My staggered-ing return to something cool every day.

The last two weeks or so my computer was crashed. I ghosted the crashed boot drive, but never tried the ghost- the original wouldn't boot or operate. Found out yesterday that the ghost actually works! So I have a new hard drive with my old system on it- it's like a dream!

Kind of like this design, which I will always dream that I entered into the woot contest last week. I didn't, but if I had...


The Yardbirds!

Mountain Lion

The mountain lion. America's big cat..
A rough sketch, but I can't find anything like it online on a shirt. Worth pursuing? or not?

Ceiling cat and jaguar-bunny attack

A couple of pictures I've doodled. First is a photoshop bit of fun:

The more work-involved drawing is a jaguar, who doesn't quite look right, with his partner, the lepus, in attack mode.

I think the jaguar's legs , the back ones, are angled wrong, or something. It bugs me.

life amongst the hippies

something I made for the woot derby.

Victor's Beaver

Yep, FIRST, before the giant hulking Abby Normal, he tried it on a few smaller fellas.

I wonder if he could dance to Puttin' on the Ritz?

Fat Crow on a tiny branch

Poor guy been munching a leetle too much corn.

Were-Deer, or Deer-Wolf.

Not sure which this is, but I like him, and the tree-stump. moon needs some detail.I think he needs to be a little more vertical, and with a little more clearance over the tree. tree is pretty great, too.

Hero. for the Goodjoe offline YMCA shirt contest.

I drew this a few days ago, and tweaked it yesterday for submission to the GoodJoe offline YMCA Northeast T-shirt contest.

Foxes at Fire, Fire with Foxes, not quite sure

I started this project about a year ago, and shelved it until a few days ago. I'd been involved in a derby in which a fox was drawn with these long stripey lines, allegedly pointillism. Anyway, regardless, it got me thinin about drawing a fox where it was only drawn via the fur. Eventually I put in reflections on the eyes and light on the noses, so it wasn't just the fur. I always wanted them to be in front of a fire, and so that was the focus of my past day or so.
I'm not satisfied yet, what I want this to look like is that the foxes are curled up together behind the fire, and they are visible from the light on their fur and reflected from their eyes. Consequently, the brightest light is going to be at the closest portions of the foxes,a nd the farther back parts will be in shadow and darker. This is also true that the farther back portion will be darker. So I have to fiddle with it some more before I'm happy. I am pleased by the fire itself, and by the foes, just need some tweaking of the brightness of the foxes.

Portrait of Horatio van Gogh up for voting at DesignbyHumans, PLUS a new drawing of a bunny rider.

My portrait of Horatio van Gogh is up for voting on DesignbyHumans. <<< link

However they do, I'm pleased that I managed to complete the two designs enough to submit them. :^)

more to come.

oh, and a bit of fun:

This bunny rider inexplicably has forgotten his reins- I'll have to fix that.

DBH Submission: long after the apocalypse

My giant beetles design is now up for voting on DesignbyHumans!

If you like it, please give it a vote, comments are good too!
Today I intend to complete submitting my Horatio van Gogh design, also to DBH.

Tiger, tiger

Well, the real world has intruded in a big way on my computer time, reflected by my lack of updates over the last week or so. We are in the middle of the worst winter OF ALL TIME! OF ALL TIME!*
* in the Mid-Atlantic region, since they've started recording it.

At our house, last weekend we got 30 inches of snow. By Tuesday, we finally had it shoveled out of our driveway. Our neighbors, who had someone come with a truck to clear their driveway, got their drives cleared by Tuesday morning, a couple of hours before us.

About an hour after the last of the shoveling was done here, the snow started for our current storm. At that time, it was predicted for 10-20 inches, now they are saying 6-12 inches. However, the big thing is the WIND. It's a Nor'easter, with 40 mph winds and gusts above that. we're seeing wind right now, but it's gonna get worse. this morning it looked like about 5 inches of new snow, but really, the drifting and tree breakage is the big concern, and we are likely to lose power, along with everyone else.

Our kids have been out of school since Friday, and at least through the end of this week. Consequently, they have been using my computer more than I have.

