Remodeling my place.

I've built two materials / color palettes, with crossover of certain elements that I already have, or wish to use regardless of scheme. Haven't decided which palette to go with, yet.

Version 1, the original, based on my preference for black/grey.

Version 2, based on more tropical / floral, to match future wall art.

Below is the wall art -- in canvas print and framed print -- that I'm planning on hanging, and perhaps rotating. I take a lot of photos, so I can't think of a better way to use them than to rotate them on my wall, seasonally speaking. And yes, I have many winter and fall color photos, too, so I'm good to go on the concept.

My thinking here is that Version 1 feels more like a gallery, while Version 2 is, obviously, warmer and feels more flexible.

Comments, anyone?

Merry Christmas.

The 2014 Christmas card

Luke and Noah.

A graphic layout for my friend's two dogs -- a 2 year old border collie and a border collie puppy.

Breaking Usagi.

A tribute to Breaking Bad. :D

Kureji Usagi: Shoot.

One final (?) tribute to Andy Warhol and his Elvis series of prints. :D

As always, in my Cafe Press store.

Kureji Usagi: Tickle Slowly and See

Another tribute to Andy Warhol. :D

Now available: Canned Kureji Usagi.

A tribute to Andy Warhol and Pop Art. :D  (More to come!)

In my Cafe Press shop.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful for a dog that amuses me, who never seems to grow old, and football on Thanksgiving.

Holiday cards are done.

I sent my cards off to Moo to get them printed, just in time to take advantage of their 25% off discount, and to get them in time to send off the first set.  This year, I've decided to create 3 variations for different parts of the season.

Obviously I'm not posting them ahead of time, but here's the back of the cards.

Kuropea!

My friend just got this mostly black border collie puppy -- the runt of the litter.  I tried to convince her to call him Kuropea, or, black pea.

It didn't stick.  Still, I think it's kawaii.

Holiday lights in trees.

I've always had a fascination with holiday lights in trees.  The way it illuminates leaves, the shadows, the glow through the leaves, and the contrast against the night just make for dreamy visions.

In Portland's Pearl District, the lights were turned on about two weeks ago, just after Halloween.  The timing seemed right to photograph the trees just as the leaves were just beginning to change color.

Officially official: Portfolio site now live.

Well, I've finally completed it, though the journey was an odd twist.

I was originally going to build my portfolio from scratch using Adobe Muse, and in fact some three years ago or so, I had a template front page figured out.  But then Muse left beta and became a paid app, so that left me hanging in the wind.

I then started working with a jQuery template, but it really was just an image template which therefore required hard coding for the overall layout of the site.

At that point I was going to build it in Google Web Designer, but then I realized that I didn't have the time to build it from scratch.

So I decided I might grab one of those free templates, and I found a really good one that was minimalist and all.  But then after fudging around with it, I realized that it would still take quite a lot of time, first to read through the documentation, then adjusting all of the parameters by hand.

So finally, I decided to go to Wix.  Of course, I started the project, and then let it sit for a couple of months.  But last week I finally got off my bum and worked at it, and in four days I've finally completed it.

My portfolio website.

Now granted, it's currently hosted at Wix and has ads for Wix, because I'm not going to pay $5 / month at this point to host with my domain name that I own.  Eventually that'll change, I'm sure, but for now, it's good enough.

The obligatory screen shot of my portfolio.

Finally rendered: Kuwait competition, blast from the past project.

I finally finished updating the Sketchup model that had been converted from 3D AutoCad, and got through rendering, following some added touches to the interior.  To create the bokeh effect, I popped some of the renders into Photoshop and applied a lens blur to a gradient mask.

Lots of work...made me wonder if it would have been easier to simply rebuild from the 2D cad files instead. Still, I've had my eye on redoing this in Sketchup for a very long time because I knew that it would come out spectacular.

Kuwait competition -- another project reworked.

Here's another blast from the past project that I worked on.  Some 12 years ago, this was built in 3D in AutoCad, then rendered via 3DS Max.  I'm still working on fixing the model up after importing it into Sketchup (there is a lot of work to be done!), but it's definitely going to be worth it.

I didn't do the design; I gave my input on the design to the head designer, though, and it reflects a lot of my personal style.

Here's a peek into where it stands right now.  When it's all done, I'll show the updated model.

Blast from the past: Wash. County Museum

I've been going through past projects, converting some 3D CAD files to Sketchup files, and putting in some extra work into adding flourishes, rerendering them and adding some extra stuff with Photoshop.  Back in the day, I relied on AutoCAD's built-in Max, and before then, the stand-alone Max to render.  Things are a lot easier and better now.

Here's one project that got the once-over treatment: Washington County Museum.  

When I first started working on this, it had been modestly designed.  In fact, it was ugly.

The project was never completed in the way it was intended because of a lack of fundraising to cover the total cost of the work, so the highlight of the project was axed.  Had they waited to start the work until they'd gotten enough funding, it would have had a spectacular entrance area and retail sales space, giving the museum a leg up for future growth.

Oh well.

Designing houses.

Something I'd love to do, is design houses.  Something I love doing right now, is finding properties online, grabbing their contours from Google Earth via Sketchup Pro, then modelling ideas.

This one, just completed.  After modelling, I exported and rendered it, then added some flourishes via Photoshop.  Took all of about 4 hours.  Obviously designing for a client with a program takes a lot longer, and this is just a facade exercise.

It also serves as a break from doing the stuff that I'm supposed to be doing, namely, re-building the ol portfolio and getting it sent out to the printer.

Creative Routines of some great minds.

Info We Trust has a great poster compilation of data, showing the daily routines of some great minds.  Some of them appeal greatly to me, for the realism of limited work period surrounded with extensive time dedicated towards learning, exploration and contemplation.

Works for me...or rather, that's how I work.  :D

The construction process, realized.

We're just finishing off the construction of All Classical KQAC radio station's new home.  Over the period of construction, I've taken periodic photos of the reception area, and here's a layout of this process, shown from bones to finish.

After stripping down existing, the metal studs come up.

The soffit (curved) is built separately and lifted into place.

Add sound insulation and gypsum boards; ceilings get ducts and pipes.

Some things get painted, prior to flooring.

Flooring installed, all walls painted.

Built-in and custom furniture, and lighting is installed.