Shared posts

01 Dec 04:40

Monsted's painterly suggestion of foliage

by James Gurney
If all you saw was this reproduction by Danish painter Peder Mørk Mønsted (1859-1941), you might think it was finished to some fussy level of photographic detail.

But a super close-up shows a joyous riot of thick paint handling.

Realism can be achieved by suggestion, and one of the joys of painting is the balance between the material properties of paint and the illusion of light, air, and depth.
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Peder Mørk Mønsted on Wikipedia
Previous posts that mention Monsted

19 Nov 17:50

Toddler Napping With His Adopted Two-Month-Old Puppy

by Justin Page

Toddler Napping With Puppy

Momma’s Gone City blogger Jessica Shyba has taken an adorable series of photos of her adopted two-month-old puppy Theo cuddled up and napping with her toddler Beau. They are best buds.

We found Theo tucked together with his two siblings in the back yard of the Santa Cruz SPCA. Big Bird-as he was named at the shelter-was the shyest of them all to meet us, though he bounded instantly into Beau’s lap as soon as he entered their pen. The look on his little furry face was enough to seal the deal for me, we had met our newest family member.

On his third day with us, Theo fell asleep on Beau and I as I rocked him down for his afternoon nap. I was practically howling at the cuteness-and nearly woke them both up. Each day, Theo meets us at naptime and waits patiently for Beau to fall asleep. By that time, he’s also sleepy, so when I hoist him onto our bed, he stumbles over to Beau and plops right down on top of him. And there they sleep, entwined, for at least two hours.

Toddler Napping With Puppy

Toddler Napping With Puppy

Toddler Napping With Puppy

Toddler Napping With Puppy

images via mommasgonecity

via Bored Panda

15 Nov 21:46

Chiro the Corgi Shakes His Fluffy Butt

by Kimber Streams

Chiro the Corgi shakes his fluffy butt while waiting for his owner to throw a ball in this funny video by Man Taketyan.

Corgi Butt

Corgi Butt

GIFs via Generic Gaming

via Generic Gaming, Corgiaddict, Daily Picks and Flicks

15 Nov 19:46

Shoot for the Moon

Shoot for the Moon. If you miss, you'll end up co-orbiting the Sun alongside Earth, living out your days alone in the void within sight of the lush, welcoming home you left behind.
12 Nov 18:53

Cascading Style Simpsons (CSS)

by Jason Kottke

Chris Pattle has constructed Simpsons characters completely out of CSS.

Simpsons CSS

We've come a long way from #cccccc and the Simpson No-Nos.

Simpsons No Nos

Tags: Chris Pattle   CSS   The Simpsons   web development
22 Oct 19:11

Assorted links

by Tyler Cowen
16 Oct 20:07

Photographer Shoots Selfies of Her Pregnancy’s Progression

by Rusty Blazenhoff

1 2

For “Proyecto Pyokko,” freelance photographer Sophie Starzenski of Buenos Aires, Argentina shot selfies in a mirror showing her pregnancy’s progression. She describes the project as “40 weeks and a mirror” and ends it with a photo of her and her little baby boy Simon.

3 4

56

78

9 10

via The Huffington Post, Visual News

08 Oct 18:00

Forsaken Artforms

25 Sep 16:50

And Are We and Are We

by Thomas Beckwith
Piers Boericke Rippey

horse_ebooks 4ever

Now that Horse_ebooks as we knew it is dead (or alive, depending on your viewpoint), the Internet is convening to pay tribute to the Dadaist masterpiece. At Slate, Will Oremus opines that the feed was “pretty great” even when it was a spambot, while at The Globe and Mail, Navneen Alang argues that it’s “more wonderful today, not less.”

14 Sep 03:42

Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, and Elmo Photographed Together in Times Square

by Rusty Blazenhoff

Elmo

Sir Patrick Stewart shared a photo on Twitter of himself standing in New York City’s Times Square with Sir Ian McKellen and a furry human-sized Elmo.

image via Patrick Stewart

via Gothamist

06 Sep 20:13

Feisty Sheep Tries to Teach a Young Bull How to Headbutt

by Kimber Streams

A determined and feisty sheep tries to teach a young bull how to headbutt in this video taken by MrLive123456 on Terceria Island.

via Say OMG

02 Sep 17:28

Bee Orchid

In sixty million years aliens will know humans only by a fuzzy clip of a woman in an Axe commercial.
20 Aug 04:37

Deluge ends painting day

by James Gurney
Water media and a rainstorm don't mix, as I learned on a recent painting excursion.


