Movie review – The Lovely Bones
April 7th, 2010
We saw this movie in January. I knew it was a murder mystery, and based on a book, but not much more than that going in.
The movie was set in the early 70s, and the overall visuals had a lovely warm, yellowish colour, like an aged photograph. Given the narrator’s love of photography, I’m sure this was quite a deliberate effect. There also wasn’t much mystery for the viewers, as we got to see what happened to Susie Salmon early on. Therefore it was more a family drama about how those left behind dealt with her absence and not knowing what happened.
Visually the movie was really good. The performances were all excellent. Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg were great as the Salmon parents; Stanley Tucci was justifiably nominated for an academy award for his role as the antagonist, and Susan Sarandon stole every scene she was in as the alcoholic grandmother.
Movie review – Avatar
April 6th, 2010
I saw this on Boxing day and have been meaning to write something but couldn’t be bothered. It has pretty much been said, but just in case my opinion is required:
- very pretty to look at
- shit boring script, being ‘Heroes Journey, ‘Dances With Wolves’ variation
- Sam Worthing still has the acting talent of a plank of wood.
I spent most of the movie admiring the luminous biosphere and trying to work out what was feasible, but of course I have no idea. The 3D effect gave me a migraine, and Daedalist is unable to see in 3D anyway so we were not fans of that.
I can’t be bothered writing more than that, but happy to discuss further if anyone actually cares.
Farewell card
April 6th, 2010
When S finished up at work, I made this card which was signed by our team for her. I know green and blue are her favourite colours, and used that as the basis for the design. The background card is just one piece of a kind of patchwork cardstock that I thought went well with the butterfly images.
Butterfly farewell card
50th birthday card
April 6th, 2010
This was for a lady at work whose 50th birthday fell on Valentine’s day. She always wears bright colours, and I was going for an art deco feel.
The layers are cardstock, floral paper, green cardstock, and white card which has been sponged for the stamped image. The vellum has been edged with copper ink, and the flowers have copper coloured gems at the centre.
Art Deco card
Dance the Night Away
February 15th, 2010
This was the final canvas of the five I created last year for work colleagues. I did give it to her before Christmas, I just didn’t post it here (and the pics from #3 are missing, so I am waiting on that colleague to get me a new digital photo of it.
SB has been taking belly dancing lessons, and I used that as the basis for the concept, centred on a vintage image of a belly dancer. She said she likes blue, and I added a medium depth purple to the palate for some variation. The beaded ribbon was added to evoke an exotic, beaded curtain feel which I thought went with the theme, and there is gold foiling added randomly across the canvas.
Dance the night away
Tropicana
December 23rd, 2009
This was for a colleague who is from Fiji. When I asked her what colours she likes, she told me pink and orange. I was going for a lush, tropical feel and highly saturated colours.
Tropicana
I had a lot of fun with this, and got to use some of my bollywood braiding. It was also great to use such a colourful palate.
Photography
November 4th, 2009
I forgot to say that the past two posts contained photos that I took myself, with Daedalist’s funky camera. He has taken all the other photos for me. The white on the face of the lady in Etoile is due to the flash making the sealer all shiny, but it was my first attempt and it’s all cool.
Etoile
November 4th, 2009
Etoile
I made this for one of my work colleagues, the 2nd of 5 that I want to finish by the end of the year. (Previous effort was Put on your wings).
Etoile is named after the stars on the woman. I wanted to use black and red for my colleague, and I really like the geometric look of the harlequin stamp at the top of the canvas. I added some white and gold to lift the light a bit, and I like the effect with the dangling beads at the bottom of the canvas.
The picture is a different style to the vintage woodcuts and the art nouveau images I have used in the past. The image is still vintage – probably from the 40s or 50s I would guess – but from an actual photograph which adds a different texture to the overall image.
I’m not sure what B thought of it, but I’m happy with how it turned out. And now I have to do 3 more in about 8 weeks. I know what I am going to do next, hopefully I’ll get it done on the weekend. It will be with wooden shapes like Waterlily, so I’ll see how I go.
Waterlily
November 4th, 2009
Waterlily
This was the class I did at Darling Harbour a while back. It was very quick, about an hour all up. First I put texture paste on the canvas, then added the acrylic paint. What that was drying I painted the shapes – the big flower and the two buds. Then they were glued on and then I put on the swirls with tacky glue and added the gold leaf to the canvas (and also a little on the flowers for highlights).
Obviously no Monet, but I’m really happy with it overall. It was interesting to use the acrylics instead of the watercolours (twinkling H2Os) that I normally use. I haven’t played with texture paste before, so that was really fun. And I have used the tackly glue / gold leaf a few times since then, as it is easy and really effective. The swirls are done with solid glue streaks, while the highlights are done by smudging a little bit of the glue around.
Series review: Ultraviolet
October 26th, 2009
This is a classic BBC miniseries from 1998. I had seen the first two episodes when it originally screened, but never seen the whole series. Dave had not seen it at all, so when I discovered a friend had the series on DVD, I thought it would be great to watch the whole thing (thanks Keat!).
Ultraviolet is only 6 episodes long, each fully self contained. It revolves around Michael Colefield (Jack Davenport), a Detective Sergeant, whose best friend goes missing the night before his wedding. It leads to his involvement with a secret government department – with ambigulous ties to the Catholic Church – that investigates people who are no longer exactly people.