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One
of the funniest men I know
through the Internet, is also an
inspirational desktop crafter for
many of us. Originally from
Syracuse, New York, and now
living in California, he's a
freelance graphic artist who
specialized in airbrush
illustration in the late 70's-
early 80's. He turned to music
composing for a number of years,
then got hooked on the Macintosh
and now he makes wonders with his
beautiful Desktop Consoles,
Scrollites, and
Glassies!
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Our
guest is Layne Karkruff, the man behind
Blue
Sky Heart
Graphics. I
don't think there is anybody interested in
customization who wouldn't know the jewels
of his creations! While the techniques he
uses to make his fantastic metallic and
glassy effects remains a mystery, you may
get an overall understanding of his work
and his sense of humor from our little
chat.
Thanks
Layne, for being with us and giving us the
opportunity to get to know you
better.
Ilona:
As
an artist with airbrush in your hand, it
is natural that you might get into the
digital world, but in your case there was
something else. What made you get started
with computing?
Layne: Music. At
the time, I hadn't been involved with
graphic arts for a few years because I was
directing my energy towards song writing
and recording in my home studio.
Alternating between music and graphics has
been a pattern in my life for a long time,
but this was the first time I had stayed
away from some form of visual expression
for such an extended period. Anyway,
eventually I got the notion to try digital
recording, did some research and found
that Mac was probably best for the
direction I wanted to follow. After buying
one, I was in a computer software store
and noticed "Bryce" and was intrigued, so
I brought it home and was immediately
hooked. At the time, I had had no idea
that 3D rendering was that advanced for
home computers; I was under the impression
that it was all big budget movie stuff.
Bryce led to image editing applications
and icons, and I never did do any
recording with the Mac. I guess you could
consider the last 4-5 years a huge
distraction from my original
intentions.
I used Micro Frontier's
"ColorIt" for a long time when I started;
I looked into a demo version of Photoshop
one day (3.x), looked around, closed it
and put it away for a year. It was so
technical looking, blah! But when I heard
that 4.0 had layers, there was no going
back.
Ilona:
Tell
us more about your music. Is there a place
on the net that we can hear some of your
compositions?
Layne: I have
one sitting on my ftp and I've shared it
with one person, net-wise. I do plan to
post it, and with the utmost humility, as
I've noticed over the years that my music
doesn't seem to affect people much. For me
it's the ultimate turn-on, but I've long
since accepted that no one will ever be as
excited about my music as I am. I know I
have it in me to kick ass with it, but
it's a matter of a slow evolution and I'm
busy with the graphics. So I'll post it
and see what does or doesn't happen. At
least it has a decent guitar solo to make
up for any other deficiencies.
Ilona:
When
and why did you start Blue
Sky Heart
Graphics
and why?
Layne: I think I
started the site about 4 years ago. Again,
the music figures in, because "Blue Sky
Heart" was the title of a song I wrote
around that time. Just a song about
optimism, with a fair dose of healthy
cynicism thrown in for balance. Something
like that's probably needed for something
as sappy sounding as Blue Sky Heart. ;
)
When I was first
learning about the Mac and computer
graphics, I was hanging out on AOL and
rarely surfed the web. I had been
uploading my icons to AOL's software
archives and one day received an email
from one of the administrators
complimenting me on my work. He asked
permission to upload them to "InfoMac" on
the net, and did so with later icon sets I
submitted... I considered him a mentor of
sorts.
From some items
downloaded from AOL's archive, I found out
that I could apply what I had been doing
with the icons to a ResEdit file of
substitute resources for the Aaron
extension that was popular at the time.
Out of that came "Scrollites" (which
seemed to me an appropriate name at the
time) and I think that's when I started
referring to them as "glassies". At the
time, it was like magic to me... you press
on the glassie thing and it lights up!
Interactive glassies! I was very intrigued
that I could combine my art with a sort of
everyday practicality, something I've
always wanted to do. From there I decided
to start the site, and to this day I
continue to make stuff and give them silly
brand names.
Ilona:
Did
you have any idea of how popular the site
would get?
