Stephanie and Colby told me they buy toilet paper in bulk, but maybe I misunderstood them ...

Since Kane was asking about it, I went ahead and created a desktop version of the Poise piece, in a variety of sizes. Visit the downloads section to get at 'em.

Apple just released the newest installment of iPhone software sweetness ... Three dot O! If you haven't already, head over the iPhone website or open up iTunes and get it. During the install my phone needed a quick restore, so I had to learn how to put it in recovery mode ... good to know, for sure.

Also, since I always forget, here is a link on how remove the photo-blue lines from a digital scan. ...

… err, mouse.My trusty Apple Mighty Mouse hasn’t been connecting immediately/reliably the last few days, despite re-doing the Bluetooth settings several times. Turns out fresh batteries are key … one of my wonderfully green USB Cell batteries has been wonderfully lying to me about its charge and still needed more rest. A couple of new coppertops later and I am back in business … but, of course, not before I made fun of the mighty ...

Just like all of the FCC kids that are working hard this week on finals and the last few assignments before the summer and/or graduation, I have been hard at work on freelance and Full Sail class projects. More updates to come soon, I promise ;)P.S. Shout out to Tyler for passing the Bible Comp. What what!

The other day I was spouting random seeds of wisdom, that Courtney coined “golden nuggets” … enjoy! Oh, and I hope you enjoy my friend Hurly here …Indecision leads to missed opportunity.No one will think of you as a women until you acknowledge yourself as one.What she lacks in determination, she makes up for in non-committal.Your bad choices can only lead to worst results.If God is my constant, you are the variable.Customization is the first ...

Here is another piece in the portrait series … thanks to my dad’s love for John Wayne. Such a great part of my childhood. The Alamo, The Green Berets, McLintock!, Hellfighters and so many more …If you want, you can see the original image here. I did this piece on the deliciously sweet Wacom Cintiq 21UX that I am still borrowing from Full Sail. Every brush stroke is like variable-weight vanilla frosting.

I decided for the next few days/weeks to try my hand at portrait drawings … Since, I frequently find myself really disliking any sketches or illustrations I try to create of actual people, I figured it might be helpful to actually try and get better at it.Here is the first of the series … thanks in part to Heather quoting Bob Marley lyrics in her status the other day.If you want, you can see the ...

Gilbert Grape from Oscar Cortez on Vimeo. You can view the high-res version of the final piece here.Yesterday was such a great day … enjoyed a yummy lunch with Courtney and Jodie, fell asleep on some soft couches in IKEA and got to hang out with a bunch of old (and new!) friends, including Nathan G., Eddie, Rosie and Sarah. I drew this guy over dinner at Chick-fil-A … again, using the sweet, sweet Brushes iPhone ...

Since IF’s “Brianna” decided (so unnecessarily) it was important to remind us all what “poise” means, I thought I would have a little fun with this week’s Illustration Friday theme. That’ll show ‘em!On a side note, I really enjoy coming back every now and then and using the fun lil’ free vector app, Rita … even though the UI is ugly, there is just something about it’s simplicity and the way it works with my ...

Here is my vector entry for this friday’s Illustration Friday theme of “subtract”.We were talking a bit about division and algebra in the DFP class the other night, so I had math on the brain … apparently.I even sized it to a perfect 320 by 480 pixels for your iPhone usage. Enjoy.

I really been working hard to get back on track with the Bible reading I normally do in the morning, but have been slack on for a few months now. And even though it means that I have been needing to go to bed earlier (or actually at normal hours for most people) and wake up in the dark morning hours, it has already begun to feel beneficial.
Near the end of class on Thursday, I ...

Tuesday was a really easy-going, since our DFP (Deployment of Flash Projects) students had already finished their work and were just presenting their projects. We discussed some of the cool things that the Happy Cog guys are doing with the Redesign Mozilla.org campaign and how important it is to not only be able to defend design choices, but also be able to offer an intelligent and informed exposition on them.After the students presented their projects, ...

Monday was so full of work that most of the details are pretty fuzzy. The one thing I do remember is the wonderfully light and clear-headed feeling I had all day. It may have been related to something else, but I am giving full attribution to the fact that I only had a granola bar, an gala apple and lots of water all day. Every movement feel determined and every problem seemed to find ...

The worship service was fantastic this Sunday at Southside … uplifting and so beneficial in strengthening my resolve. Of the many points in Ron’s sermon, two stood out to me:1. The reason we find our prayer lives inadequate, is because we live cluttered lives and cannot hear God.2. To understand your circumstances, good or bad, God’s perspective is vital.After church Jodie, Courtney, Miriam and I enjoyed a super cheap and super delicious lunch of pizza ...

Squiddy McSquiderson from Oscar Cortez on Vimeo. You can view the high-res version of the final piece here.

Jodie and I enjoyed hearing Aaron Welch speak at church today, about the Crisis of belief and how we need to respond to such a crisis. Afterwards, a whole bunch of us went out to celebrate one last Sunday with Melissa Reyes before her several month trip to Australia. The plan was to eat at Pei Wei, but the restaurant being so crazy busy led us to enjoying our delicious food elsewhere … take-out style ...

Here is some quick goofy fun with ink and Prismacolor greys for this week’s Illustration Friday theme of “instinct”.

For this week’s Illustration Friday theme of “celebrate”, I took about a half-hour over lunch with Matt and Steph at Moe’s to whip this guy up in the sweet iPhone Brushes app. The more and more I use it, the more comfortable I get with drawing with my fingers. I am pretty sure this means I need a Cintiq 12WX more than ever. Any takers? ;)

So, I woke up this morning, fixing problems left and right and feeling good … until I realized I had double-paid one of our bills. AAaahh!!What had happened was (yes, Mom. You have to say that in a ghetto voice) … in anticipation of getting paid last Friday, I scheduled a payment in advance. Then, actually ON Friday, I made the mistake of paying the bill anyway. After several phone calls, I was able to ...

So I haven’t really been sleeping lately and it is doing wonders for my eyes and my hair … and by wonders, I of course mean I am tired and afraid to look in the mirror most nights/mornings.Oh and with this sketch, I was kinda trying to give a node to Willie Baronet’s fantastic style of clean simple lines. It really doesn’t compare to his work, but I like how it turned out overall.

Thanks to a silly cold I got from someone at work (still not sure who) and taking night-time medicine, I was late arriving to prep with the rest of the Southside worship team and kinda had to rush my pedal setup.I am guessing that is why during the service, both my tuner pedal and BOSS Blues driver kept dying on me … it eventually worked out, but was still kinda non-confidence instilling.I did however manage ...

Money has been pretty tight for us lately, so it was a pretty great feeling to be able to go out Saturday afternoon and buy some groceries to fill our empty fridge.Of note, I would say the best purchases made were: Milk (now I can finish that bag of Cap’n Crunch)Pepperjack cheese slices (mmmhmm … tangy)Frozen pizza (well … you know)Creamy Peanut butter (I would have preferred chunky, but the pregnant lady won this one)I also ...

A quick and clean doodle, here is my take on this week’s Illustration Friday theme of “climbing”. Seems like an appropriate topic after this week’s Big Bang Theory episode, right?

For some reason or another, I ended up taking so much stuff with me to work today. I mean … I think I needed it all. Camera, lens, batteries, scanner, USB cables, sketchbook(s), art box, two books and on top of all that, my normal MacBook Pro backpack.Yeah … that seems about right. Let’s call it “being prepared” and leave all those “NERD!” comments at home, ‘kay? Thanks a bunch.