The Flip Book

This is a flip book, done by (he is originally a comedian) Tekken.  He makes moving animation with the pages from one to the next.  He made thousands of pages of image to make this.  They are simple drawings but very touching content.  It made me cry :( . This flip book animation was used for actual PV of Muse's 'Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 (Redemption)' song.   Enjoy!

Another 3D Art

 

I thought this video is very cool to watch.  He draws the gold fish and pours the acrylic paint.  He repeats this process over and over to make the layer to complete that 3D gold fish!!

 

Aloha!

 

 Aloha! I took early holiday and flew to Hawaii last week ;)
I would like to share some of my pictures.

Me from a hotel room,
Japanese temple in Oahu island (In 1920, 43% of Hawaii's population was Japanese. (included my grandfather!) )
We hiked and went to the top of the Diamond head.
Beautiful Tropical forest.

One of my favorite shopping area is "International Market Place".
How warm and friendly look this entrance is.
(These three images are from other websites.)

You can buy local souvenirs, Hawaiian dress and accessories from individual venders.
They are located in a center of Waikiki area but they are surrounded by natural trees. It is like you are in forest while shopping.

It is too bad that they will be torn down in a few months and will be developed just like other shopping center which it doesn't attract me at all!  It will look like another Rodeo Drive..

 

(Sorry! this post is not much to do with "ART")

 

Trick Art museum

I happened to find about a trick art museum in Tokyo when I looked through the websites.

 

 Not just 3Dimentional art, I guess you can also be in an art like this.

This museum is located in a small man made islands in Tokyo Bay that also has popular shopping mall and entertainment district.

 

 

Family Crest

 

"The traditional family symbol or crest, the mon, which has been used for a thousand years. A mom is a simplified design of flowers, birds, animals, plants, or household objects contained in a circle, which was applied to belongings and clothing." (Meggs' History of Grephic Design p487)

 Here is the mon my family used for years.  This is very common one that Bushi(samurai) family and also normal farmer's family use.  Supposedly there are more than 20,000 designs.  I love the design of my family crest.  Considering it is designed 1000 years ago, it is beautiful and flower and  leave are amazingly well balanced.

 

This is one way to show mon,  we print on Kimono to wear for formal occasion.  I really want to inherit the tradition to my children.   

 

 

Meggs, Philip B., and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Hoboken: J. Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print.

perfectionist

 These are traditional sweets.  Especially with something be inherited for many years, we are particular about a presentation of the food.

These are candies.  The ones with pattern are made like sushi rolls. The different colors of caramel are carefully placed, rolled and cut.

 

 
 

The people who make this kind of sweets are trained for a long time to become a skilled artisan of Japanese sweets.
Here is another cute thing to look at,,
Fun Lunch Box

Unique Buses

I know many of moms have hard time sending kids to school for the first few days or maybe weeks and months! 

 

Forget about the anxiety and jump on a bus :)

 

I am introducing some of the cool school buses.  

 These buses are usually for kindergarten.  After kindergarten, we usually  go to elementary school on foot.

 

 

 

Ok maybe this bus is the normal bus you see more often.

Contemporaly Art festival on islands

"The Setouchi International Art Festival is a contemporary art festival held every three years on a dozen islands in the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai), the sea which separates Honshu and Shikoku, two of Japan's main islands. First held in 2010, this year's festival features over 150 artworks. " Reference; http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5410.html

These island used to carry a role to transmit new culture and the traffic long time ago.

 

 

Traditional culture and a beautiful natural scene are still here in these islands. However, islands are losing vitality by aging and facing the depopulation problem.

 

By the interchange of the resident of the island and the visitor all over the world started to revitalize their island.

 

By the holding of the international art festival in Seto helps to keep traditional culture of the island and beautiful nature.   

 

The whole island become like an art museum! (this used to be a dental clinic and it tuned into?..) 

There are 8 islands for this event and it is cooperated with local residents.

This event is on my check list for when I visit my family! (No, I haven't been there yet!)

