New Post!

The Lineman by ~TwoStripTechnicolor on deviantART

It's been a while, I know, but that's just the way things are over here... I get caught up in other thingies (including a new job) and the blogs are suddenly neglected. But we're still here! This is one of my office doodles, based on an ad seen on the National Geographic.

Armstrong Girl

Armstrong Girl by ~TwoStripTechnicolor on deviantART

One night I found myself doodling cartoon versions of pinup girls by the old masters, and this arrangement on a Rolf Armstrong girl proved too good to leave as a pencil sketch. The dress wasn't quite the royal pain I expected it to be. Now the eyes on the other hand.....

Leonidas F. Chaney

A work in progress - my humble tribute to the man of a thousand faces. This is but a small part of what's coming!

Introducing Our Sister Blog

After a dozen or so movie posts in there here "art" blog, I decided to devote a whole electro-scrapbook to my motion picture musings. Random commentary upon curios that catch my eye, as well as the odd pseudo-review can be found with just clicking the banner! The movie posts on this blog will be transcribed to the new one for the first days of its existence. So there.

Olsen and Johnson Hath Guts

.... but Martha Raye has it the worst! A scene from the utterly insane Hellzapoppin. Hugh Herbert is apparently unaware that there's people standing in front of his targets... or is he?

The Eyes Have It

A little bit of practice, following a tutorial by REAL-HEOLLAIS  on Deviant Art. Started out as a grayscale picture drawn straight into paint tool SAI (a first for me) and then...

... Coloured in Photoshop. And in the interest of full disclosure... I had to do a bit of research for what sort of makeup goes with green eyes. Little by little I'll paint my way through a realistic face. And what did we learn? Paint on a medium gray base, not white!

Quartet

Quartet by ~TwoStripTechnicolor on deviantART

Quoth the Deviant Art caption-

"...and if you see our dah-ling Neeeeliie! Please send her back to Shamokin, P-AAAAAA!!"

Here's an image that's lingered in my mind for quite a while. A quartet of old-timey singers that appeared briefly in the 1930 musical King Of Jazz (By which I mean, they were old timey in 1930). That's one that should be released on dvd soon... Bing Crosby's film debut... one of the few surviving all-Technicolor films of the era... cartoon segment by Walter Lantz... and swell music by Paul Whiteman's orchestra. Fun stuff.

And of course, this picture was finished in the films early Technicolor look.

We've been busy...

Blank by ~TwoStripTechnicolor on deviantART

Ideas is gettin' pretty scarce 'round these corners ye know.

Now on DeviantArt!

http://twostriptechnicolor.deviantart.com/

After much consideration I decided to give good old D.A. a spin. Not abandoning Flickr of course, it'll still be my photographic repository.

Aside Glance

A study of a vintage advertising girl, showing a proper profile and the lines of the back, something I always had some trouble with. Can't remember where I found the original.

A Swinging Interlude

And now for some music. Care to guess where this snappy swing number came from?

Germany, 1937. That's right, swingtime in nutziland! The group is Die Goldene Sieben -The golden seven- and they were originally formed in 1935 to create a unique, non-threatening, and distinctly German sound. Thankfully, it was not to be, and they eventually became a full big band playing swing music, very much like their American counterparts. So much so, they were banned two years after this recording. While the nazi party had an unofficial ban on anything that sounded British or American -jazz in particular-, it was initially somewhat tolerated simply because it kept the public happy. The ban would be strictly enforced during the war years.

Video uploaded by Leucocito1

Streets In Technicolor #3

San Francisco, 1944.

Adventures In Home Printing

I finally did it. I figured out how to build a small "fixed focus*" enlarger for printing my 35mm negatives, using my taking lens with a copying attachment. That little gadget has so far produced decent 2.5x4" prints using a homemade head, base and negative carrier. The light comes from a group of white LEDs powered by a group of button cells. Still, even with the lens wide open I still have to expose for as much as a minute and a half to get things right. But it works.
This was exposed for 50 seconds at f/3.5 with a number 2 contrast filter.
*shifts all the time.

(This is actually recycled content from the flickr page. The past month has been rather hectic so new stuff has been hard to come up with... but there will be in the near future. There has to.)

We're Going On Business!

I finally took the plunge.
For your consideration, now we have art for sale! Our brand new store features swingin' retro tie designs, pins, a few accessories for the more technologically-inclined and there's more stuff in the works! Just click on my shop logo on the right and take a look, shop around and support an someone's education*!

Ah, Zazzle... if it's good enough for Disney and TCM, it's good enough for me.

 *Yes, back to school it is for me.

Victrola!

Portrait of another one of them dream toys - a portable victrola.

Humbug!

