I attended a weekend event that was held here in San Francisco this June. It was a data visualization challenge that had attendees form teams and compete to build something visual using data sets. They had great prizes and food.
I attended just to get an idea about what data visualization is about. I joined a team that made a prototype iPhone app for bicycle route planning. We used elevation and map data of SF give a visual representation for biking across the city. The elevation data would be calculated based on the direction of travel, so going uphill was shown in a color but downhill was neutral. The idea was to show multiple routes at the same time. That way you could see the where the hills are and plan to ride up them or around them. My role was “designer” and I created a icon and opening screen for the prototype app. Here’s the page for the project we made
It was fun and I would do something like that again. Some of the winners of the competition did really neat things. Check out this Marvel Universe Social Graph
Don’t look at this if you don’t like spiders.
This was a spider that I found hanging out in my bag of knitting a few mornings ago. I thought I’d draw him before letting him go. He was too big to squish.
This image is from Human Microscopic Anatomy by R.V. Krstić. I did a pencil tracing of the pen and ink image Plate 14. Survey of blood elements in a sinus of the bone marrow. I then used that sketch as a basis for practice coloring and painting in Photoshop. I played with a color pallet and other techniques. It is unfinished and I may base a new original piece on some of what I learned from doing this study.
Another Krstić study. This one is a little more loosely based on the original illustration. Still, it is just a practice of technique and style. I plan to continue working on this.
