IF:: a real winter

For Illustration Friday's Topic Winter

IF :: its in the mail

Lila remembers fondly being able to mail her first letter.

For Illustration Friday's topic mail

IF :: engulfed by a Time Warp

Alvin is innocently tricked by a Bizarre Time Warp Phenomenon into drawing last weeks theme and posting it this week

For Illustration Friday's topic Phenomenon

IF :: Positively Prehistoric

Wearing Leggings to a Zumba Class! now that is "Prehistoric".

For Illustration Friday's topic prehistoric, but opps Alvin is tricked by a bizare time warp phenomenon to drawing and posting last weeks theme

Dealing with leaks

Alvin learnt long ago to leave all leaks to the professionals

Julia's first task

RIP - TwitPic Quickies

I'm not sure what changes TwitPics have made, going over to Oauth authentification via twitter, but the net result is I can no longer display TwitPics in this blog. Rather than stress about it I figured it was easier to post the cartoons directly in here and put a link on twitter. Same result just a few more keystrokes.

So look for the quickie cartonns right here.

IF :: Immovavble

Even without the high power management theory Alvin knows better than come between a hungary lady and her cheese.

For illustration Friday 's topic immovable

The count continues

This is a new direction in my cartooning. A Wacom Bamboo Tablet (non scanned) drawing directly into the computer.

A close call

Julia may have underestimated the passion in Western Australia and Queensland, which stands to loose most under the Mining Super Profits Tax and the uneasiness with all the ongoing corruption and naivety in the state labour governments

Behind the "real" Julia

IF :: Art Official

Lila takes her responsibilities as a gallery guide very seriously

For illustration friday's topic artificial

Dissapointment

Alvin is dissapointed by his soufflé surprise invention ...he dreads it will not be enough to get him into the next season of masterchef.

IF :: Double Dipping

Lila decides it is time to start a twitter campaign against double dipping on masterchef ...and she is also a bit distressed by lack of table manners at government house

For IllustrationFriday 's topic double

Alvin is out

Alvin is distraught that his namesake was eliminated from masterchef, & he retires to his kingsize bed with his favourite tapas book.

Moving forward

Alvin instinctively moves forward to press the remote.

IF :: Alvin wants to close his diary

Alvin dreams of closing his diary, taking a few risks and really living his own life.

For Illustrations Friday's topic diary

IF :: Alvin was suddenly a Giant

Alvin knows he will use his height advantage wisely, to bring beauty to the world.

For Illustration Friday 's topic giant.

Big Step Forward

Julian Gillard’s big step forward …looking forward …way forward …(add lots more sound bites with the word forward)…didn’t strike me all that great (mining companies pay the same corporate tax rate as any other Australian company 30%), so the big reduction of the resource super profits tax from 40-% to 30% …yes the same rate it is now pays, does seem like a lot of spin, and a big back flip to me …but then again no one yet knows the fine details. Speaking of big changes to achieve exactly the same, this humble illustration is trying out new technology

Existing (interactive) Tablet

I like to sketch my cartoons by hand, usually on the back scrap paper on a neat drawing board of my own design. Its a bit of off-cut ply-wood,painted with a little undercoat and with a few of those big red rubber bands Australia Post use on your mail, holding the paper in place. I like to sketch while listening to music so I have added my MP3 player under one of the rubber bands. This is the most interactive bit. Its a wonderful design, not completely wireless, but I can use it anywhere.
I usually rough in something with a soft pencil and ink over it with a felt (or jell) pen, and then rub out the pencil (more interactive parts). Not very high tech but fast enough. I then scan the sketch and load it into Corel Auto-trace to convert it into a line drawing, sometimes after a little bit of fat-bit editing to clean up the scan and then colour it in Corel-draw.

New Interactive Tablet

Introducing my new Wacom Bamboo tablet, more wires on my desk and it is only as portable as far as the cable reached. The pen is wireless though. I’m still experimenting with how best to use it. But it is pretty natural and easy to use. My aim with these twitpic quickies is to be able to get the cartoon published on the internet with 5-10 minutes of scanning. To be honest I’m no where close to achieving that in corel painter essentials with the pen & tablet, little alone becoming proficient drawing directly on the tablet (see my first attempt). We are however moving forward riding the waves of technology, not necessarily moving as fast as our new prime minister.

IF :: serving a higher cause

Sputnik would never have volunteered if he had realized the true loneliness of a satellite's life.

For Illustration Friday's topic satellite

IF :: paisley becomes fashionable again

Alvin just knows he's not a Tie Person

For Illustration Friday's topic paisley

VBOPing is moving

As NING are closing down their free groups, the Venus Bay Observation Project, which relies on voluntary contributions and participation is moving. Firstly to a blogger site VBOPING, its free, no adds, no spammers (hopefully google has better tools to stop them and other anti-social types). Also the VBOP presence is being expanded across the WEB 2.0 Social networks (no plans to be on Facebook though). You can already follow VBOP on twitter or join the VBOP group on Flickr. Watch out for me over there, with an arty project or two!

IF :: Slither'cise

Lila discovers not to do her slither exercises on the rug on her newly polished floor again.

For Illustration Friday's topic slither

On-line Privacy

Alvin starts to worry about his identity's exposure within the social networks.

With thanks to profimagazin for the stylized social network logos

IF :: escaping the Early Bird

For Illutration Friday's topic early

If :: Subterranean

A wrong turn at the carrot patch and wilber finds himself in an angry bullant nest.

For IllustrationFriday 's topic subterranean

IF :: Brave Enough

Alvin worries he will not be brave enough to tell the truth.

For illustration Friday's topic brave

On :: life's awkward moments

Alvin no longer fears those awkward
"Mine is bigger than yours"
moments at the Camera Club

On :: Network Intelligence

The Maths is simple

Twitter + Celebrities = Dumb Net
Buzz + Geeks = Smart Net

IF :: only we all had proper gates

For Illustration Friday's topic propagate

Whats this Buzz about

Google have just announced Google Buzz which is built into gmail. I'm not going to go into all the technical stuff, Gina Tripani of Smarterware & TWIG fame, does a much better job of explaining it, and a good run down of how to do everything in google buzz (including turning it off).

What it offers me, as a cartoon character, might be a better way to put my cartoons out there, in the social media clouds. In the short term I will post my TwitPIC quickies on Buzz as well, but expect to see different stuff via Buzz soon. One problems is I don't have any followers there yet, no problem, you should be able to figure out my new gmail name, alvin.people at gmail dot com you can even send me an email there if you like. Imagine that, a cartoon character with his own email name.

Well it also gives me yet another button to push.

IF :: Muddy

Lila's Fashion Rule #17 Don't wear stilettos to a picnic on a rainy day

For IllustrationFriday's   topic Muddy

IF :: in the Wilderness

Lila begins to worry about the wisdom of her Weekend Walk on the Wild Side Adventure.

For Illustration Fridays Topic Wilderness