Luke, may the sculptures be with you

Wow, that is the worst pun yet. Ok, but ya know, I might change it. Anyways, today's artist is Luke Jerram.

http://www.lukejerram.com/projects/tōhoku_earthquake

Luke Jerram is mainly a sculptor, and also works with installations, gifts, and live art. He deals in space, area, perception, all in extreme location, and less in colour, due to the fact that he is colour blind. Jerram started his art career in the UK in 1997, and has expanded internationally with different projects, such as the Play Me, I'm Yours (a huge piano sharing project ongoing), and The Sky Orchaestra (a large ongoing project involving hot air balloons and bringing music to sleeping people). Many of his pieces also involve scientific charts.
Such as the example piece above, which is a 3D glass sculpture of the seismographs of Japan's Tohoku earthquake. It measures 30cm x 20cm, and surprisingly, this piece is only 9 minutes of the earthquake. This piece relates to painting in that, when you can't work with one element, you need to focus on the others and bring those out. Since Jerram can't bring out colours, the shape and the perspective of the piece becomes more of the focal point. Because, to make a great piece, if you're missing one element, it won't ruin the painting, you just need to take it in a different direction. And all inspiration doesn't have to come from very romantic or fluid ideas, but science and technology can make wonderful art.

Run for your lives, its Natazilla!

RAAAAWR! Quick, grab your pencils, pens, papers! We need to get autographs!!!
Natazilla, aka Natasha Allegri is one of the talented artists that works on- what time is it? AAAAAAAAAAADVENTURE TIME!
Is it obvious I love Adventure Time now? It better be. This show is righteous, as is this artist.
But is this entry going to be all about her Adventure Time work? Nope. She does other stuff too.

http://natazilla.tumblr.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJjeesteTEg


Mmmm, hot.
Anyways!
Natasha grew up from a modern family and didn't really know what she wanted to do with her life, and thus was only that of a hobby artist. After going to school at the University of Arizona in Tuscon, her friend from high school Pendelton Ward (creator of Adventure Time) called her and asked if she wanted to take a test to see if she could work on the crew and badda boom badda bing. She now works on Advneture Time as her job, and at home in California, does a few different comics for fun, such as one about her cat, Pancake.
This piece did not have a title but I title it Bloody Sexy, personally. It was done in Photoshop (version unknown) on a canvas 500 by 343 pixels. What is really lovely about this piece is the simplicity in colours, only three. And how the lines outlining the figures disappear into the black background. What is also nice is how the blood not only stands out as a bloody picture, but seems to become clothing too, for the two demonic lady figures. There is also the fluidness and changing thickness of the lines of red to make it look like realistic blood dripping down.

Hussie It Along

And Hussie waits for no man. Well...no, he makes everyone else wait. In agony. COMPLETE AGONY. Let me tell you....about ANDREW HUSSIE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SJbq5j3ANM&feature=related

Andrew Hussie is an immortal who drinks the blood of cats to stay young and draws comics. Okay really, he's not much for sharing, so you can't really go on the word of others, or Hussie himself. Internet people tend to be private or full out. (Which starts to make me wonder why I keep choosing inspirations from online. OH WELL)
This is [S] Make Her Pay. A flash from the infamous webcomic, Homestuck. It was done in Photoshop (version unknown) and Flash (version unknown). The flash runs 3 minutes and 15 seconds long. I really like how he uses less lines when it comes to the characters in the flash. There is also lush backgrounds, and shows his dedication, seeing as how there are so many different backgrounds used and then how detailed they are, even if they are only shown for a few seconds.
Now how can this be related back to painting? Well, it seems to be a favorite of mine, which is digital painting. I like how precise digital painting can get. and the amount of colours you can use. And with fantasy settings, the colours can go everywhere and the limits are only what you set for yourself. So for a sci-fi/fantasy, my gawd, it is crazy awesome. (Oh look, I'm getting off topic) Anyways, any kind of painting, tells a great story, it is just a bit more fun when it includes music and it's moving.

