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GERMAN TOYS

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A friend is in Germany right now and I wish I could have gone with him. I yearn to see real traditional architecture, even if it exists mostly in touristy pockets like the village above.  


If I was there I'd hit the toy stores first. I want to see the latest designs in wooden blocks.


I also want to see the latest Lego designs. Lego's a Danish company but I'm told that German stores are full of their toys.


Here's (above) a Lego train.


And here's (above) a prototype steampunk locomotive. The design doesn't work but I'm glad the company experiments like this.


 Here's a great wolf toy designed in the North European style for the Disney film, "Pinnochio." It's by Gustaf Tenggren who was a Swedish American steeped in the Old World sensibility.


 German traditional costumes are wonderful! Here's some Tyrolean costumes with the distinctive wide-brimmed Tyrolean hat.


Good Lord! Is it possible that cowboy hats of the American West originated in Germany or Austria?


 We all know that a lot of American Christmas traditions stated in Germany, but it's less well known that the same goes for Halloween. When I was a kid the stores were full of German Halloween dye-cuts like the one above. Wow! High art for a price that kids could afford!

Here in California there are stores that sell Halloween items all year 'round. I wonder if that exists in Germany?


German design (above) still influences Halloween in the U.S.


Boy, that country loves its witches!


I wonder if posters of traditional architecture are for sale over there?


There must be lots of old photos that would make interesting posters.


Pictures like this Austrian interior (above) would make great posters, too. Does anybody sell posters like this?



EMIL NOLDE'S PAINTINGS

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I've blogged before about the mysterious and aggressive quality of color, especially when it's relatively unrestrained as it is in the Nolde picture above. Lots of people wouldn't agree with that. For them color is sentimental and comforting. I envy them. My own innocence about color has been shattered by the discoveries of a painter named Emil Nolde (1867 - 1956) who's the subject of this post.


Nolde couldn't draw people very well. Maybe that's a good thing because his difficulties with line may have been what led him to concentrate entirely on color.


Nolde's early paintings (above) were influenced by Van Gogh. 


Later he shows the influence of Gauguin and the Nabis.


He was even influenced by Matisse. Here (above) he takes what I call the the bold, aggressive quality of color and successfully harnesses it to decoration as Matisse did. The public liked what he was doing and he could have profitably painted this way for the rest of his life, but around this time he seems to have become interested in color for its own sake. He became obsessed with the idea that color had a life of its own which was  inhibited by line.


 Nolde wasn't the only artist to dream of liberating color. Fauves like Vlaminck and Derain (that's a Derain, above) also attempted it but they often confined color fields with line and that had the effect of taming them down.


Kandinsky (above) did the same. Even in his abstract pictures he was usually afraid to remove the borders and let color speak for itself.


Bonnard removed the lines but still didn't liberate the color. He just confined it a different way, in this case by muting it with white. It's as if all the painters I've mentioned wanted to open the cage door to free color, but once it was on the outside they insisted on walking it on a tight leash.


Not so Nolde. He opened the door and let the tiger escape. He allowed his color, indescribably brutal and mindful of nothing but its own will to live, to leap out and grab the viewer by the jugular.


Look at this landscape (above). The newly liberated red cloud comes off as a predatory beast roaming the landscape and looking for victims. I don't know about you, but I hear the strident parts of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" when I look at it.

 Nolde painted almost exclusively in watercolor during the WWII years, and therein lies a story.

According to Wikipedia, Nolde became a passionate Nazi while he was still living in Denmark in the 20s. His work became very well known and even caught the attention of Goebbels who was a fan of Expressionism and who arranged for Nolde to work on an infamous anti-semitic film. It must have seemed to Nolde that he had it made, but fate had something else in store for him.


It turns out that Hitler loathed Expressionism and he included Nolde's paintings in his Degenerate Art show. Goebbels, being the toady that he was, not only dropped Nolde like a hot potato but claimed to have discovered that the artist had a Jewish ancestor. Nolde was given a rifle and shipped off to the army where he painted watercolors in secret. He was forbidden to work in oils.


