(Insert stupid Blog name here)

That's cool. Not everyone makes their own avatar. I had been meaning to ask you about the last one. Did you make it?

Yep, I made the previous one, too. It's just a reduced version of the main graphic on my mods comparison page.

 

 

I had a couple of earlier ones that I made, too:

 

 

 

Battlezone is my favorite arcade game.

Very cool avatar, I noticed that yesterday, although obviously couldn't make out the "HOMEBREW" text on the cartridge label until you posted this blog entry. The second Battlezone avatar is also quite amusing, with the tank flipping over the block.

 

..Al

I need to check Freehand out. It looks like it would have come in handy for a freelance project I just finished. My client needed two large line drawings of her and her husband's (custom) Harley Davidson cycles - to be engraven on their headstones. I know nothing about motorcycles and she only had a couple of old and blurry photos to work from. A lot of the project was frustrating because what wasn't shown in the photos, I had to make up. I fought with it for a while and never felt like it came out as clean and crisp as I wanted. Luckily, she liked them... well enough that she paid a 33% tip!

 

 

Nice work! But I'd strongly suggest getting Illustrator (Adobe) instead of FreeHand (Macromedia).

 

The programs essentially do the same thing, but I like FreeHand since I've been using it some 17 years, and I'm very familiar with it. But Adobe recently bought out Macromedia so FreeHand is essentially a dead product (although they still sell it, despite no update in two years).

 

I keep hoping someone (Corel?) will buy FreeHand off Adobe and continue it, but that's unlikely. Hopefully Adobe will at least add support for importing FreeHand files to Illustrator, but the next version of that isn't due out for another year.

 

I'll probably gradually switch over to using Illustrator, but I don't like being forced to do so.

I have both Illustrator and Photoshop on discs somewhere. I haven't had either installed because I didn't use them frequently to warrant the amount of space they filled on my hard drive... well, at least that used to be my excuse (when I only had 8GB). Also, the little knowledge of either program, I learned on a Mac... and moving back and forth from PC to Mac got confusing. Since then, I usually have used pen & ink, a scanner, and Paint Shop Pro for my projects.

 

I installed Freehand earlier today and it is exactly what I would have liked to have had for the project I showed above. You wouldn't know it, but I spent an obscene amount of time inking, and re-inking, those cycles (when I made a mistake or had to add something). Freehand would have saved me a lot of grief and I could have done a much more crisp job. The program is relatively small, inexpensive, and the ease of use is incredible! Maybe the novelty will eventually wear off, but it seems like with Freehand, anyone could make a decent drawing.

 

What I really need is a Mac and some good software.

I can believe the amount of re-working you'd need to do on those illustrations. That's exactly why I stopped inking traditionally, and have switched over exclusively to FreeHand. I can endlessly tweak line positions and shapes in a way I could never do before.

 

It also allows you to add a variable-width (calligraphic) stroke to the lines, to make them look more hand-drawn. I use that all the time now.

 

And as far as needing a Mac - you won't get any arguments from me. I love my G5 iMac.

I can believe the amount of re-working you'd need to do on those illustrations. That's exactly why I stopped inking traditionally, and have switched over exclusively to FreeHand. I can endlessly tweak line positions and shapes in a way I could never do before.

 

It also allows you to add a variable-width (calligraphic) stroke to the lines, to make them look more hand-drawn. I use that all the time now.

 

And as far as needing a Mac - you won't get any arguments from me. I love my G5 iMac.

 

I thought I'd show you how it turned out. It's not the best picture in the world; I need to go back and take better pictures. There are a few (seemingly obvious) inking errors on my part, but now I know about programs like Inkscape and Freehand, I'll do better with the next one. The lady hired me again for another memorial that will be put in one of the big parks here in town.

 

 

or the link: http://mojofltr.sitesled.com/cropped%20resized.jpg, since it doesn't seem to be displaying correctly - at least in my browser.

That turned out really nice! Pretty cool design.

That turned out really nice! Pretty cool design.

 

Thanks! I wish I could say that I designed the rest of it.

 

It's a small cemetary and the gravestone is by far the largest there! For a better description, the kid (whose reflection you can see in the gravestone standing next to me) is 6'3 and the spikes stand a few inches higher than his head. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 

The next one I am doing will be of her husband on the left cycle. I have it drawn, just not inked... and unfortunately the harddrive on my computer has crapped out, so I'm going to have to hook my scanner into another PC just to get the thing going. The thing is due in a few days, so I best get started soon!

Heya Nathan! No blog entries for a while?! I hope all is okay!? Ah, I'm sure you're just busy with all your projects.

 

Anyways, I recently won a logo contest for the Idaho State Florist Association and am on a slight buzz. You are the only person I know who might be interested in this, so I thought I'd share it with you here in your blog. The only requirements were that the logo be in two flat colors plus black and white and measure 6 x 6 inches. The rest was left to the imagination.

 

 

Pretty soon, this will be on the door or wall of pretty much every floral shop in Idaho. I know, it's not a big deal, but I'm kinda stoked.

 

...

 

Btw... hurry and finish your projects so you can blog me up some entertainment!

 

Cheers,

-William

Very cool. That's a nice design, and quite the coup! Of course, I'm a little biased since my mom worked as a florist.

 

As for the blog... man, I've been buried at work. Just swamped. Things are easing up just a little though, so I'm hoping to get back to it later this week. I've got a couple (three, actually) homebrew projects I'm supposed to be working on graphics for, plus the Four-Play manual (still waiting for the final text on that). I'm waiting for a shipment from AtariAge of some homebrews, so those will get reviewed. Finally, Weird Al's new album comes out tomorrow, so I want to fire up a review for that, too.

 

Hopefully, I can get my blog back on the front page real soon now.

Weird Al was on Robot Chicken this weekend, a video for It's Weasel Stomping Day from his new album.

 

He also did a voice in their skit Wishes

Pretty soon, this will be on the door or wall of pretty much every floral shop in Idaho. I know, it's not a big deal, but I'm kinda stoked.

I disagree - that's a big deal. congrats!!!

I caught Weasel Stomping Day last night. At Weird Al's MySpace Page, he's also got videos for two other tracks from his CD. White & Nerdy is excellent. Don't Download This Song - not so much.

Hopefully, I can get my blog back on the front page real soon now.

 

If it helps, it's still on the frontpage of my Blog arrangement, since I added it to favourites

If it helps, it's still on the frontpage of my Blog arrangement, since I added it to favourites

Same here.

If it helps, it's still on the frontpage of my Blog arrangement, since I added it to favourites

Same here.

me three

Thanks guys! That means I don't have to update it at all!

 

Well... maybe just a little one...