Andrew Myers

Andrew B Myers is a Toronto-based photographer. Combining analog and digital techniques, he carefully crafts scenes that can be both complex and serene. Some of his photos could almost be painted pastel patterns.

8BITS

SuperCopter! See who made it here.

Green Box

Green Box is pretty clever.



I hate washing dishes and I hate unwieldy pizza boxes, so I like this.

Levi van Veluw

Here are some surreal and striking images from Levi van Veluw. He actually has quite a few projects featured on his site that show his face covered in various materials. Some of which are downright creepy, others, more textural. I love the ball-point pen photos as well.
There's something really neat about the marks all over his face. Especially the smudged images.

Missed Connections NY

I am not sure how I stumbled across this blog, but it is fantastic! Missed Connections NYis a cute illustration blog that features great watercolor paintings of the missed connections sections of various sites & papers.




These are super cute - and upon further investigation, it looks like the artist, Sophie Blackall, is coming out with a book of all these great illustrations!

The Walking Dead

The comic series The Walking Dead is one of the best things I've ever read. It's unrelentingly bleak and heartbreakingly painful, and I can't get enough.

When AMC announced they were doing a TV series based on the comic, I was curious. When they started releasing promo shots of their gruesome zombie makeup, I wondered if it was on the right path? After all, the series is very much a human drama that just coincidentally has zombies in the background.



But seeing the first trailer has made me pretty hopeful. It seems to have the somber tone and tension of the books, so I'm pretty excited to see what they do with it.

Big Cats and Catnip.

This video was able to grind all productivity in the studio to a dead stop, so I figured it was worth sharing.



EDIT: This may be even better.

The Animal Print Shop

Sharon Montrose takes awesome photos of animals. Her photos are so irresistible, she decided to set up The Animal Print Shop to offer super affordable prints for anyone who wants one.

It's 25 bucks for a 7"x9" print of any animal, but you can also snag a limited edition version at a variety of larger sizes (for quite a bit more, of course).







I'm thinking about getting a set for the studio, but trying to pick just a few is hard. I feel like I'm hurting the feelings of all the rest!

Tiny houses

I've always thought dollhouses and miniatures were fascinating, but stumbling across this set of images gave me an even greater appreciation for the art of making tiny homes.



Some of the dollhouses in the image gallery are really old, dating back to the early 1700s. I really enjoyed this interpretation of Leonardo DaVinci's studio:



and this room full of tiny musical instruments:



The rest of the images are equally as impressive, including a giant Japanese-styled house and many detailed views of the furniture and accessories.

Andrea Joseph

Andrea Joseph's work is not quite Trompe L'Oeil, but the part that brings it back to being a drawing–insane amounts of pencil and pen texture– just makes the pieces even better.

I think her work is especially lovely when her textured use of materials melds so closely to what she's drawing that it's hard not to imagine what the objects would feel like.

Beautiful Books : Folio Society

The Folio Society has some of the most gorgeous books I've ever seen.
My Father is a member and has been collecting their books for sometime - most of his books are classics with reproductions of the original plates in the first editions.
All of the covers and dust jackets are amazingly detailed, embossed and foiled in some cases.






I think some day I'll have a huge library of fantastic books I've read, with one of those large library ladders that reach to the ceiling, so I can climb around the walls and choose a book at my leisure.

I understand that this makes me seem like I think I'll be living in a castle where I have a giant library like that. Let's hope that's where I'm headed.

Ei Ka

I am totally taken by this watercolor painting.



I don't know much about Ei Ka, other than she's from Mowscow, and she creates some amazing art. Paintings, drawing, photography, jewelry and more can be found at her Flickr or Behance.

Delicious, Delicious Chocolate Packaging

So we're currently working for one of MN's best candy companies and have recently found out that their past designs have been featured in a million and one different design blogs, books and magazines. (Thanks for the info, Francesca!) Since we happen to know that there is quite a bit of good chocolate packaging out there, I've taken the time to put up some of my absolute favorites.



Divine Chocolate



Co Couture




B.T. McElrath


Vere Goods




Seattle Chocolates

I might have to order one of each and invite everyone over for a taste test...

Tooth Art

We all need to take care of our chompers. After my trip to the dentist this month, I was thinking this might be a good way to draw attention away from my tea stained teeth!
Here, I could have any number of celebrities tattooed on my teeth if I'd like, although I'd probably just ask them to cover all my front teeth with portraits of all of my cats.

Thinking of following suit?
Check out the toothartist.

Pictionary

Here at Paper Bicycle, we believe in communicating our ideas as clearly as possible. Sometimes we need to communicate those ideas to each other, and of course we know that the best way to communicate ideas is with a visual.

Here's a sneak peek into the minds of greatness:

(A lot of the diagrams are pet story visuals. And the rest...well...you know.)

You Are What You Eat

Mark Menjivar's photo project, You Are What You Eat, is a series of refrigerator interior portraits. Each fridge was shot as-is, with no advance warning. A small description of the owner accompanies each portrait, and the result is a surprisingly intimate peek into their lives.





I can't help but love art that verges on the voyeuristic. Maybe it's an American thing to want to see into your neighbors house. And I wonder, would you let Mark shoot your refrigerator at this very moment? How would it reflect on you?

TREND : Cats with Mustachios.

A: Mustachioed Kitten Ring by fancyjewels; B: Animals with Mustaches - Set of 6 pinback buttons by BarrelOfMonkeys: C: Kittens with Mustaches Button Set by scientificculture; D: Poppy Mustache Kitty Short Sleeve Womens Tee by Cathypeng; E: Highly Refined Cat-erpillar by Cordialkitten; F: Ophelia by RacecarApparel; G: Angus the Scottish Cat-erpillar by Cordialkitten; H: Baby cat-erpillar by Cordialkitten.


SO! I thought this was hilarious. I have been known to type in fun word pairings into search fields to see what happens (and for some reason I haven't quite learned my lesson with google. Thank god for safe search.) and in this case : Cat, Mustache yielded some amazing results. Etsy, like any other fantastic place, has it's fair share of cat-related mustache-merchandise. Maybe I'm not the only one who thinks this is amazing and hilarious. I want someone to come up with stick-on-mustachios for my cats.

...Anyone? ....

*cough*

Okay. Still, even this chance find is super entertaining. Cats with Mustaches? Yes, please!

Anders Krisar

Anders Krisar work is a Swedish photographer and sculptor. He's got a lot of great work, but some of my favorite pieces are both beautiful, meticulous and almost violent.

80's Tees.

I try not to wear shirts that would fall into the humor/novelty category, but there are some shirts over at 80's Tees that make me reconsider. It's not an easy site to comb through, but there's a few winners in there.



I mean, c'mon! Kimberly from the Power Rangers? I'd be perfect!

Luke Jerram and his rings.

I love non-traditional wedding/engagement rings. Maybe it's a dude thing, but a diamond rings are boooo-ring.

But Luke Jerram knows how it's done. To celebrate his marriage, he custom made this Portrait Projecting Ring (with help from Tamrakar, his local jeweler). The ring contains a series of portraits that are projected through a lens when illuminated with a small light in a dark room.



You can read more about it on his his site, even the sad tale of how it was recently stolen... Bummer.

Perhaps less flashy, but no less cool, is the Talking Ring he created with the help of vinyl record manufacturer Dubstudios. The ring, when inserted into it's own tiny record player, plays back his 20 second wedding proposal.



Check out the video of the ring in action.

Oh yeah, and he doesn't take commissions.

India : Color

I often look through Flickr to find amazing photos of places I only dream of visiting.
Here are some great photos of India - Everything is so bright and crisp.
Here are some stunning pictures I found especially exciting tonight as I was fumbing around people's photo streams.
Click the links to visit the photographers' work!


gorgeous green


colorful pigments



more amazing colors



stunning fabrics


These colors have little relation, but totally remind me of the book:
Tricia Guild Pattern



I've owned this book for a couple years now and STILL love every page of it. Besides the fact that the cover of the book is flocked, the inside pages are packed full of hand-rendered, painted, and intricately done patternwork. I wonder if some of Tricia Guild's inspiration comes from global influences like these?

I suppose if I actually read the excerpts from the book I might see where her ideas come from. Too bad I'm so distracted by all the pretty artwork! :)

Studio 360!

As I write this, it's well after midnight on a Sunday night. But here we are working ourselves silly. I don't think it's a stretch to say we spend a whole, whole lot of time at the Paper Bicycle studio.

Which means that we (or maybe more specifically, I) spend a whole lot of time away from my stable of video game consoles at home. It's a crying shame.

But fear not, I just picked up a shiny new Xbox 360 just for those late-night gaming breaks!



Awww, it's business time!

(P.S. There's an official studio gamertag, PaperBicycle... although I have a feeling most of the games will be played on my personal account, Teenwolfdude, because... I got to keep those achievement points for myself! All MINE, Francesca!)

Studio Dogs!

Say hi to Atari and Twink, our semi-regular visitors to the Paper Bicycle studio! They help make long days seem a little bit shorter, and give us an excuse to rip our eyeballs from our monitors every now and then.

Twink's the little one, Atari's the big one. They're best friends and love people and they always wear the most stylish fashions.

So if you visit Paper Bicycle Towers, remember to bring along a couple of dog treats! Just make sure Twink's is a diet treat...

Old and Rare

Francesca and I spent an hour or so looking at all sorts of design books at Barnes & Noble a day or so ago. Of all the books one caught my eye. I held it in my hand for about 20 minutes as I looked through some other decorating books, crafty books and all sorts of other things. I know it's bad, but I often try and see if Amazon can beat the price of Barnes & Noble (They usually can...) and if so, I'll get it there.

After some frantic and difficult searches I found this blog:
Bibliodyssey.blogspot.com.
that lead to the book I had been looking for:
BibliOdyssey: Amazing Archival Images from the Internet
It is a compilation of a million different (and weird) images from old litho plates. Some medical, some just funny...

My searching the internet lead to a ton of other great places to view similar types of illustrations. I am a softy for these very technical, super intricate illustrations, so when I found a site that allowed you to purchase old plates for $30 and up, I wandered around the site and found some fun images.







At one point Francesca recommended the book Webster's Visual Dictionary - which is in the vein of all this other antiqued artwork.

Here is another neat blog I found that shares the same topic : Antique Prints Blog It seems this one is much more informative of where these prints are coming from, what topics they describe, and other fun information about the days of olde.

And finally, here is another fantastic book that should grace your coffee table at home. It's huge and expensive, but quite beautiful.
Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1765