Bee Beard

Life is like a box of chocolates. Sometimes the chocolates attract bees to your face and then you go to shave and you're like, "What?!" But then you vote for it because you like it.

Like a Sunset

Yeah those clouds are real. Perhaps the most stunning sunset I've ever seen!

Sun Bathing Rocks

When its cold out, the rocks like to bath in the warming rays of the rising sun.

I Triple Dog Dare You

Fashionably late to the shirt.woot derby, here is my latest entry. The theme: I Love the Artic. Dare you to visit the vote page right here!

A Very Retro Christmas

I found out about the app Instagram and my life has never been the same! It applies cool filters to photos and then the photos can be uploaded and shared in a way similar to twitter. But it's better.

Missile or Airplane?

While driving home from work I saw an airplane flying through the twilight of sunset. Then I saw this report of some UFO/Missile/Airplane. And then I made this:

And of course I made this using that cloud brush I love so much.

New 4th generation iPod touch takes photos

"I wonder what the photo quality is of this 4th generation iPod touch?" I asked myself.

The answer: meh.

The resolution is 960x720 pixels, which is around 0.7 mega pixels. Sadly, my 3 year old cellphone has a higher resolution camera. However, it is nice to have a large screen and slim camera with me all the time. The iPod takes photos in color, but I've just got this thing for Black & White right now. Enjoy!

Family of Fire

Rain Drops

Not Amused

Obligatory Flowers

Go Towards the Light

Memories

Batteries For Robots II

Thought this needed a little cleaning up from the previous version. I like the repeating shapes. Varying light adds subtly while shots of color keep things interesting.

C:\How\they_run.exe

Latest entry for shirt.woot "3" derby. Vote Page!

Astigmatism

My friend asked me what its like to have an astigmatism. I tried to find some images on the web, but found few photos that were good examples. So in Photoshop, I endeavored to simulate what my astigmatism looks like. This is a bit exaggerated, just FYI.

Simulated Astigmatism

Corrected Vision

Oh Hai Beautiful Jewelry!

Aside from engraving things at work, I also take pictures of jewelry (random?). These are some new beautiful pieces we just got in. I thought the pictures turned out looking good; considering I was using a point-and-shoot camera and a homemade light-box.

Oh Hello Sunlight

Last fall, I was driving down the free-way early one morning when I passed this scene. Glow trees, glow!

iPad Contest

So Gizmodo and Epilog teamed up to have an iPad themed contest. People can submit designs (with either a "beautiful" or "embarrassing" theme), and 1 winner will be chosen in each category and get a free iPad with their design engraved on the back!

Here's my idea for the "beautiful" category:

My inspiration came from the design I engraved on the back of my iPod shuffle.

Obama Toast!?

K, please tell me I'm not crazy. I swear I can see Obama's face in my toast! I couldn't bring myself to eat something with a face on it... so I'll just go hungry for lunch today. What should I do with it?

A Democratic miracle!

The iPod Returns

Life became really busy this past month. March should be better though.

The mother-board design looks excellent on green. No? Lasers might just be my new favorite medium to create art.

Home Stretch

I finally have a double-take design in the fog! Please vote, because, I can't win without you. And it's pretty cool too.

Mind: Blown

So I didn't make this, but because it is so inspirational, I had to share it.

I've worked with 3D modeling, but nothing like this! This is simply superb.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

And best of all; it's 100% CG! This guy is amazing! If you can watch it in HD, do it.

Cerulean Galaxy

I love looking at galaxies! Each one has a unique identity: shape, size, spiral. I wanted mine to be blue. Also, I wanted it to have a bright center and chaotic spirals. Like, maybe its just being formed and new life is still bursting from it's core!

Anyways, that Photoshop cloud-brush comes in real handy.

A Present From The Past

So, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I made a cute little water molecule shirt design. It was a splash! And then I sold my soul, and tried to capitalize off of it again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Night Billboards

It was a cold, foggy, dark night. The billboards along the free way made the low hanging clouds all-a-glow. It was very cool.

Wooden Bridge

I like to combine materials and add color. (bridge image source)

Batteries For Robots

Found these in a drawer.

Forgot My Camera

So I got to go skiing yesterday! It was excellent. Fresh powder, clean air, and fun! My only complaint is that I forgot my camera. Clouds and fog filled the valley floor, but at the peak it was crystal clear with bright sunshine. Looking down from the top, the world looked like a sea of clouds. I nearly crashed a couple of times because I was distracted by the beauty of it all. The above image is my attempt at recreating from memory what everything looked like. Also, this is the first time I've used my tablet in about a week. Oh tablet, I missed thee!

