Nathan Olsen

Sketches, illustrations and whatnot.

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  1. Above: Work by LCAD students Thomas Phillips, Steven Cartolano, Jessie Chang and Sean Christiansen.

    Any student who has taken my course in Internet Design at LCAD is familiar with the CSS Zen Garden by David Shea. It’s the first project I assign every semester — after several weeks of exercises and practice code, it’s their first chance to really get their hands dirty with CSS and build something with it.

    Last fall, I decided it was time to transition the class curriculum to HTML5 and I thought I might have to leave the garden behind. I looked around online to see if anyone had gone to the trouble to update the code for the site to HTML5 and came up empty handed. But I really liked what David Shea had built with the CSS Zen Garden — it had a history. It was an important landmark in the development of the web. So, rather scrapping the garden in favor of a new project, I updated the code myself and posted an article about it on my website.

    That article has gotten a lot of hits over the past few months, making it clear that I wasn’t the only one looking to see the Zen Garden updated. Apparently, David Shea himself ran across it. A few days ago, I got a mysterious tweet from Shea thanking me for my work on converting the Zen Garden to HTML5 and telling me to take a look at his site the next day.

    Hmm. What could that be about, I wondered?

    Well, in honor of the 10th anniversary of the CSS Zen Garden, David Shea posted the Zen Garden html to GitHub, updated it to HTML5 and reopened the CSS Zen Garden Design contest. I didn’t put two-and-two together but according to an article on .net, my post last September where I spoke about using the site as a teaching tool was partially responsible for Shea’s decision to relaunch the site. He liked the idea that the CSS Zen Garden “remains relevant … because new people are entering the industry and using it as a reference point.”

    I really never expected my efforts to lead to anything, but I’m glad to see that the CSS Zen Garden will be around for a while longer. Now that the design contest has been reopened, it’ll be interesting to see if it spurs any of my students to enter the competition. With the expectation that entries fully embrace CSS3 and responsive design, the bar is sure to be set very high. I can’t wait to see what today’s current (and future) web designers are able to create for the site.

    1 week ago  /  5 notes
  2. Another semester at LCAD draws to a close. (Pun intended.) #sorry #badpun #teaching #artschool Another semester at LCAD draws to a close. (Pun intended.) #sorry #badpun #teaching #artschool
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    Another semester at LCAD draws to a close. (Pun intended.) #sorry #badpun #teaching #artschool

    2 weeks ago  /  3 notes

  3. frenden:

    Unboxing the Cintiq 13HD.

    I’m a sucker for new gadgets.

    2 weeks ago  /  35 notes

  4. seewhatsgood:

    The History of Typography dir. by Ben Barrett-Forest

    nerd out!

    2 weeks ago  /  14 notes
  5. The Incredible Hulk by Nathan Olsen. The Incredible Hulk by Nathan Olsen.
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    The Incredible Hulk by Nathan Olsen.

    3 weeks ago  /  15 notes
  6. threadless: Dead Island Colada by nateomedia is up for scoring in our Dead Island: Riptide design challenge! There is only one day left to score, so “head” on over and score 50 Dead Island submissions for a chance at 1 of 8 Steam Codes for Dead Island: Riptide! I have a shirt up for scoring at Threadless.

    threadless:

    Dead Island Colada by nateomedia is up for scoring in our Dead Island: Riptide design challenge!

    There is only one day left to score, so “head” on over and score 50 Dead Island submissions for a chance at 1 of 8 Steam Codes for Dead Island: Riptide!

    I have a shirt up for scoring at Threadless.

