May the Fourth Be With You

...and also with you.*


This post is a part of Blog March 2017, a movement for Raising Voices for Freedom of Expression, Knowledge, and Information. We will be broadcasting voices throughout the month of May. Previous blog marcher was Domino Valdano at Medium.com on May 3, next blog marcher will be Mary McGinley on May 5.

I am unapologetically a nerd. And a Geek God (according to the Geek Test). I have been so for my entire life, even if those particular terms weren't used for girls until I entered high school. Today is May 4th, which has been co-opted by pun-loving geeks and nerds and then elevated first by Lucasfilm's and later by Disney's marketing departments as Star Wars Day. Because puns.

So for Star Wars Day, I hereby post my obligatory photo of my hands-down favorite character from the franchise:

General Leia Organa. Although when I think about Carrie Fisher, I feel more like this:

I loved her when I was 20 in May of 1977 when I first saw the film that was to be retitled "A New Hope". I love her today and I feel her absence the most of all of the famous people who died last year.

It's difficult to separate the woman from the role she played; she admitted this herself in her writings and performances. But what is important for me to write about here and now is that she advocated for a woman's right to grow old. She did it through humor and out of necessity. Really, who among us can continue to look and feel like they did at 20 for the next 40 or 50 years?

I'm staring 60 in the face. It will have consumed me before the year is out. There were older friends who warned me about this milestone birthday. They poo-pooed my trepidation of 40. Of 50. "Wait until you're 60...Then you'll know," they said, ominously. Like they knew something I didn't. I still am not sure about it, but I can guess. I mean, I was alive through the last election cycle.

I don't know what's the huge deal with this "milestone" birthday. Maybe it's because you know for sure that the bulk of your days are behind you and you can see how many of them you squandered. Maybe it's because you realize you'll never ever be an astronaut or a swimsuit model now, and the chances of being a rock star at this point are pretty slim.

Getting old is scary. But it beats the alternative. Still.



*No, I have never been Catholic, but I have many friends and family members who are practicing or lapsed Catholics and apparently the "and also with you" response is programmed into them at an early age.

Harlequin and Other Fantasies

I decided to finally produce the coloring book I've been talking about and posting in-progress photos here for the past few months. I decided to crowd fund the production costs through Indiegogo.

This isn't going to be some cheap production on pulp paper; I plan to have the book printed on heavy-duty paper that won't bleed if you use markers or watercolor pencils, and it's going to be wire-o or spiral bound, so it will lay completely flat when you are working on a page.

I really need your help to make this happen.

Click here to see Harlequin and Other Fantasies

What you can do to help:

1. Fund the campaign with a donation, and get a thank you gift, such at the book itself (in print and/or eBook format).
2. Share the project with your social media (let's make this thing go viral)
3. Share the project with everyone you know (online and in "meat space")

I've timed this so that I should have books to ship out by the end of October; just in time for your Winter Holiday shopping (these make fantastic gifts!)

I Know It's Just a Show, BUT...

This week's episode of HBO's Silicon Valley was painfully aggravating. The episode, "Daily Active Users" encapsulated the problem of lots of people signing up for an app, but a very low number of people actually using the app after installing it. In the episode, they paid for focus group testing and discovered that the average person who would use the app didn't understand what it was supposed to do - one person complained that the "download button was missing".

The Pied Piper platform is supposed to be a revolutionary data compression system. The CEO complained they were too far ahead of their time for people to "get" the app.

The real problem is that their little start-up didn't have a UX person on the team. And it was one of those times where I found myself yelling at the TV, because Richard (the CEO) is seriously considering shutting his company down instead of hiring an interface designer (which he should have done in Season 2 of the series) to make the front end something that the non-technical people who are their user base can figure out how to use without hours of lectures about quantum computing and neural networks.

If this technology were so advanced, it can still live behind an interface that looks familiar to people, even if it's got actions that aren't necessary for how the back-end works, but makes the users feel more comfortable and familiar with what's going on.

It's not necessary for an average user to understand the algorithm behind the scenes. It's necessary for them to figure out how to use the thing in front of them. The rest can be "magic" unless they're interested in finding out how it works and then diving into the research.

