I stumbled across this user interface collection photo-set at flickr. There are some really lovely UI examples in here - 768 of ‘em! I shall be browing through them for some time.
I’m also getting a serious yen for a Munny to deface. The creativity people are bringing to bear on these little plastic blank canvases is amazing. There’s something really compelling in these bizarre and wonderful variations evolving from the same starting point.
I haven’t written an inspiration post for a while so, this month, I want to give a shout-out to one of my favourite artists, Bill Tiller.
One of the first games I played on Ye Olde Amiga was LucasArt’s Monkey Island, and it’s a game series entirely responsible for my addiction to point-and-click style adventures - and pirates! Bill was responsible for the layout art and look and feel of the third game, which moved away from the pixelated computer graphics to fully hand-drawn backgrounds and animation. The visuals in The Curse of Monkey Island are stunning, and it’s one of the few games I’ve ever replayed just to take screen-shots of the artwork.
I still call those swirly, stylised clouds ‘Monkey Island Clouds’ whenever I see anything akin to them in artwork.
I’m really excited to see that he’s founded a games company and is currently working on an adventure game called A Vampyre Story. The only thing better than pirates? Vampires! The initial concept art looks fantastic, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the completed game.
Bill Tiller Links:
Autumn Moon Entertainment
Interview at World of Monkey island
Interview at the SCUMM Bar
Yeah, everyone and their dog has heard of Mister James Jean, but that’s no reason not to heap even more kudos onto him. He makes me want to down all tools and never draw again, and yet, conversely, he inspires me to drawdrawdraw like there’s no tomorrow. Damn him. I think I might have to order his book. Don’t forget to check out his blog.
Joy Ang has carved out an almost James-Jean-esque style for herself, but it would really be doing her a disservice to compare her solely to Jean, as her work is gorgeous and entirely her own. Check out her recent work Terrorsel, and her step-by-step description of her process on that particular piece over on conceptart.org.
I remember being blown away by Wesley Burt’s sketch thread on conceptart.org years ago, and his recent work is just as gorgeous. Take a look at the old thread on CA and be amazed at how each and every page of his sketchbook is a complete work of art. He makes me want to eat his brain - in the very best and most polite way, of course.
I know! But I just saw an interesting documentary about his life, and I remembered watching Rolf’s Cartoon Club as a very small kid and the Rolf Harris drawing book I used to copy slavishly. Tony Hart always seemed faintly creepy to me, so Rolf was my childhood art idol. Yes, he’s cheesus maximus, and yes, his music is cringeworthy, but he seems genuinely lovely and he’s a hugely talented artist. I find it hard to believe that he simply quit painting for about ten years. His work may not be to everyone’s taste, but his enthusiasm for painting is infectious.
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In other news, I just sent off my application to the Black Church Print Studio’s spring screenprinting workshop. I know the demand for places is high, so here’s hoping I manage to get in. MmmScreenprinting.
Some artists kicking me in the inspiration pants at the moment:
His rendering just kills me, and there’s something so sublime and etheral about his subjects, composition and style. His portfolio makes me want to break out the paints and brushes and make a multi-layered mess of my sketchbook.
I’ve been a fan of his work for a while, but I only just stumbled across Red Bear Dead, his online experiment in world-building based on Russian folk-lore. This stuff is gorgeous.
Well, I’ve been crazy for Keane ever since I fell completely in love with his Beast (Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’) as a kid, but I just discovered a blog dedicated to finding and posting his artwork and I’m in heaven.
The use of colour in Jasinski’s juicy paintings is outstanding; check out the gorgeous skin-tones of his characters. This is the kind of artwork I could have of my wall and never get tired of looking at.
Bizarre, creepy and beautiful - like a more delicately rendered Robert Crumb.
I’ve become, erm, somewhat obsessed with traditional printmaking methods of late. I’m not sure what it is about the medium that I find so fascinating–you’d think the concept of multiple reproductions would be less compelling than one-off, original pieces of art, but prints are just…yummy. I hear The Complete Printmaker is the printing book to purchase, so I’ll be nabbing that this week, thanksverymuch.
Here’s a round-up of relief-printing-related links I’ve bookmarked:
Angie Lewin
Blair Kelly
Blue Chair Press
Evil Prints
Jeremy Speck
Kirsten Francis
Nathalie Roland
Rigby Graham
Two Eyeballs
Warren Criswell
Wetcanvas Printmaking Forum
Livejournal Printmakers
The Baren Forum
ESBQ Blockprinting Tutorial
Nathalie Roland’s Printmaking Tutorial
Ryusei Okamoto’s Woodcut Diary
EKU Linocut Instructions
Reduction Print Process
How to Make a Linocut
Daniel Smith
GraphicChemical
Mclain’s
Speedball
The Black Church Print Studio
Graphic Studio Dublin
Cork Printmakers
Limerick Printmakers