 

*** cover art

I might as well upload some images from Japan, since I have been doing it last few weeks,,  :)

Can you tell what are these arts?

 

These are the art on manhole covers in the street. 

 

 Not all of the manhole covers look that colorful like previous one, but the non-colored ones are beautiful, too.
  

 

The art is usually about the tourist attraction and the name, mascot character, and flowers of the city.

I really like the idea changing a big and heavy iron that nobody usually even pay attention into a beautiful art object.

 

I found this flickr page for more pictures,,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28074232@N06/sets/72157612036691185/

 
References,
http://www.gizmodo.jp/2010/08/post_7547.html
http://photohito.com/photo/1413030/
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/tottuan310920/e/fe9c0923b47e42c24c2720386cf01b7d

Tanbo Art

Can you tell what are these images?

 

It is drawn with different rice plants on the field.  They are planted by people of the village by hand.  The title, Tanbo means Rice field.   

It started in the north side of main land Japan where there are large spaces of rice fields. They started out for an advertisement so that the village can make some money but the art had to include companies logo and their products.

 

It started to become popular for tourist so now the purpose for the art changed from advertisement to just pure art.

 

 I can't imagine how they plan this out to plant on such a large space to look like 3 dimensional art.  Yes, they are planted to look really pop out from certain angle!  Recently, many of the tanbo arts are intended to encourage the revival from a giant earthquake happened around this area in 2011.

 

Osaka

I was going through my computer and I happened to find these pictures.

 It was taken in Osaka last year.  Osaka is the second largest city in Japan known for good local food and very friendly people.    

 

I took this pictures in Doutonbori where a lot of stores and restaurants are located.  The signs are so flashy and bold, it reminds of me Times square in New York.

 

These signs and displays are eye-catching!! I was so hungry but I could not decide what I wanted to eat because all the signs and smells were so tempting.  Many of these display moves, make noise and sometime they put out the steam just like a theme park.
 I can tell the designer and advertiser have a lot of fun competing each other and that makes this city lively!

Kawaii characters!

When I see the cute character like Duck or Gecko in advertising, it always catches my attention and I tend to remember for a long time.  It maybe comes from where I grew up,  Japanese are crazy about Kawaii (means cute) stuff!

This is done by the best sales cell phone company in the country.  You see this white dog in almost all ads as well as TV commercial.  In a TV commercial, they use a real dog and he talks like human!

This character is from Kumamoto prefecture to advertise the tourist attraction and the local food.

This kitten samurai is called "Hiko nyan" (Nyan means Meow) to help to publicize the Hikone castle.

I think we like to see in simple drawings and pictures rather than just letters.  If the pictures are easy to recognize, it catches young and old people's attention.  Therefore, these characters are always in great success as an advertisement. 

Route 66

On Labor day, my husband, I and my dog Jake took a small day trip. Our goal is to just drive south on old Route 66, make as many stops as we can to take pictures and just explore the old 66 stuff.  We started from Dwight, IL and drive to south.  We ran into several murals in Pontiac, IL.  They are all very nice!  Many of the arts are like 3 Dimensional , the painting looks like it can pop out from the wall!  I like this symmetrical design but it has Chicago and St Louis drawing on the both side. It is well balanced image with the red Pontiac, IL sign over the 66 sign that make a good focal point.
 This is a pure art, it may not be exactly an commercial art but this art attracts travelers so that more people stop at this town and spend some money here.

This is another fun 3D art with my doggy.  :)
       

Krispy Kreme

A couple of days ago, my boss brought us a box of Krispy Kreme Donuts. (I guess we can buy at a few gas station in town.) Unfortunately I threw the box away so I find this image just like the box my boss brought. It is amazing that this company have been around so long (since 1937) and the logo still looks great! It bring people to the good old years. The good design years. Once you see this font of Krispy Kreme and the everybody's favorite color combination of red and green with small dots, it sticks to your memory and makes us want to eat some donuts!