I checked the new and wonderful Ape on the Moon illustration blog today, and I was blown away by UK artist Peter Crawley’s stitched drawings. I especially love those classicly clean 2-point perspective style buildings. I can almost see a little stitched Spidey swinging above them!
Even if they’re in London! Many of this set are architectural landmarks like BBC headquarters and the Isokon building.
Peter Crawley's Ikoson stitch art
From AotM’s interview, Crawley begins his work with either photos, vector files or pencil before moving on to the needle:
After finding a suitable subject – one that has nice lines and interesting details – the subject is either photographed, edited and traced in Illustrator or drawn freehand.
The vector lines are printed and placed over the watercolour paper. I then have to decide how the piece will be stitched and meticulously pierce every hole with a pin ready for the stitching, sometimes over a thousand holes. Finally using a needle and thread, stitch the illustration.
Crawley's BBC Mast Tower
Most of the work on Peter’s site is either abstract or architectural. I would love to see some of the maps he hints at on his About page and in the interview. Stunning stuff, all around.
All images ⓒ Peter Crawley, 2009.
Update: For more goodies, Ape on the Moon is @moonape on Twitter.
Via BoingBoing, whose new design I’ve grown to love, comes NoamR’s animated riff off of Randall Munroe’s xkcd, um, riff off of the Discovery Channel song, sung here by Olga Nunes:
I Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo.
Note: WordPress.com sadly refuses to embed Noam’s Vimeo-hosted video no matter what I do. It’s bad about stripping code out. If I can get the video in the post rather than linking, I will. (WordPress, FIX THIS.)
It’s wonderful what Creative Commons makes possible. Randall releases each xkcd under an Attribution-NonCommercial license, freeing NoamR to create this video, which he shared with an Attribution-NonCommerial-ShareAlike license.
So now you and I are free to adapt both, under those simple provisions. How hard is it to attribute, not make money and share?
(Video review from ZDNet’s Matt Miller | Miller’s Full Review)
Google phones are finally coming to Sprint with the CDMA Hero from HTC. At last, a serious smartphone that’s open source. I have hope that phones using Google’s Android platform won’t face the app blockage that’s been going on with the iPhone. I think developers are going to go increasingly in Android’s direction.
UI looks good, from what I’ve seen on these videos. I like that you can keep 7 apps running on different screens. Reviewer Matt Miller notes that the processor may not be quite up to pushing that, but I’ve never had a phone capable of running multiple apps, so I’ll take it. Twitter app, Peep, looks more than functional (let’s talk, Palm MoTwit). Plus, it sports a standard headset jack and a 5.0 megepixel camera. Seriously? Not bad.
I’m also guessing that, unlike my Centro, the bluetooth works from more than 2 feet away.
I so want this phone.
My little buddy is facing old age with courage.
(… while I test cross-posting to Flickr and the blog from the Centro.)
I was looking over at Drawn + Quarterly, wishing I was at Comic Con, and saw this great animated video Julie Morstad did for Neko Case’s “People Got a Lotta Nerve”, off of the wonderful Middle Cyclone. Morstad also did the cover art for Neko’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. It’s amazing how such simple 2-D stuff can still create a rich, immersive atmosphere. Morstad and Neko make me want to go into that house and see what the monkeys have on their scrolls (best guess: a really interesting map collection).
If Scott Bourne at Managing Your Digital Life isn’t tweeting photography tips, he’s talking about giving away Drobos, several so far this month:
Hey would you like to win a Drobo? All you have to do is place a link on your blogroll, from a post on your blog, or a link on your website to HTTP://WWW.MYDL.ME.
Considering how frustrated I got with a handful of missing mp3s yesterday, I’d really like to have one. In fact, the Language Lab could certainly use oodles of easy storage as well, so I think I’m off to tweet a link on that account as well…
I’m starting my own meme on Flickr: drawings of Lance Henriksen. Message me on Flickr if you’d like to join up, and I’ll start a group.
Because he is the man, that’s why.
Scott Adams should reach Manteo tonight about 11 pm!
For updates, check his Ning site, RunNC2008.
Running the entire state of NC is really a mind blowing feat. And in the Carolina heat? I’ll be pushy enough to say more of us should acknowledge that and make a donation:
Scott Adams Donation Page on the American Cancer Society site.
Big props to my old colleague Scott Adams from SILS (not Dilbert), who is currently running the entire width of North Carolina to fight cancer!
That’s 740 miles in 18 days. Go Scott!
