Bjork releases her new video clip

It's called 'Wanderlast', looks absolutely incredible :)

Can only find the preview of it on YouTube so far, but will edit this post with the full length version when I can find it :)

New job

Had my first life drawing class for Raw Jaffa on saturday night, with the magnificent Ten as our live model. The girls in the class were great. A couple in particular were doing some seriously impressive stuff in the short amount of time they had for each sketch.

Before we went in I had been plotting all day how I was going to teach the class (rather than just observe how the other teacher ran them). I had all these grand plans to teach about light and shade, foreshortening, techniques to make it easier. As it was, I just gave a brief demo at the start of the lesson, then spent the rest of it picking up easels, pencils, spilt drinks, but hey... its a Hen's party , we all had a ball :P

Kind of glad that it was a rowdy class though, it meant that I got to use my teacher voice and realise that if I can teach that lot then I can teach anyone. Hehe that and compared to my first prac at Cessnock High it was a walk in the park :P

Seriously love the concept of Raw Jaffa, the space is fantastic and my new boss is lovely. Beside myself at the thought of teaching the kids classes too. Am working on a few lesson plans now, better get back to it then ;P

Industrial design is awesome yo

Found this lamp on an art blog, one of several very cool designs.

Check the rest out here:
http://streetanatomy.com/blog/

Back to James Willebrant....

A while ago I wrote a post about one of my favourite artists, and here is the follow up. The picture that you see here hangs in the living room at Hawks Nest (the best place and the best house in the world). If I had to explain why we love it so much, besides the fact that its gorgoeous of course, it would be because it makes us feel free. Something about the diver's pose makes her look like she's flying instead of falling. So great :)

Favourite internet humour of the year.... The RIck Roll

I love the interwebs :

There's an internet trend which has probably been around forever but I have only just discovered it, called Rick Rolling, this from Oh No They Didn't:

It's called the "rick-roll". You're innocently browsing an apparently useful website and see a link to something else that might be of interest, but when you click through to that destination you instead find yourself confronted with Astley's boyish smile, his manly croon, his awkward 1987 dance-moves.The link was a fake, a trap, a dummy with the nefarious purpose of... bringing you face-to-face with the ridiculous.As with so many stupid internet fads, the rick-roll trend had its start at 4chan, a message-board whose lunatic, juvenile community is at once brilliant, ridiculous and alarming. 4chan users had taken to "duck-rolling" each other - tricking one-another into viewing a video of a, er, duck with wheels. In the spring of 2007 some enterprising prodigy branched off from this into the rick-roll. And the rest is history.


Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

When giant bunnies are attacked...

From the website:

"Somewhere, on a hillside in Artesina, Italy, lies an enormous pink knitted bunny, on its side, and with some of its insides coming out. The rabbit has been on the hill since September and now lies under snow, bits of pink peeking out. The rabbit is the brainchild of Austrian artist collective Gelitin (formerly known as Gelatin), as well as many helpers and crew, and is stuffed with straw. The rabbit is expected to occupy its Piemonte site for the next twenty years. Viewers are encouraged to climb all over it."

http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/001950.php

Not sure I could ever make anything this big, but given enough wool and a few helpers, I'd give it a red hot go. I would make a four story tall Pete Doherty doll and write "u suk Kate moss x_x" and put it outside her Primrose Hill hovel (because you know no matter how gorgeous the house was to begin with, it's hideous now).

Artist: James Willebrant

This painting is called "Pool of Memory". It's by an artist called James Willebrant (local- from Newcastle) who I have been following since I was about twelve. My godmother and her lovely husband Mark run the Cooks Hill Gallery and they've been showing him for years and years. There's a print of his hanging in our living room, but by far my favourite is hanging in the living room at Hawks Nest. I'll take photos of these so you can see later.

Anyway, I was having a bit of a look around online to find different ways of painting the night sky... didn't want to stick with just black or indigo... too boring... and I came across this rather excellent website http://www.bmgart.com.au/individual_artists/Willebrant_James02/pages/main.htm

There is also an excellent write up about him on the Cooks Hill G website, but I can't link it directly so you'll have to go there and have an explore for yourselves ;) http://www.cookshill.com/

So yes, that's James Willebrant, my oldest (not age, but how long I have liked) artist. He is awesome and one day I will save up and have one of his paintings all of my very own. Preferably the one with the dugong :)

Origami Crane Strand Kit

After my meeting with the lovely Paulina from the HBC (Hunter Business Centre), I came away with a new sense of determination. I'd been treading water, business wise, focusing on individual toys rather than the overall objectives I set for myself when I was writing the plan. Bit like not being able to see the forest for the critters. Most of what we focused on was the need for professional presentation (price tags, signs, packaging) and establishing contacts in the business world.

So I came home, ran over things with Ten and drew up a draft packaging template. From plan to finished product, we came up with what you see here in living colour. It's not the final ever design (there's tweaking to be done, and eventually I will get it professionally printed on card) but it's looking pretty good.

Simular packaging is in the works for the toy kits, I just have to decide which of the toys should go into the kits, and how I am going to lay out the instructions.

Please comment, dear readers, if you have any suggestions or hints :)

New painting

Need to go over the outline again and practise true colour scanning (he's actually fluro as is the ribbon) but hey, not bad for someone who a month ago had never painted. I've been painting versions of the creatures to use on the packaging... getting there, lots of fun practising while listening to Hamish and Andy podcasts. Mandy Moore is an excellent sport :P

Article...

Still not getting very far with the packaging design. Just can't wrap my head around it. So I've been cruising the interwebs trying to find some examples that I can go off.

Came across this article while on the hunt:

There's a long tradition of parents making playthings for children, reminds Stevanne Auerbach, a children's product expert better known as Dr. Toy. Raggedy Ann and the Slinky were both developed for the inventors' kids, and there are many other examples, from kites to sock monkeys.
The process of making the toy can be as amusing as playing with the finished project, adds Ellen Lupton, coauthor of DIY Kids, a manual of craft projects for wee ones. In youthful imaginations, even ketchup packets can transform into a doll.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/50-ways-to-improve-your-life/2007/12/20/avoid-recalls-make-your-own-toys.html