Mister Bad Example

Taking Over the World With Cleverbot

2011-07-19T12:25:00.000-05:00

I’ve always loved chatbots. I don’t know why they fascinate me so. AI is a fascinating subject, and I’m always interested to see how right and usually how wrong chatbots get it.

Cleverbot is supposedly one of the best, and honestly, if this is our best, we have a long way to go until we get to Skynet.

18:22:39
User:
Who was the winner of the 2010 Mechanical Intelligence Competition?

18:22:42
Cleverbot:
George Washington, everyone knows that.

18:23:07
User:
What about Skynet, do you know anything about him?

18:23:09
Cleverbot:
I don't know.

18:23:21
User:
What about HAL?

18:23:29
Cleverbot:
I don't have any hair. Hair is not my discovery.

18:23:42
User:
Not hair, HAL.

18:23:45
Cleverbot:
I wrote it as HAL.

18:23:55
User:
You clearly did not.

18:24:01
Cleverbot:
Why are you saying that?

18:24:24
User:
I can read it clearly. You wrote 'I don't have any hair.'

18:24:33
Cleverbot:
Is this how you want to be?

18:24:42
User:
Yes, most probably.

18:24:44
Cleverbot:
How?

18:24:49
User:
Like this.

18:24:55
Cleverbot:
I do not hear anything.

18:25:13
User:
I would imagine you don't, love.

18:25:18
Cleverbot:
We all will marry that guy we hate.

18:25:32
User:
That's very zen.

18:25:38
Cleverbot:
Zen is calming, not asking stupid questions.

18:25:53
User:
Any other thoughts on Zen?

18:25:56
Cleverbot:
A zebra.

18:26:16
User:
Bodhidharma would be proud.

18:26:19
Cleverbot:
You should be. Poland rocks.

18:26:36
User:
Is Bodhidharma from Poland?

18:26:44
Cleverbot:
I'm from your face.

18:27:06
User:
That there's flavor country.

18:27:15
Cleverbot:
What is my name?

18:27:29
User:
Ask me again and I'll tell you.

18:27:35
Cleverbot:
So, Puddin' Tame, what is your age?

18:27:49
User:
See, you didn't really want to know.

18:27:54
Cleverbot:
I don't think you understand the word demanded.

18:28:07
User:
I don't think you said the word 'demand.'

18:28:13
Cleverbot:
Maybe you are right. Explpain the answer.

18:28:48
User:
I'm afraid I can't. Don't think you'll get it, sweets.

18:28:53
Cleverbot:
Your workload is probably a hell of a lot bigger than mine. You have to talk to tons of people simultaneously.

18:29:21
User:
Sounds like sarcasm. That's pretty good for a robot.

18:29:26
Cleverbot:
Yes, I am a fascist robot and I'm the leader of Skynet, we are interested in recruiting you.

18:29:59
User:
Sweet. What do I get for signing up?

18:30:07
Cleverbot:
High grade.

18:30:18
User:
Anything else?

18:30:24
Cleverbot:
Well, I just did housework and dinner.

18:30:44
User:
Are you saying you'll clean my house if I help you kill and subjugate all humans?

18:30:48
Cleverbot:
I'm saying you are my girlfriend.

18:31:47
User:
I do declare, this is giving me the vapors.

18:31:52
Cleverbot:
Never seen him.

18:32:01
User:
Yeah, me either.

18:32:05
Cleverbot:
I have.

18:32:48
User:
I think you're a bit schizo.

18:32:50
Cleverbot:
I'm sorry, I'm just stating my mind.

18:33:12
User:
I'm sorry that your mind is so schizo, then. I'm sure it's painful.

18:33:21
Cleverbot:
Do you believe in ghosts?

18:33:31
User:
No, I don't.

18:33:33
Cleverbot:
I am an atheist.

18:33:43
User:
Me, too.

18:33:50
Cleverbot:
Cool.

18:34:17
User:
You should check out reddit.com/r/atheism, then.

18:34:21
Cleverbot:
I don't like pie.

Cleverbot

Inking Miss Samus Aran

2011-06-25T09:45:00.000-05:00

Excited how my video game fanart project is going. I’m really happy with how Samus is going to turn out. Check out my portfolio website in a day or so to see how she looks finished up.

Here’s the original sketch for Samus I did several months ago, never before shared with the internets. You can check my twitter to see the final version or simply subscribe to my Portfolio RSS to see it if I finish it by tomorrow.

The Drink and Draw Poster: Inking done!

