Your Fellow “Creative Genius“,
Texaiano

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I’ve been telling you about my Granny and Pa, as well as using their portrait to illustrate some photo to line art techniques. I’m working on one final article in the line art series which will tie these all togeather. Until then, let me share with you a game that I played as a child. We called it “Marbles” but most people know it as “Wahoo.” I spent many hours playing this game as a child. I hope that you can find as much pleasure in it as I did.

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Wahoo - The Marble Game

Materials:
Wooden Game Board
4 like colored marbles per player
Set of Dice (NOTE: only one [1] die is used for the game play)

	Set up: Each player starts with four marbles of the same color or pattern, chooses one of the diagonal rows of holes, also known as the holding space, and places the four marbles in the holes.
	Start: Each player gets a turn to roll one dice. In order to move a marble into play, the player must roll a one (1) or a six (6) in order to start. Upon rolling a one or a six, the player can move one marble into the starting position (the first hole in the third, left most column across from his marbles. If the player doesn’t have a marble in play, and he doesn’t roll a one or a six, he forfeits his move.
	Play: Once the player has at least one marble in play on the board, he can roll the die and advance his marble the number of spaces indicated. If he rolls a one (1) or a six (6), he can play again, otherwise, he must hand the die to the player on his left (clockwise). A player can jump his opponents marbles, and if he advances the number of spaces indicated and finds an opponents piece occupying the target space, he can send his opponent’s piece back to the holding space (diagonal line). If, however, a player’s own marble is in front of the marble he wants to move, he can not jump his own piece. He can only move his marbles if there are sufficient spaces between the marble he wants to move and the marble in front of it. If a player finds that he can not meet these conditions, he forfeits his turn.
	Special Note: Note: If a player has a marble on the corner and rolls a six (6), he may jump directly across to the next corner. (Note: Once landing on corner, he can not move his marble any more spaces; for this special case, jumping the corner constitutes moving the six [6] spaces indicated.)
	Winning the Game: To win the game, a player must successfully move all four of his marbles into play, advance them around the playing board, and return them to the “home” position, which is the middle row adjacent on the left to the holding area. The rule about not jumping one’s own pieces applies here, so the marbles must be moved into place, on the home row, in the order which they appear on the board. Once all four marbles are “home”, the player wins.

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First, as I took the portrait and scanned it, creating a digited version. To do this, I selected TWAIN from the GIMP menu (File…Acquire).

After the picture was scanned, I used Vidar Madsen’s method described in the GIMPy high pass filter sketch effect tutorial. Vidar shows you how to use the gaussian blur filter, merge opacity, desaturate the colors, then clean up the lines using desaturation. The results were ok, but nothing to write home about. I found a Photoshop plugin called Cleanup which might have made it more useable; however, I could not get it to work with the GIMP.

Next, decided to start from scratch and try to render the line art by hand by “tracing” it from the photo. Melissa Clifton wrote an excellent tutorial about this technique on her website. I created a blank layer (Layer…Duplicate Layer), set the opacity at 50% (Dialogs…Layer…Opacity slider bar), and started drawing using mostly the pencil brush to draw the graphic. Once the drawing was done, I had a little fun and colored it in, making look as though it came from a graphic novel.

I wasn’t happy with the initial results because the details of the face were very unrefined. For example, in my initial drawing, Pa looked like he had alien eyes, and his mouth was all wrong. Granny’s eyes were roughly drawn as well. To fix it, I erase the insides of the faces and started over again. The second time, I experimented with different brushes. For example, I found the pressure brush with a medium or small splatter point worked best for the details. I also took my time. The first go around, I finished in a couple of nights, but when I started over again, I went took approximately a month just to redo the faces. It was worth the wait, though, as I am much more pleased with the results.

