2011: 94 posts.

More noodling (since this noodling) with Illustrator.

Sneak Preview of the Cover of The Stranger This Week, Created by Dan Savage and Aaron Huffman The power of graphic design to communicate sometimes rattles me to my core.

Back at Thanksgiving, I got a chance to carry around my Mom’s iPod Touch while travelling. During that time I experimented with Foursquare (which I had some time back) and Gowalla. One of the things I did was mention I was on a plane in a tweet, and I got many twitter replies from random…

It’s rather hard to believe that it was only 13 months ago my Mom, Leah and I were going to see the film Precious at a local movie theater. Sometimes it seems utterly impossible that she won’t be going to see the latest Oprah-endorsed film with us. Perhaps we’d go to Roadhouse afterwards. Perhaps she’d…

Joe Bennion has a beautiful post over on his blog: The baking dish. It’s about different ways to work. Here’s the crucial bit: …he and I work differently to get to the same point. His approach involves a series of thumbnail sketches and maquettes, from which one is chosen to be executed full scale. I…

In August of last year I got an email from a fellow who was watching Bones on Netflix, and, well, here’s what they said: Hi Joe, You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but I saw something odd in a fraction of a second on a TV show, and it lead me to…

Brett Jackson is a designer who’s been working the web since 1997. He left his cushy gig as Art Director for Google in New York to move to Switzerland with his wife. He has recently relocated again to Los Angeles where he freelances Flash and graphic design. In April 2010, Brett began working on a…

Since I’ve known how to draw or create, I have made self-portraits in words. I always include down the places I have been, and where I may go next. I also include how I identify myself. (this was made on a Mac and used to be part of the non-professional part of my portfolio, I’m…

Age 23. I was dabbling with Micron Pigma .005 pens, an extremely cheap but fine-line pen I discovered a few years before. The style and attitude of this rendering I will leave the viewer to judge. Color added digitally, 1999.

This is the first digital self portrait I ever did. An acquaintance was getting tattooed and my pal Erin took a picture of me in this biker vest – something I can’t imagine wearing otherwise, by the way. Anyway, I matted that to a postcard of some Italian Basilica (giving me a somewhat strange messianic…

When it was slow in the California Hospital – L.A. ER I would sometimes play in Microsoft Paint. Operating System used: Windows 3.1.

From 1988, this is a charcoal sketch of my sister’s cat Ferris. Ferris, a girl, was still a kitten at the time. She is shown here lounging on my backpack.

I only have this photo to show I made this illustration. I used to draw, sketch, and paint headshots of women all the time. It was a real habit for a while after high school. Most of that work was pretty much useless – but this is an image of one illustration I’m kicking myself…

The first self-portrait was executed in high school. I didn’t like high school. My appearance is anxious, as I no doubt was. The medium is marker on paper, and I watercolored on top of a photocopy of that marker drawing. It’s the first self portrait I ever made I was really happy with. It’s from…

I think I did this in about 1989, but I’m not totally sure on that. Pen and ink, with watercolored. I think I must have been thinking about Jean “Moebius” Giraud’s work when I started. I’m reminded again that watercolor is a heartless, well-nigh-impossible medium. Folks who can do it, even as hacks, have my…

Exclamate in Desolation, Oxymandias Melancholia Revisited Parenthetical Postnuclear Mise En Scène The Holy Visitation of the Floating Asterisk of Concrete Giant Semicolon; Dusty, Arizona, 2106 A.D.

Ink and watercolor, Summer 1988, based on a pencil sketch of a friend.

Black and white self-portrait. I was 18, thus the incredibly self-conscious narcissism.

I’m not sure what I think of these now. They’re interesting graphic designs, and definitely I used what I learned from them when I made my headers. I’m not sure they qualify as art. Untitled, 1997. Untitled. 11 June 2000.

http://artlung.com/soundmedia/realpoetry.mp3

Another oldie, an illustration enhanced with Photoshop. It makes me wish I had the original drawing.

