A Day In The Desert

Went painting this morning in Sugauro West.
Got a bad case of "what's over the next hill?-itis"
Woke up a bunch of javalina. Scared me more than the bob cat did!
They are sorta dumb and might have run at me.
Have heard they have germy tusks you don't want to get poked with.
The first few got away but I climbed a rock above where they came from and got a few pics with the Rebel. Here is the good one.
Also; our hawk on the flag pole.

BAM a MammOgram

So at 10:15 we find out we need a graphic for the 11:00 Health segment. I google Mammograms, MRI and what not. Used the template and stuck these images in after some edge feathering and color correction.
3 minutes before it gets used, we find out " Mammagram" is spelled with and O. Got to send it out so you may notice the drop shadow behind the O is from an A! Couldn't pick it out for the 5 seconds it was on the Big A** Monitor behind the anchor.

A New Beginning

Here is a silly illustration I drew while waiting for my pre-employment drug test. That is me as a lego person.

There may be some surprise this week as my students discover I have moved on to work in the field of our study. After more than 3 years with the art center design college, I will be doing graphics for KGUN9 the ABC affiliate here in Tucson. I would have liked to have told my students in person but that is against the art center's policies.

While I really enjoy teaching, my heart has not been in it lately, which is not a good thing for an instructor. Most of it is due to the college's administration; the micro management, the pseudo psychology and the lack of caring. Some of it was due to dealing with students who just don't put in the time to get their tuition's worth. To the few that do make teaching a worthwhile experience, thank you for trying your best and giving me hope.

Since I do not work at the art center any more....the grapevine has it that my former boss will be quiting at the end of this term too. (hence the ship sinking) I am sure the department will be fine under the new department head's (name begins with a B) guidance since that person might care. Remember to pretend you don't know!

I am very excited about working in television and learning Lightwave, the software they use for 3D.

I'll be making the lower thirds, OTSs and BAMs. So if you are watching the 5, 6, or 10 o'clock news and something in the banner at the bottom , the over-the-shoulder or big-ass-monitor is spelled wrong or missing, it will probably be my fault! ;-)

Mule Deer

Went to Sabino Canyon to paint this morning. A mule deer went bounding by, then stopped seeing the plein air demonstration ahead.
On her way back I got these pics.

Click on pic to get larger version; love my Cannon Rebel.

She was pretty far away from me, I was zoomed in and I cropped the image so you could find her.

Also saw a snake but his head is in the cactus so not real impressive.

See the dust from her feet?

My easel had an umbrella on it for shade, wind gusted by and took the whole thing down. The pastel dust was evenly distributed across the image losing any detail I had. >:-[

Total-ly Fed Up

Illustration Friday Challenge: Total

Hmmm... Nothing comes to mind.

So much for waiting for an inspiration to hit.

Sort of fed up lately.

Wanted to use my chalk pastels.
This took about an hour.

The pastels are very forgiving, pure pigment that grips onto the archival velour paper.

I prefer it to the fine sand paper usually used for pastels.

If you like to draw and want to paint, chalk pastels is the way to go.

With pastel pencils you can get texture and detail too.

Did only the layout with pencils, used mostly sticks to quickly fill in areas of color.

Points for participating?

St Phillip's Church

Went to an old church on Campbell and River here in Tucson.

Many possible paintings there, took tons of pics with my new Cannon Rebel.

The shadows were perfect even if they did move the whole time.

The stucco walls were not white, they reflected the brick floor or the sky or the trees. After looking so hard it felt like you were going crazy, they are just white walls!

Took 4 hours using Alkyds on a 8 x 10 inch panel.

More time on Rose

120 minutes

Found the pen was not working with me.
Changed the buttons at the top of the pad to be [ and ] which make the brush smaller and bigger.

Then changed the lower clicker on the pen to X which switches the foreground color with the background color. Helped me alot.

Erased to define edges, zoomed into the bud and defined that.
Cohesified (?) the over all image, blurred the leaves and saved-as.

Not sure how much more time.

Ready to try something new.

Photoshop Painting

40 minutes 20 minutes

Original Image

Inspired by TwinCircles and Chatree, I tryed a timed painting.

Used a wonderful brush that is just like chalk pastel.

How they did much in 5 minutes is beyond me. It had been 20 before I had much info on the page and frankly an additonal 20 did not improve it much but I needed to post something! (I had forgotten my password!)

So here ya go! I may try another 20 minutes and move on.