Harold Bloom

I return to my initial question: the Sorrowful Knight's object. He is at war with Freud's reality principle, which accepts the necessity of dying. But he is neither a fool nor a madman, and his vision is always at least double: he sees what we see, yet he sees something else also, a possible glory that he describes to appropriate or at least to share. Unamuno names this transcendence as literary fame, the immortality of Cervantes and Shakespeare. Certainly that is part of the Knight's quest; much of Part II turns upon his and Sancho's delightful apprehension that their adventures in Part I are recognized everywhere. Perhaps Unamuno underestimated the complexities involved in so grand a disruption in the aesthetics of representation. Hamlet again is the best analogue: from the entrance of the players in Act II through the closure of the performance of The Mousetrap in Act III all the rules of normative representation are tossed away and everything is theatricality. Part II of Don Quixote is similarly and bewilderingly advanced, since the Knight, Sancho, and everyone they encounter are acutely conscious that fiction has disrupted the order of reality.

. . .

The aesthetic wonder is that this enormity (DQ as a "veritable encylopedia of cruelty"--Nabokov) fades when we stand back from the huge book and ponder its shape and endless range of meaning. No critic's account of Cervantes' masterpiece agrees with, or even resembles, any other critic's impressions. Don Quixote is a mirror held up not to nature, but to the reader. How can this bashed and mocked knight be, as he is, a universal paradigm?

From Harold Bloom's Introduction to Don Quixote
(bold mine)

Pantone Color

Color is a an important topic in digital illustration, so I decided to add a new color category in the blog. I'll begin with a simple guide to pantone colors from colourlovers.com's blog, you can check the original article by clicking on the link below. The next posting in this category will be dedicated to the color libraries and swatches in Adobe Illustrator."Pantone was founded in 1962 as a small business that manufactured color cards for cosmetics companies. Since their humble beginning, Pantone has become a mainstay for color in the design world. The Pantone Matching System allows colors to be “matched” when they reach the production stages. They also assert that their lists of color numbers and pigment values are the intellectual property of Pantone and free use of the list is not allowed, which is controversial and could be said to cause problems, especially for open source uses. Controversy aside, the world leader in color hasn’t stopped with just their matching system and has started to move into taking over the ‘universe’ of color as well with the launch of Pantone Universe." Full text

Rotate Tool

A Girl and Her Dog

My pal Sheila sent me a link today to a really stunning photo set over at Flickr. The 28 photos show a pretty young woman asleep with her pup. The photographer captured the softness of morning light, and the delicate intimacy that many of us share with our canine companions. Click through to the photo set to see more ... each slide is better than the last. Since I have a family oriented blog and business I should warn that there is some very minor artistic nudity in one or two of the slides, nothing that should offend.

This sweet pitbull is Putney Sue.
Thanks to Ezra Caldwell for letting us share this photograph.

Ford Maddox Ford

I have come to be very much of a cynic in these matters; I mean that it is impossible to believe in the permanence of man's or woman's love. Or, at any rate, it is impossible to believe in the permanence of an early passion. As I see it, at least, with regard to man, a love affair, a love for any definite woman, is something in the nature of a widening of the experience. With each new woman that a man is attracted to there appears to come a broadening of the outlook, or, if you like, an acquiring of new territory. A turn of the eyebrow, a tone of the voice, a queer characteristic gesture--all these things, and it is these things that cause to arise the passion of love--all these things are like so many objects on the horizon of the landscape that tempt a man to walk beyond the horizon, to explore.

He wants to get, as it were, behind those eyebrows with the peculiar turn, as if he desired to see the world with the eyes that they overshadow. He wants to hear that voice applying itself to every possible proposition, to every possible topic; he wants to see those characteristic gestures against every possible background. Of the question of the sex instinct I know very little and I do not think that it counts for very much in a really great passion. It can be aroused by such nothings--by an untied shoelace, by a glance of the eye in passing--that I think it might be left out of the calculation. I don't mean to say that any great passion can exist without a desire for consummation.

That seems to me a commonplace and to be therefore a matter needing no comment at all. It is a thing, with all its accidents, that must be taken for granted, as, in a novel, or a biography, you take it for granted that the characters have their meals with some regularity. But the real fierceness of desire, the real heat of a passion long continued and withering up the soul of a man, is the craving for identity with the woman that he loves.

He desires to see with the same eyes, to touch with the same sense of touch, to hear with the same ears, to lose his identity, to be enveloped, to be supported. For, whatever may be said of the relation of the sexes, there is no man who loves a woman that does not desire to come to her for the renewal of his courage, for the cutting asunder of his difficulties. And that will be the mainspring of his desire for her. We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.

