Visual Research

This is a skateboard wheel magazine ad from 1989 with my friend Guy Mariano (the short kid). It reminds me of the old days of skating in and around Burbank, Ca.
The picture is in black and white. The skaters are (from left to right) Paulo Diaz, Guy Mariano, Rudy Johnson and Gabriel Rodriquez. There is a Powell Peralta brand Mini Rat skateboard wheel on the page. There is long drop shadow coming off of the wheel. Paulo is wearing a long sleeve shirt. Guy and Gabriel are wearing t-shirts.

Personal Work

This is my daughter Paige. She is really great. I took this picture at the apartment in Marina, Ca. Paige is holding a sippy cup. There is a chair, a couch and a refrigerator in the background. You can also see the dining room ceiling light. You can see outside light coming through the sliding back door.
There was no flash used on this picture. You can tell by the dark lowlights across the face and body. Paige and her mommy lived in this apartment from March of 2004 to January of 2009. The carpet was always a little ragged and worn where it meets the kitchen.
Paige and I would throw the ball and fly kites. She would climb all over me. It was really great. Now she's 6 and is more subdued.

Book

Visual Research

This is my visual research for the week. I am reading this book called Bleachers. It is about a kid named Neely Crenshaw who was high school champion quarterback. He has returned to the field where he once reigned supreme and reunites with several old friends from the team. He and his friends are coming to terms with how their lives have turned out as well as the impending death of their coach.
I like the cover of this book. It has a somber feel to it. The colors seem to settle amongst themselves in a most provocative way. The bleachers are the central image of the page and the flood light provides a center of emotion for the picture. It seems to be sunset.
John has used a serif font for the text on the cover called Trajan Pro. The color of the text is light against the dark background.

Personal Work

This is a toy airplane that I had for a moment back in 2007. I flew it in a park in Pasadena, CA. It would turn due to the torque of the propeller so I modified the placement of the wing as you can see here. The plane flew much better in this configuration.
I took this picture on a bench in the Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. I bought two of these planes at a local toy store and I sent one to my daughter who was in Monterey Bay at the time.
I don't know why I faced the propeller towards to camera like this. I think it's good though because you can really see the cant of the wing at this angle.

Magazine Table of Contents

This is the magazine table of contents that I did for the Rotarian magazine. It is for May of this year. I used the fill with type function in InDesign. I used Helvetica and Bell Gothic Std for the text. The font size ranged from 6 points for the photographer credit to 36 points for the large page numbers.
I grabbed a picture of the cover and the building picture from the internet.
I went ahead and wrote in all the bottom text because I knew it wasn't going to take very long to type it in, and it would look a lot better than the greeking.

Paper Craft - Finished Product

This is my paper craft doll. It is Charlie Brown. He stands about 4 inches tall. As I mentioned below in the step 1 entry, I took the face off of the internet, and I drew the lines on his shirt.

Visual Research

This picture of the Beatles sitting with baby doll parts in their hands is part of the research I did for making the Beatles collage which you can see below.
The album was recorded between 1965 and 1966 and was released on June 20, 1966.
In early 1966, photographer Robert Whitaker had The Beatles in the studio for a conceptual art piece entitled "A Somnambulant Adventure." For the shoot, Whitaker took a series of pictures of the group dressed in butcher smocks and draped with pieces of meat and body parts from plastic baby dolls. The group played along as they were tired of the usual photo shoots and the concept was compatible with their own "black humour". Although not originally intended as an album cover, The Beatles submitted photographs from the session for their promotional materials. According to a 2002 interview published in Mojo magazine, former Capitol president Alan W. Livingston stated that it was Paul McCartney who pushed strongly for the photo's inclusion as the album cover, and that McCartney reportedly described it as "our comment on the war". A photograph of the band smiling amid the mock carnage was used as promotional advertisements for the British release of the "Paperback Writer" single. Also, a similar photograph from this shoot was used for the cover of the 11 June 1966 edition of the British music magazine Disc.