Yeah, I find it really frustrating when TV characters are presented to us as the huge genius intellects and yet they miss some of the most obvious and basic solutions staring them right in the face. Maybe it wouldn't have been so funny or it would be less dramatic. It would have been nice to see someone suggest bringing in a designer - there is actually a lot of humor potential in the designer-developer dynamic; and it would have resulted in a robust product that could be successful in the context of the show.

Maybe they'll bring one in for the next season, and the designer can berate them for not including one at the inception of the company. With hilarious results.

Yes, it's only a show. But this is also a "teachable moment".

Bring in a designer when you are starting project development. It will help increase your "Daily Active User" numbers.

A scrap of writing

This week, I'm reorganizing my files. I found this scrap of writing, probably from over 25 years ago:

He sits across the room, staring at me. If he smiles, I will be happy for the rest of the day. All he needs to do is smile and I will fantasize about the family we will raise and the dates he will take me out on. He's never spoken to me since the fourth grade, but the torch was burning hot, even then.

When your heart's on your sleeve it's dangerous; it's a target to the cruel and vicious girls with deadly aimed words and trick. I don't remember why I cried every day anymore, only that I did it. Barry, never in your wildest dreams will you ever come close to what it would have been like. Even though I'm light years from Annandale and tornadoes,  I haven't laid you to rest. There will always be some fucking spark. I gave you a piece of me you you didn't even want it. But you took it anyway.

I don't know if I will ever attempt to write or be a writer, but it's nice to see a hint of talent buried in me. And for the record, I've reclaimed all these pieces of myself that I gave away wantonly with no forethought to all those boys and men who didn't deserve it.

Another Coloring Page (WIP)

I was working on this coloring page yesterday. I found it much easier to pencil in the stripes and trace around them (and then erase them for the final version) than to try to remember what line goes with what stripe.

this photo is after I finished inking the baby zebra, and before I erased the pencil lines. A border for this is in progress.

My Very First Logo

Well, it's probably not my very first logo; I probably designed some others when I was in High School and before that (mostly for hand-crafted "magazines" and comics that my friend and I "published" - as in "made one copy on notebook paper"), but I didn't come across any of those sorting through a huge pile of business cards this afternoon.

This is a mockup of a label for a pretend beer product that was developed as the class project in a class on Advertising in the Wharton School of Business. I took this class to fulfill one of my elective requirements for my Electrical Engineering degree. So this makes it sometime in 1979 or 1980 or thereabouts.

The class was set up as an Advertising Agency and I was the head of the Creative Department. We also storyboarded a 1-minute commercial. I remember being part of the presentation to representatives from Annhauser-Bush. It wasn't anything like Mad Men.

I drew a thing

I'm feeling better and better about my pencil abilites. Now, I need to add color to my toolbox.

Daily drawing practice

I've decided to spend some quality time with my pencils and pens. This is what I've put into my sketchbook over the past 4 days, in no particular order.

Ziggy, from a photograph

Rough sketch for a future coloring page. Pencil then ink (then pencil gets erased)

Freehand knotwork while watching the latest episode of "Vikings" plus some cats.

"Goddess" - no reference photo. this is the first time I've managed a person with decent proportions without needing a reference. 

Grizzly bear study

Grizzly bear coloring page (work in progress)

another coloring page

Lunacon 2016

Lunacon is a fan-run Science Fiction convention held in March. I was asked to design the convention and staff t-shirts, which feature space art by Rick Sternbach (of Star Trek fame). I hope I put them in a nice setting. I heard from the convention chair that he liked them.

Ferret

Finished another coloring page. I think it came out well.

New Year, New Portfolio

I'm starting to update my portfolio and website to reflect all the work that I've done for the past year (and the last time these items got updated). Here's a peek at what I'm doing right now:

My yule gift

Finally, after years of lusting after this piece of technology, I had enough of a business case to justify purchasing a Wacom Cintiq 13HD.

There is a bit of a learning curve, but I'm "powering through" it.

These are some of the things I've created since I got the thing on Monday:

The Elements - a first draft coloring page, colored in. Illustrator and Photoshop

Snow Girl, from a photograph by Antonia Barry (Ant B Ceramics)

Coloring page

58

In honor of me surviving into my second half-century, I drew this last night. Ink, freehand. I will be scanning a better version and making it available for large-size download during my travels today. A reverse birthday gift, if you will.

 11x17, ink on Bristol board. 

It's available on my DeviantArt account as a PDF download.

If you do download and color it, PLEASE share! I'd love to see it!

Card, finished.

