Christmas Card 2017

3D rendering of the card

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas. I decided to create a Christmas Card that I ended up printing and also used as a digital card.

The sketch

Out of the recesses of my mind I sketched then scanned the below drawing into the computer.

Colorizing in Gimp

In Gimp 2.8 I created a gradated texture surrounding the figures. I did this by creating a circular gradient, Cubism filter, emboss, and changing the layer mode to Grain Extract. Then on another layer I painted the figures, achieving what you see below

Laid out in InDesign

I finished laying this out in InDesign. On the cover I placed my image with some text at the top. Inside I found some text in the Holy Bible and used a version of the figures without the textured background.

Front of card

Inside of card

Leia Organa speed photo manipulation video

Thought I would post this little video I made showing (In fast forward) how I created the fan art of Leia last month. This was fun. Took a couple hours. Enjoy!

Cub Scout Money

Thought I would share this little project I did in Gimp 2.8.

I took an image of a normal Dollar bill and altered it with the appropriate images and text in Gimp.

My wife is using these as part of a little store for the scouts. If they behave well they get these scout bucks they can save up to purchase things in the store. So far it seems to be working well.

Here is a link to the 11x17 pdf file if there are any den leaders out there who would like to print these for their own purposes.

Illustration of my Grandpa Thorup

Desire for traditional art project begins

In Early summer this year I felt it was time to get my art studio back up and running. my drawing table had been languishing in the garage for at least 4 years. Every time I pulled the van into the garage I would see it sitting their, gathering dust and cob webs.

For a while it didn't bother me.

Then, Grandpa died, I finished school and that began to change. Sifting through the hundreds of digital images I have taken over the years, I came across a photo I took of my Grandfather at my brother Jacob's wedding in 2005.

I thought to myself, "Ya, know that is a great image of grandpa. If I ever get the chance I would like to take  crack at making an illustration out of this."

Having completed a digital illustration for my wife in spring, my desire to do something traditional had grown. My desire to do something to truly honor my Grandfather's memory had also grown.

I finally set myself to the task

As I cleaned and organized the studio (It was in complete disarray) I became more and more excited. After much shifting, sweeping and chucking, the studio was ready for some good ole fashioned traditional art.

The video below documents over a 3 month period the study sketches and the final Illustration. I hope in some small way I have honored his memory. I hope by the way I live my life over many years, I will honor him for all he tried to teach me.

Here also is a link to the Hi resolution image for any relatives who would like to get a nice print done of the illustration depicted above. Just click on the download icon at the top of the page.
It is of sufficient detail that it can be printed at full size of the original (18x24) 

Captain America Photo composite

Hello people of the internet

The following is a Photo illustration I did for my brothers Birthday last August. This was a lot of fun. I created a video for this documenting my progress in Gimp 2.8. It is a speed painting of sorts, so no explanatory dialogue. Hope you enjoy

Blue version

 Green version. I changed the letter on forehead to a 'G' on this version

Visual memorial to Leonard Nimoy and 'Text Fix' tutorial

The man who played the original Vulcan passed away last week. Being a Star Trek fan I thought it would be appropriate to create a photo illustration depicting and honoring the man who played Spock. I think what I came up with is pretty good. Please feel free to click on and download these images as a desktop background.

We all make mistakes

Also below is a little video tutorial on a spelling correction I did on the .jpg of this image. Someone was kind enough to point out that I had misspelled Leonard Nimoy's last name. With an 'e' instead of an 'i'.

 

New version of my logo

Perhaps the three people who actually check out my blog may have noticed, I have altered my logo a bit. For a while now I have been experimenting with patterns in Illustrator. In particular I am a huge fan of Celtic motifs. The beauty, and continuous dynamics of such patterns resonate with me on several different levels.

Why Celtic patterns?

First, the shallowest level: They are so incredibly cool! Depending on the colors and context, such patterns can appear antiquated or futuristic.

Oquirrh Mountain temple re-made

Well, it took a few years, but I finally made the effort to get new photos and re-illustrate the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in a heavenly setting.

Problems with the old version

The old illustration, while not completely without its merits, just had the sun angling form the rear of the temple instead of the front. A primary message of all these illustrations is that the temple should be a source of light. The old illustration fails (partially at least) in this regard.

New photo, new color scheme

The new Illustration makes up for the faults of the previous illustration. It is the source of light in the composition. If you are interested in purchasing a print please go to my imagekind.com store.

Graduation party invite

Following is an invite I created for a graduation party I put on. The illustration was done in Krita and the text in Gimp. Not sure why I did the text in Gimp. The thought crossed my mind that I could have done the text in Krita. Of course, this thought did not occur to me until I had completed this. Oh well.

My reasoning for Godzilla was simple. School is ending for me, and what monster has such an awesome way of ending things than Godzilla. Also, the new Godzilla movie came out on the 16th of May, which just happens to be the day I held the party.

A little creativity here and there

No man is an island unto himself

A few weeks ago my son participated in the annual Pinewood derby. For LDS youth this is almost a right of passage from toddlerhood into pre-teenhood. Equally so it is a sort of right of passage for LDS fathers in son-rearing. More effort goes into making these things than you would think.

 My son comes home from scouts and says "Dad I want to build a pinewood derby car. Will you help me?" Peace of cake right. Riiiiight!

So I sat down with him. First thing he wants to do is start scribbling all over the wood block and attach the wheels. I pulled the reins in, and went through the design process together. 

We began by brainstorming ideas for car themes. My son is way into nature, so all kinds of nature themes came up. The one he kept coming back to was an island theme. Rather than brush it off and steer him into a more practical direction, I indulged his idea.

I sketched on paper what an island themed racer might look like. I further brainstormed what he would like to be seen on this island racer. He settled on a peacock and snake. Other details included trees and a volcano.

The trees would be cut toothpicks with paper crumpled and taped to the tips. The Peacock and snake were made from bakable sculpting clay. In the case of the snake I sculpted it directly to the trunk of one of the trees.

Cutting the block of wood to the proper shape proved to be the most challenging. For this I enlisted the aid of my father, who has a full wood shop full of tools. Unfortunately I was not able to be there. thankfully grandpa was more than happy to take my son, cut the wood and make this happen. The results, as you can see above, were much more than I expected. My Dad went above and beyond.

After this I helped my son paint the car and put the wheels on.

The day of the race I went into this fully expecting Gage's car not to be the winner. This car was primarily for show. However, I was relieved when I saw that his was not the slowest. No one wants to be the slowest. We had a good time, which is what really mattered; and we shared a good experience as Son, Father and Grandfather.