New Banner

look at the top of this blog (or the pic below), and ta-da! a new banner! i drew it up yesterday and wanted it to come off as blueprint-ish. hope you like. i may add to it now and again (i'm thinking more "wile e coyote evil genius")

also, starting a painting tonight. will be sure and post the process!

happy birthday Frosty!

a day late on the birthday wishes, but wanted this to be it's own post.

David Frost is a fellow DIYer and the man behind the completely awesome Custom Jersey Guy site! i mean really, go check it out! the guy can make just about ANYTHING into a custom jersey of the highest quality. and i know that first hand!

when it was announced last season, or last year, that Green Bay was going to wear a throwback i loved the style right away:

even though those dirt bags beat my steelers in the... bahhh!

so anyway, i play dek hockey occasionally for a team whose colors are red/white/black. what a great opportunity to ask the services of the Frost-Man!

after only an e-mail, he knew exactly what i wanted and created this:

 front:

back:

"paco" is an old nickname my dad would call me every once in a while for a laugh. and i'm usually against putting my last name on the back of jerseys when i don't really need to. also, i label a lot of things with "paco" as a little shout out to both my mom and my dad:

(look close at the bottom inside seem of the middle jersey. sorry, best pic at the moment)

Frosty also made is own DIY Ryberto's jersey, which i can't tell you just how cool that is:

so, happy birthday, Frosty! hope to share a beer or 2 with you sometime soon...

home field advantage...

Paul Lukas had another REALLY cool article over at Uni Watch today titled "Mining Diamonds in the Sky." it was basically about flying from one point to another and noticing local baseball diamonds "tattooing" our landscape. really cool to see all the different set ups, and the different levels of each field or park.

"Their elemental simplicity and geometric perfection seemed somehow magnified by my high-altitude vantage point"

-Lukas

so i immediately wanted to check out, and share the google map version of the field that i grew up on:

it was only named Memorial Field in my little league and pony league days. still... brings back A LOT of fun memories! shoot, i can almost still see the cinder block my dad used to sit on to watch me play right field...

not for nothing, here is the park that i spent almost every day playing my favorite sport hockey:

can definitely see where mom pulled up and yelled at me for playing too much hockey one particular day and almost missing our evening plans! hee hee

NW, worn down tennis court was all ours. damn, those were fun times!

my limited writing skills did no justice to Paul's wonderful post over at Uni Watch, so go check it out and enjoy!

congrats Bruins!

can't say i'm surprised though ;-)

but actually i can. i made that pick, yet doubted them about 2-3 times during the playoffs. but man, what heart they have on that team!

congrats Bruins... and have a great summer NHL! lol

welcome oneprettything!

big welcome to the readers of oneprettything!!!

glad you can enjoy efra's work too! here is the link/shortcut to his post:

koinobori-by-chamucos-studio

DIYs at work

i'm not a real gun kinda guy, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to pop off on some old wine bottles and expired can goods... what can i say... i'm a guy:

and what could be better than chillin out in your favorite DIYs:



thanks to the BigTomProject for those!

MANNesota trip...

was out of town that past week or so, sorry for the lack of posts. i have a good excuse though:

now, back to the grind...

(more pics to come)

Thanks & Look Out!

first off, i'd like to give an important shout out to my friend Paul Lukas... not only for the VERY awesome Uni Watch, which is a daily read and HUGE source of inspiration for me... but also for coming up with the blog description:

"Artwork, DIY Projects, and Other Ideas from the Mind of Ryan Connelly"

such a great writer he is, probably just cringes at my horrible grammar! :-)

big thanks Paul!!!

secondly, i just received my 1st ever copy of Adobe Illustrator (legit). so i'm hoping all the future logos and projects i work on in AutoCAD (which i love and will NEVER stop using), will come a bit more design oriented and "aesthetically pleasing"

just give me... oh... 8 or so years to figure it out first!

Back to the Drawing Board...

finding it difficult to sketch the monkey's arms, body, hands & neck, i had to print him out and get back to the "nitty gritty" that i love so much about drawing. a Sharpie an a #2!

couple more steps, and this logo will be finished. honestly... about half way through i'd say. stay tuned!

#40 of the day goes to...

my submission to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 40th anniversary patch (a few years ago, of course):

well, you know my favorite number... and well, you know my favorite team... so it all seemed natural that i would submit this patch, and the Pens would... not contact me at all ;-)

still love 'em though!

check it out...

i used a design element found on these beauts: 

(Penguins 25th anniversary patch)

(NHL 75th anniversary patch)

simple enough, i traced out the penguin in AutoCAD:

then drew up the lines taken from the 25th & 75th patches:

finished result:

*pulled the images of the patches from the great website & resource: PittsburghHockey.net

hope you all have a great, safe weekend!