I used to believe by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
I used to believe by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
I decided to illustrate a meditative thought I’ve had recently. There is a change emerging in my point of view, and I thought that I would express it in Inkscape. I added the text in two pieces, one for each line. I used Bebas Neue, one of my favorite title fonts. I tightened the kerning on an already very tightly kerned font, by breaking the text into individual letters and moving them horizontally towards each other until they had a certain flow. I spaced them on the non-repro grid on Inkscape that is set to 100 pixel squares. I added a texture in the background from an acid stained, coffee drenched sheet of ledger paper. I then re-aligned the lines of text to the blue ledger lines, and reduced the opacity of the letters to let the texture show through, as though they were printed as a ghost print in red ink. I think the text speaks to the treatment and the treatment speaks to the text.
I was inspired by a recent clip I saw of Ray Park practicing martial arts to do a split screen of him with perhaps his most famous role as Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode 1. The clip shows exactly how integral Park’s physical appearance and performance were in the creation of the character. I tend to do a lot of this kind of facial alignment work in the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) because it offers all the right tools for photo manipulation in the perfect price of free.
How I made the image in GIMP
I started by gathering the two images, one of Ray in makeup/character and out. They were of a similar size, and of a reasonable size for my piece. The glossy of Ray was angled, where the image of Darth Maul was horizontally aligned, and so my first task was to drop horizontal and vertical gridlines at Darth Maul’s eyes, nose, and mouth. Then I dropped the opacity of Ray’s face and used the rotation, scaling, and move tools to align his face with the gridlines. I returned opacity to 100%. I added a layer mask to Maul in full opacity, then added a selection that took up exactly half of the face and filled it with the opposite color. In the GIMP, Black and White are the degrees of opacity in layer masks. Finally, I needed to repair the angled edges of Ray’s picture that were created in rotation, so I painted with the color of his shirt and the color of the background to fix those, and used the Stamp tool to repair his hair, which had highlights and texture that would have been difficult to recreate from scratch. It’s not perfect, as the angle of the head in the two shots is slightly out of alignment, but I think the illusion works. Apologies to Ray Park and Lucasfilm (Disney, now) for the unauthorized use of their images for the purpose of education and commentary here.
John LeMasney speaks tonight to BCUG about the Make movement
“Once again, we are happy to announce a visit from our friend and active open source and social networking guru, John LeMasney, who has again offered a totally unique, new and innovative line of thought for our users group. It was no surprise when we contacted John for an idea and he responded with the current topic. I’m saying that, because here is a new, unheard of (by me at least) way to use technology. I am sure our group will be intrigued, even become potential users. As you know, we like to learn, and this is a chance to see something new and interesting. But, will it be comprehensible for non-programmers, like me, and those who are there for the first time checking us out.
According to John,
·“Scratch is a low-threshold-of-entry programming tool that even eight-year olds can master, though adults find it a great platform for developing games, animations, stories and more.
·Arduino is a programmable integrated circuit with lots of community support and low or no cost development tools that allow you to create anything from a Twitter account that shares when your dog eats from her food bowl to an always-on GPS reporter that tells a spreadsheet where it is every 30 seconds.
·Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer that you can use to do everything your desktop computer does, but because of the very low price, people tend to use them for more interesting dedicated projects, like an art project where lights and sound are affected by the presence of people. Come and learn where and how to get started with this exciting international movement away from consumerism and towards creation.” (slightly edited)
A little about John (from his web pages) – John LeMasney is a father who lives and works in and around Princeton, NJ. He now offers consulting in technology, design, communication, branding, and nutrition. He was the Manager of Educational Technology Training and Outreach at Princeton University from March 2011 to March 2013. He had worked from 1998-2011 at Rider University as the Manager of Technology Training. He was recently awarded a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership with honors from Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture with honors from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA .
John is a designer, artist, writer, poet, technologist, consultant, open web advocate and open source evangelist. He is most interested in helping people to use technology to make their lives, work, and world better.
