Roadside Projects

November 14, 2009

Wes Anderson has turned Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox into an amazing stop motion feature film. Check out the trailer and short feature on the making of it. All of the puppets and sets were made by hand - incredible! You can find some more shorts from behind the scenes here. (In theaters on Thanksgiving)

November 6, 2009

The last couple work weeks have consisted of: multiple illustration commissions (none of which I am at liberty to discuss yet) and many hours of website design (I'm hoping to have a main portfolio site up by the end of the month)... which doesn't exactly make for exciting blogging - hence the lack of posts. But, I did want to let you know about an awesome blog Liz Lomax recently created: Working in the 3rd Dimension. So far there are some great interviews and a growing collection of artist links/resources - well worth checking out.

Also, for any fellow music-obsessed illustrators out there - Carrie Brownstein is hosting a contest over at her blog Monitor Mix: build a body out of bands. The assignment is proving to be a fun challenge so far... the idea is to create a character based on band names involving body parts (The Flaming Lips, Talking Heads, The Shins, etc.) I'm sure there will be a ton of entries and I don't know if mine will stand much of a chance at winning, but it is cracking me up every time I look at it! I'm trying to use as many bands as possible and my 'body' is becoming some kind of otherworldly mutant.

October 20, 2009

Six originals - Now in the shop

October 19, 2009

Papercraft

I'm honored to have my work included in another beautiful book by Gestalten. I just got my copy in the mail yesterday and this book is gorgeous! It's all about art and design with paper - 256 pages of it being used in every way imaginable. The book even comes with a DVD of some great stop-motion paper animations and templates for DIY paper toys.

One of my pieces featured in the 3D illustration section

Here is a small sample of the wide variety of work included in the book...

Imaginative set designs by IJM studio

Large scale installations by Taylor McKimens

A beautiful Fleet Foxes music video by Sean Pecknold
(check out his website for a short film on the making of this)

October 15, 2009

When I was working on the pieces for "Cut & Fold", looking up pictures of interesting houses online, I found several great new (to me) artists I wanted to share with you. I'm a sucker for elaborate fantasy cities (one of my favorite things to draw as a kid) and I just love these...

"Mobile Home"
Mattias Adolfsson
Sweden

"The Idle Principality"
Allison Sommers
US

"The Diver"
Matthew Scott
UK

"Big Cat"
Ahmet Ozcan
Turkey

Also - don't forget about tomorrow!

October 8, 2009

Cut & Fold

pt. 2
5" x 7" x 1"

This little series is for a show I've been looking forward to for quite a while - it's called "Cut & Fold", an exhibition designed to highlight a diverse range of paper art from all over the world: folded paper, paper cuts, collage, papier mache, origami, paper sculpture, wallpaper and more.

It opens November 7th at New Brewery Arts in Gloucestershire, UK.

Sadly, I'll have to enjoy this show via the internet, but anyone lucky enough to live in the area should definitely take the time to stop by. There will be artist talks and a series of hands-on workshops designed to teach various paper art processes and skills.

My work is just one very small piece of the overall "Cut & Fold" project - the artist lineup is pretty phenomenal. Here are just a few of those involved (these images are not of pieces that will be in the show - I just borrowed them from the artists' online portfolios to give you an idea of their style) ...

Adriane Colburn

"Cut & Fold" :: New Brewery Arts :: Nov. 7 - Jan. 3

October 5, 2009

pt. 1

5" x 7" x 1"

The lady serenading the forest is about the size of a quarter. I think I need to start working with a monocle...

September 30, 2009

new work in progress

September 29, 2009

Giveaway Winners

Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the print giveaway! I used random.org to pick 5 entries and they were:

Artfulife
Delphine
Honey Mommy
Irit
Ruthie

*Please email me with your mailing addresses at:
roadsideprojects[at]gmail.com

It was great to see that many of us have favorite children's authors in common - Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein and of course Mr. Sendak. Where the Sidewalk Ends and Light in the Attic were two of my favorites as a kid. And just this morning I was reading Dr. Seuss while babysitting my niece - I agree with you guys that his work still holds up after all this time. I was also glad to see that there was at least one Harriet the Spy fan out there. I was obsessed with this book as a young reader and put great effort into crafting my own homemade belt to hold my spy accessories (flashlight, notebook, etc.) a la Harriet...

Thanks again for all of your recommendations and kind comments. I'll be back soon with images of my treehouse piece in progress.

September 25, 2009

Wild Things Giveaway

A bunch of people have written to me asking if I plan to make prints of the Where the Wild Things Are piece I made for the Terrible Yellow Eyes show... I can't sell prints of this piece [copyright law (Maurice Sendak owns these characters) - original works are ok to sell as 'fan art' but profiting off reproductions is not allowed] So, I'm giving some away for free. ;)

To win a signed 5" x 7" print of "Ruler of the Wild Things" :

Leave a comment (I'm particularly interested in hearing about your favorite children's books) before midnight on Monday (California time). I will pick FIVE winners at random and announce their names on Tuesday.

September 23, 2009

I'm working on another small series of pieces for an upcoming show (more details on that later) and I've chosen the theme of "unconventional homes". The first piece involves a treehouse and I have to admit I've been stalling on getting into the actual WORK because I can't pull myself away from the computer. To help justify my endless hours of treehouse image searches/treehouse fantasies (always wanted one, never had one) - I've compiled a small collection of favorites to share...