The Fantasy World of Fontasia!

I was experimenting in Photoshop today, trying out different filters and such. It's a lot of fun for me to see the type of artwork that comes out of combining different effects together.
Anyway, I discovered that by combining a "Clouds" filter, a "Posterize" adjustment, and a "Find Edges" filter, I was able to create my own fictional countries! Without having to draw a thing!

After a few incarnations, undoing and redoing the process a few times, and coloring the shapes all in green, this is what I came up with.

I decided the countries I had created looked pretty flat, so I added a "Bevel/Emboss" layer-effect to make the landmasses "pop out" a bit more.

Next I added a blue ocean layer beneath the green landmass layers, and added a "Bevel/Emboss" effect to that. See how much it looks like a real map already? But wait, there's more!

I decided to try giving each continent their own territories, to mix it up a little. So I used the same "Clouds, Posterize, Find Edges" process I used in the first place for each shape. Now they've got boundaries.

Here, I brightened up the colors a little, overlaid a grid-pattern on the whole thing, and gave my world a clever, exotic sounding name. You'll see why I called it "Fontasia" in the very next still.

Finally, the finished product, with every single area having their own names. "How did I come up with such fantastic fictional names" do you ask? I named the countries and bodies of water based on what font-type they were. In Photoshop CS4, there is a smorgasbord of fonts to choose from, such as Pristina, Nyala, Palatino, Latha, etc.....the only place whose name doesn't match the font it's set in is the Wing Ding Islands. If they were really in Wing-Ding font, you'd just see shapes and symbols.

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There you guys have it! The Wonderful Fantasy World of Fontasia, where the names are based on fonts! If you're an artist or a writer who'd like their very own world to rule over, and you own Photoshop or some other graphic software with similar filters and effects, then play around with the steps I've described. It's a fun way to spend a creative couple hours.

P.S. Click the pictures to make them bigger if they're too small for you to see.

Happy Panda

Step 1: Yesterday, while my family and I were at the beach, I drew a panda, straight from memory.

Step 2: Next, I used Google Translate to learn how to write "Happy Panda" in Japanese Kanji symbols.

Step 3: Last, I touched up the photo and colored the bamboo green using Photoshop CS4.

Bonus Step: Uploaded this picture to my Deviant-Art account here: http://cartoonconnoisseur.deviantart.com/

Voila!

Hanjie = Sudoku for artists?

I recently found out about Hanjie when my dad took my sister and I out to Borders to see if we can find any more good clearance deals. It's such a shame that Borders is no more than a memory now. Sure there's Barnes and Noble, but when a bookstore chain goes down, it's a sad occasion for me.

Anyway, I found this book full of 100 Hanjie puzzles and thought to myself, "Now that's a fun looking Japanese puzzle if I ever saw one". What makes Hanjie fun is that the object is simple (use the numbers provided to fill in the gridded squares to produce a cute, if not, pixel-ly picture that you can then admire for about a minute upon solving it), but the game itself is mentally stimulating, and gives the solver a sense of accomplishment and something to show for his/her time and effort. What do you have to show from a solved Sudoku? Just another 9 x 9 grid full of numbers (no offense).

So far, in a matter of days, I've solved about 15 puzzles all by myself. There are plenty more puzzles that my sister Bettina did by herself, we worked on together, or we started but got stuck on them. It's great fun collaborating on a Hanjie puzzle with my sister, because sometimes one of us sees something the other one didn't, and we're a great team.

Doing puzzles like Hanjie are fun, but I do in fact miss posting up original art of my own. So, in the near future, expect some more creative posts from your's truly. Thank you for reading, and see you soon.

Fun Fact: Hanjies are also known as nonograms and pixel puzzles!

To learn more about Hanjie puzzles, go to the Wikipedia article here! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanjie

2 New Drawings!

I've got 2 new drawings for you today my lovelies!

First, a self-portrait of me done in front of a mirror. As an artist, I've found that drawing oneself is one of the more challenging things to do, especially because as I'm drawing, I'm constantly moving my eyes, my mouth, my head, my arms, just so I can get marks on paper that resemble me! The hardest part to do was the mouth. After I was done penciling it in, I showed it to my family, and they each suggested some minor changes, all the while saying, "other than that, it looks exactly like you! Great job!". Maybe every so often I can put up a new self-portrait, like once a month. What do you think?

Here is a Phineas and Ferb related gag I've had on my mind for a couple days that I finally drew on the beach yesterday. I drew the boys solely from memory, no pictures did I copy from. After browsing "Phineas and Ferb" pictures on Google Images this morning, I realize that I could have made Ferb's head a bit thinner or his eyes a bit bigger, and the tree behind them doesn't look like their back-yard tree, and other nit-picky details like that. Anyway, whaddaya think of the joke? Personally, I'm hoping somehow the writers will come up with the same joke themselves and use it in one of the future episodes. Then I would have the pleasure of thinking to myself, "Haha, I thought of that joke first, and I have the blog-post to prove it. Ha!"

See you next time. Annette is out, Peace!!

Countdown!

I love my family, especially how artistic they all are. Here now are five pictures, one done by each of the five family members (including me), drawn following the same prompt: create numbers with their own characters. GO!!!

