tea cliche poster

Messing about with Photoshop Elements. Hand drawn tea things and ink blotches. Maybe a poster, or a notebook cover?

Sleep No More

Immersive theatre. What does that mean? All I knew going in was that it meant a lot of walking, mandatory coat check ('nothing hanging off your body', said the polite but insistent ushers) and an ID inspection at the entrance queue. The rest was a weird but thrilling surprise.

Sleep No More is an immersive theatre production from a genius company called Punchdrunk. Imagine if the team from Inception put up a production of the Scottish Play set in a haunted house that was also somehow a hotel and hospital. Then imagine that they replaced all the dialogue with contemporary dance but somehow still managed to keep the profound Shakespearean energy.

Wearing a Venetian mask that was soon damp with sweat, I wandered overheated through several levels of rooms set up like Joseph Cornell boxes, rifling through desk drawers and damp letters and thimbles made of dirty sugar. I tried to get my bearings while keeping track of my scarf, my hat, my 'room key' and my coat check tag, not to mention my mother and my aunt. It was eerie and quiet at first, shuffling round the house with the other masked zombies. Then we started to stumble into actors and things got more exciting, although no less confusing.

You really have to know your Macbeth to get the scenes, and even then you can still miss a lot. Going from overheard conversation, we seemed to have missed the murders of King Duncan and Lady Macduff. We couldn't quite manage to see the final battle with Macduff, although we did see Macbeth grab one of the girls from the audience and haul her away. (He was covered in blood; I hope she wasn't wearing anything expensive.) And those are the bits I know we missed. We did catch the banquet with Banquo's ghost (in super slow motion!), Birnham Wood coming to Dunsinane, and a great extended post-murder scene involving a bathtub (warning: male nudity!), some rather brusque cuddles, and Lady Macbeth dancing furiously around a lot of furniture.

There were other scenes that didn't seem to have anything to do with the play--the program I picked up after the show said each actor had their own character arc, which played through three times over. I saw a nurse dally with a strapping young man who fed her whiskey out of highly suspicious bottles; that same nurse later performed a fantastic convulsive dance scene in what looked like an operating theatre out of Arkham Asylum. And right before we finally left two hours later we saw a witch-like ritual that turned into a ballroom scene with some more great dancing, and that became a one-on-one Mortal Kombat-style pas-de-deux...I'm still not sure what that was about but it was amazing.

Still, it's not for everyone. There are definite mobility issues, and I was often frustrated by being too short to see. You also won't like it if you have a problem with crowds, enclosed spaces, dirt or if you're just easily spooked. Timid souls might want to go with a friend. Just check your inhibitions at the door, and make sure to wear easily recognisable clothes.

New Year's Resolution: share. :)

Life is better when you share it with someone--friend, family, or lover. Just share. Happy New Year, all.

holiday at la paperie

It's the holiday season in New York City, and I was lucky enough to be in town! Here are some pictures of Kate's Paperie in Soho, decked out for the holidays.

Massive Inspiration Post: Illustration & Animation

Am facing some major life changes soon, so I'm moving my inspirations card catalogue online. (Yes, I have a physical card catalogue, with index cards and labelled tags and categories with sub-categories and...moving on.)

These are some portfolio sites, art blogs and other random web things I've picked up on my forays for inspiration.

ILLUSTRATION & ANIMATION - Websites

Gabriella Rose - watercolour illustration, fairytale style

drawgabbydraw.tumblr.com | gabsportfolio.tumblr.com

How she does it

Michael Spooner - Disney concept artist

Rebecca Guay - watercolour fantasy illustration, workshops

Masterclass

Ian Sidaway - watercolour travel illustration

Carol Gillott - Paris Breakfasts

One of my absolute favourite illustration blogs; looking through it is the definition of living vicariously.

The Perfect Scent

What I Ate In London

Achraf Amiri - fashion illustration, black comedy, grotesqueries

Terri Windling - yes, that Terri Windling. Fantasy Editor, writer and artist.

