The Where's Waldo Legacy

[@SolarSands]

Many Dutch people have told me they just call him "Wally." Some Italian people have said they don't call him "Ubaldo" either. I got those name variations from these: ew.com/article/1990/12/14/wheres-waldo/ waldo.fandom.com/wiki/International_variations I guess they must just be wrong? Whatever the case, there's plenty of other weird variations people have given me such as "Effy" in Israel.

[@lautaroescarlon7501]

In Argentina we do use the name Wally! Not sure what our Welsh district calls him though

[@acgraphics1139]

Uk call him Wally

[@speccysquaregolike9629]

We have "Where's Wally?" books in Australia, but it's the same character

[@urphakeandgey6308]

A lot of Dutch people speak English, so maybe many Dutch people were exposed to him by a British printing of the book or something? But maybe a less popular Dutch localisation attempted to re-brand? After all, there's little reading involved. I'm sure a Dutch person can get the idea and understand "Where's Wally?"

[@imconfused6955]

In the US we call him "Waldo"

[@hey.bbyl0n]

waldo's been sporting the same drip since '87 and it hasnt failed him once

[@Scotty1817]

Was that the drip of ‘87!?

[@hey.bbyl0n]

@@Scotty1817 😳😳😳

[@michaelchristie8329]

Drip so immaculate it became timeless

[@Cardinalt]

fashion icon.

[@alexjonathanwhite606]

Important to the lore

[@jonathanboram7858]

That Bosch turn was unexpected, but extremely cool! I've always loved his paintings, they are so active and alive

[@deepfriedmochi]

same, he's one of my favorite artists!

[@drrocketman7794]

It was news but not surprising when Hieronymus Bosch was brought into the equation

[@lukehunt8757]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5-cq5WGoq2pgKc If this hadn't popped up recently, I would've forgotten about Bosch.

[@chainsrad6354]

nah not unexpected at all

[@FairyRat]

I always found all of the hellish creatures mighty cute (if sometimes uncomfortably annerving), especially the bird ones.

[@puzzLEGO]

This and ‘I spy’ were my two favourite picture books as a kid. I literally spent hours looking through all the pictures for every single detail

[@boycemallas8190]

There is a little documentary on the artist who makes those I Spy books, and I had no idea he does them practically. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaubnah7r9OrmK8

[@cubicinfinity2]

I Spy also has a frequently recurring item: THE CAT

[@Walkingmango]

Those books were so surreal

[@your_ex_lover]

Good vision building skills. It's what they do in vision therapy to get kids ready to read.

[@NecroticNightshade]

God I Spy was my jam back in elementary school. I used to be obsessed with the carnival and haunted house themed ones.

[@mattdamutt5681]

I gotta say - large crowd painting incorporates a level of creativity that's hard to find elsewhere in art. Technically you're making one illustration, but abstractly, these artists are really making HUNDREDS, maybe thousands, all around a central theme! There can be so many stories distinguishable from each other; a picture can be worth a thousand words, well here's a thousand pictures in one. How does one even keep track of that?

[@militarydeviltube5014]

imagine the process of creating the compositions for these artworks in the first place!

[@isaacpianos5208]

I always thought people liked Where's Wally as a meme lol Now that I think about it, the artists are insane

[@KingOfElectricNinjas]

Does come up in the video that making a full one of those drawings is a process of months, and that's probably with help. But of course, once a picture's made, people can keep on looking at it. Great bang for your buck, really.

[@StormWatcher313]

Ya never thought about it like that

[@DrSpaceman42]

@@isaacpianos5208as a meme?

[@zarinaa1135]

There's a book called 'A Street Through Time' that takes the same street by a river and each page is that place in a different time. Its made in a Waldo style, filled with characters, but its all for learning what life was life in different times. You see items come back up as archeologists discover buried shields, you see how the buildings grow and what happens to the local castle. Its a really good book, especially for parents and teachers trying to make history more accessible for kids.

[@gabrielguido4056]

I love that book as well!

[@HansKrab]

Bro I read this comment and realised I have this exact book!

[@jc441-i3q]

Wow I've never heard of that book but I had a look and now I want it. I've made a few pictures with "then and now" views but not to this detail. Thanks for the recommendation.

[@mchjsosde]

I had one of these! I loved it as a kid

[@jofipa9953]

12:24 This just unlocked a memory i had forgotten for so long, but i used to do the exact same thing as a kid, i remember i would draw my friends as stick figures and bring the drawings back to my school so my friends could stare at it trying to find their characters in the drawings. They were stick figures with a hat or they were holding something recognizable in a sea of stick figures fighting or just living in a weird hyper-detailed environment.

[@ryanphillips4123]

I bet they loved that! I still have a few drawing that a friend made for me. They always make me smile when I pull them out of my keepsake box

[@TheBlueWizzrobe]

That's so cool! You sound like someone everyone would love to be friends with, haha

[@paulocezar8833]

I made the same thing but with little aliens.I used to drew spaceships,mines and factories to compete with my friend,I still have all the drawings in a box.

