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.

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portfolio requests

Phoenix Tattoo for autism awareness – lemasney.com

Phoenix Tattoo for autism awareness - lemasney.com
Phoenix Tattoo for autism awareness - lemasney.com
Phoenix Tattoo for autism awareness - lemasney.com
Phoenix Tattoo for autism awareness – lemasney.com

I often call suggestions from the Facebook group for this site “requests” because I like to think I’m providing a service, (join us at https://www.facebook.com/365sketches to help with the project) but in reality, most of my suggestions from friends are not so much requests as beneficial inspirations, little hits of creativity that had nothing to do with me. It’s one of the most amazing parts of this project for me, the way that people have helped me to grow with their suggestions, because they are often surprising concepts, sometimes quite difficult from a research and organization perspective, and always a learning experience. But this one here was an actual request, and likely one of my most challenging and interesting pieces.

Fred Housel, who has been a good friend of mine for about 10 years, asked me to do this sketch by submitting the following post to the 365 Sketches FB page.

I would like to see a sketch of a Phoenix contour to the shape of my back black n white with a colored ribbon of Autism in it’s mouth . Strong and powerful ,passionate ,wise , heroic,gentle compationate , & loving … This ink should show a three dementional layer of my muscle on my back on to the shape of the Phoenix …, wide at the top and tappered down at the bass of my back … Symetry is key … Thanks my friend …

And so, I did some research, finding a few great phoenix tattoos, looking at a few images of the musculature of the back, and studying how the often three quarter views of the fiery birds could be made into a symmetrical image. After a while, I had a good idea of what I wanted, but the design definitely evolved as I went. The Autism symbol is a puzzle piece, and as many ways as I tried, I had difficulty getting the ribbon to look right. I left it as a sort of halo for the phoenix. The pure symmetry that Fred is looking for wasn’t something that I stayed absolutely true to, but I think that enough symmetry exists there to satisfy him. We’ll find out!

Thanks for the inspiration Fred, you’re a great friend, and I only hope I can talk you out of the hundreds of dollars this work would likely cost. 😉 I do have the image in a far larger size than this, and just black on transparent, if you’re interested. 😉

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portfolio

Ya heard? Bullhorn by lemasney

Bullhorn, heard? - lemasney.com
Bullhorn, heard? - lemasney.com
Bullhorn, heard? - lemasney.com
Bullhorn, heard? – lemasney.com

I’m really upset by the recent proposed budget cuts in New  Jersey that will reduce or remove internet access, databases, programming, and many more useful services from New Jersey Libraries. I’m upset that the new Administration finds certain things far more important than these services which have helped me to raise my children, become part of a community, and support my recent MA in Organizational Leadership. I’m upset that many of my friends in LibLand will lose their jobs, go without professional development, and have to divide already thin resources. With this development, I have revolution and revolt on the mind, and in our country, we have the right to speak out on that which we disagree with. My symbol for this is a bullhorn, a tool for rallying cries, to gather and direct people towards change, and to broadcast ideas and reminders about why we should be outraged.

In Inkscape, I built the bullhorn mostly via the Bezier tool. I added flames with the Bezier tool. I added a handle with the Bezier tool. I created the central horn with the Bezier tool. I created the trigger with the pencil tool. The piece of text is from the Showtime series The Wire, in which one of the main characters says “Heard?” in such a way as for it to be almost a half syllable, and it means essentially “Do you understand and comply; if not, we are going to have trouble.” Anyway, a fun sketch about a very serious topic for me. If you love your library, tell someone — shout it out.

Categories
portfolio

Smooth Road road sign illustration

Smooth sailing by lemasney
Smooth sailing by lemasney
Smooth Road road sign by LeMasney
Smooth Road road sign by LeMasney

When I was in poetry classes in college, I was always very interested in symbols of life, such as roads, rivers, paths and the like. It made an impact on the way that I self-examine — I’ll look at whether I feel like my road, surroundings, and speed are all just right, or if maybe I’m going a little too fast, I’m a bit too sleepy, or if I’m talking on the phone instead of paying attention to the road. So to speak. 😉 At any rate, this is a quick sketch that is hopeful, wishful thinking about life’s path. Even with curves like these, which life always seems to throw at us, the ride can be fun, if it’s relatively smooth, not jarring, without potholes, and so on.

In Inkscape to make this sign,

  1. using the rectangle tool, create a square and make it yellowish orange.
  2. rotate it 45 degrees to a diamond position.
  3. Using the rectangle tool’s curved corner handle, adjust the corners to round like a road sign.
  4. Duplicate the sign, and convert it to a path using ctrl-shift-c
  5. use path/inset path to shrink the shape into the inside of the first shape.
  6. set the outer stroke to black, and set the fill to none.
  7. Using the ellipse tool, add bolts to your sign.
  8. Using the rectangle tool, create a pole for your sign, and decorate it as you wish.
  9. Add your message using the text tool.
  10. Make a background that reflects your message.

