Watercolor Wednesday 9

After painting the carrot guy for the last watercolor wednesday, I decided he needed an overly confident friend! And, uh, a rudimentary background. Featureless voids make me uneasy!


For this entire week I've been getting ideas for paintings just as I drift off to sleep. It's the worst thing ever because they are burned into the back of my mind, even if they are terrible or half-baked. Angry cactus guy (above) is the result of one of those late night ideas, and I assume he's scowling because of how hastily he was painted! This is an approximation of the painting process:

1. Sketched out drawing. Was pretty okay with it.
2. Suddenly developed violent hatred for sketch, scrapped it altogether.
3. Whipped out watercolor paper, scrawled out a totally different composition.
4. Started painting, began to realize the darker shades of green were totally not working out the way I wanted them to.
5. Put painting out of my line of sight. Glanced at it once in a while, hating it from afar.
6. Finished painting by adding spines and little details here and there.

Once again, the moral of the story is BE PATIENT, STUPID. I will learn from my mistakes someday! 

What typical process do you usually go through for a painting or drawing?

The Swine Flu Epidemic: An Artist and Scientist's View

I have been following the recent H1N1 swine flu outbreak with interest because I work at a company that makes flu vaccines. It's been covered in a few art communities because of creative things people have done in response to international news. This got me thinking about the relationship between people and news, and how people, as a whole, respond to current events.

xkcd

Searching keywords on twitter (as depicted in xkcd, above) is a great way to visualize how reactions to current events unfold in real-time. I have seen, both on- and off-line, that much of the response to this influenza outbreak is dependent on what people know about the virus, but understanding does not always yield the same outcome.

Since I have done a lot of research with the virus, I have a much better understanding of the current epidemic than a lot of people, and sometimes forget that most people still don't understand the nature of the disease. I've seen comments along the lines of "I don't eat pork, so I won't catch the flu," and today a co-worker told me how surprised she was when her brother commented on how he'll never catch the swine flu because he "doesn't sleep with pigs."

That's not how the flu works! Are you informed?

Swine Flew: Creative T-shirt design by Skyskraper

kbr vs. influenza

Influenza, like a number of respiratory viruses, depend on host-to-host interactions to spread. That is, it relies on people to pass it on to other people. There are different influenza viruses that infect different animals (birds, pigs, horses, dogs, ferrets), but for the most part a given variant will only infect one species of animal. Each year, the human flu strains mutate to bypass our immune system's resistance to last year's strain, and sometimes we get a virus that is transmissible between humans and pigs (or sometimes birds). In this recent case from Mexico, the virus contains pig-specific proteins, which are unlike anything we (as a population) have been infected with before, so we are poorly-protected against the new strain. So even if you had the flu shot this year, you won't be protected against the current H1N1 swine flu.

Now that you have a rough idea why the swine flu is dangerous, it's important to remember that the best way to contain influenza is to avoid crowds and people-to-people contact.

What scares me about diseases like this is how quickly it spreads and kills. A few months ago, I stumbled upon this website and read their entire collection of personal accounts of the 1918 and 1957 pandemics. After hearing about the new swine flu last week, the first thing that came to mind was how many of the stories there mentioned how a person would come down with the bug one afternoon and was dead by morning.

Will this strain be as devastating as the 1918 Spanish flu? From the data we have so far, it doesn't seem as virulent. Although the epidemic is currently not yet fully contained, the government is doing its part impede its spread, and cyberspace continues to provide information... or sometimes misinformation.

Here's an interesting video on how tragedies and natural disasters are used to manipulate the public into obedience. Their remedy? Stay informed!

Via Design You Trust

If you'd like to ask me a question about the flu virus, I'll do my best to answer in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

Related links:

• Follow updates with the CDC
• Follow updates with the WHO
• Follow updates using Google maps
• The Pandemic Influenza Storybook

The Tesla Model S

My favorite thing about Tesla Motors? It's a progressive car company that goes against the pressures of selfish and manipulative big-oil corporations and produces only high-quality, long-lasting, and green(er) all-electric vehicles. They recently unveiled their second production car, the all-electric Model S. It's not the super sexy sports car that the Tesla Roadster is, but it's much more reasonably priced ($50k after a $7,500 tax break—half the price of the Roadster) and family-friendly.