So Nolde was not what you'd call a nice guy, and his pictures have a very disturbing, neurotic quality to them. Even so, you have to credit the man with liberating color in a way that nobody else had. It's impossible to imagine DeKooning or Hoffman or many of the Abstract Expressionists or even Mary Blair without reference to Nolde. What can I say? Nature distributes its gifts in ways not understandable by man.



MY BEST AND WORST JOBS

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I'll start with the worst animation job I ever had. No, I didn't draw the picture above. It was a handed out as reference for a cartoon I was invited to freelance for about a zillion  years ago. It was not, to put it mildly, my type of thing and I should have respectfully declined it, but I needed money so I took it home and tried to get started.

I spent hours then days staring at white paper, unable to draw. I simply couldn't imagine how a creature as appallingly generic as that would think or act. I ended up giving it back and the schedule no doubt took a hit. It was not my finest hour.

My best job? I've blogged about some of them, but here's one that I might not have mentioned. It was for a video game that Spumco consulted on, and it was so much fun that I could hardly wait to get to work in the morning.

My task was to think of obstacles a skateboarder might encounter on his trip through a haunted house, a demented Disneyland-type theme park, etc., etc. Not a bad job, eh? I had to work fast but it was pure pleasure.


One assignment was to draw a ghost airplane and I sketched several versions.


One of the versions had a ghost with a big pistol. The one that was chosen was the one on the right.


Here it is (above) cleaned up a bit.


You can do anything with airplanes.




Once I realized it might be okay to to use guns in a video game I began putting them in everything (above). In those sketches trees can have guns, parakeets and goldfish can have guns, and ghosts can have guns. Guns make everything funnier; witness Oil Can Harry's shootouts with Mighty Mouse. Of course, modern audiences are sensitive about the subject so you have to be careful.




Ghosts are easy to think of ideas for. They can never get the hang of dealing with real world objects. Even eating a meal (above, bottom right) is done in an unconventional way.


I also like the idea of purse bashing old lady ghosts on skateboards (above).


Old ladies are on the cutting edge of animation though few people realize it yet.


I did some shoe ghost gags.



Haw! Here's (above) an update of an old Mack Sennett gag.


Here (above) was a first pass on city buildings that resemble people. I had to try several versions before I got it to work.

Well, that's all I have room for.

MORE OF MY VIDEO GAME IDEAS

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Another Theory Corner first: here's more of my video game sketches. In this drawing (above) I tried to give Aztec/Mayan motiffs a sort of Basil Wolverton sensibility.


 Above, some fake Aztec wall decoration (above).


I like the idea of sometimes finding yourself skating in cramped quarters. In a situation like this (above) the possibilities are endless. You can be crushed by the trolley or you can dive into manholes or open doorways that lead to other locales. You can also press yourself against the wall and accept the punches, slaps, kisses, cat scratches, farts, etc. of the passengers and pets leaning out the windows.


I love stuff like this (above).


This thought (above) would have required a total redo if it had been accepted. I was trying to make fun of traditional Japanese furniture which is very low and close to the ground, but the idea doesn't come across here.





MY BEST AND WORST JOBS

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I'll start with the worst animation job I ever had. No, I didn't draw the picture above. It was a handed out as reference for a cartoon I was invited to freelance for about a zillion  years ago. It was not, to put it mildly, my type of thing and I should have respectfully declined it, but I needed money so I took it home and tried to get started.

I spent hours then days staring at white paper, unable to draw. I simply couldn't imagine how a creature as appallingly generic as that would think or act. I ended up giving it back and the schedule no doubt took a hit. It was not my finest hour.

My best job? I've blogged about some of them, but here's one that I might not have mentioned. It was for a video game that Spumco consulted on, and it was so much fun that I could hardly wait to get to work in the morning.

One of my tasks was to think of obstacles a skateboarder might encounter on his trip through a haunted house, a demented Disneyland-type theme park, etc., etc. Not a bad job, eh? I had to work fast but it was pure pleasure.


One assignment was to draw a ghost airplane and I sketched several versions.


