Also the other day I posted an update on Caromble, outlining our gameplay ideas.
And here are two videos I just have to post. They’re fun either way, but knowing Minecraft is a plus. And if you don’t know it, it’s about time to start playing .
This video is a spoof of the “Dead Island” trailer that is doing the rounds recently. Better than the original if ya ask me.
Yesterday I’ve put several images in display windows in Amsterdam Central (close to Nieuwmarkt). Also, the planned joint exhibitions in Breek van Donk are taking shape and several other options are coming up. Busy, busy.
So always remember: “You never knew you can stretch like you can stretch in the Yogalab!” …not sure if that makes any sense, but I thought I should promote a little. Thanks a lot to Patric of the Yogalab for offering the windows and helping out with everything. A bigger exhibition with opening might be possible there later this year, sounds interesting – I’ll have to see if I will go for it.
Wall right behind the window of the Yogalab-studio.
Looks really nice on the wood panels. This is still a bit Work-in-Progress. I will replace some images with newer ones over the coming weeks. One I am right about finishing. Also a proper poster is missing telling my name.
If you’re in Amsterdam on the Nieuwmarkt, it is right there – half a minute walk into the Koningsstraat. Great spot.
The window on Koningsstraat 36, in Amsterdam
Pretty sweet location - 10 minutes from Amsterdam Central Station.
Gallery De Stoker 20 year Exhibition.
There are also more infos about events I talked about recently: – from March 31st until April the 23rd is the open exhibition to celebrate the 20 years of the Gallery Stoker. If any artists wants to take part: You have to supply one image of 20×20 cm. And you have to act fast: 100 of the 120 spots are taken already. Here is the PDF with the information again.
For 3 weekends starting May 14 my water colors will be part of the exhibition in Galerie Berkendijkje in Beek en Donk as part of the Aquarellist Collective. I will be there for sure on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of May – I will have a tent to exhibit more works, and do portraits again. Looking forward to it.
There is a nude-paintings-exhibition planned there later – where I may be part of it too. Better get busy painting!
Here are ten more pages of my mid-2009 sketchbook. Before I get to that: There is also a new post about the indie-project Caromble again. This time I talk about the first steps to take the concepts to 3D.
Finally – after much struggle and suffering: I can unveil the indie game I’m working on with a small dutch team. And of course we set up a proper web-page for it – where you can see the proper announcement of “Caromble”.
Caromble game Teaser
If you’re too lazy to click it – it is a 3D clone of Breakout. You control a paddle and a keep a ball in the playing field that can crush the environment with beautiful physics. There are some special twists to it, but more on that later. We are further along than it shows, and the plan is to kinda slowly trace back how we went about the development. Over the next weeks I will post more concept-art and posts about the 3D-art. My goal for the style is to get a unique style by simulating comicart a little – using colored lineart as textures.
I also have some 3D tutorials ready that I’ll post in the process. Big plans are still ahead – and a lot of work.
First screenshot, and I already Photoshop-fake it. Game industry for life baby!
These cows are very excited about their future appearance in the game.
Even though nearly no one foresaw the implosion of the housing market, it now seems obvious that it was a bubble. After all a house fulfills a real-world need, you can calculate and compare what it physically gives you. Art doesn’t have those real tangible values – it is all in the eye of the beholder. I think that why, despite the insane amounts of money changing hands for art, it is still hard to say what is really going on.
Here are two documentaries (found in the German Digitalart forum) about what is going on. The first is called “The Mona Lisa Curse” by critic Robert Hughes. It’s a witty look at how the what is happening to art in the billion dollar market.
I think he addresses a bit the direction I’ve been wondering about – how this affects the artist. Specifically of course I only care about my own problems: how it will affect me, as outsider of the huuuuge-sum market.
This system puts certain needs on the art. For example it has to be produced in mass. Speculation won’t work with only a handful of works, because the market would be empty too quickly (one painting per year wouldn’t do). So some art, even if good, will not be adopted.
These properties that fulfill the market-needs will become more important than the artistic qualities. And selection upon these will lead to a fall in quality of the whole market. They just don’t matter as much. It goes so far that many speculators store the art it in their basement still packed – never to be looked at.
And the public adopts the standards of the market. So if Warhol sells well, his art becomes a trendsetter. Even art outside the market will be judged by it. And since galleries aim to become part of the big game, they choose artists according to the trend. Museums will go with it too. If the open market is impoverished of artistic qualities, so is the public.
But I don’t want to paint a too easy picture here. “Artistic quality” is an evasive property… even if Robert Hughes pretends that as famous critic he can decide what is art and what is not, truth is, he knows no more than the speculators. That is the problem, and after all, the beauty of art.
This second documentary called “Great Contemporary Art Bubble” by Ben Lewis goes a bit into how this is not just a problem among the billionaires – since museums and the tax office help to finance this bubble. And he tries to show how the extreme prices may be more foul than it seems: influenced by price driving, manipulation and backdoor deals.
Following is the trailer – the full program I could unfortunately only find in German. Here the link to Ben Lewis: “Die Millionenblase”
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