So, for a time, if such a passion comes to fruition, the man will get what he wants. He will get the moral support, the encouragement, the relief from the sense of loneliness, the assurance of his own worth. But these things pass away; inevitably they pass away as the shadows across sun-dials. It is sad, but it is so. The pages of the book will have become familiar; the beautiful corner of the road will have been turned to many times. Well, this is the saddest story.

Ford Maddox Ford, from The Good Soldier
(qtd. Sven Birkerts, The Reading Life: Books for the Ages)

Bernese Mountain Dog Art

"Bella" ( see proofs )

"Rusty & Wrigley" ( see proofs )

Today I worked on a couple of Bernese Mountain Dogs, a Golden Retriever, and I updated a pair of cute Doberman Pinschers for the 3rd and final time. That is 5 pups but only 3 clients so I am a little behind this afternoon. I guess I could worry about it and work late or start early and fresh in the morning. I think I will work a little late tonight so I can print 3 projects that gave us quick & easy sign-offs this week.

Bertrand Russell

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell

Bruno Schulz

I do not know just how in childhood we arrive at certain images, images of crucial significance to us. They are like filaments in a solution around which the sense of the world crystallizes for us . . . They are meanings that seem predestined for us, ready and waiting at the very entrance of our life . . . Such images constitute a program, establish our soul's fixed fund of capital, which is allotted to us very early in the form of inklings and half-conscious feelings. It seems to me that the rest of our life passes in the interpretation of those insights, in the attempt to master them with all the wisdom we acquire, to draw them through all the range of intellect we have in our possession. These early images mark the boundaries of an artist's creativity. His creativity is a deduction from assumptions already made. He cannot now discover anything new; he learns only to understand more and more the secret entrusted to him at the beginning, and his art is a constant exegesis, a comment on that single verse that was assigned to him. But art will never unravel that secret completely. The secret remains insoluble. The knot in which the soul is bound is no trick knot, coming apart with a tug at the end. On the contrary it grows tighter and tighter. We work at it, untying, tracing the path of the string, seeking the end, and out of this manipulating comes art . . .

Bruno Schulz, from the Introduction to Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles

Joseph Cambell

Destruction of the world that we have built and in which we live, and of ourselves within it; but then a wonderful reconstruction of the bolder, cleaner, more spacious, and fully human life--that is the lure, the promise and the terror . . . that we carry within.

Joseph Campbell, from The Hero with a Thousand Faces

(qtd. Anne Paris)

On my Digital Easel

"Shug" ( see more proofs )

"Lyla" ( see more proofs)

Today we proofed a couple of new clients and updated a couple of folks as well. I also sent out one working sketch, and we started on a new Bulldog named "Stumpy-Joe". My goal each and every day is to try to work on at least 5 portrait projects. Yay! We succeeded at that today. Allison was here all afternoon and she was a huge help.

Walter & Maia (update)

"Sadie" (update)

Fresh Vector Brushes

A fresh looking brush set for Adobe Illustrator from www.dtpvids.com . Ckech it out, I found other interesting resources and tutorials. To download the brushes use this link

Vintage Dogs and Cars

Vintage Dog Photos:
Wow, the week just evaporated again! Well I was going to post new dog art today but I just don't have anything new ready to show. Today I am sharing a few very cool flickr finds. These traveling canines are not part of my family tree. They do make me want to throw the pups in the car and go somewhere. I really love vintage dog photography. Check out Dog Art Today for a cool shot of Frida Kahlo and her pups.

Pet Portrait Production Notes:
We did ship 5 portraits today, and worked on 3 others. There are about 6 people waiting on proofs and I promise you guys that next week you will see some progress and some on-line proofing. We are working hard ... stay tuned.

Cao Xueqin

"You've hit it exactly!" said Dai-yu. "As a matter of fact even the language isn't of primary importance. The really important things are the ideas that lie behind the words. If the ideas that lie behind it are genuine, there's no need to embellish the language for the poem to be a good one. That's what they mean when they talk about 'not letting the words harm the meaning'."

Cao Xueqin

From The Story of the Stone, Vol. II
(translated by David Hawkes)

For more about the novel:

The Story of the Stone (25 Profound Works of Literary Genius)

From the Story of the Stone

Astolphe de Custine

We are all vaguely tormented with a desire to know a world which appears to us a dungeon . . . I should feel as if I could not depart in peace out of this narrow sphere unless I endeavored to explore my prison. The more I examine it, the more beautiful and extensive it becomes in my eyes.

