Friday, February 18, 2011

AutoDoodles

At home, I carry a small spiral notebook around with me quite a bit. I jot down my thoughts and ideas in it, which helps me remember things I need to buy, ideas for home improvements, and just general things to improve our lives. I also carry it to evening classes and meetings I attend, which allows me to do the above. The side benefit is that I get to doodle in the boring moments that typically happen any place I go - what else would I do while my oil is being changed at the dealer?

So here, for the first time ever, I am sharing some of the doodles I have in those spiral notebooks. A favorite doodle of mine is cars. I have drawing cars since I was about 9, and while I wouldn't want to make a career of it, it is a fun thing to do to pass the time.


From the drawings you'll see that sports cars and convertibles are drawn often. This is not necessarily because they are "cool" cars (whatever that means), but because they allow the drawer the most freedom. With sedans and trucks and SUVs (which are just tall station wagons), there are a lot of "must hit" points that limit the freedom of design. With sports cars, two doors and four wheels are the only requirements.

But I do draw sedans too. Here's one, with a coupe and a hot rod. Guess the coupe is my favorite out of the three. I think what sparked my interest in drawing cars was the discovery of CarTOONs magazine when I was about 9, a bi-monthly mag that was devoted to artists drawing cars. We lived on an Air Force base at the time, so that mag sold well to the single airmen on base. I would purchase one any time I went to the BX.



More of a quick sketch of a commuter car. I can't tell if I ran out of time, or decided I didn't like it enough to finish. It was coming out kind of frumpy anyway.




Another coupe, with headlights, etc running up the fenders to the base of the windshield. I predict this is going to be the decade of wild lighting designs on cars, with LEDs taking off and being small enough to do a myriad of new things. I also really like big flashy wheels, as you can see from the drawings. Tiny wheels make a car look like an elephant on rollerskates.



A sedan, economy car, and a pickup.
Economy car is my favorite of the three, with a industrial exposed-infrastructure look to the lower door area.










Don't car much for the front and rear views, but the 40s throwback at the bottom came out well. I don't relate well to pre-1960s era cars since I didn't see many when I was growing up, but some of the designs are still appealing.



And one more sports car to round out the bunch.











Random Doodles


And just to show that I do doodle other things, here is a bright cheery sun to liven the day.








A camera, which matches nicely to the home security system I was designing in the diagram below.









Here is a diagram of our northern California vacation that we took in the summer of 2009. It covers visits to San Francisco, Concours d'Elegance in Carmel, Fort Bragg, the redwoods, our son in Chico, my father in Lincoln, and a much needed tour of the wineries in Napa.









And sometimes, the doodles are of nothing at all.


Doodling A House


Another favorite thing of mine to doodle is buildings. Apparently, recently I've limited that to doodles of our house. At least, the outside of it.











Here's another rough sketch of it. I don't doodle buildings as much as I used to, they've kind of fallen out of favor with me for some reason.









We've been considering putting in a pool, so the real focus of many drawings of the house has been pool options. Here's one with the pool on the left side of the yard, with a hot tub on the left bottom edge and a fountain on the left top edge.




A circular design I considered, with a patio on the left, a hot tub top center, and the pool area on the right.













Monday, February 14, 2011

Troy Pics


Time for more Troy pics! About a week ago, I wandered out front with the camera to take pictures of Lucy's new car. Troy and Marcy followed me, so I took that opportunity to get a few shots of Troy.










He's out in front of our house, enjoying a 70 degree San Diego winter day.

















We bought this blue parrot whistle when our boys, David and Ron, were little. You blow in one end and adjust a lever on the other end, which changes the pitch of the whistle. It is a very fun toy - but can get very annoying if done for too long.


Luckily, Troy can't blow that hard yet so he can play with it until his heart's content. One day when he's got more wind, the toy will mysteriously disappear. As it did when our boys were little. lol


















































































My favorite photo from that day.


















Troy, surveying his kingdom.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Troy Videos

David, Lucy and Troy came over Friday and I was able to get a bit of video of Troy and Marcy. Enjoy!










and even a video of Just Marcy:

HTC Evo Shift

I left my old cell phone in the truck one very cold night, and after that the battery would drain in about six hours. Instead of getting a new battery, I started looked closer at the new cell phones since it was about time for my wife to get a new one also (hers is so old it doesn't have a qwerty pad). We ended up with two HTC Evo Shifts, which have been out since the beginning of January. We love these phones so far! Having full access to the internet anywhere at any time is fabulous!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Lucy's New Car: 2006 Rendezvous

 David and Lucy went car shopping this week and came home with a real winner: a 2006 Rendezvous. It is really the perfect car for their young family, and they picked a gorgeous one. It looks great, holds all their kid-oriented stuff, and is makes getting Troy in and out very easy.
 They traded David's 2004 G35 in for it, which was another smart move. While David's car was very nice, it wasn't very practical for a young family. By the way, that's Troy and Marcy in the background. When they saw me heading out the door with the camera, they were right on my heels.
So Lucy will drive this beauty, and David will drive her old Honda until he figures out what he wants to drive. Congrats, kids! Very good decision!