Adam Kinney posts tagged with 'art'

IT never dies, it just gets a new face - Illustration

Adam Kinney — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:54:00 GMT

IT never dies, it just gets jammed in a new type of interface.

After reading this quote from Michael Coté post, the visual of tribesman from the developer clan attempting to maintain and "upgrade" the giant IT god by giving it a new face jumped into my head.

"Bring me a new face. Let it have vectors, drop shadows and glass effects. Only this will appease me and I shall not crash."

Silverlight Personified

Adam Kinney — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:32:00 GMT

A few days ago, I noticed this twit from Josh Russell:

Is the proud owner of a Silverlight superhero costume

I thought, "It couldn't really be. Maybe 'Silverlight' is a UK-based superhero or something. Kind of like our American Silverlight superhero."

After seeing this picture on Flickr, I think I've been proven wrong.

UX Evangelist by day, Josh is apparently, a superhero by night.

Given the amorphous properties of the Silverlight logo, I can identify with those who wish to give it a little more character.

Scott Barnes just posted today about his character Dax, a bright blue, utility belt wearing, buck toothed bi-pedal creature guy.

And not to be forgotten, the original blue box from the Keynote Animation done by Nectarine for the web on the piste conference.

Perhaps, we should hold a contest at MIX08 to see who can design the best Silverlight avatar.

Silverlight Comic Viewer on HHH

Adam Kinney — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:28:00 GMT

HHH stands for Heroes happen {here} which is a new site centered around events local and virtual where you can test drive Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. The site takes advantage of Silverlight in a few places but one that I saw today grabbed my attention.

HHH has launched a daily comic that turns the real-life stories of IT Pros into virtual entertaining web comics. It seems like a fun project to work and they have some credible talent behind the wheel.

Being a fan of the Sesame Street rule I like this idea and I think its fun to see a Firewall personified as a laser-toting hero. But the real reason that I was prompted to write about this was the comic viewer itself. Its a light-weight framework allowing the content to be the star, but I think its a good example of when using the fullscreen functionality can be very useful.

Similar to the NBA photo viewer (found on the home page of nba.com in the left column) the images look fine in the page, but as soon as you go fullscreen you can see the greater fidelity of the image, or in this case enjoy the detail of the artwork more.

After seeing this I was reminded of a MIX07 presentation by the IdentityMine where they demonstrated a Comic Viewer they had created with WPF. I wonder what ever happened to that project?

Maybe we could get them to post it on CodePlex for the rest of us to pick up and run with...

MIX08 ReStyle on Surface - Illustration

Adam Kinney — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:39:00 GMT

Yesterday I posted about the MIX08 ReStyle contest and I also happened to see my pal Ernie Booth who recently moved to the Surface team. Upon reflecting on the day's events, I started thinking about what it might be like to do a "restyle" using the Surface as a graphic design workspace.

DISCLAIMER: No text that follows should be taken in any form as a prediction about the direction of Microsoft or any of its products. This is just me playing pretend, so bear with me.

The image below started as sketch on the whiteboard which was then quickly reformed, painted and "Saved for Web & Devices..." within Photoshop.

The actions portrayed in the image show the left hand pressing down as an anchor gesture for the image, the middle and index finger are distorting the image so as to make way for the important shamrock drawing.

The right hand is holding some digital pen, which can be used as the main cursor as well as an alternate click to bring up the circular context menu.

The arms are only see through as a gratuitous effect, no need to waste time deciphering the meaning.

Maybe we'll have something like this by 2010 or 2011. It would make up for not having jet packs yet.

A new court for Photoshop Tennis?

Adam Kinney — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:03:00 GMT

I used to play Photoshop Tennis pretty frequently a few years ago. Sure, I may be a bit out of shape now, but the desire is still there.

I noticed today in the latest Infrequent Mailing from Coudal that they had a link to Photoshop Tennis. Not much there but a large graphic declaring its return and a clue:

25 July 2007: Only one new thing to share. Friday, September 14, 2007. 2pm CDT.

I'd love to start playing again and maybe on September 14th the new court will be so enticing, I'll have to start. And then maybe if its not all I'm dreaming that it could be, I'll work on my own court :)

Pandora brings music to Facebook

Adam Kinney — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:46:00 GMT

I know iLike has been there for awhile now, but I'm a big fan of Pandora. So once I read they had come to Facebook, I thought what great fodder for another drawing. I really enjoyed the pirate Rory run in ArtRage last night, so here is another one using the same technique.

Sketch in pencil
New Layer
Ink with a thin pen
New Layer
Ink with a thick pen
New Layer
Paint the base colors
New Layer
Paint the Shadows
Drop Opacity
New Layer
Paint the highlights
Drop Opacity
Export

Messy but quick, which can be fun especially when you're rocking out to Chemical Brothers on Pandora.

Rory is a no good fish pirate

Adam Kinney — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:52:00 GMT

Rory bullies fish.

Luckily the fish have evolved to having mind control eye lasers and mustaches...

Jing Animation

Adam Kinney — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:22:00 GMT

After reading the post by Tim Heuer about Jing, I grabbed the fancy new screen/video capturing tool.

