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 - no matter which New Year it is! I was just updating this for 2026...

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 at least 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, but it's best viewed from inside as well.





Please call 808 333-9366

If you're on the Big Island in the 2025 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 2025, just let me know what you want by leaving a text message on 
808 Three-Three-Three-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 Three Three Three -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 Three Three Three -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 getting a bit physically limited at doing this sort of work. ( I don't go up on high ladders anymore!) 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 Three Three three -9366