Game of Thrones Fan Art

[Above: Khal Drogo and Daenerys by Ilias Kyriazis. Full gallery]

There’s nothing like kickass, graphic renditions of fantasy characters to get your blood pumping. How good are these?

Though it needs to be said that this collection of images borrows heavily (nearly entirely) from the TV adaptation. Thank goodness for that visual shorthand.

Michael Konig ‘refurbished, smoothed, retimed, denoised, deflickered, [and] cut’ this time-lapse video using photos taken from the International Space Station (August to October, 2011). It’s an awesome sequence, even with the editing - Konig avoided colour adjustments to retain the surreal elements of the original footage.

THIS OUR PLANET.

Full description and timeline of locations.

Background: a couple Twitter friends started up a website called Dear Sir David, which compiles letters* from Attenborough fans (various science-y and not backgrounds). It is a compendium of tributes to a man who has become synonymous with quality documentaries on the natural world.

Maria Popova (@brainpicker) picked it up and in tweeting about it, linked also to this video of David Attenborough performing What A Wonderful World as a spoken word piece, against some of the most stunning images of wildlife and the environment.

It’s gorgeously uplifting.

*Of course, I couldn’t help but contribute.

These posters of Alfred Hitchcock films by Laz Marquez are described as retro, or retro-modern. I’m not really sure - but only because it’s such a different aesthetic to Eric Tan’s (which has an Art Deco sensibility to it).

I suppose it’s the limited, repetitive palette - black, red, and white - that really evokes the ‘old’ style. Otherwise, the graphic concepts seem quite contemporary. The layering of the female silhouette with birds emerging from the hair, for instance, feels post Photoshop, not ‘retro’.

This Coca-Cola ad featured prominently on Philippine TV screens in 1986/1987. It was part of a series filmed for a range of countries (Peru, Korea, the US etc). There were two Philippine versions: one with local singer Lilet singing the English version, and the other with her singing in Filipino (Tagalog) with variations on the lyrics. [Unfortunately, couldn’t find a good quality video to link].

I loved it as a kid, and even now. It is an effervescent expression of hope, visualised for us in the pre-global village era by hundreds of kids in different colours, shapes, and sizes singing sweetly. And there was our Lilet, the placeholder for our tiny archipelago.

Now, of course, it’s so cringe-inducing. Kids singing about harmony while holding Coke bottles. Because of course, peace is all about being able to drink softdrink and have cavities together. (Let’s not mention other kinds of damage wrought by production and waste).

And what’s with the setting? Why are ‘tomorrow’s people’ in Liverpool? Is it saying that the ‘future of the world’ will end up in cavernous, institutional halls? That inspiration resides in politics? Uhm, no.

Then there’s the Chinese-looking kid pushing his way through the crowd to get up front. Is it supposed to suggest eagerness, a desire to be counted? Or is it insinuating that Asian people are pushy, damn it. Either way, PROPHETIC INNIT?

In any case, it’s a nice little time vial of so much 1980s hope. The US had retreated from the Cold War after the humiliation of Vietnam. People were no longer frightened by imminent nuclear annihilation. Revolution was in the air.

That was a corny time. But on some level, I wish my own kid could have some of that corny in the world, too.

These stamps made for the Royal Mail is like the stars aligning: the theme - myths of the British Isles, the artist - Dave McKean (I know his work through Sandman, and have loved him since), the scribe - Neil Gaiman wrote accompanying mini stories for each character. Stamps. I haz dem.

Thought of You by Ryan J Woodward is so powerfully evocative that I know of people who shed tears when they watched it. It’s a singular talent who can do that in three minutes. In this video, he uses a similar technique to the Martha Graham tribute that he made for the Google banner. The style is quite elegant in its spareness, and it’s easy to see how wonderfully it fits the choreography.

It should be noted that Woodward has considerable success as an animator/ character designer/ storyboard artist, having worked on mainstream films such as Where the Wild Things Are and a couple of the Spider-Man installments. But it’s lovely to see his creativity at this level, too, which is patently more personal and affecting.

James Hance creates the sort of art that I enjoy: quirky, whimsical, thought-provoking, deftly-executed. I found him via a circuitous route, which took me from a tweet to Reddit to the RedBubble shop which sells his T-shirts (such as the Boo & Chew one pictured), then - curiousity kicking in - to his website. There I found other things to love, such as Star Wars/Sesame Street mashups and a print reimagining of Han Solo and Chewbacca as Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.

I loved the use of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know as the track for the trailer. It captures in the way that Kenny Loggins’ House of Pooh Corner did the whimsy and bitter-sweetness of the relationship between a boy and his bear.

Eric Tan gets a bit of a profile on SlashFilm sometimes. He has a sweet day-job, being one of the go-to guys for Pixar film posters.

But it’s easy to see why he gets the gig, though I hope he isn’t yet sick of the word “retro” being attached to his name. I think what we mean when we use it to describe his art is that it echoes the clean lines, limited palette and dramatic composition that is often associated with the “futuristic” design style favoured in old Disneyland posters.

Thus, when Tan applies similar techniques to contemporary films/TV shows such as Lost (above), Indiana Jones, X-Men and the Pixar range, it immediately adds a touch of whimsy. Most of all, the aesthetic works now as it worked then because it is inherently appealing - ageless.