WOW! CARICATURES BY AARON PHILBY!

Who is this Aaron Philby guy!!?? I'm always seeing his caricatures on the net, but they're never accompanied by biographical material. Usually they're not even signed. Whenever I see good people doing what they do anonymously I always assume they're on the lamb from the law, or are in the Witness Protection Program.

 Oops! Sorry Aaron. I hope what I said doesn't get you killed.

Wouldn't it be fun to go to the beach and get a funny caricature done like the one above? What a nice, clean line!

Aaron does what looks like acrylic portaits, too.

The man does what the best modern caricaturists do: he sees his subjects as weird, biological specimens. You see it in his two-man "friend" portraits, which always look like the love of a sea urchin for a flounder. I mean that as a compliment.

Friendship is one of the great mysteries of life. Two weird organisms (above) with different tastes and different physiology find each other and somehow just "gel." It's a strange and wonderful phenomenon and only caricature seems to capture it adequately.

 Wonderful (above), just wonderful!

Asians (above) can be a challenge to draw. The linear eyes are first thing Europeans see, but if you draw them like that some Asians get offended. That's because they don't see themselves that way. Look at Manga which always portrays Japanese as having huge, wide-open, glassy eyes. What's a caricaturist to do?

I think Aaron has the right approach. Just draw what you see. At least it's honest, and maybe one day  Asians won't be so touchy about it.

I love portraits where a big giraffe head (above) just leans in from the side. How do you like the arrangement of the teeth?

Above, another "biological specimen" portrait. You imagine David Attenburough describing the creature as a bottom feeder which uses its nose to stir up the sand, and its mouth to suck up the worms that live there. I'm guessing that the father of this technique was John K who watches animal shows on TV in order to understand humans better.

Very Nice (above)! I also like the way the chair comes off as an irregular-shaped cloth frame in this photo.

Probably these (above) were just-for-fun sketches, done at home. The task for a caricaturist is to retain this cartoony, class clown style even in a worked-up painting. 

Oops! I just discovered that this one (above) might be by Briam Oakes, I'll investigate.

I could write a whole article about these last three pictures (above). They look primitive but are actually very sophisticated. It takes real comedic and graphic talent to simplify faces this way. It's hard to do that when your subject has paid you and is sitting right in front of you. In that situation you delete everything funny in an attempt to chase the likeness. The funniest pictures are always drawn the next day when you're on the scent of a remembered impression.

This reminds me of something caricaturist Marlo Meekins said. She said she didn't mind it when people moved a lot while she was sketching them. The movement made her focus on her impression of the subject, rather than fidelity to reality.

Anyway, great work Aaron!

Aaron's blog:

http://aaronphilby.blogspot.com/

RECOMMENDATION FOR A CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Hi, Uncle Eddie here! Well, the holiday season's upon us and it's time to start thinking of Christmas presents for family and friends. If you're strapped for ideas I thought I might be able to help. I have in mind the present I recommend every year at this time...

...the "EXTENDO FORK!"

Well actually, I use...Ahem!... the "Freeloader Fork ...'PRO' " model. Stainless steel, oiled shaft, nice balance...an advanced instrument for advanced users. Since you guys are just starting out I figure you'll want to begin with the cheaper, but serviceable "Extendo Fork. "

When the target isn't looking, quickly extend it to it's full length of 2 1/2 feet...

...and DINE! Dine off your friend's plate that is. The rule here is, be fast! It tales practice to harpoon your food, bring it back to your plate, and collapse the fork in one continuous motion. Practice on an unwitting friend...heh, heh...like I did with Mike.

Okay, what else have we got here....

...okay, next is the Soup Sucker. You'll need a drink to go with that food you just forked, and the Soup Sucker doubles as a terrific drink infiltrator.

The Sucker can be had at any hardware store. It's called shrinkable insulation, and it's used to cover wires. It sells for 20 cents a foot, and it comes wrapped around a big spool. You'll need about 3' of the 3/8" size.

Thread the tube into your shirt sleeve so you have one end coming out of the cuff, and one end coming out of your collar.

Simply allow the cuff end of the tube to fall (fall stealthily) into your neighbor's drink, then suck on the other end.

When you're finished, you'll find that he curl the tube got from being on the spool really comes in handy. You just move your arm a little and and the Sucker recedes into your cuff, all by itself! Nifty, huh?

Oh...er, be careful that you don't get a siphon going. I tapped into Mike's tomato juice once and the juice kept coming out after I stopped sucking. I didn't notice it, and a big red stain formed on my shirt. Mike saw it and had a fit. He thought I'd been shot. He wanted to take me to the hospital!

Anyway, good luck with finding this stuff! May all your meals be free!

HANDBAGS

I have a question for you. What is unusual about the woman in the photograph above?  What about this picture tells us that it's a fantasy, with no relationship to reality whatsoever? Is it the height of the woman? Nope.  Some mad scientist somewhere might be able to pull that off.  No, I'm talking about something nobody could pull off, something utterly inceivable. Give up?

It's the fact that she's walking outdoors without a handbag. That's an unthinkable situation which could never, ever occur in the real world. Even a giant woman would never be seen in public without a handbag. Why? 'Darned if I know.

