Graham Norton shocks Jennifer Aniston on the show with an out-of-the-blue Friends reference.
Just watched the interview. hilarioussss
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(via minimaldesks)
What it’s like briefing a Creative on a Friday afternoon
Teared at this scene. :’(
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Sign Painting in Sydney (and somewhere near you!)
This week I went along to Mike Meyer’s Hand-Lettering Workshop in Sydney. I’d met Mike in London earlier this year during the opening of the Sign Painters film he starred in and was keep learn more about the construction of various letter styles.
Billed as “Two days of paint, brushes, lettering and laughs” it’s a fitting description. The stories and banter mixed with insightful lessons and techniques builds a very relaxed and creative atmosphere. Aimed at beginners and those wishing to improve their basic skills, the two day workshop is split roughly into learning four styles of lettering; Gothic (simple block letters), Thicks & thins (a slab serif), Causal (fluid and bouncy) and Script.
It starts with a pencil, drawing out a proportional grid for each letter (we were shown some fast tricks for doing this) and developing an understanding of the basic structure and spacing of letterforms.
After running through the different brush types and brush care, we moved onto painting basics; how to hold the brush, it’s position against the surface, loading the brush with paint and achieving a chisel edge to allow for sharp corners.
Then we were also shown various techniques for steadying your painting hand while holding it away from the surface to avoid smudging wet paint; using a Mahl stick, hand over hand and ‘Pinky down’ options.
As we practiced twisting the brush to achieve a chiselled terminal at the end of certain strokes or the visual rhythm of script letters, Mike moved around the class steering us along with tips and an anecdote or two.
I’ve added some short gifs above. As with all type and lettering it’s about looking, examining and lot’s of practice. Closely watching Mike paint was one of the best learning experiences. With ‘Casual’ style particularly I would watch the first few strokes go down, say the upright stem of an ‘R’ then its bowl, I would quickly imagine the next step of where I would paint the leg. Then as Mike adds it in I see just how far off the mark I was.
To really see what was going on with those subtle brush twists a piece of tape was added to the end of Mike’s brush handle so you could see it twirl. This style and scale of lettering bares much more resemblance to calligraphy: using single, very precise strokes for the letterforms, rather than building them up by refining their shape multiple times. It’s an amazing skill to practice.
Whether you’re interested in becoming a sign painter or not the course would definitely be useful to anyone interested in the construction of letterforms and building their drawing/painting skills
Get you name down for one of the upcoming workshops that Mike is running around the world, or contact the organisers to run a workshop where you are.
Here’s the confirmed dates and a link to the mailing list to keep up-to-date with future events.
Everything you love is here
My daughter, who’s in preschool, has a little period of time where the parents come and they hang out with the kid in the morning— this was last year, and, uh…
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Transformation Tuesday! The “Before” photo was taken in 2008 when I was 17. This photo was taken during a time when I was calorie counting, to the point that I limited myself to around 1,000 calories a day. I lost 70 pounds and weighed in at 150. I wish I had more full-length photos to show you, but unfortunately I was so insecure and embarrassed of my body that I required most of my photos to be chest-up. Also, I would have never been caught dead on the beach in an actual swimsuit.
On the right is my “After” photo, taken in 2014 at age 23. During the time period in between the photos, I began my radical journey of self-love and body acceptance. I don’t owe it to anyone to be their version of aesthetically pleasing, I don’t owe it to anyone to lose weight, and I don’t owe it to anyone to be ashamed of my body. Who I am now—all 220 pounds of me— has more confidence and zest for life than I ever did before.
(via anditslove)