Category: portfolio

This is a portfolio of my work in many forms. It should give you some insight as to the products I might help you to create.

Categories
brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration insights open source portfolio research interests teaching teaching experience technology

Design is about placement, color, line, type, shape, and passion cc-by lemasney

Design is about placement, color, line, type, shape, and passion cc-by lemasney
Design is about placement, color, line, type, shape, and passion cc-by lemasney
Design is about placement, color, line, type, shape, and passion cc-by lemasney
Design is about placement, color, line, type, shape, and passion cc-by lemasney

On the importance of design

If you know me, really at any level, you know how important design is to me. You know that I feel like it surrounds us, a physio-visio-spatial fabric that helps to define a space, a  culture or a community. I would also say that once you are past the idea that it requires magic or some gift of birth, you understand that you can do it too, given the right tools. Many of the designers I know who are asked to design each day are flummoxed not by the blank page, but because they are using Word or Publisher or PowerPoint to design, and for no other reason other than familiarity.

Using the right tool for the job of design

 

Let’s stop that where we see it, okay? Inkscape is one answer, but others exist. Oh, there’s one other requirement for design: You have to love it. You have to have a passion for having the right outcomes. You have to care about it. Otherwise, it will just be text and pictures on a page. You need to be able to be inspired by sites like and even if you feel like your work doesn’t belong there.

Passion is a big part of Design

The desire to help people learn is the key skill in being a great trainer. Legitimacy, transparency, and patience are definitely important too. My experience has been that getting past the fear of one’s own designs is really about getting your designs in front of the eyes of others, gaining feedback, improving, and growing. This project has really helped me to do that!

 

Hope you enjoyed today’s sketch!

Categories
consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration photography portfolio professional activities professional experience research interests teaching experience

Girl silhouette in morning light cc-by lemasney

Girl silhouette in morning light cc-by lemasney
Girl silhouette in morning light cc-by lemasney
Girl silhouette in morning light cc-by lemasney
Girl silhouette in morning light cc-by lemasney

Innocence – Poem by Thomas Traherne

“But that which most I wonder at, which most

I did esteem my bliss, which most I boast,

And ever shall enjoy, is that within

I felt no stain, nor spot of sin.

 

No darkness then did overshade,

But all within was pure and bright,

No guilt did crush, nor fear invade

But all my soul was full of light.

A joyful sense and purity

Is all I can remember;

The very night to me was bright,

‘Twas summer in December.

 

A serious meditation did employ

My soul within, which taken up with joy

Did seem no outward thing to note, but fly

All objects that do feed the eye.

 

While it those very objects did

Admire, and prize, and praise, and love,

Which in their glory most are hid,

Which presence only doth remove.

 

Their constant daily presence I

Rejoicing at, did see;

And that which takes them from the eye

Of others, offer’d them to me.

 

No inward inclination did I feel

To avarice or pride: my soul did kneel

In admiration all the day. No lust, nor strife,

Polluted then my infant life.

 

No fraud nor anger in me mov’d,

No malice, jealousy, or spite;

All that I saw I truly lov’d.

Contentment only and delight

 

Were in my soul. O Heav’n! what bliss

Did I enjoy and feel!

What powerful delight did this

Inspire! for this I daily kneel.

 

Whether it be that nature is so pure,

And custom only vicious; or that sure

God did by miracle the guilt remove,

And make my soul to feel his love

 

So early: or that ’twas one day,

Wherein this happiness I found;

Whose strength and brightness so do ray,

That still it seems me to surround;

 

What ere it is, it is a light

So endless unto me

That I a world of true delight

Did then and to this day do see.

 

That prospect was the gate of Heav’n, that day

The ancient light of Eden did convey

Into my soul: I was an Adam there

A little Adam in a sphere

 

Of joys! O there my ravish’d sense

Was entertain’d in Paradise,

And had a sight of innocence

Which was beyond all bound and price.

 

An antepast of Heaven sure!

I on the earth did reign;

Within, without me, all was pure;

I must become a child again.”

 

– Innocence Poems – Poems For Innocence – Innocence – Poem Hunter,

Categories
affiliations brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration insights portfolio research interests teaching teaching experience

Self-portrait as a Buddha cc-by lemasney

Friendly Self Portrait
Friendly Self Portrait
Self-portrait as a Buddha cc-by lemasney
Self-portrait as a Buddha cc-by lemasney

Self portrait as Buddha

So I’ve been playing with my Facebook Profile Pic, and I did it mostly with my $100 Wacom Tablet. I’m always surprised and amazed at how easily you can modify a photographic image in Inkscape in order to transcend photography in and of itself. It’s a lot of fun to bring in a picture, trace bitmap in Inkscape, and start to work into it with the calligraphy tool. Hope you enjoyed this example of that.

