Fishing Without Bait?

A recent article on Wired News caught my attention. Scientists are currently attempting to train fish to trap themselves in respond to sound by swimming into a fisherman's net (ala Pavlov's dog). I can see the idea working to a certain degree but question the effectiveness and overall ethics of the idea. It conjures to mind images of the endless line-ups that one can witness at the local fast food/coffee drive-thru(s)... or even at the local retail store when the latest game/tech toy is released. ;) Food for thought perhaps? Cheers!

Image of commercial fisherman released into the public domain by its author, Mrs. W. Chapin Huntington via Wikipedia.

Congratulations! It's a Girl!

Congratulations go out to my dear friends the Simpsons (Mark, Joanne and their daughter Elaina), in welcoming their latest addition to the family. Alice Elizabeth Simpson was born March 22nd, she weighed 5 lbs 8 ounces and was 18 inches long. Cheers!

COOL! A Year of Superhero Movies...

It seems that this year is turning out to be a year of Superhero movies. . There's the soon to be released Iron Man movie, The Dark Knight (Batman), The Incredible Hulk (trailer linked above), as well as Will Smith's Hancock. Did I miss anything? Anyhow, should be a good time and I'm looking forward to it! Oh yeah... there's also Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Cheers! ;)

Recommended Viewing | Andrew Loomis' Anatomy Books...

I recently came across a gem of a find. Andrew Loomis (1892-1959) was a highly talented American illustrator. His series of influential, instructional books are out of print and yet still highly sought after and nearly impossible to find. Luckily there is the internet, with sites such as this where you can view scans of the books. I highly recommend you take a look at Mr. Loomis' work... he's likely influenced more of today's artists than you know. Enjoy!

Welcoming a Spring Arrival...

Friend and dear colleague at Circle, talented designer, Susan McWatt FitzGerald (MGDC) and her husband Ryan (President of Nihilonaut Productions) are soon to expect the arrival of their first child. The above e-card (designed by Sue) was sent out to Circle clients to keep them informed of the impending great news! She will be missed dearly at the office while she is away on maternity leave but, she has promised to return! Best wishes to her and Ryan as they take the plunge into parenthood. Cheers!

Back in Winnipeg...

Well, I hope you had a nice Easter weekend. I was rather lucky and able to get away for the weekend to visit Calgary. It was rather interesting to see the contrasts between the two cities, almost everything was open in Calgary on Good Friday and Easter Sunday... I'm sure that most retail locations were closed in Winnipeg or open holiday (Sunday) hours. Anyhow, good meals were eaten and good times were had... I look forward to visiting again!

Leaving Winnipeg...

This Friday morning I left Winnipeg bright and early for a short visit to the city of Calgary... I've just started to sort through all the pictures that were taken and will post more shortly. Cheers!

Image: Sitting on the tarmac at the Winnipeg airport awaiting take-off. The construction of the new James Richardson International airport terminal can be seen in the background.


Image: High above the Manitoba 'winterscape'


Image: Flying above the clouds.


Image: On the landing approach to Calgary (notice the lack of snow on the ground). You can see Calgary's downtown, the Calgary Tower and the Rockies in the background.

Amazing Robotics 2 | Sarcos' Exoskeleton

While I'm discussing this topic of robots, you should also check out this amazing robotic exo-suit (ala RoboCop) being developed by Sarcos. The potential (non-military) applications for this technology is mind boggling... anyway, check it out for yourself via Youtube, here - enjoy!

Thanks for the link Oliver!

Amazing Robotics | Boston Dynamics' Big Dog

I seem to be obsessed with robots as of late... anyhow, you have to check this video out for Boston Dynamics' Big Dog robot project. Words cannot even begin to describe how cool & creepy this robot is... check it out for yourself on Youtube, here - enjoy!

Thanks to Paul for sending me the link!

Recommended | Dulce Pinzón's Superheroes...

Following in a similar theme as my previous post, I recently came across the Superheroes project by Dulce Pinzón. Excerpt from her website bio:

Dulce was born in Mexico City in 1974. She studied Mass Media Communications at the Universidad de Las Americas in Puebla Mexico and Photography at Indiana University in Pennsylvania. In 1995 she moved to New York where she studied at The International Center of Photography. Her latest project “The Real Story of the superheroes” comes full circle to reintroduce the Mexican immigrant in New York in a satirical documentary style featuring ordinary men and women in their work environment donning superhero garb, thus raising questions of both our definition of heroism and our ignorance of and indifference to the workforce that fuels our ever-consuming economy.

Her work has been published and exhibited in Mexico, the US, Australia, Argentina and Europe. In 2001 her photos were used for the cover of a publication of Howard Zinn’s book “A People’s History of the United States”. In 2002 Dulce won the prestigious Jovenes Creadores grant for her work. She won an Honorific Mention in the Santa Fe project competition 2006 with “The Real Story of the Superheroes” series. Dulce is a 2006 fellow in Photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She currently resides in Brooklyn.

