What’s a better message for the holidays than Christopher Walken, trapped in a snow globe, talking about the end of the world?

What started as an out take from a voice over session with Jesse Luce transformed into an apocalyptic riff on the holidays in the key of Walken.

The illustration was made on an iPad with the app Sketch Club and animated in After Effects using the puppet tool and the plugins Auto lip sync and Particular.

Starring Jesse Luce as Christpher Walken guerrillasound.com

Caricature of Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day. Doodled on an iPad using the app Sketchclub.

My latest iPad sketch. There is something about Green Day that just comforts me. Their music is definitely not what hard core punk fans would categorize as punk, but for pop music it has a great energy and attitude. I’ve been a fan for a long time and with the release of their new albums “Uno” and “Dos” I find myself going back through their catalog. And it is good.

I got to see them live during the 21st Century Breakdown tour in Edmonton and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to. Billy Joe is an amazing front man. The audience at the show was pretty young. I’m sure many weren’t even alive when “Dookie” came out.

Sometimes moments like that make me feel old and I wonder if I should let my music tastes mature. Then I remember Billy Joe and I are the same age so if he can rage and snarl like an angry teenager why can’t I? Boo ya!

“Let Your Roots Show” Pyrography on Pine 7×7. An original woodburning inspired by a digital composition I made with an iPhone.

There are all sorts of ways to come up with ideas for a composition. Part of why I chose the name Uberdoodles was because I tend to mix and match at my discretion. For the past year or so, digital doodling on the iPhone and iPad has taken a greater focus than woodburning. Even though I know a lot of folks appreciate my pyrography, I make no apologies for following a different stream of creative thought. Sometimes an artist needs to allow his voice to come out as it wishes, not as he wants it to.

A little while back the woodburning voice finally called out! “Let Your Roots Show” has quickly become one of my favorite works. I’ve long wanted to allow my work to be more gestural and stylised, but I tend to migrate toward technical precision. That’s where doodling on the iPhone has really helped my art. Working with a finger tip or stylus in a free form environment, but also having the safety net of the all powerful undo option has really freed me up.

And what’s more, this was kind of a unique creative process for me as it was fleshed out entirely digitally. Usually I sketch out ideas in pencil then bring them to the computer to clean up and refine before going to the pyrography. In this case I started out on the iPhone, playing with photographs and the apps “Tiny Planet Photos” and “Sketchclub”.

Macro photo of some pyrography detail used to make the Tiny Planet

Tiny Planet effect applied to a macro photograph of some pyrography art.

I was happy with the result, but to my surprise it became my most liked image on Instagram. I let it sit there for several months until one day I wondered what it would look like as pyrography.

The original digital composition combining photographs, pyrography, sketching and iPhone apps. It still remains the most liked image I’ve made on Instagram.

I seized the moment and started immediately, foregoing the usual process of printing out a sized out image then using graphite transfer paper to trace a loose form of the image. Instead I did a light pencil sketch of the main shape, then went in burning hot. I’m very pleased with the result and the process. I hope this has turned a significant corner for my pyrography. Excelsior!

This is the latest Instagram collaboration the love of my life. It was a very fun exchange that started with me sending Quinn a simple livesketch doodle and then going back and forth until we were both satisfied with the result!

How We Did It!

Below are some of our other ubermightysparkledoodles!

“Heisenberg” Portrait of Bryan Cranston from the TV series Breaking Bad made with an iPad using SketchClub.

I’m a huge fan of the epic TV series Breaking Bad and the story of Walter H. White has infiltrated my Instagram iDoodling. For each new episode this season I’m making (at least) one new doodle the Sunday it airs.

I’m mostly using the app Sketchclub and drawing using a stylus on the iPad. The style is random and usual reflects whatever spirit moves me that day!

If I’ve installed the plugin correctly, this page should auto-update each time I upload a new image to Instagram.

Enjoy!

The majority of my personal projects have been executed on the iPhone these days and Instagram has become the home to my work. The convenience and interaction with the community there has made it a no brainer for me. I’ll continue to update the site when I can (I’ve been having all sorts of problems with WordPress and my host), but the most regular updates can be found on IG. You can find me there by searching for uberdoodles.

Excelsior!

Speed skate carved out of snow

Saturday morning I took in the 25 km Speed Skating Marathon at the 2012 Silver Skate Festival at Hawrelak Park in Edmonton, Alberta.

I wanted to get some tight action shots so I put on the 70-300mm telephoto.

I expected the skaters to be going much faster, but being a marathon on a lake with less than even ice, the pace was fairly slow. This was just as well because zoomed out to 300mm it was a challenge to capture the action.

Welcome

A photographer across the lake captures the start of the race

Coming around the corner at the Silver Skate 25km Marathon

The leaders in the race formed a pack and took turns taking the lead so others could draft.

Fan

The ice on the lake at Hawrelak Park

Ice Pack

Skating under the sun at Hawrelak Park

Skater silhouette

Skate in the City

Duo

Skate with a smile

Time

Ice Crack

Outside the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton.

I spent Saturday morning at the Alberta Aviation Museum with Images Alberta Camera Club. Despite knowing very little about them I’ve always enjoyed looking at air crafts so I was really looking forward to this outing.

Hanger in Hdr. This would've been a great place to put a single air craft.

In the end I focused mostly on details and HDR. Getting a close look at the engines with a fisheye lens also makes some of the geometric shapes just a little weird.

Hope you enjoy.