Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham was an artist that specialized in children's illustrated books. His work is from the 1900's up to the 1930's. When I was in university I used him as a starting point for a semester of research. I initially wanted research him, but then got sidetracked and started learning about the Victorians, earlier children's books, the Pre-raphaelites, and William Morris. I ended up writing my report on Victorian artist, designer and childrens illustrator: Walter Crane. I used to collect fairy tale books, and Rackham's illustrations were my favourite. I loved the strong dark lines and muted colours.

Kris Lewis

I love the oil paintings of Kris Lewis. They look like they were painted in another era; the backgrounds and landscapes remind me of renaissance paintings. The paintings feel illustrated; like they're part of a story that you're just catching a glimpse of. None of the folk have modern, teeth-smiling happy faces. They show confusion, uncertainty, like they're in the middle of a thought.

Below are some details:

Urban Decay

I stumbled upon Opacity's website many years ago. I find myself drawn to the photos - I feel like my reaction SHOULD be "this is garbage; this place should be torn down". But instead, my reaction is "Wow, this place is beautiful", and "This space should be preserved."

You can tell the photographer loves these sights. He takes the time to explore, to light the areas. The photographer tries to preserve the location and honor the history of the sites. Whenever I visit the website, I stay for at least an hour. I find the stories of the locations fascinating, and I'm drawn to the history.

I'd love to share these photos with students, but I'm wary - I don't want to end up promoting "breaking and entering", and I'd never want a student to have an accident while pursuing this activity.

Geeks & Games

I grew up playing video games - (a bit unusual for my generation). I had multiple atari's, and my dad always figured we should know computers, so we had "the latest" computers of the time, featuring 4 colours.  The games were very basic, and the characters left much to the imagination. But I now find myself drawn to what's become known as 8-bit graphics. Its that old-school, blocky characters (think early mario or zelda).

I'm creating a plastic-canvas iPad case. This is the pattern I designed.

The great thing is, there are many ways that these can be incorporated into an art project. Quilting & cross-stitching both use the square as a starting shape. I've also noticed an increase in "geeky culture". Theres now clothing and accessories designed for adults. While I may not be comfortable enough to wear it, I admire the style.

I attended a printmaking workshop last year. This was one of the prints I created.

Imaginism Studios

Imaginism Studios is a group of highly talented artists that specialize in pre-production visualizations and children's book illustrations. They're also running a really cool artist school called Schoolism. These artists have worked for the likes of Disney, Sony, and Warner. Bobbi Chu has written an awesome book on how to become an artist called "The Perfect Bait" (available for download from the iTunes app store). I love pictures that tell a story, and these guys are pros!

They also have an app that allows you to download their printed sketchbooks; I've picked up a few of them. I love seeing the raw sketches, and learning about what the artist was doing while they were sketching.

You know what else is awesome? They're based in CANADA! Toronto, actually. But still cool.

Where do you get your ideas?

There are many news sites and blogs I follow and check on a regular basis.

Photojojo: They're in the business of making photography fun. They send newsletters with nifty photo assignments, and have a marvelous crafty book showing what you can do with the photos after you've taken them. Many of my GD11 photo assignments are inspired by them. Their photo store has tons of cool gadgets too!

Petapixel: News on photography, interviews with photographers. Their blog is always interesting.

The Fox Is Black: This site sparked the idea for creating my blog. Features artists and designers.

Pugly Pixel: I love this blogs tutorials! And the posts are on design and photography.

Curbly: I was recently introduced to this do-it-yourself design site. There's many projects I'm interested in trying.

Current Projects

This past Christmas I challenged myself to make all my presents. I started mid-October, and finished the last one Christmas Eve. I've been learning how to knit, and I found a couple gift-able patterns at my skill level. I also made a couple paintings. My plans are to start much earlier this year, and to always have projects I can work on. Below is a portrait painted onto a wooden button, then turned into a Christmas ornament.

I've set a few project goals for myself this year:

1. I want to learn how to cable-knit and knit multi-color. (Ravelry.com has tons of free patterns)

2. I'd like to learn how to program (because a long-term goal of mine is to make a video-game). I'm taking programming lessons from Codeacademy.com

3. Social projects. Friends and I are making the commitment to get together at least once a month to try new crafts/art techniques. So far we've made mounted deer head sculptures and shirt stencils.

4. Photo-a-Day: I'm taking part in a website where the group of us have challenged ourselves to post one photo a day for a year. I've been enjoying this so far this year.http://photoseachday.tumblr.com/