Happiness...

‘’Franklin. What are we so scared of?

You only get one shot at this life. There are no do-overs.

Time wasted is time lost.

The past is a ghost, the future  a dream. There’s only right now.

We need to forgive each other , Franklin. Forgive and keep moving forward, because we are all so ridiculously imperfect.

And we need to find a place we call ‘’home’’. A place where we know we’re loved, and we feel  safe.

I see it all so clearly now.

It doesn’t matter if you live in a small apartment or some big mansion on a hill; doesn’t matter if you live in a mental institution or on some sunny beach in Saint Croix.

It’s all in your mind.

Every moment is what you make it.

Pain, love, fear… happiness. You choose to feel each of them.

So choose to be happy, Franklin, choose to be happy. Because happiness is a state of mind.’’

- Jonas Akerlund's ''Small Apartments'' (2012)

Dad Gets a Puppy for Christmas

Feeling a bit down? Watch this, it'll make your day! <3 Good luck trying not to smile! ;)

Help..!

So I'm sliiiightly pissed because I can't seem to change either my blog's background nor the lettertype and -colour. I had these amazing ideas for a new theme, but unfortunately neither of them can be realised this way. Anyone has any tips?

Will be working on it! X

Cutting a Church out of Rocks

Bete Abba Libanos, Lalibela, Ethiopia

Somehow my interest in monolithic (or rock-cut) architecture has been renewed today. Cutting an entire building out of one piece of rock; it's amazing isn't it?! Unfortunately it didn't take long to find out that (many of) the most impressive monolithic buildings are either in countries outside of Europe, or in the most far away countries within Europe. I mean, take the gorgeous and world famous ''Lalibela Churches'' in Ethiopia. There are thirteen of them! (Well, okay, two of them are chapels, but you know what I mean.) Most of them built by Lalibela, in (and around) Lalibela, and built during the 12th and 13th centuries! The most famous of those thirteen churches - and probably the most famous monolithic church on earth! - is of course the cross-shaped Bete Giyorgis (''Church of Saint George''). But how about the less famous ones? The Bete Medhane Alem (''Church of the Saviour of the World''), also a Lalibela church, and probably the biggest monolithic building in the world! Or one of my definate favourites, and also a Lalibela church: the Bete Abba Libanos (''Church of Abbot Libanos''). A beautiful little church that is still connected to the rock it was cut out of, at the top. Or the curious Bete Yemrehanna Kristos (''Church of Yemrehanna Kristos'' - also a Lalibela Church), built in the 11th century in Aksumite style, but within a cave.

Bete Yemrehanna Kristos, Lalibela, Ethiopia

But surely there must be monolithic churches closer to home, I thought. And I was right: there are. In Turkey to be exact! In fact; the Göreme region in Cappadocia, in Turkey, is the home of multiple monolithic churches, showing gorgeous 10th and 11th century Byzantine frescos, whole underground cities, and of course a valley of ''fairy chimney'' rocks.

Byzantine 11th century fresco on the ceiling of the
Karanlik Kilise (''Dark Church''), Göreme, Turkey

And even closer to home, there are the Église Saint-Jean in the southwestern French village Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, and the 11th century Église Saint-Émilion in Saint-Émilion, also in the southwest of France. Though very beautiful, these two churches lack the gorgeous decorations that the Ethiopian and Turkish buildings have. And where the latter look like mysterious oriental palaces, full of details and refinement, that have withstood ages of human contact and (bad) weather, the European buildings - though overall less old than the ''African'' ones - look like they've been subjected to horrible wars and tornados every day for the past 400 years. But I must say I like their ''Romanesque-ish ruin''-looks too! 
           

