artwork

Marker Portraits by Mr Frivolous

marcos333 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:16:48 +0000

Thru Abduzeedo and other inspiration websites, you probably have seen almost everything in terms of art, from wicked installations to regular acrylic art, there are no limits to creativity. Ok, but I must admit I have never seen someone doing such beautiful artworks with markers. Yep, regular markers, like the ones we used to draw when we were kids and nowadays we mostly use for sketches, just check this guy out.

You can see more of this awesomeness at his Flickr.

About the author

My name is Marcos Torres, I'm Graphic Artist from Porto Alegre, Brasil. You can get to know more about me by acessing my Personal Website or by following me on Twitter: @marcos333. You can also see some of my last projects at my Flickr.

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Interview with Manipulator Alexander Lataille

Drew — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:48:39 +0000

I featured Alex a while ago here on Abduzeedo; since then, he has improved quite impressively. He’s got a couple of new artworks that are surreal and intriguing. I sat down with him for a quick chat about everything he’s been up to.

Alex, tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to get involved with graphic manipulations.

I am 21 years old and attending Bryant, a business school, in New England on the East Coast of the United States. I started becoming interested with digital art on a text-gaming site in the spring of 2005. Creating simple avatars was my focus; some members would make their own in Adobe Photoshop. I started borrowing some off the internet at first, and then started making my own… That lead to signatures for a year or so, and after that I started some manipulations in which I would knowingly use some copyrighted images, though was not familiar with the repercussions. I was motivated by competition of friends and other artists, striving to be one of the best, even though I was far from it. I began with manipulations because it was the only artwork I was capable of. I started applying to slashTHREE since its second pack, and would apply every few months but continued to get rejected. In June of 2008, I was accepted into IntrinsicNature. After creating a few works at IN, I continued to improve. I finally passed the application process for slashTHREE after eight applications; I created two works for their following pack, and have continued submitting.

Moving onto your artwork, what sort of time and creativity goes into the designing process and how do you go about creating your artwork?

I'm not sure how I get the ideas and concepts contained in my work. Sometimes I'm about to fall asleep and some idea pops into my head; it just depends if I have enough motivation to write it down. Like other artists, the ideas don’t end up as planned; I never sketch my ideas, I can picture them clearly. I strive to create original and surreal concepts in order to differentiate myself from other manipulators. I never create trendy manipulations, such as a woman in a pretty dress, in a pretty background, or scenes with castles, waterfalls, many abstract effects with a dancer; there are plenty of other common manipulations as well. I always try to use stocks of the highest quality, and freshness. Freshness: meaning they haven't been seen or used before. There are plenty of manipulations that are instantly dismissed by most viewers because they contain stocks which have been used countless times.

My advice is to learn how to handle critique, accept it, and make the necessary changes and know why you make those changes. Because next time you may encounter the same problem and you will know how to deal with it. If you could take one advice from this interview, it’s that exchanging critique and being able to accept negative comments will start to improve your works or improve them faster.

My “Recreating Love” piece is a good example of my concept/ideas, as well as the creation process. The entire process of this piece probably took about 60-70 hours of total work time, excluding the time looking for stocks.

You obviously enjoy what you do, are you looking for manipulation to be a hobby or a profession?

For now it's just a hobby, and it will probably stay that way, I do them for fun. I’m going into finance, but I have thought of creating some type of business which incorporates digital art. I am graduating in May this year, and I am looking to do financial analysis or project management for any advertising agency. During slow working weeks, I’m sure I could talk to the artists at some agency, show them my work, and have their artists amazed by what some finance guy can create.

I’m sure they’ll be quite impressed! How has college helped you to excel in the art industry?

Well college hasn’t helped me much, considering there is not one art class here except for one class. But college gives me more free time than over the summer when I’m working, and certainly freer time than what I had in high school.

Very interesting, I see that you work in a bunch of collectives, how's that going for you?

