Suff’s Neighborhood

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

I was going to post images of the sites I've been working on but I figured you can see them for yourself!

My Site (soon to be redesigned)

        http://myweb.csuchico.edu/~nsena

International Cognitive Visualization Program

       http://www.csuchico.edu/psy/icv/

    This was made for a program in the psychology dept here at Chico State.
    It was my latest on campus internship.

Everton Downs - Nature Center

    http://myweb.csuchico.edu/~nsena/gardens

    This was a group assignment, just finished it today.

I'd love to know what people think! What you like/dislike etc.

Wow, it seems like forever since the last time I signed into my vox account. Well I've been super busy as of late, I'll try to post some of my stuff in a bit!

This is a must see conference for everyone around LA interested in the status quo of computational design techniques and urban design sensibilities. To put it in a Hollywood term: A Blockbuster!

Picture 1

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

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

7 comments

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

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.