When used correctly, the ever-expressive eyebrows can be a window into the soul …or at least into the opinion being formulated deep within. Those who are unfortunate sufferers of facial paralysis might never command the effective power of displaying worry through the furrowing of one’s brow or the curious inquiry hinted at by raising just one side. Fortunately, Tom Judd, a recent graduate of the masters in Animation program at the Royal College of Art, has come up with a solution for the unfortunate few with little control over their facial expressions. His Eyebrow Hat has harnessed the evocative power of one’s double fuzzies into a remote controlled device, capable of showing just what you might be feeling at any given time provided you haven’t run out of batteries.

When Mr. Judd isn’t busy helping those who can’t animate their own feelings, he’s busy putting together some kick ass cartoon work. His three and a half minute long masterpiece, Bruce, tells the tale of a boy who through the use of open source genetic programming, creates his very own pint-sized action hero . Sounds like something we’d like to have. Check it out here and be on the lookout for this rising illustrative talent.

Although this is old news to Spear Collective comrade Tom Judd, who did the illustration work for this Burton collab nearly two years ago in the Summer of ‘06, and was subsequently sworn to secrecy, it’s new news to us. This 2008 Burton GTwin deck has ‘Tom Judd’ written all over it, although the top sheet was censored a bit to — I’m guessing — scale down the loudness to comport with traditional Burton style. At any rate, whenever Mr. Judd fancies splattering his ideas on a canvas — no matter what type of canvas — we like it. This deck is ladies-specific, so rejoice Tom Judd groupie-snowboarder-chicks!

We have been following Spear Collective Member Tom Judd’s Everyday illustration efforts since he completed a full year of daily drawings in 2005. On July 1st, he embarked on a refreshed and committed journey to complete another year’s worth of magic. Tom is going to be attending a two-year Master’s Program at the Royal College of Art in London, so I’m excited (to say the least) to see how his graduate work filters into and enlightens his Everyday portfolio. Tom also has an RSS feed for Everyday so you can have each day’s illustration uploaded, without hassle, to your RSS reader. Following Tom as he works closer and closer to his 365-day goal gives you a deep appreciation for the quality of his illustrations, but more than anything, it’s just damn impressive to see him churn out these intricate and deep works of art day, after day, after day…

Whatever good or bad can be said about Angelina Jolie surely has already been written, but her sincere effort to portray Mariane Pearl, wife of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in the narrative film A Mighty Heart should be respected above all petty grievances over celebrity, privilege and private lives. Hardly a soul on earth missed the story of Pearl's capture and gruesome death while few really know about his wife's ability to see beyond her personal grief and urge Daniel's friends and colleagues to maintain compassion — even to those who took her husband's life. I met and spoke with Jolie briefly at the New York premiere, a benefit for Amnesty International, who graciously provided me with tickets for the best seats in the house and passes to the afterparty that followed.

Her back turned to the paparazzi as they snapped pics of her infamous tattoos, Angelina smiled as I expressed my gratitude for making the film -– something I truly felt. Earlier that day, her handlers were carelessly overprotective by making unreasonable censorship demands around any interview, a rather strange contradiction to the message of “freedom of press” of the movie. She more than cleared the air on the Daily Show with an apologetic retraction. READ MORE…

For the last six months or so, our U.K. based friend Tom Judd – who’s no stranger to this site, and also a member of the Spear Collective – has been working on this kick ass animation called “Wheel Time.” It’s somewhat of a historic project for young Tom, because it marks the end of his undergraduate education– this summer he’s leaving Man Met University for London to begin a two year Master’s program in animation at the Royal College of Art. As great as this short animated film is, I’m sure we’ll all use it as a benchmark by which to gauge his animation progress from here on out– no pressure, Tom! The YouTube version you see here has slightly lower sound and sync qualities than the one on his website, so I recommend viewing the latter. On a related note, Tom has also re-worked the look of his site a bit with a fresh layout and some new work, so be sure to check that out as well.

Our buddy and Spear Collectiver Tom Judd is at it again over the pond in the U.K. This time he has joined up with a group of other talented illustrators and Scott Lockhart to publish Plinth Issue 2 (The Hate Issue). In all, 20 artists have come together to produce 32 pages of “draw-rings.” Tom has a few illustrations inside, but also is responsible for the front cover (shown here). The money from the sales of these nicely wrapped, sealed, and numbered Plinth issues is going straight to what promises to be a bad ass Summer Show. Don’t wait though– they only printed 40 copies– super duper limited edition!

Many of you know about Tom Judd’s successful quest to illustrate one page per day for an entire year. Well, Jeremiah Palecek had the same goal, but he is a Czech painter specializing in nerd art. To Jeremiah, ‘nerd art’ means pixelated paintings, 80’s video game art, and other nerdy forays. I have to admit, I really enjoyed browsing his work– I came across a wealth of familiar portrayals– things like the Gmail log-in box (which I see 97 times a day), and the Konami cheat code for Contra (both pictured here). Jeremiah’s paintings will make you chuckle and feel nostalgic– all good art doesn’t have to be prolific, does it? As long as it creates a favorable feeling in my gut, I’m all about it. As an added bonus, on Jeremiah’s blog, each painting is accompanied by an entry written by Jeremiah that explains what each painting means to him; he gets pretty personal in his descriptions. If you are interested in purchasing some of Jeremiah’s paintings, email him from his blog. I may have to outfit my little nerd den (a.k.a. home office) at home with some of his work!

Almost two years ago, we told you about super-talented and hard working British illustrator Tom Judd’s quest to produce one illustration per day for an entire year. We’ve kept you abreast of his progress since then– like when he finished his 365th illustration at the end of 2005. Last week, Tom finished his Everyday site revamp, so now all of his illustrations are cataloged in database format– you can easily search by specific date or by month to revisit Tom’s determined and successful quest for 365 draw-rings. There’s also a new comment board on the site so you can share your thoughts with Tom and with other viewers. Enjoy.

Our U.K. based buddy Tom Judd (who is a very talented designer/animator/illustrator in his own right) has just launched a new version of 5oup, an online collective of art and design students from around the world. While the previous version was impressive in an of itself, the new version — courtesy of 5oup member James Chambers — is a spruced-up redesign of the old. The power behind 5oup lies in its ability to potentially showcase works from all art students in the world. With innovative features like always-accessible portfolio updating and 5oup member communication forums, the sky is the limit for 5oup. Always striving to raise the bar, Tom and his crew hand pick a fresh talent each day, and also showcase a feature artist each week. We at JoshSpear.com love to see projects like 5oup–ventures that achieve power through the ‘collective’ framework.

I covered Tom Judd’s Daily Illustration project back in May. If you’re not familiar with his project, he set out to create 365 days of original illustrations. Anyway, he finished his page-a-day objective and the results are mind boggling. This is one talented and determined artist. Way to go Tom, congratulations!

A lot of people set out to do something everyday, whether it be take photos, draw, write, etc. Rarely do people actually execute and pull it off, every-single-day. Artist and Illustrator Tomm Judd is on his way with 365 days of illustrations–really, really, good ones. He started on November 8th, 2004, and he produces a page everyday which he scans and uploads to his site. The page contains obersavations from the day, fictional characters, and quotes from his day. Pure friggin talent. Check them out, he’s also selling them as books, 50 pages at a time– or you can view them all online for free. This is the entry from May 29th.