December 24, 2009

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!

December 18, 2009

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.)

December 15, 2009

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.)

December 11, 2009

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.)

 
Creative Commons License
SketchUp/Screw-up by Timothy P. Butler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.