BOOKSHELVES!

Below are some more of my bookshelves.

USING PHOTO REFERENCES

Isn't the above photo amazing? These are distant relatives! Of some sort... This is on a tintype. I've gotten to the point where I can sort of recognize outfits and items and tell you the approximate time period. I'm especially good at the 30s, 40s, and 50s. But thank goodness for the internet! When I went to RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) we used to have what was called a "clipping file." You would walk up to the desk where to students would work and ask for a subject. "Hey, what's up? I'd like stuff on cars." They the student would bring you back several folders of cut magazine photos on cars. I wonder what happened to it. I'm sure it's not there anymore. But who knows with that place. Maybe it's still there. RISD's a little nutty. But now all you need is Google Images and up comes all you could ever dream of! People put up photos of EVERYTHING.


(...like...what is THAT??)

And you get photos from all over the world. PLUS image databases like Corbis, which sells the photos, places samples to look at. I don't care if there's a big copyright symbol plopped on top--I can still see it!

And gosh, people put up hilarious photos like this:
(yes, I digress... but I want to end on a good note....)






(I had to add the black circle. It was a little racy, if you know what I mean)

BEING A FOOL IN SCHOOL

While at work yesterday I stumbled upon this book. It cracked me up!



It contains real test answers:




That got me thinking about some of my own answers in high school. I remember that my mom saved an index card that I'd created for a final exam. We were allowed to take in one index card with us to put on a few math theorems, tables, whatnot. Well... I filled the front and back with microscopic writing. It was so tiny that when I got to the exam I couldn't read it or find any of the answers! I flunked the exam and got an F for the year. Yay me. I'm looking for the index card. If I find it I'll post it. In the meantime, I stumbled upon this "children's story" that I wrote in college. Enjoy:

ATSUSHI HARA

After posting about the old-school folks such as Erdoes I stumbled upon this new guy, Hara. I love his stuff!

RICHARD ERODES

I ordered this off of Etsy. Great work! There's no copyright info! I think it's 1960s. I'll look it up when I get home. More images and info to come....

BBC DAVID COPPERFIELD

A young Daniel Radcliffe stars in this BBC production of David Copperfield. Great stuff! Good for a rainy Sunday.

BOOKSHELVES!

Sorry for being away for a few days. I was detained... in the hospital. Oy. Anyway...

Author/illustrator Katie Davis just shared with me some wonderful photos of her sister's bookshelves. Behold, her sister, Jessica King's bookshelves in NYC:



You can visit Jessica's blog here:



They are AMAZING! Color coordinated... Ugh. I wish they were in MY living room!

THE TICKLING

I'm on the topic of "the odd." I bought this book a long time ago but it's one of those that sticks with you. It's really strange but very good. It contains hardly any words but works so well. The book consists of tiny pencil drawings of a boy who was born without a face. He plays by himself because he and his father live on an island by themselves, away from judgmental people. His dad also has no face but wants his son to have an operation so that he can be normal. The boy doesn't want it. The father gives the boy different masks to wear:


(this image is actually bigger than the drawings are - many are only an inch to an inch and a half tall)

It's a very strange story but also very sad. It shows what you can do with little words and how a graphic novel can be simple, with one drawing per page instead of tons of panels. This is a book to check out if you can handle the odd.