Personal Work

This is a picture I took of my friend John Swift. We are at Lithia Park, and as you can see, John is sitting at the fountain. He has lost his shirt that he had tucked into his belt loop.
This picture has dramatic effect because it has two columns showing, with globe bulbs on top. The stairs are old and decrepit. The fountain is in disrepair and non use. John has a stick in front of him indicating a fighting posture. The sun is bouncing off of the trees from the south. I am facing west and John is facing east. This shows opposing forces.

Paper Craft - Step 1

This is the paper craft template with my design included. The design is of Charlie Brown. The face I copied from the web. The I filled in the colors on the various parts. I drew the stripes on Chuck's shirt.

Collage

I made this collage of the Beatles. It has a bunch of different poses in it. I rotated several of the pictures to add motion to the picture. You can see the Abby Road cover is the background.
I used Lucida Handwriting for the text font, in white with a simple drop shadow.
You can see the Beatles here at various stages of their career. From short hair to long hair with beards.

Visual Research

I went to see The Losers last night. What a good movie. It takes place all over the world, from Bolivia to Dubai to Miami to Los Angeles.

The movie starts with a grand visual panorama of Bolivia. The team is tasked to paint a target on a village. Unfortunately, a busload of kids is brought into the village just as the call is sent in to bomb the village. So the team goes in and rescues the kids. They then put the kids on a helicopter and wait for another helicopter to pick them up. After the helicopter takes off, a fighter jet shoots it down. The team scratches their heads and comes to the conclusion that they were meant to be in the helicopter that was shot down. So now they are on the run from the CIA operatives that sent them to Bolivia in the first place.

The CIA operatives are headed by Max who is on the take. He sets up the team to heist a billion dollars so Max can take the money and give it to the connection in Dubai, in order to buy a new weapon of mass destruction.

Max is played by Jason Patric who played Michael in the 80's film The Lost Boys. I didn't recognize Jason Patric in the role. He blended right into character.

Personal Work

This is a paper crane that I made while sitting in the computer lab watching Tina make her movie poster. She is making a poster that combines Obama's face with Bush's face. Her movie is called "Obush'ma".

I learned how to make a paper crane from instructions that were included in an old Infocom text adventure game from the 80's called Trinity. In that game, the player has to maneuver through London and then to Los Alamos, New Mexico in order to stop a test of the first atomic bomb.

The instructions showed the initial steps to be fold the paper inside out 8 times, then go on to make the next folds. I have since learned to make the crane from a water bomb beginning, which takes less time.

Movie Poster #2

Welcome to the horror that is Zombie Killers from Hell. This movie has it all, from busty babes shooting zombies, to zombies getting shot.

Even though this movie is rife with strong violence, torture, pervasive terror, grizzly images, language and some sexual material, the Motion Picture Association of America felt it appropriate to give this movie a rating of G. Take the kids!

The tagline "Some movies are just born bad" is a throwback to a movie from 1999 called, "The Haunting", in which their tagline read, "Some houses are born bad."

The heroine of the movie is none other than Lara Croft played by Claire Daines. Her love interest is Charlie Cox. Yes they paired up again after Stardust. The main zombie is played by Peter O'Toole, and a lesser zombie is played by Ricky Gervais.

Movie Poster #1

This is a poster I made for a fictitious movie called "The Checklist". It stars Shia LeBouf, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, and Jon Voight. It was produced by Michael Bay.

In this movie, Shia's character "Buddy" has to go from place to place checking things off of his checklist. He starts in his bedroom, then goes to the kitchen, then the laundry room. Will fate take him outside? Watch the film and find out!

This movie is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for strong violence, torture, pervasive terror, grizzly images, language and some sexual material.

Visual Research

[[[SPOILER ALERT]]]
This article discusses scenes from the movie Predator.
The cartoon I drew below, "The Best," has a gun that is very much like the gun that is pictured here. It is called a "mini gun" and was hallmarked in the movie Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the movie, Jesse Ventura carried this gun. He got killed and Arnold picked up the gun and started firing into the jungle. This gun mowed down the trees that were in front of Arnold. It did not however kill the predator. That would come at the end of the movie when Arnold and the predator fight hand to hand.

