Please feel free to click on the images to see bigger copies of them, I put a lot of work into them.

click for bigness

This is a type specimen we did in Type class; I chose Baskerville. The colouring are warm browns to compliment “warm” feeling John was trying to create with his serifed typeface. I wanted to display it’s abilities to be used as a masthead and how it’s still legible as body copy in a small font size. I also made the B super huge to show off the craftsmanship he put into the letters, the top of the B has a gentle slope up before gradually curving down.

This is a project we had for Design class. We had to take 3 completely different books and make them look like they were in a series. For these I wanted the type of the front to resemble to stories that were inside.

zombies!

bigify me!

you know

the typefaces I used are, “Stencil” for World War Z, “Century Gothic” for The Coffin Dance, and “Baskerville” for A Game of Thrones.

clicky

This is a hierarchy poster we did for Type class. We also had to include something about the Bauhaus movement, so I wanted to do a Bauhaus take on the old wooden direction posts, you know the ones, it has one end cut to a triangle to show you which way to go to get to the place labeled on it? So yeah, that’s where this comes from, the sort of “pillar” is the direction post and they all point to the address off to the side. Bauhaus really liked black and white and a primary colour, I thought that the straight black and white was a bit cold, so I used a creamy white instead. I also used the Bauhaus typeface for the titles and people’s names, and Century Gothic for the body copy because it’s easier to read but still has the geometry of Bauhaus. (I just realized that every time I go to type “Bauhaus” I type it as “BauHaus” just thought that was interesting).

t-rex

This was one of our final assignments, it was for both design class and illustrator. We were given a list of events to choose from at the ROM and make a poster with information about that event. I, being the child inside that I am, chose dinosaurs. We had to choose a pallet of 3 pantone colours, and only use those three, we could use varying intensities of that colour; kinda like mixing white with blue to make a lighter blue, but we couldn’t make the colours darker than what they were. We also had to come up with a tagline for our poster. Anyway, my concept was that the earth was split apart so you could see all layers of dirt and the dinosaur sort of frozen in time within the dirt. Hence the “Uncover the Past, Discover the ROM” tag line. I forgot to include the date and the website for the ROM, but the teacher didn’t notice and I still got a really good mark.

West-never-again-ster abbey

I’m including this one not because I’m particularly proud of it, but because it took me roughly 15 hours to do. We had to choose a landmark and design a poster in the time period of that landmark. I, not wanting to actually enjoy a weekend, chose Westminster Abbey. If there was one thing I could change about this poster it would be the background, but I chose to base the poster off of a painting that I found from roughly the time period the Abbey was built, and the painting was on a piece of wood, so that’s why it’s there. I chose Baskerville as the typeface for the lowercase letters, because it’s an English typeface, and some Fanciful typeface called “Royal” for the uppercase. The Baroque vines are framing the corners because when the Abbey was built they were huge and in everything. I also don’t like how busy this one is, but it was one of our first assignments, so I’ll take it for what it is.

boop

This is my entry for the uoit ridgebacks yearbook cover contest they were holding at school. I don’t have much to say about it other than the fact that I didn’t win.

arrr

This was one of the projects that we did in illustrator class, we had to take a picture of ourselves and create a vector image of it in illustrator and come up with a background that matched the expression or personality of the picture. Yep.

Here’s what I’m working on right now;
We had to come up with a cover front and back for a magazine that has two sections that are flipped 180 degrees from eachother, so you’re seeing them side by side, but when the other one is flipped the pattern lines up. The magazine is supposed to be like this “chic” magazine for men and women’s fashion and lifestyle stuff and then a unisex section in the middle. So here’s what I’ve got so far.

Guy's side

Lady's side

The verticle lines represent the content for each side and the grey part on the top part of the magazine represents the unisex part that is for both genders. I was going for a very minimalistic design with lots of white space and a subtlety to the whole thing executed with elusively lowercase letters and a small masthead. Keeping in mind that I flipped the lady’s side for reading purposes, when fully assembled the pattern would continue all the way around and the text would dictate the direction of it to be held.

Anyway, that’s enough tweaking on the back end of this site for this post, and enough talking all serious like with heady explinations. I’m done, I have more work that I might post later.

Defy Gravity.
-Dave
P.S.
I hope the wait was worth the update, to the 3-5 people that view my page daily (according to the stats on the back end.)

