Abstract Art Video

Hello. I hope you are having a great year so far.

I had planned on posting an Inkscape vector I was almost finished with, but can’t now. I lost work and photos in an external hard drive accident. I may try to recreate it but, I don’t know yet. It had over a hundred layers and was so close to being complete.  It’s a good reminder to have proper backups for your work,  possibly at more than one place.  And I know now, be more careful and avoid accidentally erasing keys for encrypted files.

On a happier note, I have a new camcorder and finally have a newer version of Vegas that’s capable of editing AVCHD video.  I would like to post some video of my conventional drawing process and stuff soon.

Here is a video I made from abstract digital art, edited in Sony Vegas. The file was kind of large, I’ve yet to find the best settings for quality and small file size. Please let me know if it plays ok for you.  ~Hope you like it.

The Art of Baking

I love to bake!

…Almost as much as I love to draw and paint.

Texas is finally getting some chilly weather. Winter is coming! For me, that means even more baking (than I already do).   Breads, cakes, cookies, muffins and all sorts of goodies. 

I try to use organic ingredients as much as possible, especially when it can really make a difference.  The link below is a helpful chart that shows which fruits and vegetables have the heaviest pesticide loads and which ones have less.

EWG’s Shoppers Guide.

Sunflower Wallpaper

It was a beautiful day in August when we saw these sunflowers blooming on the side of the road.  We pulled over to capture a few photos, and found passion flowers and several other pretty flowers growing there also.  In the video after the page break, you can see more of the photos taken that day.

 If you would like to use the sunflower photo as a desktop wallpaper,
click on the image to download it at MediaFire.  Largest size -1024 x 768.

The Art of Window Display

Window Display Designers

Are talented professional artists who spend many hours planning and creating appealing and exciting three-dimensional window dressings.  Visual retail merchandising is about designing eye-catching displays that draw customers into a store.

Here are a few photos I took at BHLDN  which recently opened its first brick and mortar store in Houston.

 

Blog Awards

A Big Thank You

to the bloggers who recently sent me these awards….

A Mermaid Sketch

My latest Odosketch doodle.  Catch of the Day

~Click here to see a larger view~  ~Click here to watch the playback of this sketch~

Cinemagraphs or Artistic GIF’s

Whatever you call them, they’re very cool.

An artsy twist to the animated GIF. These moving pictures were created by NYC Photographer Jamie Beck and motion graphics artist Kevin Burg.  Check out more at her Tumblr blog:   From Me To You  (Fromme-Toyou)

If you would like to know how they were made and perhaps make your own, there is a Photoshop Cinemagraph tutorial here by Fernando J Baez with a link to an additional one.

Here is another good cinemagraph tutorial (using Adobe Photoshop CS4)  at Photojojo.

And this is not exactly the same results, but here is a tutorial on making Animated GIFs with MPEG Streamclip and GIMP.