An art blog less about process and theory, and more of a portfolio for me to dump my nonsense. Updates M, W, F, or whenever I feel like it.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Research themed tats FTW!

This is a draft of a sleeve design commissioned by one of the faculty from my M.S. program, Dr. Matt Gifford. He had seen a tattoo design I drew for my roommate Jonathan and asked for a drawing that he could comment on, direct, and then bring to a tattoo artist. The (obviously not-to-scale) salamander is one of his study organisms, Plethodon jordani, and the tree is a hemlock with his daughter's name carved into it.

He really liked the design, but I have yet to hear if he's followed through and gotten it. My favorite part was seeing how excited his wife was with the idea of him getting a bicep half-sleeve: actually 100% super-stoked.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Siege weapons

A functional Lego trebuchet from Highschool:

It's outfitted with an adjustable pin that allows for fine tuning of the trajectory. What's really cool is that it will actually fire farther on wheels than if it's laid flush on the ground. It's got something to do with energy being lost in the backlash. Due to scaled proportions, and the low density of Legos, I supplemented the counterweight with downward pulling rubberbands. Cheating? Maybe, but I can still hit your turd of a castle from across the entire living room.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Music Monday - Take VIII

Piano Fragments: TPS-006

The dynamics in this particular recording aren't how I usually want them to be, but I'm finding that I often tense up while recording and I'm pleased to get takes without too many mistakes. I know I should try to be more patient, and I can record as many takes as necessary to get the perfect one, but as soon as I hit the record button I make ten times more errors than when I'm playing normally. I wish someone would come and record me in secret; despite how creepy that would actually be, it might yield great takes.

On the subject of recording, I'm using a really quick setup using nothing but keyboard --> 1/4in cable --> 1/8in adapter --> computer, and though the scope of what I can tweak is more limited this way, it means I'm much more likely to record on a daily basis so my output will be higher. Unfortunately, it does produce a lot of pops at random times, but they go away temporarily when I restart the software, so I don't think it's a cable problem.

For those of you who don't care a lick about the recording process, just listen to the piece. It's got a nice sweeping intensity to it. I hope that makes sense.