Italy

We always encourage fan submissions here at A Royal Pain, but not often do we get pictures. This afternoon, Michael Starghill dropped me a note with a few photos from last evenings Long Live the Kings rally that we figured would be cool to share with the ARP readers. If any other’s have some cool pictures to pass along, please feel free. For now, check out some of Michael’s work from last night and make sure to visit his blog for more pictures of the rally: Property Michael Starghill Property Michael Starghill Property Michael Starghill

Today we got up late we were so tired. Oh look it39s raining. We had a nice leisurely breakfast then packed up for the start of our journey back to Amsterdam. We did do some more sightseeing first we strolled through the Jardin du Luxembourg and it was very beautiful we sat and enjoyed this peaceful oasis in the middle of Paris. After that we did some window shopping and the great thing abo

Here's a fun photo of some of our Montreal members, taken on a visit to a new museum in Montreal: the Museum of Costume and Textile. It is located on the lower floor of the Marché Bonsecours, in the historic neighbourhood where Linda F. lived during her years in Canada. The current exhibit features some forty "gala" dresses, some 150 years old, and many of them made by big-name designers: Dior, Schiaparelli, Patou and others. The work of local designers was also included.Pam wasn't able to join us, but we were able to invite a Montreal member of SAQA, Rebekah Crown, whom Heather met when they attended the SAQA conference in Santa Fe. No doubt we will be seeing more of Rebekah in the months ahead.We included a visit to la Guilde Graphique, a collective of Montreal printmakers, and walked along the cobbled streets to a new spot, the Avenue Gallery, to see a photography show by Dylan Macdermott. Dylan is the stepson of Eve Ensler, who has established the City of Joy as a refuge and clinic for women victimized by war in Africa. Dylan's photos focused on Masai tribespeople and others who have been sheltered at the City of Joy. The gallery itself was a treat, with its thick stone walls and a simple café in the back. The get-together ended with a "trunk show" that was literally staged in the trunk of Heather's parked car. Another wonderful day of inspiration and friendship.

Matt Alt, author of "Yokai Attack," gives a Pecha Kucha talk on how to survive some of the ickiest green monsters in Japanese fairy tales. And below, Matt writes: A few months back, I gave a talk about yokai to a group of students visiting Tokyo from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. There are a lot of Norwegian folktales that resemble those from Japan - trolls and such - so they were a very receptive bunch. A few weeks ago, one of the students, Stian Tranung, mailed me photos of this beautiful yokai stamp set he made by hand after reading Yokai Attack. Very cool and I hope he considers mass producing them!

ShareThis The Ottawa Senators play Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in their NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs series on Friday, May 24, 2013, in Pittsburgh. ShareThis

A few months back, I gave a talk about yokai to a group of students visiting Tokyo from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. There are a lot of Norwegian folktales that resemble those from Japan - trolls and such - so they were a very receptive bunch. A few weeks ago, one of the students, Stian Tranung, mailed me photos of this beautiful yokai stamp set he made by hand after reading Yokai Attack. Very cool and I hope he considers mass producing them!  Some examples. Top left to right, Tengu, Kappa, Funa-Yurei. Bottom: Hitotsume Kozo, Nue, Tanuki.

Here's a little bit about the design & development process... One day last spring I said to Emma, "Hey you know what would be fun? To make our own photo app!". It's not unusual for me to think of a lot of crazy ideas, but this one stuck and the more we looked into it, the more excited we became! Our inspiration for the app was to create a tool that users could use to add fun little things to their photos without Photoshop. Each time I would post a photo with a little handwriting or an arrow on instagram I would get a bunch of comments asking which app I used to make it. I had to tell them there wasn't an app. I just used Photoshop, so that's what inspired the idea for the A Beautiful Mess app!First we needed to find a good developer to work with. We chose Rocket based off a recommendation from a friend and a good first impression. We hired them to develop our IOS app with the hopes of working on an Android version soon after (spoiler: You'll see below... the Android version is now officially coming soon!). We spent the first few months dreaming up possible features, sketching frames and doodles and envisioning how we hoped users would use the app.In the fall and winter I spent about a month working on artwork every day with my graphic designer (and brother!) Doren. He was awesome to work with and by the end of it, we were both seeing doodles in our dreams. :)I designed all of the artwork for the basic package first, because I wanted what users got with the initial purchase to be really amazing. After that was complete we designed the add on packs and picked out additional fonts to license. Fast forward a few months... we had done lots of revisions, tested the app several times, collaborated with Rocket on our app website and prepared our first round of press kits. By the time the launch day happened we were incredibly nervous. It's weird to put so much into a project for nine months without much of a reference point for how to gauge the response. We honestly had no idea if developing the app was a great business choice or a just-for-fun one. We were hopeful, but didn't have any expectations.On the day the app launched it went straight to #1 photo app, then #1 paid app within hours. We were blown away... Seriously, all we could say all day was, "WOW". It was one of the best business days ever and we all went out to celebrate that night.In the first week the app sales continued to exceed our expectations. We are so happy with the response and can't wait to keep adding new artwork to the app in the future! Every day Emma and I look through the #abeautifulmess photos in instagram and just swell up with excitement. It's so fun to see you using the app, often times in ways we didn't even imagine! F.A.Q. Will you be releasing an Android version? I'm so happy we can finally say YES! We just signed off on the android development this week. It will take 2-3 months before it's ready for the store. Even though the artwork will be exactly the same as the iPhone version our developers still have to start from scratch in a lot of ways. So if you're an android user, you can look forward to the release happening later this summer... we can't wait!! When will the first update happen and what will it include?Version 1.1 is already done and being processed in the iTunes store. This update will include the most basic bug fixes that most first updates include.Version 1.2 is also in the works and will be ready to submit in the next week or so! This update will include a higher resolution for saved images (yay!) and a bunch of new borders and doodles that come with the basic pack! We're really excited to add some stuff as a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has already downloaded. :)Is the app profitable? Can you tell us about your sales?Yes. We're so thankful for an amazing first week! We sold far more downloads than we had initially hoped for. It was enough to move forward and re-invest in an Android release (yay!) and just an overall

Who doesn’t love LEGO? As a child with a strong sense of imagination, and a tendency to be happy enough staying indoors on a rainy day, LEGO was a door that allowed me to enter into an infinite number of other worlds. My time with LEGO and my time discovering Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings didn’t quite intersect, but they’re both formative parts of my childhood and adolescence. Hell, I have a LEGO set of Gandalf’s carriage, from the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring sitting on my desk at work right now. Based on the layout of Helm’s Deep featured in Peter Jackson’s film adaptation, this 150,000 brick set piece is astounding. The artists, who go by the names Rich-K and Big J, apparently, nail the atmosphere and scale of the conflict of one Lord of the Rings most iconic scenes. At the time these photos were taken, the model was about 90% complete, with an estimated four months worth of work. The time, money and personal investment that must have gone into this project is impressive. More photos of this LEGO Helm’s Deep can be found on the artist’s MOCpages post.

Oh hey, a black and white photo. Fine art snob alert! One of the things we wanted to do with this photo series is to highlight not just my favorite photos, but those that may have been overlooked and underused. It’s easy to overlook the details if you’re not studying the image. So, if you [...]