Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Creepiest cartoon ever



They just don't make cartoons like this anymore.
via Miss Cellania

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Wow... just... wow.

Amazing, hot guitar duel between Stochelo Rosenberg and Eric Vaarzon Morel. If you enjoy flamenco guitar, gispy guitar, or simply amazing displays of virtuosity, take a look. It's crazy.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Suggested reading for cold winter nights

As some of you might know, I'm an avid reader.

Snuggling up in a warm robe & slippers on a comfy couch, with a glass of whiskey or port by my side and my pipe full of cherry cavendish tobacco, and reading for hours is one of my favorite hobbies at night.

Thus, after the jump comes a list of books i've recently read that might interest most of you.


Thursday, January 21, 2010

Of sideshow gaffs & taxidermy

After the success and interest that was bestowed upon my last creation, namely the Feejee Mermaid (from Borneo), I thought about sharing to you a few pieces of information on taxidermy and the art of sideshow gaffs.

Gaffs are simply tricked exhibits. The most famous of them all, of course, is the mummified "mermaid" body exhibited by P.T. Barnum during the 19th century. This creature, dubbed the Feejee Mermaid (from the original spelling of the Fiji islands), was of course nothing more than a hoax.



P.T. Barnum's Feejee Mermaid



More info and pictures after the jump.


Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Amazing Feejee Mermaid! (From Borneo.)



Here's a picture of the finished product.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

If you ever try to follow my instructions and make your own mermaid, please let me know! I'd love to see what I managed to inspire!

For those who landed directly on this post, here's links to the whole tutorial:

Part 1: In which we discuss the flaying of the fish
Part 2: In which we discuss the mounting of the skin
Part 3: In preparation for the application of skin
Part 4: In which we add flesh to the beast
Part 5: In which we finish the job

Here's also a link to a tutorial on how to make the manuscript you see on the left of the picture

If you enjoyed this, please let me know!

Cheers

Taxidermy: In which we finish the job.

Hello again.

This time we'll deal with the finishing touches; coloration, antiquing and wall mounting.

First of all, it is important to support the dry mermaid for the painting process.
I used a wire coat hanger which I bent out of shape and slid under its arms.

For painting the body, I mixed a small quantity of paint matching the fish's color; I used burnt umber, burnt sienna, sap green, black, and gold paint to give a slight shimmer to the color.

I then mixed 1 part paint to 3 parts latex, and watered down the mix a bit so it goes on more easily.

Don't worry if the resulting paint is pale, it'll dry much darker. The great thing with this paint is that it won't be uniform; since it's translucent, there will be some natural variation in the color. This is a good thing if you want a realistic paint job. Also, cover the whole fish, not just the body.

More pictures & info after the jump.

Easy, drugless hallucinations! yay!

These are a series of easy ways to experiment basic hallucinations. I'll try a couple of these in the next days to see how it works out!

via cracked