The Girls "On a Rainbow"

Still learning, but really like this picture of the girls superimposed on a rainbow background.  I personally wouldn't have chosen a rainbow background, but I'm confident they will like it.

Still need to remove the redeye but I'll leave that for later.  Too nice a day today.

Learning Photoshop

Ok, I took a break from drawing again but this time it was to learn Photoshop.  Must be the A.D.D. again.  

In any case, here's an example of how it's fairly simple to add an image inside of text for some pretty cool effects.  It basically involves creating some text, bringing in the image, making the image transparent, dragging it into the original image that contains the text and converting it to a clipping group.

What's nice about this technique is that you can then change the background, manipulate the text, edit the text and add more images to the text very easily.

Clearly I've got more to learn but this is a good start.

Mouth study

Just a simple study of mouths and lips in an attempt to resurrect my skills.  I've noticed this sketch paper is a bit on the rough side so everything turns out grainy once scanned.

Bubbler Fountain

So, here's one of the many sketchbooks that I have that are almost completely empty.  I like this one because it's very small and I can take it anywhere.  I believe this means I'm supposed to sketch in it more often!

As you can see, the last sketch is from the summer.  I had just finished building a bubbler fountain for our patio and needed something to sketch.  

Buyer Beware - Sony Projection TV

So yesterday was an interesting day.  It happened to be the SuperBowl and about a month after my 2-year extended warranty ran out on my Sony TV.  Yeah, you know what that means...something bad was going to happen.  

Sure enough I noticed my immaculate picture had lost its luster and now a nice brownish-red band appeared across the top of the screen.  2 hours before the SuperBowl...yikes!  Luckily I had ordered a light bulb a few weeks earlier so I replaced it.  Well, the image was brighter but still had the dark band.  Turns out, this is a known problem with these TV's.  After about 2 years (length of most extended warranties) the optical block burns up.  Apparently, this is a widespread issue and cause for much frustration for Sony owners to the point where Sony has stopped making rear-projection TV's.

Long story short, this particular model happens to be on a list of those Sony which get a warranty auto-extension.  This means that the really expensive repair is paid by Sony.  Woo Hoo, internet research pays off.  This is such a big deal for Sony, they are even offerring an upgrade to a flat screen version for $500 as an alternative.  

So, if you have issues with TV's or other products, always keep your receipt, warranty, and take a shot on Google.  You never know what you might find!