Apps

I’ve been slowly building my App collection on Tablet.

I already told you about Auryn Ink, a digital watercolor App.

I’ve also had some fun with Sketch Guru Doodle Joy Studio.

The reason I downloaded this App was because it ‘records’ your brush strokes and you can play them back to watch your sketch ‘magically’ appear on the screen.

I know, I’m easily amused.

But I thought it would be fun to upload the video so you could see how I do it. (All without having to actually appear or speak in the video myself.)

This is what has been frustrating me. I can’t figure out how to upload it! Or even if it’s possible!

I’ve seen some videos on YouTube that people have shared but they are recorded with another device as they show the screen of their phone or tablet.

So I’m beginning to believe what I want to do can’t be done.

Anyway……I still like this App. It has some interesting ‘brushes’ you can use to make interesting textures.

I came up with this little guy as I was playing with one of the brushes. 

I Like You Best

After 38 years, I still like you best!

Guest Post

Last week I asked Son2 (the journalism graduate) to write some stories about the characters I draw. I thought a new/different/younger slant would be interesting. 
He didn't disappoint. 
So here, without further ado, is his first character study.

Mrs. Rothschild

It is well known, though seldom said, that the people who most often say “In my day…” are usually the ones with the least valuable experience to share.

Mary-Ellen Rothschild is most definitely one of those people.

If your most common practice in life is to measure the changes between then and now, how can you ever enjoy yourself presently? It is on this basis that we join Mrs. Rothschild in her Naples condo on the morning of the day she would die.

Upon rising every day, Mary-Ellen Rothschild would slip into her matted terrycloth sandals and shuffle into her bathroom to begin her morning beauty regiment. After a shower so hot some might suggest she died years ago from daily blanching, she would brazenly step in front of her 8 foot, bare-bulbed vanity mirror completely nude, and perch on her closest life-long companion: the powder pink upholstered stool that she swears to this day she bought for a bargain from Cher’s road manager back in ’79.

Her first husband loved it, her second never noticed, but now that she was all on her own it was the one piece of furniture she relied on to set her at the perfect height to drown her wrinkles in pore reducing oils, creams, masks, and some ill-gotten gels from deep in the orient (she had surreptitiously stocked up in ‘92…)

After slipping into her threadbare silk robe, she would saunter into her kitchen to mix a mimosa at her heavily mirrored bar.

The kind of people that drink first thing in the morning are typically those who don’t, wont, and never will need to work a day in their lives. Her first husband saw to that, her second didn’t hurt. 

It becomes apparent within just a few minutes near Mrs. Rothschild that though she is very learned in the ways of etiquette, the true philosophy of being a lady entirely escaped her – or maybe it was that Staten Island never left her. 

Perspective

Done with Auryn Ink App on Tablet.  It's a watercolor painting App. Very basic but replicates real watercolor pretty well for a digital 'program'.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Mildred Pierce, chocolate cake and art.

The perfect Mother’s Day!

Hope all you moms out there have a good one too!

I’m Having a Pity Party (care to join me?)

I don’t know if you already know this about me, but I don’t take failure well.

I think everything I do should come out perfectly the very first time I try it!

In my head I know better.

Emotionally, not so much.

And lately I’ve been going through a patch of ‘everything I touch is turning to s**t’!

My tree isn’t drying.

L

My idea for paper dolls isn’t working. 

L

My stuffies are turning out without character and are ‘blah’. 

L

Computer/Tablet are turning on me.

L (Okay, so that one maybe isn't really their fault so much as the fault of the program writers who don’t seem to realize what it is I want the Program/App to do! LOL)

I can’t figure out how to upload the video of my sketches. 

L

The stories I write come out dull and boring. 

L

Blah, blah blah, blah, blah…………….

Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine……..

What makes me think I’m so freakin’ special I shouldn’t have bad days?

This too shall pass, but for heaven’s sake I hope it’s soon!

This concludes the self pity portion of our show, now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Computer Frustration

I hate it when I can’t figure out how to do something on the computer.

I know what it is I want to do but I just can’t quite get it.

So I Google it (Google is my BFF.)

And I find all sorts of information, just not what I’m looking for.

It usually takes about four hours of this and I finally come across a forum that tells me what I want to do isn’t possible ‘at this time’!

And that really pisses me off because, you know, IT’S A COMPUTER!

It’s a simple (relatively) machine that spits out what you put into it. And it’s just a matter of moving the ‘bits’ around.

And since I’ve already put INTO the damn thing the info that I now want to move, it should be a simple operation because IT’S A COMPUTER!

I even e-mailed the maker of the App and asked for guidance.

Believe me, breaking down and sending an e-mail to ask for help is a BIG deal with me (kind of like a man asking for directions.)

Guess what?

THAT OPERATION ISN’T AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME!!!!!!!

ARGH!

Minnie & Will

As much as my paternal grandparents were a bit…….stern, my maternal grandparents were as cute as could be.

Grandma looked like Mrs. Claus and Grandpa was just as adorable.

One of his favorite sayings was, “Minnie’ll skin me alive!” as he chuckled at the thought of Grandma scolding him.

He was very handy around the house.

Always tinkering with this or that.

I guess out of necessity. But he was good at it.

He could fix anything.

One fine day he decided it was time to fix the light in the kitchen.

It was a hanging light in the middle of the room that had a pull chain with a glowing knob on the end of the chain so you could find it in the dark.

He took the red step stool that was always in the kitchen over to the light and climbed up with his screwdriver in hand.

Grandma stood at the sink preparing dinner.

She said, “Will, you’d better turn off the power before you do that.”

He replied “Aw Min, I know what I’m doing!” (and he winked at me.)

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when his screwdriver touched the live wire and knocked him off the step stool and right on his ass!

Grandma didn’t even turn her head as she said, “I told you, turn off the power.”

I wasn’t sure what to do or say, but then Grandpa started laughing so I did too!

The air pressure must be unusually low :(     praying  for sunshine.........

Tree Trouble

The road to true art never runs smoothly….

Or something like that, LOL.

This tree is giving me trouble. It won’t harden properly.

Couldn’t possibly be poor planning on the artists’ part :(

So now I’m trying to salvage it by ‘infusing’ it with Paverpol.

It needs to stand upright (without slowly ‘wilting’) and be able to support the bird on one of its branches.

I’m not willing to give up yet!

I'm squirting the Paverpol inside with an old glue bottle and hoping gravity will help!

And it will eventually dry!

Fingers crossed!