FBI Visits Home of Protester

I'm on the fence about this video, but found it interesting enough to share with readers of this blog.

The woman who filmed this video attended a protest, a constitutionally-protected activity. The next day the FBI showed up at her door asking questions about knowledge of anyone who would cause destruction or harm to people. Naturally, the FBI agents cannot say who directed them to this individual.

The FBI has a well-documented history of violating the law with respect to following, infiltrating and harassing protesters, not to mention illegally compiling information about people without probable cause.

When the FBI shows up at the home of a protester, there is good cause to be concerned and a little paranoid. She was wise to videotape the encounter, and she makes several very good points (the FBI can lie to obtain information, but lying to the FBI is a serious crime, for example).  She maintains her composure, but is a little on the sarcastic side, for my taste. I also have to wonder if the demeanor of the FBI agents would have been different if she had not been videotaping.

It is very important to videotape your interactions with the authorities, for your own protection. If it comes down to your word against the word of law enforcement, you will almost always lose.

UPDATE: The video below this one explains very clearly why it is critical to record every encounter with the FBI, and why you should never speak to the FBI without a lawyer present. The short version: the FBI can lie and coerce you into doing what they want, even if you are innocent and have done nothing wrong. This is very good information.

Can Republicans Be Saved?

I rarely put political posts on this blog, because this is an arts blog, but this article in the New York Times is really fascinating. The Republican party received a shocking thrashing during the last presidential election, and the party is in trouble. Deep trouble. In fact, the Republican party literally faces a slow extinction.

Young Republicans, alarmed at this prospect, are trying to alert the old guard of this impending extinction if they don't change, but the GOP leadership is stuck in denial. The principles of Republicanism aren't necessarily wrong; it's the right-wing extremism that's killing the party. They ignore it at their peril.

Can The Republicans Be Saved From Obsolescence?

86 Strings Promotional Video

This is a short promotional video I created to promote the web comic strip I illustrate, 86 Strings, using royalty-free images and music found on the web. Sit back and enjoy!

Animated Short: "Sintel"

This is a really nicely done animated short about a woman who finds a wounded baby dragon. Rather than kill it, she nurses it back to health. I love stuff like this; I can't help it. Enjoy!

Facial Expressions and Images Databases

OK, now this is very cool, and a wonderful tool for artists.

A website called the CNBC Wiki has a huge collection of different faces, male and female, from all sorts of angles, and from different ethic groups; Caucasian, African-American, multi-racial and Hispanic. There are a lot of faces to choose from, and each face is photographed from different angles, so you have a perfect study model to draw the head in various positions.

The faces are in a ZIP file; all you have to do is download the file, and then "extract" the folder to where you want it (My Pictures, for example).

Presto! Instant library of people to draw! How cool is that? The images are CC-licensed, meaning that you are free to use them in any publicly-viewable work, as long as you give credit to the CNBC Wiki website.

Myself, I'm going to use them as reference for when I have to draw crowd scenes, create new characters and improve my drawing of facial expressions.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: assemble your own personal library of images that you can refer to for inspiration and to improve. This is one you can add to your files. Here's the link:

CNBC WIKI Face Place Page

There are so many links and databases on this site that it can be hard to find the good stuff. Fortunately, I've done the work for you!

Below are some examples from a cool facial gallery of faces drawn in stark black and white, helpful for seeing what harsh shadows look like on the human face. The results are almost surreal. Here's the link to the page filled with two dimensional face databases:

2D Face Sets

There are a lot of other cool image files for your reference besides faces. The website has huge galleries of everyday objects you might have to draw someday.

If you're drawing the inside of a bathroom, kitchen or living room and need to draw common objects you'd find, you're going to need visual references to go by. Myself, I don't know how to draw a nail clipper off the top of my head; I'd have to look at one.

Fortunately, this site has you covered! The page is called BOSS, and the links to the files have not-at-all helpful names such as Non-Normatized Stimuli, but don't worry, there are tons of objects to choose from. Car keys, cameras, baseball hats, plants, jars, light bulbs, shoes, safety pins, sea shells...the list goes on. 

Do yourself a favor and download these for your visual library. Here's the link:

Random Objects Visual Library Downloads Page

But WAIT! There's MORE!!

This page on the Wiki site has tons of objects that are rendered from different angles, so you are not limited to drawing the object from only one view point. How cool is that??

 Hair dryers, ash trays, lamps, umbrellas, each object has its own folder with the object seen from multiple angles. 

Click on the awnings to take you to the page, and click on The Object Databank (.zip) to download this cool database!

Cartooning & Drawing Promo Image

Enjoy this whimsical promotional image I created to promote the Cartooning & Drawing classes, now being held at both the prestigious Morean Art Center in St. Petersburg, as well as the newly renovated Safety Harbor Art and Cultural Museum in Safety Harbor.

If you are interested in joining the fun, e-mail me or call the number on the image below!

Robert McCloskey - "The Man Who Lost His Head"

This wonderful image is from the children's story book The Man Who Lost His Head, written by Claire Huchet Bishop, and illustrated by the great Robert McCloskey.

For a retrospective of Robert McCloskey's work, click on the hands below, and learn more about this fantastic American illustrator.

Free Comic Books

The Digital Comic Book Museum is on my list on links over there on the right, but it's worth a separate blog post to make sure you know how cool this site is. There are loads of comic books, all absolutely free for the taking (or in this case, downloading).

The comic books are from the forties to the sixties and are for the most part obscure and short-lived titles, from Westerns, pulp-science fiction, crime, humor and specialty publications. They have been scanned by various contributors, preserved for all time. Because they were printed on cheap, low-quality newsprint (hence the name "pulps"), the pages are yellowing, but they are perfectly readable.

They are a product of their time; the fashion, social customs and stories are all from the era they were created in, and reading them is like stepping back in time. And...did I mention they are all FREE??

Some files are in a format that requires Comic Book Reader in order to view them. CBR is a free application that makes it easy to read comic books on your computer or iPad. Once downloaded, open up the comic book and you'll see small icons of each page lined up vertically on the left, with the selected page taking up most of the screen so you can read it. You can control how big the selected page is, to make it easier for you to read. Click on the link below to take you to the download page.

COMIC BOOK READER

Here are a couple of pages from some of the comic books I've downloaded from this cool site (click on each image to make it larger). 

Pulp Magazine Cover Generator

The website PULP-O-MIZER is a huge very cool generator of retro 1930s-era pulp magazines. You can select the retro-future backgrounds, the characters, the titles and the name of the magazine. The images have that worn, faded edge look that give them their vintage charm, and best of all it's free! Download your creation in both Facebook-friendly format, or blog post format. Below are two magazine covers I created using this cool website.

The digital images are not extremely high resolution; for a price, you can have high-resolution images of your creations put on coffee mugs, iPad cases, notebooks and posters. This is a very cool site that is loads on fun.

PULP-O-MIZER

Etch-A-Sketch Inventor Passes Away

Sad news from the world of toys: Andre Cassagnes, the inventor of the iconic Etch-A-Sketch, passed away today.

Cassagnes came up with the idea of creating images with a joystick and aluminum powder, and the toy has been a cultural icon ever since its invention in 1960, being named one of the 100 most memorable and creative toys of the 20th century.

To read more about Andre Cassagnes' iconic invention, click HERE.

To learn how the Etch-A-Sketch works, click HERE.

The New York Times has a great story HERE. 

(image credit: New York Times)