A belated valentine's day special!

USS Akron

Quoth the flickr caption:

View of US Navy airship USS Akron moored at Sunnyvale, California in May 1932.

Along with its sister ship, the USS Macon, it was intended as a flying aircraft carrier. Until the construction of the Hindenburg, they were the largest flying objects ever built. And they're still the largest ever filled with helium. Unfortunately, the Akron was notoriously accident prone, and did not perform up to expectations. Most infamously, on its way to Sunnyvale three sailors were lifted by mooring lines in an unexpected climb, resulting in the death of two.
Ultimately, a fundamental flaw in the design of the fins led to its demise in harsh winds the following year. The same fate befell sister ship Macon in 1935.

Since the more popular color photo process available in 1932 was the Autochrome, I colorized this picture accordingly .

More info about the Akron and Macon over here. Quite possibly the most thorough and amazing website on airships there is.

(B&W original in public domain)

Slow down or.....

15 miles per hour or we'll hang your noodle in a basket. I'd hate to see their anti-rape campaign...

(via Popular Mechanics, June 1928, pg. 953)

The Fiddle Faerie

The second picture in the series mentioned in the previous post. This time concerning a friend and her then-new instrument.

The Glitter Faerie

A little tribute to a friend and her love of all things shiny.
I took a few cues from the work of MGM Illustrator Jacques Kapralik, who specialized in miniature scenes using cartoon cut-outs of the studio's stars. Quite the perfect blend of my favourite hobbies - Illustration, models and photography.
(Scan from a Kodachrome slide)

Speed Graphic

Portrait of my dream camera, an anniversary model 4x5 Speed Graphic.

(Sorry 'bout the small size and double watermarks, had a bit of a theft issue recently)

My Kodachrome Affair

Back in the summer of '09 when Kodak announced Kodachrome was getting nixed, I hurried up to get some before it was gone for good. I got a good 4 rolls and a mind to put them to good use.

But First! Here's a little background so you know what all the fuss is about:
In 1935 Kodak released Kodachrome, the first practical color film for both movie and 35mm formats. Unlike previous offerings, this didn't involve bulky glass plates, screens or filters, and it was considerably faster than competing systems (which isn't saying much- originally Kodachrome was rated at ASA 10). That, along with its now-legendary color palette made it a great hit, despite its initial whopping cost of $2.50 per roll (or about $40 today). Another contributing factor to its initial success was the rise of 35mm photography, but that's another story.
Much of the color photos and amateur films we know from the 1930's all the way to the 60's were Kodachromes. It was at the 1939 New York World's Fair , Pearl Harbor, on top of Mount Everest, John F. Kennedy's last moments, National Geographic used it all the time and it was in just about any post-war living room on Christmas morning. Its magnificent color rendition has been memorialized in song twice (first by Raymond Scott in 1942 and later by some fellow named Simon in the 70's) and there's a state park in Utah named after it. Hah, let's see Fuji's Velvia do that!

Of course the reign of Kodachrome wouldn't last forever. A major weakness was its ultra-complicated processing (called K-14 in its latest version), which only Kodak certified labs could perform. So in 1946 along came Ektachrome, a color film that amateurs could develop at home. Over time, this relatively simple process (now known as E-6) as well as increasing competition from color negative films began to overshadow Kodachrome in terms of sales- despite their okay color and penchant for fading. By the 1980's, the use of slide film in general had taken a dive, and in 1990 Fuji Velvia, with its borderline over-the-top saturated tones, sealed Kodachrome's fate. Still, the film managed to survive for 70 years, making it one of the (if not THE) longest lived photographic film.

And of course, I was lucky to try it for myself!











Just a small sampling of my little adventure. Much of what I shot was done based on another one of Kodachrome's virtues- Its archival stability. Friends and relatives were extensively photographed, as well as a few slices of daily life which are bound to disappear pretty soon. By the time I'm old and grey, these pictures will look as bright as they do now. So there.

Hats off to Dwayne's Photo in Kansas for keeping the film around for its last hurrah.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off...

... Start all over again.
Once again I find myself reviving this long-suffering electro-scrapbook. My long lost job, mounting social duties, holidays and other priorities took me away from the occasional update. But there was doodling... and pictures too!
Gotta work on ways to spread this around too. I installed a view counter back in June and, if it is to be believed, I've only had 109 hits since then. 40 of which were mine. Perhaps we need some sort of gimmick... I always wanted to play disc jockey, should there be one of them newfangled "pod-casts"? Art tutorials? Rambling YouTube embeds of my own? A store? Well, something's gettin' done 'round here, that's for sure. The 20th Century Schmuck rides again!
(Gee-whiz, that name is getting a little stale...)