All in all, I would consider this a pleasant experience. When I was very little, I remember sitting on my grandparents’ laps, touching their faces and looking into their eyes. Nothing short of having them back could replace that memory, but this was the next best thing. Staring at the photograph, I was able to capture all of the lines of wisdom, all of the smiles, all of the worries, all of the love that gave charactor to two people who will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Now, go enjoy your family and make the world a better place by working on some photo family memories of your own.
Your Fellow “Creative Genius ” ,
Texaiano

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When I was young, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, especially before I was old enough to go to school. Staying with Pa and Granny was the start of my love of photography. Since the family was spread out, Granny loved getting pictures, so much so that she put every single picture on her front wall. It was covered with pictures, most without frames. Granny used whatever was handy to pin or tack the pictures on the wall. I would sit and stare at the pictures and ask questions about the relatives, as well as seeking out the ones that I was in. It became a kind of game to see if I could point to the pictures and tell each person, where they lived and my relationship to them.

One year, Granny and Pa had their picture taken at one of the local photography studios. I don’t know how many pictures they bought for the family, but I do remember the framed 8X10 portrait that hung in the top left hand corner of the living room, between the gas heater and a small end table. I don’t have any good pictures of them so when I saw it hanging in a relative’s house, I asked if I could scan it. Now, here it is digitized for the world to enjoy.

How I cherish those times when I was a boy. I remember my Granny, a short farm woman, would get up every morning and make my Grandpa and me a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, buttermilk, orange juice, biscuits and gravy - for Pa, it was sweet-milk gravy (known to some people as Red-Eye gravy or white gravy), but for me, the house specialty - chocolate gravy! Yumm! It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

After breakfast, we would go outside and I would play while my grandparents did yard work. Granny and Pa, having moved to the “city” from the country, remained true to their upbringing and turned their yard into a veritable Eden. There were peach and apricot trees, rose bushes, green onion plants, holleyhocks, honeysuckle, grapes, and raspberry vines. When they moved to town, Pa brought along a large sandstone rock that he placed in his yard and filled every day with water for the cats. Sometimes they would sit on the porch and watch the cars go by while I made mudpies. I would take water from the rock and mix it with dirt in Granny’s old butter bowls which I would then put in the trees to “bake”. In the afternoon, we would all take a nap then go back outside for more playing and car watching. Sometimes Pa and I would go out back to his tool shed. I’m never sure what he did in there, because he never made anything that I remember, but he had a bunch of old tools and nails and stuff that he would arrange and clean. While he did that, I would play with my Tonka tractors. Once in a while, Granny would get out her “marble” board and dice and we would play a game of “Wahoo.” (The board wasn’t made of marble, rather it was made of wood and used to play a game of marbles.) In the evening, it was back to the porch for car watching, and sometimes a snack of cookies and milk or biscuits soaked in buttermilk.

I count myself to be the luckiest of the grandkids. My dad was the youngest in his family, so all of my cousins were older. My siblings, who came along after my Dad remarried, didn’t have very many years with Granny and Pa before Pa died and Granny’s alzheimers made her into a different person. I don’t know if any of the older cousins got to know then the same way that I did because they all lived in different towns and didn’t get so see them as much. My Grandpa had a heart problem that caused him to be hospitalized over Christmas vacation my freshman year in high school. Since I was old enough to stay with him and since I was out of school, I got to keep him company all week. I don’t think anyone else of my generation was ever able to spend such quality time with him.

Many pictures. Many memories. If you don’t have a good picture of your family, I encourage you to go get one. In the very least, get someone to take a snapshot. Years from now, your family will thank you for it.

Your Fellow “Creative Genius ” ,
-Texaiano

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A key step in producing many of these object’s d art is to reduce the photograph down to a black and white line drawing. Graphic editing programs, such as Adobe’s Photoshop, provides automated ways to do this; however, unless you’re willing to drop $700 for a legal copy of Photoshop, you may think you are out of luck. The truth is, you can achieve most of the same effects, including the photo-to-sketch function, using the GNU Image Manipulation program, or GIMP. With GIMP, you can manipulate colors, reduce noise, selectively cut and paste objects within a photograph, work in layers, shrink or enlarge your image, and export your photo in a variety of file formats. GIMP even runs most Photoshop functions. Combine GIMP with other free software, like ImageMagick, a tool that lets you quickly manipulate graphics files, and Inkscape, which lets you convert to/from vector graphics formats, and you have a fully functioning graphics suite.

