Insanity-Print and Publish

The power of creating a makerspace for my students. Now that I actually have the classroom set up to be a true makerspace with a full area to move around in ... I want to lead by example. I had the opportunity to ideate, model, and create a costume this Halloween. As a staff/faculty at Renaissance, we are all dressing up as school supplies... I am going one step further... I am a superhero called the Illustrator. I have pencil gauntlets and an eraser helmet... Now I just needed to make my vinyl eraser chestplate. Here's the progress!

Never hate on dinner for breakfast...

Spicy Peruvian Chicken.

Celebrating life this morning before robotics.

Day 2 - Discover (and Day 1 - Backpack)

The Misadventures of Eye N. Stein is officially back with Inktober 2024.

I've been meaning to do it for quite some time... Since I am finally at a good headspace with Renaissance HS, I wanted to create an avenue for my students to practice illustration.

Perfect time...

I have the opportunity to be intentional with my art students doing Inktober this year.

I have options though... Cutetober? Kattober? I'll catch up in the next few days, but here is Backpack. Eye N Stein has an octopus... Salvaging that ink.

Being a modern Taoist, hence my brand as the Taoest Dad... I have never been a fan of celebrating days. I celebrate people... I celebrate connection. I celebrate life.

Thomas and Mao. Britt and Drizzt. Zach and Karma... My parents visited and they were able to meet Eli. We were able to have four generations of my family sitting at a dinner table, and it has been a long time coming... A realization that time is short. Time is our precious currency. Cherish every moment. Celebrate the ones you love whenever you have time.

I have always been one that has appreciated hip hop through the years, and when individuals have bars... you have to put respect on that name. Of current artists, I truly have to give big ups to two groups, and I want to see some happen, so I am going to put it out into the ether and see if it happens. There is a K-pop group called XG (Xtraordinary Girls) that kill it... they are also built differently than the normal K-pop groups. They have 4 lyricists and 3 vocalists. The 4 lyricists have BAAAARS! https://youtu.be/z9ZvpH6hmmQ?si=IyjifxfUbyop6n9A
https://youtu.be/E_SktiZU704?si=1e199fZl5UGCSu9g
https://youtu.be/5sT20edl02I?si=cn2NLBHPjI0OnlDV

So Cocona, Harvey, Maya, and Jurin are the four girls that spit for XG. Additionally, Coast Contra is the fu**in' hard... these guys CRUSH IT. They can come for you.
https://youtu.be/MM6nrwOP-7M?si=YiORHjpOpFo3s3U0
https://youtu.be/CBOdvZi9Ng8?si=qYWfYBarcBmU5rZT

I think if I can manifest Coast Contra freestyling with Cocona, Harvey, Maya, and Jurin of XG, I would be in a complete happy place! This would be a magical cacophony of bars!

Even if you only get a chance to connect with people in metaphysical space... Be sure you celebrate them.

Happy Burger Day!!!

The power of being an educator... I can reflect on those in my life that helped me realize the importance of sharing information. There is so much to understanding why it is important to embrace the passion for teaching. When you find a calling for it ... Do not let it go - don't preach, just teach.

From birthday meals at Renaissance with love from the staff... To a mission of making an intentional creative space for my students at RHS. I still Coach robotics for Central Kitsap School District and I continue my efforts to align STEAM in classrooms to after school activities for all students in Kitsap county.

My parents visited... It has been a while since they were able to travel up here to the PNW. All the kids came out to see their grandparents and we were able to bridge four generations. I visited Canada for the first time with my parents...

Hello, Fresh... I still am cooking and I made a meal for my parents... Enjoyed being a catered meal for them. They were able to enjoy Moo Shu Pork together while listening to Journey... The power of family. It is a beautiful thing.

We had to take another staff photo because that art teacher likes being a silly goose! Hahahaha

A new school year is starting at Renaissance High School. This is year three for me and I hope to retire at this school... It is my brand of weird and authenticity. These are my fellow Dragons... and we continue to mold young minds. There is a particular power to being an educator and I just wanted to jump on FB to thank everyone so far for the birthday wishes, but in that vein of things... I have always appreciated presence more than presents. Thank you everyone for being present in your lives and being intentional about who you are... Keep fighting the good fight - "Don't preach, just teach!"

In the process of finishing out a lesson for RHS that started as a summer class of cartooning for TCC. It is great to see how today's youth are socially aware of A LOT of things... I asked for a prompt of an object to turn into a character. Meet Henry Tuoh (H. TU - OH) who must talk to their therapist because they are having an existential crisis for being PLASTIC. Yes... this concept can have many layers... comic strip to come in a few.

As a result of happenstance... Interaction with my person inspired me to create a new form of mixed media. In this instance, I used AutoDesk Sketchbook and created the initial base digital painting... printed out the iteration and then went in and reworked the composition with my Zebra Pen F301s ... (You know these are my favorite ballpoint pens to draw with... Anyway, this signature style is my call as a creative and a professional illustrator to fight AI Art... stop creating full workflows for Big Data. I have nothing against digital artists, BUT when you work entirely in digital, YOU create the algorithms and workflows that allow machine learning to simulate your style. You are the teacher, and the computer is your disciple. You have created AI Art. USE traditional methods! Those workflows cannot be replicated... they can only be attempted to be reversed engineered by scan bots and simulated. Anyway, I love all of my artist community peeps... Keep grinding... be intentional and most of all, DON'T STOP CREATING!

