Tag: Illustration

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illustrated quote: “To set what you like against what you dislike’, cc-by lemasney

disease of the mind cc-by lemasney
disease of the mind cc-by lemasney

Hey, friends! It’s John and this time I’m talking about using Inkscape to illustrate a Zen quote. This quote is “To set up what you like against what you don’t like — this is the disease of the mind ~ Seng-Ts’an” If we can find compassion, especially with those we disagree with, we make progress.

If you like it please thumbs-up or share! If you like my videos, please subscribe for more! I’m always looking for ways to connect with people about tech, design, teaching, and lots of other topics. If you think we should talk, connect with me at https://about.me/lemasney

disease of the mind cc-by lemasney
disease of the mind cc-by lemasney

“The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry. Edited by Stephen Mitchell. Harper and Row, NY. 1989  The Mind of Absolute Trust  The great way isn’t difficult for those who are unattached to their preferences.  Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear.  When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart.  If you want to realize the truth, don’t be for or against.  The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.  Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your minds serenity.  As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing.  But because you select and reject, you can’t perceive its true nature.  Don’t get entangled in the world; don’t lose yourself in emptiness.  Be at peace in the oneness of things, and all errors will disappear by themselves.  If you don’t live the Tao, you fall into assertion or denial.  Asserting that the world is real, you are blind to its deeper reality;  denying that the world is real, you are blind to the selflessness of all things.  The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth.  Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can’t go.  Returning to the root, you find the meaning;  chasing appearances, you lose there source.  At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness.  Don’t keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions.  For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness disappears.  With not even a trace of self-doubt, you can trust the universe completely.  All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to.  All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.  In the world of things as they are, there is no self, no non self.  If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is “Not-two.”  In this “Not-two” nothing is separate, and nothing in the world is excluded.  The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth.  In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand years.  There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your eyes.  The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished;  the vast is as small as the tiny when you don’t have external limits.  Being is an aspect of non-being; non-being is no different from being.  Until you understand this truth, you won’t see anything clearly.  One is all; all are one. When you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom?  The mind of absolute trust is beyond all thought, all striving,  is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow.”

– Seng-ts’an: The Mind of Absolute Trust from http://www.nonduality.com/seng.htm

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Big Brother speed illustration cc-by lemasney

big brother is watching (lemasney, 2016)
big brother is watching (lemasney, 2016)

This is a speed design of a recent poster illustration of George Orwell’s 1984 theme: Big Brother is Watching. I used an octopus and security cameras to illustrate the idea.

big brother is watching (lemasney, 2016)
big brother is watching (lemasney, 2016)

If you like it please thumbs-up or share! If you like them, please subscribe for more! I’m always looking for ways to connect with people about tech, design, teaching, and lots of other topics. If you think we should talk, connect with me at https://about.me/lemasney

“In the essay section of his novel 1985, Anthony Burgess states that Orwell got the idea for the name of Big Brother from advertising billboards for educational correspondence courses from a company called Bennett’s, current during World War II. The original posters showed J. M. Bennett himself: a kindly-looking old man offering guidance and support to would-be students with the phrase “Let me be your father” attached. According to Burgess, after Bennett’s death, his son took over the company, and the posters were replaced with pictures of the son (who looked imposing and stern in contrast to his father’s kindly demeanor) with the text “Let me be your big brother.” Additional speculation from Douglas Kellner of UCLA argued that Big Brother represents Joseph Stalin.[1][2] Another theory is that the inspiration for Big Brother was Brendan Bracken, the Minister of Information until 1945. Orwell worked under Bracken on the BBC’s Indian Service. Bracken was customarily referred to by MOI employees by his initials, B.B., the same initials as the character Big Brother. Orwell also resented the wartime censorship and need to manipulate information which he felt came from the highest levels of the MOI and from Bracken’s office in particular.” curated by lemasney from Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four) – Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)

 

“In the book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, read by Winston Smith and purportedly written by Goldstein, Big Brother is referred to as infallible and all-powerful. No-one has ever seen him and there is a reasonable certainty that he will never die. He is simply “the guise in which the Party chooses to exhibit itself to the world”, since the emotions of love, fear and reverence are more easily focused on an individual (if only a face on the hoardings and a voice on the telescreens), than an organisation. When Winston Smith is later arrested, O’Brien  repeats that Big Brother will never die. When Smith asks if Big Brother exists, O’Brien describes him as “the embodiment of the Party” and says that he will exist as long as the Party exists. When Winston asks “Does Big Brother exist the same way I do?” (meaning is Big Brother an actual human being), O’Brien replies “You do not exist” (meaning that Smith is now an unperson; an example of doublethink).” curated by lemasney from Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four) – Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)

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

Illustration: Okay Google – what year is it? cc-by lemasney

Okay google, what year is it cc-by lemasney
Okay google, what year is it cc-by lemasney
Okay google, what year is it cc-by lemasney
Okay google, what year is it cc-by lemasney

Inspiration

I wanted to illustrate what I thought the Google Home might be like in 10 years. I saw it as floating, hovering by way of low-energy drones. The device would be like an eye, always looking, listening, and recording. A disoriented human asks “Okay Google, what year is it?” in wonderment. This design is related to my concept for their future automated car.

I was inspired by an email based how-to on creating hashing, or cross hatching, in Inkscape. I thought the example seemed straightforward enough to deconstruct in my mind:

open Inkscape, create a circle, duplicate it, add a linear pattern to the topmost dupe, convert to path, shape into a shadow, place over circle, done.

But when I started doing it, to test whether it was just that simple, I was surprised at how many steps were really involved. You have to find the right pattern, you have to try a few on, you have to realize that you can’t easily add color to your patterns. You get some neat benefits though — real, deep calls to pop-based modernism, paying ideological royalties to Warhol’s Brillo Boxen and Jasper Johns’ frisky template based stories. So I decided to take it somewhere. And this post is the result.

What am I doing here?

I wrote ‘To be honest,’ but I loathe when people say that. We may be honest always, but what a stark surprise that would be, and the resulting pain that would potentially be inflicted seems an easily avoidable horror. So here, I’ll offer some harmless honesty: I’m not sure what i am doing here. I want to be productive, create and publish things of value, but I think that the audience has to find the value in you doing what you love, if any value is to be found at all. This may the closest digital alternative we have to Busking, posting on tools like WordPress (or worse yet, Facebook). But today, as I write this, it feels right. This is what I feel I should be doing: Writing about, illustrating, and sharing my experiences and results and insights and outcomes in the hopes of feeding into the collective insight of humanity. I have no idea if anyone will care, or even respond. But maybe. Only by trying will we find out.

Okay Google, so, what year is it?

So I was working on the practice of creating cross hatching in Inkscape, finding the stark contrast of the linear elements a bright, sharp change in my style. I began to make the circle into a kind of orb. The cross hatching became a futuristic fin that both altered direction and provided thrust. Each overlapped circle added a new dimensional layer of electronics or protection, all perfectly interlocking and freely moving.

A pupil and iris emerged. A short story about the future that writes itself in one’s mind resulted. The title of that short story is “Okay Google, what year is it?”, and the orb you see is some nearby year’s equivalent to the amazing Amazon Echo, except it uses quiet drone and magnetic stops technologies to float about your house, answering any question, turning on and off million colored micro LEDs under your feet and overhead as you walk along the heavily corridored apartments of the future. All of our houses start as shipping containers in my version. The main character asks the title question and the orb responds “I don’t know how to answer that. “

At any rate, a fun trip in the mind and I hope you enjoyed it.

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What I love about Inkscape cc-by lemasney (1/52)

What I love about inkscape thumbnail and title
What I love about inkscape thumbnail and title

What I love about Inkscape

What do I love about Inkscape? Why am I sharing it? I am committing myself to making one new video a week as part of a series. Each one will explore a different topic that I love, and hopefully effectively convey what I love about it. If you like them, please give them a thumbs-up on YouTube! If you like the series, go ahead and subscribe to the playlist on YouTube for more!

“Learn how to design your own original waveform tattoo with Inkscape, Audacity, and Linux! In this, the first of 52 planned videos for 2016, John LeMasney starts off the “What I love about…” series with a true love of his: Inkscape, the open source vector illustration application. Think Illustrator, but free as in freedom. In order to show his love, he’s going to share how to make your voice into a tattoo using free software like Ubuntu, Inkscape, and Audacity. It’s a fun time, and it would not be the same without you.    Music: Chorale Prelude ‘Machs mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Güt’, BWV 957 (Bach, 1880)” found in What I love about… Inkscape! – YouTube at

About LeMasney Consulting

I want to help people. I typically do this in regards to technology, productivity, or living, but I like talking with people about just about anything. If you think I might be able to help you, please contact me at lemasney@gmail.com or 609 553 9498. I’d love to either help you directly, or help you to get the help that you need – lemasney@gmail.com. Try me!

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Illustration Inkscape

We choose cc-by lemasney

we get in our own way cc-by lemasney
we get in our own way cc-by lemasney

We get in our own way, or we pull out all the stops. And in-between, we choose. - John LeMasney cc-by lemasney
We get in our own way, or we pull out all the stops. And in-between, we choose. – John LeMasney cc-by lemasney

We get in our own way, or we pull out all the stops. And in-between, we choose. – John LeMasney cc-by lemasney

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Illustration Inkscape

You do not have to be good – Mary Oliver cc-by lemasney

You do not have to be good - Mary Oliver cc-by lemasney
You do not have to be good - Mary Oliver cc-by lemasney

You do not need to be good - Mary Oliver cc-by lemasney
You do not need to be good – Mary Oliver cc-by lemasney

You do not have to be good - Mary Oliver cc-by lemasney
You do not have to be good – Mary Oliver cc-by lemasney

These are two takes on illustrating a part of the lovely poem by Mary Oliver below. Incidentally, I also decided to use Prezi to see if I could animate the quote:

WILD GEESE by Mary Oliver

“Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine…”   You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the

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