 Remember when ladies' purses used to be small (above)?

Well, not any more. They're huge now....

...and getting bigger all the time.

What's in 'em (above)? Well, other handbags for one thing. There's also phones, ipods, candybars, photo albums, tissues, mints, gum, books, cameras, a second wallet, brush, bottled water, tea, teasing comb, checkbook, hair dryer, scrunchies, hair spray, sun glasses and case, glasses and case, reading glasses and case, letters, crumbs, pens, markers, cosmetics, clothes, soap, tissues, coupons, umbrella, thread, receipts, chap stick, keys, aspirin... well it would be a long list.

How do I know this? 'Cause there's a kazillion youtube videos where girls passionately talk to each other about their handbags.

A bag that packed (above) is a formidable tool for preventing people from passing you in narrow aisles.

Handbags are a big deal now. Movie stars advertise them. Here (above) Madonna's famous crotch endorses a Gucci bag.

Here (above) Scarlett-Johansson  shows off her handbag. Scarlett's a nice girl but she's a liitle chair-challenged.    

Hey, lots of people don't know how to use chairs. It's fairly common. But I digress.

If you're a guy you're focused on the girl in the picture (above), if you're a woman, you're scoping out the handbag. The brown florette pattern identifies it as...GASP!...a real LOUIS VUITTON, the towering MOUNT EVEREST of handbags! There isn't a girl on the planet who wouldn't kill to own one!

This (above) is the coveted Vuitton pattern, the one with little gothic wildflowers and Vuitton's initials.

For some the florettes are too subtle. Vuittons can cost well over a thousand bucks, and if you shell out that kind of money you want the world to know it...thus the labels (above).

Check out the fox tails. Handbags can be embellished with tails, feathers, beads and Hello Kitties.

At this point guys are probably breathing a sigh of relief. Handbags are something only girls have to worry about, right? Er...maybe. Check out the link below. It's a youtube video but embedding wasn't allowed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8tqaGHUu4Q&feature=fvst

LUNCHTIME BOOK CHAT #2

Greetings Theory Cornerites! Uncle Eddie here for the first of several Christmas editions of "Lunchtime Book Chat." Our guest reviewer today is Isobel Wren,  the famous internet model and book fancier.

Um...those aren't zits on Isobel's face. They're just artifacts of hasty Photoshopping.

I gotta warn ya....Isobel gets...gets kinda "unclothed" in this review. I guess she thinks it's too hot in here.

Oops! Dropped my book!

Darn book!

Whew! I hate to see a good book get dirty like that.

Oops! 'Dropped the book again!

'Doggone book!

Boy, that book is really slippery!

Anyway, here's (below) Isobel Wren reviewing "Forever: a Novel" by Pete Hamill.

BASIL WOLVERTON WOMEN

Sorry for the minimal post. Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, and agonizing over whether to buy a copy of Painter 11 at a "Black Friday" price, took all my time. Boy, I love Christmas but we can all be thankful that it's only once a year.

Making a decision about Painter 11 was hard because the specs support Leopard, but not Snow Leopard, which is my operating system. People on the net were divided about whether Snow Leopard is compatible. Half said it worked just fine for them and half said it didn't. Ordinarily I'd skip something as risky as this but the asking price was ridiculously low....I just couldn't pass it up. Geez, I hope I did the right thing.

Anyway, how do you like these Wolvertons!?  They're made by someone who doesn't identify himself on his site, but whose watermark moniker is Stu Sutcliffe. Nice job, Stu!

http://stusutcliffe.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

MORE LLOYD WRIGHT

Since we're on the subject of Frank Lloyd Wright's son Lloyd, I thought I'd put up a couple more of his projects. Here's (above) his Samuel Navarro house in Los Feliz, only a short drive from the Sowden House. It's beautiful when seen from this angle.

From the road (above) it looks like an Art Deco fortress.

Unfortunately the beautiful trim (above) doesn't hold up under close inspection.

The interior (above) isn't much either. I wish I knew the story behind this. Who's at fault? My guess is that a later remodeling destroyed the original. I feel sorry for architects. No one would think of buying a Rembrandt and repainting it, yet great architecture is routinely modified to fit each new owner.

I like the modest spiral staircase (above) and thin iron gate.

Here's (above) Lloyd's breathtaking Wayfarer Chapel in Palas Verdes. It's mostly glass. A critic described it as having trees for walls and the sky for a ceiling.

While researching Lloyd I came across some interesting pictures of houses made by his dad. Wouldn't you kill to own this one (above)? How do you like the razor sharp angles? And isn't it amazing that he was able to combine so many styles? I see the German 19th century railroad station style combined with Mayan and Tudor. The wide, blocky porch area reminds me of Bejing's Forbidden City.

Above, the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Alas, it no longer exists.

I like that band-of-squares decoration above the first floor windows (above).  Other architects use patterns like that in moldings, but Wright uses them as sculptural elements.

Good for him! Here (above) he brings the roof down close to the ground where it belongs. Too long have we wasted beautiful roofs by putting them too high for people to see.

I assume every Theory Cornerite has a set of Froebbel blocks (above) on his coffee table. It's fun to build Frank Lloyd Wright forms with them.