So why electric? Battery-powered electric vehicles are a cleaner alternative to those that run on petrol-based fuel. Pollution from oil-powered motors has burdened this planet tremendously up until now, and will continue to cause problems for us, our children, and our biosphere for centuries to come, unless we do something about it. Advancing technologies and the development of greener technologies over the recent years show us that there are people and companies out there who still value our planet's future.

How is the performance? Any auto enthusiast will tell you that no matter how pretty a car looks on the outside, the engine needs to perform up to par. The Model S has a single-speed transmission that will go from 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds.

Electric vehicles (EVs) like the Teslas don't even have traditional engines that need to constantly run to power the car. They take the energy from rechargeable batteries as needed to accelerate. The Model S has interchangeable battery packs for 160-mile, 230-mile, or 300-miles ranges in one charge (depending how much you want to spend).

EVs are more efficient and have much fewer parts that need to be maintained, repaired, or replaced than with traditional combustion engines. I don't know about you, but I hate taking time and money to get maintenance for my car. With an EV, all you need to do is take it in every 5,000 miles to get the tires rotated and the windshield fluid refilled. (According to Wikipedia, Toyota Prius vehicles have been known to go over 180,000 miles without ever needing a battery replacement.)


What's with all that space? Since electric cars have smaller engines, the area under the hood is just a cosmetic big vacant space. The Model S has its trunk in the front, so there is extra room in the back for more seating (for a total of 7 passengers). I was most impressed with this little factoid: the cabin can fit a mountain bike with its wheels still on, a surfboard, and a 50-inch TV—all at the same time. How spacious! I had no idea that taking out the engine of the car would free up so much space. The dashboard also comes with a 17-inch touchscreen monitor that connects to the Internet via wireless 3G. No buttons touchscreen? This is how modern technology should be implemented. (You can find a list of the rest of its features over at Autoblog.)

And I love how the entire roof is transparent! It's like the front and back windshields extended to connect with one another. I can imagine myself in a parking lot somewhere just to watch rain splatter on top of the car. Or maybe stargazing when it's cold.

The Model S side-by-side with the Tesla Roadster

Will I really save the planet by driving an EV? If not for the lower cost of operating the vehicle in the long run, having a lower environmental impact is the best reason for going electric. Of course, there's no thing as zero environmental impact, especially when it comes to mass-production automobiles. But even with the energy it takes to make the batteries, EVs are zero emission vehicles, are much more efficient in utilizing the energy, and are driving the market to develop better technology for the future.

If all-electric cars are better for the customer, better for the planet, and better for advancing technological research, then why aren't there more of them on the road?



I recently watched the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? (IMDb), which shocked and angered me to see how power-hungry big corporations are. They banished the electric car even though it was cheaper to produce, was more environmentally friendly, and highly desired by consumers. Why? The auto industry is tied to the oil industry, and electric cars do not benefit oil companies. Instead of putting out efficient clean-air cars, they decided to market Hummers and the like, driving gas prices up and the economy to the ground.

I believe that when people are aware of and understand the facts, they will, on average, make the choices that benefit everyone. Large corporations have been manipulating the market for decades by misleading the public by with skewed information. Now, with the expansion of the Internet and other news sources, it looks like information is slowly being brought back into the hands of the people.

In the third grade, I remember a music teacher who came in once a week and taught us a song about the electric car and how amazing it (the technology) was. Growing up, I often wondered why I had never seen an electric car out on the road, even though the technology had been developed and highly praised.

Seeing companies like Tesla break the mold and bring back the electric vehicle really warms my heart. The development of cars like the Model S shows that there still are people who care to invest in technologies and the environment.

As designers, we are all responsible for one important task: to improve the quality of life. I think cars like the Model S will be much better for posterity than gas-guzzlers, don't you?