One of the versions had a ghost with a big pistol. The one that was chosen was the one on the right.


Here it is (above) cleaned up a bit.


You can do anything with airplanes.




Once I realized it might be okay to to use guns in a video game I began putting them in everything (above). I realized that trees can have guns, parakeets and goldfish can have guns, and even ghosts can have guns. Guns make everything funnier; witness Oil Can Harry's shootouts with Mighty Mouse. Of course, modern audiences are sensitive about the subject so you have to be careful.




Ghosts are easy to think of ideas for because they can never get the hang of dealing with real world objects. Even eating a meal (above, bottom right) is done in an unconventional way.


I also like the idea of purse bashing old lady ghosts on skateboards (above).


Old ladies are on the cutting edge of animation though few people realize it yet.


I did some shoe ghost gags.



Haw! Here's (above) an update of an old Mack Sennett gag.


Here (above) was a first pass on city buildings that resemble people. I had to try several versions before I got it to work.

Well, that's all I have room for.

THE AESTHETE

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Haw! I looked up "aesthete" on the net and here's (above) what I got.


This type really exists! I wonder if that'll be me somewhere down the line?

DISNEYLAND ARCHITECTURE

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Yep, I had another weekend trip to Disneyland! I wish I could have spent the day taking pictures of the interesting people that the park attracts, but I didn't know how to do that without coming home with a black eye, so I photographed architecture instead. See what you think!

I like the idea of giving a high-ceiling room a display gallery like this (above) one. The lower tier of the gallery contains tracks for a model railroad. 


I love complex wooden ceiling/roof structures (above) like the kind you see in Fantasyland.


Here's (above) Minnie's House in Toontown. It's a craftsman bungalow modified to be super cozy. That 30s/40s look works great. 


I like the way that leaf pattern on the sofa workswith the green walls.


Opposite the sofa (above) is the fireplace and an intriguing grotto with steps leading to the second floor.

Next door is Mickey's house (above) and that has a somewhat different fireplace.


I like the storage area (above) in Mickey's house. Those green columns work great!


Nice banisters! What are they made of? It looks like a combination of plastic and concrete, but I'm probably wrong. 


Wow! A nice car design! I wish someone would build real cars like this. The front windshield frame serves as a rollbar, and the fenders might serve as rubberized shock absorbers protecting the driver from broadside collisions.


Here's (above) what appears to be the second floors of two adjacent buildings. Actually it's one building with two stylized fronts. I'm guessing that the second floor interiors are one extended room with two different levels connected by steps.

Well, that's all I have room for now.

MORE VIDEO GAME IDEAS

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I thought the Theme Park Level needed a founding genius (above) who was ever present, compulsively making sure the park ran okay. These sketches weren't approved, maybe because they looked too much like Disney.


Too much fairy dust (above) prompts the founder to reach for his bug spray.


Two of these sketches were done for the Japan level, the sun was for the Western level. I should have left more space for what I hoped would be beautiful Japanese lettering on the scrolls.

Here's a Tokyo sketch (above) that also wasn't approved, and its easy to guess why. Tokyo is envied throughout the world for its low rate of crime, and a situation like this just doesn't apply. It's too bad because it would have been fun to try to imagine what a cartoony "bad side of town" would look like.


Above, nixed for the same reason...also understandably. The nice thing about quick sketches is that when they don't fly they can be put aside without much time being lost.


Of course the Tokyo Level is riddled with ninjas (above).



Haw! Here's some generic villagers from the Fantasy Level. They're not nice guys and they're always bickering with each other and trying to trip the skateboarder (boarder not shown here). The boarder has to be careful lest the Wandering Giant eat him along with the villagers.


Above, paper panels in the walls of a traditional Japanese house.

For more video game sketches type "video game" in the search box of the Uncle Eddie's Theory Corner right sidebar.





STILL MORE VIDEO GAME SKETCHES

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Above, a wacky Mount Rushmore-type background for the Western Level. I hate to say it, but it probably didn't work very well. A vivid border graphic like this brings too much attention to the game's edge, which should appear limitless.


