Sketch Book Pro 1st test- 40 mins total on an iPod Touch with one finger (no stylus required).
SketchBook Pro rocks. |
| SketchBook Pro doodle |
Friday, August 03, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
DIY photos
Some photos of recent work on the house, before and after style.
First, the original fireplace, shortly after we moved in.
Room shell gutted.
Above, new fireplace.
Below, photos of some boxing in I did in what will be Holly's Library.
Below, photos of some boxing in I did in what will be Holly's Library.
Photos of the original room door, stripped and repaired- if a job's worth doing it's worth doing Baroque :)
Leela sheltering in the woodshed.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Digital Art Equipment
Tablets are great and Cintiques are very handy, but there are downsides to both.
If you learn to draw on a tablet, then switch to a more cumbersome and expensive Cintique, you'll find it hard to switch back.
You'll be stuck with the Cintique. You can swap from one to the other of course but, for a digital artist, this can take weeks of adjustment.
Weeks that, if your creative work is your source of income, you just won't have.
If you're not used to drawing with a tablet and you'd rather not spend weeks getting used to it, then getting a Cintique makes sense as you can just draw on the screen and get comfortable using it very quickly.
Of course, your drawing hand can get in the way sometimes, obscuring what you're drawing, just like in life.
Not a problem with a tablet.
With a tablet you are less cramped in the way you work, though carpal tunnel syndrome can occur with long term use of either instrument.
My advice (having tried both) is to get a tablet, or if you do really have to get a Cintique, get the anglepoise bracket to go with it and change your drawing position regularly to avoid health issues.
Whether you’re considering freelancing, hotdesking or just feel like setting up shop in a pub or café for a while, here’s some recent developments that may be of interest.
They’re not all available today but they’re a lot closer to release than hoverboards (which will only become available in 2015).
The Sensu Brush
https://www.sensubrush.com/
The Blue Tiger Project
http://tenonedesign.com/bluetiger
The iPen
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ipen/ipen-the-first-active-stylus-for-ipad
The Inkling
http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?lang=en&pid=9226&gm=1
This just in (I mean I should have added it when I wrote this post in the first place!).
The Leap, from leapmotion.com:
The Leap
Also of interest- Muji (the Japanese goods chain) do a few interesting pens now.
1. Pen and biro in one (twist to switch between the two).
2. Erasable blue drawing pen (0.5 nib).
3. A 0.38 drawing gel pen for just £1.
If you learn to draw on a tablet, then switch to a more cumbersome and expensive Cintique, you'll find it hard to switch back.
You'll be stuck with the Cintique. You can swap from one to the other of course but, for a digital artist, this can take weeks of adjustment.
Weeks that, if your creative work is your source of income, you just won't have.
If you're not used to drawing with a tablet and you'd rather not spend weeks getting used to it, then getting a Cintique makes sense as you can just draw on the screen and get comfortable using it very quickly.
Of course, your drawing hand can get in the way sometimes, obscuring what you're drawing, just like in life.
Not a problem with a tablet.
With a tablet you are less cramped in the way you work, though carpal tunnel syndrome can occur with long term use of either instrument.
My advice (having tried both) is to get a tablet, or if you do really have to get a Cintique, get the anglepoise bracket to go with it and change your drawing position regularly to avoid health issues.
Whether you’re considering freelancing, hotdesking or just feel like setting up shop in a pub or café for a while, here’s some recent developments that may be of interest.
They’re not all available today but they’re a lot closer to release than hoverboards (which will only become available in 2015).
The Sensu Brush
https://www.sensubrush.com/
The Blue Tiger Project
http://tenonedesign.com/bluetiger
The iPen
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ipen/ipen-the-first-active-stylus-for-ipad
The Inkling
http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?lang=en&pid=9226&gm=1
This just in (I mean I should have added it when I wrote this post in the first place!).
The Leap, from leapmotion.com:
The Leap
Also of interest- Muji (the Japanese goods chain) do a few interesting pens now.
1. Pen and biro in one (twist to switch between the two).
2. Erasable blue drawing pen (0.5 nib).
3. A 0.38 drawing gel pen for just £1.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Comicon 2012
Comicon 2012
Never been to one of these before. It's a real education. So much visual information everywhere you could easily spend the whole day and not see it all.
Never been to one of these before. It's a real education. So much visual information everywhere you could easily spend the whole day and not see it all.
Some people indulge in what's known as Cosplay, though I think the above might more properly be called Fancy Dress.
