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Neatoramanaut Joy Taney of kineticnovels sent us this awesome rendition of Batman fighting twin dragons of Harley and Ivy in the style of Viking-era art.
The Batman, Harley and Ivy illustration was inspired by a number of historical pieces of Viking jewelry, carvings and adornment. The Harley-Dragon design, Taney told Neatorama, is mostly designed based on Viking artifacts found in England. "A Viking rune stone from St. Paul's Churchyard gave me the idea for the basic shape of her dragon," Taney added, "while a shoulder clasp found in Sutton Hoo provide dmost of the patterns ... The double headed boar featured on the Sutton Hoo shoulder clasp was also the inspiration for the boar carving found on a cairn stone."
The Ivy-Dragon, on the other hand, is inspired by a Viking artwork from Norway. "The body of Ivy-Dragon was loosely based on the creatures ornamenting an eleventh century Vking ship's weathervane from Heggen, Norway. Ivy-Dragon's head was inspired by a dragon fighting scene carved into the ornate door jams of Hyllestad Church and sticks out her tongue like the dragon-headed tent frame supports from Gokstad. Her flowery patterns come from the carved doorway of Opdal Church."
"The pose of Batman holding both dragons by their throats comes from a pose of a man sitting and holding snakes in a similar manner that can be found on an ornament from Thorleif's stone in Kirk Braddan, Isle of Man, England." Taney further explained, "Human figures tend to be shown in Viking folk art with a little less geometric stylization than the animals. Interlocking legs, such as the one I chose for Batman, were usually the domain of animal figures, not human. However, since one of the running themes of the Batman stories is how thin the line separating the hero from the rogues' gallery really is, it seemed appropriate to render him in a way that was not so different from the villains."
Batman's logo, batarangs and utility belts feature the geometric knotwork that is universal in Viking folk art. "Viking knotwork has a characteristic, woven pattern where each strand moves over one piece it crosses, and then under the next, and continues this way throughout. I desigend the logo and utility belt separately so they would contain the number of twists, turns, and overlaps to emulate that over/under pattern."
Check out more of Taney's artwork over at her Tumblr and deviantART page. Thanks for sharing with us, Joy!
Thanksgiving dinner is in a few hours, but don't panic! You've still got time to craft that Thanksgiving centerpiece that will wow your dinner guests. Our new home design blog Homes & Hues has the list of 10 Easy Last-Minute Thanksgiving Centerpiece Ideas that can serve as a last-minute inspiration.
Like this one, the Popcorn Turkey Bag by One Charming Party. All you need are a large brown grocery bag, two small brown lunch bags, paper for the frills, and popcorn.
You've probably seen the photo of Pope Francis embracing a disfigured man, whose body has been scarred by neurofibromatosis. The photo (below), which went viral, provoked an outpouring of sympathy for the man ... and sparked the hunt to find who he is.
Photo:
Claudio Peri/Nacion
CNN's Rome correspondents spent weeks trying to find and talk to him, and they've finally succeeded. Meet Vinicio Riva, the disfigured man embraced by the Pope:
"When he came close to us," [Vinicio's aunt] said, "I thought he would give me his hand. Instead he went straight to Vinicio and embraced him tightly. I thought he wouldn't give him back to me he held him so tightly. We didn't speak. We said nothing but he looked at me as if he was digging deep inside, a beautiful look that I would never have expected."
Vinicio, accustomed to stares of shock and fear, was initially confused by the pontiff's lack of hesitation. "He didn't have any fear of my illness," he said. "He embraced me without speaking ... I quivered. I felt a great warmth."
Danish stand-up comedian Nikolaj Wulff (@nikowulff) shared this photo of his pet guinea pig getting REALLY excited about finding a piece of carrot. I have the same expression when I run across a slice of cake. Carrot cake, of course.
In 2008, Walter White was building his meth empire in the AMC hit series Breaking Bad. That same year, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama's most successful meth cook was also making the purest meth east of the Mississippi. His name? Walter White - and by then, he's been at it for ten years. He's so good that some say he should be called the "meth chef."
In this newly released documentary, Giana Toboni and VICE traveled to Alabama to interview the real life Walter White. The meth cook exposed the secret of his legendary operation - he explained how he got started, how he made - and spent - thousands of dollars every day, how he got arrested and why his partners are now serving life sentences behind bars.
That protocol droid can phone home in over six million languages. T-shirt designer Wirdou mashes up two of our favorite movies in this nifty E2T2 design.