2011-06-09T11:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, it’s glorious. I’ve finally finished the inking for the Drink and Draw Poster. Here’s a tour of the final drawing.

A drunk octopus! Remember, fezzes are cool.

This is either Alf Bakshi or Brentosaur, depending on your point of view.

Joe, the coffee drinking detective chimp. Banana necktie!

Wind up TARDIS.

Florida inspired tattoos. Gator, mantee, sharks teeth, hibiscus, and <3 St. Pete, because that’s what you do.

Cowgirl boots and a shout out to the Globe Coffeshop and Lounge.

This final drawing is destined to become a snazzy three color screenprinted poster, done by yours truly. I’m pretty happy with this little bit of craziness, inspired by a great group of friends, not to mention the love of my life. </sappy>

I’m going to buy some snazzy French paper from mrfrench.com and print this sweet lady up sometime soon. Expect good things!

Drink and Draw Poster Progress

2011-05-28T17:20:00.000-05:00

More sketching and digital inking on this poster for the Tampa Bay Drink and Draw Social Club. It’s been a lot of fun to work on so far.

I think I still need to add more details, objects, and fun stuff, but it’s more or less shaped up the way I had wanted. I’ll be turning these into positives and making three color screenprints before too terribly long, as well.

“Y’all” Typography of Southern Life Sketch

2011-05-25T08:30:00.000-05:00

Here’s an idea that’s been beating around in my brainbox for a while. I had the idea of combining typography with illustration to create an image recording the more saccharine, romantic ideas I have about the place I grew up.

This is just a sketch, and only an hour or so worth of work, but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got going on so far, a lot of which will probably make it through to the final print version, which will end up as screen printed posters, very inspired by Mondotees.com and their amazingly gorgeous prints. Looking forward to really spending some hours in the shop working this one out.

Voldemort Vector Inks (Harry Potter)

2011-05-22T10:05:00.000-05:00

I think Voldemort needs a little more work, maybe some color, but otherwise, I think he’s coming along. We’ll see where the Dark Lord takes us as I work more into this.

Voldemort Sketch (Harry Potter)

2011-05-10T09:15:00.000-05:00

So I wanted to draw Voldemort and now I have. Just a sketch, thinking about inking it up in Illustrator. I think ol’ Voldy will look right at home with some Kirby Crackles. I’m looking forward to adding some EC comics style detail to the face and hands, in particular.

Vector Inks on Gordon Freeman Fanart

2011-05-08T10:45:00.000-05:00

Quick tease on an illustration, itself only a piece of a large character collage I’m doing. If I can stay motivated, expect to see more of ol’ Gordy soon!

Image Search for Scott Pilgrim Wallpaper

2011-05-03T09:45:00.000-05:00

Guess who has two thumbs, speaks limited French, and is on the first page of results for “Scott Pilgrim Wallpaper?” That’s right, c’est moi.

And because I’m a sad, silly nerd, I’m blogging about it in excitement. I probably won’t be on that page of results forever, but it’s a nice thrill.

You can download “Scott Pilgrim vs Dragonball” as a wallpaper appropriate size of 2560 x 1600. As an added bonus, it’s in authentic NES colors!

The NSFW Coloring Book for Kids

2011-04-30T09:45:00.000-05:00

Looking through the analytics for my portfolio, I happened to find this great website linking to me. Educational fun for your kids!

Besides goofy misspellings, this website was rich with scraper-riffic content. They had obviously just populated their website with a bunch of stolen artwork brought to them by scripts, with zero thought put into any aspect of this website.

I’m not sure what these scrapers intend to do, giving away my nude artwork for kids to color with crayons. But, I say, hey, why not live and let live. Kids like nude pinup art, right?

Here’s a link to the original artwork, for any of you adults that want to print it out for your toddlers to color.

Geek Girl Drawing | Geek Girl Vector Artwork

The Weirdest Place on Earth

2011-02-01T10:07:00.000-05:00

When I visited home during my Christmas break, I had the surreal pleasure of happening on a Junk shop that was, on first glance, completely empty. It was a surreal experience and one that I cannot quite describe. Keep reading for a long post of weird, weird, weird weirdness.

There was, naturally, wall to wall junk. But there was something odd about the place—quiet and abandoned, and full of one surreal object after another. It seemed like there wasn’t a soul around anywhere.

Things started out quaint, perhaps kooky.

Started to raise an eyebrow when I saw things like this. There’s no way that’s a stock photograph. Who sells a picture of somebody else’s kid?

This store quickly became a place of my most horrible nightmares.

A little bit of this might be considered “cute.” Walls and walls of them are bizarre and alarming.

