Week two of Chades Challenge II: Elderly Mermaids

A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.
--William Butler Yeats (A Man Young and Old: III. The Mermaid)

Don't forget to check out all the other fishy vixens posted by the mighty Chades Challengers:
Ben Adams
Josh Billings
Lorelay Bove
Emma Coats
Steve MacLeod
Leo Matsuda
Adrian Molina
Laura Jane Murphy
Vi-Dieu Nguyen
Bobby Pontillas
Moro Rogers
Joe Ruiz
Sean Taylor
Rob Thompson
Lissa Treiman
Nate Wragg

Sir Ken Robinson's "The Value of Creativity"
This guy is a genius. I recommend you take the time to listen to the entire lecture, there are some pretty tremendous ideas in there. I just ordered his book, Epiphone. We'll see if his ideas seem as intelligent without the british accent.

Nothing gets the creative juices flowing in the morning like some good ol' dinosaur drawing!

And this is my 'Favela Girl'. Eric Favela is like the Freddy Moore of CalArts' '06 class. And if he knows you well enough, he can draw your dream girl even better than you'd be able to yourself. I had to wait about five years, but I finally got mine.

Here are a few videos I found of James Gurney, creator of Dinotopia and one of my childhood inspirations. My freshman year of CalArts, I sent James a letter telling him how much he inspired me and that, if he had any spare sketches lying around, I wouldn't mind taking them off his hands.
James was awesome enough to write me back and attach not only a visitor's pass to Dinotopia (I think I'll holiday there this Autumn, I hear it's nice there that time of year), but several original concept sketches, including the storyboard for the last page of the book. So here's the great man himself, and a few words of reptillian wisdom.

Story challenge with Vi: "The hunter becomes the hunted"
Here's my take on the subject. If you ask me, this reckoning has been a long time coming.

CalArts first year Tom Moore had this video posted on his blog. It's Ferrofluid (liquid metal baby!) and it reminds me of Venom. Too bad the movie version of everyone's favorite Marvel baddy wasn't half as cool as this real life magnet goo.
And just for kicks, a couple other spectacular, uncanny, and all-around amazing science clips. Science rules!

Doc Ock
Electro

Chades Challenge II: Elderly Mermaids
Once every two weeks, a couple of artists choose one word each (one a noun, the other an adjective). The combined words form the subject of the following weeks' Chades (CHAracter DESign) Challenge. At the end of each week, all Chades Challengers post their skullduggery on their respective blogs and many a good laugh is had.

THE CHALLENGERS ARE:
Ben Adams
Josh Billings
Emma Coats
Steve MacLeod
Adrian Molina
Laura Jane Murphy
Vi-Dieu Nguyen
Bobby Pontillas
Moro Rogers
Robbie 'The Robot' Thompson
Lissa Treiman
Nate Wragg
and introducing
The Mighty Gerenuk

Also, he was a little late to the game, but Leo Matsuda has come in swinging with a truly sweet deformed sorcerors story. I challenge any of you who feel the urge to do so, embrace storyboarding in all its awesomeness. Go Brazil!

The theme is 'Elderly Mermaids' for one more week. So push the idea, explore the concept to its very limits, and post again on June 15. At that time, two new Chades Champions will be chosen to select the next theme. Sketch greatly!