Tuesday, December 31, 2002

I'm also interested in fractal images and all of the software concepts associated with making pretty, computer-generated pictures. This is a black and white image created in Frackle, a Mac and Windows fractal creator that I wrote. Followed by my hand drawn sketch of it... I did this one just to practice copying shapes correctly. Both made by me; vastly different creation techniques. Which is a nicer image?

    
Click on one of the images for a larger view...

Who says computers aren't artistic? ;)

Maybe one of these days I'll blog as much as my good friend Rob; but then again, if I blogged as much as he does, you might not be able to keep up with reading these posts... See you in '03!

Monday, December 09, 2002

I've had some other drawings done (even scanned in and uploaded) for a while and just can't seem to find the time to write a quick sentence about them here... How lame is that? ;)

Here's another "room still life." This time it's from my own house. There are a couple of mistakes in this one... but I think you'd have to sit on my family room love seat and close your right eye to figure out what they are... You decide:


Click on the image for a larger view...

More to come...

Friday, October 25, 2002

Here's what I'm calling my best sketch to date. It's a still life of my sister-in-law's living room. I drew it while I was on vacation recently.


Click on the image for a larger view...

I have two more drawings that I've started. Which will be next? You'll have to tune in and find out...

Later!

Monday, October 21, 2002

Well... I was on vacation for a while, so I had a chance to practice some drawing. I did one on my vacation that makes me particularly happy: I really am learning how to draw well just from reading this book and practicing! [Read it; you can draw too! Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain]

Before I show you that, though, here are the practice drawings I did just prior to leaving for my vacation. Lesson: sighting proportions and angles correctly yield accurate perspective renderings.

  
Click on an image for a larger view...

More soon!

Wednesday, October 02, 2002

OK, now I get to post my favorite (best?) drawing to date. This is a drawn copy of a photo of my grandmother from a long, long time ago. I called it "Before I Knew Grandma" and I gave her the original in a frame for her birthday in early September.

Happy Birthday Grandma!


Click the image for a larger view...

Next time: sighting and perspective practice...

Friday, September 27, 2002

I did not draw a chair. I know it looks like I drew a chair, but in reality, I was focusing on the empty spaces that border the chair and drawing the edges of the spaces. Think of it this way: I drew the white shapes' outlines and then erased the shaded background within them. And a chair magically appeared...!


Click the image for a larger view...

Next time: a hand drawn copy of a photo of my Grandma from before I was born...

Sunday, September 22, 2002

My daughter is quite the young artist as well. Her colorful picture shown below was the first prize winner in a local coloring competition. It's going to be the picture on this year's Salmon Days T-shirts! Great job, Rach!



Click the image for a larger view...

Friday, September 06, 2002

Here's my second "real" drawing:


Click the image for a larger view...

Not bad for an amateur, eh?

Later,
Dave

Monday, August 26, 2002

And now, without further adieu, my first "real" drawing:



Click the image for a larger view...

By "real" drawing I mean, it's not just a copy of somebody else's drawing that I did for practice. I did it from a "real live" view, just by looking at my left hand...

Dave

Friday, August 23, 2002

First, thanks to Mr. Rob Fahrni, for poking and prodding me into actually sharing via a "blog" - he's been very patient with me.

OK, this is an online sketchbook, right? How about some sketches?

I've been learning how to draw by reading the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. And, of course, by doing the exercises she describes in the book. It really is an amazing book - she has convinced me that nearly anybody can learn how to draw - if you can see things and if you can make a pencil scratch a piece of paper, then you can learn how to draw. It's a learnable skill, not just some mysterious talent that a chosen few are born with...

First, my practice drawings (done upside down) from the chapter headings of the first Harry Potter novel, chapters 11 through 14.



Click the image for a larger view...

More to come...
Dave
10 days later...

OK, so apparently, I can't do it at all, so I'll just use blogspot.com...

I've been an AOL customer for 10 years. TEN YEARS! And they still have the same lame ftp rules that they had 10 years ago. You have to be logged on with the AOL client in order to post anything to the lousy 2 Megabytes of web space they give you. Come on!! Like I shouldn't be allowed to post something because I'm working from a computer at a friend's place or a public library or my lunch hour at work? I've got three letters for you people: ftp. Authenticate with my user name and password. Let me post from anywhere I want. I like to roam from machine to machine. I'd like to give permission to some web sites to ftp stuff for me (blogger...)

AT&T's the same. I've had a cable modem for more than a year now and I pay 'em $40+ a month for it. But will they let me ftp to the 10M of web space I get with my user account...? Sure, as long as it's from my home computer attached to the cable modem. Again, not what I'm looking for. As far as I can tell, they won't let me make my home machine into any kind of server either.

Arrrrghhh. All I want to do is write some stuff down and have it show up somewhere that I can share it with folks.

Thank you, blogger/blogspot.com. There might be an ad banner at the top, but at least I can post some stuff up here as the whim strikes. I'd like to use the space I'm already paying for, but AOL and AT&T know better. They're protecting me. Thanks guys, but I really do know how to use computers. And, yes, I really do want ftp read/write rights to all the space that you say I can have as part of my account agreement.

More later. Sketches coming soon... I promise.

Dave

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

"Hello, world."

Well, whadya expect as my first blog post, anyway? This is just a test to see if I've got all the settings entered correctly. Plus, I just had to have my first blog published from my Mac at home. Apparently, they won't let me ftp stuff from behind my firewall at work, so I'll have to do this all from home anyway.

If it all works, you'll see some drawings up here later on...

TTFN