5 Innovative Examples Of Augmented Reality In Action.
What does the future of AI or even advertising look like? A few companies are starting to take advantage of the possibilities. Adobe recently shared 5 examples on their website. For instance, check out this ad for Pepsi and what they did with an average bus stop. (Click the image to read the article "5 Innovative Examples Of Augmented Reality In Action" and view the videos.)
Winthrop University Convocation
Winthrop University has been around since 1886, so it has some lovely traditions such as the opening convocation to make students not only feel welcome, but feel initiated into a new chapter in their lives and a new family that will remain with them forever. It was no less meaningful for this new faculty member - especially experiencing it from behind the scenes with fellow newbie Mikale Kwiatkowski!
I haven't worn graduation robes since 1989 when I went through for my BFA in Graphic Design at the University of Georgia. If you follow my blog, you know that I wasn't able to make it to my MFA Graduation ceremony at the University of Edinburgh because I was teaching in Virginia at the time, so my classmates put my head on a stick and took me with them. Hmmm, I suppose I could wear maroon and gold like my classmates did - it would certainly go with Winthrop's garnet and gold color scheme! Although, you're supposed to wear the colors of your highest degree earned - and they're expensive - so it's worth waiting for.
Afterwards, there was a picnic on the lawn with tents set up for all the various societies students can join.
I haven't worn graduation robes since 1989 when I went through for my BFA in Graphic Design at the University of Georgia. If you follow my blog, you know that I wasn't able to make it to my MFA Graduation ceremony at the University of Edinburgh because I was teaching in Virginia at the time, so my classmates put my head on a stick and took me with them. Hmmm, I suppose I could wear maroon and gold like my classmates did - it would certainly go with Winthrop's garnet and gold color scheme! Although, you're supposed to wear the colors of your highest degree earned - and they're expensive - so it's worth waiting for.
Afterwards, there was a picnic on the lawn with tents set up for all the various societies students can join.
Friday Links List - 23 August 2019
From Muddy Colors: Directors on the art of Storyboarding
From BoingBoing: How "meritocracy" went from a joke to a dogma, and destroyed the lives of everyone it touched
From SCBWI British Isles Words & Pictures: ILLUSTRATION FEATURE How an Illustration Became a School
From Life Parenting (via PW): 35 Children's Books That Teach Empathy And Kindness
From The Guardian: ‘Do black people read?’ What my years in publishing have taught me about diversity in books
From Entertainment: LGBTQ books are being censored in middle schools. Authors are speaking out.
From Vogue (via PW): From Dr. Seuss to J.K. Rowling: what it would look like if your favourite authors designed a child’s bedroom
From Kidlit Authors: Awards and New Mentees! Winner Andy Musser
From Entertainment Weekly: LGBTQ books are being censored in middle schools. Authors are speaking out.
From The Bookseller: Growing kids’ market appeals to UK firms in Beijing as fair launches dedicated strand
Dave McKean's JOE QUINN'S POLTERGEIST
I am thrilled, honored, beyond giddy to have Dave McKean here today! You probably know him best from the work he's done with Neil Gaiman. For instance, The Wolves in the Walls, Coraline, or Mirror Mask.
Dave: I still try and do what I always did, and that's to find the best, most affecting way of telling the story, or expressing the idea I'm dealing with. I don't really mind what the medium is, I'm interested in the ideas, atmosphere and emotions in the script. So I usually sink into the world of the story for a while, and maybe try a few things, until the images start to really feel right for the piece. At the moment I'm enjoying just using pencil on paper, I've learned a lot about the simple and direct power of image making going back to basics after so many years exploring paint, photography, collage and digital.
Dave: I had a lucky start, loving comics at a point in time where that form was in a really interesting place, growing, expanding, challenging what was expected of them, so fortuitous timing. It has been great to form ongoing working relationships with authors and musicians. I've had good runs with Nail Gaiman, David Almond, SF Said, Iain Sinclair, Stephen King, Iain Ballamy, Bill Bruford, Frontline Assembly and others, and so it's been great to develop those bodies of work as we've got to know each other. Now I'm mostly interested in working on my own projects - they've been the most important works for me from Cages, through Luna and Neon, to Black Dog.