For my High School Prom, I was asked to do the program. It was quite an honor. What I wanted to do was have a kiss featured. Here’s a sketch of what I presented: I used to consider it censorship, but I suppose that was my first big run-in with design and audience considerations. This…

Hey look! For no reasons! Ancient animated GIFs I made.

After High School, I flailed. Which is to say I took classes at Mesa College without much of a focus. I enjoyed these classes. Drawing, History of Film, Psychology, Design, Architectural Drafting, Philosophy, Marketing, Broadcasting, Broadcast Studio Operations. This was in 1987-1988 — before we moved to Roanoke Virginia and I shifted my focus to…

High School. Loved to draw. Back of a notebook. Anger is an energy! I remember the marker – it was one of those intensely smelly Japanese markers. It was short and oh-so inky.

Another back of a notebook, like this one previously. I’m so glad my Mom saved these old papers.

And here is more notebook detritus from my spotty post-High School academic career. From the evidence this was from my Philosophy class at Mesa College.

Prior punks: tan punk, post-punk, cyberpunk, leather jacket girl punk.

Sometimes I took really, really pretty notes. Here’s “The Business Cycle” from the marketing class I took at Mesa College. It was held in one of the rooms in building B-100. I think I learned a fair amount in that class. For a seventeen year old, I think I did well. I really like the…

I like podcasts quite a bit, and one of my favorites for many many years (at least since 2004) has been IT Conversations. If I loved all their stuff, all I have to do it load up iTunes and subscribe. If I’m old school I can get the RSS feed link and do Advanced ->…

Patrick Pidgeon was my Philosophy Professor at San Diego Mesa College in 1987. It was a great class and still ranks among my favorite in-class learning experiences. Pidgeon had a way of dissecting philosophical material, and especially language in a way that was challenging and engaging. It was such a good experience for me that…

More messy doodles from High School. I like some of the ink work here, as spot illustrations I really like them. I wonder, is anyone reading this?

Made with the Brushes app for Mom’s iPod Touch. It is rather small and awkward to work on, but I’m starting to get a sense of how to use it creatively. Update: I’ve added the Brushes video export to the New City blog: making of. It’s really fun to see the strokes.

Leahpeah has been making some really, really wonderful items in her etsy store.

I have a lot of old images on my site that are unseen. Here’s one that I upsized from an older version. I remember making it in the late 1980s and scanned it in the 1990s. I also found pieces of what were old headers–from September 2002. I’ve recreated them from the images as 9/1/2002…

As I mentioned, I’ve been doing extensive reclamation of my blog archives in such a way that old headers get displayed. So you can see that in action for the Blog Archives from September 2002. The first row is is a set of buttons: back one year, back one month, archives for the current year,…

YET. ANOTHER. COVER. From High School. The kid in the uniform is called “The Punk” and I have a few drawings of him. Not particularly interesting in retrospect. The backstory for The Punk was something rather like Kick-Ass. Basically, a teenage kid, trying to be a “realistic” superhero. No powers, some cool gadgets. In some…

President Ronald Reagan (born February 6, 1911) driving the GM Citation IV concept in 1984. via New City, a blog my friend Chris and I co-curate.

New sketch: Batman.

The F-clef misses her contrabassoon. previously

This morning I was playing around with Brushes App on an iPod Touch. I just found out that the Brushes Viewer can export existing drawings at higher resolution, or even a stroke-by-stroke video. Play it below or watch it on Vimeo: Sat. Sketch..

Crossposted to New City.

Leah and I managed to get all the way across the country in just 4 days. Then we picked up the kids, piecemeal, and turned right around and went to her parents’ house in Southwestern Utah! It’s been a driving extravaganza for us and really a joyful trip all around. This fine morning I find…

A nice post by Leah. For quite a while, and maybe even now, all photos of me have the character of Grief in the room.

