This is "Noah". Created in CorelDraw by tracing a scanned sketch I had made.  Follow along for the process ...

I love to doodle. Especially when I am on the phone. So it was one night when talking with my mother. For some reason, I seem to always start with the flight deck windows and go from there. If you look closely at the upper right side of the image, you can see the edge of the paper. Hmm ... this just isn't going to fit! Oh well, just carry on with a cartoon-ish version. 'Noah' is born!

That sketch was laying around on my desk when I was thinking about doing some more experimentation with CorelDRAW's 'Mesh Fill' tool. Hey, this will work just fine for that! Scanned it, brought it into CorelDRAW X3, put it on a separate layer and then used the pen tool to create the outlines using the underlying scanned image as a guide. Then started messing around with the mesh fills on the wings, horizontal stab and engine nacelles.

Added the rest of the detail and some colour, but was still lacking something. A smile! :) The colours are specific but I won't get into that at the moment. Suffice to say, those that know, 'know' :) The identifying logo has been removed from the vertical stab as well :)

The more I looked at it, the more I thought about how this could perfectly fit in with the 'Do Tell' theme. All that would be required is to change the colours ... and add some lips! :) Regarding the 'Do Tell' 'thang', again ... those that know, 'know' :) To reiterate from elsewhere, that's a long story! :)

Here are two more created with the same method as Noah.

• doodle up a rough sketch
• scan and import the sketch into CorelDraw
• set the scanned sketch as the base layer and then use the pen tool to trace over it
• complete the details with the other CorelDraw tools, notably the Mesh Fill tool

The rough doodle.

The finished product.

The rough sketch.

The finished product.

Those of you who know me also know that aviation has been a major part of my life. Only fitting, therefore, to have initiated this lifelong interest with pencil on paper. These next few pages are examples of such, some of which date back to the late 1960's and early 1970's. I enjoyed every minute of every hour spent creating these. I hope that you enjoy a few minutes of viewing them.

Site re-build - first stage completed

LyleChamney.com has now been converted from my web and graphics design site to a personal site that will showcase some of my manual and digital artwork, among other things.

The web and graphics design, now including custom templates and themes for Joomla!, WordPress, Drupal, HTML and DotNetNuke using Artisteer, along with tips and getting started guides for Joomla!, are now available at www.2ninerniner2.com.

First go-around with the K2 extension from Joomlaworks has been successful. This is a very powerful and complex addition to the Joomla! developer's arsenal and I have here only touched the surface of it's remarkable capabilities. As I get more familiar with it, I will be extending the functionality of it on this site and reporting about what I have done in my Blog.

Additionally, the Joomla! template that is in use on this site was created with Artisteer and slightly modified from it's native build. The tweaks that were made on it will be documented both here and on www.2ninerniner2.com shortly. As well, a few adjustments were made to the standard K2 stylesheet; these will be covered too.