Sand sculptures typically range from fantastic to amazingly realistic in style, but they rarely look as habitable as the architectural sandcastles created by Calvin Seibert, aka Box Builder.
Calvin explores many diverse styles in his gritty works, ranging from cubism to mosaic forms to brutalism, and his works are so geometrically sound it’s a shame the incoming tide will reduce these swanky seaside real estate models to a pile of mud.
And while Calvin’s architectural sculptures look like they took a team of tiny engineers a week to construct each one, he creates them all with nothing more than a few simple tools and a lot of patience.
Most dogs don’t really appreciate their owner’s obsession with taking baths, and from the looks they give you during the torturous process you’d think they were being washed with acid rather than water.
Their hilarious expressions, and the totally artsy way their fur looks when it’s all wet, are the themes behind photographer Sophie Gamand’s series appropriately entitled Wet Dog. The premise sounds easy enough to capture, but Sophie goes beyond the basic idea and attempts to capture each dog’s individual personality in the photos. Here’s what she has to say about the series:
Wet Dog is a series on dogs being washed during their grooming sessions. The way the water plays with their hair in a very painterly manner, and their facial expressions as the water is poured on them creates striking portraits.
Paperboys are dying all over town at the hands of bad drivers, angry men with jackhammers and vicious attack terriers, and it’s up to a paperman formerly known as paperboy to avenge the deaths of his fellow newspaper flingers.
Envisioned as a grindhouse action flick full of gore and schlocky catchphrases, Paperboy 3: The Hard Way looks like the greatest movie adaptation of a video game that will never come to a theater near you, but maybe if we’re lucky (and they get enough hits on YouTube) the makers of this comedic trailer will treat us to some more sidewalk slayings and bicycle driven destruction in future short films. (Barely NSFW)
Video games have become way too interesting, with compelling storylines and jaw dropping visuals, so it’s about time a game came out which bores players to death and makes them wonder why they’re even playing the game at all.
Enter Waiting In Line 3D- a totally dull game that is lackluster in every way, with blocky visuals and an utter lack of gameplay that will have you screaming for less. It’s either a post-modern comment on the time wasting nature of video games, or a really clever way for game designers Rajeev Basu and Patrick T. Lo to poke fun at the gaming masses.
The Mandalorians aren’t known for adorning their armor with bright colors and fancy artwork, probably because they prefer to stay out of the spotlight when they’re flying around zapping people with their blaster pistols.
But if they decided to decorate their plate armor, perhaps for a snazzy space party, they’d definitely appreciate the awe inspiring designs found in the ArTmor Project.
Created by 60 fans, artists and design Jedis, the works in the ArTmor Project collection range from crossover (Skeletor, The Punisher) to gloriously venerating tributes to the mighty Mandalorians, and they are all being auctioned off for the Character Star Wars Toy Drive benefitting Toys for Tots.
It’s the mashup nobody saw coming, nobody asked for, and yet somehow feels right at home with the rest of the Lord of the Rings based silliness available for your viewing pleasure on the interwebs.
It’s called Mean Elves- a ridiculous animated Hobbit-Mean Girls mashup by Leigh Lahav that gives fans some insight into the minds of the cool kids of the forests- the elves. As we’ve always suspected the elves are elitists, catty and totally superficial trash talkers, in a sexy-and-they-know-it kind of way. It will make you appreciate the gruff nature of the dwarves and feel for the poor nerdy little hobbits.
Tired of using conventional methods to decide which board game to play? Do you have so many board games that deciding which one to play takes twice as long as actually playing the game?
Well then this handy dandy flowchart is just what you need- it helps guide you towards the perfect board game with questions like “do you think everyone should just get along?” and “is chess too cliché?”.
When you’re finished navigating through the maze of thin white lines the choices are laid out before you in easy to read boxes, and if you’re playing a game like Warhammer or Arkham Horror this flowchart will be the easiest guide you read all night!
The art of seduction is generally lost on the classic monsters of filmdom, but when they’re asked to get in touch with their tender side and let it all hang out these sexy beasts don’t disappoint.
Luckily artist Erika Deoude was there to capture these baddies striking a seductive pose, pin-up style, and she put all of her illustrations together in The Calendar of Sexy Monsters- a set if 12 giclee prints featuring Godzilla, Zuul, the Predator, King Kong and more like you’ve never seen them before. They’re perfect for brightening up a dank cave, haunted house or swampside cemetery.
