The onset of fall brings about many seasonal changes. The leaves change colors, the temperature dips and it’s mandated that pumpkin spice be added to everything. I don’t recall this flavor obsession as much last year, but now it seems to have saturated everything we eat and drink. The standard Thanksgiving pie flavor has now invaded lattes, creamers, alcohol, waffles, oatmeal, toaster pastries, soda, peanut butter, margarine, coconut milk, almonds, gum, marshmallows, ice cream, pudding, greek yogurt, M&Ms, Hershey’s Kisses and even Oreos! What’s next?
Category: illustration
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Pumpkin Spice
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Parenting Millennials
I probably sound like Ward Cleaver when I remind my children how rough our lives were compared to theirs. It’s apparent that every generation has a horror story to tell their children to make them appreciate how good they have it. Ironically, we still make it a goal to want better for our kids than what we, ahem, ‘endured’. That kind of makes the infamous ‘when I was your age’ series of ‘walking to and from school, uphill, both ways’ a weak anecdote to garner their sympathies as we negotiate their comparative luxury. In the end, I think we, as parents, learn more about sacrifice than our kids do. -
Angry Leprechaun
This aggravated little ginger is just a snapshot of a side project I’m doing for a good buddy of mine. I already feel like I’m spoiling a surprise by showing this much, but I wanted to see what color would do to my rough sketch of the concept. Aye, the bloke’s already threatened me with the bizness end of a shillelagh if I keep running me mouth aboot it. -
Holy Moses
I had the opportunity this evening to spend some time with the kids at Legacy United Methodist. This month the kids have been talking all about ‘Creativity’ so my wife, Suzanne, (Kid’s Ministry Director and frequent favor asker) asked me to come and demonstrate how to make a ‘flip book’ animation for the kids using 3″ x 5″ cards. The story tonight was about baby Moses and how he was found by Pharoah’s daughter floating down the Nile in a basket. As the kids worked on their flip books, I drew a more mature Moses parting the Red Sea. All the kids asked me if I was planning on doing another animation with this drawing. It was a cool idea, but seeing how long the simplistic basket animation took I told them they’d be waiting a really long time… like ’40 years in the desert’ long.
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Personality Type
Do you know what personality type you are? Turns out that I’m an Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging – or ISTJ – and, apparently, so was George Washington. The Myers-Briggs test uses a series of questions to classify your persona into one of sixteen different personality types. Curious? Take the test here for free. -
Preparedness
It amazes me the number of people who choose to be unprepared. Even when given full opportunity to take the necessary steps to be ready, some still hold out for a quick fix. It’s probably not very merciful to think that these individuals have what’s coming to them, but when everyone else is working hard to avoid failure, why can’t they? -
Meritorious Achievement
I probably shouldn’t consider it such a huge deal, but I do. Every year I have the unique privilege of teaching some eager graphic design students the rigors of vector drawing. Drawing primitive shapes (circles, rectangles, polygons) with geometric precision doesn’t present many challenges, but the crucible for most recruits lies with learning the notorious pen tool. I can lecture, demonstrate and share war stories, but in the end nothing will teach them how to use this indispensable tool faster than practice, practice and more practice. After drilling them on some routine vector drawing exercises I can usually assess how well they grasp the basic concepts they’ve been taught. It might be hokey, but I almost want to invest in some embroidered merit badges emblazoned with the pen tool, so that when they reach that pinnacle moment of achievement – drawing efficient vector paths with prime point placement, articulation and accuracy – I can present it to each of them as a milestone accomplishment. -
Coulrophobia
Some people have a legitimate fear of clowns. If you’re lucky you may run into this one on Halloween playing a mean-looking bass.
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Scarecrow
If you ever see a crow with a stogie, keep an eye on them. They’re really careless with matches. -
Horrifying
Halloween is just around the corner. Do you have your costume idea ready? Make sure it isn’t a crappy one.