[@porc1429]

Yeah me too. I used to draw a bunch of stick figures killing each other on my mom's paper work

[@ot4kon]

I did the same, but my drawings where about death traps with complex cartoonish mechanisms with like 20 steps of things moving or falling like domino pieces. I can't do it anymore. And my drawing were done with a pen. I remember adding steps to the trap without a clear goal where it would end, it was an ability lost in childhood.

[@UntitledNameGangIsTouringAmmos]

Finally someone brave enough to ask 'why's waldo?'

[@nootjulli]

they always ask “where’s Waldo?” but they never ask “how’s Waldo?”…

[@corozan3080]

@@nootjulli deep 😔

[@isaacpianos5208]

Unfortunately there's no way to keep this thread since everybody seems to know _who's waldo_

[@bluberry3297]

hows waldo?

[@Eltralor]

what’s waldo

[@stonedperson97]

I really appreciate the use of the "Mr Incredible becoming uncanny" meme when talking about all of Waldo's different names

[@DefiniteIyHuman]

3:01

[@O.M.Y_R.O.S.E.S_R.I.G.G.S]

@@DefiniteIyHuman You deserve a hug you know that right

[@ago4610]

Ikr

[@pakxenon]

I was taken aback and laughed out loud the first time. So good.

[@aHedgerowFrog]

Thats crazy. I was looking but i wasnt seeing.

[@eunskibiji]

Waldo has always scared me as a kid, he would always stare at me while i try to find him, I wouldn’t notice until I found him staring at me the whole time

[@vaporwingfauxmcloud1190]

Have you seen SCP 4885? Look it up lmao

[@knqpw]

waldo, come here this guy has something cool to show you (waldo stares at you waiting for you to do something)

[@elplaceholder]

​@@vaporwingfauxmcloud1190 nope nope, bad idea 💀

[@ynoodle7]

​@@elplaceholderwhat is it

[@elplaceholder]

@@ynoodle7 a very disturbing monster ☠️

[@voidvoidvoi]

Fun fact: Waldo is actually in every picture or media in the world, he’s just so hidden that you’ll spend forever searching for him

[@tigerlover2853]

He’s living in our midst as well, posing as one of us… but it gets worse, he could be any one of us. He could be you, he could be me, he could even be…

[@Tyeler80]

@@tigerlover2853 …..Even.. *gulp* me..?

[@silvershift5505]

True

[@tenimate666]

And I'm Waldo

[@shroompunk285]

I’m not Waldo. I’m Walter

[@filmpjesman1]

As a Dutch I've never heard him being called Govert, we call him Wally too Edit: gotta love the attention to Jeroen Bosch! Coming from his city, it is always a pleasure to see his work in the wild

[@-Herrik-]

Same

[@superking208]

The uncanny Mr Incredible meme lurking in the background really made that scene tho

[@mlydian8840]

Same, Govert was new for me

[@doommagic]

To be fair to him, when I looked into it, he's actually getting that information from sites like Entertainment Weekly, which you'd expect a reputable site like that to actually have their information correct. Though they also specifically say that he's called Govert in Holland rather than the Netherlands, so for all we know they just copied and pasted that information from another site that just said so. Sure, Wikipedia says he's called Wally in Dutch, but Wikipedia says a lot of things and you're not supposed to use it as a source.

[@Arvidholders]

@@doommagic I disagree, Wikipedia is a reliable source to use. Also in this case they have the most up to date information. They have moderators that fact check everything, you can always look at their list of sources and they have very strict rules for editing pages. If someone edits Wikipedia to troll, it's gone in 20 minutes.

[@lizardkingzach]

There's gotta be someone out there who flipped through a where's waldo book for their first time, and by pure luck and chance, on every single page their eyes just happened to land on the exact correct spot as the first place they checked, for every single page... eh?

[@CrossoverGameReviews]

Send this to the Numberphile gang. Maybe they can come up with some kind of probability on that.

[@hopelessent.1700]

I remember I looked relatively at a spot or two and got them only at those glances. Since then… where’s Waldo?

[@lizardkingzach]

@@ryanpmcguire dang you went and straight up did the math haha, now just calculate the population that has access to the books and has likely looked at them. Then multiply that by the number of generations since the Waldo books came out, and see if we've had enough to hit that magic average number!

[@user-jw2it4qf2r]

I don't think there's even a chance of this happening, even with infinite viewers. Where a person looks first isn't just a matter of random chance, the pages have stuff all over them designed to catch your attention, a first time viewer will without a doubt be drawn to one of these objects rather than whatever random crevice Waldo got crammed into.

