The art challenge for Monday was to draw something along the lines of “Kids Raised by Animals”. A number of ideas popped into my head fairly quickly for this topic, and rather than spend a long time working on one idea, I did three quick sketches instead:
Raised by Giraffes
Raised by Sparrows
Raised by Turtles
Other ideas that I didn’t attempt to draw included: a boy raised by cats being chased by a girl raised by dogs, a girl raised by chameleons hiding from her “parents”, and a boy raised by kangaroos who is being carried in his mom’s pouch (really, that one’s been done to death).
As it turns out, the Cross-Phrase puzzle that I put up on Saturday had an error. Two of the clues referred to the wrong word, referring to 44-A instead of 46-A, making the puzzle unsolvable.
The puzzle has now been corrected. If you attempted to solve the puzzle before, my apologies.
The subject for Monday’s art challenge at work was “Don’t Touch That!”. I had been playing with a concept in my head all week, but Sunday afternoon, I suddenly came up with a much better one to attempt to draw:
In case you don’t recognize it, these are the two main characters from the Cartoon Network show “Dexter’s Lab”. It was very unusual drawing in that style, but I went into it knowing I’d be breaking out of my comfort zone. I don’t think it’s quite good enough to actually be a frame from the show, but it’s close. At the very least, I was able to create pretty much exactly what I’d pictured in my head, which has to count for something.
Had a neat idea for a logo. It’s probably too complex to be a proper logo, but it’s still pretty neat.
I have a box full of used puzzle magazines at home, and I love the challenge of trying completely new types of puzzles. I also enjoy making puzzles, some of which I’ll be showcasing here. Here’s my newest type of puzzle, entitled “Cross-Phrase”.
Unlike most crossword puzzles, which give you clues for each Across and Down entry, in this puzzle, each clue gives you the answer to either a two-word phrase or a compound word. Figure out the answer to a clue, break up the answer into its two natural parts, and place each part on the grid as shown in the clue. For example, if the clue was “1-A 2-D – Geyser in Yellowstone National Park”, the answer would be OLD FAITHFUL, so you’d put OLD at 1-Across and FAITHFUL at 2-Down.
Click the picture below to get a high-resolution version of the picture, then print it out on your home printer. To help with solving, the answers to the clues are in alphabetical order.
Having trouble? Read the rest of this blog entry… a solving hint and the solution will be right there for you.
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I like the Wii. As a console, I really enjoy it. 
I also frequent many video game sites, and have gotten the impression that, at best, the Wii has a few pretty good games, and at worst, it’s a mockery of video game consoles and an insult to serious gamers.
I don’t know if I’m a “serious gamer”. What I do know is that it’s as though Nintendo probed my brain to find out what I’d want in a video game system, made most of it happen, and threw in some extras that I would never have dreamed of.
Here’s the thing. I do not like first-person shooters. I don’t like sports games. I don’t like horror games. I do not own a high-resolution televison. I do not have a home theater surround sound setup. At this point, Xbox and PS3 have pretty much already lost me.
What do I like? I like platformers. I like humorous games. I like adventures and solving puzzles. I like being able to hold my hands more than a foot apart and still play a game. I even like to work up a sweat while playing a video game in my own home sometimes.
You know what else? I have no problem whatsoever with not playing a video game for months on end. When it’s the summertime, I want to be outdoors more often! I want to do other things sometimes! Video gaming is not my life!
I like Mario. I like Zelda. I wish I could buy about 50 of the games on Virtual Console. So what if I have to store them on SD cards, I don’t care. There is more than enough video game entertainment to last me a long time on the puny little white console. And when the time comes, I’d love to design a game for it. I already have design documents for it.
Yes, there are really people out there who play and enjoy the Wii. And I am one of them.
Ahem.
We are gathered here today
To celebrate our friend.
His spirit is still with us,
Though his life, it sadly ends.
For those who do not know the tale
It began at 8 o’clock, when
I had a minor hankering
To raid my fridge’s stock.
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At work, we’ll sometimes have art challenges. There’s a wide variety of art challenges that we’ve done, but usually, the challenge is that every artist has to draw something based on an open-ended subject.
This week, the art challenge was “Strange Walkers“. I immediately thought of a neat concept for it, so that’s what I worked on today for two hours. My Photoshop skills are pretty rusty, so this gave me the perfect excuse to practice. It’s no masterpiece, but I’m pretty happy with it. (The photograph I used was a photo of a random residential area in England that I found on Google.)
Here’s the rough that I started with, if you’re interested (this only took about 2-3 minutes).
Original publish date: Sep 28/2007
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Original publish date: Oct 12/2006
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