However, I did enter a couple of origami designs in the Woot derby, and it was the second of those that inspired the one that I'm showing here.

 

I ended up folding this origami, and shining a light own on it so that I could see where the shadow would be. I'm sure it isn't really quite right, as the flames would probably be more blurred, but I like the look of it, and I really like the idea of catching the tiger on fire.

I didn't burn the origami.

I should say that I did change it some from the original, which was a cat, not a tiger. In that origami, the ears are pointy, and I cut off the corners. I figured that was OK, since the original ears were cut anyway. I also put a bend in the tail, and folded back the front of the feet so that they'd look like paws instead of some kind of chibi®* things. Over-all, I think the changes I made greatly improve the origami. The origami is also a two-piece design, which technically is against the rules, but common, so I don't care.

*Trademark belongs to Adder. ;^)

Eastern Eyed Clickbeetles.

I took several photographs of these beetles last summer, and have made the beetles into a couple of eight color vectors.  I think they'll make an awesome T-shirt, and am going to submit it (to probably DBH) this week. I hope they will put it up to vote on, since it's based off a photo that I took, there isn't any copyright issue with the photo.



The only thing I'm concerned about is whether they can wrap it around like I've showed it.

Anyway, this bug showed up around some logs I was splitting, and barely moved while I was taking pictures of it, so I took several different views. These two seemed the most lifelike when placed on a shirt.

Heart Derby.

ugh. that's really all I have to say.

oh, nice job though, Boots! a little ray of light in the horror of this derby.

Puzzled T-Rex, continued

Well, I've been working on this guy, and he is way cooler now, I think.  click it to see a much bigger version, which is still reduced from the original drawing.

I am kind of stymied now. I know darned well I can't make him into a Tshirt that looks a lot like this, so I need to figure out the best way to proceed. Maybe I could halftone it, but I kind of hate to do that. Suggestions?

Oh, and I think the T-Rex'd look pretty neat with a jungle-ish background, lots of huge ferns, but I can't figure out how the struthiomimi which I started out with would fit into that.

Struthiomimus (=ostrich-like dino) hiding from T-Rex

puzzled trex too small
Originally uploaded by josephus1

Poor T-Rex, can't find them.I need to add to the ground, the shadows, maybe, but the idea is that the ostrichosaurs hide their heads in the sand, and that actually works to keep the T-Rex from seeing them. Poor guy can't scratch his head without an arm extender.

newer robots2

newer robots2
Originally uploaded by josephus1

I had a long day at karate today, so I drew several little robots. these are the last of them.

newer robots

newer robots
Originally uploaded by josephus1

some smaller robots.

Psittacosaurus, the zebra-striped, parrot-beaked dinosaur.

These zebra-toned dinosaurs might have an alternative coloring, with bright yellows, and purples, perhaps a light grey or cyan color. I understand they might like crackers, too. I really think that I can make a Jurassic, or Triassic Savannah that looks pretty cool with the variety of dinosaurs with similarities to large African animals.
next up: the ostrich

Robots are Always angry; Horatio final

I have spent the last few days making uninspired entries for the woot nightmare contest, and finishing up Horatio's self portrait. I quite like it now that it is much more in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. There is an eight color version and a six color version I'm going to show. I think the extra colors improve the design, but I understand the limitations of screen printed design, so I'll have to live with it. Now I have to decide what to do with it...

While I was waiting at karate practice for my son to sharpen his skillz for the black belt test in March, I drew another robot. It occurred to me that whenever I see robot designs, they usually are involved in destruction, and this has to be because of  The Fifth Law of Robotics, as expressed by the famous Daneel, "Robots are Always Angry."

Horatio at Argenteul

I was making an avatar today for my Google Wave account, which is a fascinating new tool from the Wizards at Google. Anyway, I'd decided to make a van Gogh as a joke, and kind of sketched it out. when it was done, I realized that with sunglasses he looked just like Horatio Caine.

