Art Of The Week

Art Of The Week: Tom Lea

Posted on by jccarlton

A few weeks ago I saw the Darkest Hour, the film about Winston Churchill and just how easy it would have been for Britain to just give up. One of the books that I have in my library is an abridged history of WW2 from Time Life books that has been in the family since the late 1960’s. In addition to Churchill’s text, the book has photo and art sections including some paintings from the Pacific theatre done by a man named Tom Lea. The pictures are stark in their images of the weariness and horrors of war and in showing the determination of the people involved in the war to get the job done regardless of the cost. The cost was high, as this famous picture shows.

Lea did not pull his punches as this gruesome picture of a marine’s last seconds shows.

 

http://time.com/4382370/a-painters-view-of-world-war-ii/

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Tom Lea

In addition to the WW2 pictures, Lea was apparently a life long artist of Texas history and culture.

You can find out more about the artist here as well as buy his books,

https://tomlea.com/

https://tomlea.com/product/tom-lea-life-magazine-world-war-ii/

Art Of The Week: The Garage Kits At Wonder Festival

Posted on by jccarlton

I’ve been trying to get to Wonderfest  in Japan for over ten years now and have been blocked for a number of reasons. Still I am amazed at the sculpting level of some of the garage kit makers year after year.

Here’s some examples from this year’s winter wonderfest.   All from Nekomagic.com

More here:
http://www.nekomagic.com/?cat=1526

many of these are NSFW, so don’t look unless your sure

Thanks to Nekomagic.com for the pics:
http://www.nekomagic.com/

The Wonder Festival wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Festival

The official Wonder Festival page(Japanese)

http://wf.kaiyodo.net/

 

Some video.

The show runners have set up special licensing deals with the anime producers so that figures made from anime can be made and sold without special licensing deals.  So many of the figures made and sold at these shows are anime related.  Many others are original work.  This is only a sample of the works at a typical Wonder Festival.

 

Art Of The Week: Danny Elfman’s Music.

Posted on by jccarlton

The art of the week this week is Danny Elfman’s soundtracks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Elfman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Elfman_discography

Elfman’s soundtracks have a movement and a bounce that say, John Williams soundtracks do not.  While a Williams soundtrack will tend to make you think of grandiose and large scenes, the imperial march, for instance, an Elfman score will bounce.  Here’s a playlist so that you can listen for yourself.

Enjoy.

Art Of The Week: Schlock Mercenary

Posted on by jccarlton

About 17 years ago I ran into a quirky science fiction webcomic where the main character looks like a pile of poo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlock_Mercenary

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-06-12

One would think that something like that would be, well, a pile of poo and disappear fairly quickly. Yet the humor and storytelling overcame the rather poor art.  The comic has been a long, long stream of humor, interesting story telling and even stranger characters and backgrounds. The fact that the story has been able to keep going for seventeen years is an achievement in itself. Being able to maintain the quality of the storytelling makes Schlock truly a great work.

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Tayler/e/B009P6RAYE/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1491582420&sr=8-1

After all, how many writers would turn Christmas elves and ninjas into wargame  icons.

There’s a LOT more like this in Schlock Mercenary.