Prince Charming

I've been enhancing my creative side a little lately and started drawing. It started with a few doodles of portraits and continued with thinking about creative gift ideas. That how I came up with the idea of sending my boyfriend greeting cards for his birthday that's coming up! A little bit humor never hurts, so I choose for a cliché prince charming. In Dutch there is the proverb: "He is my prince on a white horse." (Not sure it's a proverb in English too) So I decided to draw a prince on a white horse.

I wasn't feeling like drawing a proper face or hand, shhh, nobody notices!

The result! (above)

A quick sketch to try out the colours first. At the moment I'm writing this I'm still doubting if I should choose this one to send! I kinda like the goofy shape of the horse.

The first sketch. The horse kinda failed, but it's still handy to try out the colours.

Funfact: I used prince Charming from Snow White as a model here!

And a little doodle of the boyfriend while studying. I didn't had a picture with me so I drew it out of memory. And I must say I'm quite pleased with the result, it looks a little bit like him! Or otherwise it's just wishful thinking, that's possible too..

Abandoned

Besides the fact that the model is incredibly beautiful and the gorgeous outfits, is it mainly the atmosphere that attracts my attention. I love the atmosphere of this new ZARA campaign. She looks so abandoned and lost. It reminds me of old movie stills.
Like Cindy Shermans's filmstills:

Or this iconic picture of Case study house 22:

Or this shot from the play La voix humaine by the Dutch Halina Reijn.

I see... part 2!

A while ago I made this post about seeing familiar faces. I really enjoyed making it, and you love it too apparently! With my art history exam coming closer, I had lots of time to take a good look on the paintings, and yes I recognised some faces again!

1. First of al this painting of Paul Revere by John Copley, made in 1776:

It reminded me of Jack Black,

and after some googling I noticed I'm certainly not the only one who has noticed!

2. The next painting is a selfportrait by Angelika Kauffman, 1780-1785:

This made me think of Marieke Dilles in her role of Helena De Keyser,
from the amazing series 'De smaak van de Keyser'.

3. Then a portrait of Judith, by Gustav Klimt, 1901 :

She looks so much like Louise Ebel (misspandora.fr)! It's incredible

These were all the look-a-likes I could find. But there where some more paintings that reminded me of other things.

4. Then the famous Nighthawks 1942, by Edward Hopper:

The empty atmosphere reminded me of a scene in the movie 'Spirited Away'. It's the scene where Chihiro and here parents come in a ghost town, there's no one around. But they were starving so her parents immediately started eating the food that was served. Chihiro feels very uncomfortable with it and went exploring the city. When she comes back, she sees her parents had changed into voracious pigs.

5. This is Horse of Neptune, by Walter Crane, 1892:

I think most Lord of the Rings-fans will link this with the movie :)

6. charcoal drawings by Odilon Redon, 1881:

Was Redon an inspiration for the creative team from Mirrormask? It could be...

Mirrormask is one of my favourite movies, you definitely have to check it out if you haven't seen it!

So, that's it! I hope you enjoyed, at least I did :)

your dearest,
Siel

Lost and found

Back to art! Everybody knows Disney and (almost) everybody know Dali.
Now imagine a combination between the two of them!

That is what the intention years ago when Walt and Salvador where still alive they decided to make a shortfilm together. It was based on the song Destino (=Destination) from the Mexican Armando Dominguez. Dali's surrealistic characteristics are dominant in the film, but Disney is mostly recognisable because of the montage (resembling Disney's Fantasia).

Due financial problems the production was stopped in the forties. Years later, just after Fantasia was made cousin Roy Disney decided to go on with the project. They finished in 2003 but the movie was never showed in "public", just in big museums like Tate Modern and Moma. Finally, in 2011 the shortfilm was showed to a wider public by putting it on a DVD together with Fantasia. So if you want it, just buy the DVD. :)

Luckily for us there is something called youtube:

The opening part is my favourite, when the rock turns into a woman. It's a perfect example of Dali's typical metamorphoses and double image.

And another arty thing to end wiht:

Haha! :)
And it would be even better if they used the typical shots shots (close-up, medium shot, wide shot) Nah, that's just me being critical again!


source info: de standaard

Oh mon dieu! Paris diary 2/3

These pictures are taken after dinner in the previous post. Now we went up, to the Sacre-Coeur!

