Tag Archive: “art”
Custom Kindle Screensaver Images with kite
The Kindle comes with a set of “screensaver” images that appear on the screen when the device is asleep. Most of the images are portraits of famous authors; a few are images of other artwork. All are appropriate choices for the cover of a reading device – but I’d rather use my own images.
Out of the box, it isn’t possible to customize the Kindle screensaver. However, there are couple of unsupported tools that can enable this feature. I tried installing one called kite and was pleased to find that it worked as described. So I picked out some old drawings and now my Kindle’s got some fresh new faces:
Continue reading for a step-by-step setup guide…
Posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2012.
Drawing the “Hairy Mango”
Here is a portrait I did of Matthew Sanborn Smith, SF author and host of the hilarious bite-size bizarro podcast Beware the Hairy Mango. Matthew recently put out a call for fan art (“fart”). Coincidentally, I’ve been kicking around the idea of a portfolio of podcast host portraits, so I took the opportunity to practice taking a drawing from sketchbook doodle to finished composition, such as it is. At right is my sketch (based on Matthew’s Twitter icon) and at left is the digital version. The background colors are based on the podcast’s website color scheme and the rest of the palette is, of course, mango-colored.
I hope to continue doing more art projects. Help establish the habit and follow my new Weekend Artifact series!
Posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012.
Weekend Artifact 1 for February 5, 2012
Let’s start a little series. I’ll feature some creative artifact here each weekend. It won’t necessarily be a drawing, but that’s most likely. Here’s a sketch to get started:
Your comments and constructive criticisms are welcome.
Posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2012.
Art on Anarres
This quote from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed
“No distinction was drawn between the arts and the crafts; art was not considered as having a place in life, but as being a basic technique of life, like speech.”
(As with art, so with science.)
The quote is an excerpt from a description of the egalitarian culture of the protagonist’s homeland.
The book is a dialectical dissection of ideas about culture and society and belonging and belongings, told through the device of the main character’s attempt to bridge two very different but intimately related worlds. From my vantage point halfway through the book, the central question is whether the two peoples will be reunited – or whether the reuniter will ultimately find himself without a people. The title underscores that risk, and reminds me of the challenges faced by all who would seek compromise.
Posted on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011.
NaNoDrawMo 2010 Favorites
Here are a bunch of favorites from the 50 drawings I did for NaNoDrawMo this year.
This year also saw the debut of a new stupid human trick: drawing with my feet.
In other arts and crafts news, I made a monster mask out of newspaper and masking tape.
Posted on Saturday, November 27th, 2010.
NaNoDrawMo 2010
It’s NaNoDrawMo season. I’ll be posting all my drawings over on Flickr, but a few favorites will probably show up here. Here were some of my favorites from 2009. Chances are good that most will again be portraits.
Posted on Monday, November 1st, 2010.
Bill Atkinson
Here’s what I wrote on Flickr to explain this picture:
The source code for MacPaint and the QuickDraw graphics library is now available, as is their story, at the Computer History Museum. To celebrate this news, and to illustrate that great tools retain their utility even as they age, I used MacPaint to paint a portrait of MacPaint programmer Bill Atkinson.
Gruber posted a link to this image yesterday. It’s been viewed over 20000 times in the day since.
Check out Bill’s website for his photography and iOS PhotoCard app.
Prompted by some of the comments on Flickr, I posted some other nostalgic Mac Plus software pictures.
Posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010.
