Maps Matt Cusick

Collage paintings made from maps.

Outstanding!

Scroll down to Three Horses, 2011 and look at the detail.

Ar-Bore

They are all over the place.

More:
 --  How to draw a tree - tree drawing
 --  How To Draw a Tree, by "editionh" (This is an apparently free online book. "Preview shows the entire book." Cool.)

Sometimes you feel like a nut

"The head of a gigantic Pauahtun lies on the ground near Temple 11. The façade of Temple 11 once included the largest anthropomorphic figures ever carved in the Maya area which adorned the northwest and northeast corners of the building. Schele and Freidel write that the huge hands of the Pauahtunob held up images of the Cosmic Monster which arched across the roof entablatures. Proskouriakoff was the first to note that there were also dozens of fragments of the body of what must have been this gigantic crocodile lying around the base of Temple 11." (William L. Fash, Scribes, Warriors and Kings: The City of Copán and the Ancient Maya, p. 168)

Sculpted circa AD 773, Copán, western Honduras, close to the border with Guatemala

Tool Report: Pilot Parallel Pen Hack

Here are the directions for my Pilot Parallel Pen Hack.

The Pilot Parallel Pen is one of my favorite lettering and drawing tools, but the length and the design of the barrel are absurd. You can't post the cap! So I decide to chop it down. Which is when I discovered that thimble-shaped object.

The advantages of this hack are that the cap can be posted and that the whole thing is shorter, more compact, and so more portable. Not to worry: the cartridges or the stealth converter both fit inside the shorter barrel.

A possible disadvantage is that the nib may dry out and clog more quickly because it is deprived of its protective thimble-shaped cocoon up there in the top of the cap. It's possible that the cocoon is also meant to contain leakage. I'm not sure. I have been using Pilots hacked this way for a few years now and have encountered neither leakage nor excessive drying/clogging.

The major disadvantage for me is that it's not very sleek, that black knob there on the end. But oh well.

The Directions:
1- Using a hacksaw, saw the end of the barrel off where that little indentation is in the plastic.
2- Lightly buff off any major burrs using a piece of sandpaper. (Leave the cut end a bit raggedy. That will help it grab the thimble-shaped object.)
3- Jam the cut-open end of the barrel up into the pen's cap, where it wedges itself into a black thimble-shaped semi-rubberized object that lives up in there. Pull the barrel out. The thimble-shaped object comes out of the cap with it. The thimble is wedged onto the end of the barrel.
4- If you are intending to try an eyedropper conversion or if you are a Nervous Norton, pull the black thimble object off, add some silicone glue, and then jam it back on again. Let it set up. And then go for it!

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Related: Method for shortening Rotring ArtPen

Yes, we have balconies

More "buildings" by Victor Enrich are here.

Papa Sol

Luckily this major ka-pow last Monday was not pointed Earth-ward.

Watch below how the sun's gravity sucks the tendrils right back into the surface. Then play the vid a second time full screen and watch how the rest of the surface on the right is oozing and slowing churning.

"Awesome" is far too lame of a term for Papa Sol

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More here. And here's the Helioviewer.

What? Alive yet? Yes.

Welcome, Discovery

Welcome to Washington, you rusty crusty old warhorse Discovery.

Yes, okay. I concede that the DC fly-by was as transparent a pr pitch as NASA has ever conceived, but I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I put it on my calender weeks ago. And so, as piggy-back Discovery and her tiny dart of a escort lumbered RIGHT PAST my 11th floor window, there I was, yelling and waving. As it happened, I had my phone in my hand at that moment and was able to squeeze off a pic.

Still teary and goose-bumpy a whole day later.

Golly, I miss space.

More Discovery from yesterday:
 -- my fav Instagram pic
 -- as seen and felt from the Mall
 -- the interior via 'giga-pan', from National Geographic
 -- everyone was into it, one way or, well . . . another
 -- ". . . where no man has gone . . ."

London art shop

I like this picture. It's [stolen] from Leigh Reyes' website and is a pic of an art supplies shop in London called L. Cornelissen and Son Artists' Colourmen.
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Alas! Good but not good enough. Yet, still alive.

Have you seen it too?

Alive and . . . hugging!

Pencil Art?

Looking for a set of colored pencils? Got some wall space in your studio? Well! Go no further!

"Uncorking the Muse"

Wait a minute. I "test" this all the time.

That alcohol provides a benefit to creative processes has long been assumed by popular culture, but to date has not been tested. The current experiment tested the effects of moderate alcohol intoxication on a common creative problem solving task, the Remote Associates Test (RAT). Individuals were brought to a blood alcohol content of approximately .075, and, after reaching peak intoxication, completed a battery of RAT items. Intoxicated individuals solved more RAT items, in less time, and were more likely to perceive their solutions as the result of a sudden insight. Results are interpreted from an attentional control perspective.

Abstract from: Uncorking the muse: Alcohol intoxication facilitates creative problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2012, pages 487-493. Andrew F. Jarosz, Gregory J.H. Colflesh, Jennifer Wiley

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Still alive.

Moment Pear

This is on a collaged base. It's about 4" x 6" in the Midori Traveler. Done with gouache.

Yeah, but these flarz are blue

Midori Traveler and gouache kit.

American bison

Sketch in the Midori Traveler. Right hand page is Rives BFK "Tan" paper and is about 4" x 8". Done with pen and ink and gouache.

American bison = "the largest land mammal in North America".  (One wonders about the qualifier "land". Are there, like, Giant Squids living in Lake Superior?)

The little map shows the original range of the American bison, from up near Alaska, east to the Appalachians, down south to near the Caribbean coast and then around down into what is now northern Mexico. Remarkable.

(The GIF is an Eadweard Muybridge motion study, c. 1887, borrowed stolen from Wikipedia.)

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For more animated GIFS, see flux machine. My favorite is "Bruges". Splat!

Pli floroj? Ho ne.

This is about 4" x 8" in the Midori "Kraft" notebook. Done with gouache and some watercolor.

Please. Stop with the pears.

This is about 4" x 5" done with gouache on the "Kraft" paper notebook insert in the Midori Traveler.

Yes. More pears.

This is ACEO size = 2-1/2" x 3-1/2". Gouache on Strathmore Aquarius II watercolor paper.