Graphic Recording

Lots of people this time of year think about the coming year ahead and what they want to do. It's the time people tend to get calendars and start planning their lives.

Illustrating Your Ideas As a Poster

...not only gives you ways to preserve them in a picture form.  This can also work to attractively organize and present them to others, once it's colored (or designed to be colored by the student.) The idea of "Graphic Recording" came from speakers who wanted more engagement from their audience. So they hit on the idea of having an artist/sign maker illustrate what they're saying in real time as they're saying it.

Here's my "sketch notes" from information that I'd like others to remember and use like a tool in their back pocket that I enjoy teaching. (It's about how to "fool" established routines so you can sift them out of what you want to retain.  If you're curious, you can see better what's in the notes by clicking on it to enlarge it.)

 But it's just a pencil sketch. Mostly I finish these later in color. Or I turn these into some sort of "homework" fun that the student can color themselves to help remember the information as an activity of study. Put it on the fridge!

In this form, it's just an example of how information can be organized so it can be remembered easier and referenced later, giving an example of potential for usefulness. Hope you enjoy your New Year potential!! 

Window Painting Technicalities

Holiday Window Painting - it's a great way to decorate your business without taking up floor space!

Here's where I did a series of simple wreaths.
I don't often get to paint on white etched windows, which is this first example. Most of the time these windows are frosted on the inside so it makes the outside is easy to clean. (You can remove my painting with sprayed 50% alcohol.) 
Most of the time when a window is decorated by painting on it, the background of the window appears as a dark, sometimes almost black. If you want the designs to show up when your business is open at night time, it works best to use a flood light on the surface of the window to bring out the design. In fact, sunlight on a window will make the design look like "stain glass"  - the colors will be spectacularly lit up from the inside!

Like snowflakes, I can vary wreaths to be every one slightly different. You can have them all match using the same color or design...or, I've done a whole shopping center with wildly different wreaths on each storefront too. 

My colors are slightly transparent, unlike the paint of some window painters who paint on a white background first. Because this white background isn't used, the sort of colors I use don't spoil the tints on windows by leaving a shadow - because of their transparency. 

After the holiday season is over, my colors wash off easily with sprayed alcohol too. I don't use plain old poster paint, so the rain doesn't affect what's on the window. That's why my designs can last as long as ten years!  But I *do* need easy access to the window from the outside. Artwork is best done on the outside of the window so the colors show up brightly.

I *have* done artwork on the inside of high rises for office workers & clients.





Please call 808 333-9366
If you're on the Big Island in the 2022 Winter season with an art job for me and my apprentices.

Mostly Santa Is A Homebody

Santa travels so fast and so far on Christmas eve that he has to stay home and gather his energy for the big day. He's got a favorite pair of bunny slippers...that allow him to slide along as if his feet are a sleigh. You know, Santa has favorite drinks too...

If you've got an idea of what Santa can be doing on your window and you're in Hawaii on the Big Island in 2019, just let me know what you want by leaving a text message on 
808 333-9366

Multi-talented Santa

Santa has many different hobbies, because his elves do so much of his work for him.

  In fact, Santa can be found doing amazing things. He needs to learn so many skills, because he loves everyone to have exactly the present they could ever want for their winter celebrations. How else can Santa understand product design if he doesn't test every single thing that is made in his workshop??

Winter Scenes Are Cool

With the shades drawn because the winter heat is too hot to put up with in Hawaii, it's nice to have a snow scene on the outside. On the Big Island we do get snow on Mauna Kea, so it's not completely a fantasy to depict a snow scene...although I've not seen many buildings up at that elevation!

808 333-9366 

...for a snow scene at your place where you have to use a shade from the tropic winter HEAT!  Or we can work from a photo to do a portrait of your dream house that you're building...

Poinsettias Fit Nearly Everywhere

Flowers and ribbons - what possibly could be more "Festive"?

 808 333-9366  in case you'd like some decorating on your place of business.