[@lizardkingzach]

@@user-jw2it4qf2r sure, but everyone's mind works a little differently too. Consider those who are able to instantly count objects or those who communicate better through colors. Some people can visualize things in their heads others can't. Not saying anything is absolute, but I'd guess there's gotta be someone out there who might accidentally pull it off.

[@vicenteperez3862]

ah yes, the only legend we hardly see in his own content, actually genius.

[@poweroffriendship2.0]

True

[@munnymoore]

cough cough Shanks from One Piece cough cough

[@ArcadiaAISongs]

@@munnymoore ok snoppy snoopingtom

[@HashbrownMashup]

I kinda want there to be a fantasy travelogue series hosted by Waldo/Wally. The POV keeps taking you to different corners of a scene, with Waldo explaining them and asking "Am I here?", and at the end you "find" him and he brings it home with the closing words face-to-face.

[@constitutiqn2710]

You’re getting closer, detective!

[@AlexanderFromTheStarDimension]

6:13 GLORIOUS transition. After talking about bright and fantastical childrens' illustrations -- you flash right into the terrifying worlds of Hieronymous Botch with a stage spotlight sound/visual effect and an ominous backing track. I admire all these little things you do your video essays.

[@defaultmesh]

that transition scared the *_hell_* out of me

[@mrpurple11]

True, i was expecting the Bosch introduction and still was grear

[@ace1234LIVE]

Premium transition

[@JosefTBB]

I always liked looking at the background for funny jokes and situations instead of the main focus of the book which was finding Waldo

[@jofipa9953]

i remember as a child being "done" with a wheres waldo book and my mom telling me that finding waldo was only a part of it and that i should enjoy the entire picture. And that made any future waldo books i got much more enjoyable.

[@lydia6477]

i was really bad at finding him so I'd just give up and look for interesting scenarios and hope I see him eventually lol

[@PlasmaMongoose]

The picture is the journey with lots of interesting stops, while Wally is the destination.

[@meleileen2960]

Ah, the return of the one person who can convince me that art history is actually an interesting topic.

[@AxxLAfriku]

I like people with long brain. I have long amount of disl*kes btw. Why? Maybe people with short brain disl*ke because jealous of my long amount of subscr*bers. Please have long brain, dear py

[@napstaperd8824]

Agreed, it's quite fascinating to learn the thought process behind pictures that wouldn't take more than a minute to look at, but a life-time to produce

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

It is, with the right mentor.

[@crooked9210]

Same honestly. Never had much interest in art history but I love watching his videos on it. I feel like I've learned a good bit from them

[@WouldntULikeToKnow.]

I studied art history in university and I'm always glad to see someone come to appreciate it. Art is the language all humans speak.

[@seanamisano6216]

i stood and watched this video while slowly sharpening a new knife i bought yesterday, before making lunch. i watched the whole thing in completely focus while doing something fun with my hands. thanks for a beautiful moment in my day

[@user-cf8bx6ej1y]

Humans are so cute man

[@TheCelestialFox]

⁠@@user-cf8bx6ej1ywhy are you saying that like you’re not human

[@nicolesayers3508]

I love how you can really tell how much effort and research he put into this video.

[@JaquesBobè]

WOW. I'm the creator/moderator of r/Wimmelbilder, and I'm happy to see my dream behind the subreddit finally becoming a reality. The term "wimmelbilder" slowly but surely entered the art vernacular, making it easier than ever to find more art like this, when only a few years ago it was scattered around obscure corners of the internet. Thank you for this video, Solar Sands. Love your channel (:

[@amelialonelyfart8848]

Thank you for making that subreddit! I've been a huge fan of those kind of works ever since I was a kid but never knew there was a specifiic term for it. I would spend minutes starriing at them whenever I found a new one, thinking about it for days to come...I think i'm gonna have a lot of fun there

[@xlicer]

Been following the subreddit since 3 years from now (I think), and even contributed a bit from time to time. Thanks you for creating, is one of my favorite places in the site. One thing I wish if there was a more in-depth independent effort in archiving posts so they can be searched/view/and preserved easily, feel so many good underrated posts just get loss due to how Reddit work. But overall pretty happy on how the subreddit is.

[@lasarousi]

Did you come up with that meaning?

[@JaquesBobè]

@@lasarousi The term was already in use in Germany, Sweden, and a few other countries where that is the literal meaning in local languages - I just took it, and did my best to spread it to the English-speaking part of reddit.

[@lasarousi]

@@JaquesBobè well that's how language works, there's a reason English use rendezvous, barbarisms. But still, sounds like you popularized it, that's still a great feat.

