Sharpening Skills

How To Sharpen Pencils by David Rees.

Yes it's a real book....

 

 

See.

 

Good Hand Jives

Music for Hand Jiving from London Records.

Before the internet people had to rely on record stores to supply their fun, and you could purchase a record for any occasion.  Back in the 1950's hand jiving was not just dancing for people too lazy to get up and dance, but was an art form in its self.  Involving a complicated pattern of hand moves and claps at various parts of the body, authentic hand jiving imitates various percussion instruments. Hand jive moves include thigh slapping, cross-wrist slapping, fist pounding, hand clapping, and even hitch hike thumbs. It may some times be mistaken for a highly elaborate version of Pat-a-cake.

 

 

Micro-sculpture

Haven't posted anything arty for a while so here's some microscopic artwork, by Willard Wigan, I was looking at not long ago.  They're pretty damn impressive work if you ask me.

 

Willard started making small sculptures a little over 50 years ago when he was 5.  Having dyslexia and other learning disabilities, he was teased in school when he was young and he turned to his art for solace.  These days the majority of Willards sculptures are usually displayed inside the eye of a needle or literally on the head of a pin.

They are so small that Willard has to go into a meditative state to slow his heartbeat, and he works between each pulse when his hand is completely still and steady. His artwork is of such minute proportions that it virtually can not be seen with the naked eye, and can only be seen clearly with a microscope.  Each piece is sculpted with grains of sand, dust fibers, cobwebs or even insect hair. Willards creations are so light eacho one can be lifted with an eyelash.

 

The average price for each of his micro-sculptures is around $80,000.  Prince Charles Elton John and Mike Tyson are some of the people who collect his work.  Once while he was working on an Alice in Wonderland micro-sculpure, his phone rang. When he answered the phone he sighed and he accidentally inhaled Alice.

 

 

 

Presently Willard is collaborating with two of the worlds finest watch makers, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey (www.timeartgallerygf.com), on a project to create the world’s most exclusive timepiece, Art Piece 1 is scheduled to be unveiled soon at the World International Watch Convention in January 2013.

 

 

As it is easier for a rich man to enter a camel than for a poor man to pass a needle, you can see more of Willard and his micro-sculptures at www.willard-wigan.com.

 

 

Love Amongst Europe's Creative Class

Most exciting comic ever...

 

Devolution of Art

Art Then:

Art Now:

Are you serious?! You have got to be kidding me!

Drawing a Cat

Haven't done an art related post for a while so here is an instructional guide for any budding artists.



Astro-Weenie Christmas Tree

If you're stuck for novel dinner or lunch hosting ideas this Christmas you could try your hand at making Charles Phoenix's Astro-Weenie Christmas Tree.  Noting brings joy to the yuletide festivities more than an Astro-Weenie Tree.

You and your guests will be as happy a Charles when you wop out your Astro-Weenies at the Christmas dining table and all you need do is follow the instructions for your own Astro-Weenie Christmas Tree and many other home cooking wonders at CharlesPhoenix.com.

My Little Skeletor

Mari Kasurienen is an artist who predominantly sculpts my little ponies, but good ones.

It was the My Little Skeletor that caught my eye first and I must say, I quite like it. She sculpts all sorts of Little Ponies (as well as other works) taking her inspiration from just about any pop culture image that takes her fancy at the time.

Here's her website:
www.marikasurinen.com

Fat Monkey Thongs

Fat Monkey (or or Macaco Gordo to some) is the creation of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, with the enlisted help of some local art students.

Made out of 10,000 thongs (or flip flops to some) attached to an inflatable base Fat Monkey coincided with the 2010 Brazilian artists Pixel Show held in Sao Paulo.

Here's the link to the artists website with his Fat Monkey and other projects.

Ring Pull Dragon

Here is an amazing sculpture of a dragon made entirely out of the ring pulls off drink cans.  It's the creation of Koji Shimoi who is better known by the name OniMushaKid on his Deviantart web page.

