Portrait of a Warrior (Texas Country Reporter)

See how one man has made it his mission to honor fallen heroes.
LINK: Youtube

Watch an Artist Make a Portrait from 3.2 Million Dots

Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

With certain works of art, the creation process is just as interesting to behold as the finished product. Take Miguel Endara’s impressive portrait of his father, a drawing that’s composed of an estimated 3.2 million ink dots. “It’s not exact, but very, very close to the real number,” explains the self-proclaimed stipple enthusiast. “I multiply speed of plotting (how many dots I put down per 10 seconds) with the number of hours I work on each section.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call patience. LINK, Via: Vimeo

Portrait of Beethoven Made from His Own Sheet Music

To carry out this elaborate project, Erika Iris Simmons sketched an outline of the composer and then cut up the center of the sheet with an X-Acto knife. She folded and arranged the pieces, doing her best to keep them in order and the notation correct. Simmons has similar pieces at her site, including a wave formed from the text of Benoit Mandelbrot’s The Fractal Geometry of Nature.

Link | Artist’s Website | Via: Neatorama

A Portrait of Leonid Afremov

A documentary about Leonid Afremov 2006. The film was made by Palm Beach Community College, Florida. LINK: Youtube

RIP Frank Buckles

Frank W. Buckles celebrated his 110th birthday on February first. He died peacefully at his home on Sunday morning. Buckles was one of 4,734,992 Americans who served in World War I. With his death, there are no more surviving US veterans of that war.

Buckles, who served as a U.S. Army ambulance driver in Europe during what became known as the “Great War,” rose to the rank of corporal before the war ended. He came to prominence in recent years, in part because of the work of DeJonge, a Michigan portrait photographer who had undertaken a project to document the last surviving veterans of that war.

As the years continued, all but Buckles had passed away, leaving him the “last man standing” among U.S. troops who were called “The Doughboys.”

In recent years, Buckles became an advocate for a memorial in Washington to honor those who served in the “Great War”. Link, -Via: Fark, Via: Neatorama

Godspeed Mr. Buckles.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

12 Spectacular Human Formation Pictures

Arthur Mole, Living Portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, 1918. The photographs are genuine and were created by Arthur Mole and John Thomas during the early years of the 20th Century. Mole and Thomas created a whole series of human formation pictures representing important religious and military related symbols. LINK

Salvador Dali

This is a sequel to the original film "Soft portrait of Salvador Dali" LINK: Youtube
"Part 2"


Some strange ways of Salvador Sali. LINK: Youtube

Ray Brandes: "When Dali Drew a Portrait of Picasso"

A music video for the unreleased Ray Brandes song "When Dali Drew a Portrait of Picasso," written by Gary Ra'Chac and Ray Brandes, and featuring scenes of Salvador Dali, Destino and Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound. LINK: Youtube

Frida Kahlo in Aluminum Cans

Phoenix-based artist Emily Costello made this portrait of Frida Kahlo out of (apparently) pieces of aluminum cans. It currently hangs in the Halperin & Lake Collection. She plans to create a similar portrait of a Mexican wrestler.

Link(Facebook), Via: DudeCraft, Via: Neatorama

Prison artist who sketched Bernie Madoff says the con man is unremorseful

Bernie Madoff, 71, seems to be doing well in North Carolina's Butner Federal Correctional Complex. He plays games like chess and bocce ball, and works in the kitchen as a pot and pan scrubber.

The most interesting bit in this Wall Street Journal article is about K.C. White, a talented artist who was recently released on a bank robbery charge, but was in prison when Madoff started serving time. He drew Madoff's portrait in prison.

In this highly entertaining video interview with White on Philly.com, White said Madoff is unremorseful for his crimes:

Bernie Madoff, the $19 Billion Con, Makes New Friends Behind Bars, Via: Boingboing

Father uses son's ashes in tattoo

A father from Herefordshire is to have a portrait of his dead son tattooed on his chest using the child's ashes.

Mark Richmond, 39, and his wife Lisa, 31, said they wanted to do something as a lasting tribute to their son Ayden.

He had a rare condition which meant he was unable to process fats and died in 2005, aged two years and four months.

The couple, who own a tattoo parlour in Greater Manchester, plan to mix some of Ayden's ashes in the ink for a 7in black and white portrait of him.

He said: "Some people might think it's a bit morbid, but until they have been through what we have, I don't think they can really judge us." LINK

Astonishingly Intricate Ballpoint Pen Art Creations

"Polo Pony 1 [James Mylne, 2008]"
Image: muchachoborracho

In his drawings, London-based Mylne has developed a crisp realist style, as shown in this portrait of a polo pony. LINK

Crop Art Is For Everyone!

Crop art is exactly what it sounds like: Art made with crops. Generally speaking, that means everything from crop circles to grape-vine wreaths. But we're talking about a very specific kind of crop art. One seldom seen outside the surreal confines of the Minnesota State Fair. This crop art is all about seeds--thousands of them--glued together to form an image. Right now, you're thinking about preschool macaroni pictures, aren't you? Don't. Real crop art is much more challenging.

Lillian Colton deserves the credit for keeping crop art alive in Minnesota. This Abe Lincoln--again, all seeds, including the background--is one of hers. Colton first entered the crop art competition in 1966, the second year of its existence as a special category. Back then, Sheehy says, people were using the seeds like stitches of thread. You'd have a big, blank background with seeds forming some abstract shapes or mimicking old-fashioned embroidery samplers. Colton (truly, a Happy Mutant before her time) went in an entirely different direction. At the 1967 fair, she unveiled her first portrait, using seeds like drops of paint to create texture, depth and shadow.

"She really blew it open by showing you could do any subject matter," Sheehy says. "And the virtuosity she introduced by using the really tiny seeds, it raised the bar with obsessive quality in the art." LINK

Skull with 200,000 Packs of Cigarettes

This piece is part of Jordan’s photographic series entitled Running the Numbers: an American Self-Portrait visually examines the vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. LINK

Leaf Silhouette Custom Portrait

Somehow, it is easy to forget how ephemeral paper is, but a leaf renders the precious and precarious loud and clear.

You provide a profile portrait taken from about four feet away of the head and shoulders. We talk about what sort of leaf you might like, and I send you a delightful silhouette hand cut from a leaf with stem intact, pressed and mounted on museum board with archival adhesive and packaged in a protective sleeve.

Leaves will change color with age, and some splitting may occur as the leaf dries. Please frame and display out of direct sunlight. I can't guarantee that your cutting will last forever, but I am sure that you will love it for as long as it is with you. LINK

Post-It Portrait

“We’ve all seen some cool things done with post-its, but these people took it to a whole new level.” w/ photos. LINK

VEGEMITE on TOAST SPEED PAINTING: TheHill88's Portrait

A Portrait of YouTube's TheHill88 done with Vegemite and a butter knife on 9 pieces of toast. Original painting time 1hr 30mins. Speed Plays in under 4 mins. LINK, Via: Youtube

Sierpinski Carpet Portrait

Waclaw Sierpinski was the mathematician who first described the fractal that became known as the Sierpienski carpet {wiki}. Andrew Pike has created a tile mosaic portrait of Sierpinski, using Sierpinski carpets! LINK, Via: Neatorama