The question is, should we be producing all these cars (electric or not) in the first place?

Related links:

• Tesla Motors
• The Tesla Model S at Autoblog.com
• Model S gallery at Engadget

Watercolor Wednesday 8

Hey there, readers! This week I've been fussing around with mixing watercolors with other mediums. This page was the result of trying to use gouache paint along with the standard watercolors. It was also the result of falling asleep on a bus and waking up with the thought "lumberjacks are HILARIOUS! I will draw them."

Here's a series of mini-paintings, all mysteriously facing the same direction. I think next time I use pen on a painting I'll use a sepia tone instead of black.

Lastly, an uncomfortable man-carrot. When I was a wee lass, I felt compelled to obsessively draw anthropomorphic food. I drew reams of comics about the denizens of a fridge. Thankfully I've moved onto, well, other obsessions, but I still think vegetables are adorable. If they had cheeks, I'd pinch them!

Reuben Margolin's Kinetic Sculptures

Here is an interesting art project I found last week that I thought I'd share with you:

The human perception of beauty is deeply rooted in symmetry and geometric shapes. I think most people would agree that proportions and shapes are very important in the construction of a painting or in the layout of a photo. Take, for example, the proportions described in the Vitruvian Man or the golden ratios built into the Parthenon, and we can see how our appreciation for mathematical principles is at least centuries old.

Reuben Margolin's kinetic sculptures are made with math-dependent precision yet are incredibly fluid, organic, and beautiful. I am impressed at the amount of patience required and the time spent preparing each piece. This type of artwork also reminds me how a lot of art ties back to our appreciation of nature, where a lot of mathematical principles are prominent.

Related links:

• Reuben Margolin's website
• Found at TYWKIWDBI

Watercolor Wednesday 7

In preparation for a somewhat complicated painting, I whipped out my sketchbook and got down to some serious doodling. This one's going to (in theory) be on different layers of paper, perhaps even different kinds of paper! Pictured here are the sketches for the layout, with some notes on the layering, and some unrelated doodles of critters and an outlandish rock carving. An owl with antlers? BALDERDASH AND POPPYCOCK!

Finally, here's a quick painting I did last night while mulling over some designs for bird-monsters. I did it a bit too hurriedly and so the color is muddy in some places and just plain weird looking in others, but overall I'm happy with it as an experiment of sorts.

Sketch Sunday 9

I'm not super tech-savvy, but I do think that I can make a better masthead than the one we have at the moment. During boring meetings, I like practicing my handwriting, usually by writing certain words or combinations of letters over and over again. After writing "inspirimint" over and over again, I've decided that I like this combination of letters.


Creating a logo or signature takes a lot of creative thought and development time. My dad gave me the task of creating a label for his wine. The vineyard is very young—last summer was our first harvest, and we will bottle wine for the first time this upcoming summer. This year, we harvested enough grapes for less than 5 gallons of wine from our young vines. On Friday, we tried a glass of both his wine and the neighbors' , who have been doing this for decades. To my (pleasant) surprise, his wine tasted a lot better than our neighbors'!

Graphic design and illustration are very disparate fields, and although I have drawn for so many years, I feel like I don't have the right skill set for logo design yet. I remember reading and being inspired by this article a while back, so I started out by just sketching a bunch of ideas without really committing to anything. In fact I began by simply writing the word "Casa" over and over again. By the time I got to my third page, I could feel the flow of the word better, and was building more on its shape.

This design is far from complete, and I will be working on this project for the next couple of months. If you have any suggestions as to how I should proceed or what more I can do with the label design, I would love to hear them! I am really proud of my dad for making such a wonderful wine, and want to support him by making the best wine label I can.

Here are two sketches of a chibi Elle Driver. I was trying something different—something more cartoon-y. I like her pose on the left, but I love her face and expression in the sketch on the right. Elle has such a great character design!


Last week, I also revisited this old sketch. I added a bit more line width and depth to this picture from the previous Sketch Sunday. Nothing too exciting, but I like the way the lines flow a lot more, so I thought I'd share it here.

