Sunday 30 November 2008

Somewhere Between Here and Nowhere

Still from Under Discussion, a video by Allora & Calzadilla (great interview with them here)
(via)


Excerpt from Tine Van Aerschot's first production, I have no thoughts and this is one. The actress is Forced Entertainment's Claire Marshall.
Another excerpt and a short bio here.

Vector Christmas Trees

A collection of three abstract Christmas Trees by mariannasm. The illustrations are in Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw file formats. Perfect for designing a Christmas card or a wallpaper...

To use the resource first, you need to expand the .zip file. Download

Saturday 29 November 2008

Hugo Create

HUGO Fragrances invites emerging talents from all-over the world to participate in HUGO Create, a creative contest. HUGO Create is open to graphic design, illustration and photography. 
The main aim of the HUGO Create design challenge is to stir up creativity and to create a high-profile platform for emerging talents. More

Spanner Brushes for Adobe Illustrator

A collection of spanner brushes for Adobe Illustrator from r2010. Perfect for creating abstract vector backgrounds, patterns swatches or custom decoration of your vector artwork. 

Download Click on the image below for detailed preview.

Retro Colors

An inspirational color palette that I found while researching retro color themes for a project that I'm currently working on. The palette is available for download here. Just have in mind that you need to register a ColourLovers.com account in order to access the download links.

"Art is seeing things from a different perspective"



Diogenes Laertes, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Pythagoras, Bk. VIII, 8:

“When Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked Pythagoras who he was, he said, “a philosopher,” and that he compared life to the Great Games, where some went to compete for the prize and others went with wares to sell, but the best as spectators; for similarly, in life, some grow up with servile natures, greedy for fame and gain, but the philosopher seeks for truth.”


Video by comedian/musician Chris Cohen.
(via)

Friday 28 November 2008

Intro to Gradients in Adobe Illustrator CS3

An eye-opening video that might be helpful for Adobe Illustrator beginners. It explores the use of linear and radial gradient in Adobe Illustrator CS3...

Random Tips: Dragging and dropping around the new panels can get kind of confusing. Make sure you always have your objects properly selected. When you create multiple color gradients save them as swatches, it is a big time saver.
Basic Gradients in Illustrator from Tom on Vimeo.

Anatomic Heart Vector Illsutration in EPS

A detailed anatomic heart vector illustration from ChaosIndustry.

If you are planning on using this resource as a design element, you can get some great effects by playing with scale. A lot of tiny details can be noticed in outline mode (Cmd+Y Adobe Illustrator)...

The artwork is saved in EPS file format, you can use any vector compatible program to modify the file. Download

Thursday 27 November 2008

31 Vector Coffee Cups

A set of 31 cute vector coffee cups in EPS and PDF file formats from DragonArt. Each cup has aunique style but you are not restricted to applying your own style...

The pack may be helpful if you are designing a coffee shop menu, designing a cafeteria scene in Flash or use them as web icons. It's all up to you.

Download 4.56 MB

Swingin pullin droppin as if it all never happened


Kamila Szejnoch's work Swing is the winner of this year's Szpilman Award ("awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time"). The Swing was suspended on one of Warsaw's largest (and scariest) monuments, the monument to the Berling Army Soldier. (for posters in the same vein and for Szejnoch's commentary, see here).

Two other works I particularly like from among the finalists are Sai Hua Kuan's Space Drawing
and Kate Mitchell's I am Not A Joke:

Beautiful Catastrophy - Kristine Moran's painting





What I find fascinating in Kristine Moran's paintings is the sense of discipline. The disasters that keep appearing, the huge messes of messes, the total wreck of a reality she introduces us into, seem like a carefuly planned catastrophy.
No wonder she arrived at theater interiors, with their settings ready for the show, with the wardrobe mirrors reflecting every possible aspect of the mask, with their ridiculously decorative shapes that are bound to disappear when it happens.
This stage is set for failure. A beautiful failure of something that seemed to be going right. Everything was set, every rule was applied and every hope was nurtured.
And yet, the closer to what matters, to the subject (the topic, the I, the eye), the bigger the tension.
Until it all just blows up in pieces.

But not entirely. And call me an optimist, but this structure which reappears even in the most amorphous circumstances sustains not just the painting, but also, whatever is left of me, the empathic viewer.

