UrbanRetro.co.uk has informed us of their new project titled ‘The Mouse vs. The Brush’.  The project begins with a digital artist and a traditional artist, seemingly with similar styles, each creating a piece.  The work is then made into 50 limited edition prints and 100 sets of 4 buttons and the sales battle begins!

This will be a series of rounds with new artists for each.  The first round pits Ben the Illustrator (left) against Lou Pimentel (right).  The battle is a friendly one, and the prices are reasonable too.  I have linked each of the artist’s names to their interviews on UrbanRetro.

Both artists are great, and I am a big fan of digital art, but I have to lean to Pimentel on this one.  His other work is fantastic as well.

Mike Allred is one of those special comic creators out there, like Mignola or Miller, that are getting the Hollywood treatment.  Admittedly, I have only read a fraction of what he has done with Madman. From what I have read, the humor, the emotion, the science, and the horror made for a great read.  The great thing about Madman is that he is such an original character that arose in a time where comic heroes were getting the dreaded 90s treatment.

In an interview with AnarchyMusic.net, Allred speaks about the history of Madman, and the Madman movie he is working on with Robert Rodriguez!  Madman sounds like a perfect project for Rodriguez, and I simply cannot wait!

[Source= Geekscape]

Call me a cheapskate or pennypincher or whatever you want, but I admit that I have a hard time paying the going (exorbitant) price for the latest, hottest toy for my son to play with.  Especially considering the fact that he gets as big a kick playing a rousing game of Box* as he does playing with the latest Sesame Street or Blues Clues contraption.

That being said, the toys above really float my boat, not just from a financial perspective but also when viewed through my “designer” eyes.  The gang over at Fwis, a multi-location U.S. design firm, have created these elaborate toys, called Readymechs, that cost nothing more than a bit of time, some double-sided tape and some heavy paper.  Choose from over 20 different patterns and designs to download and get busy assembling your own readymechs!

Also, be sure to check out the Fwis website, for a nice portfolio and some great insight into the entire creative process (conception, misunderstanding, rejection and fruition).

[Readymechs]

*Box is like air hockey, but it can played on any flat surface with an empty box (usually from a new, ignored toy) filling in for a puck  and a lot of enthusiasm and giggling filling in for anything resembling rules.

I love these glass bottle lamps by Jerry Kott.  Each lamp uses hand cut portions of different colored bottles that are reassembled and polished to create the multicolored lamps.  Hanging bottle lamps are cool, but the skillful method of combining colored bottles make these bodacious.  Yeah, that’s right.  Bodacious.

[Source= Design*Sponge]

A couple of dudes from Sydney took a trip across the US collecting all of our vintage tees and documented the whole thing.  Now they have returned to Australia and are selling off their collection along with large format photos from the experience.

I must say that I am jealous.  I love old shirts with character and charisma, and I loathe the fake vintage tees from the mall.  Plus, living in Tallahassee (a city of college students), it is impossible to find any gems from the thrift stores as they have all been swallowed up by the crowds.  And now they have stolen a large chunk of our country’s old crappy tee shirts!  Jerks.

[myspace profile]

Illustrator Chris Haughton’s work just makes me happy.  He has such a unique, seemingly simplistic approach to his work.  However, in his interview with Amateur Illustrator he talks about having to significantly whittle down his original concept to reach his goal.  He also talks about his inspirations and why it is important for an illustrator to do the work that makes them happy to find success.  Also, check out his portfolio!

So I noticed the other day that Charmin was offering free “extenders” for their new mega Rolls that are too big to fit on an average holder.  This is  a desperate move to push their unnaturally large rolls on the consumer.  For some reason, this intrigues me.  So I am here to announce Cardboard Monocle’s first ever contest!

Simply go to the Charmin website and order your two free extenders.  The goal here is to take a product that is clearly doomed to fail, and make some art out of it!  Anything you want to do, add stuff to it, break it, whatever you want. I do ask to please keep it remotely clean.  I don’t want some conceptual piece covered in poo.

“But Eric…  Won’t I get a bunch of spam?”  No, imaginary person, you won’t.  It states that you may receive 3 news emails a year, and they will probably be nabbed by your junk filter anyway.

Now I have no idea how long it takes to get these, so I will have to get back to you on when the contest ends.  The 1st place winner receives a six pack of Charmin Mega Roll and the prestige of holding title of Charmin Extender [unofficial] Art Contest Winner!

I will post updates along the way, and of course I will be doing two of my own.  Once you finish, send me a picture at reach@cardboardmonocle.com.

So go to the site, and ORDER YOUR EXTENDERS!

I found this on the front page of Digg, so I imagine it will be on quite a few blogs, but I have to post whenever I come across good macro photography.  And there is a fairly large Flickr set to enjoy, so I thought I would share.  It is very much another world… full of color and giant insects that will peel the flesh from your bones.  I especially enjoyed this barfing fly.  Next time a fly lands on my sandwich, I will be removing the portion of the sandwich which the fly defiled.  Eew.

I’d like to think that one day I will have the discipline and the mental capacity to maintain the life of a small plant.  Until then, designer Smoggy Mountain (Joji Okazaki) will make sure that no more tiny trees die by my hand.  His Atomic Bonsai comes in a box and the assembly is open to your interpretation.  In true bonsai tradition, it can flow in the direction you see fit.  Amazing design too!

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

-Aristotle

Thomas Broome  is a Swedish artist whose work has been exhibited since 1995 and spans a wide variety of mediums.  I could try to describe some of the pieces or just point you to his site and let you see for yourself.  I do however want to focus on one particular series of his works called ModenMantra. 

According to the press release for his recent exhibit, ModernMantra can be summed up like so:

“In the series of drawings, ModernMantra, we face interiors constructed with words in which the artist, by repeating a word such as CHAIR, has drawn, shaped and described a chair in a way that with the aid of our concentration the different words thus become all the descriptions Broomé strives for. “

That’s about how I’d have described it, just a little more straightforward and without using an incredibly long run-on sentence.

I love these works though, and the intricate line work reminds me, favorably, of the illustrations of late caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.  Maybe it’s the similarity in the line weight or the fact that Hirschfeld always manages to hide the name of his daughter, Nina, in the piece somewhere. 

Regardless, I really like this stuff and have nothing but respect for the insane amount of time it must have taken to produce these pieces.  Check out the closeups below of the image shown above, to see the detail in the work.

Go to the link below to see more, and the link below that to check out the works of Al Hirschfeld. 

[Thomas Broome]

[Al Hirschfeld]

I met Chris through a friend-of-a-friend type of scenario, and boy does he have an interesting portfolio.  Chris went to Florida State and then went out to L.A. to do some special effects work.  It was there that he did work on a number of things including Buffy, Angel, House of the Dead 2, and even a Dixie Chicks video of all things.  Honestly, his resume is a bizarre list of projects.

Currently he has been doing concept art for Dreamblade, a collectable miniature game.  He gets direction, then proceeds to design the characters that eventually are made into these cool little miniatures.  It would be so cool to see something you drew interpreted in three dimensions.  The guy has talent, so check him out.

The National Geographic website has a really nice interactive map depicting the human pressures on the Amazon.  One can clearly see the areas effected by mining, agricultural clearings, urbanization, logging, deforestation, and man-made fires.

What blew me away was the amount of fires over there.  I had no idea that due largely to the fires, Brazil is a leading contributer of greenhouse gasses.

[Source=Hugg]

This is a local commercial from my neck of the woods that I discovered on my friend Michelle’s blog. Dear God, this thing is funny. I have never wanted to go to the flea market so badly. It is about a minute too long, but I don’t care. Just watch it.