Watercolor Wednesday 6

Last week, a friend of mine insisted that I watch Disney's 1941 version of The Reluctant Dragon. The results were disastrous, as immediately after watching it I found myself doodling scads of goofy, effeminate serpents. I settled on one I really liked and then, for reasons I will never be able to truly comprehend, decided that I wanted to add tons and tons of details.



Treasure, for example—After drawing a number of piles of coins, it occurred to me that although drawing lots and lots of the same thing over and over again is a bit aggravating, it would be even more aggravating to paint those things. I scoured the portion of my mind that values shiny material possessions for ideas, and failing that, I did an image search for "treasure." It didn't help!

So now there's STILL a ton of coins all over, but I'm not going to pull my hair out when I get around to painting them. ...Maybe. We'll see.


So! Here it is, in all its unfinished glory. When I go into these paintings lately I like to test out the colors on a scrap of paper, which is helpful when I'm trying to come up with a color scheme or figure out how I'm going to layer the paint. I was initially hesitant to paint the guy purple, but then I slowly came to the realization that there is no other color more appropriate for narcissistic fantasy creatures!

Now on Twitter!

So like so many others, I too have succumbed to Twitter. I mainly post things I find that are interesting enough to share, but not substantial enough for a full blog post. Let me know what you think!

https://twitter.com/inspirimint

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, here is a fun little video for your entertainment:

Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Fowls of a Feather by Wes Johnson

powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

This beautiful and unique video of birds on power lines was shot by photographer Wes Johnson. The movement of the flocks is so lyrical and the way the birds fly along the wires for places to sit reminds me of animated musical notes. It interested me that there is more than one "flock" along the stretch of power lines in this video. For example, there is one group of birds on the far left that always fly together, and their flight does not affect and is not affected by birds next to them.

A good photographer knows where to be at the right time, what to look for when he sees it, and how to capture it to show his audience. Although this video depicts something commonplace, it is still captivating to those who can appreciate beauty in small mundane events.

Sketch Sunday 8

This week, I started out drawing a girl with her hair blown in the wind, but the more I worked on it, the more it began to resemble Pepper Breeze by Artgerm. In this picture, I really wanted to draw heavily layered hair. I don't know why but I love drawing curly hair, even though I have such a hard time getting it to look right. Here, I got a little lazy with the curls which is why some parts look curly, while other parts only look wavy or even straight. As I was inking this picture, I was reminded why I like drawing girls with short hair. What kind of hair do you like drawing?

(This picture was inked using Copic brand pens and colored on photoshop.)

10 Fun Salt & Pepper Shakers

Legos (for sale at the Lego shop)

Why do salt and pepper shakers come in such interesting and fun designs? The minimal restrictions and instant recognizability make them an extremely versatile design medium. They are universally recognized as pair of matching containers with holes, and one can simply apply a couple of distinguishing characteristic and—Voilà!

Black and white is a common theme for obvious reasons—salt is a white crystal while crushed pepper is a grainy mix of black and brown. Sometimes red, which is often associated with spice, is used instead of black. The good and evil shakers below are a conceptually clever pair that uses minimal characteristics to communicate contrasting concepts.

Good & Evil pair

What else out there comes in duets?

Cerebro

Why, the two hemispheres of the brain, of course! I must admit, whenever someone asks me to name a pair of something, what comes to mind is usually not the two halves of a brain. Interesting concept? Yes. Creepy for the dinner table? A little—depending on your guests and their tolerance for the macabre, of course.

Hug by Scott Henderson

I love the design of Hug. Unlike many salt and pepper shakers, it not only effectively contrasts between the two holders, but also combines them into one unified piece. Plus, the positive theme makes me really happy.

Icosa by TaiDesign

Icosa is inspired by the icosahedron, and the only distinction between the salt and the pepper is the number of holes. I have had a couple of disagreements with friends as to which condiment belongs to the shaker with more holes.

