Turning into Monsters, with Body Painting

Australian self-taught, 16 year-old special effects make up artist, Lara Wirth aka (Armageddon Painted), uses her face and her body as a canvas to transform herself into a monster.  She was Inspired by movie box office successes like Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men and having watched a TV series called FaceOff.  In this program, the contestants compete in special effect challenges, this encouraged Wirth, to try it herself.  This is a partial quote from her "I hope to one day have a hand in creating a character for a movie or video". Below is a Video, a real time tutorial, with step by step explanation of the process.

Surreal Collage of References, in Oil Paintings

American Artist Joshua Flint, loves to create his oil paintings, by sourcing his inspiration from many different places like: digitized museum archives, vintage shops and social media platforms.  He doesn't read up about the individual subject matter, but instead, combines them in an oil painting collage, where they assume a different identity and meaning as a collective.  See if you can find your own, when looking at the images below...

Architectural Sketchbook Drawings

American Architect, Photographer and Artist Dan Hogman, has a real interest in buildings and the way we interact with them.  In today's post we are going to have a look at his architectural sketches.  Amongst the many pictures below, we have added a couple of GIF Animations that show Hogman at work.

Hayao Miyazaki, Disney and Animé in Colored Drawings

Artist Dada, has a passions for drawing, Hayao Miyazaki, Disney and Animé.  What better way to show this, than to make mashups of the different characters, that populate these cartoons, comics and films.  Some of the most famous characters are represented below, have a look and see of you can find your favourite.  This is a quote from Dada: "Each drawing is a slow layering process of about ten hours."  We have added below, a video of her's, where she shows her coloring technique step by step.  Enjoy...

Fan Art Comic, Manga and Video Game Paintings

22 year old Swedish Artist Lisa-Marie Melin, aka (Little Geeky Fan Art), is a self confessed "Video game nerd".  As well as video games, she loves cartoons, manga, retro and current.  Melin has been painting since a young age and decided to combine her two loves, to produce a lot of very colorful, Fan Art paintings.  Have a look below to find, nostalgic feelings, for characters from the past and the present.

Creature Pencil Sculptures, with a Peyote Stitch

Talented Artist Jennifer Maestre, originally drew inspiration from the sea urchin to create a form with her pencils and from there, it took off.  On her site she says that many different animals and objects stir her creativity, sometimes, she gets inspired by a previous sculpture.  Mistakes can be a fantastically new turn in the forms she constructs.  This is an extract from her site: "To make the pencil sculptures, I take hundreds of pencils, cut them into 1-inch sections, drill a hole in each section (to turn them into beads), sharpen them all and sew them together. The beading technique I rely on most is peyote stitch."

Digital Art in a Universe between Surreal and Fantasy

Working as psychologist Rolando Cyril (AquaSixio) is also a Freelance Artist.  As the title suggests, his art lies in a place in the universe, between Surreal and Fantasy.  AquaSixio makes use of his background and his knowledge of the human psyche, to give an extra dimension to his work. a hint is suggested by the titles he gives his works.  Below, is a video of how he goes about executing one of his paintings and more.

Architecture, in Paintings of Cityscapes at Night

We don't know much about Russian artist Alexey Butyrsky, except for his name and that he loves to paint beautifully realistic looking cityscapes, predominantly night scenes.  If you look at the images carefully you will see that the paintings relate to some of the most famous cities in the world.  via fubiz.

Architecture with the Fire Lookout Home, 40 Feet Up

The idea came to Dabney Tompkins and Alan Colley, when they started reading a book about fire lookouts, used by the U.S. Forest Service.  Very few of the original ones are still standing, as they have now been replaced by satellites and other forms of protection.  First, they rented a couple of these lookouts to get a better idea, whether they could make it work or not, then they bought 160 acres of meadow and forest in Oregon and had their lookout built.  The home started as a weekend retreat, then they decided to move in for a year and finally decided to make it permanent.  The home is off grid with 360 views, the shower is on the balcony and they have an outhouse with options, see the second video it will explain... via zillow.

Miniature Drawings Interacting with Real Life

Christian Watson who is part of popular and up and coming company 1924us, creates these lovely miniature drawings.  The clever part, is not only their size but, that images on the paper interact with real-life items, like pencils and scissors.  These lovely drawings, are packed with details, making them very interesting and highlighting the skill of the artist.  Press the images to enlarge them, if you want to see more detail.

Ballpoint Pen Drawing that Tell a Story

We haven't managed to find much about this artist except that his name is In-jae Byun and that he is from South Korea.  His drawings go to prove that if you want to create art, all you need is a simple pen.  That said it is not as forgiving as a pencil, that you can erase if you make a mistake, the pen is permanent.  As we understand, these illustrations form part of a story book.  Enjoy...

