Artsnova Digital Art and Space

Processing(Bush + Obama) = BushBama

Plaxco — Sat, 26 May 2012 14:11:04 +0000

Last night I was working on creating some image processing routines with Processing. My focus was on using convolution matrices to implement a number of effects. With respect to image processing, a convolution matrix is useful for a variety of effects, like edge detection, blurring, sharpening, and embossing. I had also written some methods/routines/functions (take your [...]

Hubble’s Universe Presentation for Astronomy Day

Plaxco — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:28:27 +0000

Hubble’s Universe Presentation Today is Astronomy Day, an annual celebration of all things astronomy. The very first Astronomy Day event was in 1973 and hosted by the Astronomical Association of Northern California. These simple beginnings brought forth a nation-wide celebration of astronomy. The central coordinating body for today’s Astronomy Day events is the Astronomical League. Tonight I [...]

From Capricon to Floral Photography

Plaxco — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:03:18 +0000

The Flyers of Fomalhaut b Digital Painting Part 1: The Capricon Science Fiction Convention This year Capricon was a short affair for me. While the con ran Thursday thru Sunday, I only attended Friday and Saturday and then only until 6:30pm as I had made plans to attend the opening of a photo exhibition at the Prairie [...]

Capricon 32 Science Fiction Convention

Plaxco — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:28:16 +0000

Beyond the Mountains exoplanet landscape painting This weekend I’ll be attending the 32nd Capricon Science Fiction Convention being held at the Westin Chicago North Shore in Wheeling, IL. The theme this year is Amazing Adventures. I’ve attended quite a few Capricon’s over the years and they’ve always been fun. In addition to participating in the con’s [...]

Free Software Downloads: Bryce, Daz Studio, and Hexagon

Plaxco — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:26:45 +0000

Bryce, Hexagon, DAZ Studio Free Download Saturday I learned that DAZ (Digital Art Zone) is making available the following software as free downloads until February 29: Bryce 7 Pro 3D Landscape Software (retail price $249.95) Hexagon 2.5 3D Modeling Software (retail price $149.95) DAZ Studio 4 Pro 3D Software (Winner of 3D World’s 2011 Software Innovation of the Year [...]

Trickster Gallery, Schaumburg

Plaxco — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:12:57 +0000

Trickster Gallery, Schaumburg Last Saturday I visited the Trickster Gallery for the first time. It’s right across the pond from the Schaumburg Library and has been for 7 years. I hit the Schaumburg Library almost every week but never took the time to visit Trickster Gallery. The space it occupies was originally a gym which was [...]

New Algorithmic Art and a Processing Tutorial

Plaxco — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:05:31 +0000

Aftermath Digital Painting, 32 x 16 inches All in all this has been a very good day. It started too early when my alarm went off at 6:00am. While fixing my son’s lunch, I hit upon the following limerick, a testament to having gotten too little sleep (I didn’t go to bed till after 1:00am): My [...]

New Art

Plaxco — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:18:03 +0000

Autumn Mountains Digital Painting I last wrote about my creating a database for my art (see Creating An Art Inventory). As a part of that process I made a New Year’s resolution to get all my art added to my web site. Given the large number of digital paintings that I have to add, I decided [...]

Creating An Art Inventory

Plaxco — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:00:53 +0000

Portrait of Amie Digital Painting Last week I began work on creating a comprehensive inventory of my art. My first pass is to create my inventory in a spreadsheet format using OpenOffice Calc. Subsequently I expect to migrate to a database format using MySQL. Previously my art inventory system was quite informal and inconsistent. The only formal [...]

The Gift of Art for Christmas

Plaxco — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:06:31 +0000

Art Institute of Chicago, circa 1910 Christmas is almost upon us and that means gift giving. If you’re like me you probably have not done your Christmas shopping yet. Now I live near Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg but I try to stay away as the mall is overrun by hordes of shoppers from Thanksgiving to Christmas. [...]