Came across this wonderful artist, thanks to Yaz Pixelated!
…placeholder for something profound
Archives for category: Art/Design
I originally wanted to make January Studio Ghibli Month in honor of Hayao Miyazaki‘s 70th birthday, but as I started browsing through scans I realized that I had too many wall ideas and not enough time to deliver. So I figured, why not make this a year-long personal project? Expect to see a lot more Ghibli-related blog posts, tweets, and of course, Ghibli/Miyazaki walls from me throughout the year! This is not to say that I’ll only be making Studio Ghibli walls in 2011, but I will be prioritizing those WIPs. In the meantime, if there are any Studio Ghibli films that you’d like to see more walls for, please let me know!
P.S. Just realized that I’d forgotten to enable multiple selections – you can now vote for more than one Ghibli films that you’d like to see more walls of!
I finally managed to watch The Princess and the Frog with the bf and really, really enjoyed the movie. It was such a nice throwback to the heydays of traditional Disney animation, with lovable characters constantly bursting into song, a well-paced storyline, and a really heartwarming ending. I was especially impressed by the “Almost There” sequence, with its beautifully fluid animation that hearkened back to the era of Art Deco and jazz 
I’ve been looking at Japanese album covers lately for design inspiration, and I googled mink on a whim, mostly because I remembered seeing her e+motion album cover posted to Animepaper as a NANA scan:
I actually have no idea why this cover was tagged as a NANA scan, because as far as I can tell none of mink’s songs were ever used for the NANA series – not to say mink couldn’t have been inspired by Ai Yazawa’s work, of course. I’m also not sure who illustrated these album covers, but I suspect that mink herself might be the actual designer. In any case, these cover illustrations are really quite beautiful. I love the stark simplicity, the movement of the lines, and the abundant negative space.
The 2010 AP Clash of the Wallers came to an epic end a few weeks ago, and we’ve had a fantastic run. Some random final competition stats include:
- 13 pages and 67 posts were written up and divvied into 10 categories by Jay & I.
- 673 comments (!!) in total were posted and approved for the Clash site, although a solid number of those comments probably came from Jay & I during the early planning stages.
- Akismet protected us from a staggering amount of spam – 2,645 spam comments, to be exact. Damn you spammers and spam-bots!!
- Our busiest day was Sunday, July 18, 2010 with 1,974 page views, since that was the day when the Round 1 elimination challenge results came out
- As of now, the Clash site has received 34,085 page views in total.
- 8 promotional walls were made that we know of – there may have been a few others that slipped past our radars.
- 28 walls were made for the 2 immunity challenges, and 61 walls were made for the 3 elimination challenges. Which means that our amazing participants submitted a grand total of 89 walls for Clash!!!
- Of the 89 walls that were made for the competition, 45 walls were submitted to AP (that we know of).
Looking over the rounds 1, 2, and 3 galleries, it’s simply mind-boggling the sheer number of quality walls that have come out of this competition. So here’s one final bout of extra love from me for some of the sweet walls from Clash’s final round You can also check out the Clash Round 3 Gallery to see all the walls from the final round that were submitted to AP!
Finally, Wasteland Limits by X-Angel-0
A strong piece of original art that successfully portrays an eerie and surreal dreamscape. It comes with a great story as well!
Sweet Mary Jane by ze
Well-designed simplicity which looks good on the desktop Plus it’s a Baccano! wall, for all you Baccano fans out there!
Aurora by shigemitsubaki
Another stunning piece of original art from Tsu which basically stole the competition, for fairly obvious reasons 
The AP version that Tsu uploaded has a different character to the Clash original, but since the Clash version was the one that stole my heart, that’s the one I’m linking to here.
I was a huge fan of Gaia 09, so I was tickled pink to see the release of Gaia 10 – which may be one of the most personal yet expressive celebrations of nature that I have ever seen. The digital goodies offered by the Gaian Community are so present, they truly are constant reminders of nature’s beauty. And it’s so easy to take part – all you have to do is snag the gorgeous desktops, themes, or icons, use, and enjoy!
Our vision and believe is in the power of a community to create a positive movement to show the beauty of our planet… By creating digital art, reminding us of the beauty of nature everyday.
Apart from a thorough perusal of Gaia 10′s gorgeous gallery, I’d also recommend checking out the Places We Visit While Listening To You music album, which is filled with soothing tunes and available for free download. Seriously, what’s not to love here?! Go check out Gaia 10 NOW, if you haven’t already!
Since the Clash immunity challenge winners for round 1 have been announced, I figured I’d give a little extra love to some of my favorite walls from this challenge:
Wait by jubjub
Loved the exquisite simplicity and the subtle melancholy that this wall was able to convey through so few elements.
Da Ba Dee, Da Ba Die by Horseradish
Funk + soul + Spike of Bebop fame, what’s not to like?
Give Me Symphonies by ze
I’m obviously a junkie for simplicity, but the typography in this wall is also love!
I marathoned through the whole of Nodame Cantabile: Finale yesterday, and now there is a dark gaping void in my life which used to be filled with Nodame goodness. I almost blew the internet cap in the viewing process, but gosh it was worth it. I had delayed starting Finale because I thought this would happen, given how much I love the series. Despite the fact that I was utterly traumatized by the abrupt manga ending, seeing it again in anime form the second time wasn’t quite as bad. In fact, the anime actually helped me come to terms a bit more with the manga ending.
I think Nodame Cantabile is the ONLY series where I’ve read the entire manga, watched all three anime seasons, and the live action series (to the Europe special). I may have to track down the two live action movies soon. I also started a Nodame WIP to attempt to fill the abyss in my soul… it’s sort of helping
Seeing this image in the ED sequence always tore at my heartstrings, so… love to Nodame and Chiaki, and why, WHY did such an awesome series have to end? Whyyy?
Because Twitter’s iconic Fail Whale is love, this comic strip by aksrnk is a terrific addition to the trove of Fail Whale tributes!
From Gigazine: “Missed You…Twitter’s Fail Whale Welcomes Home Hayabusa Asteroid Explorer“