Snap Shots by Hand

Like a Man carrying a hidden camera I have worked for the past five years to get quick snap shots of the people and places around me and it has payed off for me.

Drawing someone can be less conspicuous and very obvious at the same time.  However, it is more acceptable than walking around with a camera.  It can also be much more personal in its' results.  LOL - sometimes I feel like the tiny animal inside the stone cameras from the Flinstones cartoon.  Furiously chiseling a picture on a flat piece of stone.

Most of the time I have an average of five to ten minutes to get the drawings done since the person will get off the bus.  So I concentrate on the emotion of the scene.  That too is often easy - what with it being early morning or late evening - most of the people I draw are sleeping or off in their own world.

For this entire next month of August those five years of sketches will be on display at the Transit Center, downtown Rochester NY.  I will be taking the 3rd off to go down there and set up the display and to meet with several people about the show.  Please take some time to come to the Transit Center and check it out.  I will however be talking about the show from time to time over the next month.

National Order of the Arrow Conference or (NOAC)

So I was asked to draw up some patch designs for the local BSA OA contingent that was going to this summers national conference for OA or NOAC.  Having designed the patches for the last National Jamboree I learned a few things that I applied to designing these new ones.

Of course there were rules that had to be followed, but beyond that I could have some fun.  As anyone in Scouting knows patches do depict something about the scout or the troop or OA, but they are also for trading and selling.  What trades the best are pop related themes.

But what relates to the local chapter mascot a white deer  that hasn't already been done.  It took me a week to come up with one.  The Patronis spell of Harry Potter.  It was a perfect fit.  I pitched it the the boys and they loved the idea.  However the next step was to depict it is a way that it was obvious yet did not require a bunch of paperwork to get permission to use it.  That came about with this patch design above.  A scout with round glasses in silhouette holding a smoldering stick from a camp fire.  Behind him swirling up is the smoke forming a white deer and in the background.  On each tent is a silhouette of the two earlier mascots for this area, the turtle and grey wolf.  And finally, in the background, instead of Hogwarts, there is the silhouette of the Rochester NY Armoury.  This became the "Contingent" patch.  The artwork above was the design and the photo below is the final piece.

They then asked me to come up with two other patches for them to vote on.  The one below with a dementor being attacked by the white deer, more closely allied with Harry Potter.

Which they had created as such

And one that was a bit more whimsical that I designed as such

And they produced as such

As you can see they decided that they wanted all 3.  Two strictly for trading and selling and the first one as their primary one.  In all there were four sets made

The primary one in both gold and red border.   The Gold for them to wear to NOAC and the red to sell or trade and then the other 2.  I was flattered and, again I learned something new to take away with me when I design more in the future.  All in all it was a lot of fun.