[@hey.bbyl0n]

i got so excited when you brought up hieronymus bosch on the topic of chaotic and crowded drawings, he's a favorite of mine since he reminds me of a more "grown up" version of searching picture books which i loved dearly when i was younger

[@mikethegoo]

Actually, it's spelled "Jheronimus"

[@kiwi_2_official]

@@mikethegoo umm it's spelled yaronimaz

[@BlueRoseFaery]

Yes! I had paused the video right before that section to actually relate it to Bosch myself because I'm a big fan so when that was the next thing he brought up, I literally said "yay" out loud, lol

[@bukachell]

nothing felt worse than thinking you found him before your friends did, only to realise it was just his hat or a random person wearing something with red and white stripes

[@asdkotable]

For those who are interested in the East Asian equivalent to crowd paintings, there is "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" by Zhang Zeduan, made during the Northern Song Dynasty. It is 5meters long by 25cm tall and depicts 814 humans in the midst of celebrating Qingming. It is deemed by many to be the "Mona Lisa" of painted artwork in China.

[@kingdave855]

I feel like as a kid i didnt realise just how insane the artwork was that i was looking at i couldnt even imagine trying to draw something like that

[@angledcoathanger]

What's probably unintentional but really cool about the Where's Wally books is that as far as I've seen he's always looking serene and unbothered amidst the total chaos that he's surrounded with. He's also kind of the purpose of the world that he exists in, because he's the one who we're looking for. He always kind of creeped my out as a kid because if this, because he kind of transcends the chaotic universe he exists in and you can't tell his intentions from his quietly calm expression. Maybe there's a book that i haven't seen where he's reacting to something in the environment or involved somehow and I sound like an idiot, but as far as I know he's just this completely inconspicuous point of contact between his world and the higher dimension that us readers belong to.

[@cringeproof100]

I always noticed that too :)

[@celestee2264]

Your comment made me realize that while you are searching for him, he's always watching you, patiently waiting to be found with a smiling serene face. Kind of unnerving

[@mato4334]

when i was a kid, i had a wheres waldo book that, on the last page, had a scene that was ALL WALDO and they were interacting with each other, so theres that lol

[@alexs5814]

G Man is Waldo, confirmed?

[@PrettyPinkPeacock]

This is a good take. Like he's breaking the Fourth wall of the book, he's the meta reason to even look at the book, he's elevated from the rest of the characters.

[@ethanomcbride]

That 27 seconds thing used to drive me crazy. My parents took me to a different museum every year on my birthday and I’d get so upset when they’d take a quick cursory glance at all the exhibits and move on. I kept glaring at everything for like 6min each because I was so desperate to unlock some deeper emotional reaction I though I was supposed to be having.

[@SuperSMT]

My problem is I just want to properly see everything in the museum, and some of them are just so big!

[@cubicinfinity2]

Same. I think we just have to be discriminatory and pick a few to spend time on.

[@grugthecaveman4565]

Two other artists that paint in the “cram” art style that I enjoy are Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux and his son Paul Philippoteaux. Though they mostly painted historical battle scenes I highly enjoy the crowded environments they create. Henri Philippoteaux’s “Lamartine rejects the Red Flag before the Hôtel de Ville” is my computer background and my all time favorite art piece is Paul Philippoteaux’s “Gettysburg Cyclorama”. I wish that one day you can do a video on the Cyclorama, it has dozens of references and little details. Their is actually an entire book about it!

[@colorx6030]

To this day, whenever I spot a person wearing the same/similar clothes as Waldo, I always scream "I spot Waldo!" in my head.

[@deergoat3468]

I remember when one person borrowed a ‘Where’s Waldo’ book in their local library and found each Waldo in every page and covered them up, only to return it back to the library for any unfortunate kid to stumble upon

[@christophercampbell6884]

That should be a federal crime.

[@catdust]

@@christophercampbell6884 i think you mean "planetary"

[@jasonthealmighty2051]

What was your method of covering Waldo up?

[@christophercampbell6884]

@@catdust lol

[@deergoat3468]

@@jasonthealmighty2051 cutting him out of the pages and eating it

[@amathos1130]

"He who eats fire, craps sparks" Alright, I'm using this proverb from now on.

[@ignoreallmycommentsandreplies]

Same

[@MrDj232]

Every time you eat spicy food?

[@Eduardo1007]

Modern equivalent is the f around and find out graph 😂

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

2:15 My brain did a tangent "If you poured over this cover like one would do with any where's Waldo books, you may be rewarded with Waldo holding the top of the cranium of president Kennedy's skull on the back of the Lincoln Continental"

[@emilyisnotdead5622]

I’m so happy you made this video. as an aspiring illustrator i’ve always tried to explain the type of illustrations I wanted to make and I finally found the word to describe it! the way these books excited me as a young child was unmatched and I want to make something similar in my own life.

[@stefanhuber7357]

Fascinating insight! I have a whole new appreciation for Where’s Waldo! Im going to go dust off my old book and fall in now!

[@ComicalRealm]

they always ask: "Where's Waldo?" but never: "Hows Waldo?" *sad waldo noises*

[@Jeff-theBuilder]

everywhere I go, I see you...

