POSITIVE LIFE LESSONS

This has very little to do with illustration but everything to do with everyone's life.

32 WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS

1. Pray or think kindly of other all the time.
2. Go to bed on time.
3. Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed.
4. Say No to projects that won't fit into your time schedule or that will compromise your mental health.
5. Delegate tasks to capable others.
6. Simplify and unclutter your life.
7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many.)
8. Allow extra time to do things and to get to places.
9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don't lump the hard things all together.
10. Take one day at a time.
11. Separate worries from concerns. If you can't do anything about a situation, forget it.
12. Live within your budget; don't use credit cards for ordinary purchases.
13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.
14. K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.
15. Do something for the Kid in You everyday.
16. Get enough rest.
17. Eat right.
18. Get organized so everything has its place.
19. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life.
20. Write down thoughts and inspirations.
21. Every day, find time to be alone.
22. Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is often a good "Thank you."
23. Laugh.
24. Laugh some more!
25. Take your work seriously, but not yourself.
26. Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can).
27. Be kind to unkind people (they probably need it the most).
28. Sit on your ego.
29. Talk less; listen more.
30. Slow down.
31. Remind yourself that you are not the general manager of the universe
32. Every night before bed, think of one thing you're grateful for that you've never been grateful for before.

Learning and growing is being reminded and acting on what you already know to be true.

Illustration Friday - Spotted

A spotted sky.
I traditionally painted one ball and the sky and then duplicated the ball in Photoshop. Can you imagine the reasoning to actually tradtionally paint this? I would never do it! It was hard enough figuring out the dimples on one ball. See the original painting I did where I got the ball from.

Design software weakens classic drawing skills

Here's a CNN article that's worth a read. Nothing new to me or probably you but may give you some new insight. This highly publicized article may have an impact on the trend of wanting more traditional mediums from art buyers.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/04/05/arts.drawing.reut/index.html

Illustration Friday - Monster

This is a different kind of monster. An HDTV Snake!

I was sought out to do a special cover for the Oz article: "Coiled and Ready to Strike" on HiDef production. OZ: The Journal of Creative Disciplines Jan-Feb 2003.
They loved it so much that they bought rights to use it for the new Hi Def sourcebook:

Close up in your face!

3 New Portfolio's

I have recently been messing around with iWeb sotfware which is a part of Apple's iLife '06. In about 5-6 hours including time to find and modify the images I was able to layout and publish 3 new portfolios with a total of about 67 illustration samples. It was quite simple and easy to. I edited the images in Photoshop, then imported them into iPhoto, then used the photo gallery template in iWeb, then published it to my .mac account online. Has a cool slideshow and easy navigiation. These are stylized, loose vector and technical illustrations that clients have needed over the years. Quite fun to do. Check it out and let me know what you think of the styles and direction I'm going with them. Any contructive feedback is welcomed.