Travels Through Neo Surrealist Art Land

Russian born Artist George Grie, now lives and works in Canada where he produces these fantastically Surreal digital images, that he identifies as Neo-surrealism.  We have chosen a few of what we considered our favourites, we just could not stop adding, just one more, just one more...  His choice of imaginary worlds, combined with the titles he gives his works, adds such a complete picture, that you could see each one as the start of fully formed book.  Enjoy the voyage through Grie's imagination.

Body Painting or Face Drawing Illusions?

We would like to start by saying that these pictures are not mirror images or photo manipulation.  German Artist Sebastian Bieniek achieves this fantastic effect by drawing on the faces of the models and cleverly disguising the middle of their face.  The amazing thing about these drawings is, that the effect is so convincing, even though the drawn images are far from hyper realistic.  In the mirror effect and in the sideways images, Bieniek makes fantastic use of the eyes to set up the proportions of the face or faces and completes the illusion with fantastic photo angles.  These photographs, first came out in 2013 but, we thought that they were too good to pass up and we are glad to make them part of our, ever growing, body painting collection.

Architectural and Movie - Pencil Sculpture and Carving

Talented multi disciplinary Russian Artist, Salavat Fidai (Салават Фидаи) applies his talents to various forms of art that include: Painting, Photography and Sculpting / Carving.  In today's post we are going to cover the last one, we have put together, static images and videos to show you, just how amazingly precise and delicate his carving movements have to be, to find the finish object in the lead of the pencils he uses.

Multi-directional Surreal Architecture Drawings and Paintings

Spanish Artist Cinta Vidal Agulló, says that she discovered her love drawing when she was a child, at the age of 16, she started apprenticing and leaning how to work on backdrops for cinematography.  We have included some images and a video to show you, just how lovely they are but, our focus today is going to be on her Multi-directional Surreal Architecture Drawings and Paintings, suspended in air.  Her work in this field, seems to be reminiscent and influenced by M. C. Escher's work.

Cats and Dogs Interactive Animal Drawings

Russian Valerie Susik (Валерия Суслопарова) draws these interactive illustrations of dogs and cats with items in the real world.  We have tried to interpret what we think the cats and dogs or their owners are saying in the image.  If you have ideas for different captions, let us know know in the comment section below.  Enjoy...

Scratchboard Drawings Through Time and Lives

American Artist Douglas Smith studied Sculpture, Painting and Printmaking, but his main love was for Illustrations and telling a story.  Below and above are examples of his Drawings, Illustrations made with the use of the Scratchboard medium. Scratchboard is defined by Wikipedia as "Sharp knives and tools that are used for etching into a thin layer of white China clay that is coated with black India ink".  For the coloured ones, more layers of clay in different colours are laid, so that the deeper the incision the more colours are available to the artist.

Steampunk Jewelry from Recycled Watches and Bullets

Nicholas Hrabowski started his business when, having always loved skeleton watches, he decided to buy for himself, a pair of watch movement cufflinks.  When he realised that, what was out there was not to his taste, he made them for himself.  Hrabowski has now made a business out of it, with many different variations in design.  Hrabowski uses all sorts of recycled parts, from watch cases and movements to bullets to create these very unique Steampunk Jewelry pieces.

Body Paintings on Skin Canvases

Craig Tracy says that he has been an artist since a young age, drawing and painting with the support and encouragement of his parents that, at the age of 15 bought him his first airbrush.  This saw him spend a lot of time practising his art, eventually becoming a freelance artist at 20.  The amazing way in which he is able to make lines look straight on the curved bodies of his models and the way he manages to blend them into the back ground is what helps make his designs so special.  Following is Craig Tracy's previous work on DesignStack, Link=> "Body Painting 2".

Food Art Sculptures and Carved Fruit and Vegetables

Italian Painter Performer and Sculptor Valeriano Fatica from Ortolano Production (Greengrocer Productions) is the person that created these fantastic sculptures / carvings from fruits and vegetables.  We thought that the static images are good but, if you want to see how it is done, there is no substitute for a video, so we have added 6 of them below.

Human Body and the Ocean, Drawings on Photos

Icelandic Photographer and Illustrator Giulia Pex, currently works and resides in Italy and is said to be at her most comfortable when living in her own head.  Pex has been drawing since a young age and now is mixing 2 arts, drawing and photography to come up with her own style.  There are two section to this post, the Human Anatomical one and the Oceanographies one, where the photographs were taken by Photographer Luca Broglia.

