Onko Chishin – Japanese Tattoo 12:23

 

 

In this documentary we follow Dutch tattoo artist Rob Admiraal on his trip to Japan where he goes to have a huge dragon tattoo on his back finished, do some tattooing himself and visit other leading Japanese tattooists.

 

 

Admiraal gives us a guided tour of Japanese tattooing and explains how traditional art and modern, Western influences each play their part in what tattoo in Japan has become today. He also talks about his personal tastes and preferences and does not hesitate to go deeper into more theoretical aspects of the art, such as the balance between representation and abstraction, typical for Oriental art.

 

 

An intriguing scene in the documentary is that in which Admiraal gets the very last part of his huge tattoo done: the eyes of the dragon, which will “bring it to life”. It is nice to see how this Dutch fellow at the same time acknowledges the importance of this almost magical gesture but also stays clear-headed and never seems to get carried away by all the “Orientalism” in which he is surrounded. I don’t know the guy, but I already like him…

 

 

The film was made by Rogier Postma. You can find more of his work on his blog.

 

 

And you can find more on Rob Admiraal on his website.

Dripped – Jackson Pollock 15:28

 

 

This animated short is not too concerned with historical accuracy, but is great fun to watch… It’s called an “homage” to Jackson Pollock, but I’m not really quite sure they are not just taking the piss…

An official selection for Annency 2011.

 

 

(Found via Brain Pickings)

James Bond Illustrated 11:35

 

 

Looking for the album cover art for the James Bond Thunderball  soundtrack (see yesterday's post) made me stumble across this great blog with tons of lovely Bond illustrations: posters, foreign language book covers, comics, fan art, you name it.

Check out some of the stuff I found and then visit illustrated007.blogspot.com for more…

 

 

Do visit illustrated007.blogspot.com. It’s “loaded” with great stuff.

Yeah, sorry about that.

 

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Heroes 13:23

 

Whooooops! I completely forgot to tell you about the new exhibition my friend Philip Paquet is having. Oh, boy, he’s going to be soooo crossed with me….

Well, you can forget about going to the opening. That was yesterday. But the work will be on display ‘till the 7the of August, so that gives you plenty of time to visit.

 

 

The works on display are portraits from some of his favorite musical heroes. Yes Jazzmen, of course, but also people like Bowie and Lou Reed, Flea and Frank Zappa. The man has an exquisite taste, what can I say…

Half of the pieces are “normal” drawings, but the other half are these strange multi-layered semi-transparent paintings made out of some see-through emulsion. I don’t know how all that works exactly, but he’s been experimenting with this technique since his previous show, and he’s getting better and better at it. If you are anyway near Antwerp, do stop by and check it out.

One more thing…

Paquet’s show is held at Tune Up, which is a record store. And I do mean a “record” store. The first floor shop is filled with nothing but actual vinyl records. No flimsy CD’s whatsoever. Nothing but big assed sleeves with analog information carriers.

It’s been ages since I have been to a place like that and man, it was awesome! All these beautiful designed sleeves, many of which I’ve only seen either as an online reproduction or resized for a CD-case. Here they were as it was intended: big and square and impressive.

One particular LP caught my eye: The soundtrack for the James Bond movie Thunderball. You can see a picture of it below but that’s of course not doing any justice to the experience I had.

Imagine holding this image in your hands, record-sleeve-sized, printed on sturdy cardboard. You can clearly make out all the details of the action scene. You can even see the brushwork of the illustration  (by Frank McCarthy). You vaguely remember the theme song (big Tom Jones voice holding that last note: “Thunnnnnnnn… Der Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalll”. You remember nothing of the movie, you actually start wondering whether you’ve ever seen it and promise yourself to see it (again?) soon.

And you don’t buy the record.

You don’t even own a record player. Money is tight. It would be silly!

You leave the big, beautiful, square record sleeve in the store.

 

But maybe, just maybe, you’ll go back tomorrow and get it anyway…

 

Puño 12:21

 

 

Puño, from Spain, but living in France, works for the press, advertising, books and makes comics. I love his happy-go-lucky style.

Check out kokokoko his portfolio/tumblr for plenty more of his work.