Category Archives: Sketches

Bobby D’s

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Annyth and I lived in New Orleans, LA from early 2005 to early 2010, in with Katrina out with the Saints winning the Super Bowl! For most of that time we were lucky enough to live in Algiers Point. Looking back, I really wish I had been iPad drawing then, because it was probably the most interesting place I’ve ever lived. Whenever I go through my own photos from back then or if I bump into one on the Internet, I’m slowly but surely using them as reference photos for free hand iPad drawings to post on this illustroblog along with a little story. Here’s a few posts on Jack Fine, Kevin & Wendy’s House of the Rising Sun B&B, and the Missbelieve Tree (or Miss P’leeze Tree or even Loquat Tree) tagged #Algiers Pernt.

Case in “pernt,” couple’a years ago I happened upon a unique photo on Flickr by a Chuck Taggart. Click here for that photo. Setting the stage, he writes: [The store hours sign outside this little neighborhood grocery represents one of those “only in New Orleans” kinda things. My favorite hours-of-operation sign EVER. I was driving around in the Point and had a hankering for a Hubig’s Pie, and thought I’d stop into Bobby D’s. I was pushing it; it was a little after 5. No dice.]

Note: If you do go to that photo, you’ll see my request to use Chuck Taggart’s photo as a reference photo for the following iPad Pro painting, done mostly the Sletch Club app using an Apple Pencil.

Comments always welcome (down below). Here’s to Chuck Taggart, ethnographer and photographer.

Bobby D’s Hours

Ardha Matsyendrāsana Sorta

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Here’s one, some variation of the Half Lord of the Fishes Pose, that makes my lower back talk. And my lower back has a lot of stories! I learned one thing about 4 or 5 years ago, the problem with my back is my front. Namaste, Ofie! I’ve illustroblogged before about yoga, check those posts out.

 

mDAC 2020 Virtual Conference: Jerry in the Top 100!

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After a hiatus of two years, 2018 and 2019, the Mobile Digital Art and Creativity (mDAC) exhibition and conference returned. However, because of the pandemic, mDAC2020 took place online in a virtual manner a la Zoom. On the evening of Friday, June 26, 2020 there was the exhibit featuring the top 100, and out of them, the top 11, and on Saturday (6/27/20) and Sunday (6/28/20), two days of digital art workshops (click here to see the top 100 plus other details, including the jurors and the hands-on presenters). And if you had looked closely at the winners, you might have noticed that my piece, entitled Jerry, made in into the top 100!! How cool is that? What’s as cool is that I made it into the top 100 at mDAC2015 and mDAC2016.

Click on image to enlarge “Jerry”

I had already presented something about Jerry in a recent post about how cool it is to spend a little extra time with folks no longer with us in the flesh, click here to see that. Jerry was a dear friend whom I had gotten to know while living in Athens, Ohio from 1998 until 2005, but even after Ann and I moved away, we all stayed in touch.  I’m so happy that Jerry was selected because, remembering this honor will always allow me to continue celebrating Jerry’s extraordinary life. See Jerry’s obit here.

#1

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This one’s thematically related to a rather fundamental icon here at portfoliolongo.
Last week I noticed that the Tayasui Sketches app had an update. I was hopeful that the update would finally allow us users to reduce the canvas size while drawing without closing the drawing; and it did. There are some cool features in Sketches. My favorites include the “ink” and “watercolor” tools, as described here: https://tayasui.com/sketches/tools.html

Also, the “fill, pattern, text, object” tool, as shown here:

I used iColorama to sharpen and add vibrancy to the image.

Malignant Narcissist in the New Poison Ivy Garden

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I saw an interview on TV with Jay Rosen, who had written a compelling piece, brilliantly arguing that 45’s plan is to have no plan at all! It’s the ultimate commission by omission in some ways, and it’s been diabolically effective on those who’ve sadly been marginalized from education and hope. He’s a sociopathic prankster, the magical answer to some people’s hollow prayers. Some say he has a mere learning disability; but no, it’s not that simple or  partial, as his own niece suggests in her book. He has an aversion to learning, and he’s become the patron saint for all those who decided to show up for the exam without cracking a book. He sows discord. He creates chaos. He will destroy others while he destroys himself.

Camilo José Cela

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I’ve been thinking a lot about tremendismo lately even though it’s been years since I read La Familia de Pascual Duarte and La Colmena. I’ll set aside the politics and philosophy and focus instead on Cela’s beautiful face.

Coronatrumpeting 2

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I was thinking about this one as I was doing the previous one.

Sketch Club, iColorama, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, 15 minutes

Coronatrumpeting

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Here’s one I’d been thinking about for a few weeks, (check out the stats info from Sketch Club below the image, which doesn’t include 2 minutes in iColorama for final tweaking.)

Stats info:

It’s been quite a spring!

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My wife definitely has a green thumb, which means I get to enjoy the sight and aroma of many different types of flowers. This year I was moved to paint – or at least attempt to paint – some of them: irises, lilies, and a flowering variegated bower vine. I rendered all of them on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using Sketch Club and iColorama.

Iris.

Lily

Flowering Bower Vine

The #TimeVirus

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I painted the Neanderthal image on an iPad Pro using Procreate and posted it back in 2016, (see post here including details on the Neanderthal skull). I created the background in Tayasui Sketches and “liquified” it in Procreate in 2019 (see that image further on down). Tolle’s talk prompted me to combine and adjust the two in Procreate and then iColorama as a way of making sense of the corona virus and reactions to it.

I hope you like the image and especially Tolle’s talk!

The #TimeVirus

Liquified Background

Liquified Background