I’ve been purposely avoiding writing a new blog entry for some time now, for exactly 3 reasons:

The first being lack of time; graphics design is a course that has a lot of assignments and take home work that is expected to be done within the week. This past week I’ve had 6 assignments handed out to me. While I do enjoy the somethings that have been provided to me to fill my otherwise wasted time, it does get a little daunting when I try to take them all on at once. I’ve also learned a lot of things, things design-ly that I would like to apply to this blog but have nether the tolerance nor patience to learn html to do them right; leading back into the lack of time to do it properly in a way that would satisfy me artistically.

The second, being stress. As the knots in my neck, shoulders, and under my shoulder blades can attest to I have no lack of stress. It’s painfully abundant. And I, not wanting to sit down and think about to write about the stresses that I’ve been dealing with and going through, have been avoiding sitting down and doing that for fear that it will compound.

The third, I’m not entirely sure I want to share the things I’ve been going through and thinking over with the whole wide world, however small a part of it read whatever I post here. It’s rather something I’d like to keep to myself, for a while at least, until I feel comfortable enough to share it. Suffice to say, I guess.

Defy gravity
-Dave

P.S.
I’ve been asked why I sign off with “Defy gravity.” The short answer is this:
In the play “Wicked” the protagonist “Elphaba” sings a song that really struck a chord with me. Here’s the lyrics

“GLINDA
(spoken) Elphaba – why couldn’t you have stayed calm for
once, instead of flying off the handle!
(sung) I hope you’re happy!
I hope you’re happy now
I hope you’re happy how you
Hurt your cause forever
I hope you think you’re clever!

ELPHABA
I hope you’re happy
I hope you’re happy, too
I hope you’re proud how you
Would grovel in submission
To feed your own ambition

BOTH
So though I can’t imagine how
I hope you’re happy right now

GLINDA
(spoken) Elphie, listen to me. Just say you’re sorry:
(sung) You can still be with the Wizard
What you’ve worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted:

ELPHABA
(spoken) I know:
(sung) But I don’t want it -
No – I can’t want it
Anymore:

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I’m through with playing by the rules
Of someone else’s game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It’s time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!

It’s time to try
Defying gravity
I think I’ll try
Defying gravity
And you can’t pull me down!

GLINDA
Can’t I make you understand?
You’re having delusions of grandeur:

ELPHABA
I’m through accepting limits
‘Cuz someone says they’re so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I’ll never know!
Too long I’ve been afraid of
Losing love I guess I’ve lost
Well, if that’s love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I’d sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I’m defying gravity
And you can’t pull me down:
(spoken) Glinda – come with me. Think of what we could
do: together.

(sung) Unlimited
Together we’re unlimited
Together we’ll be the greatest team
There’s ever been
Glinda -
Dreams, the way we planned ‘em

GLINDA
If we work in tandem:

BOTH
There’s no fight we cannot win
Just you and I
Defying gravity
With you and I
Defying gravity

ELPHABA
They’ll never bring us down!
(spoken) Well? Are you coming?

GLINDA
I hope you’re happy
Now that you’re choosing this

ELPHABA
(spoken) You too
(sung) I hope it brings you bliss

BOTH
I really hope you get it
And you don’t live to regret it
I hope you’re happy in the end
I hope you’re happy, my friend:

ELPHABASo if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
As someone told me lately:
“Ev’ryone deserves the chance to fly!”
And if I’m flying solo
At least I’m flying free
To those who’d ground me
Take a message back from me
Tell them how I am
Defying gravity
I’m flying high
Defying gravity
And soon I’ll match them in renown
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!

GLINDA
I hope you’re happy!

CITIZENS OF OZ
Look at her, she’s wicked!
Get her!

ELPHABA
:Bring me down!

CITIZENS OF OZ
No one mourns the wicked
So we’ve got to bring her

ELPHABA
Ahhh!

CITIZENS OF OZ
Down!”

And that’s the end of the first act.

Click to zoom

The first Firearm I bought was a Remington 700, special purpose synthetic (sps) varmint, in .308 Winchester and a 26 inch bull barrel. I fired my very first shot with this, my very first firearm. Made in Ilion, New York. I’m going to try to find out the date of manufacture, just for my own interest.

Right now I just have a super cheapo 4x scope on it, but it serves it’s purpose for now. I plan on getting a fancy dancy zoom-in-able scope in time (oooOOOooo!)