Scenes of Realistic Night Time Paintings

Nigh time scenes are not that common when it comes to paintings and that is why we have decided to concentrate on Evgeny Lushpin's dusk artwork.  What makes these paintings special is the concept, the choice of light and the realistic look Lushpin is capable of infusing into them.  Most of his work is based on scenes of the major cities around the world, if you have been there, it will remind you of them, if you haven't, it sparks the flame in your mind to imagine its urban surrounding.

Fantasy Digital Art from a Middle School Teacher

Jeremiah Morelli is a German Middle School Teacher that composes art in his spare time.  When the mood strikes him, he just has to sit down and set his mind free to create.  Morelli comes up, as you will see below, with some sweet fantasy illustrations, of the dream worlds that populate his mind and imagination.  Enjoy... 

Architecture - Joysxee Island, Living on Recycling

This post will cover the story of Artist Richart Sowa and how he went about building his man made islands. The first Island, was called Spiral Island and constructed in 1998, which was washed ashore by hurricane Emily in 2005.  In 2008 he built Joysxee Island that is now opened for tours.  Here are some stats for Spiral Island: he used strong nets to hold 250,000 recycled plastic bottles on which he lay plywood and bamboo, sand on top of this, plus planting and a 2 story house with composting toilet and a solar oven.  The mangroves he planted kept the structure so solidly together, that it was beached almost intact on shore after the hurricane (see the first video).  The second one, Joysxee Island is featured in the second video below, where Richart Sowa talks us through all of the ingenuous living comforts he built in to it and his future plans.

Surreal Paintings and Optical Illusions

British Neil Simone has been an Artist for the last 40 years and today we are going to focus on his surreal paintings.  Like some of the best in this field, Simone gives great importance to the titles he gives his pieces, that as well as explaining them, form clever puns and double meanings.  You can enlarge the images by pressing them (not the first one) so that you can see the smooth transitions of scenery within the paintings, that helps form, the beautiful optical illusions within them.

Relaxing with Simple Doodle Drawings

Finnish Artist Jag på Ekholmen uses art to provide a period of relaxation, from her daily responsibilities and her work.  She divides her time between drawings watercolours and photography.  Today we are going to show you her doodle drawings.  Mostly black ink on paper, they are very well done and balanced, we hope you like them as much as we do.

Street Art Paintings with Expressions that Talk

Talented Brazilian Artist Aqi Luciano creates Street art and Studio Art (on canvas and on paper).  Today we are going to concentrate on his Street Art.  The beauty of this form of art is that, it does not belong to one person or institution but, to the people and the neighbourhood it was created in.  It is free to consume and you can admire it every time you pass by it, adding a splash of colour and beauty to your day. 

Minimalist Black and White Watercolors

We have chosen today, a very unusual medium, Black and White Watercolors by Indonesian Artist Elicia Edijanto. She does a magnificent job of bringing these fascinating minimalist paintings to life.  Most of them feature a relationship between one animal and one person.  Even though the paintings do not have a lot of detail, they manage to get across the closeness and the tenderness of the encounter.

Surreal Salvador Dali Wood Furnishings

Alan Gwizdowski defines himself as Photographer and Director of Photography, but today we are going to see some of his woodworking projects.  We have no idea if his work was inspired by the famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali, but they are very reminiscent of some of his work.  Lovely sculptures that have very functional applications.

Celebrity Paintings Images and Videos

British Artist Jonathan Harris started his carer at the age of 16, as a freelance commercial artist.  Since then, he has explored and tested his skills in many different forms of Art like: Drawings, Illustrations, Sculptures, Photography and Paintings.  We are going to visit his paintings in today's post, with images and videos to show you how he sets up his paintings, his backgrounds and the Celebrity Portraits he depicts.

Human Anatomy with Food Art Sculptures

Food Art is very popular at the moment but, Romanian Sculptor, Illustrator and Photographer Dan Cretu brings it to a new level with these Anatomical representations of the human body, using fruits and vegetables.  We could not resit but put a few more of his pieces below them, even though strictly speaking, they are not anatomical. Enjoy...

Quilling Designs for Recycled Paper Jewelry

Italian Architect and Artist from Quilly Paper Design uses paper to make jewelry earrings, bracelets and necklaces.  The method she uses to shape the paper is called Quilling.  Quilling is an art form that uses a number strips of paper rolled up to accomplish a more complex design.  As you may have guessed we have not been able to discover the name of this artist, but what we have been able to find out is that, all her creations are made from recycled paper and that the attraction for this form of art, started when she bought a book for her little girl, that explained how to create quilling designs.