Rembrandt -ing the good times

Awful puns ahoy, ye landlubbers.
This week's artist is none other than ye olde Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. (wow what a name)

                                                    An Old Man in Military Costume.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/images/2008/12/01/rembrandt_old_man_2.jpg

An olde soul who lived way back in the 1600s, a time known as the Dutch Golden Age. (Yup, dutch, people) Anyhow, Rembrandt was a widely known painter and etcher (printmaker).
Like many stereotypical artists, his life was filled with tragedy. Which later fueled his art, and some of his greatest pieces were of biblical figures and historical figures. He also did self portraits. But what was quite unique about Rembrandt's works was that he did so without vanity and with the upmost sincerity. And not just in his self portraits, but in all of his pieces.
This particular piece was done in oil and on a 26x24 panel. An Old Man in Military Costume shows many elements of design, such as the value. The value on this painting is darker, but still warm. There is also the differences in textures, such as the fabrics, which are right next to the metal breastplate, and then on the top of his hat, the long feather. Not to mention how the shadows carry, just so differently on each object, very accurately.
I believe this particular piece relates to the field of art because it is a painting, haha. But I chose this one, well...I'm not really a fan of Rembrandt's work overall. But, I love good shadows and it's very neat seeing how military men were painted and viewed by different artists.

Now to Weaver a New Tale

Oh goodness, will the bad puns never end? You got that right. Clearly you are not looking at the right blog then. And I also realize, as time goes on and the more people I will put up.....well......I hope I don't get in trouble for having this blog!
Anyways, this week's artist is the lovely Miss E.K. Weaver. With a very lovely piece of hers, Brave As We Were.

http://bigbigtruck.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=96#/d1oqq9s
http://bigbigtruck.deviantart.com/
Miss E.K. Weaver is an illustrator and....hmm, to quote her website "E.K. Weaver was born during disco and grew up in a town full of rockets. She briefly slipped into and out of the Bible Belt and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Brett, two dopey dogs, a cat who likes everyone, and a cat who hates everyone. She has been drawing since childhood, and really should be better at it than she is now." (E.K.Weaver)
She is currently working on a long term (and long awaited on my part) comic known as The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal. Brave As We Were is a piece associated with it, featuring the two main characters TJ and Amal. 
This piece is 1200x545, and was made in Photoshop (version unknown). Miss Weaver has a very nice control of colour and shading, and has excellent background skills. Her pieces have nice composition, with an off center focal point in this one. The value of colour is gradual and fades from light to dark, the closer to the bottom it is, helping give perspective to the sky. 
I really like this piece because it is a more.....realistic digital painting. And has many things..."in focus" I suppose I could say. A lot of times, what ends up happening to artists that have characters and stories, many of them have the character and a colour background, or the character is smack in the middle and takes up most of the piece. Miss Weaver varies her art up with off center pieces like this. And well, I'm a sucker for a great background, and a bigger sucker for nicely done clouds. 

Time to get Gigi with it.

So this is a blog for a painting class, and one of the first things I remember is that you're not supposed to paint with lines, but the whole thing or something along those lines. Anyways, bad puns aside, I thought to myself, inpirations, like painting, oh hey doesn't it have no lines too, my minds flew to a digital artist that I've watched for quite some time.

http://gigidigi.tumblr.com/page/9
Currently known as GigiFritter, who has been a digital artist for quite some time, and a poster of video game related art, and art influenced by videogames. She's done some comedy comics based on video games such as Persona 3 and Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney. She currently writes and draws a internet comic known as Cucumber Quest.
This particular piece....has no name, so Forest Run is what we'll call it for now. It was done in Photoshop (version unknown) and SAI, and is 500x749.
I think this incorporates some elements and principles of design, it has a nice range of complimenting values, and the shapes are fluid and flow together and it looks like the forest is moving while the characters are running through it. The textures in this piece range to give the trees a rougher look while the characters have a softer texture, giving the clothes a softer look. The contrast of the trees in the foreground bring out the lighter colours in the background trees and hill.
I chose this particular piece because I am a fan of colouring trees, for one thing, and I believe this piece relates to painting because it is a form of painting, digital painting, which I have dabbled in more than a few times. As well as the physical painting feel it gives off.