That’s me trying to sight it in without a gun vice, it didn’t go so well. I made one out of some left over pieces of wood we have in our garage and here’s a picture of me dialing it down to right on.

The hole in the top most part of the target was my fault, I was sitting awkwardly and couldn’t see down the scope properly.

I then fired 3 more shots from the vice at  a different target to make sure that it was zeroed in, but I didn’t take a picture because after I zeroed in the 700 I shot at the target with my shotgun and it sort of made everything unphotographable.

Which brings me to my shotgun, a Cooey Model 84, a single shot shotgun chambred in 12 guage 2 3/4, has a 30 inch barrel with full choke. This is a really neat firearm, but first a little History. Cooey was a small gun manufacturing plant based in Coburg Ontario, they started in 1903 and were bought out in 1961 by Olin-Mathieson and became a division of Winchester-Western, the Canadian division of Winchester. The Model 84 was introduced in 1948, and during the 27 years of production  they stamped the Model 84′s receiver with “H.W. Cooey Machine & Arms Company, Model 84.” After the buy-out it was cheapened and re-branded, stamped with “Winchester Western Limited, Model 840.”

Why is this important you ask? My shotgun is stamped “H.W. Cooey Machine & Arms Company” this means mine is anywhere from 50-63 years old. That’s as close as I can date it, Cooey didn’t keep very detailed records about which serial numbers were made when, so all I can go on is the stamp on the receiver. Nevertheless, it’s a piece of Canadian history, and I’m proud to call it mine. These firearms were affordable, working-man guns, and there was over 1.6 million of them made ( branded model 84 and model 840) so they are relatively inexpensive to pick up.

Click to zoom

Click to zoom

Click to zoom

Those are my babies.

Defy gravity,
-Dave

P.S.
My next entry will have very little to do with Firearms, I’ll post it in a few days.

The template is (Country) Name of rifle, calibre.

(Japanese)Arisaka Type 99, 7.7mm

(German) Kar 98k, 7.92mm

(Russian) Mosin-Nagant 1944, 7.62mm

(British) Lee Enfield Mk. 4, .303 brit

I’m not really a fan of the American’s Springfield m1903. My favourites out of the above are the Mosin-Nagant, and the Lee Enfield.

I do, however, like the Springfield Arms M1 Garand, and subsequently the M1a. Cambered in .30-06 and 7.62x51mm respectively

M1

There are few differences between the two, but they are there. The Garand shoots the longer .30-06 round, and is 8 round clip fed. The M1A shoots the shorter 7.62x51mm (.308), and is magazine fed. The M1A is the civilian version of the M14, which is nearly identical, except for the ability to fire in fully automatic.

M1A

I would also really like to be able to get my hands on this bad boy:

It may not look like much, but that’s the Canadian Ross Rifle.

I guess this is more of a “rifles from world wars I like” than a “list of guns I want to own.” But I’d really like to own an Enfield, or a Ross Rifle.

Defy gravity,
-Dave

I’ve taken some time to bring you, in no perticular order, The List:
(I’m a huge fan of manual cyclic firearms, but I have some autoloaders in there for good measure.)

Remington 870 Express 12 guage

Mossberg 590A1 SPX, 12 guage

Marlin 1894 in .44 rem. mag

Smith and Wesson 629, 8 3/8 inch .44 mag

Colt M1911A1 .45 acp

Glock 17 9mm

You were probably expecting to see some sort of m16/m4/ar15 right? Wrong, I have a huge problem with the ar platform, and I’m sure the details would bore you. I am however a fan of the Remington/Bushmaster ACR

H&K SL8 .223 Rem/5.56x45mm NATO

That’s all for now. This will cost a small fortune and take me years to collect them, if I manage to convince a certain someone that I need more than 2 or 3 firearms (loooove yoooooou.)

Defy gravity,
-Dave.

I’ve been asked, “why do you need/want guns?”
The long and the short of it is this: I like them. I like them because they are made with care and precision, because they have the ability to put food on the table. It’s like having any other peice of property, I have them because I want them. Why do you have a tv? Why do you have fancy clothes? You don’t need them. If I only owned things I needed, I wouldn’t own anything. And if it came right down to it, I can use my firearms to protect my family and our property.

