Whoa. PA and I walked out of the Pixar exhibit at MoMa today (Thanks Susannah!) fully humbled, delighted and inspired. There was so much to take in…I’m at a bit of a loss. All I can say is MAKE SURE YOU SEE THIS SHOW! It goes untill Feb. 6, so you still have some time to catch it.
Some of the highlights: The gorgeous, glowing pastels by Dominique Louis; Lou Romano’s unbelievably luminous / slick / tight gouache paintings; the flawless grey resin macquettes of all your favorite Pixar charcters (especially Violet and Mr. Incredible’s different expressions)….and then there’s the zoetrope.
There aren’t many words that I could use to convey to you the sheer delightful joy you will experience when you lay your eyes on the spectacular Pixar 3D zoetrope. Once it starts to spin, and the strobes turn on, you will giggle with joy and you won’t believe your eyes. It is a miracle of illusion, motion and animation. Possibly the highlight of the show. Go now. And by all means get there early. This show gets mobbed and you should really see this with as small a crowd as possible.
Pix by : mnemo, fudj and hseikaly .

Caught the Pixar show at Moma today with Keegan and it was pretty mind-blowing (more on that later). First thing I did when I got home was to refine my photoshop settings and create some custom photoshop brushes – which I’d forgotten was quite easy: [select object within 999×999 pixels and go to ‘Define Brush Preset’ under Edit]. Below was my test sheet.

I always try to use photo reference when working on an illo. If the situation calls for drawing a recognizable person I like to build a photoshop collage; maybe shoot seperate reference photos for the pose or incoporate parts of a sketch. The example above was an illo I did for wsj.com… a portrayal of the Worst President Ever.

I did this little test image based on a sketch of NYT reporter James Risen when he appeared on Meet The Press recently (side note, make sure you catch MTP every week, and if you miss it, you can nab the audio from the whole show in their handy podcast here). Anyway, I’ve been trying to refine my ‘formula’ for coloring drawings in Photoshop, by keeping my dozens of unnamed layers down to a minimum, and all of my ‘Mulitply”, ‘Normal” and ‘Screen’ layers all neatly labeled and grouped in folders. It;s amazing how quickly I can forget a step, so I’m taking care to document it in my sketchbook. So I guess that’s my nugget: Be sure to always document all of your processes and tricks. It can come in handy later.

A color study and sketch for the upcoming Siren Festival art.

This pic is from a summer of commercial salmon fishing in Alaska. The dogs were the most dramatic.

Some of the greats which came to my attention last year – starting with 3 great albums:

Matisyahu: Live at Stubb’s– This hasidic reggae/dancehall artist from Crown Heights is no novelty act. This live album showcases his powerful backing band and a rapid-fire yet soulful voice.
Oranger: New Comes and Goes– Strong 4th album from this Californian outfit … Radio Wave has been one of my favorite songs of this past year.
Dungen: Ta Det Lugnt– Swedish Psych/Folk/Rock which sounds like it was pryed from an early seventies time capsule. Brother J and I caught them at the Bowery Ballroom and they were damn impressive.

Orson’s Shadow– A play showing at the Barrow St. Theater in Greenwich Village. A great true story about the dueling egos of Orson Wells and Lawrence Olivier.
Good Night Good Luck– David Strathairn puts in an incredible performance in this important film.
Cloud Atlas– As Keegan and Kerry could attest – an engrossing, genre-jumping novel.
Superman The Movie– My favorite rediscovered movie of the past year.

A little late on this, but I vowed to do a post on my favorite music from 2005. Here are my favorite albums from 2005:
Laura Veirs – “Year of Meteors”
Aimee Mann- “The Forgotten Arm”
Calexico & Iron and Wine – “In the Reins – EP”
The Decemberists – “Picaresque”
The Frames – “Burn the Maps”
M.I.A. – “Arular”
Mary Timony – “Ex Hex”
The New Pornographers – “Twin Cinema”
Rogue Wave – “Descended Like Vultures”
Stephen Malkmus – “Face The Truth”
Sufjan Stevens – “Illinois”
Some other music NOT from 2005, that I listened to nearly constantly:
Arcade Fire – “Funeral”
The Magnetic Fields – “The Charm of the Highway Strip”
Tilly & The Wall – “Wild Like Children”
Luna – “Rendezvous”
Here’s a link to an iTunes mix I made of some of the best songs from these albums I have mentioned in this post: iTunes: Favorite Songs from 2005

call for art and aritists!

with my love for all things small – i am curating a 2 inch (or smaller) book + printmaking exhibition.
please please submit some mini books or prints! i am looking for a range of work and am excited to see what posting this here will bring. i know the time frame is short, but after all, 2 inches is quite small…
here are a few sites for inspiration:
the miniature book society
art on paper – a great magazine
fun comix ‘n books
here’s how to make a really simple book. it’s one of my favorite ways!
small books exchange
philobiblon – the book arts web
happy new year and happy book and printmaking! 🙂
email zuckee@mac.com for more information or with any questions.