Hey Snow White...

I tend to go a little line-heavy when I draw, almost to the point where shadows overtake the drawing, and values become hard to read. So, I drew a reminder for myself.


Songs:

Hey Snow White - The New Pornographers

Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Stevie Wonder

It's Alright - Huey Lewis and the News

The Kids are Alright - The Who

Frozen.

Illustration Friday! Frozen.

Songs:

(Baby It's So) Cold - The Apples in Stereo (HypeMachine)

Tenth Avenue Freeze Out - Bruce Springsteen

Cold Roses - Ryan Adams

Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin

Dante's Inferno. The Movie.

Recently I mentioned Sandow Birk. He recreated Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy with images and wrote/produced a film adaptation of the Inferno. I saw a screening of it back at Alfred, and was thoroughly impressed. Its the story of Dante's journey through the various circles of Hell, told with hand drawn puppets. The artistry is very detailed, using numerous puppets with different expressions for each character. I really like his style of drawing (gotta love line work), and the painstaking effort to set the story in the present. Check it out.

Songs:

La Damnation of Faust - Hector Berlioz

Requiem for O.M.M.2 - of Montreal

Requiem: Rex Tremendae - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Two Lost Souls - Gwen Verdon and Tab Hunter (From Damn Yankees, song starts at 3:15)

Bonus! Two Lost Souls - The Muppets: Sweetums and Robin (From Damn Yankees)

Draw Me Lines, Draw Me Sweet Little Lines

I recently discovered Micron Pens. They have absurdly tiny points, this one being a 005 pen. Great for detailed, Sandow Birk-esque drawings, although the pen didn't last too long (about a week and a half from usage and pressure).

Here are more of my Illustrations by Request Series... seahorses and shetland ponies.

Songs/Videos to Match:

Tell Me Lies - Fleetwood Mac

Bestia - Hello Seahorse

My Rifle, My Pony, and Me - Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson

The General Specific - Band of Horses

Dig a Pony - The Beatles

Did You See the Words?

I usually use this blog to talk about my own artwork, but I'd like to talk about some other artists and designers whose work I am excited about as well. Today's artist is Yulia Brodskaya, who's getting a lot of web-press for her beautiful and meticulous word-crafting (out of paper!). Thanks to the folks at Wooster Collective for showcasing her work. I like the way Yulia plays with negative space in her embellishments of simple words and phrases. It's old fashioned illuminated text re-wrought for the modern design world.

Songs:

Did You See the Words? - Animal Collective

Paper Planes - MIA

Paper Planes - I'm From Barcelona (not an MIA cover)

The Word - The Beatles

Everything Leads to Chuck Berry - Six Degrees of Music Separation, Part 2

Here's Part 2 of the Six Degrees of Music Separation Playlists. Today's list proves that everything relates to Chuck Berry, whether its Back to the Future or Lily Allen. All links lead to YouTube.

Chinese (Lily Allen Cover) - Capital Children's Choir

Naive (The Kooks Cover) - Lily Allen

Violet Hill (Coldplay Cover) - The Kooks

You Only Live Twice (Nancy Sinatra Cover) - Coldplay

Run for Your Life (The Beatles Cover) - Nancy Sinatra

Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry) - The Beatles

Know Your Onion! - Six Degrees of Music Separation, Part 1

I love cover songs. Standards are set, revisited, and transformed through covers. These interpretations can all be linked together by Six Degrees of Music Separation.
(Thanks to Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good for the idea.)

From Beck to Fleetwood Mac, All links lead to YouTube, unless noted:

Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games (of Montreal Cover) - Beck (HypeMachine)

Know Your Onion! (The Shins Cover) - of Montreal

We Will Become Silhouettes (The Postal Service Cover) - The Shins

Against All Odds (Peter Gabriel Cover) - The Postal Service

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend Cover) - Hot Chip and Peter Gabriel

Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac Cover) - Vampire Weekend

Illustrations by Request

I wanted to get back to drawing, and I like having an assignment to work on. I asked friends what they'd like me to sketch.

Here's the results of round one. An octopus, the chest-burst scene from Alien, potatoes in a frying pan, and the Chicken vs. Egg question.












Songs:

Octopus's Garden - The Beatles (YouTube)

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (YouTube)

Hello My Baby - Michigan J. Frog (YouTube)

A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off - The Magnetic Fields (imeem)

They're Found in Koala-walla Washington.

I made a koala bear cake. It is both delicious and awesome.

Songs:

Mahna Mahna - Cake

Australia - The Shins (YouTube)

Mr. Violin and Dancing Bear - Page France

Dancing Bear - The Mamas and the Papas (YouTube)

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear (YouTube)

Bros - Panda Bear