HappinessBot

Yippee! It’s nice to have a positive emotion to illustrate again. I think this AlphaBot is happy for me because I have a much-needed new computer, all speedy & uncrashy & made-to-order & everything! Thank you, James!!

Guilt Bot

It's a scientific point of contention whether dogs can feel guilt.
What do you think?

I'm sure there would be similar questions raised about this AlphaBot.
But looking guilty is another matter. That's definitely in its programming, & I suspect dogs' & humans' too.

Speaking of which, I'm feeling a bit guilty for taking extra shortcuts this week (I cadged a bunch of gradients & blends-- and even an eye-- from CuriosityBot for this one) but I'd feel even more guilty if I missed my work deadlines, so something had to give!

FrightBot

This week's AlphaBot is a bit of a Fraidy-bot. I have a hyperactive alarm system myself, so I can relate.

I was working on a bunch of projects this week so I didn't have a whole lot of time to experiment with new AI techniques, but I did figure out that I could use the inner glow effect to make a nifty inner shadow in the eyeballs & head-bulb.

EmbarrassmentBot

I blush very easily & whenever I'm the least bit embarrassed, or emotionally stirred in any way really, I begin to resemble this AlphaBot, glowing ears & all. Unfortunately I can feel it happening & that just makes me more embarrassed.

I had fun doing all the radiant gradients though! I'm starting to hate gradient mesh just a tiny bit less, though it's still weirdly unpredictable. It does allow for a lot of subtle mixing!

I also experimented with multiple strokes on a path here, to create a fake gradient for the fingers. It sorta works!

CuriosityBot

Recently I was listening to the Brain Science Podcast, & the subject just happened to be The Origin of Emotions.

Jaak Panksepp was talking about the evolution of emotions, & to my surprise, he proposed that the very most fundamental emotion was the "seeking instinct"-- he didn't use the word "curiosity" but of course that's what jumped into my head. I hadn't even thought of this as an emotion per se, but it makes perfect sense! The same essential impulse that sends any animal out into the world in search of food extends to send me in search of interesting podcasts & new program skills,* for instance, or the Curiosity Rover to Mars, or this robot in search of odd little green thingies!

It was a fascinating podcast in general, & if you're not the podcast type there's a pdf transcript of the interview available here.

*For this Bot I learned how to use the star tool (for the pattern in the irises-- super-easy) & the object blend tool (for the goose-neck & arms-- quite a bit more complex but fun & amazing)!

And don't forget to check out all the other C robots over at AlphaBots!

BlissBot

Well, I'm mighty late with my AlphaBot this week, but at least I'm in time to wish you all a blissful Valentine's Day with Oddment 200!

In case you missed the last post, this is the second in an alphabetical robot series I call Artificial Emotional Intelligence. The BlissBot's wires tend to get a bit disheveled when in the throes of his eponymous emotion. But it's all part of his programming. ;-)

Speaking of programs, I'm using this series to teach myself how to "paint" in Adobe Illustrator. In this piece I made extensive use of the gradient mesh, which partly explains why it's so late! It's an amazing tool, but it can drive one a bit nuts, especially as a newbie. And of course I'm still not really satisfied. I hope one shining day to figure out how to make AI gradients tamely do my bidding. For now they definitely still have my knickers (& often my Bézier curves) in a twist. So much for my hope that I'd be as blissful making this bot as I was angstful for the last!

In further adventures in technology with Leah, I have a (sort of) complete new website up! It's supposed to be all mobile-responsive & sharp & fresh & stuff, but I'm still adding images & I'm sure there are still a few snags to work out. In any case I invite you to have a look over there & report back to me with any problems or concerns. I'll be keeping this blog going here for a while until I'm sure I have the hang of things over there!

AngstBot

Here come the AlphaBots!!

I decided my theme would be Artificial Emotional Intelligence. Each bot will represent an emotion. Should be fun!

I also decided (probably very foolishly) that AlphaBots would be the perfect opportunity to teach myself Adobe Illustrator. (AI for AI, get it?) I've used it now & again for some type/lettering work, but I've never tried to make an image with it before. It's a whole new world & cranking out this simple little bot nearly drove me crazy! I'm still not at all happy with the gradients & such. I hope when I learn the ropes a little more I can touch him up, poor fellow.

