This blog needs some more of my art updates... So here is a quickly colored sketch for today. My Take on a Fox Fur Stole switch up. Doodled this on the back of an index card and thought it'd be fun to color real quick.

Click for big:

Today I am being inspired by old fashion art found on Sebra Prints:








Also, I love that that is a dress considered suitable for going for a walk:


Neato Image from Sebra Prints --> CLICK HERE

Sheolin, more aliens for Star Lost

Inked Belles, click for big:



Visit Belle of the Ball creator Daniel Solis' website: http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/

A couple random things. First, a Pheonix that will be a friend's tattoo eventually. Had to copy the style of the dragon tattoo she has on her other arm. It always makes me happy when someone is willing to scar themselves for life with my art! YAY!


Just gotta color her - click for big.

And here is something I found sitting around, for your pleasure:

Belle of the Ball

Daniel Solis' new game, these are sketches for the "Belles" - check out more on the game at Daniel's website here.

Click for bigger~!

I've discovered a fun new concept- a painting party!!!

Today my inspiration for drawing is... Hippies and Hipsters. Gee, a lot of them smoke, huh?

Sometimes you just have to sketch.... For your viewing pleasure, my cat Hank (a.k.a. Dinkle)

Click to Inbiggin.

I just got an unsolicited raise from one of my regular illustration clients - go me!


In celebration, for your viewing pleasure, here a couple of my latest drawings for Star Lost - Click for big.

www.hudspethgames.com

Check it out, I put out bird seed (set it in the knot in the tree) and a Cardinal brought his fledgling son by. Here is a video of him feeding his fledgling:

They did it for HOURS after I took this video, the whole time the baby was going "Skwwwweee! Skweeeeeeee!!!"

I got a mention on Daniel's blog for Pilgrimizing Batman & Robin:

http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/do-pilgrims-of-justice-league-and-star.html

Try the game yourself!

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/famous-brands-rebranding-cost/

I wish I could charge $100 million for a logo! - I know a ton of research and development goes into these logos, and an expert team of designers, but I've read the hilariously silly pepsi creative brief that explains their thought process and it sounds like a fabulous way to sucker companies with too much money rather than a legit system. People who are not visually informed can be deer in headlights when it comes to a thing like a logo, so they can make the mistake of tossing money at it until it's good. I suppose that works, eventually! It's up to the designer and agency to be honest about their practices.

And, by the way, even though I hated the pepsi logo at first, it's actually not that bad. Secretly, I still drink it on occation.

Business Cards - it's great to look at those "amazing business card" lists, but what must those things COST?? Not practical.

Todays mind challege - using SimPE to make all the aliens in the game default into Vulcans. OK yeah, the nerdiest thing ever, but it's a good chance to stretch my learning muscle.

Sorry not to post in a while, it was really sad when we had to give the Baron away, so I had to get over that first (:P)

The Baron started getting big- and eating $8 worth of food a day - YIKES. We had to give the little guy up, but we found this awesome bird rescue service just south of Ennis/Dallas. Driving up was awesome, they had peacocks and storks and ducks everwhere, plus a big sign that said "BEWARE OF DUCK" and I think is was serious.



This is Brian and the Baron outside the rescue. The rescue was awesome because they would take ANY bird and rehabilitate them, NO KILLING because the animal is too hard to take care of. They're the only place like this we could find in DFW.

We walked in and saw: A parrot receptionist. Oh man. And a huge cage full of grackles- nice to see someone cares about little lives enough to take care of grackles! A teenage girl walked by with a golden eagle hanging from her arm that was half as big as she was, casually as if it was nothing.

"What have we got here? OH a kingbird!" The lady grabs the Baron out, powders and washes him. Someone says, "Should we put him in with the scissor tails?" To which we hear, "it's your funeral!" (apparently they dont get along!) SO they put the Baron in a cage that is brimming with adorable fledgling kingbirds, like 10 others. Wow!

So that's that! Bye bye Baron, we both cried to see him go. That was 2 months ago, so by now he is up and flying around the nature preserve the rescue has. Good luck to him, I bet he makes a lovely adult :)

Click here for a video of goodbye:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqRNV0qH3jY

And just another video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLZkmVIhfd8

Now using Ping.Fm to deliver updatey goodness to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, and Flickr - Enjoy!