Meanwhile we passed a cat, gently sitting on a windowsill. And of course our animalloving twins where unstoppable and attacked the cat with their care and love.

When we finally reached the top of Montmartre, a breathtaking view of Paris compensated our tired feet. (My tired feet at least. I think Ruby is going to kill me if she hears me complaining about it again.)

Turning away from the lovely view, the Sacre-Coeur showed up in all her glory. We all have been there before on a schooltrip, but now having the time and interest made us look more for the details.
We where gladly surprised that it was still open at 10 p.m. and took a look inside.
Unfortunately taking pictures inside wasn't allowed (it would have disturbed the Mass also). But it was incredibly! Gigantic mosaics with lots of gold leaf, marble columns in all colours you can imagine with all types of capitals. All very Byzantine if you ask me. I wonder how that is possible in the middle of France. I'm gonna ask my architecture-history docent :)

Even the outside has Byzantine details (I think). Like the several domes, columns and floor plan that isn't a Latin cross for example.

And check those gargoyles in the pictures above! Oh, I love gargoyles! :D (waterspuwers in het nederlands)
If you don't know what it is, well they spit out the rainwater to protect the stone of the building. And there monstrous looks are to scare demons. You can see them as little protectors of cathedrals. :)

Look at the green marks! The rain did this by wetting the brass sculpture.
Did you know brass is originally gold-tinted instead of green?

Amazing details...

When walking around we noticed these cute little lights beside the stairs, they where magical.

So that's it for today! I hope you enjoyed this arty and less fashionably post. And I hope you might visit it one day too :)
Au revoir mes amies!
Bisous, Siel

PS Watch the pictures of The Mad Twins here
PPS Ruby made a wonderful little movie of our Paris trip! I hope she'll post it here too :)

I see the lights

Last Friday I went to the lichtfestival of Gent. That's eh a festival of light :) This year was the second edition of it, and actually the first time I've heard of it.

It was the most wonderful thing I've ever seen and I'm not exaggerating!
Al ready when we arrived in the centre of the city to eat something, there was a weird, magical atmosphere. We decided to eat outside on the terrace and kept telling each other that it felt like the Revolution (if you know Bobejaanland) or Droomvlucht (if you know de Efteling) or Disneyland (but I've never been there), anyway you get my point. It was amazing.

Unfortunately we didn't had a map so we just followed the mass. And that's why we didn't saw everything, but what we've seen already was definitely impressive.
Untill next year?

Serge Ego, SLEIDINGE

Anneleen Van Hoey, Gent

Christine Eloot, Wetteren

Thomas Dekiere, Izegem

Wouter Van Crombruggen, Gent

Agnès Van de Voorde, Everbeek

Sara Van der Paelt, Gent

Leen Van de walle, OVERIJSE

Check this fragment if you want an impression. (There are both fragments from '11 and '12)

All pictures from gentenaar/lichtfestival.be

And tonight is the last time, take your chance I'd say! :)


PS. I forgot to tell you the best part!
Last year the difference in energy use was barely noticable, and this time it won't be different.
There are used 55 000 LED-lights with each just 20kWh and the blue birds from Maeterlinck (second pic) are even energy-neutralizing!

I see...

In the very beginning of this blog Ruby and I liked to discuss our art history lessons here. We talked once about the similarity between Munch and Tim Burton's characters. Now high school is over we've both gone other ways (still studying art though). But I noticed some things lately which I absolutely wanted to show you, in memory of those old days. :)

It all started when I stumbled on this picture:

Female study by John W. Waterhouse, 1894, source: wikipedia

She reminded me of Anna Boleyn in the television series of The Tudors. (Natalie Dormer)

Then I saw this painting:

The Northwest Passage by John E. Millais, 1878, source: wikipedia

The first thing that came up in my head was Kate Winslet!

pics from the lovely movie Finding Neverland

Then while studying for an exam lately I noticed something special about the next painting.

Sisyphus by Titian, 1550, source: wikipedia

Get a closer look...

 I present you...

TOOTHLESS from the movie How to train your dragon !

And then it got even worse!

I started seeing faces, or at least one face, in my bread bag !!

(If you have a better word for it or you can assume me that bread bag is a proper word please tell me! :p )

Now the big question is,
Am I becoming crazy ?


Slightly worried greetings,
Siel