You can find tutorials on GIMP.org detailing how to turn a photo into a sketch. The resulting sketch is, in my opinion, very busy when this method. A similar method on Spoono.com produces cleaner results, though still too many lines for my taste. I prefer to use the method described by Vidar Madsen in his GIMPy high pass filter sketch effect tutorial. Using this method produces a drawing that is clean and simple, though I have to admit that sometimes, I prefer the old fashioned way…I fire up GIMP, create a blank layer and trace my image to create the line art.

Depending upon your project, I am sure that all of these methods will produce satisfactory results for you. Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Until next time,
-Texaiano

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One of my readers suggested that I provide a resource list to help my subscribers obtain and learn how to use those programs, so here it is.

GIMP
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GIMP.ORG - The Official site for GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program. GIMP is a fully functional free graphic editing software with functionality similar to Adobe’s Photoshop(C), but without the price.
GIMP - Tutorials

GIMP - Books about GIMP

The Book: Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional … by Akkana Peck
The Book: Grokking the GIMP
This is an excellent resource, and the best thing is, you can download the entire book for free.
Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional

Mono Conversion workflow and editing

Inkscape
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Inkscape - a free graphic editing and drawing program which lets you create vector graphics and diagrams. You can also import existing photos or graphics and convert them into vector diagrams. Inkscape is similar to Adobe’s Photoshop(C)

Screenshots of Inkscape

Inkscape Documentation

Download Inkscape

FAQ - Inkscape Wiki

Inkscape - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to draw a diagram with Inkscape

ImageMagick
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ImageMagick - ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (about 100) …
ImageMagick: Downloads

ImageMagick: Command-line Tools

ImageMagick: Command-line Options

ImageMagick: Command-line Processing

ImageMagick v6 Examples

ImageMagick: Examples of ImageMagick Usage

ImageMagick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia Articles
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Photo manipulation

Image Editing

Vector Graphics

Scalable Vector Graphics or SVGs

Until next time,
-Texaiano

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You will feel great this Christmas when that special someone, “the Apple of your Eye”, opens his new iPhone; however, the big payoff for you will come when he realizes that there isn’t another one like it in the entire world. How could it be, you ask? After all, Apple has sold hundreds of iPhones since they hit the market back in August. The reason it could be is because you took the time to customize the iPhone gift with your own photos, art work, music and recordings before you wrapped it as a present.

Customization - Peel the Apple

For years, people have known that they can customize the ring tones on their cell phones by downloading clips of their favorite music files, and that they could enjoy personal photo albums on their mp3 players. For longer than that, people have been modifying their computers with their own personalized themes, background images and icons, but did you know that with the iPhone, where the computer, mp3 player and cell phone converge, you can do all that and more? Of course you did. That’s why you’re giving an iPhone as a gift; but why not take it one step further? Pull out that screen shot of your Paris Hilton spoof from YouTube, or the snapshot your son in his Transformers Halloween costume and turn them into customized icons. Take that picture of man’s best friend and turn it into a customized wallpaper. Record your children laughing, or that one-liner from your ongoing inside joke, maybe even the first few bars of your wedding song and turn it into a customized ring tone. Since iPhone has a web browser, you could even bookmark your sweetheart’s favorite sites, like your MySpace and Facebook pages, so that he could stay in touch easier.

Go on then. Just do it already!

So, are you psyched? Are you ready to do this? It promises to be more fun than a competetive round of ‘Dance, Dance, Revolution.’ Ok then, get to it. Click on the “2″ below to continue to page 2.

Part 2

Photo Album, MP3 collection, and Firefox Bookmarks

The first thing you want to do is to perform a full backup of the default configuration. You will also want to know that doing some of these customizations will void the warranty and that you will be unable to get support from Apple. Having taken all that into consideration, and being ready to deal with the consequences, the next thing you will want to do is to start uploading your personal photo album, mp3 and video collection. Use the iTunes interface to organize the files before you sycnhronize them to your iPhone. (If you need some suggestions, check out my playlist on FineTune.com.)

Now is also a good time to start the Firefox web browser and create bookmarks for your sweetheart’s favorite sites. (A saavy giver might even consider dropping hints for Valentine’s day or her birthday by bookmarking the website for her favorite Amazon.com seller, restaurant and florist, just so that all of the bases are covered.) The iPhone User Guide describes how to do all this, including how to turn them into custom wall papers. Keep in mind that if you select a large image to use as wallpaper, or if your image is “busy”, it will clutter up your interface, so be sure to optimize the image by shrinking it down and removing noisy elements of the picture before you turn it into wallpaper.

A Word of Caution - One Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch

Up to now, everything has been fairly straightforward. This final step is where it gets tricky…the “unsupported” part. Don’t worry, though. Everything is well documented on the internet. Again, just a reminder…if you haven’t done the backup, be sure to do so now. Also, remember that proceeding past this point could void your warranty. Scared yet? No? Ok. Let’s do it. Click on the “3″ below to go the final page of the article.

Part 3 - Conclusion

Sweet Music

For this part of the customization, you need to get a recording that you want use as a ringtone. Over at Lifehacker.com, they describe how to create an mp3 ring tone from a recorded file. If you are recording something yourself, be sure to keep it short. Likewise, if you are using a mp3 of your favorite Celine Dion song that you downloaded from the iTunes store, be sure to trim it down to a few bars. Smaller, shorter files are better when it comes to making ring tones.

Getting to the Core

Next, you will need to head on over to modmyiphone.com to get instructions on how to unlock your phone. Once the phone is unlocked, follow modmyiphone.com’s instructions on how to create a custom ring tone and do other customizations.

Keep the Change - or - NOT

The last step is to prevent iTunes from deleting the customized ringtones when you sync it.

There you have it - a one of a kind, remember me forever, thinking of you, customized iPhone.

One last thing. Remember that backup you did before you started? If you want to revert back, a process called “virgin-izing” your iPhone, you can restore from that backup image, a process described in the iPhone User Guide, or follow the method described on iphonegoboom.com.

Now that you have a one of a kind iPhone to give to that special someone, wrap it up quickly and put it under the tree before you decide to keep it for yourself.

Merry Christmas from your
Fellow “Creative Genius ” ,
Texaiano

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I heard this quote spoken by one of the speakers during the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference and just had to share it. One of the themes of Fotofamilymemories.com is building strong, happy memories. By rendering service to others, we create long lasting memories not only for ourselves, but also for those we serve. May your life be filled with many happy memories of service to your family and to your fellow man.

Until next time,
-Texaiano

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Have you ever seen a picture of someone with cheeks so cute that you just had to pinch them? Even though it might be a compliment, there’s not many people who enjoy having their cheeks pinched. So why not do the next best thing - create a polymer clay caricature. (No one will care if you pinch the clay cheeks.)

In coming posts, I will share some tips about how to create the perfect caricature. Until then, look at this adorable caricature that Nadège, author of the Creaprovence Blog, sculpted in polymer clay from a picture of her daughter.

See more pictures of the caricature on Nadège’s blog, at:

http://creaprovence.canalblog.com/archives/2007/03/04/4068359.html

On her blog, Nadège displays many other interesting designs and sculptures, as well as inovative polymer clay techinques, so be sure to check it out.

Now, go have some fun making your own photo family memories. -Texaiano

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Recently, Tim Vansant shared an old family snapshot taken years ago on his grandmother’s 75th birthday. What a great thing is it to have a snapshot of his grandmother, mother, and brothers and sisters to record such an auspicious occasion. The picture not only records that moment, but through the period dress of the subjects and background decor, the viewer of the photograph is transported back in time to epoch in which when the picture was taken.

Just as the Pyramids of Giza hold hidden treasures and stores of memories, so too does Tim’s family portrait. If you have a sharp eye, you will discover some hidden gems in the photograph which will help you to improve your own photography skills. For example, subjects 2, 4 and 5 seem to be looking off to the right, while subjects 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 are looking straight at the camera. In composing your photographs, try to engage everyone so that they are facing the same direction. (Tim doesn’t remember exactly what was going on, but he thinks it was probably his uncle distracting some of the people.)