[@pippi2285]

His name is wally

[@The_Grecian_Empire]

@@pippi2285 for you it is because around the world it’s dif names

[@MadHatter42]

For a similar art style from a non-European context, check out “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, a scroll painting from 12th Century China that depicts a panoramic view of Song Dynasty life, containing hundreds of figures from all walks of life, from rural peasants chasing an escaped cow, to spectators watching a public play, to merchants transporting their wares, to wealthy noblemen playing chess in a tea house. For its scope and detail, it’s often considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of Chinese art.

[@PlasmaMongoose]

Makes you wonder how many other cultures have their own versions of the detailed crowded artworks.

[@isaiahsimmons5776]

probably part of one of genre where it takes u to a view of a city or something. i forgot its name. to reply to plasma, i think every culture has one because no culture thats unique. besides maybe the one stranded or with no contact, like those sentinelese. but maybe they do, maybe it just made on the dirt or sand or wood, they do like little engravings even detailing it, or pottery. but even that lack of contact has been breaking so rather they dont, they will,.

[@givemethedie8464]

@@isaiahsimmons5776 the scope of this one is BIG-BIG though. I think it’s over 5 metres long if I’m not mistaken

[@isaiahsimmons5776]

@@givemethedie8464 yeah most of city paintings appear to just be for a illustriation book or something or maybe a picture frame, idk im just assuming on digitalness of it. never actually seen one in person, so cant say exactly. it all depends on how it digitally scanned i presume.

[@nxone9903]

Reading this comment is like looking at one of those pictures

[@alexjonathanwhite606]

I would have never thought that one day I would be in one of your videos, at 3:12 that is a photo from my old school where we all dressed as Wally. I’m on the left with blonde long hair and no hat . That is incredible

[@Game_Hero]

wow

[@christopherroa9781]

That's very cool! You're the wally of this picture

[@alexjonathanwhite606]

@@christopherroa9781 HA, guess your right!

[@swaree]

that is insane

[@Justpassingby204]

Congrats

[@Xofflow_]

Fun fact: Wlado's in Twenty One Pilot's music video of "Car Radio".

[@laurencorcoran2783]

Another amazing episode!!!! I love Bosch he’s one of my favorite artists this was so insightful

[@StuffandThings_]

You know I just realized, these are like the opposite of liminal spaces. Instead of being eerie, empty, and vaguely familiar, these are crowded, in-your-face with detail, and at least for the children's book ones, quite pleasing and down-to-earth (if not jam packed with ridiculous gags). Going between the two I imagine would be quite the shocking experience.

[@pamaul2011]

In Hamburg, Germany there is a place called the Miniature Wunderland (miniature wonderland) . It's basically a small world build around the concept of model railways, with mountains, cities etc. There are also crowded scenes that remind me of these pictures, where they tell a lot of small stories and jokes. It's interesting to see how much these drawing have actually influenced.

[@kotzpenner]

I love that place, have been there twice already, it's just a work of love. There is so much to see lol

[@semi-automatic07]

Yoo I loved that place when I was there for holidays

[@FilmscoreMetaler]

You are right and now I just hope there is a mini Wallo hidden somewhere around there! Can anyone confirm?

[@marcst3199]

Imho, I think they were also or even more influenced by the "Wimmelbücher" Like the old ones of Ali Mitgusch. There a very similar with huge "slice of Life" crowd scenes with little Hidden jokes

[@henriqueprado9205]

In Gramado, Brazil we have a similar place called mini mundo.

[@cathyrayTV]

i think alongside where’s waldo it’s also worth mentioning the photographs in the i spy books. waldo illustrations are rewarding to explore for all the subtle details and visual gags, but i think walter wick’s photography for i spy is just as captivating just with how impressive the scenes are. the photos are all so intricate and charming in how theyre usually made out of stuff you could just find in your house and range from actually looking like photos of ordinary places to being these fantastical dreamscapes made by just the same means. i used to look through the books just imagining how i could create the same kinds of scenes, and nowadays i find myself thinking just the same way with more appreciation for what actually goes into them

[@ruthspeer8475]

Omg couldn't agree more you put this so well

[@thisisbetterthanmyprevious6674]

I hated Waldo with a passion as a kid. Those eye spy books were the antithesis of where’s Waldo. Whimsical joy for many hours.

[@Blakeneyd]

I love Walter Wick! His books are amazing and the work he and his team do to construct the scenes is incredible!

[@rosiefay7283]

For anyone puzzled by the reference to I Spy books: these are not the well-known spotter's guides for children, but a 1990s series of picture books by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick. (Descriptions from Wikipedia.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spy_(Scholastic)

[@ladykaydoesart7702]

Awesome stuff! I was happily suprised to hear about Boush in a Where's Waldo video. The owl watches.

