I haven’t blogged about magic tricks at all. These are two that I have and use regularly. The first one is the Extractor which I got a number of months ago. It is stunning, the routine I do is different from the example video here. I have the spectator pick a card at random from the deck, they then write their name across the face while I am turned away. Then they place the card anywhere they like back in the deck. I then seal the deck and put it away. I tell them as I take out my wallet that I have a five dollar bill I will give them if I can’t figure out what card they chose. I proceed to guess completely wrong and then give up. As I go to give them the money they’ve just earned we see a card protruding from the pocket in my wallet. Upon taking this card out of the wallet the spectator sees that it is in fact their card and it has their signature across the face.

The other trick that I enjoy doing is actually out of my everday wallet. I do a few different tricks using this wallet. I’ll save a write-up on this for later as it’s getting late. The wallet is the Stealth Assassin Wallet also by Alakazam Magic.

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Picture of the poster on Glenn Beck today, click below for video:

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/v/-_EL6OfIDkw

Another view of the poster in Glenn Beck’s studio, the original poster is 44 inches wide by 28 inches high:

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/v/dT20N-Amx70

iPhone Video: Click Here

Poster visible in studio: Click Here

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I’m definitely a gear head and I’ll spend too much time researching and looking for cool gear. I like to sketch and especially with watercolor. Over the years I have tried a number of different compact watercolor travel kits. I also have tried a variety of different travel brushes and the ones I use now are the best I’ve used.

For a travel bag I’ve found REI has great stuff. I use a small bag you can see in the pictures below. This one seems like it’s custom made for my equipment. For a sketchbook I’ve been using a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook until recently I decided to try and bind my own. I saw a sketchbook at an art store that had been hand bound with a Coptic Binding method.

This method has been around since the 4th century A.D. and I just found out about it. The advantage in using this binding for a sketchbook is that your book can open up more and lay flatter. It’s almost like having a metal ring bound sketchbook without the bulkiness of the rings. The only difference is that you can’t fold the upper sheets and cover all the way around like you can with the metal ring style book.

See the pictures below of my first attempt at this style of sketchbook. I took an older Moleskine that I wasn’t using any longer and cut the cover off. This I did a sloppy job of though and would do differently next time. I would try slicing it down the middle of the spine and then glue down the overlap for a better looking edge.

I then took two large sheets of 90 lb. Arches Cold Press paper and cut that into groups of two folded sheets. These are called signatures in the book binding world. I then stitched these together using the Coptic Binding. I like that I get really high quality watercolor paper in a nice sketchbook format. The paper that comes in the Moleskine is decent, but not nearly as nice as the Arches paper. Plus you can use any old hard cover book and cut off the cover or buy some hard cover board from a craft store.

The cost of making a book like this will vary by the watercolor paper you use. In this case it cost me about $10 for the Watercolor paper and this resulted in a 24 page sketchbook. Not bad considering a 15 sheet sketchbook from Arches or similar will cost anywhere from $20 - $50.

For a pencil I use a Rotring Trio mechanical pencil. This pencil has three different sizes in one: 0.35mm, 0.5mm and 0.7mm. They don’t make this pencil anymore so if you happen across one I’d snag it. They go on E-bay from $100 up to $250. They are fairly rare.

For watercolor brushes I use the Da Vinci Serie 1503. These are difficult to find in retail stores, Dick Blick.com carries them and has pretty good prices. They make these brushes in Germany by hand and they are made with pure Kolinsky Sable.

These are by far the best watercolor brush I’ve ever used. I own a set of Winsor Newton Series 7 brushes and these Da Vinci travel brushes are better. If you’ve ever thought about buying the Series 7 brush then stop, go buy a Da Vinci and try it out, you will be happier. The quality is far better, price doesn’t equal better in this case. I don’t even use my Winsor Newton brushes anymore. Check out the Da Vinci regular Kolinsky brushes also.

For a watercolor kit I use the Winsor Newton Heavyweight Enamel Box. This box is great as it’s small and very portable. You can stick it in your pocket. The paint is also the artist’s quality paint, I’ve found a huge difference in the quality and vibrancy of the pigment between the Cotman and Artist’s paints. If you can I’d highly suggest you get good equipment. I understand why they sell cheaper (and crappier) student equipment, but it really doesn’t make sense to waste your money on it.

You really do get better results and will enjoy painting with better equipment and paints. This is true for the paper, the pigment and the brush in my opinion.

For ink work I like the Copic Multiliner SP pens, I use the 0.1 and 0.2 as well as the brush tip. Their pigment is very good and their pens have a nice feel to them. They also sell replacement nibs and refills so they can be more economical. They don’t dry out like the Koh-I-Nor Rapidographs do. I find them to be better than the Micron and Faber Castell brand pens as well.

Anyway, hope this is useful for anyone considering a watercolor sketchbook kit.

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Here are some sketches from an early Moleskine Watercolor sketchbook I use. I go in and out of sketching in it. Sometimes I’ll draw something in it a couple of times a week, then I’ll go a month or two and not touch it. I’m going to try and draw in it more regularly and I’ll post the better sketches as I do.

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I just got a new light modifier, the Photek Softlighter II. It is much closer to the kind of umbrella type modifier I’ve been looking for. It is closer to an octabox or a softbox. The difference between this and a shoot through umbrella is that with the shoot through umbrella the light spills all over the place because it doesn’t have the black back like a softbox. Although you can also take the black back off the Softlighter and use it as a shoot through umbrella. You get the best of both worlds.

Another thing I like about this light modifier is the catch light. That’s something that has bothered me with my shoot through umbrellas. When you look at the catch light from a shoot through umbrella you can see the spines of the umbrellas in the reflection in the subjects eyes. With this light modifier you see more of a nice round solid catch light. This becomes especially apparent as I like to print large format prints.

My initial tests with this light modifier are with my SB800 and so far it works great. There is one problem with the umbrella adapter I have which is that the spine of the umbrella is too narrow for the screw. I plan on getting a different umbrella adapter to try and fix this issue.

One more feature I like about the Photek Softlighter II is that it came with a silver and gold disc reflector that goes into the umbrella. This helps increase the power of the small strobe I use. Although the power put out by the SB800 seems more than sufficient.

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I attended a great seminar on digital photography and wanted to upload some pictures I took from it. The seminar was put on by Bellaora in Salt Lake at the downtown library. Checkout their web site for future seminars: http://www.bellaora.com

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I did two separate photo shoots of both Coda and Noah. I used a similar technique with both. A black sheet was laid out on a couch with one or more pillows below to prop up the babies. Then I used a single shoot through umbrella either to the side or above camera depending on the shot. Babies are tough to shoot, it takes a lot of work and patience

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I was playing with my strobes and created this image of Kenzie. We got the hair to flair out through a very technical method, Laura was fanning it with a board.

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