She might be casing the place, admiring the collection of books (cats love books), or simply looking for a good place to nap.
Lanterns — of all sorts — were tramping through my restless dreams all night due to a technology outage caused by a dying tree and some unfortunate power lines. When the repair crews arrived, they brought with them portable stars and auto-saws which imbued restless sleep with restless restlessness.
Calliope is demonstrating the universal sign of there-is-a-gargantuan-enemy-airship-getting-ready-to-fire-on-us.
…Or placing a bid in a very interesting auction! Too bad her friend is missing out!
Stand clear! Calliope is taking a nap.
Calliope’s Book is a story about a little white cat who lives in a forested world of rusting mechanical chipmunks and shining metal wings.
What’s particularly special about the image?
1. For a digital image, it’s gigantic: 18 x 24 inches @ 600dpi.
2. Like the previous Speed + Time poster, this image contains parasignals.
This poster is now available in my deviantArt store.
Here’s a little portrait of Calliope with her wing pack.
Not as finished as I would prefer, but a friend and I spent nearly half the lunch hour debating zombie recipes. For what it’s worth: pickled in vinegar and formaldehyde, then baked with lemon pepper seasoning.
That’s the way to go, friends.
I think this kid goes by the name “Duck”. He likes to work on archaic mechanical things… like power cores, mercuric condenser circuits, and tech-chipper artifacts from the age of the Orange King.
Moving closer to completion on this poster. I drastically simplified the center of the image over what was shown in the original. Simplification goes well with resting, no? I also redrew most of the line work to bring it up to spec.
Awake out there? Take a sneak peek at some upcoming work! If you’re confused, read about the mysterious origin of Calliope’s Book!
Today, I wanted to write a bit about the “secrets” in Speed + Time… and “secrets” in artwork generally.
In graphic design classes, communication of a message is typically broken into three components: alphasignal, parasignal, and infrasignal. In short: alphasignal is understood to be the message itself, parasignal is the way that message is being conveyed, and infrasignal is the behavior of the source of the message. (Note: If you’re interested in greater detail, read Crawford Dunn’s paper on the subject — it’s great.)
I am fascinated by strong parasignals in artwork — particularly, parasignals which reinforce (or contradict!) the alphasignal or which decode to different messages depending on the audience.
All artists include parasignals — conscious or unconscious — in the production of their work. Conscious inclusion of parasignals would seem to have two immediate benefits. First, the elevation of the creative challenge — which, ideally, would force the artist down new creative avenues. Second, the increased interest of the artwork’s audience (either in further appreciation of the message conveyed by the work or born of curiosity over the mechanism by which that message was delivered).
To provide a concrete example, I’ve created a diagram which illuminates the parasignals consciously included in Speed + Time. When looking at the diagram below, ask yourself what would happen if those elements were removed. Now that you realize their presence and know their meaning, would you consider them essential to the message conveyed in the artwork?
(My apologies if this comes across somewhat muddled — I’m low on sleep. Let me know what you think!)
(My further apologies for the awful title of the artwork referenced in this post. I’ll edit it to something more fittingly lyrical soon.)
Stand clear! Calliope is taking off.
Calliope’s Book is a story about a little white cat who lives in a forested world of rusting mechanical chipmunks and shining metal wings.
What’s particularly special about the image?
1. For a digital image, this is truly huge: 18 x 24 inches @ 600dpi. I’m a former pre-press designer and strive to make my work look particularly great when printed.
2. Look close! This image contains parasignals!
This poster is now available in my deviantArt store.
