United and Untied
Another side trip. An illustration done for an article written by author and friend, Carol Peterson. She didn’t ask me to do it, but I appreciated what she wrote and felt an urge to illustrate her thoughts.
Here’s the article she wrote:
Well, I did it again. Actually it happens all the time, and I’m trying to learn not to take it quite so seriously. Only God is perfect, right? And to prove that’s true, a few weeks ago there was another typo in the Sunday bulletin. Actually, it wasn’t that bad of a mistake; almost everyone read right over the word and said it as it was supposed to be and not the way it was written. But then someone had to ask me about it. “It says untied. Don’t you meanunited?” Now I do tend to get embarrassed and all bound up about such things, bound up in human imperfections as I am. But when I thought about the error, it seemed to make perfect sense. It was in the offertory prayer. “As grains of wheat are gathered for bread and as grapes together are poured out for wine, so may we be untied in your presence through this sacrament of grace.”
There’s a real sense of accomplishment when we do something well, when we get it right. But our brokenness and imperfection can leave us all tied up in knots, that’s for sure.
Yes, it is true that we are in bondage to sin, and we cannot free ourselves. We sin by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We don’t love God wholeheartedly and we don’t love our neighbors as ourselves, either. We are all bound up in our humanity.
Yet we hear words of forgiveness as we receive the body and blood of Jesus, who lived and died and lives again so that we can stand before God untied from our bondage to sin and set free from our imperfections and brokenness.
So we pray, As we come to your table, O Christ, may we be untied in your presence, to live in the wonderful freedom you have won for us!
Carol is the author of the novel “Eddie’s Wake” that I had the pleasure to cover design. Besides being a writer she is a wife, mother, lover of Lake Superior and an interim pastor in the Lutheran denomination. She resides with her husband Tom in Wisconsin. Her blog is called, “Writing Eddie’s Wake”
Filed Under illustration
Taking a side trip with photography
With this business of books and book design, like many other businesses, there’s much hurry up and wait. In other words, “We need ideas now but it will be a while until we’re ready for you for the next stage.” That seems to be the nature of things for me.
So in my “side” time I follow another passion with photography. Here are a couple of things I’ve recently been working on that I thought I’d share.
First, a few stills taken in Providence, Rhode Island. Such a beautiful city that has gone through a renaissance of its own. I enjoyed using Photoshop to create an illustration feel for these. If you click on the images it will bring you to my Flickr site and from there you can view them at a larger size if you wish.
And a short movie I created from stills and video, compiled with a music track in iMovie. I had way too much fun.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTaZVkjakvU]
Filed Under Photography, video
The Last Matryoshka (book title revealed)
Oh, so that’s the title of the book .What in the world is a matryoshka you say? Well, you know those charming Russan nesting dolls, the ones that are usually made of wood and are hollow, and you open one and find another, open that one and find another, and on and on. Yeah, that’s what this is, but they’re usually not as creepy looking as this one.
“The Last Matryoshka” is a suspenseful mystery that takes place in Russia. There’s blackmail, dark prisons, lewd tattoos and lots of bad guys.
So my work is done for a little while on this. The advanced reading copy has gone out and I await the final instructions for the back cover and spine.
Filed Under "book cover design", illustration
Sneek peak – revised
The revised illustration - more sinister looking.
Round Two
It’s been a little while since I revised this illustration (with the “sinister filter” in Photoshop). I am waiting for the final go-ahead to complete the cover of this book so that I can post it in its entirety, but I wanted to show the approved illustration. Definitely more sinister looking. The client, author, and publisher all agreed thankfully, and love it. (Whew!)
Besides the skull face I added texture to the surfaces to give a more realistic feel and move away from the flat, cartoony look that I had before.
Next step will be the back cover, flaps and spine for this one. Looking forward to it.
-Dave
Filed Under "book cover design", illustration
Sneak peek and the mystery of interpretation.
This is an illustration for a upcoming mystery novel. I had a lot of fun with this, but the client felt it just wasn’t sinister looking enough. So back to the drawing board I go.
Interpreting the wishes and desires for a client is a tricky thing at times. You go over the client’s instructions and suggestions, do your research, and then do your best to interpret it all with the creative energies they’ve hired you for. Sometimes it’s a bull’s eye hit and other times the target is missed all together. All part of the process.
I found out that I’m not too far off from the mark on this one. I’m getting ready to tweak it with the Sinister filter in Photoshop. 
Filed Under "book cover design", Promotion, Uncategorized
My Fears and the Future of Print Design (and kind of my take on life in general)
"Changing Directions?" - You can count on it!
Having spent the majority of my design career in print I had grown anxious and weary about the future with digital media, but I am no longer worried. It’s all about, as it’s always been about, quality content and the means to promote that quality content.
The world seems to be spinning faster than ever before… growth and change in technology is a moment by moment occurrence… life is constantly in transition… and I just can’t keep up… yet I’m okay with that!
Enjoy the ride. What’s good and noble and of lasting value will endure and the rest will become just another soon-to-be-forgotten iPhone app.
Peace
Filed Under Uncategorized
Just Desserts!
A “spoof” cover for the fun gang on Twitter’s #StoryFriday!
Filed Under Uncategorized
The Mother Lode Guide to Flung Shui
Well, okay, this one’s not available on Amazon yet. Just having some fun with a mock title and book by author/humorist, Theresa Lode (aka= The Mother Lode).
Here’s the article she wrote that refers to this. I love her writing. She is one very funny woman!
Thanks for the inspiration, Theresa!
Filed Under Uncategorized
Having fun with video and still photography
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89rW_UBOGoI&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1]
Taking a video clip and lots of still photos that I’ve taken, I created this fun little piece in Apple’s iMovie. The program allows you to do a pan and zoom, called the “Ken Burns effect” after the famous documentary producer. There’s a couple of water scenes here that you’d swear it was moving video, but this effect causes the on-screen pixels to give the impression of water movement (Either that or it’s magic).
Filed Under Promotion, Uncategorized, video
Making my own whiteboard
I like to think out loud and big and with pictures!
I had been taping up large sheets of newsprint to layout concepts on the wall in my home studio. Besides wasting a lot of paper it just looked very tacky. So I thought I’d check out and price those whiteboards. Not cheap. I went to a website and found the plans for making one. It’s really simple and the materials are as close as your nearest home store.
I went to Lowes and picked up a sheet of pre-cut 32″ X 48″ “marker-board” (which I think is a generic Melamine). Right next to the board at the store I found plastic molding strips that perfectly fit and snapped on to the edge of the board. I figured the molding would protect the edges from chipping. The only other things I needed were a way to hang, stand, or mount this thing and a set of dry erase markers. I stopped at Staples on the way home and picked up a set. They came with an eraser and a bottle of cleaner for about $10.
At home I measured and cut the molding strips and attached them to the board. Because I didn’t want to permanently mount the board to a wall I had to figure a way to hang it temporarily. I have a corner hutch to the right of my desk and thought that would be an ideal spot for the board to hang.
I found two old aluminum shelf brackets and bent them in an upside-down U shape, then drilled holes in them, and two holes at the top of the board, and attached them.
Now I can slip my board over the hutch and voila… a portable whiteboard for my big ideas. It also work great hanging over an open door.
This was EASY and inexpensive. I love easy and inexpensive!
If you want to get your ideas up big give this a try. It’s a great way to think out loud.
–Dave
Filed Under Uncategorized
