Tablet practice - Tower and Goliath.

I've got CS5 all set up now with my tablet, brushes and short cuts so I have been practicing digital sketching with fun, goofy subjects. Who knows someday I might reach a stage where I can actually design something in photoshop.

Inspirational video - I listened to Mogwai while I watched it

Artificial Ape - Excerpt

This is from Timothy Taylors book The Artificial Ape from p 52.  I really like the 2nd paragraph explaining the theory behind the de-evolution of the native Tasmanian people. As background Darwin (and many other explores) found the Native Tasmanians without composite tools, or clothes, or houses or architecture. Recently however, evidence has shown that the first people who occupied tasmania did have all those things so the standing theory is that they lost the technology though a tragedy or over time. Taylor however has a different theory, that they over a long period of time choose the primitive path for their civilization, editing unnecessary cumbersome, complicated technology and slowly choosing a simpler and simpler way of life. 

"Most modern technology is very highly entailed. A car needs wheels and fuel. Those entail rubber plantations and oil wells, and complex manufacturing, refining, marketing, and distribution processes. Once all the things that cars have to have to be cars are factored in-from metal, tarmac, and glass, through to traffic police, a licensing bureaucracy, test agencies, and so on, each of which comes with its own primary and subsidiary systems of entailment- it is clear that the car can exist only within a modern globalized industrial system. Reverse entailment, although it sounds as if it might be even more complicated, means a type of dissociation, a deliberate unmeshing. To our Habitually entailed existence, the prospect seems strange, the opposite of progress.

Here is the theory of reverse entailment, presented as what is not entailed by the Tasmanian Aboriginal way of life: No Bone tools means no awls means no clothes means no pockets means nowhere to keep tinder and fire-making kit; that means no fire making, which means carrying fire all the time. That means quick fires whenever you want, which means it is ok not to wear clothes, carrying fire all the time means it is safer not to wear clothes, so you don’t catch fire by accident. It also reduces what else can be carried. No composite tools means no aces, so no log boats or all-weather craft, which means no fish – But with lots of sudden storms, why risk orphaning the children when seals can fish and you can eat seals? Inshore, you can grease up and diver for lovely stuff. Naked, of course, because you don’t want damp clothes. You want to get dry and warm as fast as possible by the fire, and eat abalone, wallaby, and tree-harvested possum. Your little temporary rafts can take you to small seabird breeding haunts in fine weather and who wants to go birding and egg-hunting in high seas? Without a complex toolkit to lose, or surpluses to be stolen, or clothes to dry, you don’t really need a house, and since you carry fire everywhere the risks of burning one down would be high. With no houses and little personal property, there’s not much hierarchy. That means no need to make loads of stuff, like thrones and crowns. Accounting is unnecessary, so you don’t need writing or numbers, or pens or paper or money. You have no maps, but you are not lost. You know where absolutely everything you need is. And because you don’t have to look after it, you can get in when you want it. " - Timothy Taylor from The Artificial Ape 

Definition - Reach

reach |rē ch |verb1 [ intrans. ] stretch out an arm in a specified direction in order to touch or graspsomething : he reached over and turned off his bedside light.• ( reach for) make a movement with one's hand or arm in an attempt totouch or grasp (something) : Carl reached for the phone.• [ trans. ] ( reach something out) stretch out one's hand or arm : he reachedout a hand and touched her forehead.• [with two objs. ] hand (something) to (someone) : reach me those glasses.• [ intrans. ] be able to touch something with an outstretched arm or leg : I had to stand on tiptoe and even then I could hardly reach.• ( reach out) extend help, understanding, or influence : he felt such an urge to reach out to his fellow sufferer.2 [ trans. ] arrive at; get as far as : “Goodbye,” she said as they reached the door | the show is due to reach our screens early next year.• attain or extend to (a specified point, level, or condition) : unemployment reached a peak in 1933 | [ intrans. ] in its native habitat it will reach to about 6 m in height.• succeed in achieving : the intergovernmental conference reached agreement on the draft treaty.• make contact or communicate with (someone) by telephone or other means :I've been trying to reach you all morning.• (of a broadcast or other communication) be received by : television reached those parts of the electorate that other news sources could not.• succeed in influencing or having an effect on : their fresh sound and message reach people who may never set foot in a church.3 [ intrans. ] Sailing sail with the wind blowing from the side, or from slightly behind the side, of the ship.noun1 an act of reaching out with one's arm : she made a reach for him.• [in sing. ] the distance to which someone can stretch out their hand (used esp. of a boxer) : a giant, over six feet seven with a reach of over 81 inches.• the extent or range of application, effect, or influence : the diameter and the reach of the spark plug varies from engine to engine.See note at range .2 (often reaches) a continuous extent of land or water, esp. a stretch of river between two bends, or the part of a canal between locks : the upper reaches of the Nile.3 Sailing a distance traversed in reaching.PHRASESout of (or beyond) reach outside the distance to which someone can stretch out their hand. • beyond the capacity of someone to attain or achieve something : she thought college was out of her reach.within (or in) reach inside the distance to which someone can stretch out their hand. • inside a distance that can be traveled : Rocky Mountain National Park iswithin easy reach of the city of Denver. • within the capacity of someone to attain or achieve something.DERIVATIVESreachable |ˈritʃəbəl| adjectiveORIGIN Old English rǣcan; related to Dutch reiken and German reichen.