Site | Endicott Studio | The Journal of Mythic Arts

Traffic Creative Management, NYC - illustration agency

Favourite artists: Anja Kroencke | Daniel Egneus | Maren Esdar | Colonel Moutarde | Rikke Jorgensen

Their animation channel

Urban Sketchers - a collective of artists in various cities around the world.

Favourites: Guillame Bonamy | Will Freeborn | Gerard Michel

Inkbramble - fashion illustration & culture blog

Cartoon Brew - major animation blog; trunkline resource of the industry.

Zelda Devon - Fantasy/SF illustration

What I've Learned So Far

Some Stuff ('You learn to draw by drawing', and other wisdoms)

Tor Artist Rec Feature: A Is for Artist

Today's Inspiration - vintage illustration and illustrators

Female Illustrators of the Mid-20th Century - what it says on the tin. Art and bios of some brilliant unsung talents from the 'Golden Age' of advertising.

Illustration Art - my favourite resource for classic illustrators.

Katherine Tyrell - Travel sketching, techniques and materials.

Travels with a Sketchbook

Pastels and Pencils

Making a Mark: How to Sketch

The Blackwing Diaries - animation blog: concepts, design, and other artists

Main | Sketch blog

Art of the State - London art blog

Ulla Norup Milbrath - 3D illustration, masks, textiles and mixed media

Roz Stendahl - journaling, art and craft tutorials

Site | Blog | Teaching

Lauren Mcintosh - mixed media, vintage-style collage

Site | Cite

Teesha Moore - altered books, collage, stamp art and other mixed media

Blog | Journal pages | Techniques

Wendy Hale Davis - bookbinding, calligraphy, art journals

Ana_Lee on Livejournal is one of the best sources of inspiration for fashion illustration anywhere. Legendary photo shoots, famous photographers, vintage from all eras, and amazing illustrators, all showcased simply but gloriously.

James Gurney - Read the blog of the master who created Dinotopia and learn a ton about illustration from the ground up.

Art Analysis - Contemporary and classic illustrations dissected for study.

PHEW. Well, that should do for now. Hope you find some inspiration here too!

falconry

There are so many things wrong with this drawing (note to self: dear Pere, please learn to rule properly, or else get a fucking T-square), but I still quite like it. And I really enjoyed designing that bodice.

a spider in the garden

Took this photo while at lunch. The garden outside our window had the most beautiful spider, which I'm putting under a cut so as not to frighten any arachnophobes who might read this blog.

gulag

I'm sorry for the drawing gap--RL kind of smacked me in the face this month (isn't that always the way?). But am on holiday for a bit and actually got off the computer long enough to do some socialising and some productive things, one of which is an art walk.

My grandparents live in a posh gated community and the association dues alone are astronomical. Wanted to draw some pretty areas around the place, wandered round the back to get a good view of the mountains and found this:

'Park'. Oh good. For a minute there I was worried.

Unless it's an order. 'Park your butt, missy. You won't be goin' anywhere for a while.'

Day 7-8: invisible elf thing

I am exhausted by massive bureaucracy today--which is also why I couldn't post last night, had to go to bed early--but for related reasons I had plenty of downtime while waiting in queues today, and here's the result:

Invisible woman wears...Jil Sander? Armani? Will look it up when I'm not so tired.

And some observational sketches from today:
There was seriously a woman in the most bizarre conical hat, a very redcap- or gnome-like hat, except it was cream with navy stripes, wearing a top and trainers of matching sky blue. She looked just like a particularly dorky elf. So I drew the tree she was standing under so she'd feel at home.

And now good night.

Day 6: rose and spider

Was looking around the net for something to draw for today's post and came across a lovely photo of a rose with a spider on it, which I got from this amazing photography blog.

I'm still a bit clumsy with watercolours, which is why the spider isn't very clear. Sigh. I just loved the idea of a beautiful rose with a tiny spider, perhaps attracted by the smell and softness of it, or just hanging around waiting for even tinier bugs to snack on. I love little spiders, although the big ones frighten me a bit.