I Do Portraits! - Makes a Great Gift

Portraiture is a great personalized gift!
I am a Canadian artist that does portraiture mainly from photographs.  I can draw your beloved pets and family members!  I can even draw your home, your birth month flower or your favorite car!  Most portraits unless specified otherwise are done in graphite and coloured pencil on heavy weight high grade paper. 

More of my artwork can be found here:
http://dandy-l.deviantart.com/gallery/

For order and pricing please message me on deviantArt or through my website at digitalseahorse.ca.

This drawing was completed for a friend on commission.  This one in particular is not for sale but I do have prints of some select previous works available.  

Ken Steacy Back this Wednesday!

The auctions at Desert Bus for Hope yesterday were exciting with a new spin this year!  Ken Steacy was heavily monitored during his visit no doubt due to his popularity with the auction bidders.  His two sons Alex and Raymond helped to make this appearance a humorous success.  He sold some original comic art including Ghostbusters, Star Wars and Harry Potter.  He will be back again tomorrow with more great rare items to be sold for Child's Play so stay tuned!  All the fun goodies and entertainment can be found at desertbus.org and on Twitter @DesertBus.  Be sure to check out LoadingReadyRun.com too for more comedy!

SOLD - Desert Bus Craft Donation

My magnet package that went up for silent auction for the Desert Bus for Hope charity even for Child's Play and sold for $100!  I am very pleased and would love to thank everyone that bid on it!  THANK YOU!  :)

Desert Bus for Hope 4 - A New Hope!

That's the title of this year's Desert Bus!  Loading Ready Run are driving 24 hour shifts this year and lots of exciting things happening!  Apparently Ken "Value Added" Steacy will be making an appearance of some sort again even though he is currently in Toronto which will likely be either phone or digitally.  Plenty of prizes and auctions!  It started on Friday at 9pm and may be found on desertbus.org under the two camera links for drivercam and buscam.  Watch the ustream and trend topic #DesertBus on Twitter!  Also see my previous blog posts for more info especially the one about last year's event and post on Ken and Joan Steacy.  http://digitalseahorse.blogspot.com/2010/06/ken-and-joan-steacy.html

Desert Bus for Hope 4 - Craft Along and Donation is OPEN!!!

I just made these magnets to be auctioned at the 4th annual Desert Bus for Hope.  All of them are one of a kind and covered with a plastic coating after being drawn freehand.  I'm excited to watch this year's event which has already started to accept donations.  For those that haven't seen or heard of Desert Bus see my previous blog about it http://digitalseahorse.blogspot.com/2009/11/desert-bus-for-hope.html and http://desertbus.org/.  OH MY!  Looks like they've already started accepting donations for Child's Play!  Donate as much as you can and keep them bussing even longer and more epic this year!

Oddly Fall Tour Interactive 5

Something I'm excited about attending this Thursday and Friday is a tour and networking after party that I'd like to share with anyone interested in new and interactive media.  Oddly Studios is holding it's 5th annual Fall Tour of interactive studios throughout Toronto.  This sometimes includes presentations from some studios outside of Toronto.  It is a walking tour around some areas of Toronto where the best studios are clustered.  This is an excellent opportunity to see what studios are like from the inside, network with industry leaders, ask questions about what they look for in new hires.

This year they've expanded it to two days for more coverage.  The attendance though primarily students in related areas it is open for anyone interested.  In previous years the tour had registration fill up almost as soon as it opened because of it's high profile but this year with affordable price there are some spots left as yet.  Tickets can be purchased here:  http://falltourinteractive.eventbrite.com/

More information including video from previous years can be found on the tour's facebook fan page here: 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fall-Tour-Interactive/118949018136902?v=wall         



and my first blog about the event in 2007 here:

http://digitalseahorse.blogspot.com/2007/10/studio-tour-and-etc.html

Filming of Success Stories for YES - Youth Employment Services

This week I've had the privilege of directing the filming some very inspiring success stories from youth that have used the services available through YES - Youth Employment Services.  Our first day of filming went quite well!  It's so good to hear that even youth at risk are receiving help they need.  YES has really changed their lives for the better and we'd like to see it happen more!  This success story filming initiative aims to promote how beneficial and needed these services are to obtain more resources to keep them running and for youth outreach so that those in need know where to go to access them. 

We're conducting more sessions periodically this month when our crew is accessible.  If you or anyone you know has a success story that would like to share it with other youth and with YES we'd love to hear from you!  The contact for scheduling available time slots is all through Whitney Pyper at Toronto's main office.  You can also find YES on facebook and may be followed on twitter here: 
http://www.facebook.com/YouthEmploymentServices?ref=ts 
http://twitter.com/yestoronto

Acorn Craft!

I found some acorns earlier this week.  About to make some finger puppets or something equally cute and amazing out of the little caps...this is the result of the first attempt which became a gift for my Grandfather's 80th Birthday. 

Ken and Joan Steacy

My friend's folks are conducting some courses soon at Max the Mutt Animation School. Ken Steacy is a well known in his field for comic illustration and won Joe Shuster award in 2009. If you've been following my blog you may remember I posted earlier about him helping with the Desert Bus children's charity. I've seen some of Joan's work too. Both are amazing artists and are very fun and friendly.

Intro to Graphic Storytelling with Ken and Joan Steacy
http://www.maxthemutt.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/09/intro-to-graphic-storytelling/#more-1582

Visual Story Telling with Joan Steacy:
http://www.maxthemutt.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/12/visual-story-telling-with-joan-steacy/#more-1602

Please pass this on to anyone you know that might be interested.

Last week I volunteered at the NXNE (North by North East) Festival in the interactive and film portions of the event.  It was really fun and I met some really cool people there.  The interactive days were very similar to FITC in type of presentations and panels.  My interest in the National Film Board of Canada and a dream of producing animated shorts that help spread awareness on things like human rights and other good causes was addressed in a few of the sessions I saw there.  I heard about youphonics.com and obtained access to try it out.  No doubt I'll be blogging again if it's as cool as it sounds. 

Out of the film area I most enjoyed the films Year of the Carnivore and Suck.  Both were very funny and with director in attendance.  It was good to talk with some of them after the show.  There was an after party for all the volunteers before the main party and more chance to network.

All of the great people that coordinated and helped to make it run smoothly were pretty awesome at what they do.  I'm looking forward to next year.

Women at FITC WINNER!!!

Women at FITC Contest Entree

This is my entree for Women at FITC 2010. I found out the deadline was extended to this Friday though after submitting so there might be some tweeks in order before then...or some just for fun since I had some other creative ideas for it.

H1N1 isn't the Only Virus We Need to Guard Against

Here's a reminder to make sure your anti-virus software updates regularly.

If you don't have auto-updates set you can also send yourself reminders to do it through weekly recurring calendar event that sends you email alerts...though I don't know what good anti-virus doesn't have auto-update set as it's default...some don't apparently.

Extreme Texting in 2010

The sport of 2010 no doubt will be extreme texting...the outlook for digital media is good so far but how will it look in the years to come? I think we'll be making cars that can text people and do GPS simultaneously all in one interface right on the windshield so people won't even have to look away from the road for a second...as for preventing accidents I'm not sure this would work but at least they'd see where their crash destination is ahead of time.