Personal Work

This is a rendition of a cartoon I used to draw when I was 7. It's called The Best. The man in the picture is named The Best. He is parachuting while firing at enemy vehicles. He's smoking a pipe. The tank is also parachuting down, while the helicopter is flying comfortably.
I named this character "The Best" because of the saying, "Mess with the best, die like the rest."
I used a Wacom tablet and Photoshop to make this. It is black on white.

Class Scratch

This was inspired by Dennis's inclass demonstration. He did a colorization and drawing of Abraham Lincoln.
In this one, I messed around with filters and lasso tool.

Scratch

For scratch 2, I put a blue cloud down. Then I typed "beware the ides of march" over it in green. I selected the pixels of the blue layer and inversed. I then erased the outside bits of the words after changing the text layer to raster. With the pixels still selected, I drew some orange cloud outside the blue cloud. Then I did polygon tool and made a boxy thing and filled it with 50% purple. Then I used the polygon lasso again to make an S shape. I used stroke to make a line around the S shape in 10 pixel size. I then copied the S layer and free transformed it up to the right and made another down to the left. Strangely, the stroke size seemed to have changed from one layer to the next, as you can see. When I saved the image as jpg, the background became white.
I think this image has a lot of depth and character to it. The text being clipped off reminds us that our words can have a shortened lifespan if we are not careful to preserve them. The orange cloud works in line as a poison cloud around the ominous ides of march warning. The blue cloud is a last bastion of hope for fresh air. The S's represent finality and assiduousness.

This is my first scratch picture. It has some black scribbling with white erasings. Then above those layers, I made an S type of figure with the polygon lasso tool. I made another layer and added blue polka dots. I then grouped the two layers together and duplicated the group. I then moved the duplicate group and twisted it.
I think this picture captures the spirit of anarchy and rebellion. The clouds of black are remnant of days gone by. The S's represent contrast and rumination. The white erasings are stark, almost explosive.

Visual Research

I watched this movie, "Crazy Heart", today. It was a poignant tale of a broken-down country singer (Jeff Bridges) who tries to find redemption with the help of a journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

I admired the movie's visual scenes. We start out in a show given at a bowling alley, where Jeff's character proceeds to get sick and throw up during the performance, just at the part where he's supposed to sing a dedication for some local fans.

Another visual scene that I admired was a phone booth oddly placed on a desert road. Didn't the producers of this movie think people would think it strange to have a phone booth out in the middle of nowhere?

I really like Maggie Gyllenhaal in this role. She lights up the screen and delivers a stellar performance. I also liked getting to see her in a bra and panties for the MPAA rated "brief sexuality" part.

Personal Work

This is a sign I made for a roommate that never showed up. It says, "Hi Bryce. Welcome to the room! :)"

I added some snacks to the pot but since Bryce never showed up, these are all that's left.

I took this picture tonight, here in my room with my Nikon Coolpix 3200 camera. That camera is terrible. It takes at least 2 seconds to take a picture, then when the picture's taken, it takes another 10 - 15 seconds to return to picture taking status.

I dont like the spicy nacho Doritos and will probably put it out on the hall ledge for others to enjoy. The popcorn I will probably eat. The snacks that are already gone are Cheetos, Hershey's with almonds, Kit Kat, and Whatchamacallit.

The letter V

The letter U

The letter P

The letter O

Alphabet Soup

The letter E

Visual Research

These are the Blue Angels, America's favorite waste of tax dollars.

The United States Navy's Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, popularly known as the Blue Angels, first performed in 1946[1] and is currently the oldest flying aerobatic team. The squadron's six demonstration pilots fly the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet in more than 70 shows at 34 locations throughout the United States each year, where they still employ many of the same practices and techniques used in their aerial displays in 1946. Since their inception, the "Blues" have flown a variety of different aircraft types for more than 427 million spectators worldwide.

The mission of the Blue Angels is to enhance Navy recruiting, and credibly represent Navy and Marine Corps aviation to the United States and its Armed Forces to America and other countries as international ambassadors of good will.

