thantophobia

September 30, 2008

It's not quite right but i'm getting there. The problem with such dark eyes as these is they lose all detail, the eye becomes a midnight black void and that verges on cartoony. Not good and usually i can avoid it but my skills are still fairly rusty. Excuses excuses. I just suck right now and the pupil/iris is far too big!

The reason for the baby eyes (which i never finish it would seem), is that i am in the midst of researching children's feelings towards shuffling off this mortal coil. Not easy to find out, may i add. It's all to do with my project on the moment of death using deconstructive portraiture to somehow portray it - an almost impossible feat, but one i continue to pursue.
What i'm trying to do is create the details of somebody, the features that make up a history and make them precise but then fade them away/block them from view. Sometimes aggressively, sometimes gently. Who knows, but i wanted to use children to begin with because there's a potential history there, a clean slate which makes them look almost serene. Y'know babies, when they're happy they're really happy. They've got no conscious constraint on their feelings. They're honest. Yes, honest, that's what it took me a paragraph to say. I suck.
Thus why i am trying desperately to get my pernickety attention to detail back as soon as possible. Otherwise, my tutor may scowl at me and i don't want her to, she's such a lovely American lady.

I'd forgotten how much i like being on buses, with tunes and a good book. Alone time. I forgot to buy The Edukators though. Idiot.



arthur russell - this is how we walk on the moon

jedes herz ist eine revolutionäre zelle

September 28, 2008

"Every heart is a revolutionary cell"

Have you ever felt better for having seen a film?
Every now and then i get to.
I've been trying to see The Edukators for at least 3 years now and i really wasn't let down last night when i finally did. Bless film 4 and its rare showings of fantastic films. I was absolutely knackered and really considered missing out on it but after five minutes i was pretty much done for. It has reaffirmed my love of German cinema (FOPP, how i miss your collection!), now to buy it and more filmic wonders featuring Daniel Bruhl. Goodbye Lenin! was the origin of my adoration and already sits in my shelves along with The Bourne Ultimatum.

On October 9th, his latest film Krabat will be released in Germany and it fills me with geeky glee to know it'll be out there. If you have a love of world cinema and fantasy, i recommend you seek this out.

You can see the trailer for it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNaZICIRw04
But a better quality version can be found here, however without subtitles: http://www.krabat-blog.de/blog/trailer/

Now i'm itching to buy more foreign films, dammit.

I should have some new work for here soon, just trying to remember how to draw people in the mean time. Someone kick my arse next Summer and make me work please?



ben e. king - stand by me

insect lab

September 25, 2008

Mike Libby's creations.

Beautiful or cruel?

Guillermo Del Toro would absolutely adore them, i'm sure.








watching: the book group

homemovies

September 24, 2008

Works by Gottfried Helnwein. Quite possibly my new hero.
Most of my day was full of this wonderful man and his photo-real, thoughtful and intellectual images. Just the combination i have been searching for and until now, ceased to discover. If i can get my work to be even a millimetre close to Helnwein's, then this year of university will take me just that bit closer to my current goal, which is almost exactly the same as the man's in question.
I don't think i've enjoyed research this much since Francis Bacon or Max Beckmann. Last year's sketchbook work was way too morbid to 'enjoy', i learnt a hell of a lot about the deceased though...
I like this part of studying. Filling my sketchbooks with anecdotes, theories, facts, images, quotes, poetry, lyrics, sketches and random crap that has nothing to do with my project. It's great to look back on and use again.

One of my favourite things occurred today. When two things combine and become influential on my memory and enjoyment by complete coincidence. It happened with DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little and Sufjan Steven's Illinoise, i refuse to read Vernon without Sufjan. And now it has happened with Gottfried Helnwein and Kings of Leon's Only By The Night - which i have played so much today it has risen from 8th place in my most listened to bands on last.fm, to 2nd place =]
I used to love this band but now, now i love this band. People who are whinging about how they've lost their raw edge...wheesht. Just wheesht. Shut up and enjoy the fucking beauty.



kings of leon - notion

i've been roaming around

September 23, 2008

Studio K, Marcos Rey aka piel de papal, Denis Peterson, Mircea Suciu, Sarah Ferrick's illustration for Josh Tierney's story, The Light in Glass Flowers


These are just a few of the artworks that have been giving me envy pangs lately.
I'm all for hyperrealism being just a skill thing but what a mindblowing skill. Denis Peterson and Marcos Rey put me to shame. Do, however, have a look at Marcos Rey's website in particular, it's one of the nicest i've seen in a long time.

Third year is looking to be not too shabby, even though i had a near fit at some of the stupid things they're asking us to partake in but altogether not too shabby, indeed.
And finally, a tutor that gets what i'm talking about and isn't obsessed with painting! Ace.



kings of leon - use somebody

rattling bones

September 20, 2008

"Remember the light and believe the light, an instant of clarity before eternal night."

- The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Zane: Sex On Fire, it's a bold title!?
Caleb: Yeah, bold title. You know, we're getting so old we try to make people think we still have the sex drives that we did from years passed.
Zane: You're just trying to make up for all the unbridled honesty on the second record man, you're just like, you know, after a song like Soft you've gotta come out with Sex On Fire, you've gotta redeem yourselves man!
Caleb: Yeah, you know, I mean I think a lot of people expect a certain element of sex to our music and just kinda wanted to wrap it all up in the one song. There's appearances of sex throughout the record but this is the most blatant I would say...It just came from a melody I kinda wrote when I was at home kinda recovering from surgery and I knew the melody but I didn't know what I was gonna say and so we were in rehearsal one day, and i said "Your sex is on fire" and I thought it was absolutely ridiculous but the other guys thought it was a hook and I was like "Come on, man, I'm gonna have to be singing about someone's fiery sex for years man, thanks!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lELj_dO7OPs&NR=1
They get more love from me than most of my treasured bands
Loveable hick music magicians

Here now



anberlin - a day late

wake the earth

September 17, 2008

I actually cannot wait! =]

A few things that made me happy today:

One. Jools Holland is back!
Two. Colin Murray's last.fm
Three. The Black Keys covering Captain Beefheart



scott matthews - passing stranger

© the swearwolf review. Design by FCD.