Steampunk wallpaper artist wants your ideas
Mousewrites sez, "Steampunkwallpaper.com is a collection of wallpapers with a steampunky theme. I've taken it into my damn fool head to make one wallpaper a day for the next year, (15 so far) and I realized that I don't have quite enough ideas (my list of ideas is around 130 right now). I know that there's some people that don't like steampunk, but hell, there's some people who don't like coffee, either. No accounting for taste, I suppose! I love Boing Boing, and was hoping that the collective might give me some ideas? All my wallpapers are Creative Commons remix licensed, as well." Link (Thanks, Mousewrites!)
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One idea that could get you through a few wallpapers, and could be done very well, would be to take some of the standard Windows XP wallpapers and make a distinctive steampunk version of them. For example, "Autumn" could be redone in sepia with come kind of horseless carriage or contraption rambling down the road. You could have an absolute field day with "Home", and the most distinctive XP wallpaper of all, "Bliss", would also look nice in sepia with some kind of infernal windmill-contraption thing...or something. Give it a thought.
Do one every 3rd day. That also gives you more time to finetune the picture in.
How about a wallpaper of a steampunk computer with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer, with a monitor displaying a wallpaper of a steampunnk computer...
Axx, that's an awesome idea. I did do a firefox one, but I hadn't thought of the default Windows backgrounds. Thanks!!
f rd nthr pstng bt 'ffng "stmpnk" swr t Gd 'll jst stp chckng ths blg. Srsly, stp. ngh.
Seeya saltyboy!
For goodness' sake, Salty. If it upsets you that much, just don't read the post. Is it really so hard?
wasn't there an old plumbing pipework animation? Endless tubes and elbows flowing into each other and infinity. Just do it brass and add leaks and vapour puffs
Hr's sggstn, gv th stmpnk vrythng rst. Flm m ll y wnt, bt stmpnk s ld nd trd... lt t slp bck nt bscrty... pls.
But, since he wants suggestions perpetuating this... how about the good 'ol bill gates borg ala Slashdot?
I see now. How could I have been so blind? The problem is not too much steampunk: it's the opposite! All those poor deluded souls that have yet to see the light are languishing forlorn because they have yet to reach the critical mass of steamy goodness exposure.
Henceforth all demonstrating their tragic benightedness shall have their email addresses and websites added to our free All-Steampunk All the Time server farm. Further, our crack missionary teams will seek out their places of employment and circles of friends and make sure the Great Message is reaching their pathetic lost souls around the clock!
Dear JPTechnical: no!
Takuan, yeah, 3d Pipes it was called. I still have it on XP. Seems like cheating, though...
all art is derivative. Add a few gauges.
It's brass! It must be steampunk!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/health_the_wellcome_collection/img/5.jpg
how about the Mechanical Death from Reaper Man?
inspiration here
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5503582578132361295
A Haiku for Salty...
Fuming pipes ping loud,
Shaking, bursting, rattling,
"Fck Stmpnk!" they cry!
Takuan, just for you, I made a 3d pipes one. :D
and it totally didn't post. Hold please.
Just For Takaun
I thought about it for a minute but I'm afraid everything I come up with would be too laborious to make in one day ... I'm imagining clockwork-based, steam-powered information technology in scenes with people in beautiful period dress illustrating how the tech is used ... for crime investigation, medical treatment, browsing porn, ...
If there were 52 weekly works or 12 monthly works, I think I'd much rather find a wallpaper I'd like to put on my desktop than when there are 365 daily works to choose from.
Quickly photoshopping a steaming chimney onto a hand-cranked coffee grinder and slapping it over a backdrop of a nonsensical arrangement of brass gears doesn't cut it for me. That's cargo cult steampunk. Maybe Mousewrites shouldn't ask for ideas, but for CC-licensed contributions upon which he could base his work?
IMHO the censorbot is overzealous. OK, whining and threatening (haha) to fuck off is lame, but I think simply saying that steampunk is shit is stating a valid opinion. Would rather see it backed up by some reasoning, but still.
tres cool Mousewrites! How d'ya do so quickly?
Nex:
I agree wholeheartedly that I'm not cranking out masterpeices here. This is an excersize in production; much like NaNoWriMo is to force one into writing, this is forcing me back into graphics after a painful hiatus. Rest assured that these are not the only things I am working on, and that I do not conciter these high art.
That being said, I would love to have some CC-licenced contributions to either the site or for my use. The Flickr community has given me much inspiration and I give them props when I use their stuff. If anyone out there would like to contibute, I would love it.
Not everything I'm posting is awesome, and I'm OK with that. I would never dream of being butthurt because someone on the internet didn't like my stuff. :)
sure it's an opinion. But those (often) expressing it also have a tendency to stray into personal stuff. Put your energy into complimenting the stuff you like, when steampunk is finally over it will be because no one cares anymore - not because it was driven off the scene. Whaddya say today that was complimentary Nex? Surely there must be something here ya like.
Takuan: I'm a ninja!
"cargo cult steampunk"
Nice phrase :^D
hey Nex! I just did a quick skim of your posts. You got lots and quite a few of them are what I would call good or better. But I didn't find one yet that had any gush or effusiveness or unqualified yay! You are who you is and I have to respect that, but could I be possibly even a leetle bit right that you could let go more? Pure surmise on my part, you'll probably turn out to be a chandelier swinging, keg chugging extrovert nightmare. Just saying, no offense intended.
I don't hold with "right" steampunk or "not" steampunk. A continuum perhaps. Some I like better than others, some obviously garner more respect. But it IS an error to use the merits of the better to beat up the worse.
Impressionism was just 'bad painting' until it caught on.
