This sketch illustrates the first lyric in the Queens of the Stone Age song No one knows from Songs for the Deaf.
Tag: YouTube
My friend Laraine wrote me recently with a request:
“I need help with the attached photo…it is the Blawenburg Band at the Hopewell gazebo, being directed by clarinetist, former member and my dear departed friend, Rich Hill, who died this past spring at 51…
I want to use the photo as the cover of a thank you card, 5 x 7, to people who contributed to a band scholarship in Rich’s honor. I am choosing and writing the thank you cards; I’m secretary of the band.
But the problem with the photo is that Rich’s clothes looked rumpled… (maybe) shadows from the gazebo cut outs…
I feel the spirit of the photo is just right for the memorial thank you’s. (Do you think so?) But Rich looks rumpled…”
He was a bit rumpled, but that was easy enough to take care of with cloning, burning and dodging tools. I moved on to restoring the gazebo, band members and audience members with the burn dodge tool to bring out the shadows, highlights and midtones after doing some work on the picture overall to improve brightness and contrast. A bit overworked perhaps, but I really enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Laraine!
tags: lemasney, 365, dailypost2011, band, Princeton, Blawenburg, Hopewell, NJ, photo restoration, GIMP, GPL, GNU, Open source, Creative Commons, CC-SA
So @annavan (Scoyoc), a friend in the NJ Library Land circle, simultaneously made me aware of a logo contest for Libraries and Transliteracy and called me out (in the best possible way). She tweeted
“It’s Contest Time! Libraries and Transliteracy Needs a Logo! https://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/its-contest-time-libraries-and-transliteracy-needs-a-logo/ [hmmm… wonder what @lemasney would come up with]”
I love design challenges, Libraries, and Anna, so this one was a no brainer. So the first thing I did was make sure I had a clear understanding of transliteracy and how it related to libraries, and so I did some research, starting but not ending with the ubiquitous Wikipedia entry, which gave me a good start, defining Transliteracy as:
“Transliteracy is The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. (PART 2007) The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means “across; through”, so a transliterate person is one who is literate across multiple media.” from Transliteracy – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia at Sun Jul 18 2010 14:12:31 GMT-0400 (EST) on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transliteracy
A few other sources extended, reinforced and clarified the definition. Thanks for the nudge, Anna, and I hope my answer gets to the finals!
If you like this image, please share it. If you use it, please attribute me, and thanks! (cc-by lemasney)
lemasney, design, open source, creative commons, cc-by, typography, poster, Inkscape, GIMP
If you like this design, please consider looking at my Graphic Design Portfolio, Presentations Portfolio, or upcoming Public Workshops or Classes. Let’s do something great together!
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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.
- 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
- Duplicate the path. I like to make it a dramatically different color, like bright green.
- 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.
- Shift select the green duplicate, so that you have the circle as well as the duplicated original selected.
- In the path menu, select the intersect path operation. You will end up with a shape that is the overlap between the two shapes.
- Using the path menu, choose inset path, then repeat this. You will see the shape shrinking in small increments.
- Make the shape white.
- 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.
- 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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