(Direct link to video)


Here's the painting, which is a mixture of casein and watercolor. The fun of this subject for me was the contrast between the comprehensibility and order of the right half of the scene and the strange abstract patterns on the left.

Even without the issues of the rainy weather, it was a mind-bending challenge to reconcile the view seen through the glass with the second world reflected in the glass, especially because the glass was old and wavy. Had I been working from a photo, these worlds would be brought to the same focal plane, but not so when painting from direct observation.

I hope you'll stay tuned tomorrow for the DVD/download release, and please subscribe to my YouTube channel to get the new releases first.
11 Aug 23:11

Walmart's worst nightmare

by Jason Kottke

WinCo is an Idaho-based grocery chain that frequently beats Walmart on price while providing health care benefits for any employee working over 24 hours a week as well as an annual pension.

While all of these factors help WinCo compete with Walmart on price, what really might scare the world's largest retailer is how WinCo treats its employees. In sharp contrast to Walmart, which regularly comes under fire for practices like understaffing stores to keep costs down and hiring tons of temporary workers as a means to avoid paying full-time worker benefits, WinCo has a reputation for doing right by employees. It provides health benefits to all staffers who work at least 24 hours per week. The company also has a pension, with employees getting an amount equal to 20% of their annual salary put in a plan that's paid for by WinCo; a company spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman that more than 400 nonexecutive workers (cashiers, produce clerks, and such) currently have pensions worth over $1 million apiece.

Tags: business   Walmart   WinCo
28 Jul 23:24

Your sketchbook covers

by James Gurney
A couple weeks ago, I did a post about decorating sketchbooks covers, and asked you to send in some of yours. Check out the awesome responses:

Gilead, who used to be a sign painter, says "I've kind of fallen out of the habit, but here's a couple from a few years ago. They're cloth covered 9 X 12" books. I did an under coat in flat white house paint and then used pens, charcoal and acrylics on top of that."

Steve Gilzow kept an illustrated journal when he had a residency in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. He did the lettering with Sanford paint/gel pens, which he said did not stand up well to repeated handling.


Emma B explains how she did these numbered sketchbooks (VII, 8, 9, X):

"My process was to get a black and white drawing prepared, make a print of it at just above sketchbook size, then paint the back of the paper with rubber cement. After that, I'd cut most of the big parts with an Exact-o knive and put it on the cover of the sketchbook, where because of the rubber cement it adhered readily. Once the smaller parts were cut out and all parts to be painted were removed and rubber cement cleared off, I painted the stencils with a durable white primer spray paint...."
 
"...Remove the stencil, clear remaining rubber cement and they were ready to go. The only issue I had with this technique was that it was time consuming to do all the cutting, and that the bright white of the spray paint would tend to get a little dirty with heavy usage and daily handling. I started making loose outer covers of paper to throw away once the sketchbook was fully sketched in order to keep the cover designs clean." She says the "9INE" design was by Cody Tilson and the "10" design was by Chad Paulin.



Finally, Joyce Durkin writes: "I use different sketchbooks for different subjects. I always had the notion to paint or decorate the covers and a few years ago I finally tried one. This sketchbook has a cloth cover, so I was able to use oil paints on it. I used masking tape around the edges, applied a few coats of gesso, painted a scene, and then varnished it. I used a metallic pen for the title."
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Previously: Titles on Sketchbook Covers
One of my first lettered covers for group sketching games, done with a gold paint pen.
28 Jul 06:55

Ten Thousand Days, Comedy Short About a Man Who Believes He Will Die on His 10,000th Day

by EDW Lynch

“Ten Thousand Days” is a dark comedy short about a man who believes he is cursed to die on his 10,000th day, but when the day arrives things don’t go as planned. The film was written and directed by New Zealand-based filmmaker Michael Duignan.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips