Seattle Santa 2012

12/22/12, its saturday and we're still here (well my friends down-under could have told me that yesterday!)...so, without any further ado, i would like to wish everyone out there (especially those who take the time to read my banter) a safe and joyous holiday season and a very happy (and predicted) new year!

for all of you unfamiliar with our bi-seasonal (2 months of summer/10 months of fall) great pacific northwest, the image on the left is a pretty accurate depiction of santa claus dropping in on the 25th (i was going to make some kind of sarcastic "50 shades of..." reference, here, but decided to spare you all in the good spirit of christmas)...

anyhow...

happy holidays and a prosperous new year

Thomas

MFP Garage

I can't call myself an automotive enthusiast without giving a nod to the very distinctive MFP (Main Force Patrol) 1972 Ford Falcon XB sedan - aka, the Big Bopper from George Miller's 1979 Mad Max...

As these cars are rather hard - nigh impossible - to find state-side (and i really don't have the nerves for yet another classic Ford), i let the car's illustrious paint-job be the inspiration to our garage's theme...

...coated in gallons of semi-gloss citric yellow, go-faster red, arctic white and a deep mid-night berry blue - finished with a double layer of high gloss jet-black and silver flaked epoxy floor...

a small cigar bar in the right corner is currently in the works...

Hybrid Critters: #1 Elephant Bug

I drew up this chimera (creature hybrid - not the lion-snake-goat that terrorized Homer's peers in Asia Minor) for my nephew (personally, i would have gone with sharks and race-cars or something...alas, Hot Wheels beat me to it)...

...and, if you where wondering, why the prolonged radio silence on my end...that would be due to a number of things i'm currently working on; a Mad Max inspired garage interior design, my new living space design web-site, a recycled wood end table, Robert Irvine - Screen Series #5 caricature,some acrylic paintings...just to mention a few...

...i'll throw another tutorial in there somewhere too...

Wooden Pond

...over the past few years, discarded and broken-down shipping palettes have become solid gold for the design community, voraciously recycling the distressed wood into anything and everything...the demand for hobo chic wall coverings and chaise lounges doesn't seem to show any signs of ebbing...

...sometime mid-August 2011, while standing along the cornrows of a failed crop in our much-too-shady backyard i got the idea of adding a cool water feature to the lot...and in accordance with everything else i do, a simple solution was not an option, naturally...

...presenting the back-yard pond made of recycled and reclaimed palette wood (well, a significant part of it, at least)!

in March i started digging a 2 tiered hole - 7 by 5.5 foot and 2.5 foot deep, followed by the foundation - contractor grade wood reenforced walls lined with a cotton base-coat and a 15 by 15 foot 1/32 inch waterproof foil...

...May...

if i said that i drew out a comprehensive plan for how this project was going to unfold, i would be lying...the blueprints where in my head - constantly evolving with every glitch and set-back. at this point, anything i was going to add to the structure could not be secured with nails or sharp screws (jeopardizing the waterproof properties of the foil).

i built the wall segments with even planks (resembling mid-century kitchen wainscoting) secured to wooden studs via smooth headed corrosion proof nuts and bolts. each segment was then coated with waterproof, environmentally safe (and very expensive) yacht-hull enamel. the pond was assembled on the lawn adjacent to the hole and lowered (extremely carefully) into place.

...June...

pushing on, about 400 pounds of river (or pea) pebbles blanket the pond floor and planting shelf. the running boards and seating shelves are solid ceder planks waterproofed with the same stain used on classic wood-hull Cris Craft motor yachts from the 1930s.

by August i added the landscaping (including these really cool blue glow pebbles), the whiskey barrel, waterfall pump (950 gal/hr) and 575 gallons of water...

...the mason jar lights (recycled) went in last week...

Recycled Subway Tile Ledge

Hooray...More tiles!

I believe that this 6 foot running wall protrusion was once used as a display for mismatched vases and other 1970s dust-collectors (reminiscent of the countless shiny trinkets on the movie sets in Scarface)...anyhow, due to my extended family of house tigers and their instinctual tendency to innocently shove breakables off elevated places, this ledge could no longer serve its intended purpose...

...but just leaving it off white was not an option either!

I did just finish tiling all upstairs window sill plates - so i still had plenty mortar and glass grout at hand...

...the rest came from an industrial glass store that had stock-piled hundreds of recycled and otherwise rejected New York Subway tiles (and that in Seattle) - available in pretty much any color imaginable! 

my recipe consisted of 2x4 and 4x4 inch tiles in 3 shades of green, 1 gold and a fire-engine red (maintaining the 70s design flair in respect for the house's era) - set in a randomized pattern...

check out the close-up!

Melted Crayon Zombie Painting - Part 2

...alright, this is taking a bit longer than i anticipated, but now that our great Pacific Northwest fall is creeping up, i'll have...oh...another nine months to finish it before the distractions of summer return (yay, Seattle sarcasm)...

...i got the image onto canvas (took the juice out of about 3 Sharpies - Edding, for my European readers). Sticking with Crayola for the rest of the process...planning on giving the zombie dude and the victim's arm a faint watercolor wash - mostly blues, greens and purples...

...just to give you an idea of the crayon melt - i found this video on you tube...looks easy enough, but i think i should have a couple practice runs first...just to be on the safe side.

...soon...

Photoshop Tutorial #5: HDR - the quick and dirty...

Ok, so anyone with any moderate interest in stepping beyond the tortured, perfectly centered subject, point-and-click shot would have come across HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography.  HDR is a photo technique (increasing in popularity due to the over-abundance of digital photography and post-production image editing software) where a combination of exposures (under, balanced and over) generate a single image displaying an almost surreal range of tonal values - very dramatic shadow and highlight detail. 

Here we go, a before and after shot form my trip to the Sagrada Famila in Barcelona (Yes, I'm aware that its centered, but i had to lay on the floor, desperately dodging the sock-sandal clad hooves of the ambling herds of crispy-fried tourists, to get this shot!)

NOTE: this is only available for Photoshop CS5 and up...
 

I've done quite a few of these on older CS versions - though i had to shoot 5 exposures of the same shot, while using a tripod - but that is for another time...

1. Select a regular digitized photograph.
2. Adjust it accordingly – rotate, scale and crop as desired.
3. With the Background layer selected, navigate to:  Image>Adjustments>HDR Toning…
   NOTE. This part is a bit tricky – and does warrant some trial and error.  The degree to which each of the specific sliders need to be adjusted depends entirely on the type of image – outside landscape, human close-up,  flashy car, etc. (When working with an inside shot, the main focus is on the amount of light (preferable natural) entering the enclosed structure, and how it illuminates the immediate surroundings).
4. In the HDR window, I adjusted the sliders as shown (I always start with the Detail slider –matter of preference):
   Tone and Detail: brings out the fine detail of the image – basically sharpening the information that are usually washed out in the shadows and highlights. For a nice rich contrast on dimly lit interiors, a reduced Gamma and Shadow, along with a slightly elevated Exposure and Highlight brings out the most dramatic contrast.
   Color: I like to keep the Saturation at reasonable levels (especially when printing the shot later) and only push up the Vibrance to boost specific hues.Edge Glow: brings out the sharpness of the image – the lower the Radius the sharper the image detail becomes (Strength controls the intensity of the highlight glow).
   
   
5.  Once satisfied with the results then click OK.
6. The image now has dramatic detail but the contrast in the lighting seems a tad diminished – Levels will easily remedy this.
7. Select Image>Adjustments>Levels…
8. In the levels pop-up window, on the histogram,  adjust the dark (left) slider toward the right – to intensify the shadow areas, and move the light (right) slider towards the left a bit to boost the highlights slightly – click ok.
9. Finally, I like to apply a little Gaussian Blur to take down the crispness a hair – I find a value between 0.8 and 1.2 does just nicely.
10. If the image has lights in it, creating a faint, blurred halo always adds  a simple, yet dramatic effect…