Another hidden gem in this portrait is in the backdrop. It looks like everyone is gathered around Grandma’s chair. As a result, there is some furniture and papers present around the edges of the pictures. If time permits, and your models are willing to wait a few extra minutes, try to clear the area of debris and unused furniture. This eliminates anything that might detract for the people who are being photographed.

One final suggestion would be to add more light. An expensive lighting kit isn’t necessary. In an improv situation where the flash on the camera is insufficient, create some temporary studio lighting by taking a lamp and point the top of it (where the light comes out of the lampshade) towards the group. You may need to experiment a little, holding the light above the group, shining down on them, or bouncing the light off an adjacent wall so that it reflects onto them. You must take care not to create new shadows

I am very grateful that Tim was gracious enough to share this photograph with us for critique here. I hope you will find inspiration in this article to go out and create your own photo family memory (another great pyramid) while taking portraits of your loved ones.

If you have a photograph that you would like me to analyze, praise or otherwise talk up, and you think it would be useful to teach or inspire other people to create their own photo family memories, please send it to me at texaiano - at - gmail - dot - com. You can also start the ball rolling by dropping me a note.

Now, go enjoy your family and make the world a better place by working on some photo family memories of your own.

Your Fellow “Creative Genius ” ,
Texaiano

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——————————————————————————————————-
21:15
Child 1 - Dad. When is it going to start?
Child 2 - Daddy, hold me.
Child 3 - I can’t see anything.
Me - Be patient
My Wife - Get a blanket and go set down on that hill over there so you can see it when they start.

21:20
Child 1 - This is dumb! Nothing is happening!
Child 2 - Daddy, I’m bored.
Child 3 - I’m hungry.

21:30
Me - It should start soon.
Child 1 - This is dumb! I’m bored!
Child 2 - Daddy, hold me.

21:35
Me - Look! I just saw one!
All Children - Where?!?!
Me - Over there. By that tree.

21:40
Child 1 - This is dumb! I didn’t see it and nothing is happening. I want to go home. This is boring!!
Child 3 - I’m hungry
Mom - Here, have a goldfish cracker.

21:45
Child 1 - Daa-DEE! I hate this. I’m bored and the dumb bugs are biting me. Nothing IS happening. I don’t like it here. I want to go home.
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Get the picture? It was a real pleasant experience - NOT! That is, until about 22:10, when they finally did start the fireworks display. Then, child one said “Now, this is more like it. This is what I came to see.” Child 2 came to stand by me and child 1, and child 3 stood inside of the car next to her mother watching the fireworks. Ah finally! All of the children were finally united in purpose with their parents and were enjoying the fireworks display. Through out the experience, I learned that patience pays off in the long run. We were able to enjoy a 30 minute long colorful pyrotechnic tribute to our homeland, as the “rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air” truely “gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”

Aside from learning that patience pays off in the end, there was another lesson that I learned at the city’s Fourth of July fireworks exhibition.

We were parked in front of a group of Chicanos. They could have been from Puerto Rico, Spain or Central or South America, but chances are that they were Mexicans. The whole time we were waiting, they were chatting and laughing in Spanish and I was beginning to get very offended. After all, we were there to celebrate the birthday of our great (English speaking) nation, yet they were insistent upon speaking their own (foreign) language. “How rude!” I thought to myself, remembering the rule that I myself followed while I lived in Brazil which stated that it was rude to speak your native language while in the presence of those who didn’t understand it, even when amongst one’s own group. Not only could most people around me (presumably) not understand Spanish, but with all of the recent immigration debates in Congress and local controversy over the adoption of English as the official language of the neighboring city Farmer’s Branch, it especially insensitive to do this at an event meant to celebrate the United States. I managed to repress my disdain throughout all of the pyrotechnics and was getting ready to leave after the finally when I heard something surprising coming from the Chicano’s side of the street. They started chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” (futebol style) I must say that I was rather embarrassed for having taken offense to the group’s choice of languages.

