Unusually warm winter greetings. It's a balmy night considering it's January and this old gray cat has been busy. I've been out in the night a bit more this week so the topic is art with the word “night” in the title. The first night encounter is Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which has been translated (somewhat inaccurately) as A little night music. After listening to Mozart's lovely serenade you could view Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night. I've always liked the dark blue sky set with brilliant stars and moon and wisps that look like clouds or wind. Our tour of the night ends with a classic children's bedtime book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. It's hard not to feel like a 3 year old in need of tucking-in when you read this beautiful book. I personally recommend warm (soy) milk and animal crackers as a suitable snack to be taken before bed with the 3 night-themed art works. And on that peaceful note I'll heat my milk and go to bed.
The picture of the week was created using Bryce. Click on the image for a full-sized view Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Welcome Back! It's Friday once more and it's starting to feel more like Winter here. This week's posting is my 100th and it's hard to believe that over 2 years have passed since I relaunched Mark's Digital Arts. This week I'd like to thank all the good people who have contributed in some way to this web-log. I'll start with my lady love Bella who has always given me good suggestions along with hugs and smooches. My family, especially my highly creative nieces and nephew, have been a continual source of inspiration. Thanks to my BFF buddy Mark, who really should learn to explore his artistic side. Thanks for all the good reviews and kind words to C.K. Lester, a grand master of the Euphoria programming language and a heck of a good guy. A huge thank you to Steve, my sometime musical collaborator in New Zealand. You're a great guitarist and producer and I know you'll go far with your music. Thanks for all the humor and the serious writing to Ben of the Straight Scotch blog. Thanks for all the music suggestions and good vibes to April, of Dorkmuffin. I miss you kiddo. Thanks for including me in the band to Patrick, Michael, Randy, Todd, and Dutch of 3½. Thanks and hugs to Alejandra and Patrick, the other 2 thirds of the Experimental Film Group. Finally, thanks to Mom and Dad, for encouraging me to make music, and to write, and to create art. Here's to the next 100 posts and lots more tools, techniques, sites and tips to share. Thanks again to one and all!
The picture of the week was created using Bryce. Click on the image for a full-sized view The DVD/Movie of the week was Amelie. This film, like it's title character is both eccentric and charming.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Good Evening! Ugh, I'm late once more this week but hopefully this will be the last time for the year. It's Saturday night and I'm here with a fresh new entry, hot and straight out of the oven. I'm pressed for time this week so there won't be any new music loops and the entry will consist of an update of all my current projects. The experimental film group has cast an actress and I'm continuing to work on the music for the film. Work on the CSS enhanced version of my web site is moving ahead, though I seem to end up spending more time on graphic design then I'd like. I've also started work on some animated titles for new video project. I'll be back in about a week with more stuff.
The picture of the week was created using Bryce. Click on the image for a full-sized view The movie/DVD of the week was The Blues Brothers Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Friday Greetings! Today was a bit gray and cloudy but all told not a bad spring day. The topic for tonight is music technology and the focus will everyone's favorite portable media player, the iPod. What most folks don't know is that Apple's tiny tech marvel is really a small computer, complete with CPU and RAM. Given that information, some clever folks have successfully ported the Linux operating system onto the iPod, and dubbed their efforts iPodLinux. With Linux comes a whole range of serious and frivolous applications, including the seminal FPS game Doom. If turning your iPod into a pocket computer is too geeeky, then you can always get the cute little dancing doggy shaped speakers. Having said all this, I must confess I've never owned an iPod, though as with all cool, tech-toys I've coveted them on occasion. Perhaps at some point the fates (and my budget) will allow me to catch up with the rest of the civilized world.
The picture of the week was created using Makehuman and Anim8or. Click on the image for a full-sized view The loops of the week are some rock drums.
The PC game of the week is Travian, a browser-based building game.
