July 9, 2008
1. Peacock Lagoon
2. Cover Illustration for Zodiac Calendar by Llewellyn
British artist Ciro Marchetti was influenced and inspired during his student days in England. First by the delicate pen and ink work of Arthur Rackham, and later by James Christensen, and the surrealistic dream images of Michael Parkes.
Ciro Marchetti combines his rich, dramatic illustration style with plenty of old mechanical instruments and artifacts such as compasses, theodolytes, sextants and kaleidoscopes. The current style and content of his paintings are a reflection of his sources of interest and inspiration.
Marchetti states that these combinations are transformed within his illustrations into “exotic machines, somewhat dated in style and engineering, yet capable of function beyond the current capacity of today’s real world science.”
* Thanks to Alexander M Zoltai for the link.
Posted in digital art 
3 Comments »
July 2, 2008
1. Sunset Angel
2. Sirena
Natalia Pierandrei (aka Nati) is a traditional illustrator based in Italy. She has lived there for most of her life. Her artwork is Anime-styled and also influenced by Art Nouveau, as well as European graphic novels — with an added penchant for Gothic imagery and classical fantasy themes.
She uses predominately markers. Her painting style often utilizes mixed techniques like watercolor, coloured pencils and soft pastels.
Posted in mixed media 1 Comment »
June 20, 2008
Wow, a totally drop-dead gorgeous fantasy landscape art piece.
City of Elldwin (mostly done in Photoshop)
Andy Simmons was born in Reigate, England, 1963. He has always been artistic by nature, but never studied art or enjoyed the way it was portrayed at school.
It wasn’t until his early 30s that he rediscovered his dormant passion for art. In 1994, Andy started learning traditional media and studied portrait and landscape painting in oils. In 1997, he discovered computer art, began with Bryce 3d and was instantly hooked.
Andy invites you to hop over to his website, and take a look at his extensive online art gallery.
Posted in digital art 2 Comments »
June 3, 2008
1. Little Empress — “The white lily symbolizes innocence. But childhood days will be over soon, as the ship — the ferry to adulthood — indicates.”
2. Ecce Ancilla Domini!
Images © Kristina Gehrmann
Kristina Gehrmann is 19 and from Meerbusch, Germany. She is a student and freelance illustrator.
She considers her artistic strengths to be story illustrations and character concepts, in both realism and anime styles. To finish a painting, she takes approximately 15 to 50 hours (digital painting). Kristina works on a very big format and spends a lot of time on the small details. Traditional media painting takes less time — an oil or watercolor painting could about 3 to 20 hours. Studies and speedpaints usually don’t take more than 2 hours.
Her answer as to why she paints is straightforward: “Because I have no choice.”
Posted in digital art No Comments »
May 21, 2008
Army of Eternity
World of Warcraft has a bunch of lovely wallpapers (each available in 4 or 5 sizes) — these two are from the fan wallpapers section. The official wallpapers are very spiffy too, but I thought the fan ones were a little more unusual (:
PS: Blizzard’s University Relations program, mmm.
Gnome Warlock Shop
Posted in digital art, wallpaper No Comments »
May 19, 2008
French miniature, 14th century — “Nature offers Machaut three of her children - Sense, Rhetoric, and Music.”
Guillaume de Machaut was a famous French poet, and one of the greatest composers of the 14th Century too. He was greatly admired and imitated by other poets including the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer.
He studied theology and took holy orders. In the service of King John of Bohemia he traveled through Europe on chivalric expeditions.
The theme of Foy porter is of the irresistibility of love. Gemstones were believed to have healing properties. The idea that courtly love improved one’s character was a crucial part of the tradition at the time.
“I want to stay faithful, guard your honor,
Seek peace, obey
Fear, serve and honor you,
Until death,
Peerless Lady.”
~
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in old world, poems No Comments »
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