Hand-Painted Movie Posters by Tony Stella

In the 70s and 80s movie theaters in Manila were usually standalone buildings with nice seats and red curtains. To sell tickets, cinemas needed to advertise their offerings. But they did not have the original posters, or the means to print alternatives. So they made their own, commissioning local artists to hand-paint them.

I really miss those hand-painted posters and billboards, which conveyed an artistry that was a form of visual hyperbole. But hand-made objects always have a way of returning. In this digital age, people will always look for things made by hand.

I recently stumbled across the work of Tony Stella, whose genuinely cool movie posters have caught the eye of film enthusiasts and art lovers worldwide. He likes to work in watercolor and ink wash but sometimes he will make an oil painting, depending on the film.

Tony's very active on social media, and his Tumblr blog contains a massive collection of illustrated movie posters that are often better than the original.

Follow him on Twitter, it's where I discovered him.

Comments

Check out this insane music box powered by 2,000 marbles

The brainchild of Swedish musician Martin Molin, the Wintergartan Marble Machine , is a bizarre music box that allows the user to play tunes using a hand crank and 2,000 steel marbles. The Rube Goldberg'esque contraption features a vibraphone, bass, drums, cymbals and other instruments that play a score programmed into a 32 bar loop comprised of LEGO Technic parts. It's mesmerizing, and you can watch how they built it over here . [h/t: MailOnline ]

A Look at Karl Arnaiz's "Duality"

It 's me, not the artist. Karl Arnaiz's "Duality" (currently on view at Eskinita Art Gallery ) is an invitation to ponder the complexities of life and appreciate the balance that exists even in differences. This 36 x 27-inch piece in charcoal and watercolor isn't just art that looks pretty on a wall. It's art that makes you stop, think, and maybe even re-evaluate how you see the world. Karl Arnaiz paints a meditation on death and its contrasting yet inevitable connection with life. In Duality, he explores the darker corners of the human experience. There is a certain sense of psychological imprisonment that permeates his work, as he paints a woman confined in a room with a disconnected skull floating against the wall. It shows how powerless humans are in the face of mortality and how the imminent passage of time from the woman’s face to the skull is simply nothing but a straight line, a blank, negative space on the wall, showing how nothing can obstruct death...

Feast your eyes on Liz Collini's amazing chalk typography

Liz Collini is an English typography artist known for her stunning hand-lettered chalk texts based on the style of mechanical blueprints. Her work has been widely exhibited in the UK and in other countries, including Portugal, France, Italy, Finland, the US and Japan. Liz says, "There are gaps and overlaps between reading and viewing, text and image, the hand and the machine. I try to create breathing spaces in which we can pause and look back at language." If you're a detail junkie you'll definitely enjoy a visit to her website . I couldn't quit staring at them. [h/t: My Modern Met ]

finding cain

Search This Blog