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Urban circles

Urban design - LeMasney Consulting
Urban circles by lemsy

The image titled “Urban Circles” by John LeMasney presents a visually striking composition that primarily features a series of concentric circles, varying in size and thickness, that create a sense of rhythm and movement across the canvas. These circles, some solid, others composed of loosely formed rings, are centered and dominate the image, suggesting a modernist take on targets or ripples in water. The color palette is relatively limited but thoughtfully chosen, featuring shades of red, from deep burgundy to brighter crimson, which stands out against a muted background of olive greens and earthy browns.

Numerous organic shapes and swirls are overlaying and intersecting these circles, reminiscent of vines or tendrils. These curvilinear forms introduce an element of nature and growth, and their lighter hues, set against the darker background, add depth and complexity to the image. The lines that define these shapes are elegant and fluid, contributing to the overall dynamism of the composition.

The image’s backdrop evokes the texture of aged parchment or a wall worn by time, imbued with subtle gradients and a speckled effect that suggests a rich patina. This textured quality gives the image an additional layer of interest, hinting at history and permanence.

“Urban Circles” could be interpreted as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of urban life, where the circles represent different communities or nodes within a city, and the intertwining organic lines symbolize the paths that connect them. The use of circles, often seen as a symbol of unity and perfection, juxtaposed with the organic, imperfect swirls might also reflect the contrast between the man-made environment and the natural world. This theme resonates with the complexity of urban ecosystems.

The composition’s balance between geometric and organic elements, along with its color scheme and textural qualities, all contribute to a piece that is simultaneously modern and timeless, orderly and wild, reflecting the multifaceted nature of urban existence.

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Robot searching for love

Robot searching for love - LeMasney Consulting
Robot searching for love

I really love how this one turned out. I started by looking in the MorgueFile directory for inspiration and came across this killer set of robot images that were being featured. I loved the one I used as the basis of this piece at http://morguefile.com/archive/display/645792 by Seemann. I took the original image, bitmap-traced it twice, once in edge mode and once in threshold mode, and made the edge bright yellow and the threshold deep dark umber. I then duplicated and filled the threshold image with bright yellow, sent it to the back, and blurred it for a glow effect. I used the ellipse tool to make the thought cloud and did a union to bring the cloud together. The heart was made with the ellipse and Bezier tools and unioned. Then, I duplicated, intersected, and path-inset to make the gradient reflection on the heart. The background is just a subtle mix of earthy tones. I had a lot of fun making this one; I hope you enjoy it.

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45 of 365 is a self portrait with a scowl #inkscape

Self portrait with scowl - LeMasney Consulting
Self portrait with scowl – LeMasney Consulting

 

I opened up PhotoBooth on my MBP, and took a quick close up shot of my face in a scowl. I brought it into Inkscape, converted the bitmap into a vector with both the edge detect and the threshold methods, then applied different colors to each and overlapped them. I added a background for the highlight, and finally added some plain black lines to emphasize my mouth and eyes, as they were getting a bit lost.

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44 of 365 is a glowing deep sea creature #inkscape

 

Glowing deep sea creature - LeMasney Consulting
Glowing deep sea creature – LeMasney Consulting

So this was pretty straightforward. I took the pencil tool (set to spiro paths and shape: triangle in) and dropped some wavy lines, which I combined into  single path. I duplicated the path about 4 times, adding additional levels of blur effect to each duplicate. In the lowest duplicate, I also applied several outsets, enlarging and broadening the path with the greatest amount of blur. I gave this duplicate a deep blue tint. Finally, I added a deep dark navy square as the bottom most part of the image. I wouldn’t want to run into this thing.

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Jay-Z, on to the next one by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #illustration

Jay-Z, on to the next one by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #illustration
Jay-Z, on to the next one by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #illustration

I decided that enough people are telling me that they are digging the gradient based bitmap to vector translations that I want to work more often on them. Plus, my most popular posts so far (by far) are those of famous people, icons, or objects. In this sketch, I used Inkscape to take an image of Jay Z and convert it to vector, apply gradients to it, and to a rectangle based background. I then took three rectangles, converted to paths, and brought the opacity down. I’ve seen this kind of triple overlay imagery in several images related to his new album, The Blueprint 3, which I’m enjoying quite a bit. I especially like On To The Next One (feat. Swizz Beatz). I decided to twist the rectangles in space using the node tool to add some depth. If you’re interested in Jay Z and his latest album, you might be interested in seeing another direction it could have gone with the help of a producer named Alex Goose who developed .

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