Here's a Chief's Hut for the Jungle Level.


This one (above) was for the Haunted House Level. The skater peels off the wall onto a trap door which takes him to another corridor. 


Yes, guns make every game better. 


Here (above) the skater skates around the walls, avoiding the mouth that tries to eat him.


The mouth widens to include the entire floor (above, bottom left) and the big tongue snags the skater. I was asked to modify this and the changed version appears on the upper left. I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember who cleaned this up. 


This sketch (above) wasn't done for the video game...it was for an insurance company...but I include it here because I wish I'd thought of it when I did the game. I could have had the skater run into the zealous Boy Scouts who walk pedestrians across the street, whether they want it or not.   


Above, the edge of a Western town. On the boardwalk a skater might encounter surly oxen, scorpions, gun fighters, barroom brawlers, bandits, and hostile Indians. 

TALES OF HOFFMANN

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If you saw the Powell/Pressberger film "Red Shoes" and didn't like it then you're not going to like this film either, because it's Red Shoes on steroids.


I like Red Shoes a lot but I sympathize with people who cringe at the almost too rich, over-the-top gaudiness of it. Even so, the film is a neat piece of work and so is its 1951 successor, "Tales of Hoffmann." I just saw Hoffman over the weekend at Steve Worth's house and that's what I'll talk about here.



The opera was written by Offenbach in 1880 or thereabouts. He died months before the play opened and while the music and libretto were still undergoing changes, a significant fact it turns out.

Since there were different and disputed versions of the original manuscript, successive producers took liberties with the opera and customized it to their liking.


That liability turned out to be an asset. The opera is never without backers who want to attach their own vision to it and as a result it's been staged frequently and creatively through the years, with enormous variety in the art direction.


The Powell/Pressberger version (above) is a tour de force of visual style. It ranges from a kind of dry-brushy, modern type...


...to designs derived from old tapestries and beer steins...


...to a kind of impressionistic surrealism (above) reminiscent of Odilon Redon.


I'll digress for a moment to explain that Redon (his work, above) was a French symbolist painter of the 19th Century. That movement was a precursor of Surrealism. You don't hear a lot about it anymore, and it's not really my taste, but it was tremendously influential in theatrical design.


Anyway, the dominant background style of the film is a surreal take on the traditional Romantic ballet style (above). Even in that context there's plenty of innovation. Take this shot, for example. Note the color and lighting on the archway of marionette heads.


There's a cut to a close-up as the ballerina dances closer to camera and when we return to a wider shot the colors and lighting have changed. Not only that but the marionette heads have been switched for slightly different ones. Look closely...some of them aren't the same.


 Martin Scorsese is a big fan of this film. He likes the unreality of it and claims that he learned how to compose cinematic scenes from it. He also got the idea of shooting to music from this film.

Here's the trailer. If you buy it be careful, though. Americans will want the version that plays on our electronics.

SUPPORT GROUPS

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HORACE: "As the group leader I'd like to welcome you all to the first session of the Extremophile Support Group. Daisy, maybe you'd like to start."


DAISY: "Sure, I'll start. What are we all doing here? I look around the room and I don't see anybody who looks offensive. I don't even know what an 'extremophile' is."


MARIGOLD: "I'm only here because my mother said there'd be food."


TULIP: "I don't know about the others here, but I'm offended by the woman sitting beside me." 


IRIS: "Yeah, what's with her? Why is she...well, you know..."



DANDELION: "If you're referring to me, then the proper term is 'undraped.' That's my extreme. I simply prefer to live the way nature intended, the way that birds and squirrels live."


VIOLET: "I call it buck naked."


MAGNOLIA:"I think Dandelion has the right to dress whatever way she wants. This was a free country the last time I looked."


PETUNIA: "Yeah...free to be WEIRD!"


GERANIUM: "Well then I'm free to take my extremophile fist and..."

HORACE (VO): "Now, now, Ladies...we're all extremophiles here and we need to show sisterly solidarity. "

GERANIUM: "Haw! Look who's talking...from a guy, no less!"