    3 weeks ago  /  36 notes
  7. frenden: Painting and sculpting have been instrumental to my inking. Why? Harold Speed taught me, via the freely available The Practice and Science of Drawing, that the more you practice line and use it volumetrically to describe form, the more you shed away the impulse to describe the outlines of an object alone and the closer the line drawings come to painterly affairs. We have a tendency to want to feel the outer edges of an object. The most primitive of childhood drawings are closed figures of circles, squares, and solid lines. We want to close things off and compartmentalize the shapes. The more you understand a form the easier you can describe it in terms of mass, light and shadow, and shed those primitive tendencies to encase the form in solid line. Sculpting gave me an appreciation for the heft of form and painting taught me when to soften, and lose, or harden, and emphasize, an edge. Imagining the feel of the form as I draw is instrumental to deciding when the form’s apex of being in light occurs and where the line of shadow begins. That’s not to say that this style of inking is correct for all occasions, but understanding mass has been instrumental to my continued self improvement as an illustrator. I’m a self taught guy, so all these little lessons gleaned from folks like Speed, Loomis, Hogarth, and Bridgman were mini-revelations. I can’t recommend picking up that book enough. Good advice. frenden: Painting and sculpting have been instrumental to my inking. Why? Harold Speed taught me, via the freely available The Practice and Science of Drawing, that the more you practice line and use it volumetrically to describe form, the more you shed away the impulse to describe the outlines of an object alone and the closer the line drawings come to painterly affairs. We have a tendency to want to feel the outer edges of an object. The most primitive of childhood drawings are closed figures of circles, squares, and solid lines. We want to close things off and compartmentalize the shapes. The more you understand a form the easier you can describe it in terms of mass, light and shadow, and shed those primitive tendencies to encase the form in solid line. Sculpting gave me an appreciation for the heft of form and painting taught me when to soften, and lose, or harden, and emphasize, an edge. Imagining the feel of the form as I draw is instrumental to deciding when the form’s apex of being in light occurs and where the line of shadow begins. That’s not to say that this style of inking is correct for all occasions, but understanding mass has been instrumental to my continued self improvement as an illustrator. I’m a self taught guy, so all these little lessons gleaned from folks like Speed, Loomis, Hogarth, and Bridgman were mini-revelations. I can’t recommend picking up that book enough. Good advice.
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    frenden:

    Painting and sculpting have been instrumental to my inking. Why?

    Harold Speed taught me, via the freely available The Practice and Science of Drawing, that the more you practice line and use it volumetrically to describe form, the more you shed away the impulse to describe the outlines of an object alone and the closer the line drawings come to painterly affairs.

    We have a tendency to want to feel the outer edges of an object. The most primitive of childhood drawings are closed figures of circles, squares, and solid lines. We want to close things off and compartmentalize the shapes. The more you understand a form the easier you can describe it in terms of mass, light and shadow, and shed those primitive tendencies to encase the form in solid line.

    Sculpting gave me an appreciation for the heft of form and painting taught me when to soften, and lose, or harden, and emphasize, an edge. Imagining the feel of the form as I draw is instrumental to deciding when the form’s apex of being in light occurs and where the line of shadow begins.

    That’s not to say that this style of inking is correct for all occasions, but understanding mass has been instrumental to my continued self improvement as an illustrator. I’m a self taught guy, so all these little lessons gleaned from folks like Speed, Loomis, Hogarth, and Bridgman were mini-revelations.

    I can’t recommend picking up that book enough.

    Good advice.

    1 month ago  /  68 notes

  8. Thom Yorke interviewed by Alec Baldwin

    austinkleon:

    jedsundwall:

    Baldwin: What do you think you do best? You lead a band, you play guitar, you write music, you produce music and you sing. What do you think your greatest strength is, if you had to pick one?

    Yorke: That I don’t know what I’m doing. I like the fact that I still don’t know what I’m doing. I think – no, honestly. I’ll go through whole phases of months where I haven’t got a clue. I regularly lose complete confidence in what I’m doing.

    Filed under: not-knowing

    1 month ago  /  160 notes
  9. Game changer. Game changer.
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    Game changer.

    1 month ago  /  1 note
  10. chayland: #lcad #lcadgraffitiwall chayland: #lcad #lcadgraffitiwall
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    chayland:

    #lcad #lcadgraffitiwall

    1 month ago  /  6 notes