Illustration Friday - Detective

I may work on this one just a tiny bit more. But, for now - it's time to post it to IF.

After Hours Drawing - The Report Wasn't Good

Sometimes in the late hours of the evening, our fears and anxieties rise to the top. This is another After Hours Drawing that seemed to flow from my mind to my hand with very little effort.

Illustration Friday - Linked

This is the first time I've tried Illustration Friday. I've enjoyed looking at the other illustrations. Some great stuff there! Finally, I decided to give it a try. This certainly isn't a typical piece for me. Another experiment with technique. I tried using Caran d'Ache Neocolor painting crayons - the water soluble kind. I've used them before in combination with colored pencil. In that case, they had to go on top of the pencil and are really good for highlights, emphasis, etc. And, I didn't use water. This piece is done with the painting crayons only and with water. So, I got a much better feel of how these things are truly meant to be used. This won't be a portfolio piece, just a fun little experiment. But, I will definitely be using this technique in the future, perhaps combined with oil or alkyds. I really do love these painting crayons. Caran d'Ache has one of the most beautiful websites I've ever seen. If you'd like a peak, you can check it out here. So beautiful!

The extreme coolness of cooliris

I made myself a new website recently and wanted to include a slideshow. I'm extremely happy that I discovered cooliris! It's not just cool, I think it's deliciously, stunningly beautiful. But then, that's part of the coolness, of course! Not only could I create my own wall of images that can be seen full screen, I can now view a vast amount of visual web content through the elegant, luxurious eye of cooliris. For example, I can browse Bing, Flickr, Picasa, Google Images or Facebook photos on a cooliris wall in full screen mode. It's excellent for photo reference research for illustrators, as you might imagine!
What you see above is just a tiny glimpse of cooliris. To experience the full screen effect, you'll need to do a small download from their site. Once you do the download, a tiny icon will appear, automatically on your menu bar. And the cooliris icon will appear on visual web content as you view it. You can use cooliris by clicking the tiny icon or ignore it if you prefer to skip it that particular time.. If you do the download, you will also have the ability to adjust your personal viewing settings such as the angle of the wall, the number of columns, and the speed of slideshows. It's a beautiful thing!
Even with the mini version above, and without the download, you can still have a pretty nice little slideshow. Try clicking on a single image above. The image will come to the forefront. Then click the slideshow icon in the center on the bottom. Nice! You can use the forward or back buttons, but it's kind of a bumpy ride, in this small version. The blue button in the center is a quick way to navigate, but can make you whoozy in this small version too. All the more reason to do the download! Gives you more control. Obviously, I'm besotted with cooliris - not even slightly objective, but I hope and suspect you may love it too!
If you are interested in creating your own wall in cooliris, you'll first need to upload your content to a site such as Picasa, Flickr or Facebook. The options are listed on the cooliris site. Once you have your images up, you can follow the step by step instructions on the cooliris site here and then embed your slideshow on your website or blog - or both! Or, just enjoy the enhanced visual experience of cooliris for web browsing extraordinaire!

After Hours Drawing - Pierrot's Magic Sphere

Something a bit different. But that is, after all, the purpose of After Hours Drawing for me - to be free to stretch my characters and experiment with style. In this case, the character stretching is, obviously, somewhat literal. The character of Pierrot is very intriguing to me. This drawing started with the nose. Just the nose. It all seemed to flow from that long, exaggerated, elegant nose. Pierrot emerged. I think there are some problems with this drawing that could be resolved with color. I'll let you come to your own conclusions about that. For me? I might have to take it to color and see what happens!