Art: Digitally Painting Casa Grande
In the high Chisos Basin of Big Bend National Park (West Texas) there is a bold and unique mountain called Casa Grande. Watch as I quickly painted this landmark with digital painting software.
I once lived in Big Bend National Park (Dec 1978 - Oct 1981) and have climbed Casa Grande a half dozen times. I can neither confirm nor deny that I camped overnight on its rugged summit (some say) a few times. Camping illegally is affectionately called “bandit camping” by lawless practitioners, but that’s just hearsay.
Anyway, the ease with which one can actually create a satisfying and believable impressionistic landscape using free software, downloaded from the internet is incredible! For a few additional bucks (after the initial download) you can buy your way up into much more refined tools and media types. The possibilities are endless.
I do all of this on an iPad. What I like about this application is it tracks your ‘paint strokes’ and when you are finished, you can export (as I did) this short video, that simply ‘plays back’ your artistic journey from start to finish. Please let me know what you think. Happy Friday everyone! ~dmw
Design: The Moses Scroll
Book cover design involves having some knowledge of your client’s project so you can create a package that builds equal amounts of disclosure and curiosity. The Moses Scroll cover accomplished exactly that. I know, because my client told me so.
I convinced my client, Ross K. Nichols to go with a 7x10 inch trim size for his book. He never looked back!
NOT ALL BOOK COVERS ARE CREATED EQUAL
I’m pretty sure, at this point, I have professionally created close to a hundred book or DVD covers for clients since the early 2000s. I never did them before then, as my work never involved books. That first cover was as a favor for my pastor friend, Vincent Steven Alig, for his fiction novel, “All the Paths of the Lord,” based on his time working in Australia. The connections I made with Vince’s publisher (Highway Books) led to additional leads and still more book cover clients. All of this design work took on a life of its own, to the point where I was sought after and never had to hunt for new clients!
At some point, I ran across Ross K. Nichols of United Israel World Union, a gifted Bible teacher out of St. Francisville, Louisiana. I helped him over several years with a number of projects related to his ministry. Over time, we became good friends, discussing all things Israel and Bible. But then . . .
. . . early in 2020, Ross explained to me about his plan to publish his first-ever book on the topic of Moses Wilhelm Shapira and his controversial Deuteronomy manuscripts. Ross said he wanted me to do his cover design. My response was, “Great! Umm, who is Moses Wilhelm Shapira?” Patiently, Ross proceeded to introduce me to the enormous saga that is Shapira - directing me to watch a short documentary film by Israeli director, Yoram Sabo, entitled, ”Shapira and I.“ Note: This video is absolutely FREE, and you owe it to yourself to go to Vimeo and watch it! Sabo’s film totally got me up to speed and I was completely hooked. You will be too. Then, of course, you should order a copy of Ross’s book!Anyway, across the better part of 2020, Ross was diligently working through his manuscript. Along the way, we had frequent conversations about every aspect of this incredible 19th-century saga. And it is a saga! In the process, it became clear Ross would be needing assistance with book illustrations, some explanatory charts, and a regional map. I was able to do all of those as well.
On February 24, 2021, Ross released his book, “The Moses Scroll” on Amazon.com, which has been quite successful in its category. So, if you are at all interested in page-turner story-telling including topics such as Ottoman Jerusalem, the Victorian antiquities trade, the Dead Sea Scrolls, early Zionism, Jewish Christianity, and early Israelite history, then, I highly recommend this informative and accessible book. He covers it all . . . in one beautiful package and I should know. I designed it.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment.
Art: A Saturday Collage Fest
“collage” (kuh- or koh-lahzh,) French — an assemblage of diverse elements or fragments in unlikely or unexpected juxtapositions; the technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another.
“Collage is easy to do . . . well, kind of.”
Everyone remembers doing art work in elementary school. The ‘projects’ using the scissors and the glue. Some of that we loved, some, we’d rather forget. Well, this was a good bit of fun today, once I got going. I was pulling from an old Nat-Geo, which of course is hyper-taboo, as you’re not supposed to cut up the ever-sacred Nat Geos. What in the world would my mother say? I also pulled veggie images from a seed catalog; ohh and there was an issue of Garden & Gun; so class-A materials to choose from. Enjoy.