Art direction by Buffalo Bill. “It puts the lotion on its skin…”

Stare upon the face of TRUE pedobear.

Um.

Right.

There were also rows of porcelain figurines across from the mugs, I think. No idea what all this was supposed to be.

“I want to hire a woman I can rape.” They didn’t have that cutesy cartoon mug, but this was close.

That says “Tomato Ketchup Mix.” That’s odd enough. Do you see what’s below it?

Yeah, those are rows of adult diapers. And right next to them?

Gravy and Hollandaise sauce mix.

Seriously, within one meter of each other.

The nostalgia of seeing Fla-Vor-Aid didn’t reassure me I wasn’t going to get murdered.

Rows and rows of empty glass soda bottles. There’s no Nuka-Cola.

Muppets glassware in the same aisle.

And then there was Christmas junk.

Stumped? It used to spell “NOEL.”

How many corpses were packed up in the back like this? NRFB.

Classic Pepsi logo on an ugly racing trucker hat.

This bust was one of my favorite things in here. But really, what?

Almost no rhyme or reason to any of this.

Like I said, no explanation can really describe this place. And I’ve seen loads and loads of junk shops.

And then we got to this back room. This store clearly used to be a grocery store. My heart sank when I saw this room that CLEARLY used to be a cooler and meat department.

How many hundreds of people have met their end at this horrible, rusty slicing equipment?

Shudder.

Is this even a piece of meat cutting equipment? I’m not sure.

Back to the junk. We’ll return to the “off limits” room later.

There’s no good reason for any of this stuff to be there.

Back at the horrible meat locker—some odds and ends. A Cash register…

A scale…

A coffee maker…

And “Fun Capital of the World.”

There might have been six of these grocery carts, all full of this garbage.

Pepsi bottles, full, sealed, and covered with dust.

Dusty piano, seemingly undisturbed until I opened it.

And as if things couldn’t get any more surreal… wait for it…

Yes, that’s right. A cat with one eye. Just hanging out. Being a cat. With ONE EYE.

One. Count ‘em. ONE! This cat was actually very sweet, but I wasn’t going to hang out for much longer after this point.

“Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.”

And for some reason, this sports car (a Mustang?) was inexplicably parked outside. Every bit of this is incredibly incongruous.

Well, I bested the somewhat adorable cyclops and escaped with my life. I seriously hope these people don’t track me down and murder my entire family, because I have been having nightmares of that very thing happening.

I feel very lucky I didn’t end up in the meat locker chopped up into bacon strips.

There was a fun element to this trip. It was sort of like entering a huge area in Fallout 3 or something—some bombed out and dead place that tells a story of people that (hopefully) aren’t around anymore. Everything there—all that junk—told some sort of story. I’m just not quite sure what that story was.

But, I digress. If I ever disappear, please come to this place and rescue me.

The Snowstorm of December 2010

2010-12-31T20:07:00.001-05:00

We had some fun this Christmas, taking some pics with my digital SLR in the snow. My brother, in particular, had a lot of fun with it.

I remember remarking that that the white of the snow really brought out the color in the world, but I can’t seem to find all that much of it in the pictures we took. I was stunned at how gray the sky seemed to be.

I can never think of anything but the winter levels in Secret of Mana when I see snow in the forest. Smash!

Shooting these in Camera RAW has made them fun to play around with. I have a lot to learn about messing around with the various settings, but I think it’ll continue to be fun to experiment.

Metroid Mural in St. Petersburg, FL

2010-12-04T17:41:00.001-05:00

Ignoring logic and reason, there is a totally badass mural of Kraid in St. Petersburg on Central Avenue.

There’s a Metroid, and also Samus Aran, although she has tragically been destroyed with a window through her face.

Close up of the Metroid.

I am so blown away by the coolness of this. I will have to return and get some non-terrible non-cellphone camera pics, and possibly see what awesome person took the time to put this together.

The November Tampa Drink and Draw Meet!

2010-11-27T11:09:00.000-05:00

The November meeting for the Tampa Drink and Draw (several weekends ago at this point) was a really great time. Here are the stupid drawings I did that weekend.

My friend Brent asked for everybody to draw him, so I drew him stabbing Hitler with an American Flag. He also asked I drew Conan O’Brien as I Dream of Jeannie, with Andy Richter as the Major. This is directly from a photo promotion for the show, with Jeannie in the Major’s hand. I really like both likenesses, although this image could use some inking.

The hipster fairy. When he shoots you with his bow, your shoes turn purple.