Fabian Ciraolo meets Frida Kahlo

I love, love, love Fabian Ciraolo's modern interpretations of historical rebels. They all wear great clothes, listen to hipster bands, and have lots of tattoos.
My absolute favourite is the one he did of one of my heroes: Frida Kahlo. Even though he put her in modern clothes, she still has that Frida Kahlo ''air''. She's still wearing her flower ornaments in her hair, has her characteristic eyebrows (or uni-brow actually ;D), is still wearing red nail polish (even though in his pic it's on long fake nails) and is smoking: something she apparently really liked doing..

I am still thinking about getting Frida tattooed on me.. Probably on my right fore-arm, above the other tattoo I have there. Problem is; I haven't found to right picture of her yet. I'd like it to be very colourful.. That's all I know. Do I want a tattoo of one of her self-portraits, or do I want a photo-realistic tattoo of an actual photo of her? I even thought about asking a tattoo artist who's style I like to make his/her own interpretation of Frida and her style.. But I'm afraid I won't like what they come up with since I am so focused on it representing Frida and what she made and stood for.

Opinions or suggestions? I'm happy to hear them! X Puck

Hong Kong Garden

I know, I know; still no pics of ''my'' Marie Antoinette. I started to colour it and am now half way through, but I HATE how it looks! x'D Should I start over, or just continue with this one and see how it turnes out? What do you guys think??
Anyways, instead here's two tattoo-ish drawings I did of a peony flower and a random traditional Chinese girl. Hope you guys like them!

It's called FASHION, look it up..! ;D

 

If it happened at all...

From E.M. Forster's ''A Room With A View'':

Lucy Honeychurch, George Emerson and Mr. Emerson watch the fresco ''The Ascension of St. John'' by Giotto, at the Santa Croce in Florence.

Lucy: ''Now did this happen, or didn't it? Yes or no?''

George: ''It happened like this, if it happened at all. I would rather go up to heaven by myself than be pushed by cherubs; and if I got there I should like my friends to lean out of it, just as they do here.''

Mr. Emerson: ''You will never go up. You and I, dear boy, will lay at peace in the earth that bore us, and our names will disappear as surely as our work survives.''

George: ''Some people can only see the empty grave, not the saint, whoever he is, going up. It did happen like that, if it happened at all.''

''Let Them Eat Cake!'' #4

Tadaaahh! Here's the last post on Marie Antoinette inspired tattoos, and maybe the funniest one. Because this one is about the most awful tattoos I could find! And unfortunately for Marie Antoinette and tattooing, but fortunately for us, there were loads! I'm not just talking about tattoos that are badly done, I am also talking about tattoos that in my opinion portray MA in a really odd or horrid manner, even though they're technically done well. If you don't agree, please let me know. ;D Enjoy!

P.S. I don't know who did these tattoos and I don't own any of these designs.

 

Left: okaaay, so I have seen several Marie Antoinettes as mermaids. Why? What's the link between MA and mermaids? The tattoo isn't that badly done, but it's just very ''what the F did I just see?''.
Right: the MA tattoo next to it however, isn't done that well. I think the tattooist tried to show Marie Antoinettes flirtiness in a kind of burlesque way or something, but instead it turned out kind of trashy. Like an 18th century Peggy Bundy. :') And what's with the white dress? With a subject like MA you can go all out with costumes, hair and accessories! So I say: you just waisted an amazing designing opportunity!

 

Left: this tattoo must be the stiffest tattoo I've seen in my whole life!! I guess it has to be a bit stiff seen as it's supposed to be a (neo)traditional tattoo. Okay, the linework and colouring are good, but jeeeez.. The face looks like they took it straight off a random pin-up tattoo, the wig is grey (why?! What's with the grey wigs?!!), the bow on the wig looks totally out of place like that, right in the middle of the wig, and the boat - although very Marie Antoinette - looks like they pasted it on there last minute. By the way: they didn't wear collars like that back then, but whatever.
Right: the zombie Marie Antoinette; I've seen several of them (doesn't matter if they were meant to be zombies or just turned out that way). This tattoo is VERY well done! I'll give you that one. And I get the idea, it's supposed to show MA as a zombie and/or as the decadent, spoiled etc. creature some people say she was. But Marie Antoinette as a zombie in a strapless dress, holding a Martini, just doesn't work for me.