Behind the simple and fun interface, there is quite a bit of power. I figured a simple animation wouldn't be hard to do. And it wasn't.

Camtasia, as per the functionality of Jing, has been kind enough to host the animation here for your viewing pleasure.

Art: Misdirection

Adam Kinney — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:35:00 GMT

Sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on...

Art: Mammoth Man

Adam Kinney — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:21:00 GMT

Drawn for my son, inked, scanned in and colored with Photoshop.

Art: Panda Slide

Adam Kinney — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 04:30:00 GMT

I asked my five year old what she wanted me to draw. "A panda going down a slide." she said.

I finished the sketch and then she asked "Can I paint it?"

Stepping back in with a non sequitur

Adam Kinney — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:46:00 GMT

For a few reasons I have been absent from the online world as of late, the online world meaning Channel 9, IM, blogs I read and more importantly in this context, the blog I write. So rather than spend time writing an "I'm back" message, why not come back with something unexpected.

I certainly didn't expect this to happen.

Catching up on blogs, I ran into my pal Rory's feed and was pleasantly greeted with 3 new posts. After reading his Comic - Interrogation post. I was struck by how much I enjoy his art and his creativity. Still thinking through the "Mars-witch leopard with a stinger" concept...

The story was vivid enough that a visual popped in my head of Rory's creations turning the tables on him and "drawing" him. I grabbed my sketchbook and a pen. I never draw straight with a pen and always prefer using pencils first, but I admire those who can ink without sketching and thought I would take on the challenge. Once the image was drawn, photographed, resized and cropped in Photoshop, I added a stylized portrait of Rory on to the stick man's canvas.

Dang, I just realized I forgot the stinger...

The symmetry of the Comfy Monster

Adam Kinney — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:20:00 GMT

I noticed when reflecting on the Comfy Monster and the comment on the lack of symmetry in his face, he becomes two very different monsters when you look at each half as whole. Brothers perhaps, but definitely different emotions. I was surprised to see how much the pattern of the upper lip hair was different on each half, that was something subtle I hadn't done consciously.

Whiteboard Drawings - Comfy Monster

Adam Kinney — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:41:00 GMT

My pal Tim Baron sent me an link to Sam Hiti's Monster illustration contest. I thought I'd join in with a quick wb drawing of the comfy monster. Although his hair my look soft, I believe he may make the viewer feel anything but comfortable. Not because he's scary but because he is so unbalanced. We humans have a big thing for symmetry.

The middle one was a surprise. When flipped upside down I see a spider with his legs folded underneath hanging from a web.

Whiteboard Drawings - Ghost Rider

Adam Kinney — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:55:00 GMT

"Check out these special effects of Ghost Rider! We should totally make a movie!!! Give me the moneyz!"

Whiteboard Drawings - Edge of the World

Adam Kinney — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 23:45:00 GMT

I was very busy last week, hence a few posts have been planned but not published, but I was a inspired today by some lyrics posted by Jesse on the communal whiteboard today. That part about not filling my blog with whiteboard drawings, I think I lied about that, under genius advice, so no need to worry. He didn't say anything about run-on sentences, though, so I should stop that.

Whiteboard Drawings - the "shoot Sampy" blueprint

Adam Kinney — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:46:00 GMT

I don't plan on filling my blog with whiteboard art, but this one is timely and I fill the need to promote the latest video on Channel 9.

We were playing in the lounge. Playing until someone got hurt...

Whiteboard Drawings - blue dragon

Adam Kinney — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 07:48:00 GMT

Drawing on the whiteboard is something I do often. Its hard to do because the surface is perpendicular to the floor (I usually end up standing on chairs) and you're using a whiteboard marker which does not typically have a fine point. At least the ones I have don't have a fine point, now that I think about Tim Sneath has some pretty nice whiteboard markers in his office...

Anyways, this is was just an organic bunch of lines that came out while listening to good music and taking a break from the monitor.

(full 1600 pixel version)

I started off with the the large image of the robed man, which was just an excuse to draw an arm and some reflective cloth patterns. Then I zoomed out from the man, drew him smaller, not happy with the fat tip of the marker for detail, I drew an Asian styled dragon behind him. I liked the dragon and dropped down to zoom in on his face, I was really digging the excessive whiskers. Then I went back to the reflection theme and began drawing my hand in the shape of the dragon head. Not happy only having one thumb to reflect the whiskers, I chopped them off and pointed the thumb straight up enjoying the fold under the middle finger.

Illustration - The Green Gorilla

Adam Kinney — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 00:57:00 GMT

I used to do this a lot, take random sketches, play with them a bit in Photoshop and then use them as a wallpaper for a few days.

I drew this Gorilla on Duncan's board while working through the Channel9 Forum Screenshots. I'm still not quite sure what it is that he is seeing.

1280x1024 1600x1280

imagination.swf

Adam Kinney — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:18:00 GMT

This is a lot of fun. I imagine its what a drawing program would run like on the DONTCLICK.IT operating system.

Channel Guy as Voltron

Adam Kinney — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 07:40:00 GMT

An artifact found on Jesse's whiteboard during the late nights of work on the 10 update.

This is fun stuff and an idea I plan to run with a bit more :)