CBrajkovich Ramblings

I just saw the most amazing collection of ink paintings by the amazingly talented Taiwanese artist, Jungshan, on My Modern Met. These painting have the style of Chinese  calligraphy, but the subject matter of heroism. You can find a lot of her work on deviantART, and she has even been interviewed for Artcorepress magazine and a whole lot more. It’s easy to see why after looking at her ink paintings that carry a sense of the people she depicts. Her heroes in ink are familiar to readers, and some are even well known to history. Go check out her blog to see what she’s up to next. What a magical ink brush she wields! Just look at her image above called “Follow Me” to feel the emotion in her brush strokes.

When I first came across these beautiful fiberglass doves on Colossal, all I could see was the beauty of the exhibit. That was until I read the story behind Saudi Arabian artist Manal Al Dowayan‘s exhibit named Suspended Together. Her intent to show that beauty sometimes can hide a darker meaning, as it is in this case. It’s part of an exhibit, The Future of a Promise, that allows artists from diverse, fragmented regions to express their feelings about how “contradictory promises”  affect their lives.  This exhibit showcases some of the voices coming out of the Pan-Arab region, which is still trying so hard (and at great personal risk) to reach the future that they all desperately dream of.

Will these promises ever amount into the hope that initially caused them to come into being?

I just saw this video on Colossal, and it seriously blows my mind. I have been a HUGE fan of dodgeball since I was a kid. Probably explains my affinity to contact sports like martial arts. But THIS goes beyond anything that you could imagine. It’s like…global dodgeball. I’m not talking literally, though the number of people involved is way more than a typical dodgeball game and approaching that line that crosses into global range. Doesn’t this look like fun?

And, and….HOW does it end?????

Cruising through Vimeo, I came across a video which introduced me to an amazing song. Stille by Bendik is one of the most tranquil, mesmerizing songs that I’ve ever heard. According to Racecar,  this incredible Norwegian singer released her debut album last year. If it’s as full of kaleidoscopic nature that swirls around you like a water vortex, then I know that I’ll have to find it over here. The emotion just tears at you, and I can’t even speak Norwegian. WOW!

And don’t forget to check out the video, Kiss, by Racecar. It’s a beautiful love story between the sun and the moon that is a fitting companion to this gorgeous song.

Catching up with the amazing photo of the day series at National Geographic, I found the most incredible photo of the Italian town of Asiago Plateau shrouded in fog, as taken by Vittorio Poli. I can imagine the magic that he must have felt while he was taking such a unique photo of his home.

A town of amber floating within a endless cloud of milk. Simply magical.

This bachelor’s film project, presented by the Animation Workshop, was made by Asger Grevil, Mette V. Madsen, Jonas Kirkegaard, and Michael Bech. It’s a story about a solitary one-winged creature named Wing who overcomes being bullied by a group of crows when he makes an unexpected friendship in the process. The scenes are absolutely breathtaking, and the Celtic-style music is a perfect accompaniment to this wonderful story about the power of friendship. Once again, the Animation Workshop has created a wonderful student piece. It really is inspiring to see the level of creativity coming from students all over the world.

Estonian hyper-realistic illustrator, Heikki Leis, is another detail-oriented artist exhibiting on Behance with some pretty incredible pencil drawings. The piece above is called “4 Spades”, and it gives us a pretty amazing view of the card game in action. Doesn’t it almost look like a black-and-white photo? But his drawings aren’t his only detailed works of art as he’s also a photographer and sculptor who uses that same focus to show reality in all of its nitty-gritty glory. Go check out his site or his Behance portfolio to see just how much you’ll be able to pick out in the details. They really are beyond hyper-realistic.

And to celebrate a concept of social, here’s a piece by Behnan Shabbir that I found once again through Behance. Here’s another illustrator who also concentrates on the details of a scene (want a fry?), but with the introduction of personality and life as well. If you take a look at his entire portfolio there, you’ll see that he’s got an amazing gift at capturing the individual personalities of his subject so that we can almost imagine what they’d be like to hang around with. That’s a pretty wonderful gift to be able to capture the intricacies of human emotion within a group.

Isn’t it great that this is what our social world looks like? And forward MARCH!

If you’re like me, and are a technical illustrator, then you’re absolutely fascinated by the intricacies of exploded drawings. In DongGuen Lee‘s book, Piece Pound for New Birth, the reader gets to sift through pages of technical drawings in graphite that are absolutely extraordinary in their details. These drawing seem to tell short stories, but they also depict some incredibly complex landscapes full of living robots and machines. Go check out his Behance page, and especially look at the last drawing on that page that shows some sort of tank garden. I am in awe at the amount of details that he draws by hand. Incredible!