Moran's pictures have evolved into an astonishing universe where 3D space that contains, well, how do I put it... paint. Color. Texture. Painting is the better word here. It is as if the painting, a 2D picture, moved into a 3D space. And the space accepted it, incorporating it in its realm. If you think this is a metaphor, see this:

Kristine Moran has been compared to Francis Bacon. Yes, sure, the inter-dependence of form and reality, their perverse games of hide-and-seek... But Moran's work seemingly leaves the human body - though certainly not the human - much further behind. And maybe because of that, it appears as not so much a struggle of the artist, as a struggle between the forms themselves. As she watches them, cooly, from a distance.

The titles are, in order of appearance: You Used To Be Alright, What Happened ; The World Is Yours ; Collapse of Will ; Hunter - Gatherer.

Wednesday 26 November 2008

...and all this time is so far away...

Okay. This is not an easy moment. All this attention is getting me nervous, and I feel like everything I write is being observed... After all, this has all along been about a private journey into the realm of some contemporary art.
So, just to make sure it is still a blog, let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, I was an addict of skiing. I trained and I raced (without too much of a success) and I even got to spend some time with the Polish Ski Team. My first encounter with them was in a hotel in the French village of Les Deux Alpes. I entered the hotel room, and there they were, Poland's finest skiers. Most of them were concentrated on a Playstation game of Formula 1, with its volume set to maximum level. The rest of the young sportsmen were watching TV - it was a formula 1 race, and its noise was competing with the game. Everyone was completely mesmerized by the two screens. It took me at least a minute to realize there was someone else in the room, though. It was Andrzej Bachleda, by far Poland's best skier, who has lived most of his life in France, and whom I considered a strange guy - not very talkative, some sort of an odd case... In the midst of the overwhelming noise, the man was sitting on the bed, tucked into a corner, and reading Hemingway.
Well, this man has also come a long way since that moment. He has recently put out another album. Here is one song. (Besides the charming music, do appreciate the Polish mountains in the background).

LORADO TAFT'S FOUNTAIN OF TIME



Artists always dream of creating works of permanence. Perhaps they hope that "timeless" art will help them live on past their death.

Lorado Taft (1860-1936) was that kind of artist. A Chicago sculptor of monumental, heroic subjects, Taft worked from 1907 to 1922 on his life's masterpiece, a huge sculpture about mortality called The Fountain of Time. The sculpture was based on a line from Austin Dobson:
Time goes, you say? Alas, time stays; we go!
Taft created a 120 foot long parade of humanity with over 100 different figures symbolizing life's journey from birth to death.



This "march of the doomed" takes place in front of an imposing, 26 foot tall statue of Father Time.





Taft wanted his sculpture to have an eternal look, so he designed it in a classical "beaux-art" style. Unfortunately, by the time he finished, the beaux-art style was already unfashionable. It was replaced by abstract modernism. (Perhaps Time felt that Taft's ambition was impertinent and wanted to teach him a lesson.) In any event, the leading Chicago newspaper soon labeled the outdated sculpture one of the city's "pet atrocities." Resentful at the way styles had passed him by, Taft became a leading spokesperson for conservative sculpture and lectured against the evils of modernism (demonstrating that he had learned absolutely nothing about the inevitability of time).



Taft also tried to construct his sculpture using materials that would last a long time. After consulting with engineers, he decided on steel reinforced, hollow-cast concrete. Unfortunately, this choice was not well suited for Chicago winters. The concrete expanded and contracted, causing cracks in the surface. Details eroded and crumbled away forever. By the 1980s, the interior was crumbling due to moisture buildup, and the surface had become pitted and drab, assaulted by time, elements and pollution.



Even then, time was not done transforming Taft's work. Taft had envisioned his sculpture as the centerpiece of an elegant park in the style of the World's Columbian Exposition, where Taft first worked as a sculptor. However, the neighborhood changed with time. The surrounding city deteriorated even more than the sculpture. The sculpture became overgrown with weeds. There were no funds for sculpture repairs in a rough neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.



As a small boy in Chicago, I used to stand in that park and stare up at Taft's crumbling sculpture. Its subject was scary for a kid, but not nearly as scary as the changes wreaked by the passage of time.

I revisited that sculpture years later when I returned to Chicago as a law student. By then, time had transformed both me and the sculpture. I had grown to understand that, no matter how big or permanent we try to make art, it will not enable us to outwit time. No matter how grand or eternal the subject matter that we choose. No matter how wise the artist. No matter how much the artist got paid.