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to this site by using the subscription form at the bottom of this page. Maybe Facebook is more your thing? Like our Facebook page at the bottom of this page. We’re also on Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, and other social networks listed at the top of this page. Please like, comment, and share if you found this post useful, interesting, or kind.
Categories
affiliations brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration insights portfolio professional experience research interests teaching teaching experience

Late Night Television calls you to obey cc-by lemasney

Late Night Television calls you to obey cc-by lemasney
Late Night Television calls you to obey cc-by lemasney

So I am a bit of a night owl.

Especially on vacations, but most any night, I spend my most productive hours between 10pm-3am. I’m posting yesterday’s sketch, for instance, at 2:23 AM EDST. That’s just me. People scold me, tell me to go to sleep, and those who have meetings with me the next morning raise their eyebrows at me as if to say “late night, huh?” Yep. It was a late night, and I really enjoyed the quiet, and clear thoughts, and lack of interruptions of the day to day stuff. Very often I’ll have the TV going while I work on my laptop, but with TiVo my DVR, I no longer have to watch any of the ridiculous late night commercials. Whenever I’m elsewhere, without a TiVo DVR, I feel like it’s just easier not to watch TV.

The problem with commercial television sans DVR

Watching TV without one, especially late at night, is like a brainwashing session. BUY ME one commercial screams. YOU’RE FAT AND POOR another one bellows. BUY THIS CAR, YOU NEED HAIR, YOU HAVE ALLERGIES. I’d rather not have to pay attention to it, especially when I’m a little sleepy, and maybe a bit vulnerable to self-doubt. DVRs let me skip right past the stuff that asks me to obey. So this sketch is a little illustration of my feelings about late night TV, and I hope you like it!

Categories
affiliations brand classes and presentations consulting curriculum vitae design principles honors Illustration insights portfolio professional activities professional experience references teaching teaching experience

A beach shadow-sign reminds us of the dangers of sunburn: ‘The sun is a skin cell killer” cc-by lemasney

A beach shadow-sign reminds us of the dangers of sunburn: 'The sun is a skin cell killer" cc-by lemasney
A beach shadow-sign reminds us of the dangers of sunburn: 'The sun is a skin cell killer" cc-by lemasney
A beach shadow- sign reminds us of the dangers of sunburn: 'The sun is a skin cell killer" cc-by lemasney
A beach shadow-sign reminds us of the dangers of sunburn: ‘The sun is a skin cell killer” cc-by lemasney

A shadow based sign reminds us of the dangers of sunburn

Today’s sketch is a sign on a beach reminding beach-goers to respect the sun. I was at the New Jersey Library Association which happened to be at Long Branch, a beautiful Central Jersey beach, and the bright sun was inviting, but even after an hour’s walk on the boardwalk, I got a little color. I also just wanted to quickly thank all of the kind people who came and saw my talks today at NJLA10.

“Sunburn — the skin reddening caused by overexposure to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation — may seem like just a temporary irritation, but sunburns can cause long-lasting damage to the skin. Children are especially at risk: One blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life. Don’t get burned: Read the articles below to learn all about The Skin Cancer Foundation’s expert advice on sunburn prevention, treatment, and relief!” – Sunburn – SkinCancer.org, http://goo.gl/kthTTv

Categories
affiliations brand classes and presentations consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration open source portfolio professional activities professional experience references research interests teaching teaching experience technology workshops

High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney

High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney
High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney
High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney
High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney

A self portrait for Trenton Computer Festival

This was created for my recent talk on 5 ways to enhance your digital photos at Trenton Computer Festival as a lead-in slide. I wanted to introduce myself, show something dramatic, and show people what I meant, exactly, as image enhancement, as opposed to let’s say focus brightness, and contrast, though I showed those things too.

In Inkscape, I used the trace bitmap tool to convert my image in two ways, once in threshold mode, and once in detect edges mode. As a result, I get a slightly layered deeper image, and I definitely get something that’s difficult to capture with a camera. Thanks for checking it out!

Tracing Bitmaps in Inkscape

“Currently Inkscape employs the Potrace bitmap tracing engine (potrace.sourceforge.net) by Peter Selinger. In the future we expect to allow alternate tracing programs; for now, however, this fine tool is more than sufficient for our needs.  Keep in mind that the Tracer’s purpose is not to reproduce an exact duplicate of the original image; nor is it intended to produce a final product. No autotracer can do that. What it does is give you a set of curves which you can use as a resource for your drawing.  Potrace interprets a black and white bitmap, and produces a set of curves. For Potrace, we currently have three types of input filters to convert from the raw image to something that Potrace can use.  Generally the more dark pixels in the intermediate bitmap, the more tracing that Potrace will perform. As the amount of tracing increases, more CPU time will be required, and the element will become much larger. It is suggested that the user experiment with lighter intermediate images first, getting gradually darker to get the desired proportion and complexity of the output path.  To use the tracer, load or import an image, select it, and select the Path > Trace Bitmap item, or Shift+Alt+B.” – Inkscape tutorial: Tracing | Inkscape,