Minimalist and Highly Stylized Drawings

Italian Illustrator, Graphic Designer and Digital Artist Andrea Minini, has come up with these fascinating renditions of animals.  They are not super detailed like some of the ones that we normally feature here on DesignStack but, they have a beauty, that lies in their simplicity.  The beautiful flow of circular lines they are constructed with, give the animals a sense of fullness, a hint at a 3rd dimension, rather than a flat image.

Recipe Cards and Imaginary Factory Infographics

(the images below can be enlarged).  Chinese Artist and Illustrator Jing Zhang specialises in creating images to explain items.  This form of art is called Infographics, which is a combination of the 2 words, information and graphics.  We have put together two groups of her personal works, the Recipe Cards and Imaginary Factories, where she finds an alternative way of explaining how things work. Zhang's work is known around the word for the fun and creative way she explains things, have a look below and you will see.

Natural Act Photographic Collage, Humans with Nature

This is a bit of a sideline, from what Turkish Artist Merve Özaslan, usually works with.  She is known for her ceramic jewellery, which have been features in prominent magazines, but in this project, seeks to explore the relationship between humans and nature, in this photographic collage, Özaslan calls, "Natural Act".  The summarised point of this body of work, is to remind people, how important our link to nature is and that without it, our lives are duller less colorful and unhealthy.

Architecture in Tiny Smart Transformer Home

When Michelle and Andy wanted to live in central Hong Kong, one of the most expensive cities in the world, they realised that their budget only stretched to cover, a small flat 309ft² (29m²).  Architects LAAB made sure to stretch the flat with their smart design techniques, that allowed the space to be used in many different ways.  The brief included: a full kitchen, large bathtub, home cinema, gym, cat friendly spaces and plenty of storage.  A series of app-controlled devices, pepper the flat, to make it modern and user friendly.  The video below + the images will give you a clearer image of this smart flat.

Surreal Art and Optical Illusion Paintings

Romanian Artist Mihai Cristeis, is one of those artists, that puts a lot of thought into his painting, but especially the composition.  His art can be seen as a surreal base with a bit of optical illusion sprinkled about.  Not all painting have a built in optical illusion but, all of the paintings, play on the double meaning of the scene they portray.  Help comes from Cristeis, in the form of titles, that said, surreal paintings are often open to more than one interpretation and these are no exception.  See if you can find a more personal and better fitting meaning for you...

Kyaraben Bento Monsters Themed Lunch Art

Li Ming Lee is a Singaporean stay at home Mum of two, who loves to add a bit of flare to her children's Lunches.  She creates themed Bento Boxes (it is a pack meal, common in Japanese society where, the different foods are separated, in the box, by various compartments.  Kyaraben are the elaborate artistic and themed foods like Ming's).  On her site, she has a section for tutorials and recipes for her amazing creations.  Enjoy your food with your eyes, as well as your taste buds.

Food Art Space Scenes, Achieved by Scanning Food and Spices

Navid Baraty is a Photographer with a background in Engineering, working out of Washington state in the USA.  In today's post we are focusing on his Food Art, where Baraty, scans different foods, without the scanner lid, to create these serene space like images.  Planets and moons are achieved by scanning the bottom of containers full of liquid, whereas nebulas are achieved using trays full of different liquids and stars using different salts and spices.  A lot of preparation, plus trial and error has gone into getting to these images.  The ingredients for each images are listed below each picture.

Drawing Architectural Buildings to Relax

Turkish born Veevinci, has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, she is an Interior Designer by day and an artist by night.  This is a quote from her website: "I used sketching these buildings, as a means to gear my negative thoughts into creating art comprising of, complex buildings with intricate details."  We have seen it from other artist, that concentrating on producing art, puts them into a zone, that temporary shuts off the world and allows them, to concentrate 100% on what they are doing.  Veevinci says that she is fascinated with the intricacies of the details, past architects, adorned their buildings with and that is why she is drawn to them. 

Fantastic Paintings based in Surrealism

Evandro Schiavone is a Brazilian artist, that started taking drawing lessons at 12 and from them, blossomed a love for art.  As well as painting he now teaches, passing on, all he has learnt.  His paintings are characterised by a distinctly Surreal influence, where he combines serious matters with humor and realistic figures with a fantastical and surreal context.  Enjoy picking up all of the details that make these paintings so fascinating to look at.

The World of the Mind Expressed in Drawings

Alfred Basha is an Illustrator who works in Italy.  It is like we are looking at his imagination through a window, where he creates these wonderful animals that do not exist in our world.  Basha experiments with a number of different styles of drawing styles, we have brought together a selection, for you to enjoy with us.