A quick search on Google yielded this helpful site, which states that either can be correct. Personally, I like having salt in the shaker with less holes because salt pours out faster and more evenly than pepper does. More holes for the pepper means the two can be shaken at approximately the same rate and yield similar flow rates. However, some argue the other way around because more people prefer the taste of salt and would apply more to their food than they would pepper. Which way do you swing? Even flow or more salt?

Wood salt & pepper shakers at Branch (via happy mundane)

Squeezable Rubber Cloud Salt Shaker by Anderson Horta

Steampunk S+P holders from Russia

Rubik's Cube S+P mills

Okay, so technically mills are not the same thing as shakers, but these are so much fun that I had to include them here! The farthest I have ever gotten with a Rubik's Cube is one side, so for people like me, it's a good thing you don't need to solve them in order to sprinkle some salt and pepper onto your food!

DIY nesting doll shakers from Design*Sponge

These do-it-yourself shakers are such a creative idea! They are made from blank Matryoshka nesting dolls. These are wonderfully versatile because you can put more than just salt and pepper—you simply need to drill holes however large you need them to be. Full directions for this fun and crafty idea at Design*Sponge.

At our dinner table, we use one set of shakers but own another set of mills. Which do you prefer? Or do you prefer spice blocks instead? I've never owned one before, and would love to hear what it's like! Links to other cool salt and pepper shakers welcome in the comments section.

Watercolor Wednesday 5

Aside from a number of early Fleischer Brothers cartoons that proudly wore their insanity on their sleeves, one of my biggest artistic inspirations is TEETH. Maybe it has something to do with the way they affect our perception of other people, sometimes more so than other prominent facial features.

This week's picture was another exercise in slowly building up lots of layers of color. It helps to first apply water to large areas that you want to fill with the same color, and for some reason I routinely forget this! It's not as alarming as I'd like it to be (if you find that hard to believe I don't blame you) but there's always next time!

Watercolor Wednesday 4

Hello there, readers! Last week I felt a sudden surge of inspiration that made me feel unusually and wonderfully ambitious. Naturally, the universe then saw fit to strike me down for my hubris by giving me a nasty head cold that was going around work.




Anyway: I started off with a slew of doodles. The guys in the bottom left corner bear a passing resemblance to my dog! Not much came from this page, just a lot of tossing ideas around on paper.




Onto the second page of doodles: mostly creepy cartoon animals (surprise!) and, if you squint, a teeny tiny gestural doodle of a dancing rollerblading guy that lives in my neighborhood—whom I affectionately refer to as "Rollerblade Dancer." I finally settled on "stuffed animals playing cards" for the actual drawing I was going to finish up and paint, and that's what the larger drawing on this page is from.




For this week's painting I decided to avoid the hassle of erasing a ton of construction lines! The paper I use doesn't take to erasers very well, so I always end up with at least a few faint smudges here and there. I sketched out the images until I was happy with them, and then traced them onto watercolor paper using a light table. I have absolutely no idea why I didn't try this sooner, as it worked like a charm! No fussing around with erasers at all.


Technique-wise, I didn't do a lot of new things with this piece besides dabbing the paint on to create a mottled fabric look on the lion. I'm probably going to paint more of these guys in the future and try arranging them in front of some sort of background.

Sketch Sunday 7

Hope everyone had a good week! Here are three doodles I did during a very boring meeting this week. It's always a fun challenge to sketch with only what you have. I used a company pen on the back of printed meeting notes to sketch these, but the biggest obstacle was drawing on my lap.

Sometimes when my mind wanders, I like to doodle poses. Most of the time they are simple and feminine, but sometimes I will try to work on things like perspective. The types of poses that transfer best from imagination to paper for me are things that I am familiar with. I have quite a few years of martial arts experience, and will often default to poses from kata, or forms. Does anyone else do this?


This week, I re-watched the second volume of the Kill Bill series. I really like Elle Driver's character design and did a sketch from her encounter with Budd. I feel like I should have explored more stylistic possibilities than I did with this sketch, but didn't realize it until I finished inking the picture. Don't you hate it when that happens? I guess there's always room to explore.