HORACE: "Maybe we need to cool down for a few minutes. Let's take a muffin break.  I made them myself, but I have to warn you...they're for eating only on the right side of the mouth."


FOR MY KID

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My kid's feeling down in the dumps now and I thought I'd post something to cheer him up. Here, courtesy of Steve, is Jack Stanford, "Eccentric Dancer Extraordinaire."



The Jazz number Stanford dances too is pretty good but I think it would work even better with this song, which comes courtesy of Mike. I think it was used in the 4th season of "Breaking Bad."

Cheer up, Guy!


VIDEO GAME IDEAS

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Above, a Theory Corner exclusive. It's an idea sketch for a Spumco laxative commercial, never made. 


Although this was done on another studio's paper, I think this (above) was part of a test for a freelance storyboard spot on a Warners show. I didn't get the job; maybe because I worked too rough. Anyway it shows Bugs in drag, stealing a base from Elmer.


That's an arm pinch, not a nipple pinch!


Maybe I ran afoul of the paperless office concept. I should have used a cintique. I was just daunted by the $2,000 price tag. I figured I'd get the job first then buy the hardware, but things don't work that way. Yikes! An expensive lesson.


More trees for the video game. I love drawing trees.


Above, for the video game, a dude throws his gang sign.


How did finger signs ever get popular? Who was the first one to do that?


LEVIATHAN 2012

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Here's another film that I saw at Steve's recently. Don't confuse it with another film made two years later with the same name. 


Ask ten people what the film's about and you'll get ten different answers. For me it's about the way the world really is: the chaotic way our senses actually perceive the world before our brains have a chance to process the information and make a pleasing story out of it.



The film takes place on a New England fishing boat but it could just as easily have been about a walk in the park. Wherever we are life bombards us with a cacophony of sound and images which our brains filter through algorithms. Those algorithms create for us a  three-dimensional map and a sense of what's in that map and how it can be used to enhance our survival.  It's amazing that we can do that.



It's scary to think that we might have been visited by intelligent space aliens many times in the past but they simply failed to notice us. Their own algorithms might have attached more significance to that rarity in the universe: the radiation protected, surface ocean. Or maybe the cacophony of all the splashing droplets and weather might have overwhelmed their senses. Maybe their image of the Earth is of a baffling place of loud white noise. Maybe they were glad to have left it.




Anyway, here's (above) a trailer for it. To make its point the film has to be immersive so widen the picture to full screen mode and crank up the sound. If you see the whole thing, try to see it in a theatre rather than on a video at home. Or better still, if you live near L.A., see it at Steve's house this weekend. Contact him at:

http://animationresources.org/

STILL MORE VIDEO GAME IDEAS

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I confess to getting carried away with the "Bad Side of Town" concept on the video game I worked on. I figured a bad side of town ought to LOOK like a bad side, thus the buildings took the shape of rioters battling with the police.


How would a skateboarder navigate through this 3D jigsaw puzzle of a city? I got a start on the problem (above) but I had to put it aside. I was after all supposed to be working on a Hong Kong Level, not a crime city.


No problem. Hong Kong turned out to be tons of fun.


I had so much fun on the prop end of what I did for that game that, when I was finally laid off, I briefly tried to sell myself to mainstream studios as a prop designer.


Haw! What a disappointment! Nobody but Spumco was interested in this (above) sort of thing.


At first I didn't know whether the Jungle Level was supposed to cover Central and South America or Africa, so I did both. Here (above and below) are some African huts.


Lots of quick sketch stuff. 

I threw in some Micronesian designs, too. It all seemed to fit together somehow.


These Africans worshipped Tiki gods. 


There had to be some kind of danger in the Jungle Level and I got to try out different things.

I also did more trees. Who'd have thought that trees would be so much fun to draw?


Here's a black musician pyramid. It wasn't approved, maybe because it was too far off topic. 



DISNEYLAND...AGAIN?

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Yep...again! I have a friend who has an employee's Silver Pass and when he calls, I'm always up for it. Anyway, this time we decided to concentrate on Frontierland. The land is so big that even with an entire day to spend there we had to pass up a lot.