Taft had to learn the hard way that even art can't rescue us from the gaping maw of time; we just have to keep looking for our solace.

This happy happy love
Is sieged with crying sorrows,

Crushed beneath and above

Between todays and morrows;

A little paradise

Held in the world's vice.


....

This love a moment known

For what I do not know

And in a moment gone

Is like the happy doe

That keeps its perfect laws

Between the tiger's paws

And vindicates its cause.


. --Edwin Muir


Random Vectors #02

A must-have vector set from YSR1. The pack contains around 80 vector illustrations. Inside you can find, heraldic symbols, laurel leaves, girl illustrations, a security camera, birds, skylines and many more...

Perfect for logo design brainstorming. The artwork is saved in Adobe Illustrator file format. Download

Of Delicate Pride - Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada

The Wooster Collective published an interview with Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada. The answers to the following three questions are a brilliant introduction to his work. (My favorite, of course, is the third answer.)

Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?

I admire artists from different periods because of how they have impacted me at different times in my life. Leonardo da Vinci, Jean Giraud, Marcel Duchamp, John Heartfield, Ana Mendieta, Chris Burden, Barbara Kruger, Mark Pauline, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer are each a little part of me as an artist. With my contemporaries I would have to say that Swoon, Blu, and Marc Jenkins have impressed me not only with what they say with what they create, but also because of who they are as people.

Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?

My art is usually found within the urban landscape. City textures are my favorite background for my work. I like to work with ephemeral materials. One of my directions is to create large charcoal portraits of anonymous people on inner city walls that fade away with the wind and rain.

Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?

If I had another lifetime to devote to something else I would probably be an archeologist.


There is one thing about these portraits from the Identity Series I find awe-inspiring. They are modest. They bring forward the anonymous faces in a way that inspires both empathy and awe. They put them forward, fighting the war with commercial works as well as any. And yet, they are not shining at us with attractive colors. Their truthfulness is more than honest. It is humble. And yet - proud. And one more crucial thing: these faces, they fade away with time. This rare combination of grandiosity and modesty is something truly impressive.

Which brings us to Rodriguez-Gerada's latest project, the one most of us came to know him for.
He is the author of a huge portrait of Barack Obama (although actually the work is still not finished). But I think this has received enough publicity already. Appropriately enough, the work will be called Expectations, and is yesterday's news even before it inaugurated. Which tells us as much about the reception of directly political art as about the work itself. (On the other hand, this expectation is also about preparing the desinchantment, isn't it?)

Two documentaries about Rodriguez-Gerada's work in Spain:

Monday 24 November 2008

Getting Ready

Part of an installation by Urs Fischer.

(Slowly and gently coming back...)

Celtic Pattern Brush for Adobe Illustrator

Pattern brush for Adobe Illustrator from Shurakai-Zero. This brush pack includes corner pieces, mid-sections, corners and end-sections. You might find it useful for creating an epic / historical atmosphere...

To use, load the AI file in Adobe Illustrator and bring up the brushes pallette Window>Brushes). Download

Trends in Logo Design for 2008

Since it is almost the end of the year (2008), I thought that posting a summarizing logo trend link is not a bad idea. The article is from LogoOrange.com - a great source of inspiration and identity design tips...

"Logos are the ultimate mark of distinction and everyone loves them. We see logos everyday - on the highways, on consumer goods, on the Web and in the institutions and organizations we support.


Read about the different types of logo designs here and learn what principles and techniques are used to create them. Discover what the future holds for logo design! " Article & Gallery

Sunday 23 November 2008

Character Design with Adobe Illustrator

A comperhensive character design tutorial from our favorite digital illustration tutorial source Computer Arts Magazine.
"Illustrator James Jarvis explains how he designed his new vinyl toy, and then turned him into a Computer Arts Projects cover star.
In the following tutorial I reveal all about the processes I go through when developing a character, from initial idea to finished product – a vinyl figure and an illustration.
I started to design toys completely by accident; it was never a planned career move. In 1998 the opportunity arose to make a figure based on one of my characters as a promotional item for a fashion company, Silas. The toy proved popular so we made another a year later, and everything snowballed from there. " Full tutorial and source files

Saturday 22 November 2008

Vector Shopping Carts

A set of ten shopping cart illustrations in vector format. You might use them for designing a logo or a web icon...