Astolphe de Custine (qtd. in The Accidental Masterpiece by Michael Kimmelman)

Take A Seat Vector Collection

8 eps vectors of seating furniture from fudgegraphics. Download the pack from here.

Sticking to it until you get stuck

I suppose the following is a fair comment to this and to that:


More about The Leave Me Alone Box here.

W.B. Yeats

One had a lovely face
And two or three had charm,
But charm and face were in vain
Because the mountain grass
Cannot but keep the form
Where the mountain hare has lain.


W.B. Yeats, "Memory" qtd. in Love, Again by Doris Lessing

Hermann Hesse

I wanted only to try to live in accord with
the promptings that came from my true self.
Why was that so very difficult?

Hermann Hesse, Demian

The Upanishads

You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.

Brihadaranyka IV.4.5 (translated by Eknath Easwaran)

Chihuahua Art Video

Here is a quick little slide show video of some of our Chihuahua artwork.



We are busy working on proofs today. I will be posting more pet artwork on Friday.

Vector Trees Illustrator Tutorial for Adobe Illustrator

"Green is in vogue and clients everywhere want natural imagery in their promotional material. Ben the Illustrator shows you how to create a fresh-looking tree.

As a child, no doubt a tree was one of the first things you drew, with a brown rectangular block for the trunk and a big green scribble for the leaves...

But with companies increasingly keen to shout about their ecological credentials, now’s a good time to learn how to create a tree with a computer instead of crayons.
Full tutorial Computer Arts Magazine

Some like it hot ...

"Walter & Maia" (Bold)

Man I love color. If I had to choose between never hearing another song and seeing the world in black and white I would choose to never hear music again. I just love playing with color and Photoshop allows me to go as bold as I want to go while still keeping a more conservative offering on the back burner for folks that may not like their hues quite so hot. Today I am finalizing Walter & Maia and working on a few other pet portrait projects.

"Walter & Maia" (Tame)

Dorothy Brande

"The idea of the alter ego, the other self, or higher self, recurs whenever genuius becomes conscious of its own processes, and we have testimony for it in age after age."

"The man of genius is one who habitually (or very often, or very successfully) acts as his less gifted brothers only rarely do. He not only acts in an event, but he creates an event, leaving his record of the moment on paper, canvas, or in stone."

"But the genius, you must remember, is the man who by some fortunate accident of temperament or education can put his unconscious completely at the service of his reasonable intention, whether or not he is aware that this is so."

Dorothy Brande, from "Becoming a Writer"

Robert Musil

The desire for a double of the other sex that resembles us absolutely while still being other, for a magical creature who is ourself while possessing the advantage, over all our imaginings, of an autonomous existence . . . We find traces of it in even the most banal circumstances of love: in the attraction linked to any change, any disguise, as in the importance of unison and the repetition of the self in other . . . The great, the implacable amorous passions are all linked to the fact that a being imagines he sees his most secret self spying upon him behind the curtain of another's eyes.

Robert Musil, quoted in The Art of Seduction (Robert Greene)

Time...and lack of...

In your mind's eye, these things are instantly created...but in reality, time steps in! Well, I've finally finished the title image for my "project". It's actually been months in the making - however, that's taking into consideration work, family commitments, holidays, etc.!

Here's the finished image (look for its official pride of place on http://www.cladge.com/ soon):

60 Random Vectors in EPS

Free vector pack from Samuel Sinaga. This set contains over 30 random vector illustrations that could be used for logo design brainstorming or for a starting point of a design concept...

The artwork is saved in AI and EPS file formats, you can use any vector compatible editor to modify or customize it.

To use, first you have to expand the ZIP archive. Free for personal and commercial use. Download

Video at Flickr

Cool news ... flickr allows video uploads now. Your videos have to be 90 seconds or less.
It is a lazy Sunday, and I do not feel like writing so I will post my recent photo montage of Tommy and Ball. It is called "Ball is All". It is just a quickie experiment, based off of an old photo-bucket slide show.

Working on those writing skills?

I wish I was a better writer. Or maybe I "long to be a better writer", or maybe as I recline here on my comfy sofa "my mind turns to the timeless art of writing". Yea whatever, it is something I should work on.

A few years ago I read a great book by Anne Lamott called Bird by Bird. She states that "The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth". The book contains great lessons in life as well as writing. I admit that I picked it up because the cover art is way too cool. You can check it out below at Amazon.



My other resource to share today is more commercial in nature and that is Copyblogger.com.
If your writing aspirations are more about punchy headlines and killer sales copy then this is the blog for you. The blog offers "copy writing tips for online marketing success". It is much more than a top 5 list format ... this blog is meaty and rich. Check it out and add it to your google reader.

