RasterWeb!
Día de Muertos! Day of the Pete!
After coloring the Wenchkin van, our pal Wenchkin was so pleased she actually drew me! So now you can colorize Pete.
(The image above is of course from my avatar, which originally came from this photo.)
I feel quite honored… If you like coloring (and who doesn’t!?) check out the rest of the Yucca Flats, N.M. site for more awesome coloring action.
Over on Google+ I started following Carolyn Curtis (aka Wenchkin) because she makes awesome art.
The latest awesome thing she’s done is Yucca Flats, N.M., a new art blog with some coloring pages, and if you know me, you know I love me some coloring pages, and I love me some vans… combine the two? You get my “Wenchkin Van” you see above. (Click the image for the full-size version.)
It felt good to use the Wacom tablet again, even if I’m just coloring in something I didn’t draw myself. Part of my problem is that I don’t think I draw very well, but I still like to draw, so this is a nice compromise.
I hope you like it Carolyn! :)
I had a lot of fun with Processing last year when I joined in with a few other folks and declared May as “Processing Month” and my final project was the Make A Sketch, which was an Arduino + Processing piece.
There’s two other guys at Milwaukee Makerspace with an interest in Processing, and we figured it was worth sharing what we know, and we’ve decided that a 3-hour workshop on the subject would be a good idea, so…
Join us Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 at 6pm to learn about Processing! [Sign up here]
We’ll expect you to have Processing installed on a laptop, basic knowledge of writing code, and a few simple sketches running. If you can do all that, and want to dive a bit deeper into Processing, we’d love to have you there. (If you’re a Milwaukee Makerspace member the cost is $20, otherwise it’s $25 for the general public.)
Besides some basics of Processing we’ll be creating a collaborative team project, so it should be all-around awesome. If you’re a coder who wants to make some interactive art, or an interactive artist who wants to write some code, well… you’ll fit right in. :)
I had a blast doing the RPM Challenge last year (and if you don’t know, the RPM Challenge is to record an entire album in one month, during February, to be exact.
Here’s a little history: in 2008 I completed the challenge, then did it again in 2009. In 2010 I didn’t manage to do it, but I came back in 2011 and did it again.
Watching the progression throughout the years has been really interesting for me, and I’m glad it did it each time, and blogged about it each time, but for 2012, I’m taking another hiatus, and I’ll plan on jumping in again for 2013. I’ve got a lot going on right now, and too many unfinished projects to consider starting another one, especially one that will put the others on hold. I’m also speaking at a class, teaching a class, traveling out of state, and have a few other things scheduled for February that have convinced me to scale back my commitments.
If you’re interested in all my posts about my past RPM Challege adventures, just browse the rpmchallenge tag.
See ya next year kids!
It’s a known problem that I take on too many projects, and that tends to make some of them drag out longer than they should… has it really been more than a month since I started this one?
Yes it has. In my UI Mockup/Diagram Apps post, I was working on a control panel for the CNC Router we have at the Milwaukee Makerspace.
The image above was my first attempt to hack something together. I wanted to do a layout with paper to get a good idea of the physical size of things. As you may notice, the buttons are big, and make the whole thing fairly large. Larger than I wanted. So through a few posts I connected with a fellow maker in Madison who offered me some smaller buttons…
Once I had the smaller buttons, I sat down with some paper and the calipers, and started measuring things, and making the new layout. These were, like the previous attempt, just some rough sketches on paper. Once my paper sketches were done, I moved on to Inkscape, and made the digital version of my control panel.
I then went back to paper, by printing out my files, to get a feel for the size and spacing of everything. I didn’t go as far as mocking up an actual 3D model, though it would have been easy with some foamcore or matte board, but it’s one more step to take if needed.
And as long as I was at the makerspace for some laser-related shenanigans, I figured I’d cut a test of the control panel using acrylic. (I’d like the final done in wood, but I had some scrap clear acrylic on hand, and it’s easier/faster to cut than wood.)
As is often the case, I screwed up one bit of the file, and the lower-left cut is too large. The two holes on the right are waiting for buttons I don’t have yet. Right, make that: buttons I didn’t have yet. More buttons showed up, but they are slightly smaller, so I’ll meed to re-size things again before the next cut. Back to the old drawing application, as they say.
And hey, I better finish this project soon, because there’s talk of adding a 4th and 5th axis to the router! I don’t really mind though, because so far I’ve really enjoyed the process, and I’ve learned a lot along the way, so even if this thing is outdated by the time I finish it, I’ll just start on an upgrade. :)