Scotia’s Eyes (drawing)
Originally uploaded by Ken Dyck.
This is my first attempt at drawing a portrait in its entirety (eyes, nose, lips, hair, etc).
It’s based on one of Intrepid Lady’s excellent photos (thanks for permission to draw it and post the result).
For a first attempt, I’m relatively pleased with how it turned out. I need some more practice with hair. And I didn’t quite capture the mouth the way I see it in the photo. The shading around the nose took forever. Of all things, I’m surprised at how well the shirt turned out.
But, like I said, for a first attempt, I’m happy.
Posted by Ken Dyck as Art at 7:29 PM MST
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Mandy and I have spent the past couple weekends removing the pond in our back yard. Here’s a slideshow.
Posted by Ken Dyck as Projects at 8:53 PM MST
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Ze Frank has the funniest daily online video show on the web that I’ve ever seen. Check out the show.
Posted by Ken Dyck as Favourites at 9:10 AM MST
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Here’s a technique for siphoning water out of a container with a garden hose without having to suck on the hose to prime it, because let’s face it, who wants to 1. put the end of a dirty garden hose in your mouth, or 2. risk drinking what’s coming through it? I used this technique to drain a small pond in our back yard.
Along with a garden hose, you will need a working tap and a nozzle that can be closed . Most typical hand-nozzles should work just fine.
- Attach the hose to the tap and the nozzle to the hose.
- Run some water through the hose to fill it with water.
- Close the nozzle. Close the tap.
- Remove the hose from the tap, holding the open end up to prevent any water from spilling out. Your hose is now primed for use.
- Carry both ends of the hose to the place where you’d like the water to drain to. Be careful not to spill water from the hose. Leave the nozzled end there.
- Place the open end of the hose in the container you’d like to drain.
- Return to the nozzled end and remove the nozzle.
- Watch as the container drains. Smile because you didn’t have to taste any of it.
Posted by Ken Dyck as Tip at 9:01 AM MST
11 Comments »
On Friday, the Google Research blog that Team Smartass, a group of Google employees, had won the ICFP Programming Contest, an annual 3-day event usually held over the Labour Day weekend. No big surprise there. We all know that Google only hires the brightest programmers on the planet.
I was happy to see that among the members of the winning team was one Chris Hendrie. Chris was a coworker of mine back when I worked at Texas Instruments; a great guy, and one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. He was definitely in another league from the rest of us slogs.
Anyways, I’m glad to see that he’s accomplished something that he talked about even back then. I always knew he was capable of it. He just needed at more capable team. It seems he’s found it.
Congratulations Chris and Team Smartass!
Posted by Ken Dyck as Programming at 8:30 AM MST
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My sister, The Mighty Sally, is a fantastic artist. She does these amazing illustrations for a weekly art contest called Illustration Friday.
Here’s an example. She did this one for the topic “farm”:
Inspired by her illustrations, I’ve decided to take up pencil drawing.
I’m learning from Lee Hammond’s, Big Book of Drawing, which I’ve found very helpful so far.
Here are some of my first attempts at drawing various facial features.
Yeah, I know the nose on the top left looks cartoonish. It’s supposed to. It was just an exercise to learn how the shapes fit together.
More to come. Stay tuned.
Posted by Ken Dyck as Art at 5:25 PM MST
10 Comments »
It was a pleasant break, but now I’m back.
Things around here are going to be different than they were before. Hope you enjoy it.
Posted by Ken Dyck as Administrivia at 4:37 PM MST
1 Comment »
I’ve been meaning to switch this blog over to Wordpress for a while. Today I find myself with some time to do it.
So you may notice some disruptions if you visit the page today. They are temporary (I hope). Expect the site to be back up by the end of the day.
Now for the important stuff… if you subscribe to this blog’s feed, check your subscription address. If it is http://www.kendyck.com/atom.xml, please update it to http://feeds.feedburner.com/kendyck. The old feed may not work after the transition.
Otherwise, I’ll see you on the other side.
Update: The bulk of the move is complete. Still have to get permalinks working the way I’d like and install the Akismet plugin. Other than that, I think it’s ready to go. Welcome back.
Update: Done and done. Happy surfing.
Posted by Ken Dyck as Administrivia at 6:55 AM MST
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