Philip Roth

Even now (if 'now' can be said to mean anything any longer), beyond corporeal existence, alive as I am here (if 'here' or 'I' means anything) as memory alone (if 'memory', strictly speaking, is that all-embracing medium in which I am being sustained as 'myself'), I continue to puzzle over Olivia's actions . . . Who could have imagined that one would have forever to remember each moment of life down to its tiniest component?

Philip Roth, from Indignation

Pretty in PUNK

Vector Illustration by Big Lew.

Convert Brushes from Photoshop to Illustrator

In December I briefly described a quick method for vectorizing pixels with the Live Trace feature in Adobe Illustrator.

In this tutorial you'll take almost the same steps in order to convert a Photoshop Brush object to an Illustrator brush file.

1) You'll need a brush set file and load it in adobe photoshop. In this case I'll use an Urban Scrawl Brush set for Photoshop available here.

2) Load the brush (.arb) file in, by double click or dragging it into Photoshop.
3) Create a new document (white background, resolution - 200 ppi).
4) Select the brush tool, and chose a shape from the brush set that you just loaded. Change the opacity too 100% and select black for forground color. (use the screenshot below as reference)

5)After selecting your shape click twice on the screen with the brush tool and save the document as jpeg or gif.

Now comes the second part - Bringing the image in Adobe Illustrator and Vectorizing it.

6)Load Illustrator and create a new print document. Then go to File>Place and choose the image that you created in photoshop.

7) Select the image and go to Object>Live Trace>Tracing Options...

8) In the Live Trace Dialogue Box make sure that you choose black & white mode and put a checkmark on Filles and click on Trace.9)Now you see the vectorized preview of the shape that you want to be your brush. But to use it as a regular vector object you have to expand it. Go to Object>Expand and then Object>Ungroup

10) Choose the selection tool and delete the white areas that are not part of the object. You can experiment with the stroke color or fill, it's up to you and the object.
11) The last step is to save your vector as a brush file. Open your brush palette (F5) select your vector object and drag it into the bursh pallette. A "new brush" window will popup, select "New Art Brush, click OK and then name it. In the palette you can se other brushes, that are loaded in Illustrator by default. Delete them from the palette (don't worry they are not going to be removed) by selecting them and clicking on the trash can. Leave only the brush that you've just created and go to Save Brushes... (look ath the image below) and name your file.Well that's it. I Hope I didn't shorten the process a lot.

Mr. Brittney Portrait Progress

Well it has been over a week since we started on Mr. Brittney and pals. I am going to be finalizing some proofs for this handsome kitty today. Check out the sample below. It has a rough pastel filter applied over the smushy wacom layers. I took the layer opacity down on the filter layer and then painted on top with my digital paint brush set to dissolve. The dissolve effect made my additional paint sort of chalky in texture to match the artwork's new texture. I am having fun today as I finalize my last 3 orders from late March.



Side Note On Production Times: I would say that at least 75% of our clients are usually on some sort of crazy rushed deadline for gift giving. That is ok and we are more than happy to move through projects as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. On the other hand, some clients that order for themselves make it clear that they are not in a hurry and they tell us to take our time. When that happens I usually save their work for a calm unhurried day where I can play and have fun. Because these portraits may take longer these clients often get working sketches before their actual proofs. In this case I discovered with my working sketch that I needed to darken this kitty's coat a little. The client gave other good suggestions such as rotating the kitty a wee bit. When I feel unhurried on a pet portrait project I am more likely to play around and experiment.

If you are considering a portrait I would encourage you to encourage us to take our time. It basically insures that I will not be working on your project when I have the flu or some other sort of issue going on that drains creativity.

Merrill Markoe Video

Ever feel like firing your dogs? Check out this video from Merrill Markoe for a chuckle.

Groove

Quickly created in Illustrator while not paying attention in my Photoshop class. Done by overlapping serif characters and playing with pathfinders and shape modes, in this case "exclude". This actually reminds me that I've got to post more examples and tutorials about usage of type and pathfinders in Adobe Illustrator. More soon !!!

Thorn Brush for Adobe Illustrator

Thorn brush for Illustrator by orgamecha. To use the brush set download the pdf file, then open it with Illustrator and you'll have it in your brush panel.

Pixie New Chihuahua Portrait

I just finished Pixie's artwork. This little Chihuahua melted my heart. I increased this gal's ears ever so slightly in size. The background in the top sample is a new version of an old mod ground I created a few years back. I decided to dirty it up a tad with some grunge type paint around the border. Pixie's human wrote on her order form that Pixie is a tough gal so pinks & pastels "are just not her style". Click here to see all 6 of her proofing samples.