Layne: I'm not
sure how to answer that; I guess I don't
remember what I was thinking at the time.
Although my host provides unlimited
traffic and space, I've purposely avoided
too much P&R because my host's
definition of "unlimited" means "unlimited
to a limit" (can't blame 'em) and I could
be charged a sizable monthly fee, which I
can't afford. Expansion is going to take a
combination of timing and resources. By
the way, and this is only remotely
related, I recently discovered through the
tracker I use that about 40% of visitors
to my site use Windows. I didn't know
that...
Ilona:
Does
the commercial graphics work you undertake
generate enough income for you to live
on?
Layne: Yes. I
could do more commission work if I was
more active in seeking it, but I get an
adequate amount coming in on its own. I
like to reserve weekends for my own
projects if I can, and I avoid working in
the evening if possible.
Ilona:
Do
you ever find yourself running out of
ideas or getting bored with
graphics?
Layne: In the
course of a day, yes. In the big picture,
not at all. My involvement in the site and
graphics is a major source of
satisfaction. Before I became involved
with BSHG, I had not articulated my
creative process or philosophy to myself
to any great degree, and what I'm learning
every day about that process is very
fulfilling. I consider myself fortunate to
have my life be about the process, and I'm
especially grateful that apparently
there's a vote of agreement for what it
produces. I've thought a lot about the
fact that what I've become as a result of
all of this manifests as the ultimate
cliché of the devoted, passionate,
single-minded artist archetype and all
that goes with it. But that's cool; it
brings me constant joy to create something
out of nothing, to give it a name and say
"You are that", not to mention that it's
shareable as well. I also get to stay home
and work, and use words like "archetype"
in an interview.
Ilona:
While
you offer some free stuff, most of your
works are for sale. How is it
going?
Layne: It goes
in cycles. When a DC volume is first
released, there's a substantial number of
registrations, then gradually evens off
but stays more or less constant. Once in a
while in the middle of nowhere there will
suddenly be an influx of new
registrations, and I assume that's from
the right link on the right day, or maybe
because some of my samples were featured
on someone's CD. I do give permission for
CD inclusions, but I don't keep track of
the results, and maybe I
should.
Ilona:
What
else do you do for a
living?
Layne: Nothing,
this is the day job. I was a calligrapher
for a stoneware manufacturer for 12 years
before this. It was good money, and didn't
consume much creative energy so I had a
lot of it left over for the musical
pursuits, such as they were. I switched to
computer graphics, things changed at work,
and the more I became involved with all
this, the more my boss leaned towards
inviting me to go away.
Ilona:
You
are using Photoshop to make your Desktop
Consoles. What is your choice of icon
editor? And what do you think about the 32
bit icons?
Layne: The only
icons I've been making for the last couple
of years are the folders that my downloads
are in, and even most of those are simply
variations on a theme. I've used ResEdit,
which has some cool hidden features. I
used to use "Kaboom", and all of the
BlueSky Icons were created with
that.
I just got around to
installing OS 8.5 (long story), so the
32-bit icons are new to me. I think
they're great, and I know there are icon
purists who prefer the old 8-bit jagged
edge icons, but I'm happy to see them
replaced, or at least augmented with
32-bit. I've been fooling around with some
32-bitters, and at the moment I have about
50 which are almost ready for prime time.
I'm holding off for now on posting them,
as I need to decide what to do about the
8-bit versions, which are not up to my
previous standards. Most of that has to do
with the masking differences between 8-bit
and 32-bit icons, i.e., a cool drop shadow
on a 32-bit translates to an unfortunate
little screaming mess on an 8-bit. I'd
rather ignore the 8-bits altogether, but
I'm sure there's a lot of people still
using pre-OS 8.5, just as I was up to a
few weeks ago.
Ilona:
Before
I knew about your site and your other
works, I was already a fan of your
beautiful icons. Would you please tell us
something more about your Glassies? How
often do you get asked "How do you make
your glassies?". Do people test your
patience by persisting with their which to
find out how you do things?