Here's the link to the full image: Pop Tab Dragon -shinkonryuu-

Awesome Murals

Over at AllPosters.com I've discovered they sell full size wall murals for the home. There's all sorts there, arty ones, music ones.

I like the retro comic ones the best.  One of these would make an excellent feature in the lounge room or office.

 

You could even put one in the bedroom.  Nothing sets the right mood like a seven foot image of Thor screaming about his hammer.

Yep, that one is going above the bead head.

Here's the short cut link to the comic murals: AllPosters.com Comic Murals.

Mona Lisa is 2% Angry

A computer vision expert in Amsterdam used software to develop emotion recognition technology.  A person's face is mapped onto a computer which calculates the expression based on facial points like lip curvature, cheek contraction and eyebrow position.  The system is around 85% accurate which is very close to how accurate humans are.  Won’t be long now before Hal doesn’t need to ask Dave how he’s feeling, he’ll just see and judge for himself.

The software detects happiness, disgust, fear, anger, surprise and sadness, but developers don't yet have the technology to detect more subtle emotions.  Researchers have used this technology to show that the Mona Lisa's expression is 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful, and 2% angry.

Emotion-recognition technology could have beneficial uses like detecting if a driver is getting sleepy at the wheel and have an alert signal wake them.  But I anticipate it’s more likely to be used to detect how you feel about certain items while you're shopping.

Here's the researchers website where you can submit your own photo.  Or maybe some other persons photo…
http://www.gladorsad.com/en/

Hero Machine

For those with a creative streak but a lack of pencil drawing coordination you should check out Hero Machine.  Hero Machine lets you create your own comic book style heroes regardless of pencil skills or lack there of.  I’ve occasionally found it to be an extremely enjoyable way to whittle away hours of my life.  One of the most notable things about hero machine is that it’s a living, growing project.  The developer actually interacts with the users through the website and even goes so far as to listen to what you have to say (that’s practically unheard of!).

There’s tutorials, critique days and contests where you can test your creativity while helping to test the software, as well as a whole bunch of other fun stuff you can join in on.  Well, just go see for your self at http://www.heromachine.com/ and be sure to check out the character hall of fame, you’ll be impressed at some of the creations.

Nanas Porcelain Collectables

Turns out that, without realising it I'm regularly highlighting an artist I like.  While I haven't exactly planed it that way... here's the latest artist I like.  It's UK artist Jessica Harrison.  I especially like her interpretation of traditional porcelain figures, the kind you see in Nannas display cabinet.

She does a all sorts of mixed media sculptures (like human skin dollhouse furniture) as well as some other art stuff.  You can see more of her work at her web site, unremarkably called Jessica Harrison.

Photographic Illusions

While looking for images to appropriate for the post on Tetris a few days ago, I stumbled onto the website of a photographic artist from Sweden called Erik Johansson.  In addition to the Tetris picture, I quite like some of his other stuff, especially the optical illusion pictures, so I thought I'd post a sample and link.

Erik is neither a Viking nor half a bee.  You can view more of Erik Johansson's portfolio at his website alltelleringet.

Smashing Kung Fu Photos

Here's a collection of photos from a photographic artist named Martin Klimas that I'm quite impressed with. My initial impression was that the photographed image was Photoshopped to improve the original result, however, it turns out there's no computer enhancement at all.

Interview Quote:

"I drop the figurine from the same height in complete darkness while the lens of the camera is open. When the figurine hits the ground, the sound triggers the lights to go off for a fraction of a second. I do this procedure many times or until I find the one frame that is just right. I keep just one such picture for every figurine. Every attempt yields a unique outcome, so I need to look for the one that best expresses a transformation of the figurine into a new form."

He has various other smashing subject matter, along with some other works, but I like the Chinese kung fu statues the best. His web page is here: http://www.martin-klimas.de/