Definitely one of the best costumes there.
Steampunk dude, made all his own gear. Some of the tiny machinery thingys were beautifully crafted.
Holly and a Dalek.
Got talking to these guys for a while.
Gradually it dawned on me that they're actually kind of famous.
Weird feeling.
Matt Dixons prices.
Quite reasonable so he must be getting a good deal on production off someone.
A Michael Keaton sized Batman.Thursday, July 05, 2012
Personal Projects
I'm adding a few images of my various personal projects to my professional blogfolio.
I may reconsider this so check it out now before I change my mind if you're interested.
Subjects include ceramics, photography, cakes, poetry, lighting and sculpture.
My blogfolio
Subjects include ceramics, photography, cakes, poetry, lighting and sculpture.
My blogfolio
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Snooty Girl Illustration Remake
Taking an old illustration and improving it with my current skills and tastes.
From left: Old (scanned pencil and digital colour), new (digital, black lineart), new (pale lineart), new (coloured lineart).
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Perspective Drawing
Here's my comment on yesterdays post by James Gurney.
He's recommending several old books that are timeless, trusted classics for learning art.
James helped me find Earnest Norling's "Perspective Drawing". I'd been given it as a child and I'd forgotten both Title and Author. Since buying an old copy online I've found it just as comprehensive and useful as I'd remembered. As you progress through the book the charmingly vintage American illustration style walks you gently through everything you need to know in a very efficient manner. An infant would find the early pages understandable and a professional might find the final pages challenging. It really is a book that can serve you well for a lifetime in art.
View the original post at Gurney Journey.
He's recommending several old books that are timeless, trusted classics for learning art.
James helped me find Earnest Norling's "Perspective Drawing". I'd been given it as a child and I'd forgotten both Title and Author. Since buying an old copy online I've found it just as comprehensive and useful as I'd remembered. As you progress through the book the charmingly vintage American illustration style walks you gently through everything you need to know in a very efficient manner. An infant would find the early pages understandable and a professional might find the final pages challenging. It really is a book that can serve you well for a lifetime in art.
View the original post at Gurney Journey.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Influence Map
Here's my Influence Map:
An Influence Map is a sort of chart of your artistic influences, the larger the image, the greater their influence on you.
Only those you've actually copied, studied and learned a lot from should be included.
No friends and colleagues included as I wouldn't wish to embarrass anyone by including them (or leaving one out!).
Download the template file from the creator's DeviantArt page at http://fav.me/d2vx881 and create your own.
An Influence Map is a sort of chart of your artistic influences, the larger the image, the greater their influence on you.
Only those you've actually copied, studied and learned a lot from should be included.
No friends and colleagues included as I wouldn't wish to embarrass anyone by including them (or leaving one out!).
Download the template file from the creator's DeviantArt page at http://fav.me/d2vx881 and create your own.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Trick Cyclist
For all the other cyclists called Tom out there, and for anyone else who enjoys sleek, cool fun Flash playthings, here's the latest from Vector Park.
http://www.vectorpark.com/thomas/seasons.html
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
I'm engaged
Dear Reader,I've just come back from an amazing trip to Wells, Somerset with my long suffering partner, Holly.
More about that later.
More importantly, on the way back we stopped off at Brent Knoll and, to cut a romantic story short, we got engaged.
Wells is beautiful so I'll post a load of photos here soon but in the meantime here's a few examples.
First, the cathedral itself.
Close up on the facade.
This is a water map machine, under construction in the grounds of the Bishop's Palace.
Here's Holly, re-enacting the fountain hoody scene from Hot Fuzz, which was filmed in Wells.
This is a section of a wall I worked on.
You can see where it goes wobbly thanks to the effects of rough scrumpy on my mate Clem.
This is the entrance to Tor Hill Wood, just outside the town, where I worked long ago.
So long ago that the many seedlings I planted are now small trees and I'd forgotten I'd done this until we stumbled across it.
It's the entrance to the woods.
More about that later.
More importantly, on the way back we stopped off at Brent Knoll and, to cut a romantic story short, we got engaged.
Wells is beautiful so I'll post a load of photos here soon but in the meantime here's a few examples.
First, the cathedral itself.
Close up on the facade.
This is a water map machine, under construction in the grounds of the Bishop's Palace.
Here's Holly, re-enacting the fountain hoody scene from Hot Fuzz, which was filmed in Wells.
This is a section of a wall I worked on.
You can see where it goes wobbly thanks to the effects of rough scrumpy on my mate Clem.