 

Left: I think you can all see what's wrong with this tattoo: the proportions are totally off. Her head is huge compared to her shoulders, her arms are really short and slim, her feet are too small and her legs are as long as her torso. Which is a shame really, because this is one of the only tattooists that has used all the fun, extravagant assets of the fashion whims from back then. I like the wig and it's accessories!
Right: if you look really, really, really closely you should be able to see the beautiful actrice Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette (in the movie with the same name), as she is shown on the movie poster and DVD cover. A picture I love by the way, and so does the lady in the pic. Unfortunately she chose the wrong tattooist to put it on her back. This is seriously ghastly! Don't let Kirsten see this!!

(P.S. The banner underneath the right tattoo says: ''L'Amour pour moi qui je suis, pas qui vous voulez être à moi'', which literally translates to: ''The love for who I am, not who you want to be for me'', but I guess it's supposed to say: ''Aimez-moi pour qui je suis, pas pour qui vous me voulez être'' / ''Love me for who I am, not for who you want me to be''. Should've studied her French a bit more before she got it I guess! ;'D)


And now, not to leave you guys behind with a horrible headache from all these tattoos and all my babbling, here is a gorgeous Marie Antoinette-esk drawing with an insane wig and hat I found somewhere on the internet. Unfortunately I totally forgot where I got it.

















Gorgeous isn't she? ;)
'Till next time! X Puck

''Let Them Eat Cake!'' #3

I promised you guys that I'd upload a couple of good tattoo designs (or drawings that could be tattoo

designs) based on Marie Antoinette. So, here we go!
By the way: I do not own any of the work shown below! I did my best to retrace all the artists, but I couldn't find all of them. Sorry! If anyone has tips, please let me know. ;)

So I started with my two favourite ones. The first one is made by the amazing Angelique Houtkamp (''Salon Serpent Tattoo'', Amsterdam, Holland). She is probably the artist I look up to the most because of her amazing style; delicate and soft (she uses watercolours most of the time), portraying mostly women in Twenties style with beautiful elaborate headpieces! She is a tattooist, but focuses more on her paintings right now. And even if you aren't into tattooing but are into art you should totally check her out!

The gorgeous painting on the right is made by another of my favourite tattooists: Claudia de Sabe (''Jolie Rouge Tattoo'', London, UK). There aren't a lot of paintings by her to be found on the internet, but A LOT of tattoos, that are really worth seeing (as you all saw in my previous post). And again: it's a female tattooist, portraying mainly beautiful women in soft colours.

 *   *   * 





Then here we have three beautiful designs done by:

- Above left: ???
- Above right: Cristina Garcia (I think she's an independent artist, because she does a lot of guest sessions but I can't link her to any tattoo studio in particular!)
- To the left: ???

There are several tattoo designs of a beheaded Marie Antoinette, because of course she was beheaded in 1793. And if she's not holding her own head, she's holding and/or wearing birds, boats and most of all: cupcakes (probably because of the ''Let them eat cake!''-incident, but it still isn't proven that she's ever said that though!).
Honestly I think the design with the bats is kindaa.. random. I mean, what the F is with the combination of bats and cobwebs with cupcakes, macaroons and a lost strawberry that just wants to go home?! And what's with all the bunnies in her hair at several pics??
Anyways, in this pic, is she supposed to look dead, like a zombie? Or maybe ''destroyed'' by her decadent lifestyle? I don't know.

*   *   * 

 

On the left: Cathy FitzGerald, ''Wild at Heart Tattoo'', Brisbane, Australia

On the right: Deborah Ballinger, Brighton and Hove, UK. She's an independent illustrator.