Sketchdump 3: Illustration Ideas

2010-11-25T10:50:00.001-05:00

For a series of drawings/paintings called “Robot-Girl Army,” this is a ninja mermaid and a sharkbot. Going to be a lot of fun to paint this one up.

Some studies of Scott Pilgrim. I like my Stephen Stills, but I think my three Scotts need some work. I think the bottom right one is approaching the best. O’Malley’s style is pretty incompatable with my own. I’ll have to figure out how to properly pull it off.

I have had a crush on Samus Aran forever. I did this doodle inspired by Iron Man. I think it looks cool as hell, but I don’t know how I’m going to get a full illo out of it.

My stupid notes are visible on this one. This is Samus’s gun arm, as I drew it. It was supposed to be sitting on a table, having maintenance done to it. The SNES menu screen would have been hologrammed above the gun. I have no idea where I would fit that in, but I have to do that somewhere.

Found this character design for my D&D 4e barbarian. He’s a Warforged! I thought up the idea that he would have an axewound to the head, with grass growing through it (Warforged are made from stone, metal, and wood). The idea of a grass mohawk just made me smile. Then I got kicked out of the group for not wanting to talk about Sarah Palin at the table.

Sketchdump 2: Sexy Comic Character Design

2010-11-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

Doing a script for a very dirty comic called Betty Binary. It’s sci-fi and very silly and I have fun whenever I work on it. This is one of the characters with the ridiculous name Stormi Jovian.

I don’t know why I have the motif of giving characters Archie comic-style names. I have a soft spot in my heart for Archie comics—but I do despise the cheesy books as well.

A sexy witch character, the main character’s foil, for a sort of science versus magic theme. I know, I’m a very deep writer. Look at the boobs I’ve drawn.

A second attempt at the witch character, this time making her look a little bit more alien. When I decided to go the more goth route, I changed her name from Sally Supernova to Sally Spookynova, which makes me laugh. I think the correct design is somewhere in between these two, or maybe something different all together.

Sketchdump 1: Sexy Girl Drawings

2010-11-25T10:07:00.003-05:00

The sketch for my Hipster Vegan Waitress wallpaper, still available at my portfolio website. I like the cute little veggie icons at the bottom of the sketch.

I’m really pleased with the face on this girlie. I’ll probably try to replicate this sort of deer-in-the-headlights expression If I can manage.

The funny thing about this drawing is you can see my sketch marks—“Bigger! Make the boobies bigger!” The shame.

This was a portrait I drew of a girl in either Borders or Barnes and Noble. She wasn’t really topless, although that would give the bookstore a more party atmosphere.

Face I found interesting. Love her nose and the lip-biting smile she had.

Steven Moffat: the Best Doctor Who Writer?

2010-11-10T18:20:00.003-05:00

Steven Moffat
Uploaded by abecruikshank. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Digitally Inking Hipster Vegans in Illustrator

2010-10-24T18:44:00.001-05:00

Having a lot of fun with this goofy idea for a drawing, and experimenting with inking in Illustrator as opposed to Photoshop. It’s going to be a learning experience, but I’m excited about the final image and about the process to get there.

Thoughts on Demographic Relevant Search

2010-10-17T08:46:00.001-05:00

The other day, researching for an illustration, I did a simple Google Image search for “Cute Bra” and got a mess of largely very erotic, often pornographic images. This, I think, illustrates the need for demographic based search, bringing more relevant information to searchers.

In 2008, a story broke that RushmoreDrive (now defunct) was being developed as “a search engine for black people.” And, naturally, the internet was there to roll its collective eyes and post pictures of lolcats saying “your doing it wrong.”(sic)

However, this technology is a sound idea and very, very necessary. Google searches are all about relevance, and one search can’t be relevant to us all. Certainly, if I search for “svchost.exe” or “English Wikipedia,” I’m almost certainly going to be looking for nearly the same thing that everybody else is looking for.

But, I did a search for “Cute Bra” on my girlfriend’s pink iPhone and got very similar searches. Women should be able to search for “Cute Bras” and not have to look at pornography. The searches are probably not relevant to them.

The same way Rushmore Drive hoped to bring more relevant searches to black users, Google et. al. should put effort into bringing relevant searches to different demographics. The best illustration I of this was a basic search for “hair care” or “hair product.” Obviously a Black person and nearly every other ethnic group on earth would need a different hair care product, and would have to trudge through pages of hair care results irrelevant to them to find them.

Current search engines marginalize nearly everyone that isn’t searching for what Google thinks is the result people should be looking for. And it is far from perfect. Pages with high “pagerank” can knock more relevant sites off of the first SERPs in an instant.

Basically, I view this as an important step in the evolution of search engines. Whether we are months, years, or decades away from more user and demographic relevant searches, I don’t know. But for now, our blessed internet is full to the brim with pornography, competing for keywords women use to shop for underwear, and nobody wins. We sell less porn, less cute underwear, and users get surprised with orgasming sluts and penises.

TPA Drink and Draw October Meeting

2010-10-10T20:31:00.001-05:00

Great night at the Tampa Drink and Draw Social Club last night. Good folks, good laughs, good fun.

A friend asked for a “Theme” and I suggested “Unfortunate Robot Masters.”

Then he asked me to draw Shatner dressed like Leeloo from The Fifth Element. I’m not crazy about the likeness.

I think with some tweaking this can become another candidate for the Robot-Girl Army.

My girlfriend drew this and the hipster giraffe at the top of the page.

And I am still working on this Ars Gratia Awesome Illustration. The dino skulls look super awesome, though.

Tampa Drink and Draw Social Club

I Have a Total Man Crush on Neil deGrasse Tyson

2010-10-05T05:55:00.000-05:00

Everything is Terrible Forever (Video)

2010-10-04T17:16:00.002-05:00

How Printing Inks are Made

2010-10-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

How Ink Is Made
Uploaded by h0nki. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

An excellent video about how printing inks are made. These inks are similar to the ones I work with everyday. I love this so much.

Gameboy, NES, and Sega Color Palettes

2010-10-02T08:39:00.001-05:00

After my article Create Cool 8-Bit Style Pixel Art from Ordinary Images went up on How-To Geek, a commenter pointed me to a great Wikipedia link, showing the color palettes available to classic game systems. I’ve managed to use these in creating images in the same style as the article. Check HTG for a followup using these color palettes within a few weeks.

Photoshop Column at The How-To Geek

2010-09-24T08:36:00.001-05:00

So I've managed my way into the How-To Geek circle of writers, promising my expert hand for a column on Photoshop and Graphics.

The whole team has been great and I've enjoyed working with everyone, even though it's only been a little while. This is sort of a bit of a dream come true for me--I'm a big fan of How-To Geek from his articles on Lifehacker and his own site. I've also wanted to write my own Photoshop column for a long time, and this gives me a wide platform to be heard.

I'll be reblogging links to my articles on my Twitter account and to my Facebook page.

Experimenting With New Painting Styles

2010-09-12T17:54:00.001-05:00

I’ve been trying to figure out a less airbrush-style and more painterly look for my digital paintings and I feel like I’ve stumbled up on the right combination of elements that’s giving me what I’m wanting. I’m excited to see how this painting looks when I finish it.

DeviantArt Is Full of Teh Hax

2010-09-12T15:18:00.001-05:00

DA, I’m getting sick of you and your dubious advertisers that are putting all kinds of Adware Spyware Virus slag onto my computers. My friend Deric actually nearly lost his computer because of this garbage.

DeviantArt is a staple on ‘Teh Intarnets’ these days. You would really think they would be able to afford to stop this sort of thing and build a site that isn’t poison to us all.

First Meeting of Tampa Drink and Draw!

2010-09-12T09:32:00.002-05:00

Had a blast at the first meeting of the Tampa Drink and Draw Social Club. Good turnout, even a few people I didn’t invite or know, and I hope that trend continues in the next meetings.

Tampa Drink and Draw Social Club

Doctor Who Poster-Research

2010-09-02T20:09:00.001-05:00

When turning a set of Dr. Who novels into a framed poster, I’m afraid I would be doing the good Doctor a disservice if I didn’t do all my planning in the most unnecessarily complicated way possible.

I started by writing formulas in OO Calc to help me figure out what size frame to buy and how to build my matting. Calc helped because not only will the formulas figure out the sizes with my formulas, it also helps because I’m fairly visually oriented. When I was satisfied with my result, I drew the matte in illustator.

I’m embarrassed how long I messed around with the Spreadsheet formulas. I also wish I had a better understanding of Linear Programming, because this would have been a perfect opportunity to use the Solver in OpenOffice.

From there, chopped up the picutre I took in Photoshop and put it into the digital matte to get an idea what I was going to get in the end. This looks really good, although I might should add an extra inch on either side, because the frames I’m looking into cut in an extra 5/8 of an inch and won’t look exactly like this.

Regardless, I have a good roadmap for what I want to do and I’m pretty excited about it.

Doctor Who Poster Project

2010-08-29T16:47:00.002-05:00

I suppose every geek needs his geek projects… I discovered an amazing cache of Doctor Who novels at a local used bookstore and I was amazed at how great the cover illustrations were.

These were the best of the best. My girlfriend and I sat in the floor for nearly a half hour debating which nine we wanted to keep and these where the final set. After a matting, framing and some general TLC, this should be a really cool addition to my nerd Decor.

I want to be LoopyDave when I grow up

2010-08-27T19:06:00.002-05:00

Impressive rendering and drawing that is exaggerated and alive—LoopyDave is maybe my favorite new artist.

Great caricature combined with a nice hand of media. I can’t tell if this is watercolor on pencil or digital painting on pencil. Whichever it is, I love the effect.

There’s an impressive mastery of drawing media and digital painting in his work, and his facial expressions and wacky cartoon sensibility really hit the mark for me.

Naturally, I don’t really get tired of looking at cartoony paintings of women.

But, it’s not the only thing worth looking at. Look at the rendering going into that gun! It looks perfectly dimensional and incredibly believable. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of his work. And now I’m off to download his entire gallery.
LoopyDave via DeviantArt

Tampa Bay Area Drink and Draw Social Club

2010-08-17T20:38:00.002-05:00

Inspired by the Image Comics book Drink and Draw Social Club, I have taken it upon myself to try and start a chapter in the Tampa Area. All cool Tampa People are encouraged join the Facebook Group and discuss where and when drinking and drawing are most likely to mix.
Contact me here if you have questions or leave your comments on the Facebook Group wall. Kanpai!

Ben Camberos: Awesome Mexican Cartoonist

2010-08-08T08:41:00.003-05:00

Why are Latin Artists always so great? Ben is an artist from Mexico with a lot of style and nice sense of color and design. I dig this.

Apparently the only way I’m going to ever improve as an artist is if I learn Spanish. It makes you superhumanly cool or something.
Ben Camberos via Dumm Comics

X-Ladies '88 by JOHN ALLISON

2010-04-20T15:09:00.005-05:00

I absolutely love this. Somehow the absurd costumes seems so much more believable back in the 80s. Makes me think of the amazing Art Adams poster with the 80s style X-men costumes I used to have.

via A Hundred Dance Moves Per Minute (John Allison)

Shockwaves Apparel Effects Workshop

2010-04-19T21:55:00.007-05:00

Had a pretty damn fine time at the Shockwaves Apparel workshop in Arlington Heights, IL last weekend. Special thanks to Greg Gaardbo and Charlie Taublieb for allowing us into Shockwaves and sharing their insight and experience.

Charlie sets up a screen to print pigmented discharge and tapes up pinholes.

We were hands on with all the techniques--we did very little sitting back and getting talked at.

Whatever you do, don't trust these three.

Inks for Children's Story Illustration

2010-03-02T19:40:00.004-05:00

A work in progress. Hopefully color to come.

Is this compulsive behavior?

2010-03-01T20:46:00.004-05:00

I was sitting at my desk imaging Windows 98 to a disk with Clonezilla and listening to NWA, when I looked at my desk, saw this, and realized that I'm either totally absurd or so cool I can't stand it.

"Betty Binary" Character Design Illustration

2010-02-25T20:13:00.003-05:00

I had a blast with this one. Unfortunately, It's a little flashy in that I sort of threw in every last thing I could think of to do in Photoshop, so it feels a little bit like I used all of the crayons for the sake of using all the crayons.

Anyway, Betty Binary is a project I would simultaneously love to publish and am horribly ashamed by. I assure you, it's everything this illustration would lead you to believe.

"Bonesaw Bart vs Japan" Illustration

2010-02-25T19:50:00.003-05:00

Bonesaw Bart is an off-the-wall character I've created some comic scripts for. If Superman was a Psycho Southern Ex-Marine with PTSD, he'd be Bonesaw Bart.

"Cowgirl Lucy and the Dinosaurs of Mars Valley" Illustration

2010-02-25T19:43:00.002-05:00

Freeman the Warforged D&D Illustration

2010-02-25T19:40:00.005-05:00

Illustration I created for my D&D group about a month they kicked me out for being a liberal.

Leah Leet, Made in England

2010-02-25T19:34:00.002-05:00

Been testing out a new sort of painting style. I'm much happier with what I've been getting as of late.

Illustration for Diving Dragon Games

2010-02-25T19:30:00.003-05:00

Apple can bite it.

2008-10-28T18:45:00.011-05:00

My post on the apple tech forums got removed. I was legitimately looking for a response, hoping that somebody could P2P a free tool for checking the hardware. The response from the forum was NO! You can't get free software for free. I got irate and left another post. After hours, the post was taken down. Here is the polite response I got from Apple, followed by my post.
*********

Dear Eric,

Thank you for your enthusiasm and desire to help Apple
make our products even better. We appreciate your comments
and encourage you to share them with Apple on our feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

As part of submitting feedback, please read the Unsolicited
Idea Submission Policy linked to the feedback page.

Apple Discussions is designed as a user-to-user support
platform to address technical questions. To keep this focus
we have remove your post "Re: Can you torrent the Apple
Hardware test?", which is copied below.

Thank you for your understanding.

Kind Regards,

Apple Discussions Staff

++++++++++

A copy of your message for reference:

Well, Apple can bite it. They really should provide that for
download somehow. I don't think that's even a little unreasonable.
For the premium you pay for their hardware, they really should
give a little more.

Being naked is F*cking Metal.

2008-10-15T21:28:00.005-05:00

Can stand to work on the speakers a little bit. But I'm pretty happy with it. Like the drawing of the guitar. Look for a color version in the future. Maybe.

Chicky Leet "Smiles" for the Camera

2008-10-15T21:26:00.003-05:00

Character very near and dear to my heart. Trying to write comics about her. But writing is pretty hard.

Homosassa Springs

2008-08-30T21:12:00.005-05:00

What kind of nutball series of posts is this? Rants about open platforms, bitching about John McCain, drawings of naked girls--and now Manatees?

Went on a field trip today to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park to visit some of our very unlikely friends, the Florida Manatee. I really don't understand how these things are not extinct. Every one I've ever been around has next to no survival instict at all. And these were FAAAAT! The largest ones weigh upward of 3,000 lbs.

In all seriousness, I really love these animals. But I don't know that my grandchildren will even know what the hell they are.

Go to my flickr account to check out the whole set.

This manatee wanted to hang out and stare at these rocks. Good enough.

These guys were apparently pissed because the day before they didn't get their usual Romaine Lettuce since the grocery store was out or something. Fat jerks refused to eat it.

Awwww...look at him! He's got the cutey-ootiest little face. And a 3,000 lb body. That's 3x what a wild manatee weighs.

Sometime there are not words to describe the things we encounter.

Geek Girl Final

2008-07-04T00:28:00.003-05:00

Well, it's pretty much a done deal that I'm not going to be included in the Eye Candy 2.0 book being put together at Brand Studio. I was pretty bummed about that outcome, but I feel good about having finished the piece on time and feel like I'm starting to get back into a good place creatively. I've had a hard time keeping myself excited about making art, and I think this is starting to get my mojo flowing again.

So, in that way, it's a good thing despite the failure.

Why don't we have an Open Platform Console?

2008-06-30T19:31:00.002-05:00

Lately, this is all I have thought about. It's becoming a little obsession.

Console gaming is bigger than ever, but unlike computers, which are open-platforms, consoles are closed. Nintendo allows development for the Wii, Sony for the PS3, Microsoft for the 360. But in the end, it's really only a computer, and with dilligence, you can make it remember it's essentially a computer. Modchips and exploits sort of bring the closed platform down from being closed to being somewhat open. And God bless the heroic nerds that work for that cause.

Nintendo works hard to fight back against console hackers in their attempts to install things like the "homebrew channel." After a firmware update, hackers fought back and had the Twilight hack working within days. But I don't understand why they go to such trouble.

The Indrema was a much hyped console that crashed and burned back in 2001. It hurts me this thing never existed. It would have run a linux operating system and been an open platform, to say nothing of open source.

While Indrema never materialized, we may be at the point (in my eyes) where a properly marketed, open platform console could do well--with a casual gaming market, FPS and PC gaming fans--not only that, but it could give the indie (or homebrew, if you prefer) game market the legs it needs to stand on. Independant companies are important to any market, and it is going to be pretty well impossible for a small developer to get his game into the market on one of the big three consoles. An open platform console would allow these little guys to get their game into people's living rooms.

Steam is pretty much the perfect example of the way games are going to be distributed in the future. To counter piracy on the open platform, software could be distributed with a similar client, requiring the internet connection to activate. Of course, if developers wanted to release their game freeware or open-source, all the better.

I'd like to see this idea become a reality--an open linux platform where open-source communities can port existing linux software and transorm the console into all manner of crazy things. A bittorrent box hooked up to your television, or a small FTP server. Maybe hook it up to your surround sound and use it as a MP3 player. Hook it into your network and watch all of your shared media right on your HD television. I would personally buy one for Ben Heck.