[@MediaSubliminal]

When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Mike. He used to get notepads, like postits, and make little flip books. One in particular was a stick figure dog eating something, that thing traveling through its body, then being pooped out. Another thing he used to do was make these long scenes by taping a whole bunch of pieces of notebook paper together on the short edge, so it was one long piece. The scenes were always stick figures and buildings. Sometimes a city, sometimes a battle. It was a really weird thing to do. Neat, but weird. I sometimes wonder what ever happened to him.

[@abraxasjinx5207]

I had a friend in middle school that did drawings he called "dead bunnies"- where it would be a chaotic scene of anthropomorphic rabbits in various themes and you had to look around for the dead ones.

[@eviethekiwi7178]

These books played way more of a role in my childhood than I’d like to admit… as a near-sighted, neurodivergent weirdo, these books kept me company for pretty much all of primary school. i probably spent hundreds of hours admiring the illustration, figuring out all the visual jokes and gags. I rarely actually found Wally himself, and I barely actually looked for him. The sheer scale and detail of the scenes was more than enough to keep me interested, often for an entire afternoon. i also just realised there’s a reference to this painting at 8:25 in Asterix & Obelix In Belgium

[@bigredjanie]

I feel the same! My favourite was the Hollywood book, which has some of the hardest images to find.

[@tylerdamelondragon]

This really inspired me to do some werid crowded art of my own so thank you solar sands for this inspiring video

[@Scrofar]

Same! For something so complicated to look at, it could also be oddly therapeutic to do.

[@tylerdamelondragon]

@@Scrofar I know right

[@snelferino]

I remember hearing all the different names Waldo had It's mesmerising

[@soggyflipflop]

@Flower Don’t click, it’s just a bot who spams religious videos and also report them

[@deepfriedmochi]

Kazuh

[@cakeisyummy5755]

@@soggyflipflop I reported the Bot... Hopefully the Comment will be deleted.

[@finnthehat]

I could listen to this dude talk for hours

[@nathanielpillar8012]

From 1:50, the background music is an instrumental version of "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors; the band mentioned in the video.

[@3173_Delta]

As someone who has almost all of Jan van Haasteren's jigsaw puzzles that are 5k pieces, solved and hung up on a wall somewhere in our house - there's a lot of stuff that's in every one, not only the shark fin, there's also the crab, the fingers or the full hand sticking out of somewhere, the eyes in the dark, the pink toilet paper, the little yellow note, the list goes on...

[@doctordeathdefying132]

There’s an epic couple that cosplays as Waldo and Carmen San Diego! If you find them at cons and stuff, they’ll take a picture with you acting like they’re swearing you to secrecy of their location. It’s really epic!

[@therealjuralumin3416]

As a kid in the UK, whenever I heard "Waldo" referenced on TV, I just assumed it was done by TV shows to avoid copyright. I was really surprised when I learned he really was called Waldo in the US, it's weird...

[@notsyzagts7967]

Not really. Every country is familiar with a certain style of naming convention so character names are altered to fit a recognizable form in that particular region. Same thing happens with video game characters all the time. It's actually a common practice in popular media, not weird at all.

[@abifoggy2469]

It's called Where's Wally here in Australia too

[@SophisticatedGoat222]

@@notsyzagts7967 But I think Wally is still a more common and recognizable name to Americans than Waldo. I've certainly never heard of a real person named Waldo.

[@tofuontoast45]

he's a man with many names

[@DrewFeille]

"Waldo" is a much more unique and goofy sounding name, it immediately brings the character to mind. "Wally" sounds more common and ordinary, so it sounds less distinctive. At least, that's how it seems from the perspective of an American who's always known him as Waldo.

[@zouexzouex297]

the dutch painting "Die niederländischen Sprichwörter" bei Pieter Bruegel der Ältere f inished in 1559 is such a great example for wimmelbilder. It's one of the first paintings I remember being facinated with as a kid when i first saw it and tried to figure out all the diffrent phrases used.

[@jettpack9168]

i remember as a kid i would take pieces of paper with typed words already on and draw stick figures surrounding them, such as people clinging onto letters with an abyss below, intricate scenes of people interacting, etc

[@midorifox]

3:07 I never heard anybody refer to Wally as Ubaldo, to be honest. Just Wally, rather than Waldo. also I remember staring for countless hours at children games when I found that in the art book. It looked so different from the usual medieval art we studied, and I was fashinated by the sheer ammount of detail and lack of focal point, everywhere you looked was the focal point.

[@TrevorNWhite]

Now I’m tempted to see “Where’s Waldo” in Bosch landscapes, but I have a feeling he’d stick out

[@AlbinoAxolotl1993]

Not if dressed in period attire.

[@PlasmaBoom]

Before even reading any comments, I just want to say sir, that you make me love learning. The topics that you choose for these videos are always fascinating. Your videos are always constantly stimulating (rarely hangs on an image for long). And you pack them with so many great fun facts. I’ve probably shared the information I see in your videos with every friend or family member I hangout with. A lot of great conversation topics.