To use, load open PDF file with Adobe Illustrator select all, and ungroup (Object>Ungroup).Free for personal and commercial use. Download

Corrosion by Concept-B

Adobe Illustrator CS34

Adobe Illustrator CS4 review by Ben Long, Macworld.

"If you're someone who started out with Adobe Illustrator back when it was called Illustrator 88, then you've seen lots of changes over 20 years. Illustrator is one of a handful of powerful vector drawing products aimed at graphic artists and illustrators, and it's always been elegant and production-ready. Even if Adobe has sometimes been slow to add cool new features, you could always count on Illustrator's stability and its color and output engines to perform well in a professional production environment.

Illustrator, as a high-end professional app, doesn't really have any competition on the Mac anymore (CorelDraw is Windows-only), which might explain why Adobe is only now getting around to adding some features that the program has needed for years. If you're a Mac user who needs a vector-based drawing tool, Illustrator is the biggest and best player around, and the new CS4 version is a solid, impressive upgrade that adds some cool new tools" Full review

'Vector Art' on Twitter

This blog has launched a new Twitter feed, which is mostly used for posting new blog posting notifications and other digital illustration related links as well. If you don't feel shy and already have a Twitter account, feel free to follow the link below.

Food Vector Pack in EPS

Here we have a great design resource from Chapolito.com. A collection of food illustrations in vector (EPS) fromat. Inside the .zip archive you will also find a free seamless pattern... that could be used as a web or a desktop background.

The pack is useful for food menu or party invitation design. Scroll down for preview. Download


Swirly Trees Vector Pack

A collection of seven swirly tree illustrations. You can use them for creating a spooky atmosphere in your composition, design a cartoon landscape or other kind of decoration...

To use, load the PDF file with Adobe Illustrator. Free for personal and commercial use. Download

Friday 21 November 2008

COBY WHITMORE



The great Coby Whitmore reminds us that a picture can be bigger when it doesn't fill up the whole page.

Custom Drawing Brushes for Adobe Illustrator

A collection of 11 art brushes for Adobe Illustrator from ManiacResources . You can use them for applying scratchy/grungy effects on your vector paths...

To use, expand the ZIP archive, load the "Custom Drawing Brushes 1.ai" file in Adobe Illustrator and bring up the Brushes panel (Windo Brushes or F5).

This vector resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Download

Distortion of Type

"Organic digital effects are hugely popular at the moment, so it’s a good time to dig out Illustrator’s Distort tools and use them to add an unusual dimension to your work. Martin Fewell reveals how .
Illustrator’s Distort tools have been around since the application’s tenth incarnation. Located underneath the Scale tool in the Tools bar, there are seven Distort tools to choose from – simply hold down your mouse to reveal them and then tear them off the main Tools palette for easy access." Full tutorial and source files Computer Arts Magazine

Thursday 20 November 2008

Celebration

I am proud to inform you that this site has been named one of the Top 8 Art Blogs of 2008 by the great Murmurart! It has also been listed as one of 100 Blogs That Will Make You Smarter at Online Universities.com!
This demands celebration...
After the hangover, expect new posts.
Also a selection of the posts will hopefuly soon be featured at the website of the classy Art World Magazine.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Basics Tutorial

An image tutorial by JoeArtist92 explaining the basics of the Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator. Many beginner digital illustrators get scared when they face the pen tool for first time, while actually the pen tool is quite intuitive once you get the basics...

The tutorial explains the usage of the pen tool, the add anchor point tool, the delete anchor point tool and the convert tool. Once you get confortable with the feature, you should also have a look at another Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Tips posting.

Creating Fonts with Adobe Illustrator CS3

Here we have a great video tutorial from GoMedia, that explains how you can use Adobe Illustrator for designing your own Typeface.

The video also stresses on using pathfinders to merge your shapes...



Tutorial: Creating fonts in Illustrator and Fontlab - Part 1 from Go Media on Vimeo.

Floral Pattern for Adobe Illustrator

A free Pattern Swatch for Adobe Illustrator from inferlogic. To change the color of the swatch you have to: Select a part of a leaf with the selection tool and choose Select>Same>Fill Color or select the background and change its fill color. Download Note: To use, you need to decompress the *.rar Archive with WinRar or StuffIt (MacOS).

