Shizucor Blog

Shizucor has moved!

Khorin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:16:50 +0000

Shizucor is now powered completely by Viviti — a fresh content management system in beta. Creating a theme, adding and editing new content has gotten way easier!

I would use the domain shizucor.com for this new site but there are two websites hosted under it. Instead I got a free domain from co.cc. So, visit http://shizucor.co.cc to see the new site’s look. Because of Viviti, I’ll be blogging more regularly now — more than once a week that’s for sure. If you’re interested in trying Viviti, let me know and I’ll send you an invite.

Weekend Inspiration: Chocolate Mail

Khorin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:17:36 +0000

Chocolate Mail stamps are not edible but it’s at least tasty when you lick them. Toby Ng designed stamps that look like a bar of chocolate. They come in three different flavors: Dark, Milk & White. Personally, I’d go for the Dark Chocolate. MMMMM

See more of Toby Ng’s work in his website.

The Nude Number One

Khorin — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:41:15 +0000

See it at deviantART.

September 2008
Graphite on Paper
Photoshop CS3
Typeface: Delicious Heavy
Paper Image: imageafter.com

This is the first of my “The Nude” Series. Expect the next to have more visuals.

I started with a drawing using a photo from “Anatomy For The Artist” as the source. I thought to myself, “I can do something more with this!” I was only planning on doing one but then I decided to play around with different typefaces, textures, and illustrations. Such fun!

What will stay consistent is the quote “The nude are bold/ the nude are sly” which is from Robert Graves’ poem “The Nude and the Naked”.

Weekend Inspiration: Sam Friedman

Khorin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:25:28 +0000

Sam Friedman’s “Words” is a collection of hand lettered words, names, and quotes. They are absolutely breathtaking. I really wish I could do this. Every time I see exquisite hand lettering the more I want to do it myself! If you visit his website, you will also find artwork.

via fffffound

Weekend Inspiration: Power to the Poster

Khorin — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:44:46 +0000

From the website:

A graphic design
democracy project.

There is a restless, hopeful movement with eyes set on new possibilities for change leading to the prosperity of the collective. And, of course, there is the clutter-ridden madness of a constant control room information flow.

Power To The Poster is the former taken to dismantling the latter.

This website is for people to use a ready supply of well-designed, wild postings that comment on the issues of our time. These 11×17, B/W posters in PDF format are for anyone, anywhere to download, print and post.

I’m going to post these all over the tiny little town of Wagener, SC. Let’s see how many people I upset.

found via The Best Designs

Weekend Inspiration: French Paper and Me

Khorin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:29:57 +0000

I got these from French Paper:

These were designed by Charles S. Anderson Design. The papers are excellent and high quality! Plus, French was kind enough to send me 10 large sheets of Speckletone paper. What am I going to do with them?!

Anyway, I’m definitely buying from them for my paper needs. You can view more designs printed on their paper at French Paper’s Sample Room. Beautiful stuff!

Currently Reading…

Khorin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:34:01 +0000

I love to read but I find I don’t do it as much as I’d like to. At least I’m surrounded with so many options that I can’t get bored of reading. As the cliche goes, “Variety is the spice of life.” Plus, I’ve found a wonderful book swapping service at BookMooch. It’s a free service BUT you have to pay the price of postage to send a book to a Moocher. When you’re collection of books is overflowing you can add those books to your inventory. When someone Mooches from you, you get one credit so you can Mooch a book you’ve been wanting to read. It’s proving to be a wonderful service. I’ve already Mooched 10 books! If you join, take a look at my inventory!

Anyway, on to my current reading list!
Naruto Manga
Holy fillers Batman! I’m so tired of watching the anime that I turn to the manga for a more fast paced, to the point plot movement. It’s getting really interesting with all the twists appearing out of nowhere. Sasuke’s brother did WHAT?

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The language is sometimes hard to comprehend but otherwise it’s a good read. Getting into the heads of several different characters makes the book interesting.

The Inferno — Dante’s immortal drama of a journey through hell Translated by John Ciardi

Waiting on: Kushiel’s Justice & Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
The “Imriel Trilogy” is getting really good. I’ve read the first two chapters of “Justice” on Carey’s official website but I need more!

Do you like/love to read? If so, what do you enjoy reading the most?

New Painting

Khorin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:46:44 +0000

This is more of a study on skin color. I don’t know if I was successful with this. The color seems unnatural to me. I got this done a lot faster than my first digital painting but because I have other needs to fulfill, it took me a long time to finish. Plus, I’m a slow when it comes to learning something new. As you can see, I didn’t focus on the hair all that well. That shall be my next painting study! In the end, I’m quite proud of this.

(Note: A photo reference was used)

I forgot IE7!

Khorin — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:07:30 +0000

~~OOPS~~

~~I got way ahead of myself. I’m completely aware that the site doesn’t look quite right on Internet Explorer 7 so I’ll have that fixed as soon as I can which will be awhile.~~ I’ve got two — no four websites to work on now. @_@

I’ve decided not to fix the IE6 problems. Sorry, it’s time to upgrade to IE7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. So many choices!

New Design Finally Complete

Khorin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:03:29 +0000

Or is it?

I actually had the time today to finally finish up Shizucor.com. Boy what a relief it is! I’ve changed the “About” page content as well as added new work samples. I also created an “Asides” page to house my Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, and del.icio.us feeds. Everything is looking good to me but I’m open to critiques; so please, let me know what you think!

There are still things I need to…

beautify contact and add comment forms.
create a better contact form with captcha — any suggestions/tips are appreciated.
make the “Work” page more consistent.
add a “sidebar” for the blog.

Easy stuff but I’m done messing with my site for now.

I wish I had time to blog more often; however, I’m not going into why I don’t blog much because I’ve already talked about that. :)

In other news, I’ve been super busy in the past month with website projects and digital painting practice. The one project I’m really excited about is a website for a creative group I belong to called “Cerebellum Squeeze”. It’s a group in Charlotte where the goal is to get as much creatives together to go out and do inspiration generating activities like sketch and gallery crawls and art classes. Anyway, I was more than happy to make a blog with a gallery to share our creative endeavors. Below is a sneak peak of the design.

I’m glad to say the design is coming along swimmingly. I hope to have it done by the end of next week. By the way, if you’re in the Charlotte, NC area visit our website to get information on upcoming events if you’re interested in joining us.

Unfortunately, it’s 2AM in the morning and I’ve got a busy day ahead of me. So, I must end this entry now with a link to a brand new addition to the Freelance Switch family: NETTUTS. It’s a tutorial site for all things web development. The most current article is actually tied to a tutorial found in PSDTUTS.
Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from Scratch to Build a Sleek Portfolio Site from Scratch

Enjoy and take care everyone!