Daily Creativity: Rory in Kamae

RoryKamaesm

I’ve been taking Aikido lately and was inspired to draw Rory in Kamae, and of course, he’s a green belt. This picture is ink on 9×12 marker paper, I really like using this paper when I use color, it doesn’t absorb the ink like other paper does so it ends up looking more like I originally intended. I find myself wanting more colors in my markers, but at $3 a pop I’m buying them slowly.

Daily Creativity: Baby Clock Doc

Little Baby Clockwork Doctor, isn't he cute?

If you are watching my flicker feed you have already seen this adorable little guy.  I drew a baby version of The Clockwork Doctor and I think he’s adorable.  I just got some new supplies, some new micron pens that I am in love with, they don’t smudge at all when I’m erasing so that is just awesome, and an art card size watercolor block.  I’ve been looking for art card pads but just can’t seem to find them, but this seemed doable.  The paper may have more texture that I wanted for ink but it will hold up well I think.  I also recently picked up a Non-Photo Blue pencil which helps with ink sketches.  I was very tempted to add color to this, but thought better of it. (Ink on 4×6 Art Card)

Daily Creativity: #BecausePGH

BecausePGsmIf you’ve been reading this site you know that I lost a very close friend, PG Holyfield.  This is some art I did in honor of him and to help me process his passing.  You can find out more about the Children’s Trust and how to help his family at PGHCT.org. Or donate to the gofundme while it’s open at gofundme.com/pgfund. First sketched on paper then redrawn in photoshop.  Lengthy details below.

This isn’t exactly a Daily Creativity, since it took me more than a day.  Sure sometimes I post things with the title of Daily creativity that take more than a day, but this one was worked on a little bit each day for five days.  It may not look like there as that much work put into it, but since this piece was so emotional to me, it was a lengthy process.  I erased and redrew about a million times, I had to get the faces just right.  I deliberated over the color of everyone’s shirt (which no one notices) and drew how our hands are placed so many times the paper was wearing thin. I wanted to have all of us, and by all of us I mean the cast of the Beyond the Wall Podcast, supporting PG, Viv and myself on his sides, and then Christiana and Chooch behind us supporting us, I chose our positions from a cast photo we took at Balticon in 2013. Then I scanned it into photoshop and low and behold my trusty stylus stopped sensing my pressure.  I tried to reinstall the drivers, clean it out and did everything short of replacing the nibs (still working on finding some) before I realized, it’s not happening.  All at the same time my other trusty pointing device finally died on me for good.  I use a Logitech Trackball, it’s a trackball mouse that is moved by the thumb, great for ergonomics, great for cluttered desks, and I have so much more control with that now over a regular mouse because I have adapted to it.  Turns out after enough use the wireless starts clicking on it’s own and double to quadruple clicking, for the last 6 months to a year I have been fixing it by taking out the battery, switching the dongle’s usb port, and clicking buttons till the residual energy is dissipated in the capacitors, but that stopped working that week.  This week I replaced the pointing device and realized how much I had worn down my old device, the new one feels so stiff and the buttons are so high in comparison. In the last 6-7 years I have gone through four and a half of these, all but the last were wired and lasted much longer, but you can’t buy wired anymore, and you can’t buy the microsoft version anymore either, and they don’t seem to be planning on making a bluetooth version, which they should.  I realized just how much I use my pointing device though, and it kinda shocked me, but like sneakers, there is a milage rating that you need to replace these things.  So, back to the picture, I was able to redraw and color all using my back up mouse that I keep in my laptop backpack for students and teachers who need a mouse. I remember finishing up the picture while listening to the Game of Thrones soundtrack which just added to the extra feels.

There is talk of doing a limited print run of this image, the prints would be numbered and all proceeds would go to the Trust Fund set up for his children.  Any news on that and I will fill you in.

Daily Creativity: PodcastJunky’s Ban Hammer!

PodCastJunkyFlatsmThis is a mashup of Thor and PodcastJunky’s Ban Hammer! All sparked from a conversation on facebook, for the back story, read below. Ink on paper, then scanned and colored in photoshop.

I’m part of a group on facebook, the Podcast Community. It was created by mega podcast fan herself PodcastJunky. What makes this group different than many other groups I’ve found is the fact that you are not allowed to self promote in the group.  Many people argue with this rule but it is this rule that makes the group so useful.  Because people aren’t spamming the group with self promotion people can ask questions, get answers, and spark some awesome discussion. In the beginning of the group PodcastJunky wasn’t as diligent with the no self promotion rule and it got to the point that people who had contributed some really great conversation left over it.  Keeping the self promotion out of it has given me the opportunity to not only get some great information about podcasting, like the newest technology, ways to record, mixer help, software help, where to list my podcast and how to list it, but when I had very specific problems the people who owned the company I was using was in the community and walked me through it.  There is a representative of Blubrry (the powerpress plug in many people use for podcasting) and a representative for Libsyn (a website where many podcasts host their files), and they both often answer questions and will look into issue people have.  While I don’t use libsyn because of this hands on approach I have recommended it to others.

PodcastJunky is very diligent about the self promotion, facebook added the advantage of letting members report posts to a group admin to help her out with this.  As she deletes and records or blocks and bans people for breaking the rules she tells us about it, and references the ban hammer.  In one other these conversations someone said Marvel’s secret was out and she was the new Thor… so of course I had to draw it.BanHammerBanner

Nutty Bites 62 – Fresh Nuts: Facebook, Feedback, & Patreon

CoverArt62The first Fresh Nuts episode wherein I discuss Facebook and my not liking things experiment and how it has worked out for me (spoiler alert, I’m going to keep doing it.  I also discuss feedback including a voicemail and itunes reviews (thanks to reviewcast.io) from the last two years. Lastly I talk about Patreon and how I’d like to continue the podcast and be able to add more content to your feed.

Promos played

  • Agents of Plastic (not a promo but I plug it)
  • Girls Rules Podcast (bumper played)
  • Technorama

Credits

Contact/Feedback

(347) NUTTY42 or (347) 688-8942
www.facebook.com/groups/nuttybites/

Because Clay Dugger posted a picture of his episode in the works, here’s a shot of mine.Screen shot 2014-09-14 at 12.51.51 AM