Kinobo Oil Painting

I got a new webcam. It is a plug and play webcam from Kinobo.  It was reviewed as simple and sturdy and that is what it is.  It has also got a unique design.
I decided to use it for oil painting practice.  The paintings not finished but this is where I am.  I thought I would put something with it and that ended up being a clove of garlic.

drawing

10'' x 10'' oil on canvas. About 4 hours.
By the way as it is a cam this is what it looks like from the webcams point of view.

Webpage Designs

One of the ways in which the Irish Government has hoped to spark the entrepreneurial spirit is though the enterprise boards.  Each county has its own board which is responsible for disseminating information, training and grants to aid small and medium local businesses.  One of the by products is that each board has a website to provide information.  Rather than a single template it looks like each board has come up with their own web design.  This provides a great example of different design approaches to fulfill the same brief.  There are 35  in total! 

Below are a sample of those available.

On the downside is that the Donegal agency responsible  for creating employment chose to outsource their design effort to a company based in Derry which is across the border in the UK. It looks great but, really?  

By the way if you are in Roscommon and you need this service you better get out that pen and notepad. 

There is election talk that some of this carry on will be reformed.  With unemployment coming close to 15 %, I hope so.

http://www.leitrimenterprise.ie/

Powerful Illustration

In todays media rich world it is hard to think of a situation when an illustration will convey brand new information to an audience.  The only occasion that comes to mind in modern times is the use of court illustrations.  For an entertaining collection of such images go here.  

While watching a science documentary I was very impressed with the images created by Galileo Galilei . Famous for promoting the idea of the sun at the center of the solar system.  His evidence was gathered using telescopes he built.  With magnifications of between 20-32 times magnification he turned his attention to the moon and produced the first depictions of the moons surface.  Until this the moon was considered to have a smooth surface.  In his book "Sidereus Nuncius" translated to the romantic sounding "The Starry Messenger" he presented his accomplished illustrations. 

Now let us review the observations made during the past two months, once more inviting the attention of all who are eager for true philosophy to the first steps of such important contemplations. Let us speak first of that surface of the moon which faces us, For greater clarity I distinguish two parts of this surface, a lighter and a darker; the lighter part seems to surround and to pervade the whole hemisphere, while the darker part discolors the moon's surface like a kind of cloud, and makes it appear covered with spots. Now those spots which are fairly dark and rather large are plain to everyone and have been seen throughout the ages; these I shall call the "large" or "ancient" spots, distinguishing them from others that are smaller in size but so numerous as to occur all over the lunar surface, and especially the lighter part. The latter spots had never been seen by anyone before me. From observations of these spots repeated many times I have been led to the opinion and conviction that the surface of the moon is not smooth, uniform, and precisely spherical as a great number of philosophers believe it (and the other heavenly bodies) to be, but is uneven, rough, and full of cavities and prominences, being not unlike the face of the earth, relieved by chains of mountains and deep valleys . . . .

Another article in Time explores Gallileo as an artist.

Canada landscape Digital Speedpaint Practice

Digital Painting from photo 2-3 h in Photoshop.

Green peppers Watercolour pencils

I have been trying out some watercolour pencils with varying results.  This one of the first attempts.  It is of peppers which I completed about 6 months ago.  I went for saturation but maybe something subtler may have been more effective.  The pencils are great though. 

Speed paint

Speed paint 90 min in Photoshop from photo.

Visualising Data

One of the biggest difficulties I think people have had understanding the economic story that has developed in Ireland in the past 2 years are the scale of numbers.  I heard recently about a solution a designer, David McCandless, had created a solution for getting that kind of information across in a glance.  

The Billion Pound -O-Gram is it

Digital Painting - Animals

When painting in Photoshop one of the big challenges is to use textures. Among the most challenging is creating fur effects. I have practiced this a few times. Sometimes going for the full on cute factor. 

Tomos Moped Oil Painting

I have been really bogged down with work since the holidays and have not had time to do as much art work as I would wish.  I really want to get a big project going but have not had the time.  Frustrating - but I got to eat and pay my dues to the Irish Government so they can pay the poor bankers.  
Anyway during the last break when I got to paint I wanted to do something different . I chose my Tomos Targa moped as though I really am fond of it but I will most likely have to part with it in my next move.  In advance of this I though it would make a good subject.  It is an oil on canvas, 16 x 20".  It took about 20 hours to complete.

Other oil paintings

Over the wall

Plough horses
Ben Bulben

Rory's Story Cubes

Rory's story cubes is a game played with 9 dice.  On the faces of each die are images.  The dice are thrown and the challenge is to create a story which uses all images on the upturned faces of all nine dice.  It is a lot of fun and asks people to creative in ways which most people would not ever be called upon to be.
While the game in itself is worthy just for its simplicity and uniqueness there is something else very interesting about this game.  

I heard the inventor discuss the genesis of this game.  Both he and his partner work in creative industries.  He describes how the initial idea came to him during a creative problem solving exercise he practices called Advanced Civilisation.  The principle is that you imagine a civilisation in the future where all the problems we grapple with today have been solved.
The only reference to this technique I could find was a Course called The Genius Code Personal Learning.  I have to be honest and say techniques like these I would generally dismiss but inventors reported the cubes sold 20,000 units in a few weeks.  I would say it worked for Rory!