So, then I had to draw Horatio Van Gogh. and here he is. I love the similarities between them. The only real difference is the nose, so I sort of merged their nostrils and ignored the rest of the nose, though by the time I finish the design I will have to deal with the nose somehow. I have only roughly put in his jacket and shirt, as well as much of the beard needing more direct revision instead of big clumps of solid color.

I'm thinking of just doing a portrait, like the one Adder did in collaboration with ...(the Infinity Loop?) someone I respect highly for their skill and talents! That is one of the shirts I have bought on purpose, as opposed to randomly!
Alternatively, I could make it into one of those police IDs that they sometimes wear around their necks. I kind of like that idea better, it could even hang around the collar of the shirt, and have CSI:LaBelle (or some other small Florida Town) in great big letters on the back. That might be a bit much, and run into copyright issues.  Anyway, the ID card would also make the design more of a close-up than the Van Gogh self portrait is.

Anyone with any suggestions who sees this, I would greatly appreciate reading them. I'm uncertain even who might print it, since it is kind of a cultural reference. I think it's a wonderful idea, and I'd love to have the shirt. It is unusual for me, since I don't have a clue what to do with it.

Finished my 3 yr old valentine design to submit to woot for a daily, TODAY.

This was an idea I had on my own. I think it's great for a valentine's day shirt or just for a couple.

I'm sure it could be sweeter, but I'm not sure how.

Neo days and robot nights

I submitted a Matrix-inspired design to the derby that I believe worked really, really well.

Tonight, as I waited at son's boy scout meeting, I drew another in my series of robotic-ish designs

I think I am improving as I go on with these. At any rate, I'ma continue. Thanks for all the previous comments, y'all, I promise to do better about looking and especially commenting on the other blogs.

close to final egypt design.

just for fun, I gave him a scarab for a bellybutton, and a better view of it is here:

I have to check to make sure the lines in the scarab aren't too thin, but because this thing is so big on the shirt, I'm pretty sure they are wide enough. Oh, and I have also nearly finished my valentine's design to see if woot wants to print it. I think it's great, but anyway, here it is so far.

maybe a different color shirt.

The fascination with Egypt

I'm probably not going to do all that well in this week's derby. I think my design is really neat, but, like most of the things I enter, there isn't a really obvious cornball joke, which is what usually wins. Actually, there's no joke at all, just a gold plate that one might have seen on a wealthy person like the Pharoah. I put a lot into this design, trying to create something similar to the jewelry which was seen with Tutankhamen, but different. I think I was successful, overall. anyway, here it is:

I think the blue color is good, and realistic and I like the goldness. I'm pretty pleased.

Time to start thinking about Egypt.

I'ma have to start talking about the derby today, because that's all I worked on today. I looked at Tutankhamen pictures, and decided to attempt to invent one of those big necklace things that could hang on the front of a shirt. They mostly have a big set of wings, with either a big bird attached, or some sort of person/goddess. This is a pretty common theme, in the tomb images, and the coffin enclosures, as well as an awful lot of hieroglyphics. Everyone seemed to wear these kinds of bling pieces. Accordingly, here is my drawn image, which I am now working on to turn it into a vector design. I am hoping to make it look pretty realistic before the derby starts, so I may be working on it as my major design this week. I have another design from TWO YEARS AGO that I am going to submit to woot for a valentine design, which I think is just fabulous. For two years, I forgot it during the time before valentines, and I'm going to send it out to them this week.

Anyway, here's my big jewelry piece:

Cool Post the first

OK, AS I promised myself, I made something cool on New Year's Day. at least, I think it's cool. That would be this drawing of some sort of bot:

I'm not sure what that thing is climbing out of the access tunnel, but I presume it could be a power-leech. I love the idea of a whole bunch of feet underneath the thing being moved around, and drew another one today using a bit different kind of mobility basis:

It took a couple of drawings to figure out how to operate the posts, but with a cam and a separate belt system, you could do it. I figure that operation of the movements works by varying the rate of rotation in the different directions. Perhaps, if it is rotating more rapidly at the front rank, then it's more likely to fall forward in that direction. this needs thinking for it to actually operate.

Anyway, we have 2 days of cool things I created.