Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Arts » Hand Craft

Happycentro’s Paper, Pen, and Plasticine Typography

Philip Dennis — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:44:58 +0000

While doing a monthly typographic treatment for ‘IL- Intelligence’ in ‘Lifestyle Magazine’, dynamic creative studio, Happycentro’s open approach to their work has led to a set of images as intricate as they are diverse.

From paper sculpture, detailed draughtsmanship, papercut, and plasticine modelling, they have been keeping it exciting with a spectrum of different ideas, we can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next. They tell us more about their studio and the project, and give us a glimpse of the backstage process.

The studio began in 1998 in Verona, the romantic city of Romeo and Juliet. In recent years we have worked with both large and small clients, for local agencies and major international companies.

Our approach to design is always the same: designing a logo, an advertising page, a wall or directing a commercial offers the same opportunity to deal with a problem. With time we have become quite good at solving problems.

Mixing complexity, order and fatigue is our formula for beauty. Always, in addition to the commissioned work, we spend plenty of energy in research and testing. Visual art, typography, graphic design, illustration, animation, film direction and music. We like contamination between creative disciplines and diversity in general.

We don’t like to do the same thing twice and prefer to go beyond what we are already able to do. It is tiring but satisfying.

We started collaborating with IL – Intelligence In Lifestile Magazine, supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore. Under the creative direction of Mr. Francesco Franchi, each month we develop the title typography for the brand new column “Remo Contro” written by the italian philosopher Remo Bodei.

Drawing Lines and Colourful Printing with Marie ERR

Philip Dennis — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:04:14 +0000

Here are some fun illustrations from Marie ERR, showing off her great passion for colour. She was kind enough to give us a backstage look at some of the printing processes she uses.

I usually sketch my ideas on random papers or in sketchbooks, the trouble starts when I try to look for them, usually without much luck. Depending on the type of work I’m doing, I usually draw lines with either indian ink or markers, and then I add colour with Photoshop.

If I’m going for handmade only, my favorite medium is acrylic on plywood, the colour always gets super bright, just the way I like it! And, if I like the design enough, I can always screen print it! It’s so much hard work but so much fun to do, I love it!

Pete Fecteau Creating a Mosaic Entirely out of Rubik’s Cubes

Philip Dennis — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:31:53 +0000

I could never get the hang of the Rubik’s Cube, still can’t. That has obviously never been the case for Pete Fecteau. Being more than comfortable with a Rubik’s Cube in his hand, Pete goes one step further in Rubik’s fluency, using them as his medium in his large-scale piece ‘Dream Big’. He took a little time to tell us about himself and this impressive project.

My name is Pete Fecteau and I’m an artist and designer. My fascination with Rubik’s Cubes started in 2008 when I decided to learn how to solve one. It was super addictive once I memorized the algorithms and, within a year, I was solving them in less than a minute.

It never occurred to me to use them for art until it came to me in a dream, literally. I came up with the idea to make one of the world’s largest Rubik’s Cube mosaics as my entry into the ArtPrize competition. I knew it was entirely possible and I used my skills as a designer to create a digital version of the mosaic and then a system for me to navigate and track each cube as I build the mosaic by hand.

The Rubik’s cube has a very limited color palette and I wanted to use 5 of the 6 colors to translate the work of Martin Luther King Jr. into a dynamic, analogous visual. I started by composing the image in black and white and then separated the grey scale into 9 solids.

Those 9 greys were then swapped with the 5 cube colors and the gradients between them. The process was and is a true test of color theory. Once I had the cubes, which was the hardest part of the whole process, the construction was simple. 4,242 Rubik’s Cubes, 5 colors, 1 subject.

I’m too cheap to buy or rent studio space. I’ve always borrowed space. Now that I’m in San Francisco, studio space is even more out of the question. I’m planning another mosaic for 2013 which will be twice as big and will probably rent out storage space in a self-storage facility.

I prefer bleak, featureless spaces because there’s so much to focus on. Any kind of distraction is a huge risk. I don’t listen to music or eat/drink while I’m working. I also prefer to work alone. I guess that makes me an art hermit, huh?

Mystical and Psychedelic Celeste Byers

Philip Dennis — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:03:30 +0000

Celeste Byers‘ world is full of modern psychedelia, mysticism and brazen sexuality. But, what I love most about her work is her easily identifiable visual style, taken across an mix of media, yet held together and cohesive from one to the next. from looking at her gorgeously mutated forms in her paintings and pencil work, you might think it difficult for them to translate into 3D, yet her sculptures look like they could’ve easily fallen out of one of her murals at a medical marijuana dispensary.

The categories on her site alone, which include ‘light boxes’, ‘body paint’, ‘xxx’ and ‘kamasutra’, illustrate versatility and willingness to try new things. Check out her trippy video, ‘Cream Guru’.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

“I work with a variety of materials depending on the project. For my pieces on paper or wood I use gouache, pencil, and ink. Sometimes acrylic. I’ve been making sculptures out of expanding foam recently and am releasing a video later this week that uses digitally shot live-action stop motion that I animated over frame by frame using Photoshop and AfterEffects. After finishing the digital version of the video I recorded and added text with VHS. I’ll be posting both versions on my website.”

