Author: lemsy

John LeMasney (lemsy) is an artist, graphic designer, and technology creative. He is located in beautiful Nelson County, VA, but works remotely with ease. Contact him at: lemasney@gmail.com to discuss your next creative project.

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portfolio

207 of 365 is Jack as the Avatar [illustration] #Inkscape

Jack, the Last Airbender
Jack, the Last Airbender
Jack, the Last Airbender
Jack, the Last Airbender

So here is a late post for Friday — I was traveling from Orlando, so I apologize for the delay. So this is my son Jack’s face on his new favorite character from the great animated series from Nickelodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was turned into an apparently unwatchable live action movie of the same name. At any rate, the many people who were trashing the new movie were exclaiming how wildly it diverted from the quality of the animated series, so I decided to investigate it on Netflix Watch Now, and I’m so glad I did. What an amazing and epic series! I fell in love with it, and shared it with Jack who immediately fell in love with it, though at 5, he’s a bit young for the more complex relationships and storylines. It’s also a bit aggressive compared to what he normally watches. More than anything, I knew that he’d love to be drawn as the Avatar, and I was right!

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design principles Illustration Inkscape portfolio requests

206 of 365 is Sam playing on a huge amplifier

Sam Pinola playing on a huge amplifier
Sam Pinola playing on a huge amplifier
Sam Pinola playing on a huge amplifier
Sam Pinola playing on a huge amplifier

This is the result of a short collaboration between Sam Pinola and I during a recent visit to his house. We sat together and brought in images and discussed techniques and revised and played, and this is what we came up with. Thanks for the help, Sam!

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brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration Inkscape insights portfolio professional activities professional experience research interests teaching teaching experience technology

Everything is amazing and no one is happy – Louis C.K. cc-by lemasney

Everything is amazing, and no one is happy. Louis C.K. cc-by lemasney
Everything is amazing, and no one is happy. Louis C.K. cc-by lemasney

Everything is amazing, and no one is happy. Louis C.K. cc-by lemasney
Everything is amazing, and no one is happy. Louis C.K. cc-by lemasney

Louis C.K. says it best. You could also say that everything is happy, and no one is amazing. Or nothing is amazing, and noone os happy, or everything is okay, and so is everyone. However, for those of us in America, on the coasts, with ubiquitous technology and bandwidth, endless 3g networks, clean water, plenty of food, GPS, cars, bikes, jobs, and so on, everything is amazing. Despite those things, I know more people than not that aren’t any more happy despite those things. It’s a little reminder that either we need to be more appreciative of what we have, or that we need to put down all that stuff, run from it, and not look back. I prefer to appreciate those things, and I like to think I’m very happy. 🙂

If you like this design, please consider looking at my Graphic Design Portfolio, Presentations Portfolio, or upcoming Public Workshops or Classes. Let’s do something great together!

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portfolio requests

204 of 365 is photomeditation [logo] #Inkscape @gservo

Photomeditation
Photomeditation

It’s a few hours late for Tuesday’s post, but 365 is 365. My good tweep @Gservo asked me to work on some branding for one mode of his beautiful and productive photography, which he calls photomeditation, in which one uses photography as a methodology of focusing into the self, and finding one’s center. I loved the idea, and I hope that this image begins to speak to the brand.

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Illustration insights portfolio professional activities professional experience research interests

203 of 365 is about bumper cars

Bumper cars
Bumper cars
Childhood summers
Bumper cars

A simple enough piece to create, this is really about poetry and color. I loved summers in Ocean City as a kid. I really loved Gillian’s Wonderland, and take my boys there now. My favorite thing in all of summer was the bumper cars. The very particular aromas of electrocuted copper and steel, the quick and dirty socialization where strangers were able to laugh like old friends, the absurd tragedy of the pile of out of service cars, and the sadness when the electricity stopped flowing through the little curved wires. I loved those things.

 
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portfolio requests

Gordon Ramsay as a lion by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #Inkscape #creativecommons

Gordon Ramsay as a lion by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #Inkscape #creativecommons
Gordon Ramsay as a lion by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #Inkscape #creativecommons

Gordon Ramsay as a lion by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #Inkscape #creativecommons
Gordon Ramsay as a lion by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #Inkscape #creativecommons

Where to start? When I asked for suggestions for this project, my very good friend and ideological brother Tim McGee asked me to illustrate one of his favorite William Butler Yeats poems, The Second Coming, which I’ve included below. He said that it is mindful of summer solstice for him, and I had hoped to have it for him by the solstice, but I had some trouble determining exactly how to illustrate it. The passage of concrete ideas in the last part of the poem speaks a bit about why I’ve used this imagery, but I have no reason other than pure snark for using Gordon Ramsay‘s likeness. I love his shows, a guilty pleasure, and he surely comes off as though he believes he is the second coming. He’s got the look that Yeats talks about, too, I believe. I hope Tim liked it, and as usual, I hope I offended no one.

“TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ”

– The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats on

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