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Anchor Illustration

A free anchor illustration in vector format by Johnny Sputnik. You can use it for logo design brainstorming or a starting point of a design project...

You can easily customize shape, shades, colors and gradients by loading the PDF file with Adobe Illustrator.
Download

Sunday 16 November 2008

Late by lerms

Holiday Card Project 08

"This year marks deviantART's fifth annual Holiday Card Project! With the goal of bringing a little cheer to patients in the hospital during the holiday season, the Holiday Card Project connects deviants from all around the world and applies their tremendous artistic abilities in designing and creating get well holiday cards.
Last year the Project received well over 1300 holiday cards sent in by more than 750 deviants from 50 different countries/political regions. The cards were then divvied up and distributed in-person by dA members at the UCI Medical Center in Orange, California. Extra cards were given to various hospitals in the U.S. and abroad for their staff to hand out to patients.
The idea behind the Holiday Card Project is to simply try and do something nice for others. However, if that isn't enough incentive, every deviant who submits a card will be given a free one-month subscription to deviantART, as well as being entered into a drawing for additional prizes."
Please read the following text for more information on the Holiday Card Project.

Vector Fists Illustrations

A collection of five vector fist symbols for Adobe Illustrator. You can use the resource for designing a poster, logo icon etc...

To use, open the PDF filw with Adobe Illustrator. Free for personal and commercial use. Download

Mind Mapping

A great article from Digital Arts Magazine about how to deal with mental blocks and creativity frustrations.
"Break down creative blocks, develop visual solutions and discover ideas that push the boundaries of design by mastering mind mapping." Full Article

Saturday 15 November 2008

Clockwork Vectors

A set of 12 vector clockwork shapes for Adobe Illustrator. The pack could be useful for decoration, designing seamless patterns or animating a clockwork mechanism in Adobe Flash.

To use, open the PDF file with Adobe Illustrator. Free for personal and commercial use. Download

Speed Tracing with Adobe Illustrator

Manga Studio 4

Smith Micro Software, Inc. Consumer Group today announced the immediate availability of Manga Studio™ Debut 4 and Manga Studio EX 4 for Windows, the world's leading manga and comic art software used by artists and hobbyists to create professional, ready-to-publish comics and print cartoons from start to finish.
"The global manga phenomenon is growing rapidly and today thousands of manga artists around the world delve into a wide range of subjects, including comedy, action, sports, business and romance," said Sarina DuPont, Product Manager for Smith Micro Software. "Manga Studio has become one of the world's most popular comic solutions because it saves artists time and resources, while offering users powerful tools to enhance their creativity." Read More Designer Today


Background Design with Adobe Illustrator

A useful tutorial for Adobe Illustrator that shows a step by step process of composing an abstract background in vector format using the gradients and blends. Full tutorial by NDesign Studio

Vector Grunge Brush Pack for Adobe Illustrator

A collection of six art brushes for Adobe Illustrator from ClickPopMedia. You might find use of them if you need to splatter some grungy shapes in your composition...

To use, expand the ZIP archive, load the "brushes1.ai" file in Adobe Illustrator and bring up the Brushes panel (Windo Brushes or F5).

This vector resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Download

Friday 14 November 2008

20 Exceptional Websites for Learning Adobe Illustrator

"Adobe Illustrator is the industry-standard when it comes to scalable vector artwork. As a designer, Illustrator is the right tool for graphics that need to be scaled. A prime example are logos which often need to be adapted for small mediums such as business cards, larger mediums like billboard signs, and converted to grayscale or black and white for mediums such as newspapers." Link

FRED

.

Andrew Wyeth called this painting "Marsh Hawk."



Having trouble finding the marsh hawk? Why, here it is way over at the edge, sitting on a post:



Harold von Schmidt painted this wonderful painting of revolutionary war hero William Dawes. Can't see him? If you are lucky, you might catch a fleeting glimpse of his butt.



This is Brueghel's painting of the fall of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. But Icarus is not exactly hogging the spotlight.



Here are his legs, way down here:



The literary critic Marvin Mudrick once said,
If you're ever tempted to write a story called "The Secret of the Universe" or "Man's Inhumanity to Man," do yourself a favor and call it "Fred" instead.
For today's post, I was tempted to expound at length on the importance of avoiding obviousness in art.

But I think I won't.