I think we all agree that we would enjoy this presentation, as it’s outside of the box for us, and will give us plenty to think about. Jo Grazide” ~ BCUG Guest Speaker – http://goo.gl/wbL5N7
Title of Talk or Forum
Discovering your personal brand
Talk or Forum abstract (135 words max)
In this talk, technology and design consultant John LeMasney will discuss the key ways in which you can determine, shape, and reinforce your personal brand. Personal brand is the reason that people feel love, dislike, or indifference towards you, and using technology, visuals, social media, and interpersonal interactions, you can use your brand to help you gain influence, gather an audience, and find new successes. Come to the session with three keywords that you feel represent you well. Also, do a google search on LeMasney and see if you can choose three keywords that you feel best represent him. If John is doing his branding right, it should be very clear the ideas and things that represent him. Fun and discovery await you!
Biographical Info (75 words max)
John LeMasney now offers consulting in technology, design, communication, branding, and nutrition. He was the Manager of Educational Technology Training and Outreach at Princeton University from March 2011 to March 2013. He had worked from 1998-2011 at Rider University as the Manager of Technology Training. He was recently awarded a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership with honors from Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture with honors from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. . He is a designer, artist, writer, poet, technologist, consultant, open web advocate and open source evangelist.
Indicate the time of day you prefer to give your talk
Afternoon
We will provide digital projectors in all rooms. Speakers are expected to bring their own computers. If you need special media equipment please specify below what you will need and we will let you know if we can provide it.
Not applicable.
Indicate length/type of session
110 minutes (workshops only)
Healthy Berries are Good Food for Health (Photo credit: epSos.de)
“Sharing Food Virtually: an Introduction to Food Blogging
DATE/TIME: Oct 7 2013 – 7:00pm – 8:30pm
LOCATION: Technology Center
In this session, John LeMasney will show you how to use WordPress to share photos, video, recipes, reviews and other information about your passion for food. A delight in eating, talking about food, and sharing information about food are required, and some experience with websites is suggested, but not required. Come and learn how to start conversations online about food, nutrition, eating, and deliciousness.
Skill level: Intermediate” ~ Sharing Food Virtually: an Introduction to Food Blogging | Princeton Public Library –
Hi, all. There’s a lot going on this week, and I wanted to make you aware of some of the offerings and events that might help you. Also, you can always click on the link at the bottom of my site to see what classes and other public offerings I am taking part in. For the sake of simplicity, you can visit the link here: Upcoming talks with LeMasney Consulting
First, tonight at 7:30 to 8:30, I’m offering the first of a two-week class for free on WordPress at Princeton Public Library in the Tech Center. In the class, we go over the benefits of using WordPress to publish, discover how to get started, and next week we have a follow-up that allows you to share what you are doing. We learn about pages, posts, plugins, asides, statistics, sharing and more. Please visit!
Tonight I’ll be speaking with Brian Kelley about Technology and Art. Tomorrow I’ll be speaking with Sean Piotrowski about Customer Service. I usually advertise these on Facebook, but archives and podcasts are available. Probably the best way to get those is by subscribing to my YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/lemasney
I’m teaching a class on Tuesday nights at Rider University on Media and Technology for Organizations, and while registration for the class is complete, I’d love to sit with you and share what I’m teaching and learning there. If you’d like to sit down, consider grabbing a spot on my schedule at and remember that the first hour of a new consulting relationship is always free.
On Wednesday, I’ll be visiting the Mary Jacobs Memorial Library to talk about using Android. In the class, we’ll discover how to make the most of the popular mobile platform, why you should consider it if you are using something else, the benefits and differences of the platform and more. Mary Jacobs Memorial Library is at 64 Washington St. Rocky Hill, NJ 08553
Next week, in addition to the second WordPress class, I’ll be starting my classes at the Princeton Adult School, including creating a site, graphic design, personal and organizational branding, and photomanipulation. Visit their site to register: http://www.ssreg.com/princeton/classes/results.asp?string=lemasney
I hope that we get a chance to visit this week and in upcoming weeks, and thanks, as always, for your support!