From the Moderation Guidelines:
Q. It's obvious that you won't tolerate anything but supportive comments from brown-nosers and yes-men--right?
A. I'll venture a guess that you responded to a new entry on Boing Boing by announcing that it was hopelessly lame and boring, and then came back later to discover that your comment had disappeared.
Q. Yes! Why did you remove it?
A. This is another one of those questions that has multiple answers.
First: you didn't explain why it bored you. Without an explanation, announcing that you're bored is neither useful or entertaining. Also, it's a real bringdown for readers who lack confidence in their own opinions.
Second: because frequently the "I'm so bored" thing is just attitudinizing. There's a whole big internet out there, and it's full of people who, if they don't like what they're currently reading, move on and read something else. They don't post about how bored they are just to have something to say.
Third: maybe that entry just isn't your thing. It could be someone else's. Why drag down their conversation?
Q. So we're not allowed to say something's boring?
A. Of course you're allowed. You just have to explain why.
Here's the thing. There is no possible way that wallpaper can be steampunk.
It just doesn't work.
Your "Map to a Factory Long Gone" gave me this idea, because I really really like old abandoned buildings: search Flickr for CC-licensed photos as starting points - abandoned buildings, other urban decay, steam tunnels, Victorian houses, old machines and laboratories, etc., etc.
Haiku for Antinious...
Thank you.
"wallpaper" makes me think of Victorian-era tin ceilings. A stamped-tin pattern with steam-era tech elements, perhaps?
And, of course... or dare I suggest this at all?... steam-kittens.
steam kittens!!!
Flying steampunk toasters, please.
@MouseWrites: That grunge textures site you link to has some extremely cool textures under "Aircraft Aluminum", too. Lots of rivets. Maybe something to work with there, too, if you haven't already.
http://eng.rzd.ru/steams_eng/index.html
@Mousewrites: A steampunk starship would be lovely, please.
Anyone know what fonts are considered steampunkery?
@Takuan: Very cool link in #37.
its Rooshian you know
fonts...anything Victorian or Copperplate?
for fonts, this link made the rounds (perhaps on BB as well) recently
I've always wanted to have a wallpaper showing the (fictional) insides of a monitor, so it looks like the glass has been taken off. How about doing a steampunk version of it, showing the gears and hydraulics inside, and whatnot?
this one might require a bit more creativity and effort than a 1 day mashup, but you should ahve a ton of fun doing it....
a good ol airship race... try to stay away from the blimp/boat combo idea and come up with your own variations of flying machines.
I agree with Takuan for once, BRUCE ARTHURS..
Steam Kittens!
#29
How's about "in the style of Steampunk"?
they could have darling little leather and brass harnesses and maybe be playing with a clockwork steam-mouse
You're saying "steampunk = coffee"??
I think not.
will some talented artist with way too much time and a compulsion for working for free kindly emerge and do steampunk portaits ("as imagined") of the Boingers and regulars here?
A mechanical arm being sown onto a human shoulder?
Page from a trade magazine for steampunk inventors?
A rusty robot painting itself?
Victorian boy walking past some billboards showing robot wrestling and steam powered soccer?
A waistcoated businessman atop a walking office building?
A huge steam powered puppet theatre? with steam powered advertising and refreshment delivery system!
My suggestions are: knitting (mechanical needles knitting pipes or wires), icicles (frozen water on pipes or the pipes could be in the shape of icicles), an organ (the musical kind).
OOOnoes! I've been disemvoweled! Banished to a consonant-only Hell for those not willing to extrapolate WHY they think something blows, as if having an opinion in itself is not enough!
Fair enough, it is CORY's blog after all, he can be the Overlord if he likes. I hereby promise to follow the rules, Sir, and do you one better. For the next 5 "Steampunk" entries I will post one issue of my serial novelette, "Disemvoweled", right here in the comments section!
Yeah, I realize "Disemvoweled" isn't a word, but neither is "Steampunk" so I think I'm on safe ground here.
I look forward to your next steamy entry.
I used the Bacon Flowchart as my wallpaper for a time.... love that damn flowchart.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/21/web-zen-bacon-zen.html
Anyway, how about steam powered process steps and conditionals? I know it's a stretch, but it would make me happy.
How 'bout something exploring the 'punk' aspect of steampunk, a gang of neovictorian n'er-do-wells? Easy title: Steampunks
Your organization's Internet use policy restricts access to this web page at this time.
Reason:
The Websense category "Sex" is filtered.
URL:
http://steampunkwallpaper.com/
D'oh!
How about a NSFW steampunk wallpaper?!
How about a steampunk wallpaper where all the decorative brass and copper shit is getting stolen by a meth addict and sold to a scrap yard?
How 'bout mixing Steampunk with some other genres? Two I thought of: The West and 1930's detective fiction. Then I remembered that the Will Smith movie, "Wild, Wild West" had elements of steampunk -- one of the best things about the movie. Maybe do a steampunk stagecoach? As for detective fiction, maybe have a detective holding a steampunk pistol? It could be in the style of a pulp cover.
Finally, how 'bout a steampunk space shuttle launch?
Final finally, how 'bout a steampunk politician? Obama, McCain, and Bush with steam and brass pipes helping them function. Maybe a mad Dick Cheney could be in the background twisting the valves and monitoring pressure gauges, in order to manipulate any of the three?
Is anyone else tired of steampunk stuff yet? I swear if I see the word steampunk one more time I'm gonna... well, complain more, I guess!
hee! and I'm gonna tickle you under the chin! tickle tickle tickle!
'm stll wtng fr th Grsmnky scrpt tht fltrs t ll th BngBng rtcls wth "stmpnk" n th ttl.
Steampunk kimono?
Looking through the Comic-Con San Diego schedule, I noticed that there will be a meeting for steampunk aficianados.
The steampunk revolution has just begun...