There was this video that came to my attention earlier this week about an unusual little bird from Peru. The Spatuletail Hummingbird is this tiny little creature (endangered, of course) with only four tail feathers. In the males, two of those four tail feathers grow long and have these dark blue-violet paddles at the end (the spatules). Imagine a peacock’s tail, how huge and beautiful and totally, impractically unweildy it is. Now imagine that on an itty bitty hummingbird. The males don’t fly much, and when they do, it’s only for a few seconds, and it’s just to impress a lady (of course!).

I love hummingbirds, and I’ve been playing around with ink and watercolor in this little spiral-bound watercolor book lately, and the spatuletail hummingbird kind of captured my imagination, so I had to have one for myself. I wish I hadn’t done the leaves- it would’ve been a stronger composition- so if I do it again on nice paper I’ll take them out. But go watch the video, because they are really amazing.

Tags: art, bbc, doodles, hummingbird, ink, painting, power animals, spatule hummingbird, spatuletail hummingbird, watercolor

I haven’t been posting them, but I’ve been playing with seamless repeating patterns since the beginning of the year. While it’s mostly been flowers and other sort of geometric shapes, there was this one file I started with the intention to fill with as many unique, organic shapes as I could, and this pattern of sea critters started to take shape. It took me a three or four sesssions to finish it (over the course of several months!), but it’s finally done!

I learned a little trick while I was working on this one. I kept testing it out and in spite of all of the unique shapes, I was still really aware of exactly where the tiles were seaming. I had overlapping shapes, but it wasn’t until I started using certain motifs over again within the tile that the rhythm finally broke up enough for me and the pattern started to feel more natural to my eyes. The tiling isn’t 100% invisible, especially at this small size, but it’s a lot better than where it started (I don’t see any strong path of  white running through it anymore, for instance), and I’m really proud of this one

Tags: animals, art, ocean, patterns, sea life, vector

eek a mouse (47sec mp3 of audio booth hilarity)

PS: Yes, this is a very old drawing, but I’m at work, and he fits to nature of the post. This little guy first appeared in the Osprey to accompany an article about natural pest control.

Tags: audio, drawing, funny, mice, varmints, work

I spent the weekend doing just about anything but drawing. I slept a lot, I watched cartoons, I raked the yard clean of leaves. I think last week was just too much- too busy at work, too emotionally draining- and I needed a vacation from thinking.

Now we’re on to a new week, and I’m feeling recharged and ready to start a Very Big Project at the beginning of November. And I drew a toucan.

I stumbled across a neat little trick in illustrator that I probably already knew, but forgot. I made these fern leaves and grouped them so that I could easily fill the tree with foliage. I had it all one color, and then accidentally selected an individual leaf within the group with the white arrow. So I shift-selected a few more and changed the tone of just those leaves. I think it worked pretty nicely to give the cloned fronds a little more variation.

Tags: adobe illustrator, art, interesting, technique, vector

The last time I saw Wayne was just 6 months or so after graduation, when I was working at Target. I actually ran into him while he was shopping and I was working on a particularly bad day, and I broke down and cried right there in the store. He was kind enough to stand around until I got myself together and gave me a pep talk, telling me that where I’m working right after college is no indication of whether I’ve succeeded or failed. Find the lesson, he said. Find the thing to learn here and now, and learn it, and then move on when the opportunity comes.

One of the last lectures he’d give to his graduating class was about the same thing. Keep learning, keep thinking, keep writing. He was very honest with us- we didn’t choose art school, we chose public university for any number of reasons, and we could very well be less prepared to find and get the jobs than our art school peers, whose education includes a built-in network and overall more time and individual attention. He said to think of it as putting Sweat Equity into our education, keep seeking opportunities to learn and grow and get better.

I remember visiting him in his office hours often (he was also my academic advisor), and once I mentioned that I felt like my work- all of my work, not just for his class- was really hit-and-miss. He agreed, but he also told me the hits were more important, and the best thing to do is keep doing it, and eventually I’ll miss less. I always appreciated his honesty, and his encouragement, which he somehow managed never to  have contradict one another.

I got the word rather abruptly- Wayne is the second person in the county to have died from H1N1, which makes it news, and somebody asked me while they were preparing for the 5 whether I knew him. I’m still pretty shocked- it just doesn’t seem right, but when can something like this seem right? I’m so sad for his family, and for his current students, and for the program at school which he built from the ground up. It was a privilege to be his student, especially there at the beginning (he started at HSU the same year I did), and there are lectures and conversations that I carry with me every day, things that changed my technical and philosophical approach to my work then, and new understanding of those things as my career progresses and I get older and braver.

Thanks, Wayne.

Tags: art, good influences, h1n1, HSU, M. Wayne Knight, mentors, professor, school, teachers

I’ve been drawing peacocks all day! This is the one I didn’t have to scan.

I started this peacock for a repeating pattern, and I got carried away with the small details like feathers, and the iridescence. It’s too complicated for a small pattern, and now I’m not really sure what to do with it. It’s big enough to make a nice print, so maybe it’ll become that.

It must be the beginning of Fourth Quarter- the weather has turned cold and everybody and their grand-pappy wants a new commercial RIGHT NOW OMG in time for the Christmas rush. I’m busy, and cold, and grumpy. Happens every year.

Tags: comics, journal comic, monsters, work

It’s nothing serious- just the usual quarter-life menu of Things to Worry About: money, and the general what-am-I-doing-with-my-life anxiety that I’m starting to suspect never goes away.

Tags: comic, journal comic, quarter-life crisis, worrying

The irony of the whole thing is that I produce video for broadcast all day long in my dayjob, but I have always, always had problems with stupid things like programming a VCR, and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how to use Windows Movie Maker (What do you mean, you can’t add tracks!?)

I have an old student copy of premiere, but you can’t really capture from a webcam (which, apparently drops frames as a matter of course, and Premiere doesn’t like that). I got the the point where I started digging around in Brad’s old video stuff, and he has this funny little Hi-8 with Svideo, only my Svideo jack is output only! Argh!

…And that’s why there was no comic yesterday!

Tags: comic, computers, journal comic, post-it notes, video

Tags: car, journal comic