Stupid Twitter Trick: 1) Crop An Image Down To 338x83px (or A Multiple Thereof.) 2) Slice It Out Into

Texted one friend asking for a profession, and another asking for animals.  I got back secretary, chipmunk, and ball python.  This is the result, done in ten minutes on my lunch break.

When I was growing up, there was a certain "inspirational" poem most, if not all, of my elderly Christian relatives had framed and displayed somewhere in their home.

I rewrote the poem as inspirational material for a Jedi pursuing the Dark Side of the Force, and set it against a Tatooine version of its standard backdrop.  I don't know about you folks, but I certainly feel more inspired now.

Here's the poem in text:

"Bootprints"

One night I dreamed I was walking through the Tatooine desert with Lord Vader.  Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed bootprints in the sand.  Sometimes there were two sets of bootprints, other times there was one set only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow, or rebel defeat, I could see only one set of bootprints, so I said to Lord Vader,

"You promised me Father, that if I joined you, we would rule the galaxy as father and son.  But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my journey toward the Dark Side, there has only been one set of bootprints in the sand.  Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?"

Lord Vader replied, "The times when you have seen only one set of bootprints, my son, that is when I levitated you."

Public domain source photos taken from here and here.  Star Wars crawl font taken from here.

An excerpt from my lies-about-Doctor-Who book.

An excerpt from Doctor Huh?!, a book in progress.

3 September, 2004: The Making of a Logo

“Right,” said Russell T Davies, pouring himself another mug of tea before turning back to his art team. “Now, on to the next issue; the logo. Suggestions?”

“Let’s reuse the Diamond Logo,” said junior...

This past Wednesday I volunteered to add something unique to the thank-you gifts we gave to Off the Hook listeners who pledged their support during our final fundraising episode of the season.  During the show I drew a series of telephones, all different, all off the hook, one after another in a live marathon.  Everyone who donated to WBAI during the show's live broadcast will be receiving a random one of these.

This was lots of fun.  I did better than I thought I might both time and quality wise, and the fundraising was successful with many awesome folks supporting our listener-funded exploits.

You can listen to the episode by going to this archive page and selecting the May 18, 2011 link.

Signed, dated, and numbered series. Archival ink on heavy paper, 7x10".

Studio photos by Mike, first-five photo by dot.ret

I’ve drawn variations on this little round bird creature since I was a kid.

I started drawing this last Thursday at the bar as I waited for my friends’ comedy showcase Say Everything to start, finshed it up today, and here you go.

I could explain that this is a photo of Walt, my character in the surreal dark comedy theatrical musical Aisle Six, who long ago had Hondo the hand puppet as his best friend and co-conspirator in mischief such as trying out the toilets at Home Depot, and this image was among those used in the show during a flashback slideshow of Hondo explaining his and Walt's storied past.

I could justify posting this to my art blog by pointing out that I did a serviceable photo manipulation job; at the photocall I was actually seated in front of a plain wall on a plastic chair.

I could reinforce this picture's value as a portfolio piece by pointing out the fact that I sourced a copyright-free public domain image to use as the background, so as not to cause the production any potential problems or costs.  I could then invite the viewer to hunt down and examine the aspects of the original I had to manipulate to get a usable background.

But I won't do any of that.  Instead, I'll just announce that this will probably be the most awesome photo I'll ever appear in and leave it here.

Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856-January 7, 1943)

Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor never fully appreciated in his own lifetime, has in retrospect become known as one of the most important inventors on record. Much of our 21st -century technological environment has its roots in Tesla's work with electricity, radio, and more.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

WARNING: Spoilers for the Doctor Who episode "Day of the Moon" ahead.

I really liked the nanorecorders from the episode.  I started wondering how cosplayers and such might emulate the special effect of the nanorecorder in a live setting, and thought of the UV-reactive invisible ink used in things like hand-stamps at concert venues and nightclubs.  This is a quick-and-dirty sketch of how such an idea might be put to work.

If you manage to make this effect work, please let me know!

Started as sort of Rorschach of Watchmen, but I don’t know I’m tired.  Around seven minutes.

The t-shirt I designed for Off the Hook, the radio show of which I am part.

WBAI, the nonprofit community radio station which airs our show, must periodically run fundraising drives to keep the bills paid. This shirt has been exclusively available as a thank-you gift to listeners who donated to those drives during our show's broadcast.

Anyone you see wearing this shirt has either been amazingly generous in showing their support and keeping our show and station on the air, or attacked our supporter and stole their shirt.  Either way, that person's sense of style is unquestionable.

Photo © Grey Frequency