[@arristocrat6414]

I associate those Jan van Haasteren Puzzles with the dentist as the dentists in the Nl often hang up a poster above the chair to give you something to look at while your teeth are being worked on

[@whiteman12]

Wally is a great guy but he is really shy

[@G55544]

Nah that’s ubaldo

[@tunguskalumberjack9987]

I have a print of Brueghel’s “The Triumph Of Death” on the wall at the back of my desk, which I face as I work there. I frequently sit back as I take a break from whatever I’m painting or drawing, to just sip some coffee and lose myself in the artwork. I first encountered Bosch when in the 6th grade, and was immediately enthralled, eventually expanding my artistic obsessions to include Brueghel and others. I’m amazed that even today, I can look at “The Garden Of Earthly Delights” (especially the “Musical Hell” portion) and still find new details, after first studying it in 1986. I grew up on Richard Scarry books, and have always enjoyed very busy scenes with hundreds, if not thousands, of little details to search out. I didn’t come across the “Waldo” books until much later, and while I can appreciate them, I just never found them as interesting as the old artworks. Now that I’m older, I’d be very interested in giving them another chance- my tastes have really evolved over the years, and many things that I once dismissed have a new appeal for me. Thanks for the great video!

[@kkronkk]

I have an intense hate for Waldo. Just before Christmas 2021, we were doing themed dress-up in my high school and one of the days was 'candy cane.' I wear a striped red and white shirt and red beanie and got the 'I found Waldo!' comment from around 20 people who thought they were oh so clever. -_-

[@salty7631]

Sounds like you didn't choose the Waldo life, the Waldo life found you

[@theman933]

I found Waldo!

[@idek4973]

Cute hahahahaha

[@aerpods]

@Logan Roof ayo wtf who invited this mfer

[@crooked9210]

I really like the direction the channel has gone over the years. Went from laughing at bad drawings on deviant art to deep analysis on various topics. Very cool stuff

[@jake4ever431]

7:17 is a "this pic goes so hard feel free to screenshot" moment

[@bron-yr-aur7990]

Solar: "Y'know, all this talk of drawing dense crowds and hidden details reminds me of a much...older artist." Me: It's Bosch, isn't it? 6:17 Me: God fucking damn it

[@sphrcl.]

Solar Sands is like a solar eclipse: It doesn't happen often, but when it does, you know it's going to be special!

[@Sxkielecior]

i like your profile picture

[@crisismoon880]

How many times is this comment going to be copy and pasted?

[@AGM-Prism]

Solar Sands always comes off as being a fairly serious channel, and then the occasional Sam Hyde and uncanny Mr Incredible throws me for a loop 🤣 love it

[@briggy4359]

Don't you know that Sam Hyde is a N... not so good man?

[@sunbirth4795]

wheres the Sam Hyde

[@danielalorbi]

@@sunbirth4795 0:14

[@TomSistermans]

Omg Jan van Haasteren! As a kid my family's dentist had hung a Van Haasteren illustration on the ceiling, I was always kind of excited going because I got to look at it forever, as a kid with ADHD it's honestly miraculous how well I got to focus on this illustration. It was specifically one of a swimming pool that was filled to the brim with people. Hilariously, the shark fin was not in the water. Also when I got a bit overexcited, my dentist just instructed me to look for certain things, smart guy...

[@annamezebish5747]

The primary reason for brief attention to pieces in a museum for me (and others i assume) is the overwhelming amount of pieces and the individual importance to each one. Hundreds to thousands of pieces in one museum and they each demand intense and thorough appreciation

[@zedianzediessi]

I have been working for the last two years on a project called doodling in class which is basically a giant 42” x 86” mural consisting of hundreds of thousand small doodles that tell a bunch of different stories. The scale is all relative to 1/2 inch high stick figures and everything is layed out like your looking at some kids doodles during math class if they were enough to cover a wall. The whole project has been about packing as much density and detail into a drawing as physically possible without using repetition. Also the significance of variety of stories has the goal of drawing in viewers who can look at the work for dozens of hours. To enable this I am starting a print line so that people can take home individual segments of the mural to look at and study deeper. So you can imagine my delight when I found this video. It was so cool to see that there are others making very similar art. Solar sans is just getting better and better!

[@poweroffriendship2.0]

If Waldo is a horror movie villain, the movie tagline would be like _"FIND WALDO BEFORE HE FINDS YOU"._ That man is truly a champion of hide and seek game.

[@5iwot5]

I'm not subscribed to a lot of 'art-historian youtubers', so I'm glad I found you and subscribed about a year ago, great video!

[@Mikeastro]

Super cool that you talked about Jan van Haasteren. I didn't know he was known at all across the Dutch border. My father has completed countless of his jigsaw puzzles. They're a lot of fun to solve and appreciate afterwards

[@dino.niichan1991]

What really amazes me the most was the artist's dedication to drawing each panel by hand. I really admire him for the persistence in drawing an entire page of crowd scenes, something I can't imagine doing in my entire life.

[@BaldPerspective]

Excellent video! I love the way you transition from one artist/style to the next & then tie it all together at the end.

[@ViciousPigMonster]

i always love looking back at these kind of things, they seem so simple when youre a kid and as an adult you recognize how much of a labor of love it was for the artist c: i think another really interesting avenue to look down would be walter wick, the artist that staged the iSpy book pictures c:

[@Apparatus8]

Man. Your content always mesmerizes me how it can go so weird and take so many turns while still staying on topic. I hope more people have this style of content.

[@--Paws--]

When I was a kid, I always really like looking around and become immersed in the scene. I really like looking at what's happening around. Finding out what happens sometimes leads me to where Waldo is at by chance but it was not my intention.

[@orang1921]

I had only one of these books and most of the pages were half-torn or completely gone. I spent so much time looking through those and wondering what would be on the missing areas. Loved it. Might order the box set just to look through them.

[@mia-ui4xd]

this is the best channel on youtube and nobody can change my mind

[@NorthEevee]

Finishing this 15 minute video took me over an hour. I just got so encapsulated in some of the art. Seeing all the finer details, the gags. I love this kind of stuff. Kind of makes me want to look at regular paintings and see if I can spot something that no-one has seen before.

[@imconfused6955]

That's one of the sickest album covers I've ever seen. I'm listening to it just for that

[@ohivonmenisunuoya]

Which one, lol 😆

[@peterk1821]

I’ve always loved Colin Thompson’s work, I really appreciate knowing the word for that style of artwork. I used to (and still do) spend hours looking at each page of his books

[@07lipe077]

This is... my favorite art channel on youtube? Congrats Solar on the quality.

[@bugpocket]

Excellent video! Really made me think about art a lot closer and how I would like to draw this type of picture.

[@yourbackgarden6743]

You are so brilliant at writing scripts for these videos ending the whole thing on what started the video. What a wonderful way to tie it all back together.

[@EmberTheShark]

As a 90's German Kid, this was truly a blast from the past. I own(ed) every official Walther/Wally book and spent hours on each Page looking for the funniest Mini-Scene. Thanks for this great Video.

[@timefragment5387]

Waldo is a legendary character!

[@pippi2285]

His name is wally

[@cellardoor7500]

In Peter Greenaway’s film “Drowning by Numbers” …number-counting, the rules of games and the repetitions of the plot are all devices which emphasise structure. Through the course of the film each of the numbers 1 to 100 appear, the large majority in sequence, often seen in the background, sometimes spoken by the characters.” Hiding things within art slows the viewer down. It’s great.

[@matthewsullivan9846]

Excellent video by solar sands as per usual

[@dopeshades4134]

I love this type of art. I did a similar take on my science folder back in high school. It was a take on a Rube Goldberg machine beginning with dripping water into a beaker. Overtime it became this Tim Burton/ M.C. Escher-esque factory of water becoming different states of matter. It was very detailed and you could follow it as a singular maze if you paid attention to where the waterflow went. There were additional flows that caused things to happen such as steam pushing other objects into other things. I wish I had kept it.

[@janetrose3750]

That's dope! I'd love to see something similar, if possible?

[@peterfrank3365]

Now that you brought it up, I recalled one of the panels of Hergé's 'The Calculus Affair', when Tintin and Haddock took the backseat of a speed-freak in his Alfa Romeo. Maybe not too fancy, but it did stick out and the closest thing of a "crowd painting" that I recognized from my childhood.

[@artastic_friend]

I remember as a kid I had 3 of the where’s Waldo books- One of my favorite pages was the underwater ocean one- I don’t know why but that one was always really fun for me to look at

[@liasharidid98]

Jan Bajtlik also creates a similar style. Bajtlik has been cooperating with the Hermes fashion house since 2016. His latest project is 10 scarves from the "Animapolis" collection, which present a futuristic vision of Warsaw.

[@MrSlunkyPics]

The painting “Children’s Games” was in my social textbook in the seventh grade. We even analyzed the different things going on within the picture.

[@GarretRB]

Always a good day when Solar Sands posts

[@obama281]

I want a whole video of you just naming off medieval expressions

[@elegathor4251]

Yo! I'm the who made the Archívum illustrations! Thank you Solar Sands! 6:05

[@prump]

ok and

[@prump]

jk

[@devilgene7330]

can't believe you didn't talk about blue ball machine, great video anyways, thanks so much for introducing us to those !

[@Melchizedeki]

Beautiful video! Editing was so crisp and the content on screen displayed what you were saying so well!