Contemporary Character Design and Art

"Enter the playground" ... these words beckon at Pictoplasma's friendly, colorful and interactive "Colour Me! Playground", where one can scribble and doodle the day away (after signing up).

Once you get past all the "Enter" screens, the friendly CMYK colors greet you with their uber-modern cheer, and sound effects make the drawing experience all the more... well, colorful.

Color Your World (Cool Tool)

For those who need a little extra inspiration to start your creative day, check out this Daily Color Scheme beta. If every programmer who ever designed a web site took a look at this first, then perhaps the world wide web might be a prettier place.

Bookmark the schemes, download them (in multiple formats, including Illustrator, Photoshop, cascading style sheets, and HTML files), or simply copy the RGB/HSB/hex values, saving hours of precious gaming time. Available, are schemes such as "Propaganda USSR", "Grunge School", "Facing Automation", "Cable Services", and oh so many more!

Blue Cake and other Homemade Delectables

I am now officially counting down the days until the Carp Farmers' Market opens its gates once again, to the culinary (read: baking) challenged... those of us making the pilgrimage are hoping to fill our long-emptied pantries with delectable homemade goodies and home. That blessed day is now less than a month away. I've marked it off in my calender, with a 3-day reminder, just in case.

Among my many favorites, is an artful cake maker who aptly calls herself, "The Girl with the Most Cake". Her works are eye-catching, colourful and exotic creations, showcased in an old-fashioned glass case, set up on top of a table. There are usually crowds around her stall as people line up to see her unusual designs. They are quite fantastic, indeed, and of course, they are quite delicious.

Let Your Eyes Play Tricks

We've all seen those optical illusion books. In fact, many of the "quivering-edged" dots (that aren't really quivering at all) and other such trickster imagery have found their way online. But--have you seen the interactive version yet? If not, be sure to view Arthur Shapiro's crazy collection of psychadelic, mind-altering visuals. Here's the linky link.

The Language of Color

"The Color Purple", "out of the blue", "caught red-handed", "Orange Crush", "yellow-bellied"... colour is important to us humans, so much so, that we incorporate it into our everyday dialogue, without so much as giving it half a thought. The Sensational Color web site takes color and color concepts to a deeper level: they have documented all sorts of "color-isms". In particular, I like their section, "Color Meaning & Symbolism"... a great cheat sheet, for when you have to 'splain away concepts and use of color, etc. It's all there, in black & white.