Miniature Photo Studio Building from the 1900s

Turkish artist Ali Alamedy, spent 9 moths on this project, building from scratch every single piece.  He has had to do a lot of research, in order to create a Photographic Studio, which could have existed, in the 1900s.  To bring this room to life, Alamedy has had to build, paint, all sorts of materials that include materials like wood, plastic, copper, paper and more.  We have included below a lot of pictures so that we can all appreciate the amount of work that went into this Miniature Diorama.

Dragon and other Mythical Fantasy Drawings

Russian Artist Alvia Alcedo, loves to draw, paint on feathers and sculpt mythical creatures.  In today's post we are going to look at her fantasy creature drawings, that naturally include dragons, gryphons, unicorns etc.  In her bio, Alcedo says that she never replicates her drawings, they are all, one of a kind.  Let these fantasy drawings carry you and you dreams into lands far, far away....

Animal Drawings with Attention to Minute Details

Graphite Artist working out of Toronto, Canada, Lisandro Peña loves to draw intricate and ultra detailed drawings.  The animal drawings above and below, are characterised by attention to detail, the more you add and the more they will look like the real thing.  That is why artists like Peña can spend a fantastically long time drawing, adding lines and shading in every minute part of the drawing.  Have a look at the sped-up video below, that will show you the progression of one if his drawings.

Cats and Dogs Drawn in the style of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci has created many amazing drawings, spanning a variety of subjects, from studies of the human body, to efficient killing and flying machines.  At Leonardo's Dogs they are more interested in his animal drawings.  In a celebration of the artists accomplishments and artistry, they create drawings of cats, dog and hoses in the similar style, as the Maestro would have created.

Bodies of Dragons Painted with one Brush Stroke

In Nikko Japan, there is a company called Kousyuuya Studio, where the artists, have found a way of combining many brush strokes into one, to paint a Dragon.  The head is fist painted, then the body is painted in one stroke, it is then detailed separately.  The artists are known as "sumie" (wash drawing), whist the technique is called "hitofude ryuu", that has been translated to "dragon with one stroke".  We have included below, images, one GIF animation and 2 videos, the 1st is quite short and straight to the point, the 2nd is more detailed and lasts longer.

Marrying Typography and Food Art

Becca Clason is an American freelance lettering artist and this is how she is described on her website "Becca is a one-stop shop: she does her own food and prop styling, art direction, photography, stop-motion animation, and post-production from her home studio in the mountains of Utah".  Her lovely art manages to marry typography with beautiful and wonderfully good food.

Surreal Paintings Hidden in Symbolism

Brazilian Artist Marcel Caram has a different view, to most of us, as to what as to what populates, his waking mind.  His art is composed digitally and has a very surreal influence.  Some of these paintings look like a segment of a dream, one full of symbolism, the kind you wake up from, wondering what was the meaning of that???!!!  It is said that the great thoughts of who we are, are coded in such dreams, it is up to us, to find the meaning.

Realistic Black and White Pencil Drawings

Fausto Martin is a Spanish Artist, that has a predilection for graphite and black & white drawings.  Unlike color drawings, where you have a palette of different colors to choose from, in B&W drawings you have Black White and then a huge assortment of gradations of Grey.  Broadening the variation in shading and the amount of detail applied, will increase the likelihood, that the finished image will look realistic.

Realistic Paintings of Cities Frozen in Time

Spanish Artist Fidel Molina, is the son of a painter and grew up, around paint brushes and oil paints.  After having completed a degree in Fine Arts, he worked in Graphic Design.  His paintings are a snapshot of life in the city, where people busily go about their business, in a rush to get to...  If only we could pause our life, from time to time, to see where we are and where we are trying to get to, maybe we would make different decisions.

Snoozebox Hotel, Mobile Architecture in Shipping Container Building

The Snoozebox Hotel is assembled using shipping containers, that can be transported on the site of any event and easily removed when it is over.  There is so much to say that we will just list the specifications.  Self-contained with different bedroom layouts, thermostatic climate control, en-suite wet room with toilet, basin and shower, a flat screen TV, double power points and free Wi-Fi connection.  The hotel is usually erected within 48 Hrs of arriving on site.  No external provision for electricity, water or sewerage are required, for Snoozebox to operate.  Minimum number of rooms that have to be ordered are 40 and maximum 400.  The site can be booked for one day or an entire season.  The Hotel can be moved by road, rail, air or sea anywhere in the world.  An amazing adaptation for the use of temporary Architecture.