Images: May 2008 Archives

Nor do I usually draw baby noses. (Illustration Friday, topic: baby)

Prints: chrisleavens.imagekind.com

When your home is overrun by orange and yellow vines and vegetative cyclopes, it's time to worry. (Illustration Friday, topic: worry)

I put a little extra work into this one, hope it shows. Now the tired is setting in heavily.

On an Adobe Illustrator-related tech note, I've found the root of my computer's slowness when confronted with complex images. It's all tied to the thumbnail previews in the layers pallet. After each new item is drawn, it's redrawn in the layers pallet. If I hide the layers pallet momentarily while working on complex images, the slowness disappears. This is a minor nuisance for me because I like to keep the layers pallet exposed all the time -- I use lots of layers (I like my files to be somewhat organized). But I guess if it helps me to put off dropping 2.5 Gs on a new computer, I'll deal with it for now.

Prints: chrisleavens.imagekind.com

The large-footed bird strode along happily in his new extra-wide loafers he picked up at the factory outlet store in Camarillo. (Illustration Friday, topic: wide)

I'm super busy this week, so I figured I'd just throw together a VERY quick ink & paper drawing this time around. It's too bad, because I'm in the planning stages for a piece that would've fit this topic perfectly.

So what's keeping me so busy? Tonight, I'm taking part in a group art show in downtown LA, so I've been prepping for the show for the last couple weeks, putting together promo materials, carting prints to the show location, and updating my portfolio site, which isn't quite done, but it's definitely informative enough and functional.

I was passing by the liquor department in a grocery store near the famous University of Southern California when I saw this sign.

A little science for you alls...

For those of you not in the know, the name of the sporting forces of the USC is the "Trojans," named after the "Trojans." They have had this name since before the widespread adoption of broadcast analogue television and, rumour has it, plan to keep it in the coming age of broadcast DIGITAL TV.

While they have been having "Trojans" as their sports-people name, there has been another school in Los Angeles, called the UCLA, where they have opted to call their sports-practitioners not "Trojans" but "Bruins."

Perhaps it was over this point that these two fine institutions of college stuff went to war and became bitter enemies; or perhaps became bitter enemies and went to war. Irregardless, a state of tension, occasionally flaring into real-deal street violence has simmered twixt them for a time that the kids and the wags both refer to as "long ass."

Because of this, new laws apparently have been enacted while I have been busy playing stupid computer games. These laws probably make it very hard for people from the UCLA to buy their liquor in the store where I took this picture. In the past, that wouldn't have been such a big deal, but today's unpredictable regional real estate prices and the recent discoveries about the health benefits of moderate red wine consumption make this one of today's big "hot button" issues.

It should also be noted that, in the local parlance, the term for gamboling about while on the sauce is to be "a-brewin'" (due to the idea some here might have that, even inside of you, the booze, she continues to brew). This sign thus has a second layer of meaning and is actually frightfully clever for being able to efficiently block purchases by both registered students and faculty of the UCLA as well as ANY adult who dares to enter the joint on less than a fully even keel.

Two sky arms develop the land, ironing away the mountains and electrically binding buildings to the flattened earth. (Illustration Friday, topic: electricity)

I'm really not sure about this one. I had to finish it on my 12" iBook G4 because Adriana and I went out of town this weekend. The colors on the iBook are really hard to gauge. Creating something like this on a computer of this caliber is a brand of masochism I'm not eager to soon repeat. I'll probably go back in and fix it when I'm on my home computer.

Two sky arms develop the land, ironing away the mountains and electrically binding buildings to the flattened earth. (Illustration Friday, topic: electricity)

I'm really not sure about this one. I had to finish it on my 12" iBook G4 because Adriana and I went out of town this weekend. The colors on the iBook are really hard to gauge. Creating something like this on a computer of this caliber is a brand of masochism I'm not eager to soon repeat. I'll probably go back in and fix it when I'm on my home computer.

The seemingly endless parade of oblivious birds chomping his brethren had planted enough seeds of resent, anger, and hatred to animate the building. (Illustration Friday, topic: seed)

I've been invited to display some of my work at a group show here in Los Angeles on May 17, so I've been busy preparing (hence the lateness of this post). If you live out here, or you're going to be in the area and want to check out the show, feel free to email me for more details: chris[type at symbol]unloosen.com

And yes, as one might imagine, I was really, really tempted (in a heavy sort of way) to use this topic as an excuse to draw multiple Neils from The Young Ones, but I found restraint.

Prints: chrisleavens.imagekind.com

Word has it that when the Trojans are feeling INhospitable, they take off the tape...