Tag Archives: painting

The Iconic ‘Girl With A Pear Earring’ Painting gets immortalized with its own LEGO build!

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You may not be familiar with Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s entire body of work, but chances are you’ve definitely seen one of his paintings. About as iconic as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, or Munch’s The Scream, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ is just one of those paintings that’s entered the hall of fame for being one of the most memorable paintings ever. The artpiece features a chiaroscuro-style artwork of a girl in a headgear and a pearl earring, with dramatic lighting from one side that creates dramatic contrast and highlights/shadows. It’s a remarkably captivating painting, and an impressive one at that, considering it was painted in 1665. After getting its own Scarlett Johansson movie in 2003, the iconic painting gets its own fan-made LEGO set! Designed by LEGO builder ‘alanboar’, this MOC (My Own Creation) features roughly 1600 bricks, and comes with a Vermeer minifigure to match!

Designer: Alanboar Cheung

Built from precisely 1619 LEGO bricks, the set wonderfully replicates the painting, bringing it to life by giving it actual depth too. Of course, the use of LEGO bricks results in a lack of fine details, but therein lies the charm! The girl in the LEGO set mimics her inspiration beautifully, with the same blue and yellow headscarf, contemplative expression, and that gorgeous pearl earring that is easily a highlight of both the painting as well as this set.

Alanboar’s little brick mosaic utilizes LEGO’s art bricks, which allow making intricate colored artpieces without those studs getting in the way. The final set measures 17.6 inches tall, and 15.1 inches wide, and even features a uniquely baroque frame to go with the painting. I’m not entirely sure whether LEGO manufactures silver hemispherical bricks, but it’s possible that Alanboar took a few liberties with the pearl earring part.

The entire set comes with a plug-to-assemble design, and even features a miniature replica of the painting along with the Vermeer minifigure and a tiny pedestal that aptly labels the mini diorama. The LEGO Girl with a Pearl Earring is currently a fan-made submission to LEGO’s Ideas forum, an online platform for LEGO enthusiasts to build and showcase their own unique creations or MOCs. Users can then vote for their favorite MOCs, which LEGO then reviews and turns into box-sets that anybody can buy. If you want to vote for Alanboar’s entry, visit the LEGO Ideas website here!

The post The Iconic ‘Girl With A Pear Earring’ Painting gets immortalized with its own LEGO build! first appeared on Yanko Design.

DitherPaint 1-Bit Paint App Takes You Back to the Days of MacPaint

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I remember back in 1984 when I got my hands on the first Apple Macintosh computer how excited I was to use MacPaint. I had seen it demonstrated at a convention, and the idea that I could create my own artwork on my computer was pretty awe-inspiring to me as a 16-year-old kid. Over the years, I’d abandon MacPaint for more sophisticated apps like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Still, there’s something kind of special about working within the limitations of black-and-white pixel art. So if you long for the simplicity of MacPaint and 1-bit painting, check out DitherPaint.

This browser-based drawing app was created by BeyondLoom, and lets you create black-and-white images using various primitive brushes and dithered patterns. For those unfamiliar with the term, dithering is a technique of using patterns to create in-between shades. In the case of 1-bit art, you get shades of grey. DitherPaint lets you apply these patterns to your brushes too. It’s also got a nifty tool that lets you create animated patterns by listing the sequence of patterns you want to use. You can also load in existing color or greyscale images, and it will automatically dither them, giving them that awesome 1980s Macintosh look. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to DitherPaint now and see what kind of creations you can come up with.

[via AdaFruit]

Adobe’s Fresco painting app is now available on iPhone

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Last year, Adobe debuted Fresco: a powerful drawing and painting app that brought the realistic feel of watercolor, oils and more to the iPad and Surface devices. Now the company is brining the software to smaller screens. Starting today, Fresco is a...

These geometric paintings were made by a CNC-machining robot!

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There’s a common belief that robots can do manual repetitive labor very well, but robots can’t create art. Robots aren’t capable of creative thinking for sure, but there are two aspects to creating art, right? The idea, and the execution. Meet the Primus robot – it partners with human creators to be able to execute their artistic visions. Designed to work as a robotic arm holding a brush or a tube of paint, Primus is great at execution, creating stunningly accurate geometric artpieces that absolutely pop!

The first series of artpieces pay a minimalist homage to Andy Warhol, one of modern art’s biggest proponents. The Warhol artpiece was translated from a digital format into a set of commands that Primus can understand. Then all you do is mount a canvas, calibrate the Primus, and get it to start painting! Primus uses a combination of brush strokes and paint extrusion, creating paint that isn’t just flat, but has an element of thickness to it too. Certain swatches use stencils, which the human helps apply and remove during the painting process. The result? A very odd yet appealing combination of art and a robotic factory-line! I guess Warhol would really find this enjoyable!

Designer: Proximars

Adobe brings clipping masks and better brush management to Fresco

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Adobe has updated its Fresco drawing app with a bunch more features. There's a clipping masks tool that will allow you to capture certain parts of your drawing and move them to another layer or layer group. That way, you can continue to work on your...

AI uses traditional Chinese techniques to create ‘mindscapes’

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The Chinese painting style called Xieyi literally means “writing ideas,” and marries the freehand techniques of calligraphy, line drawing and shading. Artists often use traditional Xuan rice paper along with organic brushes and ink, and the impressio...

Adobe’s Fresco drawing and painting app is now available for iPad

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If the early impressions of Adobe Fresco nabbed your interest, you're in luck. The powerful drawing and painting app is now available for everyone to use on iPad. As you might expect, Creative Cloud subscribers will have the fastest access, and Fresc...

Adobes Fresco brings realistic painting to the iPad

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Adobe has a second major app release for designers coming this year. Sure, Photoshop for the iPad is going to get most of the attention, but for illustrators and designers who dabble in digital drawing or painting, Adobe Fresco could be the real game...