Elemental Home: Paul Kidby

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Sunday, August 07, 2016

Done Been Framed

So, Thursday I got a call from Michael's that my picture framing had been completed. Friday evening, I was home in time from San Luis Obispo to go pick them up.

Here is the "Discworld Massif " by Paul Kidby. We covered up the original name, but added the plaque.

Here is the "Speechless" reframe. You can see the two bits of matting (the black and gray) from the original framing.

Here is how we hung them on the wall in the stairwell.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

So, for my birthday today, I was given the gift of framing. Specifically, I took two prints in to be framed.

Back when I was in college, Mel Blanc passed away. I have always enjoyed the Warner Brothers' cartoons, and my parents knew it. This was during the heyday of the WB Store, and my parents bought me this print:

It made me cry the first time I saw it. I hung it on my wall everywhere I lived, but the frame ended up delaminating, and so it got shifted to a closet. Today, it gets an additional matting, museum glass, and a new frame. (The lithograph "Speechless" is still available here.)

Christmas 2014, I bought this print:

Little was I to know that just a few months later, Terry Pratchett would pass away. I was thrilled when I got this, and was slightly teary today as we were designing the matting and frame to go with it. (There are still prints for "Discworld Massif" available at Paul Kidby's site here.)

I will post pictures in a couple weeks when we have the final products hanging up

Monday, August 31, 2015

Discworld - Seeing is Believing

The Last Hero is an amazing graphic novel that brings Rincewind, Leonard of Quirm and Captain Carrot together against Cohen and the Silver Horde. It's illustrated but the amazing Paul Kidby. Kidby is to the Discworld what Alex Ross is to comic books.

I remember getting to see Alex Ross on a panel at Wondercon once. He mentioned how he wanted to recreate, in his style, the iconic Muhammad Ali vs. Superman book cover. The other artists on the panel said that was huge undertaking, and Ross said it wasn't that big of a deal, you just draw it. One of the other artists then said, "You're like Superman when someone asks him how he flies, and he says, 'You just jump into the air.'"

Every page has his incredible artwork that perfectly illustrates the characters and the Discworld. And sometimes it is literally the Discworld that he is illustrating. Sometimes it's artwork in the margins, sometimes it's a faint drawing behind the text, and occasionally it's an glorious two-page spread.

The story itself seems brief, but there are bleed-over references to artwork, movies, and other things. It is a seminal Discworld book.

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Recurring themes and Characters appearing in this book:

Albert

Ankh-Morpork

Berghodlt Stuttley “Bloody Stupid” Johnson

Bibulous, god of wine

Blind Io

Borogravia

Boy Willie

Butterflies (quantum)

Caleb the Ripper

Carrot Ironfoundersson, captain

Circumfence

Cohen the Barbarian

Death

Dried frog pills

Errol

Events in Guards Guards

Events in The Colour of Magic / The Light Fantastic

Fate

Fingers Mazda

Havelock Vetinari, patrician

Hughnon Ridcully, priest of Blind Io

Krull

Leonard of Quirm

Lord Downey, Assassins’ Guild

Mad Hamish

Mr. Boggis, Thieves’ Guild

Mr. Slant, Lawyers’ Guild

Mrs. Palm, Seamstresses’ Guild

Mustrum Ridcully, archchancellor UU

Nuggan

Offler, the crocodile-headed god

Old Vincent

Omniscope

Parrot labeled "Dog" (picture)

Patina, goddess of wisdom

Ponder Stibbons

Rimfishers

Rincewind

Sam Vimes, commander, duke, knight

Sybil Ramkin-Vimes

The Agatean Empire

The Bursar

The Chair of Indefinite Studies

The Clacks System

The Counterweight Continent

The Dean

The Death of rats

The High-Energy Magic building

The Lady

The Lecturer in Recent Runes

The Librarian

The Luggage

The Million-to-One Chance

The Pointless Albatross

The Silver Horde

The Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons

Truckle the Uncivil

Unseen University

Monday, July 27, 2015

Discworld - Watching the Past

Night Watch is an immediate parallel sequel to Thief of Time. The sudden storm that stops the glass clock appears at the beginning of the book, and the fracturing of time is what drops Sam Vimes into the past. The other part I really like about the book is the cover created by Paul Kidby.

This is one of the first covers that Kidby did for the Discworld. And he shows that he is as amazing as Alex Ross in his abilities to make a collage of made up people into something that almost looks real. Kidby took the original Rembrandt painting that has come to be called "The Night Watch" and repopulated the painting with the characters from the book.

Here is the Rembrandt's original painting:

Most people know that it only came to be called "The Night Watch" because of the protective varnishes that were regularly added to it aged and darkened hiding the image.

Now here is Kidby's cover artwork: