Christmas e-card

Well here it is, Christmas morning at a groovy retro pad (click on image to view full size.) The only two things I pulled out of the Google warehouse were the fireplace grill (out of laziness), and the famous Isamu Noguchi coffee table. Noguchi was an icon, not just of mid-century modern furniture design, but sculpture and landscape architecture as well.

The painting above the mantle was a big pain. The rectangular, light wood frame was easy enough to make, but images that I tried to fit in it ended up stretched and distorted. The solution was to find a large hi-rez scan and center the frame over a portion of it that I thought made a good composition. If it sorta looks like scuba divers, that's because it's a concept painting by the legendary Frank McCarthy, for the climactic underwater spear gun battle from the James Bond movie "Thunderball." I found it at a blog called 007 illustrated and figured it was sufficiently hip for this room. As a final touch, I added a little steam from the coffee mug (or is it hot chocolate?) And that's all folks, Merry Christmas!

Christmas card take 3

Couldn't find a chair I liked in the Google warehouse so I made my own. Just as well, I would've felt weird using some other guy's model. Not that this chair is any masterpiece, but I think it's got nice curves and it fits the scene better. I imagine it being made out white acrylic or some high impact plastic with the light brown of the seat representing leather upholstering. The recessed area on the side could have a choice of inlays (I opted of the dark wood.) Outside the window, you can catch a glimpse of the winter scene I picked from a free photo sharing site. (Click on image to view full size.)

Christmas card take 2

Alright, now we're getting serious. I've knocked out the living room and corner window and the fireplace turned out pretty much how I pictured it. In the left corner is a sorta Vladimir Kagan-ish looking lounge chair that I grabbed out of the Google warehouse. It's a nice model but the curves aren't quite as sweeping and organic as they should be. It might have to do, because I still have to load up the tree with more ornaments, cram some presents under it, hang some kind of art above the mantel, swag some garland around, place a side/coffee table and area rug and find some way to get a winter scene outside the window (Whew!) Well, back at it. (click on image to view full size.)

Christmas card take 1

Man! Where have I been? Trying to work the kinks out of an idea for a Christmas e-card, that's where. As usual, this is just the bare bones of a concept for a cozy little living room scene. When I was a kid, my Grandmother had an awesome aluminium tree, complete with color wheel. So this scene will be all the way retro, with a (hopefully) cool flagstone fireplace and corner window, Danish modern chairs, etc. Forget those turquoise and salmon walls, that's just to set the tree off for now. What gave me such a fit was trying to replicate (in 3-D) that distinct fuzziness and alien geometry of those old fake trees. It's not quite there yet so keep checking back (click on image to view full size.)