Hana Hou

Some shop owners like my artwork so much that they have me come back every single year and get me to put the exact same design on their window with minor differences.
At this point in my life, I find myself teaching other people how to do artwork on glass because I'm a bit physically limited at doing this sort of work. But I have learned to take it easy. I make my "helpers" do the stuff that's tricky for me while I school them on the finer points of getting art as they intend it to look on the window.

Want to get some cool art on the windows of your business? Give a call! 
808 333-9366 

Flaky

  People think that anyone can make a snowflake, but try drawing a snowflake sometime. They all have six sides, but maybe not. Try making a slightly different kind of snowflake every single time. Try making the snowflake different sizes. Try making a snowflake THREE FEET across as these snowflakes are. They're drawn on the top four foot windows above...!

You'll see even more detail in the top pic if you click on it to enlarge it.... 

I'm going to be in Hawaii for this winter season instead of traveling to California as I usually have done in the past.  So contact me if you're a business owner on the Big Island!

808 - 333-9366  (Text only, no Voicemail)

Cosmic

Some shop owners want images on their windows that they intend to leave up all year long that aren't signage. That way, they don't have to get permission from their building owners to be decorated - because what they want on their windows isn't signage.

That was this intent - so we made a cosmic scene of the moon, earth and sun with faces.

Turkey Day

We're supposed to be grateful on the day we eat turkey in the USA.

What has never made sense to me is how few songs we have for our day of Thanksgiving, and how many songs we have for Christmas time.

You musician composers out there, Hey! We need more songs about being Grateful!! Giving Thanks! 

It's such a wonderful happiness exercise to give thanks that it's something that would be useful as a practice all during the year.

The turkeys would appreciate it too.

Halloween Makes Me Happy

Aside from the fact I enjoy drawing Halloween-type images on store windows so much that I'll do it for trade, I just like the idea of changing our persona and becoming a fantasy character.

If you're an adult, you probably imagine that Halloween is for kids to gather lots of candy and run around a safe party situation or a protected neighborhood.

But I think Halloween is a fun time to dress up and do something entirely different for an evening.

(you can click on the picture below if you'd like to see it bigger.)

Plant MORE Trees

Kailua-Kona has cleared up, the volcanic VOG has gone because the volcanoes are quiet now. The trees are happy again and the extra rain that the volcanoes brought are making fruit bearing trees really a happening thing. People like trees so much that they will pay me to draw trees on their window here in Hawaii.

But the rest of the world has been experiencing fires. Summer fires have been really bad, destroying thousands of acres - and it's still  burning out of control in some places. Even a rainy place like the Amazon is burning out of control.

Trees are the main way our planet breathes out oxygen and converts it from carbon dioxide. What will happen for the whole world when so many trees are now gone?

The only way I can imaging the world could be saved is for us to get busy and plant trees. Plant trees and nurture them so they grow up big and strong and don't die from pig or cattle damage.

On the way into Kamuela on the northern end of the Big Island, there's evidence of an interesting way to plant trees to keep the seedlings away from cattle damage. Inside of a wooden post, a seedling is planted on the top. Curiously enough, the roots go all the way down through the center of the post to find the ground underneath where the post is fixed. The green leaves of the baby tree is kept away from the cattle being able to nip at it.

How Long Does It Last?

I Know You Say They're Temporary, But How Long Do Your Signs Last?

This business opened more than ten years ago. They were located right along the highway in Kamuela, with a window that faced the road. With a generous size for their slices and at very reasonable price, they needed a sign to get people in the door for lunchtime. Since I was a customer, I traded for food.

It was a yummy trade!

Their sign would have looked even better over the ten years they had it if they hadn't have set some tress in front of the windows that scraped the paint off over time. In some ways, the "distressed" quality on the letters made the place look as if it has been there forever, so it wasn't all that bad of an image.

Hawaii Has Cats and Gardeners

Where I live on the Big Island of Hawaii, there's lots of people who garden. There are many cats that probably were once tame that have gone feral here. There's also lots that either escaped or were abandoned by people who moved away. Every once in awhile, businesses will adopt a more friendly-type "shop cat" to intimidate the rodent population and act as a mascot.

