Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Disturbing
There's a creepy-yet-brilliant Tumblr site called The Composites that uses law enforcement composite sketch software and the original author descriptions to create images of famous literary creations. We think the final results are generally more appropriate for Halloween than Valentine's Day, but who knows? Maybe someone reading this will think the composite version of Jane Eyre's Mr. Rochester is just as dreamily Byronic as they'd always imagined him to be:  Or not. [Via Flavorwire] Labels: Art, Classic books, Such wrongness
Thursday, January 05, 2012
Designer assistance with your 2012 resolutions
 If you're looking for help with your New Year's resolutions, the To Resolve Project offers a collection of downloadable designer wallpapers—including Matt McCraken's utterly awesome "Read More" design—to help us all stay strong in 2012. Labels: Art
Monday, December 12, 2011
A worthy sacrifice
The always-entertaining design blog Swiss-Miss recently introduced me to Isaac G. Salazar's "Book of Art" pieces. Behold:  Pretty amazing, huh? Being me, I immediately wondered how you could dust something like that without damaging it (I'm sorry; I have the world's least artistic soul), but Salazar's work is cool enough that I would admire it even if it was dusty. Labels: Art, Fake Books
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Revisiting Firefly
If you're a big Joss Whedon fan, you should save some wall space for these awesome (and totally affordable) vintage-travel-style posters designed by Adam Levermore-Rich and inspired by Whedon's short-lived sci-fi series Firefly:    Aren't those great? You can find them (as well as several other designs in the same series) at ThinkGeek. Labels: Art, Joss Whedon, Posters
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
A story in stuff
 Speaking of NPR, they recently posted an enthusiastic review of Caroline Preston's The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, a novel told via a scrapbook-style collection of vintage memorabilia. (The reviewer describes it as "[possibly] the first novel to thank 300 eBay sellers in the acknowledgments". See an excerpt here.) I'm way too lazy to put together a scrapbook or collect anything myself, but I always enjoy seeing evidence of other people's obsessions, so I'll be keeping an eye out for Ms. Preston's book. Labels: Art, Historical fiction
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Monday, November 07, 2011
That's some very, very tiny font.
 I'm totally delighted by the images from PosterText, a company that designs posters featuring the contents of various classic novels*, artistically arranged to depict an important scene or element from the book. Check out their take on War of the Worlds (above). Wouldn't that look great on, say, a dorm room wall? Way better than an Ikea copy of Klimt's The Kiss. *Or at least large portions of them, like the first 20 chapters of Wuthering Heights. Labels: Art, Classic books
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Just over $4.50 per page
 If money is no object when it comes to books for your coffee table, check out The Impossible Collection of Fashion. This 144-page-long book is priced at a jaw-dropping $650, and features one hundred of the "most iconic" dresses of the 20th century, as chosen by Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Labels: Art, Fashion, Nonfiction
Monday, September 19, 2011
At long last
 It took over a decade and cost millions of dollars, but a hand-lettered and hand-drawn complete edition of the Saint John's Bible has finally been completed, and pages from the finished work will be available for public viewing at the Minneapolis Institite of Arts until November 13, 2011. The Bible was commissioned by the Benedictine monks at St. John's Abbey and St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. It was created using quills and paints hand-ground from precious minerals and is adorned by lapis lazuli, malachite, silver, and 24-karat gold. The first words were written on Ash Wednesday 2000, and the final word ("Amen") was written on May 9, 2011. Labels: Art, The Bible
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Patience (but not much of it) required
 I love this idea: Abe's Peanut is a literary and art publication aimed at seven to eleven-year-olds. The publishers print original children's stories on artist-designed postcards. The cards are mailed out to their subscribers on a weekly basis, each one telling a portion of a four-part serialized story. The examples I've read seem a little flimsy, story-wise, but I'm pretty sure the joy of receiving something so cool in the mail on a weekly basis would make up for any half-baked writing. [Via Salon] Labels: Art, Kids' books
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Fairytale pop art
I was going to write a blog post about Anne Rice's upcoming werewolf book, but like I said: I totally don't care about Anne Rice. So let's look at these Disney Underground prints inspired by the various Disney fairytale adaptations instead, even though I don't really have anything meaningful to say about them, other than A) Pretty! B) Also crazy expensive!     All are available at Acme Archives Direct. Labels: Art, Disney, Posters
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Travel to faraway places...
I want these (particularly the Hogwarts one):   Maybe not to the extent of selling a kidney, but seriously close. [Via io9] Labels: Art, J.K. Rowling, Posters
Monday, May 02, 2011
Doodling for a better planet
 Publishers Weekly has an article up about the authors and illustrators involved in May 12th's National Doodle Day. Daniel Pinkwater, Neil Gaiman, Eric Carle, Mo Willems, and Jon Scizezka are among the authors contributing to the event, which raises money and awareness for families and individuals affected by Neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that affects one in every 2,500 births. The doodles will be auctioned off on eBay, so start saving your pennies now! Labels: Art, Events
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A thorough knowledge of drawing
 AustenBlog is giving their readers a heads-up about another Jane Austen-related contest: there's going to be an art competition focused on Stoneleigh Abbey, an English estate that belonged to Austen's relatives for four hundred years and *may* have inspired elements of Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. Aspiring artists have been asked to draw or paint either the house's west wing or its 14th century gatehouse, with the winners' work ending up on a line of postcards to be sold at the house. The contest is free, it closes September 29th, and the winners will be announced on October 10th. Labels: Art, contest, Jane Austen
Monday, December 13, 2010
Travel in style to fictional locations
Okay, I'm adding an addendum to our Holiday Gift List. Check out these "Comic Travel Location" posters from artist Justin Van Genderen:    Are they not awesome? There are more on Mr. Van Genderen's website, and the prices are actually pretty reasonable. If you have any comic geeks to shop for, this could make a serious dent in your holiday to-do list. [Via Wired] Labels: Art, Comics, Holiday, Shopping
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Safety first
Check out this owl-shaped bookend from Etsy artist Aprilfoss:  Pretty cute, huh? And, at $26, relatively affordable. Aprilfoss's owls come in a wide variety of colors and fabrics, and each one should be strong enough to hold up a couple of kids' books. They are stuffed with dried beans, so I'm assuming I should be warning you about choking hazards or something—so don't let your kid gnaw through the fabric, okay? Labels: Art, Bookshelves, Shopping
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
From one creepy extreme to another
 These oddly melancholy images of obese Disney princesses are popping up all over the Internet. (They're drawn by Aly Bellissimo, the artist behind the questionably-SFW Creepy Miranda blog.) I was originally a little disturbed by the idea of re-imagining these iconic characters as dangerously overweight... but then I realized that none of the original princesses (pictured here) had waistlines bigger than their heads. So I guess if we can handle one type of disturbing body type, we can handle another, right? Labels: Art, Disney, Such wrongness
Monday, August 16, 2010
Embroidering Mr. Darcy
 Artistically-inclined Jane Austen fans take note: you can buy a PDF version of this Mr. Darcy cross-stitch pattern from Etsy artist thetimeisnow for a mere $7.00. The pattern is printable, in color and comes with a matching dmc floss key (whatever that is). There's a Captain Wentworth pattern, too, but I think he looks kind of... Pirates of the Caribbean-y, and not in the Johnny Depp way, if you take my meaning. Labels: Art, Jane Austen
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