Appropriately enough, I started the alphabet with angst-- I certainly felt enough of it as I was attempting this effort!

The background text/texture is imported from Photoshop, as is the little belt buckle ornament, but everything else is AI. Wish me luck with this project! I hope the next one doesn't take this long!

Winged 8sy

Here's another of the 8sy BITsy Monsters! This one goes out to Lewis Carroll whose birthday was on the 27th. I meant to post it then but life intervened.

One of the many things I have on my plate these days is a website redesign... it's not quite live yet but when it is, I'll probably be migrating all my blogs over there. Just wanted to give y'all a heads-up! Of course I'll post a formal announcement when it happens.

Also, remember that AlphaBots begins next Monday, so if any of you would like to contribute, it's time to get bottin'!

Prepare for the Invasion of the AlphaBots!

I promised you another alphabet project & it's almost here, yippee! I'll be a co-admin this time along with Christian Sager & Gabriel Reyes, & we'd love to have any of you join us!

Christian explains it all so well on the AlphaBots site, I'll just quote his wording here:


"Who doesn’t like drawing robots?!? Now’s the time to break out your tools and show us your best robots. For 26 weeks artists from all over the world will be contributing to the collaborative social media art project AlphaBots!

AlphaBots will be the fourth Alphabet Press project since beginning in 2011. These efforts previously included Animal Alphabet, AlphaBeasts and AlphaBooks. Participating is a great way to share your work and meet other artists. We even had our own table at the 2012 Small Press Expo, selling books, prints, postcards and original art from the project.

Every Monday you can submit unique robot art, whether it’s from fiction, reality or your own imagination. Everyone is welcome, from professional artists to beginners looking to share their creativity. We begin our A–Z journey by drawing robots that begin with “A” on Monday, February 4.

Visit the AlphaBots Tumblr for more information on how to participate and submit your robots!"

Photoshop robot with imagery from Scientific American Handy Book, 1918, & Dietzgen Catalog, 1938.

8sy BITsy Monster

Andrew Neal recently introduced me to a great new art challenge called 8sy BITsy Monsters. It was created by Bec of Ginseng & Honey, & quickly adopted by a whole bunch of Tumblr artists because really, it's just too much fun!

Bec created a bunch of 8-bit monsters, then set the challenge to interpret them in full-res illustrations. This one (below) caught my eye because it made me think of Edward Lear. So here's my first contribution-- I feel sure there will be more!

Photoshop with text from The Practical Standard Dictionary.

The Old Man Arrives!

At long last The Old Man & the Cat is available in the States! It may take awhile longer to make it to physical bookstores, but it's now up on Amazon. See, I wasn't making the whole thing up! ;-)

Over-Stretched!

Oh how I wish I had as much balance, flexibility & steadiness as this fellow! He's from one of the AWAD curiotypes from last year, but I realized I'd never posted his finished incarnation.

In-progress versions are here & here.

That Old A.Word.A.Day Magic!

Last November I had the great good fortune to illustrate a week's worth of words for Anu Garg's brilliant A.Word.A.Day. It was so much fun that I asked Anu if I could do it again this year & to my extreme delight he said yes!

If you're a friend/follower of Oddments & have never been to AWAD, hustle right on over there & subscribe-- it's an amazing resource of word lore, as entertaining as it is educational.

Of course if you're coming here from A.Word.A.Day, I don't have to convince you that Anu is a genius! Welcome to Oddments-- I hope you'll have fun browsing through my blog. You'll find plenty of words & letters playing with the paint around here.  And perhaps you'd like to see some in-progress versions of last year's AWAD illustrations, or have a look at my Etsy shop, Curious Art Lab, where I have prints & some originals from both years.

Cosmic Cats

Another piece in the series I mentioned in the last post. On Monday my secret will be revealed...

(And no, I'm not pregnant, ha! I can see why some of you thought that, though.)

