Comparto la charla de Puño en MAD 2011 que me ha parecido muy interesante sobre ilustración, recetas, caligrafía, dibujo... puño from MADinSpain on Vimeo. http://www.kokekoko.com/
This is often attributed as being an old Native American Cherokee legend (and I’ve obviously depicted it as such) but after doing a bit of digging online I found that its origins are disputed. This source gives pretty convincing evidence that it’s only a few decades old and evolved from a passage in a Billy Graham book. And Wiki Answers claim that the moral ending of the passage is inconsistent with traditional Cherokee fables. So I don’t know who to believe, and I didn’t credit the quote on the comic. If anyone can help clarify the source, please leave a comment. Regardless of the origin, it’s a great little proverb and one I wanted to adapt and share with you. Thanks to everyone who submitted this quote, it’s one of the most frequent requests I get.
American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".
Paul David Hewson, known by his stage name Bono, is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his future wife, Alison Stewart, and the future members of U2. Bono writes almost all U2 lyrics, often using political, social, and religious themes. During their early years, Bono's lyrics contributed to U2's rebellious and spiritual tone. As the band matured, his lyrics became inspired more by personal experiences shared with members of U2.
Chris Guillebeau is an entrepreneur and writer. His blog, The Art of Non-Conformity, helps people follow their passion and find a meaningful way to use their talents. Chris is also a travel-junkie and is close to completing his lifelong quest of visiting every country in the world. Whether he’s travelling around the globe, writing, performing speaking engagements, launching new products or organising World Domination summits – one thing’s for sure – Chris is NOT living a unremarkably average life. Chris’s blog and his manifestos (which you can download for free and where this list is taken from) helped me when I was frustrated at my old job and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I thoroughly recommend his site, along with his latest book The $100 Startup, to anyone who’s stuck in a rut, thinking about a career-change or starting a passion-project. I was lucky enough to meet Chris when he was recently in Melbourne for the ProBlogger Event. He was a fan of Zen Pencils and one of the first things he said to me was “How can I help?” which I thought showed a lot about his character. I suggested that I adapt one of his quotes and this comic is the result. I’m by no means better than the orange-haired dude in this comic. I’ve been guilty of numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 at some point in my life.
An Ode to Creative Work es un excelente video producido por Behance, la red social para creativos mas importante en Internet, el video es un poema a las oportunidades. trabajo duro y responsabilidades del trabajo creativo, es un excelente video que todo profesional ya sea artistas, diseñador, fotografo, ilustrador o cualquier otro creativo debería ver para inspirarse, sin duda un excelente trabajo de la gente de Behance.
Video: An Ode to Creative Work
Behind every great advancement, in every industry, there is a creative mind. Creativity may come easy, but creation is hard.The late nights spent trying, and failing, and trying again.
All the while, holding onto our vision. Pushing what we see in our mind's eye into the world.
But our potential is being held captive by forces around us and within us. Middle men who play us down while marking us up.Not giving us credit. Getting us to work for free.
And worse, we get in the way of our own success.We rely on chance encounters. We’re disorganized and isolated, liable to go unnoticed. We can do better.
When creative minds come together, the sum exceeds all expectations.We connect, we learn, we critique, we prosper.
It's not about money or fame, it's about doing what we love.It's about creating our greatest work on our own terms.It’s about realizing that creativity is not just an opportunity - it's a responsibility.
Here's to unleashing our full potential. For us, and for the world that awaits what we will do next; Take creative control.
American singer, songwriter, actress, director, dancer, and entrepreneur. She has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the world's best-selling female recording artist in history by Guinness World Records. Considered to be one of the "25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century" by Time for being an influential figure in contemporary music, she is known for continuously reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry. Critics have praised her diverse musical productions which have also been known to induce controversy.
Aunque parezca una fotografía esta imagen corresponde a un dibujo a tamaño real realizado íntegramente con lápices, a partir de una vieja fotografía en la que es imposible apreciar muchos de los detalles que sí se pueden ver en la obra final.
El artista Chris LaPorte utilizó más de 100 lápices y dedicó 1.200 horas para completa City Band.
Academy Award–winning American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona (1987), The Rock (1996), Face/Off (1997), Con Air (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Adaptation (2002), National Treasure (2004), Lord of War (2005), Ghost Rider (2007), The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Kick-Ass (2010), and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012).
Randy Pausch (1960-2008) was a computer-science and human-computer interaction professor at Carnegie Mellon University. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only 3-6 months to live, he gave a now-famous speech called The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. The lecture is a fun and inspiring account of how Pausch achieved (most of) his childhood dreams, from experiencing zero gravity to working for Disney. After being uploaded on YouTube, the talk went viral and Pausch went on to appear on Oprah and write a best-selling book. Watch the video here. It’s pretty inspiring, and the man’s positivity while living with the knowledge he’s going to die has to be seen to be believed.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American writer, poet, philosopher and one of the leading figures of the transcendentalism movement. Besides writing Civil Disobedience, which inspired such revolutionaries as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jnr, Thoreau is most well-known for his book Walden, in which he recounts the two years he lived in a small cabin in the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau used the time to immerse himself in his writing and to live a more simple and self-sufficient life. As he put it: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. Have any of you actually read Walden? Do you recommend it? - Nathanial Hawthorne has a very similar quote attributed to him. Can anyone confirm this is a Thoreau quote? (UPDATE: Thanks to reader Kyle for confirming Thoreau as the author)
- Thanks to Michael for submitting this.