This place I made a mural for, they had a nursery, even though they also sold other things and services. There are so many gardeners here in Hawaii who always want to buy plants! This business was temporarily using one of their storefronts as a store-room, so they had me do a mural on the glass and include portraits of their animals. They had a charming big Orange cat who posed for me in the window...

I love kitty cats. Wish I could be a "Cat Lady" and have ten of them at once!

Acid Rain

Here's a sample of my ability to write lettering on windows. I know mostly I show the artwork here, but some people count lettering of signs and sign-making as a form of art.

Here in Hawaii, (especially on the West side where the shape of that side of the island "traps" the volcanic air,) our windows have to stand up to VOG. It's a brand of volcanic smog. It can become sort of oppressive if you live in it all the time, although the tourists don't notice since they're visiting temporarily.

If your business or home windows face the right way, it's windows are permanently etched with this tiny onslaught of glass particles in the VOG. So on the windows that get this damage the worst, businesses find my signs to be a way of hiding the damage and advertising their newest innovations to stay in business.

Good for me! But makes me thankful I don't live in Kailua-Kona.

Affectionately Yours

Here's the frontage of a Credit Union I did for Valentine's Day. Strangely enough, the red I used exactly matched the red color of their newly installed ATM before it was there! So being decorated went nicely with their image that month.
Most people wouldn't imagine that a Credit Union would celebrate Valentine's Day. But Hawaii is different. Because of the (legislated!) spirit of Aloha here in Hawaii, people are really into affectionate displays. After all, even guys wear flowers in Hawaii on their shirts, not just women in flowered dresses. You can give flowers to a guy if you're a woman and the guy won't necessarily assume it's an intimate communication, but just a beautiful sharing of what's in your garden that you'd have as a gift.

If you'd like to see the details of the doily and hearts, you can click on the picture and see a larger version.

Creativity

Logic says, "the only time another way is necessary to seek out is when current ways are blocked." I know ways to be more creative. Creative ways are "unexploited alternatives," usually in addition to "tradition." So a creative person looks for alternatives, even when there already exists serviceable answers.

I found that formally studying thinking skills has been the most useful to me in developing the ability to communicate my creative abilities...and to invite them to happen with others. There are more thinking skills than mere "Critical Thinking." (There's Parallel, Lateral, Strategic and Design thinking, off the top of my head.)

Many people are defensive about creative ideas - they "defend" against them when the ideas come from other people. Some people, strangely enough, defend against new ideas when they come from themselves! Just because someone hasn't thought of it, doesn't mean a better way of doing things or a new invention is not there waiting to be discovered. One of the ways to present a creative idea: Present the idea in a way so that the people you're trying to convince imagine the new idea is THEIR idea...

Remember, when a creative idea arrives, it's usually funny - laughable funny!

What might make you more creative is noting moments when you could have an alternative that hasn't occurred to you yet. To get that block out a period of time to wonder about it while you do something else. My name for this is "Productive Procrastinating."

Our tolerance for unknowns and feeling ambiguity is a BIG factor in our ability to be creative!

My favorite blog about thinking skills is: Thinkibility.com  Check it out! 

Also as a treat, I'd like to tell everyone the most creatively useful book I ever read on the subject of creativity. It was written by a photography professor. It's titled "Playful Perception - Choosing How to Experience Your World." By Herbert L Leff, Ph.d. (Waterfront books)

Turns out that the little exercises in this book apply to changing your attitudes and ability to see new possibilities toward any purpose you'd like to consider.  (In addition to it's purpose of being better photographer.)  This is another skill creative people use. They can take the lessons of one field and apply it to another field...that seems totally unrelated.

What do you know about that you can apply to another field?
What's your tolerance level for unpredictability and things that are yet to be decided or full-grown?
What creative thing have you already done that you're proud of having done?