The first thing to do in Frontierland is to take a ride on the paddle-wheel steamship. The whole boat is a work of art.


Past the heavy traffic area the river is surprisingly intimate and quiet. Surprisingly authentic, too. You'd swear you were in the backwoods of Tennessee or Missouri. The landscapers did such a good job that when you come across examples of human habitation like an Indian village they seem a little jarring and out of place.


As the ship approaches civilization again we begin to see artifacts of human habitation: Narrow gauge railroad tracks (above) and a pier. The tracks are decorative but they'd work great for a small, real-world, suburban railroad.


After the steamboat ride we headed for the canoes. This simple ride is one of the most fun things you can do in Frontierland.


Those X%&*@ two cute little girls behind me shoveled at least a gallon of water down my back.

A duck family paddled almost right up to the boat. They seemed to have had no fear of humans.

A quick peek (above) into the nearby Golden Horseshoe Saloon. Wow! Imagine how great it would be to have a local dinner theatre like this!




Next stop: the magesterial Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. If you visit Disneyland don't pass this up. In photos it looks like other theme-related small rollercoasters you've seen and you figure you can safely pass it up.  N-O-T   T-R-U-E!!!!!!! The ride is absolutely unique and is not to be missed...even if you have to stand in line with crying children for an hour to ride it.


This mountain railroad should really be in Tomorrowland. It's the urban transportation of the future, not the past. Ride it and you'll glimpse the dazzling world of 2040 when the concept of a City of the Young will have finally taken hold.

What the ride has to offer isn't visible in pictures, it isn't even visible to people in the park who watch it without riding it. It's the Art of Experience which may turn out to be the primary artform of this emerging century. The ride combines motion with carefully controlled 3D spatial awareness and sound. It incorporates advances in psychology as well as engineering. I'd like to know the name of the genius who thought of this.


CARNIVAL BARKERS

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I don't know about you but I love to listen to carnival barkers, Shamwow salesman, racetrack announcers, auctioneers, streetcorner preachers, medicine show pitchmen....anyone who can entertain with the quality of their voice alone. I just came across a forgotten file of a carnival barker's script...read it and see what you think. The setting is a sideshow on Coney Island.



Yikes! That was kinda' hard to read, wasn't it? Like it was underwater. Sorry about that...It was an old file and I must have done a bad job of scanning it. Anyway, keep reading...it's worth the effort. 

The barker sets the stage by shooing away the kids in the audience...only there were no kids...then he resumes:










Haw! None of these pictures gel with the text but I thought you'd like to see them anyway. I love the jaded look on this barker's face (above) and the determined look on the woman's. It's hard to imagine nowadays, but a tattooed woman was once a shocking novelty. Anyway, back to the text....





Great, eh? Boy, it makes me wish I'd run away to the circus and been a barker!


SALOON ART

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A while back I did a blog about the nude pictures that used to hang behind cowboy bars in the old West.  Well, I just got a request for info about currently available posters of that kind. I don't know much about the subject but the comment rekindled my interest  and I did a little research. Here's what I found out:

So far as I know(above) the most famous picture of that type, one made just for the saloon that hung it, is the one above, which is the very picture that used to hang in The Long Branch saloon in Dodge City Kansas. The reproduction costs $50 and unfortunately isn't very big.


You wouldn't think that a dirty, Godforsaken place like a Western cowtown could support a fancy bar with paintings on the wall, even amateur paintings, but they did. Some of the bars were like miniature palaces.



I don't think any Western bar ever owned a Titian but I wouldn't be surprised if some had big, tinted etchings of some of his pictures. You can probably get a decent sized poster of the classic reclining nude by Titian: the one called "The Venus of Urbino." I like this picture; in fact, it's a permanent feature in my left sidebar. It succeeds in being erotic and earthy on the one hand, and completely intellectual and thought-provoking on the other.


  Giorgione did a similar picture (above). So did Goya.



