My Current Business Card.  The Design Was Slightly Accidental; I Was Playing With Some Vintage Photos

As my follower count on Twitter approached 400, I mentioned that it might be cool to do a drawing based on the Twitter icon of my 400th follower.  Number 400 turned out to be an affable fellow known as @cjp, whose icon was a small photo of himself.

It was then that I realized randomly receiving an unsolicited portrait from some dude off the Internet he'd just begun reading might be perceived as a bit creepy, so of course I went ahead as planned.  He seemed to take it well, and I've received no restraining orders.

Felt pen on paper, 9x6".

These logos for fictional trendy Web 2.0 sites were made for the latest episode of The Media Show.  The show called for a bunch of silly but real-sounding website names which were generated in the manner in which we write many of the show's greatest jokes; blurting increasingly random things back and forth at each other on filming day until we've all hopelessly dissolved into fits of convulsive giggling.  I then whipped up suitably shiny icons to match.

"Toop" is pronounced "taupe" because of course it is.

Started as sort of Rorschach of Watchmen, but I don’t know I’m tired.  Around seven minutes.

Over on Twitter, patrickfedo has been organizing a neat Ghostbusters fan-art collaboration.  I'm pitching in with this pic of one of my favorite ghosts from the series, the taxi-driving ghost from the first film.

Joan Clarke June 24, 1917 – September 4, 1996

Working alongside Alan Turing and other codebreakers at England's famous Bletchley Park during World War II, Joan Clarke was considered among the most brilliant mathematicians on staff.

She faced many hurdles in her career due to her gender.  One famous example of this occurred when, as no suitable senior codebreaking position existed at Bletchley to which a female was allowed to be promoted, she was granted the title of "linguist" to grant her some measure of recognition for her work.  Clarke, who spoke no second language, would later recall with bemusement filling out paperwork with "grade: linguist, languages: none."

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

Because we all love visual puns.  Made for b3ta's verbular celebrities image challenge.

Speaking of Doctor Who, care to kick my starter?

Sometimes upon encountering a captcha the obvious captchart gag comes immediately to mind, and won't leave one alone until one finds the right photos to 'shop.

Public domain sources: 1 2

The President's Red Phone

The Moscow-Washington hotline which existed during the mid-20th-century Cold War was a teletype-based affair, not a telephone, but that didn't stop the imagined concept of a red emergency phone in the White House catching on in popular culture.  One example of this is the Red Phone's starring role in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; indeed, the film's Spanish title is ¿Teléfono rojo?, volamos hacia Moscú, which means “Red Telephone?  We're Flying to Moscow.”

The iconic “Red Phone” image continues to grip the public imagination today, appearing regularly in fiction, art, and even Presidential campaign ads.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my series of paintings of historical telephones.

In response to the current kerfuffle going on in Neil Gaiman's corner of the Internet, the affable @mistressmousey suggested her artist acquaintances draw this elusive creature known as the pencil-necked little weasel.

So sorry, etc.

Making captchart has quickly become one of my favorite ways of fishing for ideas and/or killing time.

Sources: "The Hungry Earth" (© BBC) and this guy (PD).