Tag Archives: watercolor

Realistic Birds Made from Paper and Watercolor Paint by Johan Scherft

Realistic Birds Made from Paper and Watercolor Paint by Johan Scherft watercolor sculpture realism paper birds

At the age of 14 Johan Scherft made his first papercraft bird which he colored with a pencil, modeled after the flying paper models of english artist of Malcolm Topp. His self-created models along with his drawings gained him admittance to the royal academy of arts in The Hague where he perfected his painting and sculptural techniques. Nearly 30 years later the Dutch artist has become a master of the medium creating a wide variety of objects including dinosaurs, animals, boats, and especially birds. Scherft uses a computer to aid in the initial steps of creating the paper blueprints but everything else is done by hand, a painstaking process that can take several days and occasionally up to a full month to complete.

If you want to explore a bit more head over to his Facebook page and read a bit more about his process on My Modern Met. Scherft also keeps an active YouTube channel where he’s filmed numerous tutorials; don’t miss his solar-powered hummingbird.

Joy: A Dreamy Stop Motion Music Video for Iron & Wine by Hayley Morris

Joy: A Dreamy Stop Motion Music Video for Iron & Wine by Hayley Morris watercolor stop motion music video animation

Director and animator Hayley Morris (previously) takes us on a surreal journey in her dreamlike music video for Joy, a track off Iron & Wine’s latest album Ghost on Ghost that was released just this morning. In her video for Joy Morris found inspiration from the lyric “deep inside the heart of this crazy mess, I’m only calm when I get lost within your wilderness,” which she used as a jumping off point for her animation which was created by projecting hand-painted watercolor animations into stop-motion landscapes. There are some terrifically brilliant moments, the moth especially, which made my jaw drop a bit. I’ve also included a making-of video above showing some behind the scenes footage. (via the fox is black)

By Christopher on April 16, 2013 • animation music video stop motion watercolor

Lego Watercolor Paintings by Los Carpinteros

Lego Watercolor Paintings by Los Carpinteros watercolor painting multiples Lego

Los Carpinteros is a Havana-based artist collective currently comprised of Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodríguez (a third member, Alexandre Arrechea, left in 2003) who produce a wide range of works including sculpture, installation, and film. My favorite of their works are these lovely abstract paintings of Legos and other structural or architectural pieces. Via Sean Kelly Gallery:

Interested in the intersection between art and society, the group merges architecture, design, and sculpture in unexpected and often humorous ways. They create installations and drawings which negotiate the space between the functional and the nonfunctional. The group’s elegant and mordantly humorous sculptures, drawings, and installations draw their inspiration from the physical world—particularly that of furniture. Their carefully crafted works use humor to exploit a visual syntax that sets up contradictions among object and function  as well as practicality and uselessness. For Los Carpinteros, drawing has played an integral role as a mock technical draft or form of a blue print that suggests not only a process of artistic elaboration but also a form of architectural or carpentry plans.

You can explore over 100 of their paintings in high resolution on their website, and don’t miss this interactive 360 degree walkthrough of an exploded room at Hayward Gallery in 2008. (via faith is torment)

By Christopher on March 11, 2013 • Lego multiples painting watercolor

Deconstructed Watercolor Portraits by Henrietta Harris

Deconstructed Watercolor Portraits by Henrietta Harris watercolor portraits painting illustration

Do not adjust your web browser, these distorted watercolor and gouache portraits were painted just as they appear by New Zealand-based illustrator Henrietta Harris who says her style “can only be achieved by having occasionally dipped one’s paintbrush accidentally in one’s coffee.” A pretty apt description for these dreamy portraits that seem to convey the precise moment when one becomes lost in thought or memory, an ethereal wind of distortion whirling temporarily through the subjects’ mind. Harris graduated in 2006 from the Auckland University of Technology and his since done work for Amnesty International, Vice Magazine, and BITE. She has a number of prints and several of the original paintings you see above available for sale through her website. (via flavorwire, ignant)

By Christopher on December 30, 2012 • illustration painting portraits watercolor

Architectural Watercolors by Maja Wrońska

Architectural Watercolors by Maja Wrońska watercolor painting architecture

I’m really enjoy the use of structure and color by Poland-based watercolor artist Maja Wrońska who has captured some lovely scenes from Paris, Venice, Prague, and elsewhere. Catch more of her work over on DeviantArt. (via my darkened eyes)

By Christopher on December 3, 2012 • architecture painting watercolor

Unsettling Watercolor Illustrations by Dima Rebus

Unsettling Watercolor Illustrations by Dima Rebus watercolor illustration

Illustrator Dima Rebus was born in a small town in Russia in 1988 and graduated from art school in Moscow in 2011. He now works on a wide range of projects ranging from his personal artwork to illustrations for magazines and other publishing houses. I really enjoy the edgy, somewhat unsettling nature of his work, there’s a strange sort of tension in every piece that really makes it stand out. You can see much more over on Live Journal. (via l’acte gratuit)

By Christopher on September 25, 2012 • illustration watercolor

A Stunning Watercolor Speed Painting by Agnes-Cecile

A Stunning Watercolor Speed Painting by Agnes Cecile watercolor painting

Since first discovering the work of self-taught Italian painter Silvia Pelissero aka Agnes-Cecile (previously) earlier this year, I’ve become a huge fan of her drippy, ethereal watercolor paintings. I just now learned that she’s recorded several timelapse videos showing how she creates each piece. The recent clip above shows a painting she completed over 1.5 hours as part of the 1000drawings project last month. How anyone can gain control over little pools of water like this is completely beyond me. (via booooooom)