“For Cream Guru I animated my drawings and paintings then mixed them in with live video and stop motion. I got the idea from reading ‘The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep’ by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. There are 12 spiritual practices the Tibetan Buddhists use when lucid dreaming and I included some of their techniques into the content of my video.”

Chalk on Blackboard Animations by Alex Chilvers

Alex Mathers — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:22:01 +0000

It’s nice to see independent animation using a unique medium in the form of chalk on a blackboard. This has a nice wistful feel to it and we hope to see more of such work from Alex.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Eve Lloyd Knight from Tactile Drawings to Bold Screen Printed Book

Philip Dennis — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:41:37 +0000

‘Pedestal’ by Eve Lloyd Knight is the kind of large, screen printed book that needs to be handled. I think it’s probably not only the size but the textures she’s created in the printing itself that makes it look so tactile. The mixture of very handheld materials used in the drawings and the flat, layered nature of printing gives the images a really unique feel, coupled with the very graphic shapes and blocks of colour. She describes the concept for the book and the accompanying limited edition prints.

“Is it possible ever to achieve perfection? This screen-printed book and limited edition prints set out to explore the complex dynamic between our own unattainable aspirations and the emotional demands we place on others in trying to get there. The gradual realisation that those extreme goals could never exist is replaced by a growing understanding for both an internal and a shared balance. “

“I set out to communicate ideas, emotion and relationships that are complex and challenging to visualise. By symbolising the tenuous balance between people and their environment I want to externalise what is usually invisable and internal. This tension between two forms continues throughout my working method; what starts as an abstract and ephemeral idea will be re-drawn and refines until both the conceptual and the visual play an equal part.”

“Print allows me to simplify and edit this process further in order to concentrate on the fundamental decisions of light and shadow, the transparency/depth of colour and the impact of monumental scale against minute yet significant detail.”

“I want to say as much as I can using as little as possible.”

“The symbolic representation of my five stage working process from initial idea to final resolution.”

Secret Skwirl Music Video Animation by Maxime Bruneel

Alex Mathers — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:45:25 +0000

Here’s a music video with a fresh style. This animation is art directed by London and Paris-based Maxime Bruneel for the band Secret Skwirl. We like the funky hand-drawn style used in this edgy animation piece.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Art Projects by Brighton Graduate Anieszka Banks

Philip Dennis — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:22:00 +0000

Another of this year’s graduates, from the University of Brighton this time. I love Anieszka Banks‘ ‘Plantable Book’ project, in which seeds and examples of the flowers they’ll grow into have been worked into hand-made sheets of paper, bound together in a book. I think the idea of a book that actually contains the flowers it describes is great.

It’d make an especially good gift for children, who could plant and watch the flowers grow, while learning about environmental issues and building an understanding about the natural world. These are all themes Anieszka likes to bring into other parts of her design work, as she talks about below.

We’ve included a picture of one of Anieszka’s favourite places at the end.

A lot of my work is about different environmental issues such as conservation, sustainability, biodiversity, growing food and working as a community. I love working with paint, found pieces of paper/texture and then getting everything really messy, then scanning in the work and layering more things onto it in Photoshop. I also love taking photographs on really old cameras and not knowing what they will look like until you develop them!

Collage and Paper Sculpture by Ciara Phelan

Philip Dennis — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:10:28 +0000

Ciara Phelan‘s work is is tremendously diverse, one minute being collage, the next, model making and photography. The 3D paper sculptures she creates especially remind me of the hobby books I used to have and find incredibly exciting as a child, instructing you in ways to make gargantuan paper sculptures full of colour and exploding fun to ward away rainy days.

The difference, however, is that Ciara’s work is carefully considered design and has been sought after by big companies such as Orange, and been on more than one cover of well-know art and design publications. Below, Ciara tells us about herself and her work.

I am a freelance illustrator, I work from Open Studio in North London. My work is predominantly collage based, I like to mix vintage imagery found in old encyclopaedias and children’s books with modern geometric pattern and vector shapes.

My collage work is mostly created digitally on the computer as I find this the easiest way to manipulate the forms and create interesting composition. In addition to my collages, I also work with paper to create elaborate sets and objects that I then shoot in my studio before digitally re-touching.

Mixed Media Illustration by Daniel Zender

Philip Dennis — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:49:14 +0000

I enjoy seeing illustrators who like to experiment and try new things in their work. Using a whole range of media, including torn out bits of paper, Daniel Zender‘s continuing need to play around with different methods gives his work a lot of energy and playfulness that I like. He tells us a little more about this.

I am a designer and illustrator, who employs mixed media techniques, and often combines them digitally. I really like using cut paper, ink, and acrylic, as well as found objects and typography, and also silkscreen many of my prints. I also print posters for music and theater events around my town. Usually, I a make a very detailed sketch on a piece of computer paper, then using tracing paper or vellum to make separations that I either cut out, ink, or scan.

Often, my work never makes it to the computer, as I like to focus on having a physical piece of art in the end. However, it is inevitable that changes will be made for commissioned illustration work, and unless I have a very flexible art director, I end up scanning and changing things in Photoshop. I also make most of my posters in Photoshop. I am constantly trying find new ways to make my art, and I think this is apparent on my website.