Tag: art

#34 Kettles & Mittens

Chaz DeSimone 5 Comments

Amper­Art #34 is the sec­ond line of lyrics that contains “and” in the song My Favorite Things from the 1960 musi­cal and the 1965 film, The Sound of Music:
 

Rain­drops on ros­es & whiskers on kittens
Bright cop­per ket­tles & warm woolen mittens
Brown paper pack­ages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream col­ored ponies & crisp apple streudels
Door­bells & sleigh bells & schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dress­es with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Sil­ver white win­ters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feel­ing sad
I sim­ply remem­ber my favorite things
& then I don’t feel so bad

 

This is a col­lec­tion of four edi­tions, each fea­tur­ing a line from the song that includes the word “and” which of course we replace with our favorite charac­ter, the ampersand.

Each edi­tion in this series will be released a week apart. You must sub­scribe to receive high-​resolution pdf files so you can cre­ate beau­ti­ful prints (11×17 or 8.5×11 inch­es). Sub­scrip­tions are free & you will receive your print down­loads by email. You’ll find sug­ges­tions on print­ing and fram­ing here.

Con­cept & design notes:

In research­ing the style to use for this art­work I found one of the orig­i­nal movie posters, sam­pled the col­ors from which I chose a lim­it­ed palette (I did not use blue as that would be your per­fect mat in a nice frame), select­ed the appro­pri­ate type­styles & hand-​drew the amper­sand, styl­iz­ing it to resem­ble the main title in the poster.

Pink & yel­low kettles?

Have you ever seen a shiny new pen­ny in the sun­shine? It alter­nates between a gold­en yel­low and a bril­liant pink. Togeth­er, or when not direct­ly reflect­ing the sun­shine, it’s a bright cop­per. That’s why this edi­tion sug­gests cop­per through pink and yellow. 
 
If that does­n’t make sense, let’s just say the left­over mit­tens right after Black Fri­day were yel­low with pink pol­ka dots.

The amper­sand not only con­nects rain­drops and kit­tens and ket­tles and ponies and door­knobs, it also links the last two lines of the song, which appear on all four lay­outs at very top and very bottom.

To fur­ther research this piece, I real­ly enjoyed watch­ing the movie! If you ever need a joy­ful lift & a lit­tle humor, this is the movie to see. It’s won­der­ful & timeless.

If you love the amper­sand sub­scribe to Amper­Art here to receive future Amper­Art edi­tions. They’re always fun & fab­u­lous & free. Sub­scribers also receive spe­cial bonus­es.

#24 Life Liberty & Happiness

Chaz DeSimone Leave a comment

#24 Life Liberty & Happiness
Click to view full-​size or download hi-​rez image for gallery-​quality printing & framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

This edition features the actual penmanship of the Declaration of Independence.

You may won­der, why does it say “… pur­suit of Hap­pinefs.” That “f” is actu­al­ly an “s” as it was writ­ten in the “old­en days.” Com­pare it to to the “f” in “Life” which is the same as today’s hand­writ­ten “f” and you’ll see it’s quite dif­fer­ent. When you trace the  first “s” in “Hap­pi­ness” you’ll real­ize it tru­ly is an “s” just like a typ­i­cal print­ed “s,” just elon­gat­ed. Words back then end­ed with an “s” sim­i­lar to what we write today. The Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence is a beau­ti­ful exam­ple of fine penmanship…and a few inter­est­ing sig­na­tures, such as that of Pres­i­dent Hancock.

The story of the Declaration of Independence is interesting.

You can read it here.

I have been enjoy­ing life late­ly with all the qual­i­ty graph­ic design assign­ments clients have been giv­ing me. With all that work I took the lib­er­ty of post­pon­ing the June Amper­Art edi­tion till the end of the month.

I regard my pur­suit of hap­pi­ness as ren­der­ing Amper­Art for you…& going to Dis­ney­land to watch the fire­works on the 4th.

Production notes for #24 Life Liberty & Happiness:
Original size: 20 x 30 inches
Program: Photoshop
Background: Declaration of Independence
Script: Actual script from Declaration of Independence (extracted & sharpened)
Ampersand: Baskerville
You may repost the image. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster, click on the image.
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#22 Mother & Child

Chaz DeSimone Leave a comment

Happy Mothers Day

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Amper­Art #22 Moth­er & Child

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I can still feel my soft yel­low baby blan­ket with the satin embroi­dery and pas­tel col­ors, cradling me so lov­ing­ly in my moth­er’s arms.

This Amper­Art piece, “Moth­er & Child,” hon­ors that very spe­cial woman who brought each and every one of us into this world.

If you are a moth­er your­self, I wish you a Very Hap­py Moth­er’s Day.

My amazing mother

I am proud to tell you how blessed I am to have been born into the arms of such a won­der­ful moth­er as Leona L. DeS­i­mone, 1916 – 2001.

Though I felt her love as an infant, as a child I favored my dad who spoiled me (being the first­born) while Mom tried to instill some dis­ci­pline. Dad­dy would buy me toys and bring home good­ies for me all the time, and I resent­ed my mom for being the strict one.

Not until after our dad died when I was 10, did I real­ize what a tremen­dous job our moth­er had try­ing to keep us all in line. I gained the deep­est respect and love for my mom, espe­cial­ly since we were rather poor and she some­how kept us fed, clothed, and the house in order. I remem­ber her cry­ing when she was short of mon­ey, count­ing pen­nies to pay the bills, and walk­ing miles to work when the bus­es went on strike. She did an amaz­ing job rais­ing four kids all by her­self, includ­ing an espe­cial­ly spoiled brat who drew all over the walls with Crayolas (guess who).

Always smiling

Mom always had a smile for every­one, and she proved to be more pop­u­lar and loved than any of her chil­dren knew, when over 200 peo­ple showed up for her funer­al. We were blown away! We had the organ­ist play the lul­la­by she used to sing to us, “All Through the Night,” which you can lis­ten to here.

I admire, respect, and love you, Mom.