What have you learned from your dogs?

My dogs teach me a lot. Each is so different from the other and so of course they have their own unique lessons to share. Here is a list of 5 things I have learned from each of my Scotts.

5 things I have learned from Big Tommy

#1 If you love something throw it under the dresser, or absence makes the heart grow fonder. Tom has a bad habit of playing against our bedroom dresser and losing his ball. When this happens he whines until we retrieve it for him.

#2 Celebrate your joy in song. Tom sings in a high pitch when you lightly rub his ears.

#3 Be a kind leader. He is a gentle sweet Alpha.

#4 Sundays were made for the lake.

#5 Play all out, then play some more. Tommy is our most athletic dog and our healthiest.

5 things I have learned from Ajax

#1 Anytime can be snuggle-time.

#2 Even the lowest man on the totem pole can be a brave warrior and fierce hunter. Ajax has caught more than a couple of squirrels in his 4 years.

#3 Laugh often! Our little boy throws his head back open mouthed and giggles when you start laughing and rubbing his chest & belly.

#4 Avoid processed foods. Our allergy prone boy eats only the best holistic diet that includes cooked chicken & rice and high-end organic kibble.

#5 Expand you pack. Ajax enjoys having lots of friends, both canine & human.

5 things I have learned from Pixel

#1 Be brave in this scary scary world.

#2 When in doubt, bark first ... ask questions later.

#3 Always run with your pack, there is safety in numbers.

#4 Walk softly & chew on sticks.

#5 Sometimes the sweetest love is the hardest to win.

Leave me a comment and tell me what your dog has taught you ... be sure and include their name.

40 Hours of Vector Drawing

Science Machine from Chad Pugh on Vimeo.

Animating Vector Characters

Alexis West shows how to bring your vector characters to life in Flash, turning an Illustrator image into a cool interactive animation.Being able to dream up and create a cool character or picture is one thing, but Adobe Flash lets you take your work to a whole new level.

Creating animations is a simple, if rather time-consuming, process – and you can even make your image interactive by adding buttons and other elements. As Alexis West shows in this tutorial, with Flash and a bit of creative thinking, the possibilities really are endless. View Full Tutorial

Digital Arts Online

Color Bunnies

Just stumbled across this terrific ad for Sony... happy clay bunnies multiplying and bouncing around the city. Have a great Friday everyone. Get outside this weekend. Find your own clay bunny.

Vector Halftone Patterns

A collection of 52 seamless halftone patterns for Adobe Illustrator by faeriedreamer. 

To use, load the PDF file in Adobe Illustrator by selecting File>Open>Browse (not by dragging it in the program). For preview click on the image below.

 

Download

NY Times Week in Review: The Ethos of the Net

From an excellent article in the New York Times, "The Wiki-Way to the Nomination," Sunday Edition (June 8, 2008), by Noam Cohen, here are some insightful observations about the ethos of the Net, and how it's shaping the way we see the world.


Philosophical quotations:


"But at the same time, Mr. Obama's notion of persistent improvement, both of himself and his country, reflects something newer--the collaborative, decentralized principles behind Net projects like Wikipedia and the 'free and open-source' software movement. The qualities he cited to Time to describe his campaign--'openness and transparency and participation'--were ones he said 'merged perfectly' with the Internet. And they may well be the qualities that make him the first real 'wiki-candidate.'


"In this scheme, Mr. Obama's role, at least in rhetoric, is less leader than facilitator, a conduit for decentralized collaboration as described by James Surowiecki in his book 'The Wisdom of Crowds.' 'The ethos of the Net is fundamentally respectful of and invested in the idea of collective wisdom, and in some sense is hostile to the idea that power and authority should belong to a select few,' Mr. Surowiecki wrote.


(bold mine)


Link to the Article

Another Spotted Tongue

"Olive"

( see all proofs )

This has been the week for spotted tongues. This happy girl is Olive. Her original photograph did not have tons of detail, but it did have tons of joy. I decided to sketch in some loose and happy lines on this shaggy pup's coat. I would say that 90% of the time we do close head & shoulder crops. Every now and then we get in a photo that just begs to have the full body included and this is one of those times.