Tablet practice - Rheem, Halo, SC2

These are three sketches I did a few months ago I was playing around with it trying to get the hang of using the tablet for concept art, sketching and painting, instead of just using it for illustrator. (which it is amazing for) Recently I have promised myself that instead of playing video games at the end of the day to unwind that I would instead draw, paint or practice with digital mediums. I wanted to post these here primarily to serve as an archive of where I started. Hopefully over the next few months we should see some substantial improvement. 

The Rheem building with an exposed creek + pedestian street

Master chief's helmet 

A Starcraft 2 inspired Zealot  character sketch

Excavator Sketch

Just the line work 

Quick idea of shading values

Artist - Andrew Ley

Excavator

Tablet Practice - Tractor Sketch

(watch fullscreen and loud)

Definition - Extension

extension |ikˈsten sh ən|noun1 a part that is added to something to enlarge or prolong it; a continuation : the railroad's southern extension.• a room or set of rooms added to an existing building.• the action or process of becoming or making something larger : the extension of the president's powers.• an application of an existing system or activity to a new area : direct marketing is an extension of telephone selling.• an increase in the length of time given to someone to hold office, complete a project, or fulfill an obligation.• Computing an optional suffix to a file name, typically consisting of a period followed by several characters, indicating the file's content or function.2 (also extension cord) a length of electric cord that permits the use of an appliance at some distance from a fixed socket.• an extra telephone on the same line as the main one.• a subsidiary telephone in a set of offices or similar building, on a line leading from the main switchboard but having its own additional number.3 [usu. as adj. ] instruction by a university or college for students who do not attend full time : extension courses.4 ( extensions) lengths of real or artificial hair woven into a person's own hair to create a long hairstyle : the type of female with with big trunk jewelry and extensions in her hair.5 the action of moving a limb from a bent to a straight position : seizures with sudden rigid extension of the limbs.• the muscle action controlling this : triceps extension.• Ballet the ability of a dancer to raise one leg above the waist, or an instance of this : she has amazing extension | he could perform 180-degree extensions.• Medicine the application of traction to a fractured or dislocated limb or to an injured or diseased spinal column to restore it to its normal position.• the lengthening of a horse's stride within a particular gait.6 Logic the range of a term or concept as measured by the objects that it denotes or contains, as opposed to its internal content. Often contrasted withintension .• Physics & Philosophy the property of occupying space; spatial magnitude :nature, for Descartes, was pure extension in space.

Definition - Tool

tool |toōl|noun1 a device or implement, esp. one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function : gardening tools.• a thing used in an occupation or pursuit : computers are an essential tool | the ability to write clearly is a tool of the trade.• a person used or exploited by another : the beautiful Estella is Miss Havisham's tool.• Computing a piece of software that carries out a particular function, typically creating or modifying another program.2 a distinct design in the tooling of a book.• a small stamp or roller used to make such a design.
verb1 [ trans. ] (usu. be tooled) impress a design on (leather, esp. a leather book cover) : volumes bound in green leather and tooled in gold.• dress (stone) with a chisel.2 equip or be equipped with tools for industrial production : [ trans. ] the factory must be tooled to produce the models | [ intrans. ] they were tooling up for production.3 [ intrans. ] informal drive or ride in a casual or leisurely manner : tooling around town in a pink Rolls-Royce.

Brian Sum - Cool Artwork