Visit out Wirdou's official website and Facebook page, then check out his NeatoShop page for more neat tees. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog.
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's
chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
Who doesn't want to get lucky? Maybe this shirt by Piercek25 will finally help you get instant crush and win the game of love. He's definitely doin' it right!
Please let me welcome Piercek25 to the NeatoShop! Visit his official Facebook page, then check out his NeatoShop catalog for more neat designs. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog, so buy something, mmkay?
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's
chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
We can't find more info on the photo above (presumably Photoshopped), but we did find this neat-o clip of the Bus Stop Disco Surprise by SoulPancake. Now where are my bell bottom disco pants? Time to boogie!
In 2D or not 2D, Russian photographer Alexander Khokhlov and make-up artist Valeriya Kutsan collaborated to turn models' faces into two-dimensional images (with post production by Veronica Ershova). Kutsan used a variety of face painting techniques to mimic digital pixels, watercolors, oil paintings, and more.
The photo above looks like sand or grains of salt strewn on a blue surface, but it's not (heh, old grade school joke, I know). Or rather, its snot. Sea snot, actually.
Sea snot, or its fancy formal name "marine mucilage," is a basically a mix of dead planktons, mucus, slimy sea salps and their poop.
As the name implies, it's quite unpleasant - fishermen hate sea snot because it clogs their fishing net - and boy, wait till a bunch of them land on the beach and make a mess of it (and to make matters worse, sea snot can release pathogens hazardous to human health).
Marine biologist Serena Fonda Umani swam next to a giant blob of sea snot in
the Adriatic Sea in 1991 (Photo: Nino Caressa) - via National Geographic News
Khan As A Service, or KHANAAS for those in the know, is a microsite that prides itself in providing a way to "express general disdain towards someone when they screw up." That, or a fun way to spend a few minutes on the web showing someone you love or respect that you're thinking about them.
The service is simple. All you have to do to get the pic above is write on your browser's URL bar:
To get William Shatner as Captain Kirk screaming the person's name (for example, this one below is www.khanaas.com/kirk/farrier, in honor of Neatorama's John Farrier) is to put that name after the kirk slash bit.
Danny Keefe, a 6-year-old boy at the Mitchell Elementary School in Bridgewater, Massachussetts, is disabled because of a brain hemorrhage at birth and has a speech impediment problem.
Regardless, Danny is a cheerful - and dapper - water boy for his Bridgewater Badgers peewee football team. We say "dapper" because Danny always wear a suit and tie, as well as a fedora, to school.
The football team's coach always remind the team that they're a "Band of Brothers," and that despite his disability, Danny is one of them and that they should treat him as an equal.
So, when the football team quarterback Tommy Cooney heard that Danny was getting bullied because of the way he speaks, he rallied the troop to do something: they arranged a "Danny Appreciation Day," where every boy in the team came to school dressed up like Danny.
Children can be mean, but these kids are awesome! Watch the video clip below by WCVB Channel 5 Boston that will reaffirm your faith in humanity:
First grade is tough. No more story circle. No more nap time.
Six-year-old Sophie Mullins, a first grade student at Gauley River Elementary in Craigsville, West Virginia, thought that she and her classmates were being overworked, so she did what any aggrieved constituent would do: she wrote a letter to her State Senator Joe Manchin.
Sophie got the idea from her father, who suggested that she wrote her State Senator with her grievances. "She'd say, 'Daddy, there's so much work to do, all we do is work,' and he said, 'Well, you need to write your congressman,' " Sophie's mother Sarah Mullins told WSAZ.
"Dear Sir," the young Ms. Mullins wrote, "All we do is work, work, work. I need a break. Can you please help?"
Manchin, ever concerned about his constitutents' well being, picked up the phone and called Sophie at school:
"You're working all the time, aren't you?" asked Manchin in the videotaped call that his office posted on YouTube. "So what I'm doing is, see, I'm giving you a break right now. I wanted you to take a little bit of time off since you worked so hard."
"If you work hard, it's going to pay off," Manchin said, urging her to "keep working hard on your studies so you get smarter so you can help us."
The call only lasted a few minutes, but Sophie's mother told WSAZ that it was important to Sophie, who said "Yes, I wrote a letter and talked to people, and the senator listened to me."
See? Calling your representative works! Though I hate to tell ya, kid, get used to it: work doesn't get any better when you're grown up.
