Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Pope

Pope Vector Illustration

Book Review: M.C. Escher The Graphic Work

M.C. Escher needs no introduction. Or if you prefer, you can read him up on wikipedia or visit his official website. He's the guy responsible for creating amazing illustrations using optical illusions.

This small book is a neat package containing his well known works as well as the less public ones. There's an introduction by M.C. Escher himself. All the illustration are caption to explain the ideas behind.



M.C. Escher The Graphic Work

M.C. Escher The Graphic Work

M.C. Escher The Graphic Work

His works inspire artists all over the work. Here's a slideshow of some photos on the keyword "escher" from Flickr.



Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books for review.

Country-specific Amazon links for this book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de

Check out other books reviewed on this blog, with pictures:
Art book list | Design book list

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Adobe Illustrator tips on bittbox.com


I chanced upon a very interesting blog dedicated to Adobe Illustrator, called bittbox.com. The glossy buttons shown above are from the blog. There are other amazing goodies to be found there too, like time saving tips, free brushes and more glossy buttons.


If you're really into Illustrator, the nitty gritty stuff, you'll have to visit Mordy Golding's Real World Illustrator blog. If Illustrator's a person, he's the person. He can be found lurking in Adobe forums too, as I've found out.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Shonda Rhimes, Queen of Scriptwriting


Shonda who? Apparently if that's what came out of your mouth, you're not a fan of Grey's Anatomy. Not a true blue I-shake-before-the-show-starts kind of fan, anyway. Shonda Rhimes is the creator and writer of Grey's Anatomy. Bow, you couch potatoes!

The latest episode,"Drowning on Dry Land", really had me sitting at the edge of my screen. You know the feeling when you get while walking out of the cinema after a particularly good movie? That feeling of wanting more? Yes, you'll get that after watching this episode, and maybe the one before this.

The scriptwriters are really amazingly. It makes me wonder what type of pressure they are under to deliver these story arcs. There's a Grey's Anatomy blog, called Grey Matter, if you don't already know. There, you'll get to know what went through the minds of the writers when they wrote their scripts. It gives so much extra depth to the show.

All hail the writers!

(The photo was from www.greysanatomyinsider.com)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Master Plan: About the power of Google


This short video clip about Google is done pretty stylishly. Colour palette is restricted to only black, red and white. As a result, it gave the clip a serious overtone. I don't think this is a trailer as I can't find anything from imdb.com and rottentomatoes.

Master Plan: About the power of Google

Saturday, February 10, 2007

DVD Review: Open Season


The overall reviews from imdb.com and rottentomatoes.com on the movie weren't flattering. With that in mind, I was a bit unsure when buying the DVD. But I bought it anyway, from Page One Bookshop at Vivocity. By the way, Page One has a pretty good variety of books, which are also priced reasonably.

Open season is the first feature-length CG animated movie from Sony Pictures Animation. Despite that it was the first, the visual quality of the film is outstanding. Actually, I bought the DVD just for the art. It didn't disappoint me.

The story was totally original and there wasn't much spoofs. It was a light hearted action adventure comedy. The characters and storyline don't have as much depth as Pixar movies but the film was still entertaining overall.

If you have owned any Pixar DVDs, the featurettes on this DVD is roughly the same. There were behind the scenes (which Cars didn't have!), voices of actors, an extra short and other stuff.

Overall, I would recommend renting the DVD. It's not really worth collecting unless you're a 3D animated movie DVD collector like me. But even then, I don't collect all 3D movies.

Friday, February 9, 2007

To every little thing in life


This is the funniest youtube video, ever. Be sure to watch until the third act.

Cheers.

What the duck


What The Duck is a pretty interesting comic strip. It gives us a humourous look at the lives of duck photographers.

Enjoy.

Val and Jaws 090207


The idea for this came from http://www.yunhaier.blogspot.com/

Is the rich guy better than the poor guy? This is the sort of question that pops up ever so often. Answers vary depending on who you ask. Every answer let us peek into the character of the person answering it.

What do I think?

It's not what you have, it's what you do.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Monday, February 5, 2007

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Ann Talnaes Political Cartoons



One of the better collection of political cartoons. Ann Talnaes' drawings are smooth.

Enjoy

Friday, February 2, 2007

Kuler



Adobe Kuler

kuler is the first web-hosted application from Adobe Labs designed both to stand alone and to complement Adobe® Creative Suite® 2 components. Built using Macromedia® Flash® and ActionScript 3.0, kuler is all about color: color for exploration, inspiration, experimentation and sharing. (That's what Adobe said).

Your web browser will need Flash Player 9 to run it. If you intend to do anything on it other than looking, you'll need an Adobe account which you can sign up for free. With the Adobe account, you can also access their software forums.

Have fun.