Update on the Baron

Tuesday (day 4):

You can see he's still covered in pin feathers, click the pics for a video, he's pretty chill.
Found Kingbirds in spanish are called "Madrugador avispero" - the "Tyrant Wasp's Nest" (wasps nest is a colloquial term for a big mess) and in french "Tyran de l'Ouest" or "Tyrant of the West." - a suitable name for the Baron!



Wednesday (day 5):

He's begun to walk around his cage. After being fed he has a happy I've been fed dance where he'll bob his head and walk in circles fluttering. Hopefully I'll catch it on video soon, it's pretty frickin cute. You can see his feathers are coming in better each day and he is getting BIG off the formula and worms!! He also has been perching on his water dish. Still can't eat worms by himself or drink by himself. You can see his feathers are still underdeveloped and there are gaps in his wings.


Thursday (day 6):

We put a perch in his cage, and he LOVES it. He has also taken to enjoying fingers. We're trying to be as impersonal as possible with him, but he is in love with Brian's fingers (does he realize people have faces?) - the perch also makes it so much easier to change out his poopy floor. I can't believe the guy poops SOOO much. Look closely at his wings, you can see the feathers still show the bare spine halfway down. Other than that, he's getting close to fledging.

There is a nest of sparrows on the porch/balcony above ours, the babies peep all day long and Baron kips back. He chats with anyone who will kip with him. Kip by the way is, no kidding, the technically term for the way Kingbirds talk. There are actually a lot of terms ornithologists have coined for different bird calls! We learned this from this website, where you can also listen to a recording of a Kingbird song.

Click the pictures for a video!

Update on the baby bird.

My wildlife specialist friend says he is most likely a Western Kingbird instead of a couches, since westerns are more common up here.

We've named him Baron Von Ünderbite since he's got a wonky looking beak. We also call his nest Ünderland. Here is the Baron being adorable:


Here he is savagely consuming a mealworm. We've also been feeding him baby bird formula, but it's grain based and Kingbirds eat bugs and fruit. Hopefully we can get him on a mostly insect diet soon, but at least he seems to like the formula.


And here he is in jail! Oh no... we got him a new Ünderland, an actual bird cage. He'll be safer in here even if it isnt as cute a place to keep him. We keep him outside on our porch with a sheet up to screen him from the evening sun. His mom's tree is right there, so you can hear them talking all day long. She just can't seem to find him or feed him. They're fiercely territorial so it may be that he is technically out of her territory now. Who knows, but we're the feeders now. We're hoping getting to talk to other Kingbirds all day will make it easier to release him when he fledges, maybe his mom will teach him to hunt.


And here is my drawing of him. :P

Here is a photo of the baby bird. He jumped out of his nest again, so I put up a new one for him. Damnit, stay in this one!!

Made a fake nest & put a baby birdy back in the tree, hope it works out for him, mom bird is still hanging around. We think it was a Couch's Kingbird http://ow.ly/204Dj

Caltrops! A game by Quentin Hudspeth.

This little gem is the cover I made for a pretty awesome little game that makes me want to go out and buy caltrops to actually play it with. My fiance also thinks it's pretty neat, and he's a highly discerning nerd so you know it's good :P

Quentin says about this game: "I recently threw together a generic fantasy game supplement featuring two dice games. The conceit I hung them on was that they were played by this race of goblins that lived in the highlands of a fictitious world, who like to use caltrops for gaming implements."

Find Quentin's website here: http://quentinhudspeth.com/

Did anyone notice they copied George Clooney's face proportions for Fantastic Mr. Fox?

Basil Seed with Honey-

Have you heard of this drink? Have you SEEN it? Have you TASTED it? AMAZING.

Ok maybe this is old news to some people but I have a new favorite drink. It looks like it would be really thick but it's not- and the little goopy cooked basil seeds are the texture of tapioca and go squkeette when you bite them!

Unfortunately my camera is dead right now so these aren't my pictures, but that's what it looks like :) It's like drinking frog eggs in sweet sweet honey....


Image sources: http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/restaurants-bars/32341/three-way http://tunacupcake.com/2008/10/26/weird-drinks-basil-seed-drink-with-honey/