Monthly Archives: January 2008

So January is almost over, weird, wasn’t last friday New Years Eve?, I have a few 2008 goals, I plan to keeep - I figure that if I put them here - at the very least I’ll feel some self-guilt in 2009 when I look back at this post. So without any additional preamble:

  • Participate in at least half of 2008’s Illustration Fridays (that will yield me 26 NEW illustrations by 2009).
  • Find a new Illustration Representative (I considered calling the old one, but that seems like a step backwards).
  • Blog MORE.
  • Teach myself more than 5 words of Japanese (to be fair this has been on every list since 1998).
  • Learn some freekin knife skills, I can barely chiffonade.
  • Get into the city more, possibly a day or two a week.
  • Stop making pointless lists.

I know what you’re thinking - if this post was 29 days sooner, this would read like resolutions, and you’re absolutely right - where this differs from resolutions is that most resolutions are never kept, and soon forgotten - I fully plan to hit ever damn one of these.

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bluebird PLAINHad a bit of fun with this week’s IF theme ‘plain’, answered the question where does the easter bunny actually get those fancy eggs. - this one is right from my sketchbook, pretty pleased overall, one of the few recent pieces started and completed entirely in vector.

Finally wrapped my head around illustrator envelope functions to the point where I can anticipate the outcome. Also fought my blendy shadowy urges and let the color sing.

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veg small Whats Up Doc? Just another example of why my wife ‘T’ is so damn cool, she bought me these Warners Brothers’esque Carrots, just because they looked ‘cartoon-familiar’, and she knew I would appreciate that. she was right. (you also get a darn nice view of part of my kitchen backslash)

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M: you can’t have chocolate, it’s your sisters birthday, you can have chocolate tonight

B: But, I want it now

M: No! …learn to do without!, don’t you think I want things

B: do you want chocolate?

M: No I want other things, but I settle for chocolate

ya gotta love life…

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I’m a little late to the game of this one, supposedly Howard Stern played this last week, I’ve been listening to it for at least that long - Obadiah Parker’s amazing cover of this heavily played Andre3000 track is just plain good, a refreshing spin on a song, I was honestly tired off.

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pizza Doughy GoodnessIt’s no secret, I love to cook, almost as much as a I love to eat - I think the two almost always go hand in hand. Both ‘T’ and I are pizza fans, we’re thin crust traditionalists - extra cheese, some pepperoni, possibly sausage and we’re happy - luckily pizza is one of those foods that’s just fun and simple to make.

Saul’s Foolproof Pizza

  • 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon white sugar
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil (separated)
  • 3 pinches of salt
  • 1 cup of warm water (°115Fish )
  • 2 1/2 cups of the flour
  1. Wake your yeast up, dissolve your sugar into the warm water, and sprinkle your yeast into the water (note: it’s best to use a bowl so you have some surface area to sprinkle on) lightly stirring till all the yeast is dissolved, let stand for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together your yeast mixture with the flour, salt and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, I generally mix by hand, but a stand mixer with dough hooks is probably the smart choice, mix until smooth. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
  3. Preheat your oven to 450°
  4. Spread your dough on a pizza pan/cookie sheet/pizza stone, you want a somewhat even thickness overall, pinch around the edge to form your crust, spread liberally with sauce and topping of you’re liking and brush the crust with the remaining olive oil
  5. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until the bottom is a perfect golden brown. Slice and enjoy.

Honestly the best part of making your own pizza is that you can put ANYTHING you want on it, duck confit and asparagus, meatballs and sausage, steak and red skin potatoes - it’s all you baby!

So what is on you’re ultimate pizza?

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cameralineup Window sill of Sauls Cameras
While cleaning the studio, I was a bit shocked at exactly how many cameras I actually own, for some obsessive reason I started lining them up on the window sill, it’s like a vintage camera tetris, that’s all 23 of the 25, my Digital Canon EOS rebel is in my hand (obviously) during the shot, and my Prize Vintage B&H ‘Filmo’ 8mm is on it’s tripod elsewhere in the studio. Before you ask, YES, they all work, some are pretty hard to get film for, but all fully functioning.

Oh, also I realize this photo is lame, if you can’t appreciate the framing, appreciate I’m standing on a rolling chair to get them all in, as soon as I can I’ll shoot some individual shots.

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I listen to a LOT of covers - I’m not sure this is my 100% favorite of all time, but for the NOW - these two are at the top of the list.

  • Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon
  • Positively Forth Street

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Urge Overkill & The Violent Femmes respectively.

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drawit Drawit
The folks at Drawit, have rolled out a quirky little drawing app - it’s really interesting, it’s a fair amount like fireworks in it’s approach, but kind of like Quartz Composer in it’s execution - to be honest it would take me a VERY long time to get used to drawing like this, so why do I mention it? The filter/effects implementation, what a novel idea being able to see and edit all the applied effects at once on the live objects ADOBE .

DRAWIT

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