Monday, March 29, 2010

The Paint and the Pendulum

The Paint and the Pendulum, post.


One day I will get a large studio to mess around with crazy stuff like this (and unlike this too).

Digital mag, and 3D house

I linked to this video before. Very slick indeed.

Here's a Making Of. Quite interesting. For example, the whole building was made in CGI, I think it looks great. (Not like I would have done it, but it looks very real, and the look has impact.)

Domai art Contest Two

After countless requests, here's the second Domai art contest.

I can't believe it's been six years!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Infinite canvas

Scott McCloud writes about comics set free from the restraints of the paper page.

Related, here's a beautiful "comic" with text by Neil Gaiman and art by Jouni Koponen. This is one of the few examples I have seen of the truth of a belief I've long had: that text and pictures can be combined in many more artistic ways than we have seen traditionally.
(A less pretty, but impactful other story by the same authors: Babycakes.)

Reciprocating Dingle Arm

"The turboencabulator has now reached a high level of development, and it's being successfully used in the operation of novatronions."

From email:
Years ago, Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy duty transmission business. They were getting ready to tape a first introduction video, and, as a warm up, the professional narrator began what has become a legend within the trucking industry. This was strictly off the cuff & nothing was written down.

Semicolon

TCGirl is campaigning for semicolons; she found this page.
A semicolon normally just don't occur to me; it's a beautiful and funny page though, and sold as a poster.

Cliches

It's so sad how most of the world is stuck in cliches. For example I just saw a link for an Asian porn site, and before it loaded, I knew exactly how it would look, because they all look exactly the same. Seriously, it's so monotone that it's soul-deadening.
Of course that's not just true for Asian sites, but this just struck me forcefully.

Reality is dead

... But then it maybe never really existed.



Not only that, art is dead too:

Art brainstorm

OK, dear reader, you are hereby appointed as member of my Brain Trust. You know, like the janitors on Scrubs.
So let's have a brainstorm.

In the nineties I made and sold quite a lot of paintings and drawings. I'd like to get back to that. And of course I want to use the Net instead of schlepping art around the county, that gets tired.

There are various options:
  1. I could make digital art and sell it only electronically.
  2. I could make digital art and sell prints, printed by myself or outsourced.
  3. I could make physical paintings or drawings.
I don't think anybody yet has had success with selling digital fine art as digital files. I don't know, this would require a good plan and perhaps a twist. (By twist I mean, perhaps the art is a comic too, or illustrations to an ebook, or...)

If I outsource printing of digital art, I can't sign them. But they could be sold pretty cheap. Quality might be an issue.

On the other hand, I have a feeling that people who buy fine art mostly want originals, or at least something signed. But this introduces shipping. I have and could use UPS. This is a good option, but a bit expensive, and I have to be home for pickup and so on.
I could use the post office, but then I either have to use a lot of time on it, or use the local mail box, and that one won't even take an A4 (8x12") envelope without folding. And a 15cm by 20cm drawing is awfully small, donchathink? (Although actually, Duane Keiser is successful selling very tiny (like 3x4 inches) paintings. I could do it, but I'd prefer to also have a solution for A4 and A3 sizes.)

So what do you think? Lemme hear your ideas, good and bad, crazy and nuts, nuts and bolts, nuts and raisins, nuts and soup.

-----
Update:
It's irritating that mail boxes (and slots) are so incredibly tiny here in UK. In Denmark they are much larger, and an Italian artist friend of mine writes (after I told how my local box won't fit a stiff A4 letter):
Weird. Most of my watercolors are A4 or slightly larger. I ship them as letters using priority mail. I put the art between two very heavy sheets of cardboard, and inside a mylar bag (like those used by comic collectors) just in case it rains.
If I have to ship an even larger piece such as a canvas or large watercolor, I make sure the support is flexible and I roll it up and ship it in a cardboard tube as a "small packet" (slightly more expensive). [...]
I do the art based on the shipping methods available, not the other way around.

Digitalink said:
Forgive my hectoring tone. I am not a purchaser of fine art prints (that is those with a high price tag) but if I was, I would not buy without a certificate from the print maker detailing the production method (including the substrate, ink set, and life expectancy).
That last comment is a sad indication of what fine art prints are really about. Perhaps artistic grocery bags are the way to go.

Indeed. It was only quite late that I discovered that there are two very different art markets: the market for those who like the art. And the market for those investing in art.
Of course there's overlap, even in the mind of the individual buyer sometimes. But personally I've decided that the "high end" gallery market, where things are bought mainly on hope of later financial gain, is silly.

PS editing

It seems that half the commenters on Mike's blog are against the spectacular new editing capabilities coming up in Photoshop. They seem to think it ruins the "truthfulness" of photography or something. Many say it's "creepy" and words to that effect. I don't really get it. If a pole is in the way when you photograph, you move a bit so it's out of the frame. If a wall is there so you can't move enough, you can remove it in Photoshop. I don't see any major difference.
This is just another tool, and a great one.

Snagit

Thanks to James for recommending the screen capture app Snagit, which is now in beta for the Mac (existed for years on Windoze). I'm trying it, and it's excellent. It can auto-scroll and capture a tall web page in one shot. And there are various and very easy ways of putting on comments on a screen capture, and formats to save it in, including PDF, where the added text is selectable.

(This is scaled down by Blogger, but you can download a 11MB file here, with both the PDF and the JPG versions in full size.)

Emirates Airbus A-380

This is the way to fly.
Although, considering what they charge for normal first class, where the only advantages I can see are more leg space and free drinks, I shudder to think...
Then again, if Allah has seen fit to bless you and your family with black gold in the ground worth more than you could ever give away, who gives a f... ?