Scanned and colored in Photoshop. I can alter the color of the background for different moods/effects. I like this one so far.

I might tweak it further, but I think this one is done for the most part.

Another Drawing for a Card

The weather was glorious today; it finally feels as if it's spring. So it was time to sit outside and draw something. I decided to do a pen-and-ink drawing and I'll probably be printing this in one form or another as my thank you card for now.

I also think I'll be using this or something like it for an adult coloring book when I finally have enough drawings to produce one.

Of course, I manage to get a smudge on the piece just as I'm almost finished. Flashback to my final project in drafting (in 1975, when we were required to use ruling pens... 3 hours of meticulous lines ruined at the last moment). At least now I can easily clean that up in Photoshop, after I scan it.

Thank You Cards

I have been told that it's good business practice to send Thank You cards to clients. And it occurred to me recently that since I've taken up the mantle of artist and designer, that I should create them myself. So yesterday, I took the afternoon off from business development and took pen in hand. to create this Zentangle™-inspired drawing.

Then I worked with watercolor pencil and some digital enhancements in Photoshop.

I'm still on the fence about whether I will produce these or make another attempt (this time using watercolor or at least mixed media paper instead of heavyweight sketch paper). This was my first time using masking fluid.

What this also informs me of is that I really need to do some work every day to be able to get my children's book done. I need a bit more control over my paint.

Anatomy of a Logo

I have an assignment to help relaunch a business which includes a logo and beautifying a wordpress site. They will be offering holistic services, including health coaching, and an interesting program to work on one's self. I'll talk more about that in another post when the site's ready to launch.

In the meantime, the business name is Little Stone Bridge Pathworking and I decided that a literal treatment is needed for this logo. And that it needed to be hand-drawn, because I wanted it to look charming, hand-crafted with care, and personal, which embodies some of the emotions and values of the endeavor.

I started by searching stone bridge photos online. I roughed the bridge out with a pencil and then inked it in.

Then I scanned the drawing and manipulated it in Adobe Illustrator.

And then brought it into Photoshop to color it.

It's complex, but I really am pleased with the way this turned out.

What To Do When You're Waiting

So, what do you do when you've called your clients, sent out your drafts for review, bid on all the jobs, and emailed your prospects? You wait.

What do I do when I am waiting for people to get back to me?

Well, if this was last year, I'd be scrolling through my Facebook feed, or tweeting or doing some other time-wasting web surfing. True, I still do that, but I limit it now. I've set a time limit for goofing off. 

What I do with my waiting around time now is work on Passive Income Projects. I've spent some of the past few months thinking about how to generate passive income.

Passive income is income you get from something you did in the past. Royalties from book or music sales is a prime example. It's something you create once and sell many times. Patterns, coloring books, books, recorded music, fabric designs - all these things (and more) can be passive revenue streams. 

They do take some time and effort to create. And they do take some time and effort to market. There are ways to have other people help you market the things you create, but you have to create them first.

My list of passive income projects are these:

1. Illustrate the two children's books that I've written.
2. Write up the quilt patterns I've had on the back burner for the past 5 years.
3. Promote my music that I've finally made available for purchase online

So, what are your ideas for creating passive revenue streams for yourself?

It's a New Year

I am a sporadic follower of designer David Seah. He doesn't do New Year's Resolutions; he does Ground Hog's Day Resolutions. I really like the concept (almost as much as I like using semicolons and parenthetical phrases). First, it lets me delay thinking about the new year until after the stress and general craziness of the holidays are over. Second, by this time of the year, we are in "full winter mode" (which typically includes being snowbound or dealing with snow in one way or another) and there is plenty of time to think about things. Third, I've been thinking about what comes next for a month or three. And finally, it's also Imbolc, my favorite holiday of the Wheel of the Year. I'm noticing that the sun is rising when I do and the days are noticeably longer than they were at the winter solstice.

So, it's 2015 now. I have gone back to working for myself, and have resurrected Moon & Star as a design firm. I've decided I want to focus my business on graphic design, interaction design, web design and illustration (both technical illustration and "artistic" illustration). I plan to refine my focus and find my niche over the course of this year. I'm not quite there yet. I also am nowhere near being fully booked with work.

So I am in the process of building my client roster, which means I'm learning how to look for clients, jobs, gigs, what-have-you. I'll be writing about how I'm doing with that as I go along.