“what do you mean protect yourself?”
If someone breaks into your home, hell-bent on doing harm to you and your’s what do you do? You call the police, no? Doesn’t that seem a little contradictory, that your first intsinct is to call someone who is armed, but you don’t agree with me being armed? What is keeping you from defending your own life? We as Canadian citizens have the right to use as much force as is required to defend ourselves as stated in Sections 34-37 of the Criminal code of Canada

34. (1) Every one who is unlawfully assaulted without having provoked the assault is justified in repelling force by force if the force he uses is not intended to cause death or grievous bodily harm and is no more than is necessary to enable him to defend himself.

Extent of justification

(2) Every one who is unlawfully assaulted and who causes death or grievous bodily harm in repelling the assault is justified if

(a) he causes it under reasonable apprehension of death or grievous bodily harm from the violence with which the assault was originally made or with which the assailant pursues his purposes; and

(b) he believes, on reasonable grounds, that he cannot otherwise preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm.

35. Every one who has without justification assaulted another but did not commence the assault with intent to cause death or grievous bodily harm, or has without justification provoked an assault on himself by another, may justify the use of force subsequent to the assault if

(a) he uses the force

(i) under reasonable apprehension of death or grievous bodily harm from the violence of the person whom he has assaulted or provoked, and

(ii) in the belief, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary in order to preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm;

(b) he did not, at any time before the necessity of preserving himself from death or grievous bodily harm arose, endeavour to cause death or grievous bodily harm; and

(c) he declined further conflict and quitted or retreated from it as far as it was feasible to do so before the necessity of preserving himself from death or grievous bodily harm arose.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 35.

Provocation

36. Provocation includes, for the purposes of sections 34 and 35, provocation by blows, words or gestures.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 36.

Preventing assault

37. (1) Every one is justified in using force to defend himself or any one under his protection from assault, if he uses no more force than is necessary to prevent the assault or the repetition of it.

Extent of justification

(2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to justify the wilful infliction of any hurt or mischief that is excessive, having regard to the nature of the assault that the force used was intended to prevent.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 37.

Source: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-18.html

“But firearms are dangerous, you could hurt someone with them.”
I disagree, an object inandofitself is not dangerous, it’s the person who uses the object that makes it dangerous. That is to say, I am very careful when handeling and using my firearms. You have more chance of dying in a car crash than you do being shot with a firearm. In 2007 2,882 people died due to vehicular accidents, 167 people died from assault with a firearm related deaths and 5 deaths of “undetermined intent” out of a total 235,217 that year. (This information can be found at stats can, here’s a quick link for the query.) Driving your car everyday, or riding the bus, you are 17 times more likely to die in a car accident than you are due to a firearm.

I also believe that as Canadian citizens, who have the right to defend ourselves, should be allowed the tools to do so. I believe that this carries over to concealed or open carry of a firearm. Do our laws allow for that now? Yes and no. The shortest way to explain it is this. Canadians can apply for an Authorization to Carry (ATC)  but it’s at the discretion of the Chief Firearms Officer (CFO) if he/she decides to issue the ATC, and you have to prove that you need to carry on a day-to-day basis. Good luck getting one though, unless you’re in a position that you can directly influence the CFO’s career, you aren’t getting one. So can we carry? No. Human life is worth protecting.

I’d invite you to read “The Cornered Cat” by Kathy Jackson, she has some very insiteful and interesting things to say on the matter of concealed carry, and about being a mother who does with children.

Also, zombies.

That’s all I have to say for now.
I’m always open to answering questions,

Defy gravity,
-Dave

I’ve missed you, but it seems you don’t share the same sentiments. I thought we were best of friends. Frankly you were my first real friend, who I felt I could tell anything and trust implicitly.

I’m not sure you care anymore.

I’ve been feeling rejected by mostly all of my friends and I really needed to just hang out with someone. I’m not good at spending time by myself, I need to hang out with people to recharge.

I don’t know anymore..

Neurotransmitters are the vehicle through which signals are passed between neurons.

brain stuff

Why is this important? I haven’t been sleeping. More over, when/if I do sleep it’s only for really 5 hours at a time. I bring this up because lately I’ve been feeling really depressed again. I’ve always been one to over-think things, and I’ve been over-thinking things with a depressed state of mind, which leads to further feelings of dejection.

I’ve been thinking that one of my best friends is maybe drifting away, I know that this may not be the case, but it’s what my twisted state of mind has dug up and convinced me of. I’m most certain that it’s not just lack of sleep that’s causing me to think this way, there are other factors and influences at play.