Dave: I had a great day in Newcastle with David shooting reference of the streets where he grew up, and where he set the story. My big balancing act with all of David's stories, is tiptoeing along the line between reality and the supernatural. David likes the ambiguity, and I'm more committed to being clear where the truth is. I think the tension between those two forces is interesting, much more interesting than letting the supernatural moments pass unquestioned. I'm keen for readers, especially young readers to question these things, not just accept fantasy, or untruths, at face value. So, not a particularly funny story, but it's made for some unique books.
e: What do you think makes an illustration magical, what I call "Heart Art” - the sort that makes a reader want to come back to look again and again?
Dave: I doubt there is one way of defining this as we all look for different things in art. Most illustration is about slick technique, whereas I look for a sense of fight in the drawing, someone exploring and pushing themselves into unfamiliar territory, struggling to express something. It's hard to keep up that energy throughout a career and you often see a familiar pattern - an artist starts aiming towards something and after initial failures, begins to refine what they do. Then they have a while as they successfully explore that idea, but then it becomes tired and they start to just repeat what they've done before, it loses the fight. Also if you're lucky, something comes along for you to express at the peak of your powers, something that you can completely commit to. Look at Bacon's paintings of George Dyer, or Paul Nash's WW1 paintings. As far as the everyday challenge of drawing and making each image have the magic, I call it magic, because it's a strangely indefinable occurrence, some days, or some moments, the lines, shapes, abstract qualities, insight, feeling of the drawing just works, and many times it doesn't, it just looks dead, pre-digested. I've tried very hard to be aware of my state of mind, and environment, to encourage the magic to happen. It's something to do with being relaxed but not lazy, alert but not stressed, clear sighted but available to chance. It's a balancing act.
Dave: Well, I'm mostly focussed on my own work these days. if something comes along that looks like a good challenge, or is with a friend, or someone I've always wanted to work with, or in a world i want to learn about, then I'll do it.
Dave: I love shaping ideas and stories, that moment when disparate elements fizz against each other and create an idea is always wonderful. I still love just drawing and seeing the project evolve. I have a much more improvisational approach to the development of ideas these days, inspired mostly by the wonderful theatre director Bill Mitchell, who I worked with on Wolf's Child and The Passion of Port Talbot, the Gospel of Us.
Dave: It's a very adult story really, barely for kids. It's about the loss of faith, and about the nature of belief, how we carry around a view of the world that colours our sense of reality. I hope my approach on all of David's books, is a questioning approach - I think it's important to understand the limitations of our minds, that they trick us, not malevolently, but simply because it's so hard to deal with all the information coming in. Our brains find patterns where none are there, or reinforce what we feel we know to the exclusion of information that doesn't fit that view. The polarised world we are living in at the moment is testament to the faulty way our minds work.
Dave: You have to make your own mistakes, because quite often, they turn out to be blessings. I would always emphasise the importance of prioritising your own work, your own voice, in your life. It's very easy to be swept up in commercial life, deadlines, jobs, other peoples stuff. You will regret not listening to that inner voice that inspired you in the first place, as a child, or at art school. If art has any point at all, it must be to allow us to see through each other's eyes. That's more important now than at any other time I can remember.
Dave: I still try and do what I always did, and that's to find the best, most affecting way of telling the story, or expressing the idea I'm dealing with. I don't really mind what the medium is, I'm interested in the ideas, atmosphere and emotions in the script. So I usually sink into the world of the story for a while, and maybe try a few things, until the images start to really feel right for the piece. At the moment I'm enjoying just using pencil on paper, I've learned a lot about the simple and direct power of image making going back to basics after so many years exploring paint, photography, collage and digital.
Dave: I had a lucky start, loving comics at a point in time where that form was in a really interesting place, growing, expanding, challenging what was expected of them, so fortuitous timing. It has been great to form ongoing working relationships with authors and musicians. I've had good runs with Nail Gaiman, David Almond, SF Said, Iain Sinclair, Stephen King, Iain Ballamy, Bill Bruford, Frontline Assembly and others, and so it's been great to develop those bodies of work as we've got to know each other. Now I'm mostly interested in working on my own projects - they've been the most important works for me from Cages, through Luna and Neon, to Black Dog.