The illustrations that go with the intentional design lecture...

I'm going to be talking about a point of contention in my classroom Tuesday... Maybe some feathers will get ruffled in the long run, but that is the true point of being intentional in life... We need to start conversations, BUT continue to have them...

and you both exist in my creative space with the students to continue different topics of conversation... How can we continue to cultivate creativity if art as a profession continues to be extremely limited to its true access? Equitable education means TRUE equity does it not? How expensive is art school currently?

I have been sketching, doodling, and drawing so much more of late. I have been in such a good headspace that the illustration is just flowing from me.

Here is today's fun little foray into the mind of Insanity-Print and Publish.

Getting back into a groove with character design (and caricatures)... L'il Dicky wants to know "You don't f**k wit Pangea?"

Oddly... My fountain shifted for some reason... Which prompted me to look at the feng shui of my greeting space. I remembered a tea set that I was gifted... I wanted to make visual use of it even when it wasn't in action... Bring good karma to the Beck home.

Continued from my previous post ...

Similar to our other projects, you will complete this project in a two-step process. Your first submission will be placed in the FIRST SUBMISSION portal for the project you are substituting. Once you have submitted the first submission, I will give you FEEDBACK. This discussion will designate the expectations and constraints for the second submission.

Things to think about... Know your audience - keep in mind you are the audience, BUT you also should know the expectations of the full community that plays this game as well.

Try not to copy artwork that already exists... make it different. If it only has concept art, make a physical model OR change the style and delivery of the content.

Most of all, do something you would enjoy creating and are willing to spend some time with finishing.

SAMPLE - Sling Kong - https://protostargames.com/sling-kong/

My fellow artist friends:

I ended up generating a DTIYS project for my students... I figured I would post it, if you want to have some fun with this too...

A large part of the business when it comes to being a professional designer/artist is having a brand and/or style. A misconception that exists when individuals are learning to become a creative is that they need to develop a style. The reason I state that this is a misnomer is due to the fact that your STYLE should be an evolution of your time at practicing different techniques and realizing workflows that work for you as an artist or designer.

In the new world of creative social media, many artists/creatives share artwork with this acronym - DTIYS. It stands for Do This In Your Style. There is nothing wrong with stylizing art BECAUSE artwork that already exists is automatically copyrighted once it is created. The artist that creates the work has intellectual property of that work. SO, if you are creating fan art, you should be stylizing it to show variance, and you can demonstrate the ability to add your own ideas into the concept.

Directly copying someone else's artwork is plagiarism AND if it is a masterpiece it is forgery. I continue to encourage you to practice utilizing whatever media you want to explore, BUT if you are working to create realism - draw from LIFE.

Here is the proposed PROJECT BRIEF:

You have been tasked as a creative to make a visual asset for one of your favorite games. Since you have shown that you enjoy the game by "clocking" so many hours on the game, the company has reached out to you to develop some content for the game.

Similar to our other projects, you will complete this project in a two-step process. Your first submission will be placed in the FIRST SUBMISSION portal for the project you are substituting. Once you have submitted the first submission, I will give you FEEDBACK. This discussion will designate the expectations and constraints for the second submission.

Things to think about... Know your audience - keep in mind you are the audience, BUT you also should know the expectations of the full community that plays this game as well.

Even though this holiday was created by lies our forefathers told us there is a core ideology that rings truth.

GIVING THANKS.

This is a Taoist concept as well... Appreciate what you have, so before you start complaining about the penalty called on your favorite team or you start complaining about why your estranged cousin voted for someone you don't agree with ...

GIVE THANKS.

You have food. You have shelter. You have electricity.

Stop complaining about what you don't have and appreciate the things you do have.

I am thankful for having a profession that aligns with all my passions in life.

I am thankful for all my children being healthy and working toward finding their own purpose in life.

I am thankful I still have time to spend with loved one.

And I thank you for being a part of my life...

I've never been a huge fan of worrying about my own individual awards. I appreciate being part of a community... People that I know will have my back in the trenches when it gets rough.

Thank you to all my friends and family that I served with and those that served before me... And those that continue to serve and will serve in the future.

Happy Veteran's Day.

I had some ground pork that I needed to cook...

I decided that I was going to make Thai Peanut Pork - I usually do this in the crockpot, BUT Hello Fresh has taught me to use some steps in cooking to make my sauce efficiently flavor the food...

First fry your veggies in sesame oil. Add Ponzu and salt and pepper for taste. Fry out all liquid and remove from pan... Put to the side.

Next brown your pork with sesame oil, Ponzu, and salt and pepper. Once browned remove the fat, then add veggies back into pork and add the Peanut sauce. Swirl the bottle with hot water to get all the sauce.

Cook until all liquid is gone (cooked into the veggies and meat). Serve on rice or noodles... Pictured here with rice.

An additional 20 minutes at 425F... Success!

This morning I made some tacos... Who says we can only do tacos for Tuesday?

Every day is good for tacos. This was a new Hello Fresh recipe... Pineapple salsa is the BOMB!

Not spicy... The sweet is an amazing balance with the salty.

One Pan Pineapple Pork Tacos - 9.97 / 10.