Layne: When I
was airbrushing, I occasionally painted a
glass texture. I was a fan of Mouse &
Kelly's work, two northern California
artists who did poster and album covers
for the Grateful Dead and others. I first
saw a glass texture in Mouse's work, and
although my style looked different than
his, the basic concept is very simple...
using the example of an orb, the top is
colored practically black, gradating into
a color towards the bottom. The key is the
hard white highlight up there in the dark
area, and the combination of those
elements sort of conveys a glass texture.
When I changed over to working with pixels
instead of paint, I ended up with a
simplified version of my airbrush work.
Later on I added reflections with the
desktop pictures. I no longer use the
technique I originally devised for the
reflections, but rather a faster and more
versatile way, based on the same
concept.
I'm asked routinely
about "how", and no, I wouldn't say my
patience is tested by requests; needless
to say the attention is flattering. I
usually sidestep the question or ignore
it. My biggest concern has always been
seeing glassie clones all over the place
and thus losing their uniqueness in
general, not to mention the uniqueness of
my own gimmick. It's part blatant
self-interest, part opposition to seeing
them end up as plentiful and routine as
Mac Donald's hamburgers. I can foresee
Aqua/OS X making burgers out of them.
Maybe I'll need to come up with something
new, like an alien brain texture or
something. I'll call 'em
brainies.
Ilona:
Is there
any Photoshop technique, or graphics
skill, that you do not have a good grasp
of and that you'd like to
improve?
Yes, there's some
technical matters, but I have a big ol'
Photoshop book behind glass that I break
with a hammer in emergencies. I could do
better with design and layout, but I hate
reducing things like that to a formula,
even though the end results might embody a
formula. I usually make it up as I go
along. I tend to approach nearly
everything in my life with a beginner's
mind, and I also like the philosophy of
"If you don't know that you're not
supposed to be able to do something,
you're more likely than not to end up
doing it". I think people can relate to
that, after all, isn't that why you don't
read manuals? It's immensely more creative
and fun to discover things on your own, to
stumble upon a new technique that came
from investigating the potential and
breaking the rules, making up your own
rules and pushing a square peg into a
round hole. As for the glassies,
specifically the glassies with reflections
in the DC series, I applied something that
was meant to be used in a different manner
than the way I used it, and it worked. It
was just a different approach, a square
peg.
Ilona:
As
an interface designer, what do you think
about the Mac OS Aqua?
Layne: Mixed
feelings. As an interface designer, I'm
impressed, and was initially very excited
about it. As a user, I'm still
dumbfounded. The Aqua design is very
specialized stuff, a variation of the iMac
trend, and I can't believe Apple is
presenting this as a default interface to
represent the Mac. It's a great theme or K
scheme, it's trendy, but as a default... I
don't know. I keep visualizing a Wall
Street Investment Specialist hiding his
PowerBook behind a newspaper so no one can
spot him pushing jellybean window buttons.
Having said that (and not unaware of the
irony of it), I don't particularly care
about Wall Street Investment Specialists
and am glad to see Steve Jobs...
um...<wince>... "thinking different"
and defining the future of computing
again. Ultimately, it's probably unfair to
judge Aqua too much before it arrives in
all its G3-exclusive glory. After all, why
not... it breaks the mold and shakes its
tail feathers in the face of the usual
mediocrity.
Ilona:
Why
haven't you ever made K2 Kaleidoscope
scheme? What do you think of other's
efforts in this area?
Layne: I have a
number of reasons, but the bottom line is
that what I do is no longer a hobby...
there's the proverbial money flow to
consider, and I have no doubt a K2 scheme
would be a major distraction from that.
When I'm into a project, I tend to focus
almost exclusively on it until it's done.