The book of the week is The Poetry of Robert Frost
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Hi All! It's another fine Friday evening here in sun-drenched so cal. The topic for this week is the creative process and a method for finding your muse. I deal mostly with art as it relates to technology but sometimes you need to take a step back to break a creative block. If you're a visual artist, try spending an hour or 3 away from the PC screen and drawing with pencils or crayons or ballpoint pen on a sheet of 3-hole binder ruled paper. The point here is to return to the media of childhood and see if there is a fresh source of ideas in the mud-pies we all made while growing. If music is your thing, try beating simple rhythms on a hand drum or tambourine. Pick up your old harmonica or ukulele or recorder and see what melodies emerge. If you write, try composing a silly story in the style of Dr. Seuss. Creativity and imagination are the basis over which we build artistic technique. Try it and see if it doesn't jump-start your inspiration.
The picture of the week was created using Bryce. Click on the image for a full-sized view
The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3. The battle for tiberium continues.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Friday January 18, 2008
Hello again! It's Friday once more and I'm here doing the TGIF dance. I was blog-tagged (or meme-tagged) way back in December by my blog-buddy OneLuvGurl so this week I'm passing the favor on to my friends and two new individuals whose sites caught my attention. The rules are you have to answer each question by using the first letter of your name. You can’t use your own name either. Let’s get busy!
1. Famous Singer: Marvin Gaye 2. Four Letter Word: Moon 3. Street: Mountain Ave. 4. Color: Mauve 5. Gifts/Present: Manga (Japanese Comics) 6. Vehicle: Mustang (1965) 7. Things in Souvenir Shop: Maps 8. Boy Name: Michael 9. Girl Name: Maya 10. Movie title: M (Fritz Lang 1931) 11. Drink: Mocha Frappuccino 12. Occupation: Mover 13. Celebrity: Miley Cyrus 14. Magazine: Mountain Bike Action 15. U.S. City: Monterey, CA 16. Pro Sports: Motocross 17. Fruit: Mango 18. Reason for Being Late to work: Monkeys ate my necktie. 19. Something you throw away: Melon rinds 20. Something you shout: Mwah-hahahahahahahaa!
I'm tagging Mark, Ben, CK Lester, Slackermama, and Anithete. Good luck and god-speed folks. The fate of the meme is in your hands and I hope you washed them.
The picture of the week was created using Bryce. Click on the image for a full-sized view The loops of the week are a set of chopped helicopter samples. The PC game of the week is still Forged Alliance. Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Friday, January 04, 2008
Friday January 4, 2008
Happy New Year and happy Friday to all! It's rainy tonight and looking to be wet weekend. I don't have a fixed topic in mind so I'll just update all the current progress. In music I've been working on some short loops that are mathematically symmetrical in nature. The resulting sounds are a bit strange but pleasing and decidedly different. The main graphic project of the week was animating the title sequence for a short film. I got blog-tagged by my old friend OneLuvGurl, but haven't had the chance to tag anyone else yet. I'll have more on everything next time out.
The picture of the week was created using Anim8or. Click on the image for a full-sized view The loops of the week are some symmetrical drum loops.
The PC game of the week is Forged Alliance, the stand-alone sequel to Supreme Commander.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Friday November 30, 2007
Warm greetings on a rainy Friday. I've been a busy gray cat this week, and once more my time management skills (or lack thereof) are getting pushed to their limits. I got a good dose of writing, doing more documentation for the Musubi project and writing up this weekly blog post. Musically I've fallen in with a group of guys for a weekly blues/rock jam and I've resumed work on a collaborated song that had been in the works for some time. In graphics, I've been creating new scenes and characters in Anim8or and I've started learning to use Corel Draw. Programming time was devoted mostly to SDL/Musubi in Euphoria and some preliminary work on a program for the Palm PDA. You'll likely see more of the results of those scattered efforts posted here on this very blog once they're in a state of completion. Next week we'll resume focus on the one topic or another. The picture of the week was created using Bryce. Click on the image for a full-sized view
The site of the week is singer/songwriter Nicole Alden's page. I stumbled onto her site while on an unrelated search and was rewarded with awesome music and beautifully constructed songs. Catch this rising star while you can.
The PC game of the week is Toribash. This game almost defies description; It's a martial arts game that is turn-based rather than real-time. The current version is free (always a good thing) and best played online, against other human players. It also earns a few extra coolness points for using SDL/OpenGL. Check it out!
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