Dave: I had a great day in Newcastle with David shooting reference of the streets where he grew up, and where he set the story. My big balancing act with all of David's stories, is tiptoeing along the line between reality and the supernatural. David likes the ambiguity, and I'm more committed to being clear where the truth is. I think the tension between those two forces is interesting, much more interesting than letting the supernatural moments pass unquestioned. I'm keen for readers, especially young readers to question these things, not just accept fantasy, or untruths, at face value. So, not a particularly funny story, but it's made for some unique books.
e: What do you think makes an illustration magical, what I call "Heart Art” - the sort that makes a reader want to come back to look again and again?Dave: I doubt there is one way of defining this as we all look for different things in art. Most illustration is about slick technique, whereas I look for a sense of fight in the drawing, someone exploring and pushing themselves into unfamiliar territory, struggling to express something. It's hard to keep up that energy throughout a career and you often see a familiar pattern - an artist starts aiming towards something and after initial failures, begins to refine what they do. Then they have a while as they successfully explore that idea, but then it becomes tired and they start to just repeat what they've done before, it loses the fight. Also if you're lucky, something comes along for you to express at the peak of your powers, something that you can completely commit to. Look at Bacon's paintings of George Dyer, or Paul Nash's WW1 paintings. As far as the everyday challenge of drawing and making each image have the magic, I call it magic, because it's a strangely indefinable occurrence, some days, or some moments, the lines, shapes, abstract qualities, insight, feeling of the drawing just works, and many times it doesn't, it just looks dead, pre-digested. I've tried very hard to be aware of my state of mind, and environment, to encourage the magic to happen. It's something to do with being relaxed but not lazy, alert but not stressed, clear sighted but available to chance. It's a balancing act.
Dave: Well, I'm mostly focussed on my own work these days. if something comes along that looks like a good challenge, or is with a friend, or someone I've always wanted to work with, or in a world i want to learn about, then I'll do it.
Dave: I love shaping ideas and stories, that moment when disparate elements fizz against each other and create an idea is always wonderful. I still love just drawing and seeing the project evolve. I have a much more improvisational approach to the development of ideas these days, inspired mostly by the wonderful theatre director Bill Mitchell, who I worked with on Wolf's Child and The Passion of Port Talbot, the Gospel of Us.
Dave: It's a very adult story really, barely for kids. It's about the loss of faith, and about the nature of belief, how we carry around a view of the world that colours our sense of reality. I hope my approach on all of David's books, is a questioning approach - I think it's important to understand the limitations of our minds, that they trick us, not malevolently, but simply because it's so hard to deal with all the information coming in. Our brains find patterns where none are there, or reinforce what we feel we know to the exclusion of information that doesn't fit that view. The polarised world we are living in at the moment is testament to the faulty way our minds work.
Dave: You have to make your own mistakes, because quite often, they turn out to be blessings. I would always emphasise the importance of prioritising your own work, your own voice, in your life. It's very easy to be swept up in commercial life, deadlines, jobs, other peoples stuff. You will regret not listening to that inner voice that inspired you in the first place, as a child, or at art school. If art has any point at all, it must be to allow us to see through each other's eyes. That's more important now than at any other time I can remember.
Keep My Students Safe
This isn't going to be a typical post from me - I rarely discuss political issues on my blog. But I hope you'll stick with me, dear readers, on this post. Polls suggest you might, because:
Living in Scotland turned me into a political creature. When we first moved there, whenever people heard our 'American' accents, they asked us about guns. (Yeah, it got old.) But Stan and I had strong opinions to share on the topic. Living in Atlanta, we heard gunfire so often, we only called the police when we knew it was close - one or two streets over. We even had a bullet lodged in the side of our house just below our bedroom window. Part of the reason we moved was to get away from guns.
But lots of things changed in America after we moved to Scotland, upsetting things. I attended my first political march in Edinburgh. (My protest sign went viral through the BBC and the Edinburgh Evening News.) And I attended a second march. I began to really pay attention to what was going on in America. I learned to defend my opinions well. I created artwork to support my beliefs - you see it in my newsletter each week.
But it felt strange to be away when our home seemed to need us so badly, like I was supposed to be fighting with my feet on the ground - American soil. I suppose it was similar to after 9/11, when so many people moved to New York City to show solidarity and rebuild the city and its damaged soul. The call was strong. Part (one part) of the reason I felt the need to return to the US was to add my voice or simply to be one more body added to a crowd to show support.
