Ramblings Of Different Sorts: July 2012

Saturday 28 July 2012

#9: Connect Them Dots

I came across one particular video one day of an artist, Miguel Endara, who used 3.2 million, I repeat, MILLION, ink dots to draw a portrait of his father. The amount of time, patience and obviously, creative talent, that was involved when he came up with that astounding piece of art is highly inspiring.

Endara dubbed the video The Making of "Hero", and throughout that 2 minutes, we witness how a blank piece of paper is slowly filled out with ink dots to form a face of a person. At the start of the video, Endara merely draws a very simple outline of his father's face and then later proceeds to filling the outlines with millions and millions of ink dots. His attention to detail, particularly the spacing between the dots which produces different shades within the portrait to create the eyebrows, the wrinkles, even the stubble of his father's beard and moustache, accentuates the contours of a face just shows how much heart has gone into the making of that portrait. The final product is an extremely realistic portrait of his old man. This video has shown me that art takes time, dedication and passion.

Even the way the video was created also showed a form of simplistic creativity by the way of counting the number of dots as the portrait was being drawn and it highlighted the method the artist use to come up with different shades within the portrait itself.

The Making of "Hero" from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

References :

Miguel Endara. (2012). The Making of "Hero" on Vimeo. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/33091687

Wednesday 18 July 2012

#8: Being Crazy Isn't Enough

Some of us would know most of the catchy and memorable books written by Dr. Seuss and know by heart which quote belongs to which book and even which character said that particular quote. His published collection of children's books are often remembered thanks to its imaginative characters, subtle moralities and most importantly, the way the book is written in rhymes.

To name a few, Dr Seuss' bestselling children's books include Green Eggs and Ham, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who! and The Cat in the Hat.

All of these books consists of stories told in rhymes as well funny and imaginative characters, quotes and story line. What all of his books have in common in terms of illustrations is simplicity, be it the way the characters are drawn or the colours of the illustrations, simplicity is what also captures our attention.

Dr Seuss' books mostly consists of characters he dubbed the Whos' and he himself came up with the illustrations of how a Who looks like. Recurrent in books like Horton Hears A Who! and How The Grinch Stole Christmas, the Whos' just add to the what makes his books what it is.

What I find most creative about all of his books are the quotes one can find. The quotes incorporated within the rhyming sentences in Dr Seuss' books are like a summary of what the book is all about. These quotes have somehow managed to define what most of us feel inside, be it the weirdness in us and how we should be true to ourselves, that the people that matter don't mind and the people who mind don't matter, Dr Suess' play on words and the meaning these rhymes bring says out loud the moralities that we tend to overlook.

"You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book." - Dr Seuss

Tuesday 10 July 2012

#7: Creative Advertising

Nowadays, we are bombarded by companies advertising their various products or services and in order to "stay in the game", companies have to come up with creative ways of catching people's attention. I came across several advertisements through the net and, honestly, the humour injected into the advertisements were what caught my attention. These advertisements below prove that a little humour goes a long way and has a unique way of getting the message across.

Bergmann funeral service advertisement

Australia Post: If you really want to touch someone, send them a letter

Glassex - For Good Magicians

These advertisements screams creativity and it shows us that sometimes, we have to take a step back and look at the humorous side of things.

"Humour is a great vehicle for getting a message across. If you get too serious, you could die of starch." - Cyndi Lauper

References:

70 Creative Advertisements That Make You Look Twice. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/70-creative-advertisements-that-makes-you-look-twice/

Friday 6 July 2012

#6: Oh Bother!

Who could forget that little quote, made famous by a character called Winnie the Pooh, created by A.A. Milne.

While rearranging my bookshelves this week, I came across my collection of illustrated Winnie the Pooh books. As I flipped through each and every book, getting all nostalgic over the times when I used to read the books everyday, I couldn't help but be fascinated with the illustrations within the book. The illustrations in the Winnie the Pooh books reminded me of yet another book I had, illustrated by the same person who illustrated the Winnie the Pooh book, which was the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

The illustrations done by E.H. Shepard brought to life Pooh Bear, Piglet, Tigger, Ratty, Mole, Mr Toad and all the other characters unique to the books with his illustrations. His illustrations were part of what made these books so memorable. His special talent in illustrating human-like animals made it easier for readers, young and old alike, to visualize just how the characters would look like.

What inspired me most about the illustrations was that its simplicity conveyed such beautiful imagery and one would just have to glance at one illustration and know for sure who the characters and the person who illustrated them were. Such creativity in coming up with the idea of a drawing and the actual artwork produced through a simple technique of line drawing highlights the personalities of the individual characters. E.H. Shepard's masterful, scratchy line drawings immortalized each and every character and his illustrations in Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows are his most notable work.

"I'm going to make an animal out of you, my boy!" - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

References :

The Wind in the Willows. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/sets/72157621161267554/with/3703646743/

The Original Winnie-the-Pooh Drawings. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/sets/72157610318114895/with/3065949751/

Sunday 1 July 2012

#5: Paper Engineering

So as a part of an assignment for one of my classes, my group mates and I had to come up with a children's storybook. After brainstorming for ideas for the storyline and concept for the book, we decided to use pop-ups in our book.

Yeah yeah it's so cliche for us to use pop-ups in a children's storybook but we've come across so many amazing works of art through children's storybooks. The illustrations used and the intricate details that goes into their pop-ups are what makes these children's books special.

I stumbled across some amazing videos that showcased several designs for pop-ups and it's amazing how something can look so simple to the point that we tend to overlook the amount of effort that goes into the creation of the designs and also the complexity of the execution of the pop-ups.

Johann Volkmer came up with several pop-up designs for his final year project and I was blown away at the intricateness of his designs. His creativity in coming up with what at a first glance may seem simple but is in fact a complicated form of paper engineering is simply astounding.

Repeating what I mentioned earlier, we have the tendency to overlook just how complicated some pop-ups really are and we also don't take into account how much time and effort has gone into the creation and execution of these pop-ups. The pictures below show the different dimensions and complexities of a few of Volkmer's works of art.