If the commenter has his own bar and the drinkers are male, then he'll probably want to consider a copy of Bouchet's "Reclining Girl," painted for Louis XV in 1752. I like this picture but I'd never hang it at home. It would be too distracting and besides, until recently I had kids living here.


Then there's Beaumont's "Muse" (above) which isn't very interesting but (above) it has the virtue of being family safe.


Or how about one of Picasso's reclining nudes (above)?

EDDIE FITZGERALD CARICATURES

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Caricatures OF me by other artists, that is. Here's one by John K. He's convinced that I survive entirely on a diet of mayonnaise sandwiches and fast food. 


Uh-oh...John again. Oh, Man! Is that (above) cruel!!!!! But it can't be accurate. I know I look like Sean Connery in the James Bond movies, regardless of what my lying mirror says.

  
More John. He never said this (above) was me, but really.... 

Mike Fontanelli did this one of me reading a funny script by Henry Gilroy. Man, he totally NAILED Henry.

Ted Blackman did this one (above). It makes me look like Harold Lloyd. Ted's an amazing guy. Hes an animation producer but he could easily have been a newspaper cartoonist or a stand up comedian.


Never, ever get a cartoonist mad at you. The retaliation would be too horrible to think about. Here I am (above) with Mike Bell as drawn by Mike F. In a comment Mike says he didn't do this...but then who did?


Haw! Bruce Timm drew this. It's embarrassing because I really did say what's attributed to me here, but I should have given more attention to how it would sound to others. Art is obviously about beauty, not ugliness. I only meant to say that comedy is about ugly people doing stupid things....beautiful ugly people doing intelligently stupid things.



HOME IMPROVEMENTS

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I'm rereading Sarah Susanka's book, "The Not So Big House" and it's inspired me to try a couple of home improvements. For specific ideas I need look no farther than the architectural posts on this very Theory Corner site. Maybe it's time to try some of them out instead of just writing about them all the time.

Hmmmm....well, the obvious thing to do would be to would be to replace my living room windows with big natural wood ones like kind on the book cover above. Yikes! That looks pricey! And beams...they're out for the same reason. Too bad. They look great.


Susanka's right about the appeal of small houses (above) where every inch of space gets used. 


You can do all kinds of things with the big kind of wooden kids blocks (above), and I already have a bunch of those. I once saw a fireplace bracketed with blocks in a shape like this.


I have a level change in my back yard and I'm considering changing the retaining wall so it resembles something the Mayans would have done. I could keep the existing wall and brace the new structure against it.

I picture dumping a pile of maybe four different kinds of old weathered bricks on the ground and making a pattern out of them. Maybe I could I could make a few unique bricks with plaster of Paris. Does anybody sell triangular bricks?

I stumbled on this (above) while I was searching for structural foam on the net. Hmmm...white, textured interior wall panels. That sounds promising. All the walls don't have to look like this, just one small one.


When my kids were little I painted the nursery walls with pictures of animals (above). It looked so good that I was always thinking of excuses to spend time in there because I liked staring at the walls. Later on the walls were painted over but maybe I should try something like that again.


Oldtime readers of Playboy like myself imbibed Hugh Hefner's aesthetic which required a large abstract painting in the living room, so maybe I need one of those.


Maybe something along the lines of Gary Panter's "Elvis Zombie (above)."


Or a Fearless Fosdick painting.


Or a Cliff Sterett-type picture. My left sidebar is full of interesting possibilities.


I like this curtain pattern by Lucy Cousin. It's a bit girly but it's cartoony and has a good vibe. It wouldn't fit with a zombie painting, though.


I wonder if there's some way I could use those thin, quarry-cut sheets of rock bricks (above) that you see all around now. I'd have to use them sparingly because they appear phony when you look close.


How about a pre-fab Japanese fence for the yard (above)...you can't beat that.


Above, Picasso-type panels on the upper floor. Great idea!


Maybe built-in bookshelves... if I could afford it, which I probably can't. They sure look good.


I like the idea of out-of-the-way shelves that are designed for irregular piles of paper that haven't been sorted yet. This would be a hard sell for my family who wouldn't understand why I saved all that stuff in the first place.


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