Bouncing Baby B

AlphaBooks may be over, but my obsession with letters & text is still hopping right along! This is the first in a series of five illustrated letters that will make its proper debut next Monday. If you have been visiting this blog since around this time in 2011 you can probably guess what it's for. ;-)

I took some extreme liberties with the "B" (not to mention marsupial anatomy) in order to illustrate the word "bursiform"-- meaning shaped like a pouch.

I'll likely make some further tweaks & will post the other four images next week, but until then, I hope those of you who will be celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday have a delectable holiday. I'm thankful to all of you who come this way!

Acrylic on text (scanned from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary) on canvas, 6" x 6"

Z is for Zaphod Beeblebrox

AlphaBooks has finally come to an end! *sob* And I'm sure I won't be the only one to ride into the sunset with Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed (and also tow-headed), three-armed, flashy-dressing President of the Galaxy in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 

In this scene, the maniacal Zaphod makes his entrance on a semicircular leather sofa floating within a 20-foot transparent globe. In case you can't make out the text: "His fair tousled hair stuck out in random directions, his blue eyes glinted with something completely unidentifiable, and his chins were almost always unshaven."

I won't say what happens next, because I hate spoilers.

But for those of you who have read the book, you'll know why the page number was particularly pleasing to me. ;-)

Acrylic on text scanned from a 1979 Pocket Paperback, ~ 7" x 4.5" In addition to the "zequined" jacket, I attempted to manhandle his two right arms into something resembling a zed.

And with that, AlphaBooks is over! Goodbye, & thanks for all the fish! I still hope to fill in a few gaps to complete the alphabet, but you can see what I've done so far here. And some of us AlphaBooks regulars are currently planning a new project to begin in the new year. In the meantime I have a personal series underway that I'll be posting soon, so stay tuned!

Y is for You!

My penultimate entry for AlphaBooks is a bit of a departure from the usual format. It comes from Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, one of my all-time favorite books. In essence it is a book about books, about reading, about the way fiction intertwines with life. Every other chapter in the book is written in the second person, making you, the reader, one of the main characters in the novel.

Once I hit on this concept, I was stumped about how to illustrate it, until it occurred to me to make the book itself the focus, essentially a reader's-eye view. It may take a little imagination to see a "Y" shape in the hand position, but it's the best I could do!

Acrylic on scanned image of a 1979 Harcourt paperback edition, ~ 11" x 8"

JackOWLantern

I do love Halloween-- after all, it is the oddest of holidays! To paraphrase Dickens, I honor Halloween in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. But especially today, of course!

I'll add an illuminated nocturnal view of the JackOWLantern tonight, once I get home from a Halloween Hoop Jam in the park, with costumes. Oh boy, I just can't wait! What are your plans for the evening?

Happy Halloween to all! Oh, & check out ArtBizBlog today-- along with some great advice about artists' fears, you may see a familiar skeleton monster creeping by! :-)

Edit: As promised, the JackOWLantern in its nocturnal glory. :-) Sorry, no photos from the Hoop Jam, but it was great!

W is for Walter Mitty

This week's entry for AlphaBooks & IF is the protagonist of James Thurber's classic short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The quintessential daydreamer, Walter goes about his daily tasks in a mild-mannered, dutiful, non-confrontational way, but in his head he is the bold, dashing hero of countless exciting adventures.

I've always loved this story, despite its mildly misogynistic slant, because it captures so well the double life (or multiple lives, really!) of the daydreamer. And yes, I am one of that breed, in case you couldn't guess. Not quite in Walter Mitty mode, but still I'm a firm believer that dreams of all sorts make any life more interesting!

Acrylic on text imported from Zoëtrope, where you can read the entire story online, ~5" x 8"

I can't believe we're so near to the end of the alphabet! I wonder what will be next. Here are all my entries to date-- there are still a few gaps I hope to fill at some point.

V is for Violet Beauregarde

This week's entry for AlphaBooks is one of the anti-heroes of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In this scene her gum-chewing jones becomes her undoing as she greedily chaws down on an experimental product, & the blueberry flavor turns out to have a serious glitch...

No, I didn't do this in blueberry ink! Once was more than enough for that experiment. This time I used artificial blueberry in the form of acrylic. ;-)

I had a hard time figuring out how to work in the "V" until I realized I could just play up one garment feature. Do you see it?