This is the entrance to Tor Hill Wood, just outside the town, where I worked long ago.
So long ago that the many seedlings I planted are now small trees and I'd forgotten I'd done this until we stumbled across it.
It's the entrance to the woods.
Thursday, June 07, 2012
This blog has moved
This blog is now located at http://blog.runninghead.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click here.
For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://feeds.feedburner.com/runninghead/OVhx.
Sunday, June 03, 2012
Efficient social media management
All the major digital art talents agree on one thing- it's vital to get connected.
As Bobby Chiu (or was it Neil Gaiman?) said "Think of yourself as an island, you have to put a lot of messages in bottles/build a lot of bridges to other islands to get a response.".
In the interests of getting more connected with the greater art-world then, I'm going to start blogging again. Blogging, tweeting, updating face book. The problem is, it takes time. Time I should spend working. So I looked in to it. There's this tweet management tool called "Hootsuite" that's supposed to make it easy to update multiple social media accounts at once. But it doesn't update blogs too. Unless you hook it up to Ping FM, which is being replaced by Seesmic. Bloody hell, what a mess. Surely there's a single, free, tool that helps you manage ALL social media. Well, at least it's a step in the right direction, so from now on I'll be updating my social media accounts with hootsuite, linked to Seesmic, which may add Blog functionality later this year. If you know of a better solution, please let me know. I'll also be adding better, regular content to this blog, to make it worth following.
As Bobby Chiu (or was it Neil Gaiman?) said "Think of yourself as an island, you have to put a lot of messages in bottles/build a lot of bridges to other islands to get a response.".
In the interests of getting more connected with the greater art-world then, I'm going to start blogging again. Blogging, tweeting, updating face book. The problem is, it takes time. Time I should spend working. So I looked in to it. There's this tweet management tool called "Hootsuite" that's supposed to make it easy to update multiple social media accounts at once. But it doesn't update blogs too. Unless you hook it up to Ping FM, which is being replaced by Seesmic. Bloody hell, what a mess. Surely there's a single, free, tool that helps you manage ALL social media. Well, at least it's a step in the right direction, so from now on I'll be updating my social media accounts with hootsuite, linked to Seesmic, which may add Blog functionality later this year. If you know of a better solution, please let me know. I'll also be adding better, regular content to this blog, to make it worth following.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Friday, June 01, 2007
Call me Miranda
Just got a full-time perm job drawing those grey bears with the blue noses that you see on greetings cards everywhere. The designs are signed 'Miranda' but they're drawn by several people in a very traditional studio in Chichester, UK.
Wish me luck, them bears can get hungry.
Wish me luck, them bears can get hungry.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Finding My Voice
After almost 4 days of losing my voice I have now recovered. So what am I up to now?
Well after the long gap between posts I can reveal that I have finished painting the pub sign for the Cob & Pen, the pub next door, so now I'm just left with the arduous task of framing it. I'll post a photo when it's ready.
I'm starting to work on some greetings card designs to land me a PAYE job at a local card firm.
I'm learning to drive (at last!)- thanks to generous contributions from family for my recent birthday.
I've finished a Flash web-game for an Australian client, you can play it here.
They've already got more than they paid for but I plan to improve the game still further as it might end up in my Flash folio.
I shall be producing a 3D model of Sudeley castle next week for the big publicity push they're having after Liz Hurley's wedding.
Finally, I'm taking steps to learn PHP, MySQL and Flash Actionscripting 2.0, as and when I get time.
Well after the long gap between posts I can reveal that I have finished painting the pub sign for the Cob & Pen, the pub next door, so now I'm just left with the arduous task of framing it. I'll post a photo when it's ready.
I'm starting to work on some greetings card designs to land me a PAYE job at a local card firm.
I'm learning to drive (at last!)- thanks to generous contributions from family for my recent birthday.
I've finished a Flash web-game for an Australian client, you can play it here.
They've already got more than they paid for but I plan to improve the game still further as it might end up in my Flash folio.
I shall be producing a 3D model of Sudeley castle next week for the big publicity push they're having after Liz Hurley's wedding.
Finally, I'm taking steps to learn PHP, MySQL and Flash Actionscripting 2.0, as and when I get time.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Apple Mac Automator Robot!
If, like me, you've been using Macs since back when they were beige you'll be familiar with the way they keep on surprising you with buried treasures.
I'm only now learning the value of a handy robot that can take loads of boring chores off your hands. It's even more powerful than Photoshop's Actions- it's Apple's own Automator application.