I hope you enjoyed it!

John.

Categories
portfolio

Gold Star – LeMasney Consulting

Gold Star - LeMasney Consulting
Gold Star - LeMasney Consulting
Gold Star - LeMasney Consulting
Gold Star – LeMasney Consulting

Daniel Veazey, who has lately become a vocal supporter of 365sketches, recently successfully attempted a technique that I call the ‘candy coating’ effect. On YouTube at and on his blog at he repeated the technique and with some feedback started doing it exactly as I do it, though I sort of like his intermediary technique. At any rate, he inspired me to do a simple execution of it on a pointed shape because I mentioned that the technique can effectively be done on any shape.

  1. So, in Inkscape, create some shape, like a star. If it is a shape, rather than a path, make it into a path using ctrl-shift-c
  2. Duplicate the path. I like to make it a dramatically different color, like bright green.
  3. Using the ellipse tool, create a circle and overlap the top part of the duplicate shape. Use ctrl-shift-c to make the circle a path. Make it a contrasting color, like red.
  4. Shift select the green duplicate, so that you have the circle as well as the duplicated original selected.
  5. In the path menu, select the intersect path operation. You will end up with a shape that is the overlap between the two shapes.
  6. Using the path menu, choose inset path, then repeat this. You will see the shape shrinking in small increments.
  7. Make the shape white.
  8. If the shape is not placed just inside the original shape, do that now. Note how the white reflection above is inside of the darker star by a small border. Do this.
  9. Using the gradient tool, and with the white path selected, click and drag from just above the white shape to just below the white shape.

This is the candy coating effect in Inkscape. You can do it with any shape, though I’ve found that simpler shapes work better. It’s especially fun the see the optical illusion of this effect on a circle.

In this particular piece, I also created a shadow, used a second inset, and a reversed gradient to create extra depth and physical believability. Try it, and have fun.

Thanks to Daniel for caring enough to try it, and for staying connected. I include his video below for your viewing pleasure, though it’s slightly different that the technique I describe above.

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Categories
portfolio

What do Pi and Pie have in common: A delicious coincidence by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #poster #math #food

What do Pi and Pie have in common: A delicious coincidence by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #poster #math #food
What do Pi and Pie have in common: A delicious coincidence by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #poster #math #food
What do Pi and Pie have in common: A delicious coincidence by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #poster #math #food
What do Pi and Pie have in common: A delicious coincidence by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #poster #math #food

In case it’s not obvious, notice that the mirrored numbers under the piece of apple pie could be read as the letters P,I,E. I had never noticed that before, and I’m guessing you hadn’t either. Anyway, I thought it would be a fun way to show off a fun new interesting Inkscape feature.

I had a lot of fun painting the piece of pie, building it first with the Bezier tool, and then building it out with the pencil and calligraphy tools. In order to find and place the Pi symbol, I used the  brand spanking new glyphs palette feature in the upcoming version of Inkscape, 0.48. I want to personally thank Jon Cruz, one of the many amazing developers who work on Inkscape every day, for taking what was essentially a spontaneous wish for me and making it a reality in Inkscape literally overnight. I’m no longer surprised by the responsiveness and feedback by members of the Inkscape team because it’s amazingly consistent. Making connections in an open source community is a great way to influence and help to improve upon software. It requires open-minded, talented, and generous set of developers. Jon Cruz, Scislac, and ~suv are all part of a vocal great team of just those kinds of developers. Thanks, Inkscape devs!

pi, pie, inkscape, gimp, open source, design, lemasney, typography

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portfolio

A circular calendar by John LeMasney

A circular calendar by John LeMasney
A circular calendar by John LeMasney
A circular calendar by John LeMasney
A circular calendar by John LeMasney

One evening I was thinking about how strange it was that 360 degrees in a circle is similar to 365 days in most years. I was then thinking that if you broke out the days of the calendar year along the clockwise path of a circle that it might be a very interesting way to mark time, especially for a project like mine. You might see, for instance, at a glance, how much of this project has passed so far. So I made it in Inkscape.

I used the amazing and flexible Render Polar Grid extension as a base. I gave it 365 angle divisions and 2 major circular divisions, and tweaked the other settings with preview enabled until I had what I wanted. After that I began counting angle divisions from the top center, which I labeled January 1, to the division line that was 31 gaps away, which I labeled February 1 and so on. I extended the lines of the polar grid where these first days appeared. This counting, for me, was easily the hardest part of the project. I had to count lines 2 and 3 times, and remember that the first day of the next month was 29 and not 30 days away or what have you. Finally, I added an ellipse with the division feature enabled to show part of the ellipse as filled. Look for the little circle handle on the ellipse you made and move it with the node tool to play with this feature.

So, Inkscape is also a fantastic tool for conceptual design and ideological illustration, but you knew that. 😉