crappy hand of haiku

I know I've posted this in other places, but I thought I'd share one of my recent pieces entitled Hey Paul, Hey Paul.  I thought this thrift store painting had a magestic quality to it and so somehow that lead to Paul Bunyan.  I went for more comic and less realistic on this one.  If you check out my instagram , you can see some of the process pics as well. Enjoy!

Here is a new piece titled Tugboat Playa. I'm one of those people that see faces in everything. Patterns in carpet, lines on a wall, and sometimes in old thrift store paintings. I saw a robot face and went with it. I also experimented with using stain to add some extra patina to the image. I'm always looking to blend my alterations to make them as seamless as possible. Sometimes that means mod podge and sometimes it means stain. Now I've got to get this smell off my hands or I'll be having a contact high all night. Adios!

So as part of my day job, I create motion graphics.  I am often called upon to either write or produce little promo pieces that include video and animations.  Our team had been going back and forth on ideas to promote our new eLearning ecosystem called Canopy .  I was inspired by some test work that Mark Morse had done to create a whiteboard hand drawn feel to the project.  Experimenting with different programs, I tried creating what was scripted with the hand drawn graphics that I had created but it wasn't looking and feeling right.  So instead of getting to use a new program, I ended up relying on my old standard After Effects to create an effect that felt drawn on without having a jittery hand all over the screen.  As with most of these projects, I am also the voice over which has become somewhat of a staple here in my department.  I hope you enjoy this little video!  Ben

For those of you who don't know, I practice Zen.  I have been practicing for many years now but never wrote about it on here because it wasn't artwork and I have a space for that at hutchofzen.com.  But I wanted to share an article I published for the Hazy Moon Zen Center in Los Angeles about how I ended up traveling across the country to sit at this little Zen center in LA.  I hope you enjoy! Ben http://bit.ly/1w8366E