I watched them not know each other.

I watched them not know who should start.

They divided god’s voice

into four equal shares

and timid shakey accents

turned and drove times.

Collective…the heartbeat was old and new.

Primal. Intricate. Clumsy. Appropriate.

It changed me

but I understood why no one else noticed.

]]> http://maxx71.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/four-men-played/feed/ 0 maxx71 http://maxx71.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/drawings-i/ http://maxx71.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/drawings-i/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:43:10 +0000 maxx71 http://maxx71.wordpress.com/?p=87 ]]>

I’ve been working on some character design lately for a couple of video games. The following are some of the creations. It’s a whole new media for me and there’s been a crazy learning curve. It’s weird because these guys (the pics) will all end up being so small that the concept and design of the actual characters is more important than the detail work. That’s the opposite of how I like to work, so it’s been a trip. The giraffe-looking one should be making his official debut pretty soon.

I’d like to not want to be gone.

I was going through some old files on my computer and came across these. I used to work at a local photography studio and so we always had props cameras and models on hand. Generally, when I had down time I would play with some of the images our photographers would take. these are some results from then. Like most of the things I do…I can’t tell if they’re cool or not. But I like them.

Greetings.

a book, you want
of Wilmette, Ill.
of clarity I think

I wish I could take credit for writing this.
It was an email I received. I have no idea what it means
but Noe Marin was on the money about the book of clarity.
If there is one…I’ll take it. 

the well is deep

and the water’s poisoned.

so today I’ll pray for new rain.

and constitutions

stronger than mine.

i visit islands

where time doesn’t exist.

seven months is a hundred lifetimes

and syllables forming sounds like “twenty years”

rain without meaning.

where misfits are prophets

with eyes like solar flares

that speak in urban slang.

where prophets who wear mostly ironed

blue Puerto Rico t-shirts.

live with God-sized holes.

This is one of my favorite images of all time. I was playing around with a really old, really cool camera that made everything look awesome. Including bookshelves. Separately, I had a new digital camera and was taking pictures of my daughters. I loved Orion’s pose (originally shot on a sofa) and the simplicity and weightiness of children’s books. So I put the 2 together.

I love my job. I love the challenges I’m presented with daily. This challenge in particular was ridiculous. A local church was hiring an Elvis impersonator to come help with some type of charity event and our agency was going to help design some posters to help advertise the event. So I was presented with the following 2 images and asked if I could make it look like Elvis was one of the Saintly statues on the side of this church.

I said I could do it. But…I didn’t really think I could do it.

There were so many issues, not the least of which was the fact that the only picture of an elvis statue we had was almost in complete darkness. there was lighting, coloring, textures, blah, blah,blah. etc. Even removing the existing saint to create a space for Elvis was a pain.

Here’s what I ended up with:

It was a challenge, but it was also a lot of fun.

larger version:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2863/elvis1200pxchurch01as4.jpg

This was the final image I created for a contest I didn’t win.

I love it…but in retrospect…I’m not a huge fan of the color scheme. It’s a little bright. And primary.

I think I like the muted version (at the top of the page) better.

here’s a larger version:

http://img521.imageshack.us/my.php?image=muse03mp4.jpg