Just my way, I guess, I'm the same way
with books and pizza. I could use the
evenings to work on something I suppose,
but like I said, I try to stay away from
the computer at night. When I first
attempted a K2 scheme, there was also the
disorientation factor; I visualized
Kaleidoscope 1.5 as a small, constricting
dark room with its built-in limitations,
and when K2 appeared, it was like walking
out the door and into a huge open sunlit
field with no apparent boundaries. In
other words, I couldn't make up my mind
which idea to follow, and I have a lot of
them. It has to be my idea of perfect,
whatever it is I decide on. I recently
disabled Kaleidoscope, and before that was
using the Apple Platinum scheme for a long
time, just for the double arrows. If
Kaleidoscope doesn't fade away with Aqua's
arrival, or even fade away with Aqua
simply looming on the horizon, I still
intend to create a K2 scheme one of these
days. A scheme editor would be nice to
have for that, so maybe by the time I'm
ready, there will be one
available.
As for other's efforts
with K2 schemes, there's a lot cool
schemes out there, most notably schemes
which do not take advantage of K2's
window-bending capabilities to the
extreme.
Ilona:
Is
there any particular artist's style that
you admire? An example of this would be,
say, Roger Dean's art when he was working
for the band "Yes".
Layne: Yes,
"Yes". I mean, "yes". You know what I
mean. : ) Roger
Dean's
typography was one, H.R.
Giger, Pat
Nagel, W.
Ogden,
Stanley
Mouse,
Rick
Griffin, lots
more.
Ilona:
Any
other things on your favorite list? A
favorite vegetable perhaps? Oh, and a
little birdie told me that you are a big
fan of the "Alien"...
Layne: Broccoli,
Beatles, sci-fi films, little birdies.
Lately I've been on a ribs binge... beef
back ribs in particular. There's nothing
like knawing that rare meat off the bone
like a caveman and swilling down an ice
cold Coca-Cola to to get in touch with
one's hedonistic side. My mother never
served ribs, so this is a discovery for
me. I may change the focus of the web
site: Blue Sky Heart Coronary.
Yes, I like the Alien
movie series, especially the first and
fourth. My recent favorite is "The
Matrix", hope there'll be a
sequel.
Ilona:
Though
you are very busy, I'm sure you have some
sites you are surfing on a regular basis.
What are those?
Layne: My usual
routine is to read the links at
MacSurfer
and follow a few of those. Three days a
week I check ResElephants,
Mondays I go to MacOSZone,
and occasionally I check the
California
Lottery winning
numbers to see if it's OK to buy a G4 and
a country yet. Then there's my pal
Tracy,
and Etherbrian,
whose fonts and humor I like.
Ilona:
What
is your next project?
Layne: At the
moment I'm working on a CD cover for a
guitarist, and it's taking forever. It's a
HEE-YUGE file, and my humble machine is
sputtering and throwing sparks every inch
of the way. After that, I think the 32-bit
icons will be ready soon. DC 6 keeps
looming in the back of my mind, so I plan
to spend a month on that. I bought a CD
burner, and I'd be interested in feedback
to see if there's a call for a Desktop
Consoles CD; DC 6 would be included and it
probably would be six DC volumes for the
price of five, something like that. Mac
and Windows.
Ilona:
What
are your dreams? How do you like to see
yourself, let say, ten years from
now?
Layne: Other
than producing art prints that somehow
weirdly compliment your couch and overall
decor, I see myself living in a spacious,
rustic cabin next to a lake... with a
sweet, far away-eyed woman who will put up
with me, and the very latest in computer
technology: a virtual reality program
which creates the illusion of a sweet, far
away-eyed woman who puts up with me. But I
don't look too far ahead; I'll go with the
flow and see what I stumble into
next.
We're surrounded by
some amazing technology, and it changes
and advances so fast. The technology is
empowering us in all sorts of areas, but
because it's changing so fast I often tend
to see where we are at the moment as
dabbling in antiques. I think I'll feel
the same way in ten years; as long as
technology can't keep up with imagination
and impatience, there's no telling what
fun mess we'll get ourselves
into.
Thanks
Ilona!
Thank you,
Layne, for being with us and for the
excellent "DC ResExcellence" desktop
pictures you have made for our
Desktop
Archive.
I always wish something to our guests and
I can't think of a more appropriate wish
for you than, ahem... a... wife with an
"OK" button?
 the
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