Sunday, October 11, 2009

UKULELE HEADSTOCK DOODLE

Here's a sketch I made of a ukulele head stock. I work as a draftsman but drafting now is so much more about sitting at a computer screen and making exact layouts. That good feeling of the pencil in the hand doesn't get to happen so much any more. My sketches are always part drafting part comic doodle.
.
The symbol in the headstock is similar to the one that I requested from Mike DaSilva on my custom uke. You see, I also studied mathematics at CSUH which is now called California State University of the East Bay. I wanted to create a simple symbol that combined mathematics and drafting - so that's what I wanted to express.


There's an area of mathematics called Fractals that I never studied. I like to think of my triangular symbol as the beginning of a musical Mendelbrot fractal. Perhaps it is just a humble pictorial beginning but the my music keeps expanding in friendships, playing skills, singing skills, and confidence as I creep slowly towards my 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. HU

Here's some famous Mendelbrot fractal images for the inquiring minds....
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://davis.wpi.edu/~matt/courses/fractals/mset.gif&imgrefurl=http://davis.wpi.edu/~matt/courses/fractals/mendel.html&h=300&w=300&sz=12&tbnid=D6G1jdLzIRRIyM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmendelbrot&usg=__jX30CwlB22JAamDJlXVVUnGcxAE=&ei=y_TRSp3oJofysQPHtJTwCw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&ved=0CBQQ9QEwAw

3 comments:

  1. Your headstock design has some great components Jeff. I was thinking that with a nice light layer on the top, and different color (even red, blue, etc.) underneath and then the neck wood would look great when an angle is chamfered to expose the colored layer. Lots of possibilities. Repeating the colors for the inlay would tie it all together.
    Beats the heck out of technical drawings...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks good Jeff....especially good for me as a Jewish Uke player!

    Thanks for the publicity for CSUEB! I am on campus now as I write this! Be well.....

    Ryan/Jewklele

    ReplyDelete
  3. My instant reaction was the same as Ryan's, though I'm not a Jewish ukulele player.

    ReplyDelete