When a poor little pug named Kevin is left home alone while his posh puggy parents take a trip to Paris, he’s forced to deal with some nefarious teddy bear bandits on his own, and an adorable movie reboot is born.
Home Alone (Pug Puppy Version) is just what you’d expect from a short film starring pugs- it’s adorable, with very little actual animal acting but lots of squee worthy moments as little Kevin tries to figure out what the heck is going on. No pugs were harmed during the making of this silly short, but the teddy bears may have ended up a bit frayed in the end.
Imagine you head out into the world only to discover, to your horror and everyone else’s amusement, that you aren’t wearing any clothes. You could turn beet red and hide in a closet somewhere until you can fashion a makeshift wardrobe out of rags and paper clips, or you can bust out a can of Fabrican and spray on some self respect.
Created by Spanish fashion designer Manel Torres, Fabrican is a sprayable wearable fabric inspired by Silly String, but instead of destroying your clothing it creates a layer of fibers that winds up looking like a less racy form of body painting. Here’s how it works:
The science of the process involves the creation of a liquid suspension which is then applied using a spray gun or aerosol canister. The resulting sprayed fabric has natural, synthetic and recycled fiber options, and when applied typically feels like a breathable suede.
The fabric can be embedded with a variety of supplements and additives which make separate colors, patterns and (which also opens up the possibilities of quick-creating medical applications such as casts, bandages and even antiseptic-wound cleansing).
Comic Con International is the biggest pop culture event of the year, with major entertainment companies, artists, designers and rabid fans descending on the San Diego Convention Center by the tens of thousands for a weekend full of premieres, debuts, unveilings, surprise appearances and enough geeky treats to satisfy fanboys and fangirls for another year. But what about those artists who choose to create and produce their own independent vision, the little guys who have yet to be swallowed up by the big fish in the sea of media giants? They’re still making a strong impact on the landscape of the convention floor, proving that the spirit of independence is alive and well at Comic Con.
Blake Armstrong
Blake Armstrong has an extremely diverse entertainment industry background, but nothing has ever made him feel as passionate as creating his own illustrated fantasy series. The result is The Jester’s Curse, a dark and spaced out saga influenced by the music of In Flames and soon to be co-published by Heavy Metal magazine. Blake spent six months creating his moody series, in hopes that it would lead to being published and available to fans, but when he got the attention of Heavy Metal magazine, his indie success story was complete.
Erik Arreaga
San Diego native Erik Arreaga grew up when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the big, bad heroes of Image Comics ruled the comic store shelves. Back then, he dreamed of one day attending Comic Con as a professional artist. Now in his seventeenth year selling prints and original art at SDCC, it’s safe to say Erik has made his artistic dreams come true on the Con floor. This year his Zombie Last Supper prints turned heads, and lots of his original Ninja Turtles artwork were up for sale too.
Robert A. Kraus
The works of RAK are a familiar sight to Comic Con attendees, and Robert sells mini prints of his works complete with card sleeve for a dollar so his booth is very popular with kids and comic art fans alike. He’s been sharing his heroic visions of pop culture characters with Comic Con attendees for the last eight years, and if his name sounds familiar then you may be remember him as the creator of the character Chakan the Forever Man, who appeared in his own comic book series and video games in the 1990s.
Miniaturist Lorraine Robinson of Fairy Meadow Miniatures decided to turn her daughter's first guitar into a home for her hifi lovin' dolls as a birthday present, and the results are music to the eyes!
There's even a miniature portrait of the whole fam hanging on the wall, along with the typical mess one would expect to find in a teenager's room, only in miniature (and less stinky) form.
Cosplayer Florencia Muir clearly thinks clowns should be creepy rather than cheerful, and she saw a terrifying darkness in Harley Quinn's soul which she evoked in session with photographer Jonathan Duran.
It's Harley in her Suicide Squad years, and she's tired of hiding behind the clown prince's fat head...
It's hard to tell if these guys are one of the lesser known gangs from The Warriors or part of a prison clowning class, but they'd better be really tough if they're gonna prowl the streets looking like that!
Introspective colorful clown boys...they're more of a downer than their makeup would lead you to believe, and they're always worried about their makeup...
