-2006 aka IF -- Under the "C"

2006-05-03T10:57:00.000-05:00

This was one that I wanted to do where I played with the Illustration Friday theme "Under the Sea."

Need buttons?

2006-05-03T05:53:00.000-05:00

I was playing around in Illustrator and Photoshop to come up with these two buttons. They can be used on your site if you have a desire to link to me. All I would ask is that you let me know that you have them on your site.

If you need a custom size or color scheme, I am willing to modify them somewhat.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Doodle of the Day -- 5-2-2006

2006-05-02T13:04:00.000-05:00

Since I'm under the weather, I'm going to post some work that I did not too long ago.

About a month and a half ago, I was approached by another blogger, Cubicle Reverend, about submitting some of my work to him in order for him to display it on his web site. Since then, it seems that he has taken a slight break from the blogging world.

I have not heard from him in a while and I'm not sure if he plans on doing any more "Gallery Showings," but I thought I would use them for today's doodles. If he does plan on using them in the future, then for those who visit him, you will have double the pleasure of seeing them.

The first is a colored pencil design of a tulip. It actually started out as a flower pot that we used to have. I say "used to" because I left it outside one winter and it cracked during the thawing process. The coloring of the flower came from an African Violet, which just happens to be one of Cathie's favorite flowers.

This next little guy is a mad scientist. Although he resembles Cubicles avatar, he just happened to look like the little monkey. I have since gone back and inked him and added color, but I like the original 2H pencil version best. And no, the mouse does not currently have a name. Any suggestions?
My last guy was taken from an infomercial that just happened to be on while I was doing some late night sketching. I cannot remember the product name, but I feel this is intended for the most lazy people ever (hope I do not offend anyone who has this product due to serious back problems). This was from the opening scenes where a person was having difficulties getting out of their chair. The product that they were selling was a chair that leaned forward so you would not have to move any muscles to get into a standing position.

I'll also let you in on a little secret. This had started out as another drawing before this commercial began. Can you see the fruit?

Doodle of the Day -- 5-1-2006

2006-05-01T17:11:00.000-05:00

Played with the Wacom and Corel Painter Essentials today. I chose the Acrylic Brush and just tried different widths to get this done. Round flowers are much easier than the tulips.

Illustration Friday -- Under the Sea

2006-04-30T15:36:00.000-05:00

This week's theme really made me think. I had so many things "floating" through my mind. Finally, I decided to do an underwater seascape. I wanted to try to do something different this week. Very rarely do I do scenery, so this would be something that would push me.

Doodle of the Day -- 4-24-2006

2006-04-24T22:27:00.000-05:00

WOO-HOO!!! My Wacom Graphire 4 tablet arrived today. Didn't get much time playing with it yet since I had to do some troubleshooting with it. End result was that I had to download the most recent driver to get it to work properly.

Anyway, I played around a little in Photoshop. This was the result. I am really excited about this. I think I have the hand-eye thing down pretty well. Now, I have to practice on the other tricks both it and Illustrator can do.

I am hoping that this will be a nice compliment to my "old school" drawing techniques.

Doodle of the Day -- 4-23-2006

2006-04-23T11:54:00.000-05:00

I was playing around with my colored pencils and wanted to try different things. The three leaves on this Poison Ivy drawing are all done in different ways.

1.) The top leaf was done with the lights being applied first and the darks added on top.

2.) The right leaf was done with the darks being applied first, then the mediums and finally the lights added on top.

3.) The bottom most leaf was done with the darks first and gradually getting to the lightest color. The final touch on this one, however, is that I used the Prismacolor blending pencil (#1077) over the entire leaf.

Robot, Part 2

2006-04-22T22:16:00.000-05:00

I started this the same time I did my other robot; however, I had decided to finish the other first. Although I wanted to finish this one, I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it. After careful consideration and a "just do it" from Cathie. I decided to move forward with a new technique I had never used before.

First, I sketched the entire robot. Next, I outlined it with my 005 Micron pen. I added the details at this time as well. The next step is where I was worried about the outcome. I colored the entire thing with Sharpies. After getting all of the green and browns done, I went back over it with my colored pencils for the finishing details such as shading and other colors.

Again, the concept for this design came from a variety of sources -- Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Star Wars, and The Black Hole to name a few.

I am actually very pleased with this and cannot wait until my next drawing where I plan on doing more of this technique.

Illustration Friday -- Robot

2006-04-22T08:22:00.000-05:00

Here is my illustration for this week's theme, Robots. Honestly, I am not happy with how it scanned. The funny thing is that I am very happy with the real drawing. Anyway, I am working on a second robot. One that is more sinister and realistic, less cartoony. My new graphics tablet should be here Monday. Maybe I'll play around with it and submit a second or third robot this week.