Hand Drawn Zentangle, Doodles, Illustrations and Drawings

French Artist Celiline describes herself as a non professional Artist, that said she would love to make this love of hers into a full time job.  She uses her Moleskine book to produce Illustrations, Doodles, Drawings and Zentangles.  Zentangles are attained by repeating patterns to create an overall design.  These drawings are becoming very popular, not only their production, but also the colouring-in, that is seen as relaxing and distressing, sometimes used as a therapeutic tool.

Painting and Drawing Portraits with Dry Brush

In this post Igor Kazarin shows us and tells us about this amazing technique.  It is achieved by using a very small amount of oil paint, mixed with solvents like sewing machine lubricating oil.  A small amount is put on the brush which is rubbed in on the palette, to the point where the brush looks dry.  Now it can be used to paint on watercolour paper and any mistakes and highlights can be erased with a rubber.  This amazing paint effect makes painted images look like pencil drawings. The sped up videos below, will show you just how good this technique is and how the shades are layered to make the painting look so realistic.

3D Street Pavement Art Painting

Kurt Wenner sold everything he had, to move to Italy and become an artist.  When he arrived he did not have a lot of money left and was not allowed to work.  He used museums as his classroom looking and recreating drawings and paintings from some of the best artworks in the world.  His life took a positive turn when he was asked to work with a street artist and was given a share of the profit raised from the public.  From then onwards he realised he could make a living at this transient and temporary form of art.  To pass on some of the knowledge he has amassed during the years, he runs workshops, demonstrations and gives talks.  The first video will give you a bit more information about his beginnings.

You Are what You Eat - Photo Manipulation

American Artist Sarah DeRemer has done and has tried many things in her life, all of these experiences have enriched the art she makes and the diversity of concepts she approaches in it.  As well as achieving a degree in Studio Art, she has worked as a Veterinary Technician and is currently Teaching English in South Korea, whilst dedicating her spare time to Photography, with a particular interest in digital art and photo manipulation.  Below are a few examples of her work including "You Are what You Eat" and other.

Tiny Miniature Pottery Vases, Teapots and Bowls

American Pottery maker Jon Almeda from Almeda Pottery tells us on his site that, for years he pushed and strived go as big as he could with his pottery.  One day when he was in a book store, he came across a book that was called "Creating Ceramic Miniatures".  From that day onwards, his work has changed completely, though he still throws on his big wheel, he now produces tiny pots and vases that are as detailed and proportioned as the corresponding normal sized ones.  Videos below will show him at work, it is amazing...

Sculpture Urban Camouflage in Upcycling Rubbish

Portuguese Street Artist and Sculptor Bordalo Segundo or Bordalo II takes many different types of refuse that include, plastic and metal parts, in some of his sculptures he uses an entire car to form his work.  We don't want to duplicate his history, it will be covered in the video below, we just want to say that in Portugal, street art is not seen as an offence and is encouraged by local government, to get the people in the neighbourhood involved in art.

Beautifully Detailed Ink Drawings & Doodles

Indonesian Artist Muthahari Insani, is an extremely capable artist, that manages to inject a huge amount of detail in his beautifully flowing ink drawings and doodles.  We have included in this post, a sample of the various techniques, Insani utilises to achieve the amazing finish product below and above.

Drawings with Architectural Backgrounds

Shamekh Al-Bluwi شامخ Architect, Visual Artist and Fashion Illustrator, shows us a very creative way of combining drawings with their surroundings.  We have seen the concept used a few times before, but never like this.  The city landscapes and backdrops form the clothing for the models in his drawings.  Enjoy...

3D, Optical Illusions and Anamorphic Drawings Videos

Hungarian Artist Sandor Vamos from Vamos Art, kindly shares the secrets of how to draw a 2D drawing whilst making it look like a 3D one.  Further more, he shows us how to draw optical illusions and anamorphic drawings.  We have static images, but that is not enough to learn, so we added a few videos by Vamos, that will hopefully give you a tutorial on how to conquer these techniques.

Hand - Body Painting - Transferred to Paper

Russell Powell from Pangaean Studios, is an Artist and a really cool Teacher.  He draws portraits of every day people and the occasional celebrity, on his hand and then, using it as a stamp, he transfers the drawing on the sheet of paper.  The unusual procedure, of creating art in this way, is what drew us to Powell, we have chosen the images that include both, the hand drawn original and the stamped copy.  Enjoy...