Posts Categorized: Art

Art

Art | A modern timeline of THE LORD OF THE RINGS

By Aidan Moher May 17th, 2011

From Blastr:

A modern timeline of THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Click for Bigger

I’ve confessed a few times about my love affair with geek culture crossing paths with modern graphic design. This timeline of The Lord of the Rings is no exception.

From Blastr:

This infographic, created by JT Fridsma and posted on Fast Company’s Co.Design, tracks the appearance and journey of each of Lord of the Rings’ main characters on a minute-by-minute basis. It also plots their courses on a map. The result is a sparse yet striking image.

In “reality,” it took J.R.R. Tolkien three books (plus appendices) to chronicle Frodo and friends’ journeys from Hobbiton to Mordor, which, according to more exacting fans, took five and a half months.

From the Fast Company’s Co Design website:

Okay, we admit it: Here at Co.Design, we’re Tolkien geeks. Like straight up read-the-Silmarillion-grew-up-playing-the-RPG Tolkien geeks. So it’s with a flutter of nerd love that we introduce today’s IGOTD, created by University of Florida student JT Fridsma: A minute-by-minute plotting of the various scenes and parallel plots in Peter Jackson’s film adaptation.

Like all good art, I’d love to print this out and stick it on the wall of my office. Lovely stuff.

Cover Art

Guest Post | Sam Sykes reinvents Cover Art

By Sam Sykes May 6th, 2011

If you’re at all familiar with this blog, you’ve probably realized, by now, one thing: Aidan Moher does not like my covers. Not since the discovery of the hooded man has Aidan Moher despised so thoroughly a creature. Perhaps this is something to take pride in: that man standing in water has overtaken hooded man as most despotic cover criminal. But I could not take heart in this, my friends. Not when I knew I had wounded Aidan so.

Admittedly, this was tragic news to hear when I first discovered it. It took some time, but I did heal. It took even more time to recover from when he kept raising giant, blown-up prints of Black Halo’s cover on my lawn and setting them on fire, but even then, my commitment to restoring my honor with Clan Moher did not falter.

And then, joy of joys, he delivered me this terse, brusque invitation to do a guest blog for A Dribble of Ink. And thus, a child of opportunity was vomited forth from the womb of fate, cleaned by the doctor of second chances and delivered squealing into the heaving bosom of mother friendship to nurse at the teats of–

Well, you understand where I’m going with this, anyway.

So this blog post, Aidan, is my wedding present to you. Inspired by the elegant simplicity of the Criterion Collection series of DVDs, I create, for you, a re-imagined set of artistically tasteful covers. May I present…the Moher Collection.

Black Halo by Sam Sykes

Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes
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Art

Art | The Artwork of Jason Chan

By Aidan Moher May 3rd, 2011
The Artwork of Jason Chan The Artwork of Jason Chan The Artwork of Jason Chan The Artwork of Jason Chan The Artwork of Jason Chan

Yesterday I featured the cover for Ari Marmell’s Thief’s Covenant. I liked it so much that I felt it was about time I featured some of artist Jason Chan’s work here on A Dribble of Ink. Beyond his bold use of colour, what I love most about Chan’s art is his ability to straddle the line between being fantastical and realistic, youthful and adult. His artwork is definably illustrated, but never falls into the realm of looking comical or immature, even when he’s working on art for Young Adult book covers. Such versatility is hard to come by.

Compare his artwork for Dead Space:

The Artwork of Jason Chan

or Dragon Age: Origins:

The Artwork of Jason Chan

to his artwork for Among the Ghosts by Amber Benson:

The Artwork of Jason Chan

Good stuff, yeah? More of Chan’s art can be found on his official blog.

Art

Cover Art | THIEF’S COVENANT by Ari Marmell

By Aidan Moher May 2nd, 2011
Thief's Covenant by Ari Marmell

Time and again, Pyr Books produces the best book covers in the industry. This time it’s Thief’s Covenant by Ari Marmell (formerly known as Household Gods). Normally I’d bitch about another thief-in-leather cover, but Lou Anders, the art team at Pyr and artist Jason Chan take the tired concept and inject some life into it. It proves that a good artist can take those proven elements (sexy figures sell books, you know), literally flip them on their heads, still have fun and, most importantly, be successful both artistically and commercially. Along with The Goblin Corps., Marmell’s really hitting the mark with his recent cover art.

Since I can’t complain about the cover, I will point out that Household Gods was a way better title. Still, regardless of the title, I can’t wait to get my hands on this one.