Two great examples of people being inspired by Marie Antoinette's boat-headpieces, but instead of using it in the ''usual'' way (on top of an enormous amount of hair, as you can see in Angelique Houtkamp's picture above) they used it to create a different look. Really love the idea of a pirate ship used as some kind of pirate hat!

On the left: ???

On the right: Pamela Majocha, Toronto, Canada. She's an independent illustrator and graphic designer. If you like soothing pictures of pretty girls mainly produced in pastel colours, you should check her out!

These are two totally different Marie Antoinettes! The left one is cartoonish and dressed almost like a 18th century S&M mistress, while the other consists of child-like innocence and almost every pastel colour there is. Cute!

Well, that was all for today! Don't forget: my next post will be on really bad Marie Antoinette tattoos and tattoo flash... In my opinion at least. Anyways, you don't want to miss it! It's hilarious! ;D

Thank you for reading and showing interest in this! X Puck

''Let Them Eat Cake!'' #2

So my previous post was about a drawing I was doing of Marie Antoinette in a sort of (neo)traditional tattoo style. On my quest for inspiration, of course I encountered several Marie Antoinette inspired tattoos. There are some awful Marie Antoinette tattoos out there, but there's also a lot of good ones which are tattooëd in styles that I'd really like to master once I'm a tattoo artist (if I ever become one ;D). So again; no pictures of my drawing this time, but a bunch of my favourite Marie Antoinette (or Marie Antoinette inspired) tattoos!

By the way: my next posts will be on really good Marie Antoinette tattoo designs that are not (as far as I know) reproduced on skin, AND the one after that will be on not-so-very-good Marie Antoinette tattoo art and tattoos, so stay tuned!
P.S. I do not own any of the designs below! Of some of them I don't know the artist, but of most of them I do.. I hope. :') I did my best trying to retrace some of them, but unfortunately that didn't really work.

  

These three gorgeous portraits were tattooëd by (from left to right): Taiom from ''Art Family Tattoo'', Brasilia and ''Zero Sen Tattoo Studio'', Sao Paulo ; Claudia de Sabe from ''Jolie Rouge Tattoo'', London, UK ; Steve Byrne from ''Rock of Ages Tattooing'', Texas, USA
They're all in different Neo-Traditional styles. I love the choice of colour in all tattoos. They're all very Marie Antoinette in my opinion, because when I think of Marie Antoinette I think of baby pink & blue, mint green and lavender.

*   *   *

 

So these are the only two (good) photo-realistic (or in this case: painting-realistic) tattoos I could find of her. Although the left one clearly is the better one technically, the other one looks more like Marie Antoinette. I think it's because the left one's eyes turned out to be kinda Asian and I have never seen a painting of her with Asian eyes. ;D Unfortunately I couldn't find the artist of either one..!

 

*   *   *

 

  

On the left: ??? ; on the right: [probably] Claudia de Sabe from ''Jolie Rouge Tattoo'', London, UK

 

On the left: ??? ; on the right: Colin McClain from ''Time and Tide Tattoo'', Derby, UK

So the two top ones both aren't Marie Antoinette, I'm aware of that. ;) However, they're very good for inspiration. Look at the hair on the left one! And even more inspirational: the jewellery, and the pearls and flowers in the right one's hair!
The other ones however are Marie Antoinette. I like the one on the right better though. I just hope the words ''Teenage Dream'' on the left one are meant ironically, because Marie Antoinette's life was shit. Having to marry a chubby, not-so-hot prince at the age of 14. Having people wake uou up every morning to check if you did it yet and if you're pregnant (which she eventually was, SEVEN years after the marriage started, because the prince didn't want and didn't know how to have sex with her. And in those 7 years she was obviously ridiculed, even tortured from all sides because she couldn't ''produce an heir''). Now that ain't my idea of a ''teenage dream''!
By the way.. Why is her hair really, really grey in the pic? I know older people sometimes wore grey wigs back then, but young people didn't..!

