Monday night was a blast at Gypsy Cafe on the South Side. It was an evening of humorous comic book heroines and even a hero. Bios were read, poses were struck, and I was able to capture a couple sketches. I can’t recall all of the models names, so I apologize, but here are a couple sketches from the evening.
Here is a little gif animation from my archives.
I created it back somewhere in 03 – 04.
Kinda cute… I thought.
Pittsburgh being home to a few zombie movies, it was a natural fit for the Dr. Sketchy that ensued. Wholesome flesh eating fun for the whole family. Thanks to all the models, Dr. Sketchy, Zombo and AIP.
Bundhosen – Check.
Pencil Roll – Check.
Sketch Pad – Check.
Sharpener – Wheres my sharpener?
Dull pencils would have to do for the night…
Things started of with the 2 minute speed sketches…its a real kick in the butt.
There was a bit more sketchiness, then Paige Turner danced. I am always amazed with her choreography, costuming and presentation. Awesome Stuff! Tonight was another stellar piece of work. I’m always a bit mesmerized with the fluidity of it all, especially the previous fan dance.
A Quick Political Game – Draw who you support as a zombie
The zombies kept coming…
And then it was over.
After being invited into a Fantasy Hockey League, I figured predraft was a perfect time to give my team a flavor.
I used the Yahoo hockey helm as guidline and slapped my own art work on the side.
Without further adieu… I give you the Kalamazoo Llamas.
The bricks are a little salute to Marc-Andre Fleury.
Another great sketchy, this one taking place out at the Gypsy Cafe on the South Side. I love every opportunity to bounce around to local arts related establishments. DJ Zombo kicked the tunes and all the monkeys cranked out some sketches.
Here are just a few from the evening…
Working with type every day, I figured it would be groovy to post a couple fontastic links to my fellow droogies.
A fun little game, testing a little bit of your typeface knowledge: Font Game.
Cant figure one out? Use this dandy little tool: What The FONT!?.
My first stop to check out fonts: Abstract Fonts.
A little place to compare profile of fonts: Typetester.
If you haven’t already listened to any of the TED Conference presentations, I encourage you to hop over to TED.com and check them out. I watched quite a few and all of them were quite excellent and engaging. There are talks about mushrooms to the intelligence of crows (I love crows), so I’m certain there is something in there for everyone.
Here are a few of my favorites as they relate to the “arts”…
Art
Siegfried Woldhek: Shows how he found the true face of Leonardo
Leonardo revealed… ’nuff said.
Ron Eglash: On African fractals
I love Fractal Generators: Oxidizer (mac), Apophysis (pc). Dont let those sites fool you either, Check out the programs. I never really understood all of the math behind them, until Eglash walked through the process. Very cool to see the equation based African villages.
Chris Jordan: Pictures some shocking stats
Scary stuff.
Sculpture/Engineering
Theo Jansen: Creates new creatures
Magnificent creatures. The thought behind these is so great. I would like to see someone animate a horde of these things marching into battle against man. These critters would actually be fun to procedurally rig in 3D, so that they could just get pushed along an axis and fully animate. One of these days…
There is only one fault in his plan to set these things loose on the beaches. Kids will want to ride them, throw rocks, break off limbs, or light them on fire, yah know… kid stuff.
Arthur Ganson: Makes moving sculpture
He shows his intense moving sculptures, my favorite being the walking man, but the exploding chair is also quite beautiful. Art and engineering collide.
Design
Ross Lovegrove: Shares organic designs
I look to the elegance of nature for a lot of things. The thought of nature being optimized was of particular interest. I have looked at this for a little while and Lovegrove presents a lot of great references to micro-structures that I really didn’t look into much before.
The form to that water bottle is exceptional as well. Great stuff.
Architecture
Moshie Safdie: On building uniqueness
Even though this one is on architecture, it really got me thinking on abstract concepts, and reinforcement on approaching each endeavor like you are doing it for the first time. When you get into the “grind” of things, it just comes as second nature or formulaic to follow a thought process. In doing that, there is the chance that you may miss a greater opportunity for exploration. Be unconventional.
Norman Foster: Green Agenda
This is a longer speech, clocking in at 32 minutes…
Playing Sim City a bit growing up probably fueled a lot of my interest in architecture and over all space planning. I had sketchbooks filled with concept houses, citygrids, floorplans, down to my attempts at a 1 room multiuse house/space (something amazingly cost efficient).
This struck a nerve (good nerve) with me, when he says “These are the new cathedrals”, because I have had the same conversations with friends about where are sense of architecture is going. Stripmalls and Wal-Mart megacenters don’t exactly paint an awe inspired gaze on your face. He goes on to say that the new airports and public buildings are taking the position for architectural experience. For the most part, it is a bit depressing to see a lot of the old styles go by the wayside, but as materials, needs, and styles change we will move forward.
Also, here is one that doesn’t relate to the Arts because he is too awesome to not include…
Stephen Hawking: Asks big questions about the universe
There are new speeches added all the time, so there is plenty to see.
Enjoy.
I had a chance to stop out to Future Tenant tonight for Dr. Sketchy Pittsburgh. Its headed up by Joe Wos curator of the Toonseum and this local installment is a part of the greater Dr. Sketchy Anti-Art School.
It was a pretty great time, really my first time figure drawing since… High School (Which accounted to all of 2 sketches). While I have drawn for quite a few years, I have mainly drawn from imagination or nature, lots of trees… birds, bees, that sort of thing. While drawing males without reference or monsters comes naturally to me, the female form is less tangible. In the past I have found myself turning every reference picture into a form of androgyny. I let it rest at that for many years, but I feel it is time to conquer my inept scribblings of the opposite sex…
Featuring the fashion stylings of Vontinka, here are a few of my renderings from the evening…
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While visiting Norway, I stumbled across a book whose face captured me…
The piece was “Limbo”, by Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum… whose name is a little hard to forget, especially after seeing his work.
As you burrow through his gallery, you may stumble on a few pieces which are a little “odd” (sorry), but every single one is beautiful. The dark alien feel sucks you right into the paintings and the ethereal, ghostly appearance haunt you. Personally I found his “Void” series to be my favorite, while the “Lack of Darkness” series is less dark (go fig), yet just as distant.
His work was also referenced in the y2k film “The Cell”. The filmmakers cut Nerdrum’s “Dawn” into a pretty eerie scene…
For more, visit his site at www.nerdrum.com
I recently watched the HBO Documentary “The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale”. It was a very good documentary, and it opened me up to his work. Chuck has a very interesting style, and I personally was drawn toward a lot of his Scaboda pieces. They are the pieces that were painted by his alter-ego which can be easily identified by a black dot as the signature. A few of the favorites that I saw in the documentary, I wasn’t able to locate on his gallery, but there is quite a cross section of his work within.
Visit his site at www.chuckconnelly.com
Below are a few to whet your appetite. Enjoy!
“Trojan Rocking Horse”
“Artist and Model”
“Gold City”