The art collectives have helped me to stay motivated, and become a much better artist. The critique I receive accelerates an “ordinary” artist’s improvement. I also have many contacts on MSN which allows for a better understanding of the critique provided, because you can always ask questions if you’re unsure about what the other artist is talking about. I highly recommend anyone who practices manipulation, matte, painting, drawing, 3D, illustration, photography, music, or video to join one of these groups or collectives. I think it’s more that many artists aren’t aware of these groups and the benefits they provide, such as exposure and improvement.

I produce work for IN and slashTHREE which I’ve mentioned earlier. These art collectives have standards for joining; if they let everyone who applies join the group, the art works produced would have a high variance in quality. Viewers wouldn’t get the same euphoria or inspiration after looking at an art pack; they would feel inspired by one art piece and the next could totally ruin that effect.

Within the groups, there are standards for the work produced for these packs and exhibitions. This is determined by a consensus vote of the artists’ work in a particular group. These standards continue to push my art further every time, because both of these group’s standards have been going up as well. For the most part, if you look at each pack it progressively gets better and better, and shows how a team of artists can learn and grow with one another.

A team is always important, great to have people who know where you’re coming from. Are there any artists in those collectives that motivate or inspire you?

I wouldn’t say any inspire me; I don’t really get inspired by art anymore, although I guess some movies give me inspiration.

Here’s a prompting question, what's in store for you in the future?

My future work dream is to get out of college and start making $50-60k a year. After 3-5 years get a boost up to $150-200, if possible, then, if I like the particular job a lot I will stick with it, but if not, then drop to a state or local job, and start a business as an entrepreneur. That way I’m still earning some money from the easier job, and by then I will have built up some assets, credit, and savings to the point where I’d know how to invest it and earn higher returns on what I’ve earned. But who knows if I will still hold the same interest in art ten years from now.

What advice do you have for any aspiring artists or readers?

Like I said earlier, make use of critique. Don’t annoy other artists, but get what you can. Don’t follow the trends if you want to stand out from the crowd, and yes sometimes that is difficult, but obviously don’t do it to the extent that you don’t enjoy producing art anymore.

Another word of advice which pertains to manipulations; don’t let other people tell you manipulations are stupid, easy, or just art that everyone does starting out. Manipulation is becoming ever so popular because of the growing commercialization of that type of work. I’ve been told many times to paint my entire work, and that it isn’t good enough unless it’s painted; or doesn’t have a unique style. Don’t allow opinions like that to get through to you and impact your motivation to keep producing work. If you can, use them to stay motivated and prove those people wrong. Everyone wants others to appreciate their work; don’t deny it, we all do. Manipulated works are unique when you execute ideas in a way that haven’t been done before, such as my “Adrenaline Rush” and “Sleep Deprivation” pieces.

This last piece of advice is mostly for artists who have recently started digital art; the most important attribute for an art piece is the creativity. You can always learn technical skills, but some artists just never have enough, or don’t develop enough of an imagination or creativity to produce some unique art on their own. Your imagination is a powerful tool, express it! There are many artists that create works just because they want to be popular, and love the satisfaction from the popularity, even if that means doing what everyone else does.

Any last words for our readers?

Try your best to never give up on a unique idea or concept, even if that means putting it off to a later date.

Thanks Alex!

About the author

I'm Andrew, a 19 year-old student currently residing in Minnesota, but attending school on the East Coast of the United States. I've been interested in graphic design, web development, and networking since I was young, and I'm now pursuing a double major in digital arts and business. Here at Abduzeedo, I'll be interviewing and featuring artists and their work, so if there are any questions you'd like to see answered, post a comment. Enjoy! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @awashuta.

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Beautiful Artworks by Jonathan Wong

abduzeedo — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:04:49 +0000

Jonathan Wong has just updated his portfolio and website with some new and incredible work. If you do not know him, Wong is a digital artist from Ireland and he is part of the DEPTHCORE collective. Also he has an impressive list of clients including big players such as HP, Mazda, Orange, Comcast. Wong has been featured for important magazines like Computer Arts Projects and Photoshop Creative.