So, when I learned about the Moms Demand Action rally taking place in Fountain Park this past Saturday in Rock Hill, in conjunction with gun legislation marches all over the country, I had to go. I made another sign and Stan took his camera—these are his images.
For instance, we weren't comfortable when 10-year-old Chanze talked about having to do gun raid exercises at his school every month—when he shared that his school often plays the sound of gunfire over the intercom system to train the students on what to do if a shooter enters their building.
And we most certainly weren't comfortable when Betty, a local mother told us about losing both of her sons to gun violence, and how the gun that took her youngest son's life is still out there changing hands, still doing harm - something the Red Flag Law could prevent.
We learned how to text Senator Lindsey Graham to demand action.
Thoughts and prayers aren't enough - they were never enough - not after the first shooting and not after each and every mass shooting since then. Our legislators must do something now.
Meanwhile, this is what I can do... create a blog post, create artwork, be present at a march, and vote of course. I hope you will too. Because, if our current legislators won't do something about the terror our country now lives in because of gun violence, it's time to vote them out of office. Contact your lawmakers by texting CHECKS to 644-33.
Thank you for reading.
'90 percent of Americans "support universal background checks" for gun purchases.'So I'm going to take a chance with you today and ask: why are existing bills (Red Flag Laws and Universal Background Checks) not moving faster through our legislative branch? As a children's book writer/illustrator and educator, it's infuriating to me to watch our children being traumatized when steps can be taken to reduce gun violence now.
- Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, verified as true by Politifact
Living in Scotland turned me into a political creature. When we first moved there, whenever people heard our 'American' accents, they asked us about guns. (Yeah, it got old.) But Stan and I had strong opinions to share on the topic. Living in Atlanta, we heard gunfire so often, we only called the police when we knew it was close - one or two streets over. We even had a bullet lodged in the side of our house just below our bedroom window. Part of the reason we moved was to get away from guns.
But lots of things changed in America after we moved to Scotland, upsetting things. I attended my first political march in Edinburgh. (My protest sign went viral through the BBC and the Edinburgh Evening News.) And I attended a second march. I began to really pay attention to what was going on in America. I learned to defend my opinions well. I created artwork to support my beliefs - you see it in my newsletter each week.
But it felt strange to be away when our home seemed to need us so badly, like I was supposed to be fighting with my feet on the ground - American soil. I suppose it was similar to after 9/11, when so many people moved to New York City to show solidarity and rebuild the city and its damaged soul. The call was strong. Part (one part) of the reason I felt the need to return to the US was to add my voice or simply to be one more body added to a crowd to show support.
So, when I learned about the Moms Demand Action rally taking place in Fountain Park this past Saturday in Rock Hill, in conjunction with gun legislation marches all over the country, I had to go. I made another sign and Stan took his camera—these are his images.
For instance, we weren't comfortable when 10-year-old Chanze talked about having to do gun raid exercises at his school every month—when he shared that his school often plays the sound of gunfire over the intercom system to train the students on what to do if a shooter enters their building.
And we most certainly weren't comfortable when Betty, a local mother told us about losing both of her sons to gun violence, and how the gun that took her youngest son's life is still out there changing hands, still doing harm - something the Red Flag Law could prevent.
We learned how to text Senator Lindsey Graham to demand action.
Thoughts and prayers aren't enough - they were never enough - not after the first shooting and not after each and every mass shooting since then. Our legislators must do something now.
Meanwhile, this is what I can do... create a blog post, create artwork, be present at a march, and vote of course. I hope you will too. Because, if our current legislators won't do something about the terror our country now lives in because of gun violence, it's time to vote them out of office. Contact your lawmakers by texting CHECKS to 644-33.
Thank you for reading.
Coloring Page Tuesday - Monster Love
Remember, I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! For instance...
Crow Not Crow - written by New York Times Best-selling author Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple. Kirkus calls it "a solid choice for introducing the hobby [birdwatching] to younger readers." Or MerBaby's Lullaby, out this summer with great reviews from Kirkus and PW!
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Donkey Duet
This is hilarious! A man and his donkey sing a duet of 'The Circle of Life' from 'The Lion King' - click the image below to watch on the Good News Network, and prepare to smile!
Food Truck Night at Fountain Park
Every third Friday, Rock Hill has a party. It's called Food Truck Friday and the entire community comes out for it, or so it seems. 
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