I’ve found myself getting enraged, something that seldom happens to me. Angered to the point where hurthing somone or breaking something seems like a great idea. I hate that this happens, it’s not me, that’s not who I am and I know it.

I haven’t been drawing. That should say volumes.

Change of gears: I’ve been accepted to the college that I wanted to for the program that I wanted. I’m pretty excited to be going back to school, and the possibility of making friends in Oshawa. As it is right now I’d have to travel 30-40 minutes to even be in the same neighbourhood as most of my friends (most because one of my best friends isn’t even in the province. Yeah you, I know you read this.) I also can’t wait to learn about things that I want to learn about, one can only glean so much from googling things and wikipeadia.

In further awesomeness news: Battlefield 3, this fall, I don’t need to say any more.

part 1

part 2

defy gravity
-Dave

When approaching a new drawing or sketch or anything I find that a blank white piece of imaginary computer paper can be the most daunting thing so the best thing that you can do to help with that is to make the background 50% grey. It sounds stupid I know, but trust me, it really works. It’s something about the clean white-ness of a fresh “piece of paper” that I don’t like working on. so I do most of my sketches and doodles on a 50% grey background. Actually the colour I’ve used on the numbers is actually the colour I use for backgrounds, see?

50% grey = 50% already awesome

You’re already halfway there to having an awesome sketch/drawing/distraction from actually doing something you need to do. Also, don’t draw onto the background layer, that way you can do a simple layer fill to make it white and move on to a completed work if it’s destined to be; save everything just in case.

People are tricky, the standard “draw a circle and oval to make a form and then fill it in” doesn’t work for me. I draw from the skeleton. What does that mean? Well it means drawing people as if they were actually held up by some sort of something inside of them and weren’t just made of sausages and hotdogs stuck marshmallow and toothpick style.

here is how I start most of my drawings, with the skeleton

The skull is also not completely round, it’s more egg-shaped with the sides flattened, don’t ever draw it like it’s a golf ball sitting on a cup. Doing this almost all of the drawings I do are in proportion ’cause it’s easier to see where a leg is longer or an arm is shorter. The sausage method is okay for teaching little kids how to draw. I was seriously taught that the way you should draw people is that way in highschool and I argued with him about it and he failed me. So there go you.

Not only do people have skeletons they have muscle! And that muscle can be seen behind the skin when making facial expressions and stuff. When people are angry the skin and muscle bunch up in the centre of the face and ca change the landscape quite a bit. The same skin-face movement happens when they’re smiling, except it’s pulled outward instead of in.

Of course Batman would show up in a drawing post, silly you.

I’ve exaggerated the shadow to give an example of what I’m talking about. The main difference between drawing the skeleton first is that you can plan out what expression they’re going to have instead of just rummaging around untill you find one that fits.

Get comfortable drawing with your whole arm. I know I hated trying to draw from the shoulder but it makes larger drawing come together really fast because you can swoosh around making your curves faster without having to go back and fix and erase and nit-pick everything out. Drawing with your wrist has its place because you have more control and fine motor function, but when it comes to getting your drawing down fast the whole arm is ideal.  That being said, get your outlines down fast so you don’t lose your mental image, then go in and fart around with some wrist drawing for fine little detail-y things. I like to think of my tablet (or paper) as covered in poo, that way I don’t want my hand to touch it, all that’s touching is the stylus (or pencil). But after that’s done the poo goes away. ( I don’t have any picture of drawing with a shoulder, and I don’t feel like drawing one. I mean c’mon, look at how much stuff I’ve done already! You people! I started this thing at like 3:45, and now it’s 5:30, leave me alone)

Practise, a lot. Not everything that comes out of that pen/stylus/paintbrust/leg of lamb will be good and that’s okay, normal even. Don’t discourage yourself from doing it just because it doesn’t come out the way you want it to. This is probably the hardest thing to do, and I’ve struggled with it a lot more than I’d like to admit. Take a break if it’s frustrating you, get up walk around a bit, grab something to drink and then come back and start fresh. I heard somwhere that drawing/painting is like a baseball player’s batting average where .300 is a great batting average, so 30% of the stuff you draw will be great, and the other 70% isn’t. So by that, the more you draw the greater number of pieces will be in that 30%, don’t stop drawing.

Have a pear.

Defy gravity,
-Dave