In this post we will show you some of the Wong's new works, but we highly recommend that you visit his website.

My name is Jonathan Wong and I am 19 years of age. I am an aspiring graphic designer/illustrator born and raised in Limerick, Ireland. I am currently studying Graphic Design in the Limerick School of Art and Design (In my second year).

Art has always been a big passion of mine, ever since I was young. My primary goal in life is to make a living out of doing something I love, and that is the hope with art.

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

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65 Examples of Awesome Album Artwork - Part 2

amanda — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:38:05 +0000

It's time for part two! Thanks for all your suggestions! A lot of the images I'm going to show you today came from sleevage, a site I came across dedicated to music, art, and design. Definitely worth checking out!

And as always you can drop me a line on twitter or facebook!

Daniel Elliott

André Coelho

Delphine Ettinger

Only50 / Society Style

Alex Koplin

KalleGraphics

Corrado Grilli

Manuel Lariño

Foe

Pete Barnett

About the author

Amanda Macedo is a designer and blogger by passion and profession. Living and working out of her backpack, she can now be found in San Francisco, CA, biking, writing, dancing, and tweeting .

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50 Examples of Awesome Album Artwork - Part 1

amanda — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:27:22 +0000

Following my articles on posters, I received a suggestion from @MateToth90 to try a post with indie CD covers.

I thought it was a really good idea so I went on the lookout for some cool album artwork to share with you guys today. I found so many that I decided to break it up into two articles to avoid major computer crashing around the world. Stay tuned for part two ;)

Oh, and there's probably more really good ones out there that I missed out on, so send me cool ones you found through twitter or facebook and I'll include them in the next one!

rulico

Matt Govaere

Razvan Garofeanu

Jeremy Dowd

Jonathan Dickson

Jason Drakeford

KIDPLASTIK

David Bez

Luke Wright

Ricky Trickartt

Lauren Burke

Three Bears Design

Gokhan Eryaman

Jason Alejandro

Nate James

Jónas Valtýsson

Oliver Ward

Thiago Santana

teagan white

Miguel Vega

Haik Avanian

About the author

Amanda Macedo is a designer and blogger by passion and profession. Living and working out of her backpack, she can now be found in San Francisco, CA, biking, writing, dancing, and tweeting .

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The Beauty of Illustrations by Gary Fernandez

paul0v2 — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:11:54 +0000

Straight from Spain, Gary Fernandez has one of the craziest styles of illustrations that can easily be called artwork as for he recently had an exhibition in Shanghai, China. Check out his work and be amazed by the illustrations you will see.

Spanish illustrator Gary Fernández began to be seriously interested in illustration while working in the design team of the Spanish magazine Vanidad in 2003/2004.

He then started working as a freelance illustrator for clients like Nokia, Zune Originals, Volkswagen, Lucky Strike, Camel and Coca Cola, to name a few. In addition, Gary started running the t-shirt brand VelvetBanana in 2005, where he is the Creative Director. His first collection premiered in spring 2006.

At the beginning of 2008 he published his first book project called “Introduction to Fantastic Girls, Future Landscapes & The Most Beautiful Birds Ever Seen”. It was inspired by the sketchbooks he had been saving for years. A source of endless visual inspiration, this project became the starting point for Gary’s current illustration work. Gary spends his time trying to come up with new worlds full of details, beauty and imagination. He creates environments inspired by the things he loves, the worlds he believes should exist and his life experiences.

Gary Fernández believes in the idea of illustration as a tool for showing the hidden beauty of the ordinary things.

