black hole blues by jack ladder. it amuses me.

i was looking at a bunch of vector art and noticed it all kind of looks the same because people let the software make too many decisions for them, so

1. never use the shape tools. if you want a circle or square or something approximate it yourself with the pen tool. even add a tiny curve to sharp corners because the generic shapes always look mechanical and bland.

2. never use a thick stroke as an outline, again because it looks dull and mechanical. if you have a rough shape that needs a heavy outline take the time to trace around it and don't be anal about making it perfect. tiny variations in line weight look a million times better.

3. avoid symmetry. if you want to repeat a shape or object at least nudge a few points here and there to change it a tiny bit, otherwise it just looks lazy and cheap.

4. never use 100% black. it's too hard and rich. ease off the sliders a little bit and it'll be a lot easier on the eye.

5. never leave huge expanses of flat colour on an object. you can always add a freckle or a hair or some random dot or line to break up a space.

there's times you can break any or all of these rules, but these are all suggestions to avoid problems Illustrator will impose on your work and all you'll do is artwork that looks like Illustrator created it. you want to put Adobe in it's place and make it work for you.

not only is voting ending today but this could be my last sub ever if my psycho daughter manages to finish me off.

there's something horribly wrong with my daughter. the first is a story she wrote about a week ago, and the second is a sign i found on her bedroom door this morning.

bleh. no thanks.
but i like the two "i'd buy" options.

note the radness of my current coat, now falling apart. i need something of equal or greater coolness. i'm thinking perhaps a pea coat but somehow extra cool. not essential though.

Untitled from Em on Vimeo.

my Rodeo sub ended while i was busy playing GTA so i'm doing the final day begging a day early on this one.

tonight at midnight one of my local game stores is opening to release the game the second the 29th begins. i can't afford it right now but i'm tempted to go just to see cuddly pastey guys with patchy beards hopped up on redbull.
that's the same reason i went to the midnight screening of star wars 3 and it was totally worth it.