Well anyways, more about this subject next time!
X Puck

''Let Them Eat Cake!'' #1

Today I started a Marie Antoinette portrait in some kind of neo-traditional (and maybe a biiiit Helen Brown inspired) tattoo style. I'm making it as a thank you for someone.
When it comes to historical subjects I always want my drawings to be somewhat historically accurate. History and historical costumes from various countries / groups of people are amongst the few subjects I know a lot about so for the sketches I didn't need any pictures. The wigs they wore back then, however, are quite hard to draw so that's when I started looking for some pics. I also wanted a couple of pictures of Marie Antoinette herself so that I can match the face of my Marie Antoinette a bit with what she looks like in the paintings.
Photos of my drawing will be coming soon! Here's two nice pics of Marie Antoinette for you guys to get in the mood. ;) I don't know who did the portrait drawing. The painting of the young Marie Antoinette is by L.L. Périn-Salbreux.

Van Eyck Goes Fashion

The Australian clothing brand Black Milk { http://blackmilkclothing.com/ } came with the amazing idea to not only put galaxy prints on leggings and bodysuits (which are pretty much inescapable right now) but also use a variety of famous artworks as designs. This resulted in a gorgeous bodysuit/swimsuit showing Van Eyck's ''Last Judgement'' (top picture), bodysuits showing John Tenniel's ''Alice in Wonderland'' illustrations, leggings and skirts printed with stained-glass windows from St. Paul's Cathedral, leggings with designs inspired by Alphonse Mucha's art (second picture), a bodysuit showing the well-known ''Le Chat Noir'' poster art by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and several pieces of clothing showing Degas's beautiful ballerina paintings.
Unfortunately all clothes are on the pricey side, so it's gonna take a while for a broke person like me - and many of my age - to be able to buy any of it. ;)

Helen Brown copy III

Here's another sketch I did after a tattoo by Helen Brown (drawing on the right). I changed the scarf. The original had a different, more elaborate scarf because it was part of a bigger tattoo (or so it seemed to be). The drawing on the left is just an exercise in ''cliché-traditional-swallows-with-banners''.

A. Beardsley Inspired

Here's two line-drawings I did, inspired by chapter headings drawn by Aubrey Beardsley for the 1892 publication of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' (see second picture). Of course they can't be compared, seen as my drawings aren't as amazing as Aubrey's. ;) However, I think they turned out okay.

Dry Humor History

Victorian Garden Romances

I've always had a weak spot for the romantic painters of the 19th (and early 20th) century. I guess it's partly because my mother has a small collection of books about Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites, Mucha etc. I especially like the garden scenes, mostly showing young women reading a letter or embroidering amongst the roses. Or young couples sitting across of each other, looking sad. Why do people look sad, or at the very least really melancholic, on a lot Victorian paintings? It has something to do with the ''romantic spirit'' I guess. Anyways, here's two beautiful garden scenes for you to enjoy!

Edmund Blair Leighton: ''The Ticket'' (year: ?)
















Marcus Stone: ''In Love'' (1888)

Art Deco and Henry VIII

Gorgeous Art Deco / Roaring Twenties inspired tattoo. Again; couldn't find the tattooist's name unfortunately. Anyway, I love how the tattooist used a minimal variety of colours (mainly black, white, grey and gold/yellow). The colours fit the design so well!
The second picture is an amazing 16th century / Henry VIII inspired painting made by London-based Italian tattoo artist Claudia de Sabe. How I wish I could get tattooed by her some day..!

Crossing Borders

Here's another of my (many) favourite pics. It shows androgynous model Andrej Pejic and model Rick Genest (a.k.a. Zombie Boy) photographed by Colin Singer.
What I like about the pic is probably the slight sense of absurdism, which is overshadowed by some kind of serenity and some kind of... I don't know what it's called in English, but it feels like even though it's a bit absurd everything in the picture seems right, you know. It just works.