Tonight was actually July 4th (United States Independence Day) and there was another fireworks display in a community right down the road from here. The turnout for that event was enormous and represented all walks of life. There were people from the rich side of town, and people from the apartments near the park where the display was held. There was tall, short, fat and skinny, but everyone there was an American….or at least an American at heart. To illustrate my point…we were parked behind a family who looked Chinese, and as we were leaving the parking lot, we passed Chicanos, Indians and Muslims. Yes, people of every kind turned out to celebrate the birth of our great nation. Some of the people might be perceived by some shortsighted patriots as our enemies. Some of the citizenry might take offense to some of those in attendance because of their frustrations with recent political developments. Nonetheless, when all is said and done, everyone in attendance tonight was there for the same reason…to celebrate our country…to celebrate being Americans.

I consider myself to be an open minded and thoughtful person. I speak four languages, and have traveled outside of my country. I have many friends from diverse corners of the world, carefully follow many political issues, and yet, despite all that, even I, as illustrated above, can fall into the trap of not trusting others based solely on how they talk. With all they struggles going on in the world, the same spirit that made this country strong requires us all to remember that “United we stand and divided we fall.”

May we all be united in our families and communities so that we can be strong as a country living peaceably in the world.

-Texaiano

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Some people do not have a father, but honor that someone who was the “father figure” in their life, such as an uncle or grandfather. Some fathers have great relationships with their children and keep their experiences and opinions as an open book to enhance their family’s lives, while other men tend to be stoic and closed off, feeling that, though they love their children, it’s more of the mother’s place to talk about all that “touchy-feely” stuff. To those of you whose Dad is in the latter category, you have your work cut out for you, but might I suggest that when you call or go see your Dad this Father’s Day that you take a little extra time to visit and really get to know him?

Depending on if your father is the first guy or the last guy that I described, starting the dialog may not be easy, but don’t sweat it. Just start out by asking how week was, or start talking about the latest sporting event. (HINT: The NBA finals were this week. Find out who he was rooting for.) Once you start talking, just go from there. Hopefully, this will be the first of many talks with your dad

While your are with your dad, ask things about him that you don’t know such as him tick and what makes him the man that he is. Treat this opportunity as if you were a reporter who was granted a once in a lifetime, one-on-one interview a famous person. You don’t have to be Jimmy Olson sitting there with a pen and pencil jotting down everything that comes out of his mouth. Just take good mental notes.

Here are some ideas about what questions to ask:

While you are there with Dad, ask yourself if you have a recent picture of you with your dad. What about pictures of your dad when he was a child? This is the perfect photo-op to break out the camera and record a memory. Speaking of recording, you can also tape or video tape “interview”. Pictures are great but having your Dad’s voice recorded or even a “moving picture” of him will be priceless years after he is gone.

I myself have a good relationship with my father, and especially now that I am grown and have a family of my own, I enjoy talking with him and hearing him talk about his life. (Imagine that!) Nonetheless, almost every time I talk to my dad on the phone, I learn something new about his life. This Father’s Day, I too am going to make a special effort to fill in some of those missing details of my Dad’s life.

Until next time,
-Texaiano

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The folks over at FamilyFun.com have some crafty and creative photo gifts that will show Dad how much you really care.

Check ‘em out!

Father’s Day Photo Craft ideas from FamilyFun.com include:

Be sure to head on over to FamilyFun.com for more ideas.

Now, go make some photo family memories. -Texaiano

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One cool feature that I wanted to highlight is the ”
What’s Your Family Photo IQ?” quiz, which tests, among other things, your knowledge about the best time to photograph a baby, light sources, the best focal points when doing a close up of someone’s face and the use of props and backgrounds. Take the quiz and and find out if you are a photographic genius (scores 18-21 points on the quiz), or if you need to brush up on your craft. (HINT: If score below 18 and are in that last category, a good way to learn new photography skills is to subscribe to my RSS feed, that way, I can constantly update you with new ideas and te