Chris Pirillo » art

Life’s Motion

Chris — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:35:52 +0000

Life’s Motion is a post from Chris Pirillo

How to Create Stick Figure Animations

Chris — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:43:44 +0000

How to Create Stick Figure Animations is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I am definitely not an artist. I have trouble even drawing a simple stick figure! Thank goodness there’s software out there that will help me. It’s a lot of fun, too! Stykz is cross-platform, and won’t cost you anything.

Stykz is frame-based, letting you to work on individual frames of your animation. Figures can be rotated, scaled, flipped, duplicated, colorized, and relayered. Figures can be created and edited directly in place; no separate “editor” window is required. Stykz’s PolyFill tool lets you fill shapes with just a few clicks! You can individually adjust the line segments in a figure, setting their length, width, color, and angle.

As you can see, it’s not just some boring old software that lets you make simple designs. Oh no! Stykz is full-featured, allowing you to create very complex little stick men and women!

Windows and Mac versions can be downloaded now, but sadly, the Linux version is still in beta form, so it’s not available just yet. The Linux public beta is coming soon – so stay tuned! The program is awesome, and a lot of fun!

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Give a Sketch, Get a Sketch

Chris — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:55:43 +0000

Give a Sketch, Get a Sketch is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Do you doodle? I do – I’ve always been a doodler. I can draw my own caricature, and my dogs. That’s about it though. If you like to sketch, you may be interested in a pretty cool website I found – Sketch Swap.

When you first get to the website, you aren’t going to see much of anything. That’s because in order to see the sketches of others, you must first submit one of your own! Let’s say you’re not interested in what someone else has sketched. Heck, maybe you can’t sketch anything to save your life.

In that case, you may be interested in the sister site, which is Sketchory. There are currently over 250,000 drawings there that have been submitted via Sketch Swap.

There are some really good artists out there! You’ll be quite surprised at what you see. You can view the picture as it is, or view it as an animation! See it being “drawn” right before your very eyes, so that you can learn.

You can help add tags to sketches you come across, discover more drawings, or just browse through thousands of pictures.

Let the artist inside of you be known! Submit your sketches and look for something you can learn to draw!

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What Web Communities do Artists Use?

Chris — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 06:03:17 +0000

What Web Communities do Artists Use? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I’ve long believed that creativity is the pinnacle of intelligence… to take something that is in your head and create something that the rest of the world can enjoy. It just doesn’t get better than that. I’m not creative in the least. I just sit here and talk and wave my hands around! Luckily, I have many friends who are creative.

So how do artists connect online? I’m glad you asked! A creative friend of mine recently started a new website called Artician for just this purpose. Artician is a new community for creative professionals! They make it easy for anyone to build, manage and customize their portfolio. They also promote and feature creative talent… showing your work to the World!

Upload your digital portfolio, and create a blog if you choose. Even if you aren’t someone who creates – you can explore those who do! If you’re a lover of art in any form, you can join this site and browse some amazing pieces of art.

Look at your walls… what’s on them? You may have posters or pictures you posted from a store. Why not put something original on your wall that was created by someone online. You may find a picture that just speaks to you on some level. That would definitely be something you want to purchase and frame.

Artician makes creativity come alive. Art should speak to you. What’s beautiful in your eyes may not be to someone else. That’s personal. You’ll find things that you find absolutely amazing on Artician, I promise.

If you’re going to check out any new site, take time to browse around Artician. Also, you can follow them on Twitter. Even you cannot draw or create, you can still support those who do!

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Des Moines Color Field

Chris — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:20:34 +0000

Des Moines Color Field is a post from Chris Pirillo

Geek Drinks

Life’s Motion

How to Create Stick Figure Animations

Chris Saves (His Work)

This is Why I’m Fat

LEDs in the Dining Room

Give a Sketch, Get a Sketch

What is Your Color?

What Web Communities do Artists Use?

I’m All Ears

Where do you go to Discuss Art Online?

Chris — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:47:19 +0000

Where do you go to Discuss Art Online? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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My brother Adam is an artist, who is very passionate about art of all kinds. He has a live stream now. So if you’re into art or even music, why not drop by and visit him? You may even catch him live at work on a painting.

YOU all got him into this live streaming business. I recently visited Adam in Iowa for a few days, and streamed live from his living room. He became addicted quite easily. He loved the interaction with all of you, so thank you for that! Take it easy on him though. He’s not a computer geek like me… he’s an art geek. Don’t throw computer questions at him, or he’ll likely tell you where you can go.

Adam has a lot of opinions, and he stands behind them 100%. I’m proud of him for that. I enjoy watching him on his stream, and I hope you will, as well.

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How to Start Drawing Things

Chris — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:35:57 +0000

How to Start Drawing Things is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Rofai is a community member who happens to be an artist. He wanted me to pass along his tips to all of you who may be thinking about learning to draw. I personally can’t draw, not even a stick figure. But Wicket is an artist extraordinnaire!

Do you have enough supplies? Some recommended supplies would be a pencil for sketching, a darker pencil for detail, a pencil sharpener, a ruler, an eraser (those ones that look like mini bricks), a protractor, a compass, colored pencils, enough blank paper (obviously), and anything else that you may think you need. I do NOT recommend crayons or markers. Hopefully you started off with crayons and markers in early elementary school. By this time, you should be using colored pencils.
Place your supplies in a place where you can access them efficiently. If you’re right handed, you might want to place everything somewhere on the right side of the table (or whatever you’re using), same if you’re left handed. Have everything within easy reach, so you don’t have to over-extend your arms. Keep a drink nearby, but not on the table with you.
Be sure to have enough elbow room. You don’t want to be working on something and get this line across your paper because someone bumped your elbow. My recommendation is to work alone. If you’re working on something during a party, or if you have a friend over… leave your personal space well beyond your boundaries.
Color in one direction!! Remember in elementary school when you used to color and it was just… *pewk* b/c you would color in this direction, and that, and it was just horrible? Well coloring in one direction, for the whole picture, makes it look nice and professional. So just move the pencil up and down, or side to side, but remember, which ever way you go, you have to stay that way for every part of your picture.
Shading is always a good technique when drawing. You don’t want your drawing to look plain, bold, and 2-dimensional. Shading makes it look more 3d. One way to shade is to take your pencil, start in the corner (or side) you want to be the darkest, then starting there, start coloring dark (by pressing the pencil hard enough), then slowly move along, in one direction, and get lighter as you move. Then take your finger (or two fingers, w/e) and just rub in the area you just colored. This makes your shade look very nice, and makes it look like it’s professionally printed.

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Satan is a Dork

Chris — Tue, 30 May 2006 01:19:14 +0000

Satan is a Dork is a post from Chris Pirillo

I was going through my spam folder, and this headline caught my eye. I was then compelled to draw it on my Wacom tablet (which doesn’t get much use around here). Consider this my homage to Spamusement.com. “Satan is a Dork” inspired this pencil sketch:

I have no idea if the Devil really is a dork, but if he was a dork – this is probably what he’d look like. I hope I don’t offend any devil worshipers out there by doing this. The devil-worshipping demographic is highly prized, after all. Have you hugged your devil worshipper today? I wouldn’t recommend doing so, anyway. Here’s to hoping I never get inspired by any other spam subject line. I won’t quit my day job, and I promise not to doodle anything else again without first getting my mother’s permission. She’s a devil worshipper, ya know?

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

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