razberry’s Neighborhood

Not that I ever believed it was real in the first place... still its nice to see this kind of stuff coming out.  Of course, as usual, the Main stream media is downplaying it. 

Lindzen’s paper on outgoing long-wave radiation shows the “global warming” scare is over.

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Just played around with my brand new Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch that I got this Christmas today.  Takes some getting used to, being an old school sketch artist.  I've been using pens, paper and pencils for so long.. Well now that I have this thing I had no excuse...  to stay in the dark ages lol.  Well I'm sure sketching on paper will never be replaced but this will eliminate needing to scan ideas into the computer so much. 

So anyhoo... onto my first (partial) rough sketch.  Keep in mind I am not used to the tablet yet! :P

NewSkellie

Just a re-blog of today's offerings from bittbox. 

Just a re-blog of Media Militia's giveaway for today, Drips and Spray Paint brushes for Photoshop. 

 

Ok so I've had plenty of references to artists I like over the years.  Of course they all have great influences over my own art, just like every artist.  But I thought I'd take a moment today to write about some specific influences that have gotten my creative juices flowing lately (past few months)  Its only fair to give these guys/gals recognition for their wonderful art!  :D 

One artist that I like for obvious reasons, is from Switzerland.  I found his site via Media Militia's periodical "get inspired" posts.  His name is Patrik but goes by the name of 2much as an artist.  You can find his work following the post in the links. 

2much

An online comic book I ended up reading in its entirety in about a week, is called Megatokyo and is by artist and writer Fred Gallagher.  It is a manga-style comic book and I say "manga-style" as it is written and drawn by someone other than an Asian writer and I know that for some that might make it an "impure" manga, but if you ask me, its ever bit as good as a Japanese, Korean or other manga you might find.  The art is very well drawn but although it has the Asian "look", Fred has gone to great lengths apparently in creating his own flair to his art and I admire him very much for it. 

Fredart

Creaturebox is a site by artists Dave Guertin and Greg Baldwin.  Well-established character designers and artists with Insomniac games.   (Insomniac Games is responsible for such huge titles as Ratchet and Clank and Resistance for the Sony Playstation systems.)

Creaturebox

Robin Mitchell is another great artist that has had an impact on my art lately.  His blog is usually kept pretty full of updates.  He is an illustrator and from what his site says, for most of his career, a concept artist.  There are plenty of sketches on his site to gain inspiration from. 

RMitchell

So those are some of the biggest influences on my art lately.  Check their sites out, I'm sure they'd love the hits!
 

• Megatokyo
• 2Much
• Creaturebox
• Robin Mitchell

Enjoy! 

Ok I'll admit I've been out of it for awhile when it comes to the toy scene and I've had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about the whole deal.  Because of the over-saturation of artists and the many of the companies becoming so close to mainstream (IMO)... I just have been bored with it for the most part.

DSCN0351

DSCN0352

Ok so when I first read about something called Generative Art in Wired magazine many months ago I was mildly interested but only til the end of that article.  I never thought to try my hand at it or find out more about how it works. Well I've been following articles on a pretty cool blog:  Media Militia* lately and most recently one of the authors wrote about generative art.  With a little free time, I toyed with a couple of the different programs that are available for Windows (since that's what I'm stuck with right now, lol) and found that it was more fun than I had thought.  Of course, I might add that I do some (not complex) web programming using vb.net so I enjoy a bit of coding anyway.  (That's a warning to the non-programmer graphic designers, in case you hate numbers.. ) 

If you're interested in seeing some of the programs listed on Media Militia's site, follow the link afterward.  For this image I used a program called context free, and this is only a sample, using their tutorial with my own embellishments to the program (how I got the curvature in the tree).  Nothing complicated! 

RandomTree

Here is the simple program:

startshape trunk

rule trunk
{
     SQUARE{}
     trunk{  rotate .25 y .4 size .99 brightness .005}
}

rule trunk .01
{
    SQUARE{}
    branch { rotate 25  }
    trunk{ y .4 s .99 brightness .005 }
}

rule trunk .03
{
    SQUARE{}
    branch{ rotate -25 }
    trunk{ y .4 s .99 brightness .005 |hue 40 |sat .5  }
}

rule branch
{
    SQUARE{}
    trunk {y .4 s .99 brightness .005 }
}

Here is the article that got me started, at Media Militia and the programs I've tried:

• Processing
• Structure Synth
• and of course Context Free

For reasons too confusing to understand the "Hello My Name is Jeff Vader" merchandise has been relocated to Printfection.com.

The move added a few dozen more items and in some cases lowered the pricing.

Here is the latest addition to my growing collection of Christmas images on istockphoto.com. 

You can find the image here

Ist2_11208005-christmas-elf

Ist2_11217230-sexy-santa-s-helper

Here is another Christmas image on its way   Available NOW!  to be sold as royalty free on istockphoto.com.  Still a work in progress... but I'll post the finished product and updates for when its available to download.