The Daily Grump: The Patented ‘Selebi Stroke Stare’

by Roy Blumenthal on December 6, 2011

Jackie Selebi supposedly had a stroke when he heard that his appeal against his fifteen year conviction had fallen on deaf Supreme Court ears. 61 years old. The ex top police post in South Africa. He took bribes. Big bribes. And he went down for it.

Share

{ 0 comments }

A while back, I tweeted about one of the ways I make sure my creative ideas don’t end up bubbling down the drain.

The technique involves sticking white, self-adhesive, shelf-wrap onto the shower wall, and suction-cupping a pencil to the apparatus.

When inspiration strikes under the water stream, I simply pop the pencil into action, and write the idea on the wall.

Pencil works brilliantly on plastic, and it’s excellent in both wet and dry conditions. What’s more, shelf-wrap allows you to erase old stuff easily using a normal rubber eraser.

The tweet tickled the imagination of Debby Edelstein (@DebbyEdelstein), editor of THE WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP JOURNAL.

She asked me to take a photo of my shower setup, and asked if she could feature my idea in her journal.

I couldn’t resist the idea of my shower appearing naked in a women’s journal. So of course, I said yes.

Find the July 2011 edition online at http://www.qualitylife.co.za/newsletters/newsletter_july.html.

Share

{ 0 comments }

Picasso and Matisse Doodled Here

by Roy Blumenthal on May 1, 2011

My first painting using my new Fujitsu T900.

Just a note on how I actually GOT the Fujitsu… I scoured the web for retailers who would be able to give me the highest specced version of the machine. I found literally NOBODY in South Africa prepared to go the extra mile. Except for ONE online shop.

WebAntics, helmed by Greig Orrell, answered my email query within hours, and said he’d investigate. A day or so later, he sent me the spec of the machine he was able to specially source for me. And it’s truly the highest specced tablet pc on the market today.

If you’re a painting professional, and you need a high-end machine, I highly recommend getting hold of Greig and ordering this exact machine. I asked him if he’d be able to bring in another one, and he said his supplier is happy to do so.

Just so you know, I get NO discounts or special favours from WebAntics. I’m a regular customer. And I’m not affiliated with him in any way. I simply believe that great service must be spoken about.

This pic was painted in ArtRage Studio Pro 3. It started out as a simple line-thickness test, to make sure that I’d managed to get pressure-sensitivity working. I noticed that the black swirls looked a tiny bit face-like. So I added a few strokes and added a watercolour background.

I’m very happy to be working on such a powerful machine. It’s blisteringly fast. And handles ArtRage superbly. I’m a happy fellow.

Share

{ 0 comments }

Stafford Masie delivering a tech talk at the InoVatio Distribution conference

April 11, 2011

@StaffordMasie (delivering a tech talk at the @InoVatioDistrib conference), originally uploaded by royblumenthal. Stafford Masie used to be the head dude at Google South Africa. (Yeah… you can google him.) He talked to Inovatio‘s channel partners about the direction technology is taking us in the near future. The key takeout from his talk is this… [...]

Read the full article →

Boxing Clever — a WinWin Group conference for Unilever

February 18, 2011

Boxing Clever — a WinWin Group conference for Unilever, originally uploaded by royblumenthal. Thanks to the genius of David and Steve at the WinWin Group, Unilever had what must rank as one of the most exciting and DIFFERENT conferences ever! My role on the production was to provide visual facilitation for Gary McGaghey. This pic [...]

Read the full article →

What’s happening in the brain when you watch a Visual Facilitation? Tom Wujec gives us the answer.

December 23, 2010

Many people ask me whether or not visual facilitation is distracting to delegates. The short answer is a loud and emphatic, ‘NO!!!’ The long answer is probably best addressed by Tom Wujec from Autodesk, delivering a TEDTalk in February 2009: In a nutshell, he shows us how information entering the eye is processed ACTIVELY by [...]

Read the full article →

The Role of Creativity in Visual Facilitation, and Whether Doing It Digitally Makes It More Creative

December 23, 2010

A friend has been conversing with me in email about the practicalities of graphic facilitation. One of his questions was this: ‘Does the digital aspect enhance the visual facilitator’s creativity?’ I suspect this answer will vary between different practitioners. I’ll dodge and enhance the question by changing its terms of reference… Digital Works For Me… [...]

Read the full article →

Is Visual Facilitation enhanced by using digital tools?

December 23, 2010

A friend of mine recently asked me whether a tablet pc enhances the visual facilitation/graphic facilitation experience for delegates. There are two ways of doing visual facilitation… digitally (on a tablet pc, or using a Wacom tablet), or analog (using paper and pen). I work almost exclusively on my tablet pc, and I have many [...]

Read the full article →

Doodle Using ‘SketchBook Mobile Express’ For Android

December 21, 2010

Doodle Using ‘SketchBook Mobile Express’ For Android, originally uploaded by royblumenthal. I’ve been yearning for a decent drawing app for my Android phone (I have an HTC DESIRE). MAGIC DOODLE was the closest I was able to get to actually USING the phone for drawing. But it had too many drawbacks for it to become [...]

Read the full article →

Jennifer Mosaic — Made Using Free Foto-Mosaik-Edda

December 13, 2010

Jennifer Mosaic — Made Using Free Foto-Mosaik-Edda, originally uploaded by royblumenthal. Pretty damn impressive free software! Makes a database of all the pictures you want to include in your mosaics. Then assembles them to create a picture out of your source pic. Fricking amazing. http://www.sixdots.de/mosaik/en/.

Read the full article →