- I’ve mentioned my love for Calvin and Hobbes before. I had Bill Watterson’s watercolour paintings beside me while I was colouring this comic. BUY THE PRINT
Recently, I was asked to take part in an original project involving all kinds of artists where the starring role is Adora.
I thought it would be nice to try something creative and mixing realism with Tintin cartoons. You can see the entry and don't hesitate to take a look at the full project: http://growababy.com/
Today’s cutest cartoon of Adora with Tintin and Milou (“Snowy”) was drawn by Catalan artist Ambro Jordi. Ambro wrote: “I tried to play with realism and imaginary world like a mirror using Milú as a bridge between them”. Well done! Here is his DeviantArt portfolio and his YouTube channel with speed painting tutorials. It was based on this photograph and was done after a request on the Adora Art Wish List. Gràcies, Ambro! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When you click on the ‘Adora Art’ tag, you will be able to see the complete progress of this project since the first portraits of Adora were made, a total of over 460 original artworks - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The online magazine VisualNews published a nice article about the Adora Art project.
Out of 550 available artworks, they picked 13 of their favorites, and the piece is one of them - Hurray!
Michael Fassbender: Irish-German actor. He is perhaps best known for having played Lieutenant Archie Hicox in the film Inglourious Basterds (2009), Magneto in the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011), and the android David in the science fiction film Prometheus (2012)
- 4H-5B - Kneaded Eraser, Electric Eraser, Mars Rasor, Mechanical Pen Eraser - Blending Stump, Makeup Removal Discs - A4 (21x29'7 cm) (8,25" x 11,7")
L.P. JACKS (1860-1955) was an English Unitarian minister and philosopher. I only used one sentence, but the full version of this quote is beautiful: “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing both. Enough for him that he does it well.” Such great words, and I’m trying my best to apply it to my own life. This is a companion comic to my early Find a job you love piece. I really liked that comic and I wanted to recapture that same sense of joy and fun. So this comic is pretty much exactly the same but with a different vocation. I know it’s a little bit lazy to rehash old ideas but I loved the quote so much I think it warranted another comic. And it’s my website and I can do whatever I want – so there! - I’m a bit of a foodie (although not so much with the sweet stuff). I’ve watched every No Reservations episode, love Top Chef, Iron Chef and MasterChef and will watch pretty much any food show on TV.
- I also just watched the fantastic documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which is very relevant to this comic and quote. It’s not just about sushi-making. It’s about the total pursuit of excellence in one’s chosen field. Highly recommended.
This weaver is very widespread and found in a wide range of habitats, including shrubland, savanna, grassland, open woodland, inland wetlands and semi-desert areas. It also occurs in suburban gardens and parks. Western Palearctic region in Europe and northwest Africa.
The males construct multiple nests pending the approval of his mate. She inspects the home, and if she disapproves, she rips it apart to let it fall in the water below...and he has to start over.
The Red Kite (Milvus milvus) is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers. The species is currently endemic to the Western Palearctic region in Europe and northwest Africa
- 5H-6B, woodless graphite 9B - Kneaded eraser, Pen mechanic eraser, Electric eraser - Blending Stump, Makeup Removal Discs - A4 (21x29'7 cm) (8,25" x 11,7") - Reference by amazing Wojciech Wandzel: [link]
American film and television actress. She first came to attention for her role as Bridget Hennessy on the Emmy Award-winning sitcom 8 Simple Rules (2002–2005). She later starred as Billie Jenkins on the final season of the supernatural drama series Charmed (2005–2006). She has gained international acclaim and recognition for her current role as Penny on the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning comedy series The Big Bang Theory (2007–present), which became the highest rated comedy on US television among adults 18–49 for the 2009–10 season. Cuoco's success within the television industry has launched her film career, appearing in films such as Lucky 13 (2005), The Penthouse (2010), Hop (2011), and The Last Ride (2011).
- 5H-6B, woodless graphite 9B
- Kneaded Eraser, Electric Eraser, Mars Rasor, Mechanical Pen Eraser
Christopher McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp, 1968-1992) was a young American adventurer who was so disillusioned with the materialistic society he had grown up in that he tried to find meaning in life through adventure, solitude and surviving in the wild. He began going on extended trips after high school, surviving on little equipment or money. His dream of finding self-discovery and fulfilment culminated when he travelled to the Alaskan wilderness where he foraged for food, read, wrote in a journal and slept in an abandoned bus. After living in the bus for over three months he died of starvation. His story was documented in the book and subsequent film Into the Wild. McCandless has become a hero to many and the abandoned bus in Alaska is now a tourist attraction and shrine to his many admirers. I definitely admire his ideals and share some of his beliefs about the emptiness of today’s materialistic culture (he says as he types this on a shiny computer and listens to an iPod). And the fact that he had the courage to actually give up on society and live a nomadic life in search for self-discovery is so inspiring and something I would never have the balls to do. But I also agree with those who criticise McCandless for the way he so carelessly threw his life away. He was unprepared, lacked any survival skills, had no knowledge of the area, ignored the advice of locals and didn’t even carry a compass. Think of all the different countries he could have travelled to, the different experiences he might have had and the endlessly changing horizons he has missed. Imagine the new and different suns he could have witnessed if he were alive today. It’s a sad story and a waste of a young man’s life. As for the comic, I was going to do a straight adaptation and end it without that last panel that kind of changes the whole tone of the piece. But then I figured who the hell am I to preach about living an adventurous life when I’ve been holed up in my bunker drawing comics in my pyjamas for the past six months? That would have been a tad hypocritical of me. Anyway, part of this whole Zen Pencils deal was that it would enable me to travel more since I can work from anywhere and that’s still something I’m trying to make happen. - What’s your opinion on Christopher McCandless, idealistic hero or reckless fool?
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was a Scottish minister and teacher, most well-known for his devotional book My Utmost for His Highest. This comic is a continuation from my Calvin Coolidge: Never Give Up comic. That was pretty popular and I had so much fun drawing the dragon and little hero that I wanted to revisit them again. And yeah yeah, I know the final dragon looks more like a T-Rex – this magical realm has dragons AND dinosaurs. I thought this was such a great message. I’m always adapting quotes that are about living a big, exciting and adventurous life and while that is all well and good, the simple fact is that life is also filled with lots of little, boring and mundane things that we deal with everyday. This stuff probably takes more dedication and perseverance to get through than the fun parts. Thank you to Karen for submitting this quote. BUY THE PRINT
FEYNMAN WEEK: Part 2 Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was a legendary American physicist, lecturer and one helluva bongo player. During his Ph.D studies he was selected to work on the Manhattan project to develop the atomic bomb. From there he won the Nobel Prize for Physics and became professor at Caltech where he spent the majority of his career. Later in his life, he served on the committee that investigated the Challenger space shuttle disaster. However, he appeals to many non-scientists for his eccentric personality, zest for life and the beautiful, wonder-inspiring way he shared his love for science to the public. One of the best things about this site is not only do I share my favourite people with you, but I’ve discovered new and exciting things from your quote submissions. I had never heard of Richard Feynman before I started Zen Pencils, but readers bombarded me with his quotes after I expressed my love for Carl Sagan and soon I was on my way. I watched all his YouTube videos and read his autobiography Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! and now I’m totally obsessed with him. His way of thinking and looking at the world was breathtaking, and he communicated science with so much joy and fun – a truly remarkable man. This quote was taken from the brilliant Horizon episode The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. You can watch the short clip here but I highly recommend you watch the whole interview. My favourite Feynman clip is this one where he talks about light waves, or as he puts it ‘the inconceivable nature of nature’. I watch this clip at least once a week and it never fails to put a smile on my face. It’s five minutes of magic. Why couldn’t my science teachers explain things like this?!
The amazing thing about masters is that they somehow already know how to do great things. You'll surely learn something interesting following their steps.
Drapery Study: HB, 2B, 4B White pastel Kneaded eraser A4 color paper References: Leonardo da Vinci & Albrecht Dürer
Another gem from Carl Sagan (read my first Sagan post on why I love him so much). My initial idea was to set the story in the very near future in a classroom. A teacher would tell the class it was reading time and the students would all take out their iPad 6.0 and open up the iBooks3D app. Each student would select a different book in the app and a 3D hologram of the historic person would project from their screens and the money shot would feature the classroom filled with these 3D projections. I rejected the idea because I didn’t want it to be one big ad for Apple and I also wanted to create a tribute to the printed book. I don’t think the 3D projection idea is too far from actually happening, especially after that Tupac hologram we all gushed over at Coachella. Thanks to tablets and e-readers, the printed book is fighting a uphill battle to stay alive. How can they hope to survive when I’ve got dozens of books on my iPad (not to mention hundreds of comics, magazines, music, games, photos and movies) that I can carry around with me anywhere I go? So yes, this is my love-letter to printed books – those chunky, faded, smelly and yellow parcels of knowledge and fun I used to check out from my school library that helped shaped the person I am today (those and cartoons, lots and lots of cartoons). It was really hard picking five books from the history of the written word. What helped me choose was not only how well-known the authors and books were, but also how easily recognisable their costumes and appearance would be to readers. I had to have someone thousands of years old because that’s what Sagan mentioned, which is why I picked Lao Tzu. Also, I had to have Teddy Roosevelt because he’s my guy. - Now it’s your turn – which five books and/or authors would you have chosen?
- Thanks to Janice and Renee for suggesting this quote. Here’s the clip from Cosmos.
- Coincidently, just yesterday Brain Pickings posted Carl Sagan’s reading list from 1954. Check out what this great man fed his brain with. BUY THE PRINT