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The San Salvador paper model is nearing berth. Roman Detyna’s complex version has been posted on the Maritime Museum of San Diego‘s website.

Since the museum already has all of the digital files (a hard copy was also mailed out to them), my version should be posted soon, too. I hope.

Nava Designs is now on YouTube!

I never thought I’d ever consider using two mice at the same time. Yes, two mice! The SpaceNavigator is used for navigating through within 3-D programs like Google Earth and Blender. It’s basically a camera control.

One of the things that I find annoying as a paper engineer is moving the camera around in Blender to see different angles of the model that I’m working on. It’s slow and cumbersome to do it by hand. The SpaceNavigator is supposed to be more fluid and intuitive, so I’m strongly considering investing in one. Although, I haven’t made up my mind just yet.

It’s compatible with over 100 3-D applications, allowing control over panning, zooming, and rotation. There are other versions (they kinda look like tricorders) that are high-priced, but would help eliminate having to use the keyboard as well. The SpaceExplorer and SpacePilot are both good contenders because of their programmable keys that are within reach of the fingers, hence lowering dependability of the keyboard. That’s a big plus!

Right now, the SpacePilot is the same price as the SpaceExplorer ($299), but it has as many as 21 programmable keys (versus the Explorer’s 15) that automatically change functions to match the open application. Neat! It has an LCD screen, too, but I’m not sure what it’s for. Product details on the website are sketchy at best, and they leave many questions unanswered, so I’d better do my homework first.

YouTube is a great resource. I can typically find several product reviews on just about anything. It’s great to get pros & cons, see products in action, and discover the little things that the manufacturers’ websites never tell you.

Here’s one of my old drawings from High School. It’s a caricature of one of my friends, Jeremy.

Today, I went through all of my old artwork. Not the drawings, sketches, and doodles of my early years, but the large pieces from High School, college, and recent years. Boy, that was like an archeological dig, exploring and finding old artifacts. Now that I have them out, I’ve decided to archive them in digital form. It may take a while, but I’ll be able to pull up any piece that I want and make copies, prints, or post them online.

Well, my hardback book came in today, and it’s really nice. I was expecting it to somewhat look like it was printed on a laser printer, but it does not. The pictures are clear and colorful, and the dust jacket is glossier than I expected (glossy is good).

. . . is that there are no rules. This is a philosophy that I’ve always firmly believed in. An artist can’t have any limitations if they expect to be creative. An artist has to be free to explore, to look beyond pre-conceived ideas of what can/can’t or should/shouldn’t be done.

Yes, there are classical guidelines, mediums, and techniques that you learn about in school, but they’re by no means the only ones. And nothing is ever written in stone! Feel free to explore anything that you like, even unlikely avenues. Not that they’ll all succeed, but it’s better to have the knowledge and know-how for future works that may require a non-traditional approach. Just because you’re working with paint doesn’t mean you’re limited to a brush, roller, or pallet knife!

“That’s not art.” Poppycock! Get this type of mentality out of your head. And I’m speaking to everyone, artists and non-artists. Art is all around you. Unless you’re sitting at your computer naked right now, art designed your clothes. For those of you who are naked, art designed that chair you’re sitting in. Art had a hand in homes, cars, furniture, appliances, and everything that has a shape and any type of color. For all of you macho, man’s man type of guys out there, you have a butt-load of art in your garages and your tool chests. Someone had to design those power tools, right? I’ll bet one of the factors in purchasing them was how attractive they were, right? Don’t be ashamed; power tools (especially modern ones) are handsome. They’re a great example of combining form (the artistic design) with function. Art doesn’t have to be “fancy-foo-foo-pretty” or even accepted . . . it’s just a fact.

Don’t break the mold. When you’re working on a commission or a project in art class, you’re more than likely going to have some set rules. And that’s fine; you need to learn to appeal to what the client/instructor wants. So, if you want that paycheck or passing grade, don’t break the mold. Ooze out through the cracks in the mold! One thing I always did in high school and college was to find some way to bend the rules without breaking them. It forced me to be creative, and it ensured that my art always stood out in the class—an easy thing to do when everyone else is strictly following the rules.

If making it easy helps, go ahead and do it. Fell free to trace! Yes, trace. A lot of people have this strange notion that art has to be created from scratch. “You have to draw it by hand.” Popycock! I say that if tracing helps, go for it. The toughest thing to learn in art is the human figure. It doesn’t matter if you’re drawing just a finger; it’s hard, and most artists have to work hard at it. If tracing a photo helps you get the shapes and proportions just right, go for it. Now, I draw the line at trying to pass off a tracing as an original work of art.

The most artistic freedom you will ever have is when you are doing art for art’s sake.

For the past 7-10 years, I’ve been creating business cards for the officers at my Dad’s police department. Each officer has their own customizations, especially the K-9 officers, who like to put their dog’s photo onto the cards. Well, I just got word that the new chief has made the decision that all officers will now use a single design picked out by him (designed by him, too, I think), and they will be printed by whatever company he chooses. So, I’ve essentially lost a tad bit of income, though not much.

I’ve been told that this decision has caused some uproar in the department; the fellas really love their customized cards. The only thing I won’t miss is cutting out 250 cards for a single order. Cutting is very tedious and boring. At least my printer will get a reprieve, and I won’t go through toner so quickly.

Que sera, sera.