My vision for this illustration came from a number of different robots I have been introduced to over the years, but it probably most resembles my favorite robot from the Disney movie, The Black Hole. I guess you can say this is sort of like a younger version of Old B.O.B.

Limited Time Only -- Gotta Check This Out

2006-04-18T10:18:00.000-05:00

I've decided not to do a Doodle of the Day today. Instead, I would like it if you could take the time to visit another artists work. My wife, Cathie, had a story published on Friday. The story is called "Take My Kids and My Ravioli, Too" and can be found at Thieves Jargon.

Also, please take time to read her other works which are linked from her blog, The Bean Counter.

Thanks!

Doodle of the Day -- 4-17-2006

2006-04-17T20:20:00.000-05:00

I have seen many great pieces of work by Steve over at 'Go Flying Turtle' using this type of medium that I wanted to give it a try. I am calling it "Massacre by the Blue Fish." It was done with Sharpie's and my Micron pen.

Doodle of the Day -- 4-16-2006

2006-04-16T07:12:00.000-05:00

I usually only post a single drawing (okay maybe sometimes I do two), but today I thought that I would post an entire page out of my sketch book. While we were all sitting in the backyard, I started out by drawing my youngest son while he was sweeping. The rest of the page includes a portion of my wife's ring (the real one has three of those flower-type arrangements), her new bracelet that she just got for her birthday, a sunset, a bottlecap, and a not-so-nice dinosaur

Blog Update

2006-04-15T06:27:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I have done a complete overhaul on my blog. This is still the original Son of Moto template available through Blogger. I only changed the background image and colors.

The background is based on my tattoo. I re-drew it since I did not have the original any longer. I colored it, scanned it, and played with the layout in Illustrator. After getting the layout correctly, I finished the coloring in Photoshop.

Next, I saved all of the original Son of Moto GIF's to my laptop. I changed the colors in Photoshop to the ones in my final design. After learning a little about CSS from my sister, I was able to fix an issue I had with my site and change the background and text colors. Thanks, Melanie.

The last step was uploading the new graphics to a public web server and making all the final changes in my template to where the files are now located. I saved it and then republished it.

Illustration Friday -- Spotted

2006-04-14T13:33:00.000-05:00

Here is my take on this week's Illustration Friday theme, Spotted. I was thinking of doing a few things for this one -- my dog Spot, decorated Easter eggs, a spotted whiptail lizard, or a Moffet with spots.

In the end, I chose this one. Hopefully, it needs no explanation. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Flashback: 1990 Art Project

2006-04-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

I haven't done a Flashback in a while and I don't have a doodle for today, so I will post this.

I remember my art teacher, James Sabol, as being pretty laid back. One class, he said to find an object anywhere in the classroom and draw it. I went into the back supply room and there was an old skull in a box. Since I was going through my alternative mod stage (which was especially controversial since I was at a Catholic School), this fit the profile.

Here is the outcome. Pretty poor quality and scan job since it has not been preserved by any means for the last 15+ years, but here is none the less.

Doodle of the Day -- 4-11-2006 (aka Where the hell is Grimace?)

2006-04-11T17:10:00.000-05:00

While I was driving into work today, a minivan passed me with a Grimace character suction cupped to the window. It dawned on me that they no longer use him or any other "old school" characters in their commercials. Where did they go?

Was Grimace merely a zygote who developed into another more popular purple monster? Did Hamburgler finally get locked up? Was he framed? And what about the Fry Guys? Are they now known as Moffets? Oh, and that chicken thing. Not sure what her name was but did she transfer to Purdue? For those who may be too young to know these characters, they were once Ronald's friends in McDonald's commercials. Now long gone.

It saddens me that my children will not know the characters I learned to love (and fear) during my Saturday morning cartoons? Which "old school" characters do you miss?

Doodle of the Day -- 4-10-2006

2006-04-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

I've been lax on my daily doodles. I have no real excuse other then the weather is getting nicer and work (my real job, that is) is starting to pick up. Here is my latest doodle. I wanted to experiment with shading. This is a rock my son found in our yard and brought to me to hold. Thought it was a pretty good candidate.

New Banner -- Feedback Welcome

2006-04-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned a few days ago, I was working on two small projects for myself. I took my time and finished the one -- a new banner for my blog. The second one is going to be put on the back burner for the time being until I am inspired again. I'm just not feeling it anymore on that drawing.

Anyway, please feel free to let me know what you think of the banner. Both positive and negative comments are welcome.

One last thing, I will leave you with a quick doodle of a green apple I did while my boys were eating their breakfast.