archipelago, peregrine, bully pulpit and foist

By the way, we recently finished the first draft of a major project at work, and I was wondering if I could get some of you to take a look and maybe do some beta testing for us. Nothing too intensive, I promise, just play through the module and then email me your thoughts.

So what is this project? An Opera. kind of. Well, "an interactive animation to teach children about Opera" is probably a better way of putting it. Basically, you are made director of a 12 minute production of "Hansel and Gretel", and you get to make all manner of decisions about how it looks and operates.

If your wondering, I was the illustrator, the animator and one of the programmers on this project. So if I sound a little boastful its only because this thing was my baby for the last couple months. But I definitely couldn't have done it without everyone else at zumwinkle.com

So, without further ado, go check out Design your own Opera. Then if you have a minute let me know what you think at mikebilz (at) yahoo.com, or just leave a comment here on the blog. Thanks.

spiel, catbird seat

I always though it was "schpiel", but I realize upon typing it that that is far to many consonants in a row to be right.

Lame? Perhaps. Oh, and if anyone out there in the ol' interwebs is counting, these are the 200th and 201st sketches I've completed for this crazy experiment. Quite possibly the longest I have ever actually stuck to New Year's Resolution in my life.

eccentric, kangaroo court

gadfly...

Masquerade, you say?

Indeed, the secret project I mentioned earlier was in fact costumes and masks for a Masquerade. Specifically The Labyrinth of Jareth masquerade ball, and it was bitchin. Imagine a few hundred punks, goths and renaissance faire enthusiasts all got together to hang out in fancy costumes, and your halfway there.

So the sketch above was by costume concept, and somehow my girlfriend made it happen. On top of making her own dress no less. Check it out:

A detail shot of us in the masks

So my contribution to this whole undertaking was the masks. I think they came out pretty good for only spending a couple days on them. The whole look and design of the costumes was inspired by crows, so i took that into the masks as well. I figure we did a pretty good job overall, since people we didn't know were asking to take our picture. I'd say that in general thats a pretty good sign your costume kicks ass.

By the way, I owe you all some sketches. Please enjoy:

(don't know if I properly conveyed the sense of force I was hoping for)

devolve, cowcatcher, verdant ...

excuses will be forthcoming...

jehu, exculpatory, nictitate, stanch, abstain, parable, fecund, olla podrida, boycott, supersede

So, lets just say I've had a very interesting and active few days, into who's exploits I will delve further when I post todays word sometime this evening. I'll also be posting images from an awesome secret project I was working on with my girlfriend. Okay, not exactly secret, but a project none the less. Till then, enjoy this week-and-a-half's worth of overdue sketches.

lampoon, belvedere, canicular, and atrabilious

dolorous, regale and irascible

This ones for the ladies, ah yeah. Sammiches.