Category Archives: DIGITAL ART

Simon Stalenhgas’s sci-fi digital paintings

May 6, 2015 Pierrick Senelaer Leave a comment

I always wondered if I could appreciate ‘digital painting’ as much as more traditional painting, what I mean by that is art which is made with brushes or pencils on some panels or canvases as opposed to via a computer.

Call me old fashion but I like thinking about artists spending hours in their studio, stroking or splashing paint on canvases but I must admit, I now also get exciting with this computer assisted method of painting that we call ‘Digital painting’

And how could you not be when you look at Simon Stålenhag | Art-Pie‘s works – keep on reading

About the artworks

Simon’s paintings and stories take place in an alternate version of Sweden in the 80s and 90s. The central location is the countryside of Mälaröarna, a string of islands and half islands just west of Stockholm. The background is this:

In the 1950s, the Swedish government orders the construction of a large particle accelerator. The state agency RIKSENERGI is tasked with developing this massive project. In 1969 the The Facility For Research In High Energy Physics is ready, located deep below the pastoral Mälaröarna-countryside. The local population soon calls it THE LOOP.

From it’s inception to it’s closure in 1994, The Loop was the largest accelerator in the world. The thousands of staff: scientists, engineers and maintenance workers, all serve Riksenergi during these years – and makes possible tremendous scientific advances. But the power of the Gravitron, the heart of the accelerator, proves difficult to control. The side effects of the project are dramatic. Strange sightings and bizarre rumours taints the scientific image of The Loop.

In the shadow of the weird machines filling the countryside, life continues as normal. The kids of Mälaröarna grew up living above the technological marvel of The Loop, but for them it was just a part of their very ordinary lives. Until strange beasts from another time showed up, that is.

About Simon Stålenhag

Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag burst onto the art scene in 2013 when his first series of paintings were shared on the Internet. His original blend of naturalistic landscape paintings with science fiction elements and a very low key recollection of growing up in the eighties struck a chord. Not just in Sweden, but all over the world.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Simon uploaded his first digital paintings onto the Internet in 2013, since then he has become something of a phenomena in the art and sci-fi communities. Simon shares his time between a small cabin at Mälaröarna (the setting that inspires his work) and an apartment in Stockholm.

BLOG, DIGITAL ART, FEATURE, LISTS

10 cinemagraphs that will amaze you

March 8, 2015 Pierrick Senelaer Leave a comment

You may have seen those before or you may have not. but cinemagraphs, as they are called, are hot right now in the design world, blogs and social media platforms.

We published before about this new type of media which are still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement occurs. Cinemagraphs, which are usually published in an animated GIF format, can give the illusion that the viewer is watching a video.

They are commonly produced by taking a series of photographs or a video recording, and, using image editing software, compositing the photographs or the video frames into a seamless loop of sequential frames.

We browsed the web and put together a collection of 10 awesome cinemagraphs that will amaze you hopefully.

One of the more common cinemagraphs, the pouring visual or liquid flow are high effective. For example, the pouring wine example below show that there is no imprint left on the glass or change in level from the bottle, the only movement comes from the constant flow of wine.

Another effect used in cinemagraphy is the movement of objects as the first example below shows. You can see the a train from the New York underground Subway network. Without anybody being captured in the entire scene, the train pulls into the station and departs instantly.

The term “cinemagraph” was coined by U.S. photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck, who used the technique to animate their fashion and news photographs beginning in early 2011. The technique of those images existed before, it was e.g. already used for the advertisement of the game Mirror’s Edge back in 2008.

Another common effect in cinemagraphy is applied to humans or animals and can give the viewer a quirky, chilling ot event sometime quite scary output. I’ll let you be the judge of the examples below

BLOG, DIGITAL ART

Motion exposure or light painting combined to sport movements

December 4, 2014 Pierrick Senelaer Leave a comment

You may have heard about light painting, if not, here are a few words about it – Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera. Light painting can also describe works where the camera itself is moved during exposure.

Painting with a point of light on a long exposure dates back to 1889, and was used in Frank Gilbreth’s work with his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth in 1914, when the pair used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. Man Ray, in his 1935 series “Space Writing,” was the first known art photographer to use the technique. Photographer Barbara Morgan began making light paintings in 1940.

Loads of artists or people from the general public have since tried to master the technique, and keep innovating with genius ideas. People like Stephen Orlando and his projects Motion Exposure are one of these enthusiasts. The concept is to give the viewer a materialisation of human movements and gestures in sports, such as movements of tennis, kayaking or even karate.

The result is beautiful, gracious, and intoxicating. We included the 10 best light painting outputs we felt deserved sharing.

A few words from the artists –

I’m fascinated with capturing motion through time and space into a single photograph. Using LED lights with custom color patterns and long exposure photography, I’m able to tell the story of movement.

This technique reveals beautiful light trails created by paths of familiar objects. These light trails have not been artificially created with Photoshop, and they represent the actual paths of the objects.

My photos focus on motions in nature and in urban landscapes, as well as human movement. I am inspired by the works of Étienne-Jules Marey, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Gjon Mili, and Frank Gilbreth and their pioneering techniques.

DIGITAL ART

Animated 3D gifs by Nick Thomm

November 13, 2014 Pierrick Senelaer Leave a comment

Last Thursday night, Nick Thomm’s latests solo exhibition, Tropic Glows, opened.

Thomm took over the entire two-story space, transforming the basement into a fully immersive screening room, in which he housed his intricate 3D video works, while upstairs played host to both the crowds and a combination of Thomm’s mixed media works on fluro Plexiglass, holographic skate decks and neon pieces.

We included below 3 animated GIF works by the artist. We like them very much. Do you?

Exhibition runs until November 18th @ Castle Fitzjohns Gallery. 98 Orchard St, Lower East Side, New York (Open 7 Days, 12PM-7PM).

BLOG, CONTEMPORARY ART, DIGITAL ART

animated gifs better than 3D

May 28, 2014 Pierrick Senelaer Leave a comment

There seems to be a trend amongst many other on the web right now – animated GIFs. I must admit, I love some of them.

Some are hilarious and other rather cleverest than funny. How about this one below (You’ll all have recognised a famous street art work from Banksy)?

Now, to all things, they are better things? To creativity, there is always more creativity. To animated GIFs, there are Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg’s animated GIFs or rather photos. Next level? Yes, defintely.

Take Jamie Beck and motion graphics artist Kevin Burg and “cinemagraphs” as they are called, are here for us to enjoy, are here to mesmerised us. Subtle and soft are the feelings that come to mind when I look at these.

How did these come about? The pair was inspired to create these cinemagraphs while preparing to cover Fashion Week this past February: “We wanted to tell more of a story than a single still frame photograph but didn’t want the high maintenance aspect of a video,”

Enough said. Look at these examples below.

STREET ART