I’ve recently set the entire text of Miyamoto Musashi’s ‘A Book of Five Rings’ into a graphical poster. The text is divided into five sections, Earth, Water, Wind, Fire and Void, lending itself to a literal graphic structure. The full size of the poster is approx. 3′ wide by 4′ tall. Set with varying weights of Univers at 11 points on an 11 point baseline. The print is perfectly legible when reproduced at a smaller size of 27″ x 36″, which is a bit easier to accommodate on my walls. Printing is done on a 192 gsm matte finish paper @ 1440 dpi. I don’t have a proper shop set up at the moment, but if you happen to be interested in one of these I’ll run them on-demand, signed & numbered by request for $30 shipped. If you’re interested, contact me for further details or send a paypal payment to nreeves@tracewerks.com, subject ‘Five Rings’.

A higher-res version of the poster can be seen here.

East on a Golden Wind by nkurence

After quite a long slumber I’ve started fiddling with noise again. Got a new track up on SoundCloud, East on a Golden Wind, mastered by the savvy & sublime Christopher Leary @ Melograf Mastering. Super pleased with the results and speed, prices are extremely reasonable as well.

In other news I’ve come across what looks like an amazing book, America’s Film Legacy by Daniel Eagan, a guide to the 500-odd films in America’s National Film Registry via. the Library of Congress. From what I understand, it’s the first such attempt of it’s sort and is garnering some high-level acclaim from the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Leonard Maltin. If you’re a film buff, it’s likely worth a look. According to the publisher it’s being slated for a November release, and is currently available for pre-order. More information here.

With the release of zBrush 3.2 for OS X this last week, I had to spend a few hours in it. I’ve always dug Z, and found the community at zbrushcentral to be a huge source of inspiration. There always seems to be something cool to check out as a plethora of vets and vets in the making call it home. I struggle to find time to build out the skillset with my current commitments, but you know what they say – you never have time, you have to make it. The subject matter of my sculpt is probably the most tired of them all, but sometimes that’s what happens when you’re not paying attention. Start with a sphere, crank up some tunes (some Adam Johnson for this) and a couple hours later you have an alien skull with a forehead that reminds me of the Smashing Pumpkins Bullet with Butterfly Wings. At any rate, it was some needed fun, and I enjoyed getting to know z just a little bit better.

Since I’m rambling about it this is probably a good time to throw a nod to some of my favorite artists at zbc (well worth checking out if you like this stuff):
Simon Blanc, Renaud Galand, Cedric Seaut, David Giraud, Greg Callahan, Ralf Stumpf, and T.S.Whittelsbach

Click to enlarge: