Blog

I’ve taken on a brand-new public project. In fact, it’s world-wide. I’ve never organized anything like this before, so I hope it goes well. First, it has to get off of the ground. So far, there are only four Web sites participating. But, there’s plenty of time between now and October.

Doorless Chambers is a free online trick-or-treating event by the Disney fan community, for the Disney fan community. Guests will travel from site to site, each offering a downloadable treat.

I’m crossing my fingers.

Several months ago, I helped design a badge for the Banning Police Department’s Honor Guard. The design is loosely based on the regular officer’s badge, and was originally to have the rays in the center be free-floating so that the uniform would been seen through the badge. I guess the see-through feature was a bit too much for the manufacturer to handle, so the area has been filled in with a flat, black enamel.

The badges returned from the manufacturer yesterday, and from what I’ve been told, they look awesome. I’ve also been told that as far as anybody knows, this is the first instance in which any police department in California has custom-designed a badge for their honor guard. Most departments either use a pre-designed badge or simply use their officers’ badge.

As an added bonus, there just happens to be an extra badge. With the help of my Dad, I’ve been able to get my mitts on it! Now, a regular Joe is not allowed to have a police badge because it could be used to impersonate an officer—which is well against the law and not taken lightly. So, tomorrow it will be sent off to be encased in a block of solid acrylic. One of the guys at the station is also talking with the Chief to possibly give it to me for free! Woo-hoo! The badge alone costs $100 or more, and I have no idea how much the acrylic casing costs.

I still haven’t seen the finished badge (I’d at least accept a bad cell phone picture), but I’m looking forward to having my own.

Here is a short time-lapse video of the Mara mural that I reproduced from a photo. It’s a simple procedure: just trace, fill, and shade. Re-creating existing artwork can be relieving since I don’t have to worry about composition, color, etcetera, and there’s still some room for some artistic license. It can also be fun to do, and I enjoyed doing this one.

This is one of several icons that had to be revamped because they were substandard. The original version of this icon had a skeleton parrot perched on top of the chest. The parrot was hard to see on the smaller icons (tiny bones), so I went with a more familiar parrot perched atop a shovel. Now it clearly resembles the beach scene in the Disneyland attraction’s arcade queue.

The chest is actually one that can be found over at the Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer’s Island.