Creative Contrast: Disney Fan Art by Dada

We feature fan art (here and here and here) from time to time… we are all about equal opportunity, and certainly feel there’s a place for such creativity. While some in the art community discount fan art because it is based on someone else’s original content, we are from the camp that believes fan art, though not necessarily a complete original expression of the artist because it is derived from already existing content, is a creative expression nonetheless. Fan artists add their own individual style, which is intrinsically expressive and unique. One such case is that of Montreal-based artist Dada, who has a clear penchant for Disney stories in particular. She draws familiar Disney characters not necessarily to mimic them exactly, but to present them in new and distinctive ways. Dada’s latest series merges beloved Disney heroes with their often maligned counterparts. Her drawing skills are impressive, and we love the process videos she often posts on social media. This nod to a very open and unfettered process of art making is certainly in the spirit of Disney, and just reinforces the sense that we all share a love and admiration for their wondrous storytelling. What fun it is to see these clear juxtapositions of good versus evil. Well done.

Via Instagram

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Full video will be up on my YouTube channel soon 😊 #draw #drawing #sketch #doodle #illustration #art #artwork #fanart #disney #disneyworld #aladdin #jafar #colorpencil #instaart #instaartist #dada16808 #picoftheday #photooftheday #artoftheday #goodmorning

A post shared by d a d a (@dada16808) on Nov 16, 2016 at 9:26am PST

 

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Thank you guys for all the love and support this year! Doing a sale for all prints before the holidays, for 20% off please use promo code "DADAGIMME20". Sale will end next week on November 30th, I will then be closing my online shop end December and will re-open end January 2017 ❤️ For monthly goodies please support me on Patreon! (www.patreon.com/dada16808) #draw #drawing #doodle #illustration #sketch #art #artwork #fanart #disney #disneyworld #frozen #anna #elsa #instaart #instaartist #dada16808 #beauty #redhead #picoftheday #photooftheday #artoftheday #goodmorning

A post shared by d a d a (@dada16808) on Nov 22, 2016 at 9:58am PST

 

 

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Who's your favorite hero/villain? 😉 #draw #drawing #sketch #doodle #illustration #art #artwork #fanart #alice #aliceinwonderland #redqueen #instaart #instaartist #dada16808 #colorpencil #artoftheday #photooftheday #picoftheday #goodmorning

A post shared by d a d a (@dada16808) on Nov 17, 2016 at 9:27am PST

 

 

 

 

 

Circadian Creativity, One Film Quote at a Time

It’s no secret that we’re fascinated by “365 projects” and the dedication they reveal (previous posts here and here and here). Done well, these daily doses of artistry not only help develop a robust portfolio, but also serve as an exercise in on-demand creativity… a must in the field of graphic design, as we know all too well. And Nebraska-based designer/illustrator Ian Simmons tackled his serial project expertly. We are in awe of not only the diversity of his work, but the sheer quality of his typography. Clearly a movie buff at heart, Simmons masterfully depicted a wide variety of film quotes through illustration and typography, for 365 days straight (actually, 366)! Yes, an entire year. Just incredible. This is just a sampling of a few of our favorites, but be sure to check out his Instagram for the complete collection. He even sells select prints (here).

Via Instagram

100 Hoopties by Jenny Beatty

Serial projects, that is, ones that are repeated at daily intervals for a set period of time, are really an exemplification of self discipline and ferocious creativity. One such example is a project called 100 Hoopties by Detroit-bred, Los Angeles-based designer and cyclist Jenny Beatty. While completing a masters program at SVA in NYC, Beatty spent one hundred consecutive days immersed in her two loves: design and cycling. Beatty exercised her stellar design skills and unending creativity while reimagining iconic pieces of artwork using only scrapped bicycle parts. In her own words, “The idea came about very serendipitously. I was living above a bike shop that was going out of business, and would walk past coming home every night to a sidewalk filled with left over “junk”. One day I came across a pretty much new set of mustache handlebars with butchers basket and snapped the gem up for future use. The bars/basket sat on my landing for the next 5 months – taunting me to do something with them. When the time came to submit our ideas for 100 days – I tried to think of something that would summarize my life of cyclist and graphic designer. As I was writing out my thoughts, I kept trying to find ways to use this basket and handlebars but it wasn’t until I started thinking about taking it apart that the magic happened.” Magical, indeed. Here are a few of our favorites.

More serial projects here and here and here.

Via 100hoopties.com

Sugarless Tea: A Sweet, Visually Captivating Short Film

Sometimes the simplest, most masterfully executed works are the most touching. In this case, the winsome short film by Dallas-based husband and wife, filmmaking and painting duo, Sai and Amanda Selvarajan called Sugarless Tea. Simple, not in a lack effort or depth of creativity, but in purity of concept and implementation. By way of exquisite watercolor paintings captured in stop motion technique, Sugarless Tea tells a story of man’s quest from “the biggest thing God made” (India) to “ the biggest thing man made” (New York City) to reunite with his identical twin brother after fifty four years. The film has garnered multiple accolades since its release 13 months ago, and we can certainly see why. Brilliant.

Via Vimeo

 

The Moving Body of Work of Heather Hansen

Creativity pulses through New Orleans artist Heather Hansen. And she, quite literally, puts her whole self into her work. A trained dancer with a love of fine arts, Hansen marries the two in beautiful and unexpected ways. With little more than charcoal in hand and fluid movements of her body on a giant canvas, Hansen produces stunning symmetrical kinetic works of art. Her thoughtfully choreographed movements are a sight to behold in and of themselves, but the patterns and lines that emerge in the process are the stars. This culmination of creativity is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Absolutely beautiful.

Via heatherhansen.net

Luxurious Paper Craft by Mauro Seresini

Paper craft, using paper as the primary artistic medium for the creation of three-dimensional objects, is a highly specialized expression of one’s creativity. Though we don’t create this type of art ourselves, we certainly admire those who do (here and here and here). Milan-based artist Mauro Seresini is no exception. With little more than X-Acto knives and stockpiles of Bristol board, Seresini’s work ranges from editorial to advertising to commissions to large and small scale installations, and has attracted such luxury brands as Valentino, Tod’s and Lavazza. There is a certain unmistakable elegance to Seresini’s work, which clearly drew these clients to him. And the fact that Seresini is self-taught only heightens our affinity for his work. A true artist, through and through.

Via mauroseresini.com and Behance

New Year, New Digs

Well, that’s actually not exactly accurate. We completed (most of) the renovation of our Rochester studio in the late spring/early summer, but our new chairs finally just arrived a little while ago. So, thought it fitting to unveil in the new year. While it’s not a huge space, we tried to maximize what room we do have, while creating a more open environment. Here’s to our redesigned studio fostering creativity in 2015 and beyond!

Out of This World Portraiture

This is already the second time in a few months that we’ve posted about the work of Barcelona-based artist Sergio Albiac (previous post here). We are so taken with his work, which firmly addresses the notion that creativity and technology and science are not mutually exclusive, that we just had to share. In this series, Stardust, Albiac again explores technological processes to create generative works of art. The methodology behind this is admittedly over our heads, but the results are certainly impressive. Albiac basically uses images from the Hubble Space Telescope to compose portraits based on the concept of nucleosynthesis. He even solicited internet participation, which resulted in more than 15,000 works. In his own words, Albiac explains: “As a theme for this series of portraits, I’ve choosen the concept of nucleosynthesis or the process of creation of new atomic nuclei from pre-existing matter that takes place at cosmic scale. We humans, are believed to be novel combinations of cosmic stardust. It could be argued that the whole universe is the biggest running generative art installation today.”

Via sergioalbiac.com