For more visit www.garyfernandez.net

About the author

Hi there! I'm Paulo Canabarro, 26 year old web designer - paulocanabarro.com I'm from Brazil currently living and working out of Providence RI, USA. I'm truly passionate about design of all kinds, finding and sharing inspiration here has become part of my life. If you like to know more about me or get in touch visit my website paulocanabarro.com Stock me at Twitter and Dribbble

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Impressive and Creative Digital Surrealism

paul0v2 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:15:13 +0000

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. Today surrealism is no longer a movement but a type of art that a lot of artists like to use to express them selves, in this digital era surrealism is one of the top digital art styles. So here is a great selection of digital artworks to inspire you with the new generation of surrealism.

About the author

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20 Fantasy Digital Paintings

paul0v2 — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:42:42 +0000

Fantasy art is the freedom for your imagination, if you looking for something different and unexpected in a artwork, always long with dragons, fairies, angels and demons. It's great to see all these crazy things put together in such good concepts with great illumination and colors, check it out.

Did you like this post? How about the Abduzeedo's new Limited Edition Tee "Goddess of Abduction"

About the author

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Awesome Bob Marley Artworks

paul0v2 — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:17:07 +0000

Today makes 28 years since the biggest legend of reggae passed away, Bob Marley will sure be remembered for a lot more years for the person he was and the for the message that he still passes on through his music, check out some artworks and don't worry because every little thing will be alright.

“Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold...” Bob Marley

“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality . Wake Up and Live!” Bob Marley

“One good thing about music, when it hits- you feel no pain” Bob Marley

“Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?” Bob Marley

“Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.” Bob Marley

“The good times of today, are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.” Bob Marley

“You ain't gonna miss your water until your well runs dry” Bob Marley

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind." Bob Marley

"My music will go on forever. Maybe it's a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever." Bob Marley

"Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny." Bob Marley

"Me only have one ambition, y'know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together - black, white, Chinese, everyone - that's all." Bob Marley

"None but ourselves can free our minds." Bob Marley

"People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people." Bob Marley

"Tell the children the truth." Bob Marley

"Every time I plant a seed, He say kill it before it grow, he say kill it before they grow." Bob Marley

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20 Awesome Wolverine Artworks

paul0v2 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:34:45 +0000

Tomorrow the new " X-Man Origins: Wolverine " comes out and I know there is a lot of wolverine fans here, so to get you inspired and in the mood for tomorrow's showtime I selected some awesome wolverine artworks that you must see.

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Artwork Feature #3: Rob Shields - Until There's Nothing Left

aloa — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:02:10 +0000

This is part of our new weekly series of posts. Here we feature a selected piece of art and have a little chat with the designer who made it. They give us a bit of background information and details about how the work was conceptualized and created.

This week's pick is Rob Shields "Until There's Nothing Left". Rob Shields became a good of mine after we worked together a couple of times. I wrote an article about him and we collaborated for a personal piece. Two months ago he made a simple but great design with a nice shining typeface. Because it shows the universe it fits perfectly to the abduzeedo homepage. Rob Shields sat down and wrote a useful description about the background of the image. Enjoy.

Rob Shields about "Until There's Noting Left":

Ok so if you're familiar with the whole "indie" music scene you might recognize the title of this piece as it is borrowed from a 2006 album by the artist Kill Hannah. Then again you might not, to tell you the truth I do not own nor have I listened to the full album. I just know of the band and decided to borrow their album title to offer a jumping off point for a piece of art. That being said this image was not intended to represent any outside emotional state or statement, basically I took this phrase and internalized it. I didn't do this with the intention of making a piece of art per se, it just happened naturally. This to me was an indication that, if I wanted to, I could make a piece of art based on the title that would seem somewhat genuine (at least I hoped). Of course this all happens within one or two seconds and is definitely much simpler than I am making it sound. You know you see something that you identify with, a statement, a sentiment and you want to express it in your own personal way.