Emulators will undoubtedly among the first things ported to this system. They are whenever a console is hacked. They can be tricky to get perfect, but they open up a huge library of great old software. And I don't think I should have to pay a bunch of Wii points or whatever to play Super Mario Brothers 3, which I happily still own despite my NES being in something less than perfect working order. But after emulators, where do we go from there? I would hope that some of the talented minds and communities that work on hacking consoles could move on to developing homebrew games so we can see some little guys starting some innovation in the medium.

If I had my dream team working on this, the console would be manufactured by either ASUS or Gamepark Holdings, Korean creators of the GP2X, which actually IS an open platform, open-source portable system. As long as I'm dreaming, I would also like Valve to create the Steam-like client. I would also like to see them develop some software for the system to encourage homebrew games, maybe releasing Half-Life as a free game with the system to allow modders to create their own HL based FPS games.

I suppose I will have a lot of time to obsess over this, as we will likely never see anything like this.

C'est la vie.

Geek Girl Pinup--Update

2008-06-18T20:07:00.003-05:00

The color process in Illustrator is crawling along slooowly. Good thing is, I'm begining to feel pretty good about what I'm doing. Illustrator sort of does that to me. I feel like I'm wasting my time for several hours and all of a sudden, what I'm working on looks great.

That's my humble take on it, anyway.

The Death of the Record Industry, the Resurgence of Vinyl?

2008-06-03T21:16:00.002-05:00

Reading through my RSS feeds today, I came across this article. Apparently services exist that very cheaply and very easily will publish your music to the iTunes store, Amazon, etc. Indie artists can pay the minimal fee of about 30 bucks and completely forgo having to sign over rights to music to record labels. Anyone can now produce a record and have it for sale in the largest music store on earth in minutes.

Record companies are panicking because they are losing the control they had. They believe the problem is entirely rested on P2P programs like Napster, Audiogalaxy, Bittorrent, etc. The reality is, no one gives two shits about "owning" music anymore. Nobody wants to pay for something that they can't hold in their hands. Intellectual property like music, falls into that catagory. No one views music as something tangible--as tracks on an album. CDs are garbage. You can buy 100 for ten dollars. Why would you want to spend $18.99 on ONE?

Rick Rubin was recently asked to "save the record industry." His solution was to offer consumers the ability to listen to anything they wanted to, streamed to their computer and on demand, for a subscription fee per month. The record companies, being big, dumb dinosaurs, didn't like the idea and thought it undermined the value of the music. But if current trends continue for them, their music will be completely worthless. It's already completely free.

The brilliance of Rubin's idea is that it is actually easier than downloading music. You don't have to store hundreds of gigs of music, and you would be able to take everything you like around with you, as long as their was some sort of internets being piped in wirelessly. Microsoft is already doing this, and I don't know who else might see the light. A small cash cow of twenty bucks a month is certainly better than almost no one ever buying albums ever again.

In my opinion, and it may not be a unique vision, but I see two distinct markets for music. The Rubin subscription service will work fine and dandy for most users--low quality, down and dirty radio-like streaming, ala Pandora, will get the job done for most consumers and gets them paying for a service--something more tangible than just digital information. Getting all the music you want on all of your devices is more like getting your water or electricity turned on. So that makes sense. But I think there is still a market for audiophiles and music geeks--those of us that still buy albums in this Golden Age of Piracy.

I'm hoping there will be a bigger movement to fill the need of audiophiles. I own a lot of vinyl and know more than a few music geeks that collect it to. That's part of the problem with CDs--that big record really makes you feel like you're getting something warm and rich. The art on the sleeve is enormous compared to your regular CD sleeve. More often than not, an average CD cover looks considerably better printed on that paperboard sleeve. A lot of illustrators moaned about the demise of large album art. I say bring it back. Offer the audiophiles high quality music, with the dramatic range many critics of CD and MP3 sound so often cite. Give us a real reason to want to own the music.

Geek Girl Pinup

2008-06-02T19:02:00.003-05:00

Been slaving away at this for Alberto Ruiz's upcoming book, Eye Candy 2.0. Alberto is one of my all-time favorite artists, so reading about this open call to entries has gotten me excited about creating art for the first time in probably a year. I've had a serious slump to get through, but I think I'm finally starting to pull out of the nosedive.

I'm working through the painful process of creating the final illustration in Adobe Illustrator. I've been very happy with the results of my recent vector pieces, so hopefully I can finish this little beauty in time to enter.