Very cool work indeed! Check out more of her work at http://www.dulcepinzon.com/ - enjoy!

Wicked Artist | Anthony Lister...

I was recently re-introduced to the wicked work of Anthony Lister via Candy, the digital magazine published by the Candy Collective. I had previously seen his work in a back issue of Juxtapoz magazine. Now, I've been a fan of comics and Superheroes for as long as I can remember, and I must say that I really enjoy the fresh look/feel of Anthony's work (in particular I really liked Wolverine1, SpiderWoman2 and Fat Batman). Check out his website at http://www.anthonylister.com/ - enjoy!

Recommended | Candy Collective E-mag...

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody! In light of the fact that it's an Irish holiday I felt it was appropriate to draw your attention to Candy, the digital publication of the Candy Collective.

Candy is an independently produced digital magazine created to showcase the best in Irish and international culture, creativity and God knows what else (excerpt from Issue 1). I've been enjoying the publication for some time now and was quite excited to hear that they've just released the first two issues of the second volume. I highly recommend that you check it out, be warned, some of the issues are rather hefty downloads (40MB+) but well worth the wait.

Check it out at http://www.candycollective.com/issues.html - enjoy! Via Veer: The Skinny

Recommended | Photoshop Disasters Blog...

HAH! I'm still laughing at this image on the Photoshop Disasters blog. Looks to me like ol'Bats needs to get his eyes checked... ;) There's a wealth of hilarious images on this blog... you have to check it out at http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/ - enjoy!

Many thanks to Cameron Cavers who originally posted this link to the GDC Listserve. Cheers!

Art for Angels Painting: WTF Robot...

Well, it took a while but I finally finished the painting I was doing for the Art for Angels charity art auction, which takes place this evening Wednesday, March 12th at the ALIVE Lounge in the Exchange District. I've tried to document and you show some of the process that this painting went through (apologies for the poor photos and lighting)...


Starting from the beginning, we have the thumbnail sketch (left image). This sketch was one of 12 done in thumbnailing storm... it's approximately 1.25" x 2.5", pencil on paper. From this initial thumbnail stage, I generally like to do a series of slightly more refined 'thumbnails', just for exploration... this was done in ink on vellum (right image).


After transferring the initial sketch to canvas, I blocked in the shapes with a base layer of tone. From here, I proceeded to add more tone and paint in more detail (some shadows, highlights, etc.)... more tone, more detail (more smoke, gattling gun, etc.)... and so on, and so on... ;) Until we got to the final stage, which was to paint in the 'fluttering, floating, little birdie' and the robot's red eyes... voila!


My painting's description: WTF rolls into town and rains destruction in all directions. As the dust settles and the smoke fades, a floating, fluttering little birdie appears before WTF... stopping it dead in its path. “What gives?” asked the little birdie, “Who are you to come uninvited into my home? Who asked you to invade my freedom?” Sadly, WTF knows of only one way to respond... ;)

The painting is 12" x 24", acrylic on canvas. Anyhow, it was fun to pick up the paints/canvas again after such a long time... I feel inspired to do it more often! You can see more images of the painting's process on my Flickr page here. Hope whoever takes WTF Robot home enjoys the painting as much as I enjoyed the experience - cheers!

A Quick Osu!

These past few weeks have been a blur of work, activities, painting and Karate. The belt testing which took place this past weekend at the Guardian Dojo was a true test for all who took part. Osu!

Congratulations to all my Sempai(s) and Kohai(s) who completed the test! I was happy to have been able to shed the blood, sweat and tears with you all! Osu!

Now that the belt testing is complete, and I've been able to catch up on most fronts I expect to be back to a regular posting schedule soon! Cheers!

R.I.P. Norman Jeffrey Healey (March 25, 1966 - March 2, 2008)...

It was a sad weekend for the music industry (in general) as we lost Canadian music legend - Norman Jeffrey Healey, better known as Jeff Healey to most. Jeff Healey was blind... having lost his sight to cancer at a young age, he was an extremely talented musician, best known for his unique guitar playing style (and for some, his role as a bar musician in the late 80's action flick Roadhouse). Jeff Healey was 41. He will be missed...

The image above shows Jeff Healey playing with his Jazz Wizards Band in Peterborough, Ontario on September 8, 2007. This picture shows his unique method of playing guitar. The image is from the Wikipedia commons and has been released into the public domain by its author.

Recommended | NEW GDC Website...

The newly redesigned Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) website has now gone live. Designed by Winnipeg's own, Tetro Design and powered by Smallbox Software (CMS), the new site is full of resources for business and designers. I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to check it out! Visit the newly redesigned GDC website at http://www.gdc.net - cheers!

*Note: As with any new website launch a period of debugging will occur/be required... if you come across anything that isn't working properly on the new site, please contact the GDC webmaster via the Contact link .