Personal Work

I took this picture of my girlfriend Amy in 2001. She taught me how to use the camera with the computer. She also taught me html and opened the door to a whole world of computing.

Amy and I went together from October 9, 2000 to June 15, 2001. Everyday was a new adventure. She and I flew to Wisconsin for her 21st birthday. It was her first plane flight, so I got her a set of airline wings from the stewardess, and I let her sit by the window.

She was amazing. She could speak German, French and Spanish. She had been a photographer for a New York magazine. She was a master photo developer. She had saved a life of a man that was shot when she was 15. She taught me how to whistle. And she was my punk rock girl.

Picturing myself

This is me in 2008 when my car broke down on the 5 freeway near Lost Hills, Ca.

It was a Mazda Protege that I had bought from my ex-wife, Lucinda. It had an oil leak from when the engine was replaced in 2006. When I got an oil change in Los Angeles during this trip, the mechanic must not have put the oil plug on tight enough. The engine froze and the car was totalled.

I was in L.A. to see my brother graduate from college. After two weeks, I was on my way back to Salinas to go back to work for Labor Ready doing construction. But since the car died, my brother came and picked me up and I stayed with him and my girl friend Tonya for another month.

Tonya and I liked to watch artsy fartsy movies such as Hideous Kinky and L'Iceberg. We watched The Television Set in the theater, but I don't remember much of it. I just remember dude was about to get a gig on a TV show and was already spending his money by buying a car. Little did he know that he was not to get the part after all.

Picturing the friend

This is my friend Ron Larzelere. He is a semi-professional Nascar driver. We have been friends since high school and have some fun adventures under our belts.

His family used to own a house in Carpenteria and my brother and I would visit now and then. I met this girl named Andrea while I was at Carpenteria but nothing ever became of it.

We used to hang out with Burbank's Finest Alcoholics, headed up by James McEwen. We would drink Natural Light beer in the Lake Hollywood Park just under the Hollywood sign. The park had a 50 foot tree swing that was really ghetto. I never had the courage to go on it. It looked too rickity for me. But my friends Jason Schmidt (Rest In Peace), James McEwen, and Ron all tried it.

Speaking of luck, Ron won a plasma TV from a Coca-Cola bottle cap in 2007. I never used to play those bottle cap codes because I thought there's no way to win anything substantial and trying to read the code was too much hassle. I still don't play, but only because I rarely drink soda.

Picturing the Other

Matty Tsu is 21. I met her at Starbucks here in Ashland. She is of Chinese descent. She is different than me in that she is a woman, she is Asian, and she is a massage therapist.

She told me a funny story of when she went to London last year. She and her mom went into a store to shop for some dresses. The store clerk said, "Kip is sleep, Brolly is umbrella, cheeky bugger is smarty pants, and duffer is a silly bugger. Thank you."

Neither she nor her mom knew what he was saying so they asked a stranger to translate. "He's just welcoming you to England is all," the stranger said.

Matty says she wants to travel the world. She wants to see China, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, and Australia. She says she's already been to London, Canada, Mexico, Italy, and Prague.

In this picture, Matty is enjoying a venti chai latte.

Personal image

This is my daughter playing my guitar next to the legendary Randy Rhoades. It is one of a series that you can see at http://www.bretleduc.com/upload/PaigeVs/index.html . I had the idea to make these when I saw that Paige's poses were so commercial looking. It took about 20 minutes to find all the rock star's pictures and about 20 more minutes to make the finished pictures. I was inspired!

Visual Research

In this picture:
A fire truck
some firemen ... apparently sleeping
grass
sidewalk
trees
the step of another fire truck.

Personal perspective:
My gut reaction to this picture is one of hilarity. It would be so funny to see a bunch of firemen laying around like this.

Historical perspective:
Historically, firemen don't lay around outside like these are. That's why this picture is so funny.

Technical perspective:
It seems to be an overcast day in this picture. This tells of foreboding. The closest fireman is facing away from the camera, making a sense of vertigo.

Self portrait

This is me with my head on Barack Obama. I made it in photoshop. There is an American flag on the left side of the picture.