Here first is my brother Adam's drawing. On top you can see little people drawn around the numbers 1-9 (the number 3 is on it's side, just thought you'd like to know). Below that, he went and drew even more little characters around all the letters in the alphabet. See if you can spot the letters A~Z, and also admire his ability to go the extra mile :-)

This is my mom, Shira's interpretation of the prompt. Not all the numbers are characters, but they do have a bit of character to them. "1" is a dog/cat face, "2" is a shiny heart, "3" is a pregnant zombie (as far as I can see), "4" looks kind-of like an umbrella, "5" has ripples, "6" is a pair of glasses, "7" is a shark,"8" is a snowman,"9" is hidden among a bunch of balloons, and "0" looks like a yawning sun. Good job!

These are my dad, Benny's doodles. Similar to my mom, he made drawings with character, rather than actual characters. "0" is a balloon with a face, "1" is either a lamp or a face with a huge nose (can't decide which), "2" is a fish with a very fancy tail, "3" is a butterfly, "4" is a field goal with rectangular facial features in it, "5" is two hands (one coming out of both of the ends), "6" is an upside-down face or a six-month-old embryo, "7" is a hangman's gallows, "8" is a face on top of a mirror, and "9" looks like a person.

Now for Bettina's number drawings. These I really like, because you can see how hard she worked on them. She says she's not as good an artist as me, but I say that's false! "1" is a vicious dragon, "2" is a sea monster eating a couple of guppies or something, "3" is a snake (very appropriate for the shape), "4" is a cactus (again, great idea for the shape ), "5" is three different animal faces (see if you can find them all), "6" is a wild face, "7" is a Tetris game in progress,"8" is a very curvy woman,"9" is a cat's head (nine lives, get it?), and "0" is a prisoner with lights shining on him. Amazing work!

Last but not least comes my drawing! It's a whole Number Party! From top-left going clockwise, "0" is about to go jogging, "1" is about to shake hands with a little "7", "6" finds himself on top of "9", "2" (wearing a clown hat and nose) and "5" are admiring "8" because his waist is so thin, "9" is chiding "3" for eating before roller-skating, and two different "4"s are arguing with each other over who is actually "4".

Like I said, isn't my family so artistic? After all the fun we had making these, this could be the start of a regular group activity. Try drawing characters and other things around numbers 0 through 9, and see what you come up with! Thank you and good day everyone!

Dad's Office

I did this drawing of my dad's office in about 2 hours. It could have been done shorter, but in the middle of sketching, he came in and gave brother Adam an impromptu guitar lesson, and I had to set my notebook aside for awhile. A jam-session took place, and it was groovy. Adam on electric, and dad on acoustic. I played a little bit myself, and eventually, both Adam and our father went out and I was able to wrap up my drawing. I did it all in ballpoint pen, no tracing over pencil lines involved. What do you think?

What's Cooking?

There I was, waiting for a pot of spaghetti to finish boiling. I figure, "I've got 15 minutes. Why don't I draw something while I'm not busy?" So I did, and here is the sketch-to-life comparison:

Instead of putting the temperature-dials above the stove, I decided to put them on the stove itself. Why? No good reason, but it still looks cool, don't you think?

Later!

2nd Post in 2nd Day

Three cats doing kitty things. Sorry that one of their heads is off-page, that one was actually drawn head-less.

I got the idea to do this drawing when Bettina started reading a novel called "The Book Theif". It's pretty much the front cover, with my hand about to start off the chain-reaction of dominoes to tumble.

In the comments section of this post, leave a guess as to who you think this male celebrity is. I got him from an article in a recent issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

One of the few times I catch my brother Adam reading a book. He looked so cool I had to make the moment last.

This one I did yesterday after Benny found on his bookshelf a very impressive book on reflexology. It dealt with foot, hand, ear, and head massage as well as shiatsu, and it had hundreds and hundreds of great pictures to flip through and glean inspiration from.

Emergency Art Blog Injection

We all need a little balance in our life.

I drew this on the beach.

The tall buildings and hotels make me wistful and dreamy sometimes.

A treasured stuffed animal. The day I drew "Pumpkin" I actually happened to be at a loss for a drawing idea, so Bettina helped me out by suggesting I draw one of our toys.

I drew this while I was waiting...waiting for something to be over...watching the minutes tick away on my watch and the wall-clock...just passing the time until I could finally leave.

By the way, I'm back!

Toy Story drawings

Here is a sketch done in pen that I drew recently of 2 of my favorite Pixar characters of all time: Woody and Buzz. I did it a couple days after seeing the movie "Toy Story 3", which is required viewing for anyone reading this blog post. You have got to see it! It's even better than the first 2 Toy Story movies! I swear!This is the image I based my sketch on. It's a frame from the first movie, which hangs in our room over Adam's bed. We've had it for so long I forget where we got it.

This is another picture I drew with just Buzz Lightyear in it, striking a flying pose.

I am particularly proud of these pictures because the subjects are computer-animated characters, and I captured them just right (if I do say so myself)!

Isn't it weird whenever an artist captures a moment? It makes it sound like the subject is a wild animal or something. Of course it makes sense if the subject is a wild animal, like a tiger or gorilla, but when it's computer animated characters...