If you're shy of learning new tech stuff, here's a handy workflow to get you started.You download and unzip it, open Automator and go File > Import Workflows, import it then Save As Plugin... (for the Finder application). Once you've done that you can select any two folders and right click on them to compare the contents. Great for those who have millions of image files and no time to carefully read through long lists of file names searching for which files are different. Enjoy.
http://www.runninghead.com/blog/compare2folders.zip
This wonderous gizmo is all thanks to a guy called Ben Long over at http://www.completedigitalphotography.com where there are hundreds more fab Mac robots waiting to lend a hand. Thanks also to Emilie over at the Mac discussions forums for help, advice and a great bit of AppleScripting!
This particular Workflow can compare the contents of two folders in a number of ways- it's customizable! (if you're prepared to learn a little about how Automator works).
The best thing about getting to know Automator though is the way it allows you to use almost any function of any application on your computer without even opening the applications!
With a single click you could take dozens of files from any folder, in to Illustrator, through Photoshop (and it's many Actions), in to Word, save them all in to a new folder as PDFs, Zip the folder and have it upolad or email it'self to any address!
Mind bloggling!
I'm only now learning the value of a handy robot that can take loads of boring chores off your hands. It's even more powerful than Photoshop's Actions- it's Apple's own Automator application.
If you're shy of learning new tech stuff, here's a handy workflow to get you started.You download and unzip it, open Automator and go File > Import Workflows, import it then Save As Plugin... (for the Finder application). Once you've done that you can select any two folders and right click on them to compare the contents. Great for those who have millions of image files and no time to carefully read through long lists of file names searching for which files are different. Enjoy.
http://www.runninghead.com/blog/compare2folders.zip
This wonderous gizmo is all thanks to a guy called Ben Long over at http://www.completedigitalphotography.com where there are hundreds more fab Mac robots waiting to lend a hand. Thanks also to Emilie over at the Mac discussions forums for help, advice and a great bit of AppleScripting!
This particular Workflow can compare the contents of two folders in a number of ways- it's customizable! (if you're prepared to learn a little about how Automator works).
The best thing about getting to know Automator though is the way it allows you to use almost any function of any application on your computer without even opening the applications!
With a single click you could take dozens of files from any folder, in to Illustrator, through Photoshop (and it's many Actions), in to Word, save them all in to a new folder as PDFs, Zip the folder and have it upolad or email it'self to any address!
Mind bloggling!
Monday, September 25, 2006
Make IE display PNG
As some readers (OK, a reader) have asked for it I'm giving away the farm here and letting you all know how to make transparent PNG images display properly in Internet Explorer.
http://www.runninghead.com/images/PNG_Behaviour_Files.zip
Check the code for copyright licence details.
IE 7 won't be along for a while and when it does finally get here it'll still be 5 years before we can stop providing for previous versions of IE anyway so if you're writing a web portfolio or any (X)HTML that needs transparent imagery, you'll need this.
Don't say I never give you anything.
http://www.runninghead.com/images/PNG_Behaviour_Files.zip
Check the code for copyright licence details.
IE 7 won't be along for a while and when it does finally get here it'll still be 5 years before we can stop providing for previous versions of IE anyway so if you're writing a web portfolio or any (X)HTML that needs transparent imagery, you'll need this.
Don't say I never give you anything.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Great New Paintings
After my recent, successful, exhibition of natural media paintings I was inspired to come up with a new technique.
I never dreamt it would work so well!
Take a look at these two new images, added to the end of my existing painting folio:
More to follow soon.
I never dreamt it would work so well!
Take a look at these two new images, added to the end of my existing painting folio:
More to follow soon.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
I'm on BBC Science Radio!
I just heard myself mentioned on BBC science radio! Very freaky. I posted some ideas about Grand Unified Theory and gravitation on 'The Uncertainty Principle' website but really never thought they'd read it out. The program's an interesting, and I think brilliant, new approach to popularising science, it's a sort of semi-fictional treasure hunt documentary show. It's obviously also difficult to describe but if anyone happens across this while roaming the blogsphere you can hear the show via internet radio using this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/bbc7.shtml
LINK MAY DIE AFTER 2 WEEKS.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/bbc7.shtml
LINK MAY DIE AFTER 2 WEEKS.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Back to Top links
I've just put in some back to top links which get repeated on all posts.
This is a test post to check they get repeated in the posts HTML.
This is a test post to check they get repeated in the posts HTML.
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