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IF: Extremes



I totally think that I should take over the world with a giant robot.

We're finally online!!"


I haven't posted in so long and I am truly sorry for that. However, I finally have http://www.melindastanley.com up and running. It made it's debut about two weeks ago and I have been tweaking things here and there ever since. On top of that website, I am also putting together the second website that will ultimately be the name of my business and earn me double the exposure. The name remains top secret until it goes online but stay tuned, this one's gonna be fun!

Other than that, I have been toying with the idea of creating yet again another blog but only as a part of the website(s) complete with the same overall look. I still don't know though, I have enough on my plate as it is, that I don't think I would be able to keep it up.. I mean, look at the success of my current blogs.

All things aside, I did happen to land myself a gig this week. And, all to the thanks of Kijiji, the ever so popular classifieds site. But with that said, I broke some of their rules, and the kicked me out deleting all my ads. What did I do? you ask. Well, I placed the same ad (advertising my graphic design services) 28+ times everywhere between here and Los Angeles, California. I guess you're not supposed to excede 25 ads per day and there were several other rules in there as well but I did happen to snag a gig before they took the ads down, AND I was contacted by a lady in Chicago about web design.

So now, I am trying to find something as equally as successful as Kijiji was. I was getting several hits per day that way and I was even able to track how many hits I was getting. I ended up getting about 300 hits to my ad in only about 5 days.

I don't know what it is, but I have been on a kick of illustrating food lately.

Here is Illustration Friday's topic, "Moon". This is a place in my mind's eye that I wish to go someday. I've been there before. I know this.

And here is a pickle for on top of the sandwich. Though, I don't even like pickles.

And yet another illustration. Will it ever stop? Mmm, I am having grilled cheese for supper!

I am on a role this week. I just can't keep away from my drawing tablet! Not that there's anything wrong with that! I am illustrating like mad and my techniques and styles are improving.

So, what I have to post on here tonight is a technique that I stumbled upon about 3 years ago. I had named it but for fear of getting sued, I can no longer mention that name as it is trademarked by someone else. So I have to find another name for it.

All possible law suits aside, this technique has officially entered the digital age. It was originally founded in a photographic darkroom but since I do not have access to the facilities in which this technique was born, I have to turn to an alternative.

So here are the two first prototypes of this process. The photographs, I took 2 years ago while in Toronto.

Ok.... here it is. My new illustration. Considering the involvement with creating such a monster, and the experimental styles and colours this drawing took a number of hours. And, of all the things I am capable of drawing.... hands and feet are a bitch!

Theme today: food, because I am starving and it is past my supper time!

Here is another illustration. It takes place about 20 years ago when my sister and our friends made me stand out on the street with my empty pockets hanging out in attempt to attract potential customers to our lemonade stand. I think I remember a few people stopping. That was my first lesson in marketing, to look pathetic!

So, I got a new pen tablet. Thank god... I hadn't drawn a thing since my other tablet broke. I know, I know... there is always a pencil and paper but what can I say? I didn't feel like it. So despite the price that I had to pay for it, I really do like it, much better than my other one in fact. AND, I have this new program as well, Sketchbook, simulates drawing tools on paper quite acurately, I love it!

So being the big nerd that I am, decided to do a drawing for this weeks illustration Friday topic: Geeky.

I think I've lost it again.

Well, it is never a permanent loss but it is simply on vacation. Well for one, my drawing tablet has kicked the can and is no longer working and not to mention we have a shitty wireless connection provided by the city of Fredericton. I told the guy that Monday we must stop kidding ourselves and get the internet. It is absolutely crucial with what we do for a living and what, with both of us working from home nowadays.

So right now, I have the computer propped up on top of three boxes at the bedroom window (hmm... there's an idea!). I was barely able to fit a chair in here to sit but here I am crunched up against the window but I can get the internet signal. I am looking through other blogs or art related websites. I guess you could call it research. I am simply looking through links and through more links. I really like the stuff that I come across... it is all very neat. I am hoping that all of this will somehow launch me into my own creativity. There you go! Blogs can be very therapeutic. I am going to do an illustration of the silly way in which I am sitting. I will post it on my next entry.

This weeks Illustration Friday, "Wired".

What is the boy whispering in the lady's ear? He could be telling her a multitude of things but what is he saying?

What does this button do?

Finally, here is another blog. Well, not really a blog, but an illustration. It is for Illustration Friday, topic of the week, "Hide".

Captain Beer is a hero for the average man. His slogan, "To set an example for every man!".
He is a husband and a father, but he doesn't let anything get in the way of him enjoying himself. His super power is the ability to get out of doing any household chore. His arch enemy, The evil Domesticity Queen.

It's blog time again and what I want to talk about tonight is a dream I had last year. It was the strangest dream I have ever had. Usually I brush dreams off as something stupid but this dream was like no other. It was one that stayed with me all day and even now, I get a really eerie feeling from it.

I dreamt that I was walking through a cemetery. Not any cemetery, but the cemetery that my father and most of his side of the family is buried in. It was dark and I was finding my way through and between the gravestones until I came across a string of some sort. When I looked up, I realized that it was a fishing line and there upon a gravestone was a boy. He was fishing in a pond that was on the other side of me. I said hello to him and asked him what he was fishing for. I forget the rest of what was said but I walked a little further. I was up near the front of the cemetery when the boy came walking though. I asked him if he caught anything and he said no but that he would try again tomorrow.

The dream continued of things I can't remember now but there was another part of the dream that is very clear to me. I was looking into the cemetery and as dark as it was, I could still see light beyond the trees and there was a glowing sillohette of my Dad. It was very blurry but he was telling me something about the boy that I seen fishing off of the gravestone. I cannot rememeber what he said.

So, I don't mean to creep anyone out with my weird dreams but it is something that I have been wondering about.