So here’s a photo from the room I’m staying in at Grandma’s house: And here’s a photo, maybe a year or so old, of my Grandmother: On Friday I opened an account for her on Facebook. She used to be an avid emailer. In fact, her email addresses was one of the first I used,…

(And I am not sure whether that is good or bad) (Good coffee though) (Thanks for reading)

Apparently Bluecoat‘s web content filtering product thinks my portfolio or my older portfolio have nudity on them. That is not true. I have never seen a workplace content filter that was worth the money paid for it. They always seem to make research harder.

Absolutely WONDERFUL Batmobile design by Chris Greazel over on our New City Blog.

So I’m back in San Diego. And part of my identity when I lived here was starting and cultivating the websandiego mailing list. It started on ONElist, and they were bought by eGroups, and eventually Yahoo! where it is now. It all started in March of 1999. We’ve moved from Usenet and Friendster to MySpace,…

Hey look! Noodling in Brushes.app (when, exactly will I stop noodling in that program? NEVER!!!) has produced a holiday-themed image. Santa Claus! Holidays have been good to me since I was a kid. I loved to make custom greeting cards. Loved it! I got wonderfully positive feedback about them from anyone. I remember meticulously copying…

Yes, that is a terrific photo of you, Leah.

Last night Leah, Erin (my friend of, uh, 23 years?), and I went out, and after dinner at CrazeeBurger, we landed at LeStats on Park, a coffeehouse that is open 24 hours. It was great to reconnect and hang out, and Leah even got some fabric out of the deal. Yes, I did some drawing….

On Saturday night Leah, Alexandra, Tamara Leeper and I went out to Ray at Night, an art walk on Ray Street here in San Diego. I mentioned attending Ray at Night in 2003, but I’m not totally sure what year I first went. They’ve been putting it on for almost 10 years. Before we went…

Water temperature is 62°F (16.7°C). A very nearly perfect break for me. Next: back to life, back to reality. Also: catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world. Related: Charlie don’t surf. However: I bodysurf at the beaches and swim at the cove. This ocean, this coast, this birthright of the citizens…

In my Grandma’s last weeks, keeping track of her medications grew more complicated. She was unable to swallow some meds, and at other times refused them. Bedridden, her needs would change. This board was an effort to keep everything straight for all us caregivers. Also: San Diego Hospice was great.

Jean (McCrainor) Crawford, 90, of San Diego, beloved Mom and Grandma, passed away in her sleep in her Clairemont home on April 26, 2011. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska on September 20, 1920. She was the youngest of three daughters born to William and Emily McCrainor. Her father died when she was 3 and…

From my commute viewing list. Crockford on JavaScript. Always enjoyable.

Leah made this flowsheet. It was to help keep track of care for my Grandma in her final months. When did she eat? What were her vital signs? What medications did she take or not take? Leah did a really nice job with it. Leah is not a medical professional, but she’s the finest untrained,…

Moorpark High School Graduation

What have I been doing? I’ve been taking photos with Instagram. It’s iPhone only. I want it for my kids on their Android phones. I’ve been working with I’m using jQuery Mobile and the jQuery tmpl library and Underscore.js and Backbone.js. I’ve been reading JavaScript Web Applications from O’Reilly. I now understand why and how…

Wow.

I referred to it often. And I’ll be referring to it again now. Get one for yourself!

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. You are a fine person, and a dedicated person, and a wonderful father.

The photo was taken with instagram by Brent Nelson at Art in the Streets a few weeks ago. The rest of the header is CSS. I also tweaked the code on the headers page to use delegate() properly.

Yes, I tumblr individually and as a collective.

taken at the Moorpark / Agoura game last night; originally on Instagram

Leah and I, as well as the 3 boys drove north to from Moorpark to Burlingame. It’s near the San Francisco Airport. It’s pretty here, but cold. Cold enough for me to look up a quote by Mark Twain. Sadly, the quote is not a true one. Mark Twain never said, “The coldest winter I…

Spent some time with this dog, in addition to all my stepkids and my lovely wife. It was a great time. Coming up next: 2012.

(I did not make this)