The owls are not what they seem...

Last year I decided to decorate my christmas tree with handmade owls, so I gathered a creative team together and we brought to life a lot of cute creatures! The result was a lot of different personalities... smarter or sillier, handsome or short, geeky or fashionable. The owls have been watching us for a short time from the christmas tree, until the day I decided to let them out into the real world!

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …

Inspiration and creativity is like a virus and spreads quickly... I was siting with my friend and she said to me about an article from "Wired" magazine that talked about stories that were only six words long, from sci-fi to fantasy, horror to romance.

Only the six words were enough to create an explosion in the imagination.

We decided to take a picture so that she could illustrate one of the stories... the pictures became 100 and in the end I found my self somewhere between illustrating some of the stories too and making a self portrait.

Thanks to Druantia for her beautiful photography and don't forget to have a read through her article!

The colourful world of Betsy Walton!

First post of 2010... So Happy New Year!

I know It's been a little while since I've written, but you have to forgive me! It took me a long time to adjust after Christmas break, and I always enjoy keeping a distance to technology for a while.

Today I'm writing about Betsy Walton! A native Kansan who now lives in Portland. She decided to leave her full time job back in 2006 and dedicate her soul to her paintings. Her world has pulled me in there and I can't stop looking at her paintings and flying in those worlds. I'm fascinated by the way she is using the colour, the colour schemes and of course the dreamy drawings.

Have a look at her website and her blog which is very insightful as she talks in depth about her sources of inspiration such as novels and breath meditation.

Stop-motion@Liverpool Screen School

Yesterday I had the honor to work within Liverpool Screen School's teaching team in order to run a stop motion workshop for the students of The Huyton Arts and Sports Centre school.

The procedure we followed was to show them some inspiration links, brainstorm with them, and then get them to make their storyboards.

It was a great experience observing people that do not have any previous experience with New Media and how easily they can become motivated to start developing ideas.

I think I saw the biggest excitement and focus in the team while working on the animation aspect, while moving things around. It allowed them to experiment and get a quick response by watching it every couple of minutes.

So after this experience I realised why stop-motion workshops are so fun and successful for new people. It is just that the result is quick, rewarding and impressive.

I was very pleased with the final outcome of only few hours fun and effort.

I hope that the little artists enjoyed it as well, and good luck in their future!

Have a look at my teams' movie Cardboard Xmas, as well as the work of the other teams.

Sketchbook Making

Here are the outcomes of a user-testing session in making sketchbooks, in order to complete a workshop plan that I'm working on!! Thanks to all my talented friends and participants for all the help and support!

All creative people should use sketchbooks!! Record your ideas, draw, make storyboards and see your ideas evolve! Making your own sketchbooks, it is not only very fun but also very engaging and motivating! I look forward to use mine! It is great having a sketchbook that has a little bit of your personality!

There are several ways you can put a sketchbook together and ideas to make! Just gather a lot of all recycled materials and papers, stickers, folders and pens, set your imagination free and have fun!

See more details and videos on how to make them at:
http://www.accessart.org.uk/sketchbook/

Walls, Floors and Patterns in Cinema

An element that I find exciting and always look out for when watching films (especially when they are directed by Lynch) are amazing, trippy and crazy patterns. I think that some of the most famous scenes in cinema history have been characterized by patterns, so I decided to post some of the most distinguished and loved ones.

Some of the most legendary shots in my opinion that use patterns are: The Lodge from Twin Peaks, the Lady in the Radiator's stage in Eraserhead and The Overlook Hotel's carpets in Kubrick's The Shining. It's worth noting that both Lynch and Kubrick have been an influence to one another, specifically, Kubrick's vision for The Shining was heavily influenced by Eraserhead.

Some more beautiful patterns can be seen in the films of Wong Kar Wai, especially in 2046 and in The Mood for Love. Pedro Almodovar's scenes often consist of geometrical 60's wallpapers, and one of the sweetest use of patterns is in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie.

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Jennybird Alcantara's art is full of narratives and explorations of opposites. It is a great example of observing how beauty and cruelty can be merged together and prove that nothing would be the same in the absence of either. Her biggest inspirational moments agree so much with mine too; the state of semi-consciousness! It is such a great moment, and happens to me often before I sleep, when I'm sunbathing, or while I travel...

I really love the first illustration "Daughter of Icarus" ..it brings to my mind the moments when my sister and I are taken apart by an airplane because we live in different countries :(

www.jennybirdart.com