ABC: Big Ugly

The 15th of the month is the day for a group sketch game called "Art by Committee." The way it works is I share an excerpt from a science fiction story and you come up with a picture to go with it.

This month the quote was about running into a big ugly something-or-other:


I love the range of solutions people came up with. There are some pretty strange things out there to run into! Check out more about the artists at their linked blogs and websites.


Austin Madison, blog

Andrew Wales
Link to art:
Link to blog

Patrick Waugh, blog



Andrew Walker

Mei-Yi Chun, website

Dave Lebow

Here's the solution from the coffee shop gang that I was hanging with a while ago.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Now here’s the quote for next month: "He stood and held his arms out before him, pulling the chains taut. The muscles in his shoulders and his chest bunched, standing out in sharp relief, and a moment later, the chains snapped cleanly."



Have fun! Please scale your JPG to 400 pixels across and compress it as much as possible. Title it with your name, send it to: jgurneyart(at)yahoo.com, subject line ABC. Please let me know in your email the full URL of the link to a larger image or your blog or website so people can see your image in all its glory and learn more about your other work. Please have your entries in by the 12th of September. I'll post the results September 15.

ABC: Dots

The 15th of the month is the day for a group sketch game called "Art by Committee." The way it works is I share an excerpt from a science fiction story and you come up with a picture to go with it.

This month the quote was: “But when the dots did not vanish even after he scrubbed his fists across his eyes three times, he shouted hoarsely…”

You came up with some funny and creative solutions. Dots, it turns out, can be all sorts of things and can create all sorts of problems. You can click on the creators’ web links to see bigger versions of their pictures and to find out about their other work.

Andrew Walker

Mark Oftedal
Image

Mario Zara
Blog

Mark Wummer

Marisa Bryan Flickr Image

Andy Wales
Blog

Mei-Yi Chun
Image

Michael Geissler
Blog
Michael says: “A big shout-out to the freeware fractal program Apophysis, with which I was able to generate the freaky sky (& heaps of other great images)”

Here's my solution.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Now here’s the quote for next month:
Have fun! Please scale your JPG to 400 pixels across and compress it as much as possible. Title it with your name, send it to: jgurneyart(at)yahoo.com, subject line ABC. Please let me know in your email the full URL of the link to a larger image or your blog or website so people can see your image in all its glory and learn more about your other work. Please have your entries in by the 12th of August. I'll post the results August 15.
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Previous Art-By-Committees

ABC: Harvard Depository

The 15th of the month is the day for a group sketch game called "Art by Committee." The way it works is I share a prompt and you come up with a picture to go with it. This time we started with a business card:

I must admit that I thought the assignment was unpromising, but I was blown away. You came up with some amazing characterizations for Trudy and imaginative ideas for her environment. You can practically smell the dust on the bookshelves.

Dave Lebow
Image
Website


Mei-Yi Chun
Image
Link:

Ginger Nielson
Image:
Website
Blog:

Mario Zara
Blog

Andy Wales
Blog
Image:

Michael Manomivibul
Website

Michael Geissler
Read or Die, link.
Image:

Marisa Bryan
Image


Dave Harshberger
Blog

Rob Hummer
Image

Jared Updike
Image

Here's my solution. To show you how clueless I am, I thought Trudy was a guy’s name until Jeanette pointed out it’s short for Gertrude. And all I could think of for “depository” was a piggy bank.

Now get ready for next month. The quote for July is: “But when the dots did not vanish even after he scrubbed his fists across his eyes three times, he shouted hoarsely…”


Have fun! Please scale your JPG to 400 pixels across and compress it as much as possible. Title it with your name, send it to: jgurneyart(at)yahoo.com, subject line ABC. Please let me know in your email the full URL of the link to a larger image or your blog or website so people can see your image in all its glory and learn more about your other work. Please have your entries in by the 12th of July. I'll post the results July 15.
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Previous Art-By-Committees

ABC: Harper

The 15th of the month is the day for a group sketch game called "Art by Committee." I share an excerpt from a science fiction story and you visualize it.

This month's quote was: “The harper began to sing. His deep voice was fine and sweet, eloquently expressing his intent. He sang of the bitterness of defeat and the gut-wrenching carnage of war. He sang of boys…”

Your solutions took the quote in a lot of interesting directions, from lyrical to surreal to surprising to straightforward.

Damian Johnston
Website

Wendy de Wolfe
Blog:

Rachael Haupt
Website
Andy Wales
Blog:

Mei-Yi Chun
Website:

Mark Heng
Blog:

Mario Zara
Blog:

Jeremy Hughes
Blog

Marisa Bryan
Flickr:

Patrick Waugh
Blog

And the one in the original sketchbook, which I hasten to explain was drawn by a whole group of science fiction artists at a fantasy convention. They were making a little fun of the tradition of filking, a brand of folksinging that could be found at cons.

For June let’s try the business card game. I picked up this card more than twenty years ago. It was publicly displayed in a restaurant along with thousands of others, but I blurred out the last name anyway. I don’t know anything about the person except what’s on the card. Your assignment is to illustrate the owner of the card and his or her profession based just on the card itself.

Have fun! Please scale your JPG to 400 pixels across and compress it as much as possible. Title it with your name, send it to: jgurneyart(at)yahoo.com, subject line ABC. Please let me know in your email the full URL of the link to a larger image or your blog or website so people can see your image in all its glory and learn more about your other work. Please have your entries in by the 13th of June. I'll post the results June 15.

Art By Committee: Tookah

The 15th of the month is the day for a group sketch game called "Art by Committee." I share an excerpt from a science fiction story and you visualize it.

This month's quote was:

“Behind the bar, polishing four glasses at the same time with his blue tentacles, was the Tookah. Two of his three eyes didn’t bother to look up, but it was the third one, the upper eye, the sleepy one that appears bored by everything but never misses anything. That one sleepily looked over at me and then blinked and opened wide.”

This time I didn’t use a quote from a science fiction novel. Instead, the excerpt is from a radio play called “The Tookah's Tales” by Tom Lopez of ZBS Foundation.

Your solutions were, as always, a delightful surprise. We all had the challenge of figuring out how to clean out four bar glasses with four tentacles.

Mark Heng
Blog

Mei-Yi Chun
Website


Daniel Zhang
Image

Andy Wales
Blog


Rob Hummer
Photobucket

Marisa Bryan
Flickr

Roberta Baird
Image
Blog

Michael Geissler

Image
Blog

Jeremy HughesLink to Blog.

Arthur Keegan
Flickr

And the one that Jeanette and I did.

The next quote for May is: “The harper began to sing. His deep voice was fine and sweet, eloquently expressing his intent. He sang of the bitterness of defeat and the gut-wrenching carnage of war. He sang of boys…”


Have fun! Please scale your JPG to 300 pixels across and compress it as much as possible. Title it with your name, send it to: jgurneyart(at)yahoo.com, subject line ABC. Please let me know in your email the full URL of the link to a larger image or your blog or website so people can see your image in all its glory and learn more about your other work. Please have your entries in by the 12th of May. I'll post the results May 15.
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If you like bizarre science fiction audio adventures, check out "The Tookah's Tales" by ZBS link.

Tom Lopez adapted Dinotopia to the world of audio: link.