This was a personal project but it started out differently than most of my personal projects. Since this piece was based on a phrase, I decided to make the phrase the main backdrop of the piece. The difference for me is that usually I create the image first and title it once it is finished. With this I had the title first, and this had a big impact on the composition. Given a choice between having an idea in mind and not having an idea, I'd choose not having an idea any day. For me if I set out to say something specific nine times out of ten what I end up saying is false. If I set out with nothing and try to discover what I want to say nine times out of ten what I end up saying is true. I think I got that idea from an old book on how to write fiction. That particular book was all about telling you to never write the ending of your story first but hey whatever works for you is what I say.

Now actually working on the project was really straight forward. The title suggests emptiness so I decided I wanted my canvas to be outer space because, well, "space is a lonely town". Next I picked out my text and started to mess with lighting effects until I was happy. I had no preconceived drafts or sketches, I just like to jump right in and see what happens. I believe that the image of the girl I ended up using was not the original image that I chose for the piece so for a while it was not working and eventually I decided I needed to scrap my original stock photo and use another. That was the only real problem and once I had the all important center piece of the image I just added a few more textures and effects until I was happy with the overall depth and complexity of the image.

As far as knowing when the image is finished I'm going to echo some of the other designers and say you just have to wait. Actually the longer you wait the more obvious it will be whether or not a piece is finished. Sometime I think it would be nice to put my designs away for an entire year before looking at them again. Obviously this is a bit unrealistic but you get the point.

Rob Shields just released his new homepage. His portfolio can also be seen on his DeviantArt-account

About the author

Aloa is the moniker of the german/greek graphic designer/filmmaker & musician Alexis Papageorgiou. Im glad to share great artistic work with the readers on Abduzeedo. Contact me on aloa@abduzeedo.com or follow my Twitter and Facebook page

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Artwork Feature #1: James White - Robot Rock

aloa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:59:38 +0000

This is part of our new weekly series of posts. Here we feature a selected piece of art and have a little chat with the designer who made it. They give us a bit of background information and details about how the work was conceptualized and created.

So I finally started publishing this new series. I was browsing through some designs I found on Deviantart and started thinking about the details. I wanted to know what tools the designer used to create them. And I wondered why so few artists decribe their developing process. This thought inspired me to create this new series of posts. Hope you all enjoy them. You can suggest artwork for the following week in the comments.

James White about "Robot Rock":

I was very late getting into Daft Punk's music, the first full album I heard was Alive 2007 so I missed the boat by about 10 years. When I discover something that really appeals to me, I tend to listen to it full tilt for a week or so and naturally this influenced my artwork. I wanted to do something in the cosmic style I had been experimenting with at the time, but also wanted to keep the essence of Daft Punk intact, namely their live show. The result was my Robot Rock piece which used subtle elements from the Alive 2007 cover.

Since this was a personal project, I was my own critic. I wanted something that combined the series I had been working on, as well as something that (hypothetically) would fit into the design and branding that surrounds Daft Punk. They obviously have a very sharp eye for the materials that represent the group and I wanted a piece of art that would feel at home with their existing brand.

I always start out sketching some general compositions of how I would like the elements to sit (grids, logos, effects, etc). I sometimes sketch up to 40 thumbnails before I land on something I think might work. I then move to Illustrator where I create some general color and composition layouts using simple vectors. This helps me see very quickly if my sketch will work as a digital piece. I then construct my real vector elements in Illustrator, then construct everything in Photoshop where I add lighting, texture, effects, etc.

The only real problems I encounter with my works are how overlayed elements react with what is beneath. I tend to spend hours adjusting opacities, blending modes, color treatments, levels, etc to get things working the way I want. Every little adjustment throws all elements into flux, so I have to be very patient as I tweak things in Photoshop.

I treated this design the same way I treat all my designs: if I wake up the next day and I still like it, then it must be finished. The Robot Rock piece took around 2 and a half days to complete because, as I said, it wasn't sitting right with me the next day :) But eventually everything snapped into place the way I had originally intended. - James White

Buy this design as a 18" x 24" poster in the SignalNoise Store and visit the artists website.