Old Time-y Photo Processing

So my brother, who is living in the Czech Republic, sent me this photograph he took of a town square:

I thought it was pretty cool, but decided it could be AWESOME! I wanted it to have a 1960's sort of feel to it; vibrant colors, texture, vignette, etc. So, with a little experimentation in Photoshop I came up with this:

It has a kind of a retro feel to it. Much better!

One More Pastel Painting

This is another soft pastel painting. This one will join the other in being framed and hung in the gallery. The only thing I love more than looking at red rocks is painting them!

Ice, from SPACE!

So I recently ran across some super cool images of ice from space. I thought they'd make a great base for some abstract wallpapers. Ta-dah!

Step 3: Details and Edges

The last step takes the longest. Finishing up details and edges can make or break a painting. I'd say this painting is about 95% done. At this point, my eyes are too accustomed to looking at this picture. I'll revisit it in a couple of days with fresh eyes in order to fix any problems. But I decided to post this today since I said I would have it posted two days ago... yeah, life got busy. Anyways, I'm pleased with where this is going and I can't wait to get it finished, framed, and hung in the gallery.

Step 2: Some Color

Now in Technicolor! Today involved laying down some color. Basically I'm just trying to block in major shapes. I got a little carried away in some places and put too much detail too soon. Oh well. I just get so excited! With pastels its best to lay down mid-tones and then add highlights.

The fore-ground could use some resolution... More tomorrow or Saturday!

Step 1: Value Study

Behold! I paint landscapes in soft pastels. Yep, I'm granola. Mostly I like to paint them on-site or "En Plein Air", which is French for "in the open air". Anyways, it's really cold outside and snowing so I'm painting from a photograph. The location: Kolob Canyons. It's part of Zion National Park in southern Utah. Its BEAUTIFUL! Google it, I dare you.

I like to start my paintings with a basic layout sketch and value study. From there, the rest is just coloring within the lines. I use "Belgium mist" toned Wallis paper. It's basically a big sheet of sandpaper and it's awesome! For sketching I use Nu-Pastel. And for the coloring I stick with Rembrandt and Sennelier brand soft pastels.

I'm going to finish this by Saturday, so you'll see updates daily ( I hope!)

Cloud Formations

"Earl, I see writin' in the sky!"

"Yep, them crop-duster-planes done got fancy on us again."

"Earl, why is it all skiwampus?"

"The plane run right out-a-room."

"But in da sky!?"

For those fixin' to make clouds, here is an awesome tutorial. That's how I done did them clouds just now.

Modern Family: Father

Some social commentary following some of my own observations. Father, the largest of the nesting dolls. Traditionally father is the hardest working. But today, maybe he's just hardly working... "Football Onlines." Ha!

Columbus' Nightmare

"So, the world is flat. Nooooooo!"

"Whoa, that was a scary dream. I bet it would make a great t shirt though."

Here's the vote page.

This Could Take Time

This is my idea for the nightmare derby. It's supposed to be Christopher Columbus' nightmare: SAILING OFF THE EDGE OF THE WORLD! This will most likely be placed on a dark-colored shirt with a center positioning. This is still in the developmental stages, so we shall see where this goes. I'll need some way to demonstrate that this is the Santa Maria. Crosses on the flag/sails? Thoughts?

Modern Family: Mother

This is the first of what I hope is a full family of modern-nesting-dolls.

Mother Russia must be rolling over in her grave...

A Joke Illustrated

Q: Why do ducks have webbed feet?

A: To stamp out fires.

Q: Why do elephants have large feet?

A: To stamp out burning ducks.

Ha ha ha! Poor elephant.

'Cause iPods Aren't Cool Enough

I have access to a laser at work so I thought to myself, "I should engrave my art on iPods". So I did. I made both designs in Illustrator and lasered away.

Pattern+Discordance=Burned Retina

I'm getting dizzy and these hurt to look at! Whats going on!? Two things: vibrating colors and pattern. The image with blue and red contains colors that are discordant. That means they don't really "match" and are similar in value. So when placed together they clash wonderfully and make "vibrating colors". The pattern only adds to the confusion. The pink and red image has matching colors but the same wave pattern. Both are painful to look at.

But good can come from this. I made a new desktop image. It's quite nice. have a peek: