Sculpture on Bourke St Melbourne

Bourke St, one of the most famous and busiest streets in Melbourne. It was rebuild in 2006, and there were some sculptures put on the street. There is one of them I think is very interesting and impressive, the big "Shell Wallet" in front of the GPO shopping mall. Probably that means you need to bring a big wallet with you when shopping at Bourke St.

The first time I saw it I thought it was just for people to sit down and have a rest. But not at all, that was jsut a simple sculpture in a kind of dard red stone colour.

The colour of this sculpture matches the whole environment quite well. Most of the buildings are in milk colour or grey colour, and the street is in grey black colour. So that it is significant to distinct the sculpture when you walk on the street. Also the colour contrast and balance are good. Although the colour of the sculpture is dark, it looks soft.

Obviously this sculpture is in shell shape. The buildings around are in old European style, so that there are no sharp square shape. I think they match each other, it is a sucessful sculpture.

Fantasy Art---The best in Fantasy and SF art worldwide

Today I found a quite interesting arts design book, Fantasy Art---The best in Fantasy and SF art worldwide. This book was written by Dick Jude, and was first published in paperback in 2001 London.

As the title of the book, this book is all about the fantasy design. It covered fanstasitc illustration work of differernt arteists, such as Don Maitz, Chris Moore, Dave McKean, etc.

When I first looked at this book, it had an unusual shape. It came with a square shape (Unlike the usual book shape, height is bigger than width). I like the layout design of this book, there is at least one picture in every single page, even the therory and histroy parts. Also the sequence between each chapters is presented very well, it is in historical sequence. In the beginning chapters, all the artists' work are about the past western world, like "old Roma, War", "Gaius Julius Caesar", "Napoleon", etc. In the last chapters, all the artists' work are about modern world, like "bact to future", "iRobot", etc. I guess a lot of fantasy movies graphic design are based on those design in the book. We may also see them in the computer games, such as War Craft. And if you are interested about cartoon design, perhasps this book is a good reference.

There is only one point I don't like about this book, the front page. The picture of the front page is based on sky blue colour, and there are few flying dragons or some kind of monsters in the middle, with fire in their mouthes. I think that is a little bit sick and scare when you first look at it. The dragons or monsters are not very good--looking, and the front page colours are combined by blue, black and a little bit yellow and red. I don't think that is a good colour combination.

At the end, it is a very nice and interesting arts design book. You can know how the fantasy design and concept develop and improve by time. You will also have a little bit idea about the graphic design of the fantasy movies, how do they come from.