Originally published at art.jebas.us. You can comment here or there.

This pen and ink illustration was created for fun several years ago.  At the time, I was thinking that the best place to hold the 2001 WorldCon would be the moon.  That lead me to the idea of astronauts taking pictures with the monoliths from 2001. 

In case you can't read the button on the monolith, it says, "Hum if you're sentient."

Tags: convention, pen & ink, scifi

While attending a friend's New Year party, we came up with a new game.  You've all heard of "6 degrees to Kevin Bacon."  Well this game involves the Internet.  The opposing picks an Internet site, and you have to hit a porn site within seven clicks. 

Uhnnn...

You know, this was a lot funnier at four in the morning.

While waiting for a birthday party, I had to turn to my littlest and say, "No.  You're going to wait for cake and ice cream like everyone else."

Tags: children, phrases

Originally published at art.jebas.us. You can comment here or there.

I pulled together a quick Christmas card using GIMP. I really should not have waited until the last minute to get this completed. It is finished, and that is the important thing.

Merry Christmas to everyone, and a Happy New Year.

Tags: digital art, gimp, holiday, santa

Originally published at art.jebas.us. You can comment here or there.

I was right, painting the individual strips on the scarf made more work for myself.

Using the method describe in Hi-Fi Color, I create a selection mask from the flat colors. This way I can make changes to the painting, but still select the individual items as needed. This means that if I wish to paint a section of the Doctor's scarf, I have to select each individual strip. It also means that I have to clean up the selection because the areas between the flat colors are not perfect. Therefore each time I paint the scarf, I am spending an extra minute or two cleaning up the area I will be painting.

I would have continued to work around this mistake, but then I made two additional mistakes.

The first mistake that I made was taking a short cut. Instead of hand painting the texture of the scarf, I was going to use a image of a knit that I had available. Now the Doctor's scarf does not lay flat. It wraps around his body two or three times. It is rolled up on itself. It's even folded. With all of these shapes, I should have realized that I needed to hand paint the texture. I could have recovered from this, but then I made my second mistake.

I was not saving incremental files.

I work as a programmer, and I am very familiar with version control. The rule is that once you get a section working, save it to the version control system. The reason is simple. It gives you the ability to go back to a earlier version. What I should have done was save a new file when the flats were complete, and then again when the hat was complete. If I had done that, I could have back to the version that had the completed hat. Now I have to clean up the mess that I made before I can go forward again.

Hopefully, I'll learn from my mistakes.

Tags: doctor who, doctor who - i've been here before, gimp, texture

The actions of the past always affect the future.  Long ago, while we were still dating, I got Amanda a present.  That present is now causing me a great amount of trouble this Christmas.

When we first met, Amanda was strictly a "Star Trek" fan.  Though she also enjoyed reading Anne McCaffrey, her background was rather limited.  As we dated, I began introducing her to more of the things that I enjoyed, and this included some anime; specifically "Tenchi Muyo."  She had liked that series as well, and feel in love with the cabbit called Ryo-oki.  So when I was at a convention, I bought the plush toy as a gift. 

Unfortunately, that simple action is causing me problems for this Christmas.

As I have seen with most parents, any childhood toy that you hold onto will eventually be passed to the children.  Usually the reason is that the kids find the thing on their own, and begin playing with it.  Well that is what happened to Amanda's Ryo-oki doll.  It some how got mixed with the kid's stuffed animals, and eventually became their's.

After they had been playing with it for a while, the oldest daughter asked me where this strange little stuffed animal came from.  It wasn't quite a cat, nor was it a rabbit.  So I sat down and explained what it was to her, and that it came from a television series called "Tenchi Muyo."  She asked to see it.  So I dusted off the VCR, went through my tape boxes, and got the cleaner, television broadcast version that was called "The Tenchi Universe," and showed it to both my daughters. 

They fell in love with the cabbit.

The problem is that they both want the one toy, and the they have both wanted it so badly that it had to confiscated a few times to prevent fights.  They have been reminded several times that this was a toy that Daddy bought for Mommy.  However, my littlest one had come up with a solution.  She is going to ask Santa for her own Ryo-oki doll.  A doll that hasn't been on the market for almost a decade. 

So this year, Santa needs some help.  If there is anyone out there that knows where I can find a plush Ryo-oki doll, please let me know.  She isn't interested in the backpack, just the doll.  I would appreciate any lead that can be passed to Santa.

Thanks.

Tags: christmas, daughters, family, ryo-oki

Originally published at art.jebas.us. You can comment here or there.

My shoulder is now feeling well enough to draw again, so I have painted in the flats for the fourth Doctor parody. For those of you that are not familiar with the term, the flats are solid pieces of color that cover an entire shape. The hat and coat are one solid color. The pants are another color, and the trim is another.

I might have made a mistake here, but I'm not sure yet. Since the scarf was made of four or five different colors, I painted out the strips in flats. Since the flats are used to select the sections of the painting later, I may have created more work for myself. I'll now have to select all of the individual scarf sections to select the entire scarf. Of course I thought of this after I was almost done painting the scarf.

It has been said many times. Art is a learning process, and I am no master.

Tags: doctor who, doctor who - i've been here before, painting, scifi, wip

Originally published at stories.JeBas.us. You can comment here or there.

This was my first blog.  I started it to see what I could do with it, and it expanded very quickly, and became more professional.  Now the problem is that my personal blog no longer fits in my professional sites.

I really don't want to shut it down, but JeBas.US has been expanding into other areas of interest and service.  The main www site discusses the issues about running websites like this one.  GlutenFree helps parents feed a family gluten free meals.  Art not only shows my latest artwork, but discusses issues of marketing on the Internet.  And finally, groupGTD is a time and project management software for groups and individuals.  

Stories was nothing more than stories of what happened to me.  These stories didn't offer parenting tips, or little morals, and anything that would be considered important.  All these stories are little pieces of amusement for friends and family.  I enjoyed writing them, but they no longer have a place on this site, so they must be moved.

From now on, my LiveJournal page will hold these stories.  LiveJournal is better suited for these personal stories, and I encourage you follow along at that site.  There I will keep a personal journal of what I'm doing.  

Thank you for reading. 

Tags: myself

My children have discovered the Hamster Dance. 

I don't think I need to say anything else.

Originally published at art.jebas.us. You can comment here or there.

I'm still healing. With each day I gain more mobility in my right hand again. Soon I should be drawing and painting again. Until then, here is something that I did in the 1990's. I call it the Groucho Dragon.

Now this is actually the second attempt at drawing a dragon version of Groucho Marx. The first version was sold to someone right off of the drawing tablet. I was at a science fiction convention sketching when someone made the suggestion about celebrities as dragons. I chose Groucho Marx. Then someone decided that they wanted to buy my weird little doodle, and according to Mark Twain, money is the highest form of flattery. Therefore I graciously took the complement.

Selling the sketch that quickly also taught me a lesson. No artist can perfectly duplicate their work. I had liked my Groucho Dragon, and had wanted it for myself. Unfortunately each time I tried to duplicate it, I met with less and less success. The first version of the drawing had more life that the second, and the third was as stiff as a board. From that point on, I've always tried to make sure that I have a scanned copy of anything I really want to keep. It's also why I try to work as close to the original sketch as possible.

Tags: dragon, pencil, pencil sketches, sketch