Artist Choice Promo

April Artist Choice Promo:

Flower Power

We just posted a new promo in celebration of Spring & Mother's day. For any clients ordering our floral theme this month we are offering free stretching, (a $45 value). Click here to order on-line and learn more about this offer.

Hibiscus Vectors

I decided to post these hibiscus vectors as a response to one of the requiests in "Hibiscus Brush Set". Below you can see a preview of the shapes. Download the illustrator file from here.

Ralph & Bailey

I finalized Ralph & Bailey today. Their proofs can be found by clicking here.

Thanks Blogger, Jamie and Melissa

If you are reading this on Friday morning ( crossing fingers) it is because I just discovered a new Beta Blogger feature, thanks to Jamie of Cowbelly, and Melissa of Pug Notes. In other words I heard it from a friend that heard from a friend and so on.

Blogger is going to allow us to schedule our posts in the future if all goes well. So hmmm what to post on Thursday night to test this out .... I know it sorta takes all the magic out right?

I am going to post Ralph & Bailey because I have to get these two adorable guys finalized today. They have been in-house way too long. I have more paint strokes to add and backgrounds to try out. They are in progress. Right now they are still too photographic looking, I need to do some more work.

" Ralph & Bailey"

On My Digital Easel

Today was very productive. I got started on Trooper and Tennent. I also revisited Buddy, and cropped in closer. I tried to get loose & messy with my digital paint. I also tried to create some detail on Buddy, painting in coat texture and a paw. Tomorrow I will try to proof all these guys and finalize Ralph & Bailey, Lulu, Mr. Brittney and Bella. For any client waiting on a proof, please stay tuned and be patient. I am working every day and trying to keep up.

"Trooper Bold"

"Tennent, Yellow Tones"

"Buddy Up Close"

Scottie Sketches

This morning I spent about 45 minutes playing around with one of my own photos of my boy Ajax. I did some loose line work and tried several different things for a variety of effects. I sort of like the black & white cross hatch. I am posting my wacom sketches here.
They are in the order of the last one first ... click images to see larger versions.

Below: I took my sketch and created a black & white image, used cross hatch filter, then added more line-work. This is my fave.

Below: You can't really see until you click for detail, but this image has a half-tone dot pattern applied.

Below: Loose line work and one photo layer had the filter "cut-out" applied at a low opacity.

Below: Original photo of Ajax .... my pookie

Michael N. Nagler

If we could trace where a desire arises from--and the Upanishads do repeatedly--we would find that in most cases something--a thought, an external event--has stirred up some wisp of the vague sense of incompleteness we harbor beneath the floor of surface consciousness as long as we are not identified with our Self. We immediately misinterpret this stirring as a desire for something outside of us. This is maya: misinterpreting the longing for union within as a call for something outside the Self.

The Upanishads go a step further. When we have the sensation "I want such-and-such," what we really mean is that we want the relative tranquility that follows when a desire subsides. As the great sage of Ramana Maharshi, who was very close to the Upanishads in spirit, once declared, "There is no happiness in any object of the world." The Self is pure happiness, which we mistake as coming from the outside; so the closer we come to the Self within, the more we are aware of--the more we feel already--what we are looking for outside us. This is what the Upanishads mean by joy. "Renunciation" refers simply to dropping the outside reflection for the reality which is within.

Gandhi

The world rests upon the bedrock of satya or truth. Asatya, meaning untruth, also means non-existent, and satya or truth also means that which is. If untruth does not so much as exist, its victory is out of the question. And truth being that which is can never be destroyed. This is the doctrine of Satyagraha in a nutshell.

Gandhi

Where's Buddy?

This is a new project I am starting on today. You can see from the 1st image that my initial thought was "where's Buddy"? Buddy is at the door ...probably waiting for his master. My first step was to explain to the client that I can do my best to create a fun and interesting piece of art and yet every whisker and freckle on Buddy will not be visible because that detail and info is just missing from the photograph. See detail below.

Keep in mind that this was a high resolution well focused image. When you zoom in to a small area of a photograph and enlarge it, you often find that it can become grainy and not as sharp as you had hoped.

So my next step was to paint and sketch in some details, play with color and see what I can do after enlarging to the desired 18 x 18 size. Check out the image below to see just one of my paint layers with the image layer turned off.



So now I can play with filters, intensify colors and in general see where else I can take this. Click the image below to see the details on this image with an under-painting filter applied, and more color added. I will work a bit longer on this pet portrait project before proofing my client. I think if I start again in the morning that fresh ideas may happen. It will be fun to see where this original and charming photograph ends up after I am done.