So I know I've been absolutely horrible recently about posting, but I thought I would share the drawings I did for my family (and friends) this year for Christmas. I'm cheap, I don't buy real presents.
Butterfly for Mom
Sad Baby Polar Bear for Dad
Bonsai Tree for Gma and Gpa
Baby Deer for Spencer
Calla Lily for Traci
Daisy for Sunshine
Angry Tiger Face for Travis
Princess Leia for Penny
Han Solo for Zac (of course)
Hummingbird for Rachel
I am missing a few because I haven't been able to scan them in yet, but I will post them when I do.
I really liked the way that most of these turned out, so hopefully I will continue making them. I particularly like the animal ones with lots of fine detail.
Since I drew portraits of my family for Christmas I've been meaning to make more. I've been contemplating it for a while and I decided to draw them today. However, instead of just doing black and white I decided to use color this time.
This is Rachel Hazelbaker. This is Rachel Hazelbaker's portrait. In color.
I also wanted to do my own portrait. Therefor I did. I also documented the step by step process of the drawing as well.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Once I scanned them in I played with them a bit in Photoshop and in the process I inverted the color. It's kind of neat.
I know I've been raving for years about how much I love Rogue Wave, so don't read on if you are sick of it because there's a whole lot more about to spew out.
Their new album 'Permalight' is sincerely awesome. I love every second of every song. Their last album 'Asleep at Heaven's Gate' was a bit of a dud in my opinion. It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, it just wasn't what I was looking for in a Rogue Wave album. I love all of the color and depth that 'Permalight' has. There are a lot of pertinent issues that the band deals with in these songs and that's one aspect that keeps me coming back for more. I'm listening to this almost as obsessively as I listened to 'Descended Like Vultures' back in the day (and sometimes nowadays). But let's not forget the early stuff either. 'Out of the Shadow' was a great one too. There's more of a playfulness to this early album than the rest, therefore it's good in my book. But for some reason I just can't put my finger on, it doesn't have the same oompf, or pizazz, or whatever it is that 'Descended Like Vultures' and 'Permalight' do.
Nope, there's no getting around it. I absolutely adore Rogue Wave. I doubt very much that will ever change.
However, Zac recently turned me onto Freelance Whales. They're pretty awesome as well. And not only is the music that they make incredible, their website is amazing on top of that. They're almost on par with Rogue Wave in my book, and that's saying something. I really like the song 'Hannah'.
I wish I had the know-how to pull something like this off. The fact that it seems to turn from 3 dimensions to 2 is amazing. It's best if you watch the whole thing.
So I've been bad at posting on the blog recently, and by recently I mean in the past year. I may get around to finally posting photos of my trip to Scotland sometime (I was there at the end of May last year, so almost a year ago).
What's been keeping me busy as of late is a new film called 'Jinn' that I've been working on. I'm the Set Decorator and it's so far been a whole heck of a lot of new experiences. I've learned a lot, about the industry and the way that I work. The sets have been looking great, in my opinion, and I do feel like I've been doing the best possible work that I can. We're almost done shooting which is exciting, I will finally have some time to myself again. It's amazing how much filmmaking can take over your life.
Here are some set photos...
Kitchen
Kitchen (detail)
Home Office
Home Office
Home Office (desk detail)
Father Westhoff's Office
Church Library
Church Library
It's tiring work but there's a lot of satisfaction that goes along with it.
So this is a music video that I worked on last year. It is an amazing video mostly due to the wonderful Danny Mooney. He's amazing at everything he does, and once you see the video I'm sure you'll agree. We only got to shoot about two thirds of what was supposed to be shot, but you wouldn't know that with what Danny has pulled together. Keep an eye on him, he's definitely going far.
Just so you know, this video went up only about a day ago and it already has over 20,000 view. Which is incredible.