Showing posts with label illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illustration. Show all posts

Friday, June 26, 2009

czech navy, my sailor mate

celetná ulice is one of the oldest and allegedly most haunted streets in prague. it is also the most crowded with tourists, and therefore the last place on earth where one might run into a magical sweater czech. yet it is exactly where and exactly after whom i was running at full speed through foreigners, vendors, dogs, and children. i managed to compose almost all of me (except for knees) and hah! he offered me half of his sandwich at least three times, and told me that his plan for the summer is to build his own yacht. i don't know how he always manages to tell me these random things in so little time and with our tragically limited vocabularies, but he does. 

he had some errand in karlovo náměstí (involving paper?) and asked if i would come along, and dear god if only he knew how much i wanted to, but s. and i. were waiting for me, and friends are more important than half-mirage boys, magical or not.  we made something like plans, but plans were made a month ago, and two weeks ago, and where are they now?  yes, magical czechs are outside of time, and monday is so far away, and so uncertain!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

rosteme s knihou

t. and i went to barokní letohrádek (baroque summer pavilion) portheimka for some children's book illustration exhibition that i read about on a poster when i went to the library earlier this week.  it was actually a display of the ridiculous amounts of books illustrated by one helena zmatlíková, whose work i immediately recognized:  every time i pass a branch of the city library, i see those freaky little children with big eyes and yellow curls looking back at me from many, many 1960s-70s book covers on display.  and then i even thought, "what, is one person responsible for these candy-colored creations?"  and now i know the answer.  it took us about 7 minutes to see the entire exhibition, and then we went to sit by the river, drinking beer and looking at the not-quite-white swans.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

moje praha

i finished my klauzura project, which is a set of eight postcards, featuring some patterns that i found around the city.  more details here.  i have to document them as much as possible because i think they might get taken away by the VŠUP illustration studio.   i wish somebody would tell me what is going on!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

time for a short intermission

i have a flight to saint petersburg this morning, and i will stay there for two and half weeks.  i may not have a chance to write about it while i am there, but i am mentally taking you with me, friends, and you will hear all about it when i come back, on 24th may.  also i am sure you are all dying to know what will happen next in the adventure of the magical sweater czech, as am i.  until then, na shledanou!  (s., see you very soon!)

Saturday, May 2, 2009

"у маленькой любви - коротенькие руки"

here is a spread from my newly aquired book; it's called "princ a malá princezna" ("the prince and the little princess").  i just looked at the back page, and noticed that the graphic design is done by milan grygar, whose name i remember from history of czech graphic design.  he did some film posters for the czech releases of "blow up" and "cool hand luke" in the 1960s.  double cool, then.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

škaredá středa (ugly wednesday)

t. moved out of the dormitory and into a very charming room in vinohrady. she was in bologna all last week for the annual bologna children's book fair, and now i kind of wish i went, although going to italy would have felt out of place right now. i will someday. but she brought some cute pictures of animals for me and i sat on her balcony, looking through the very beautiful books that she bought at the fair.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

historické muzeum + corrupted endeavor


here are some of my drawings from the exhibition of czech traditional crafts and costume. also i really failed at life yesterday when i missed an astronomically perfect chance to initiate contact with magical sweater czech, on account of jelloid knees and speechlessness. i am very stupid and should be sent to a stupid home.

Monday, March 23, 2009

illustrated stamps

i have picked my most favorite ones from the lot, the ones with the non-communist illustrations and nice colors. i think they are just the bee's knees and i love them. 

i will participate in the next assignment for illustration, which is a little flipbook. i have never done a flipbook before, but after the entirely english-free explanation at the film and animation studio this morning, it seems like it would be fun and not so difficult, just careful planning and a lot of drawing of the same thing over and over. the illustration assistant was kind enough to translate about ten percent of what was being said + careful ear-straining on my part, and i got the basic idea. except, i have no idea what to do. the theme is "love + hate." help, friends! it has to be a very quick little joke; it takes about 2 seconds to flip through it.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

edward gorey

look what i found at fišer bookstore.  i was happy but also i wonder about how someone had to redraw some of gorey's hand-drawn type in czech...

Thursday, February 12, 2009

jiří slíva

a. and i wandered into the graphic techniques workshop this morning to see if we can take it, and there was only one man sitting at the window, autographing prints for an illustrated version of the bible. he said he is not the instructor but only using the studio and then showed us the beautiful illustrations he is signing.  then i found out that this is a very well-known czech illustrator/designer jiří slíva.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

litoměřice

today we (five people, all voluntary, there is no structure here and not much makes sense) took a train with our illustration professor, juraj horváth (of baobab books), to a 10th century town about two hours outside of prague called litoměřice, to see a show of drawings and posters by the very famous czech illustrator/designer jiří šalamoun (very hard to find online).  it is very beautiful and friendly illustration, and i especially like his hand-drawn letters.

Monday, February 2, 2009

czechoslovakian illustration

i am looking at czechoslovakian children's book illustration from the 1960s.  these books are so obscure and rare, but i hope to get my hands on some of them someday.  i don't have anything czech in my collection yet.  my favorite is květa pacovská (i remember drooling over her book the little flower king, but i want to find it in the original czech):
also very charming are books by vlasta váňová and alena santarová (this especially because of the elephant).  this illustration reminds me of everything good, happy, and magical in the world.