Medium Voice

A New Zealand artist is entering his father’s ashes into the Norsewear Art Awards. This is after last years entry where it was 3 photographs of his father laying on a mortuary slab after dying of a heart attack while drinking at a bar. He claims his father “is more useful dead then alive”. In his own words

I took my father’s ashes and placed them in a reflective urn and placed it on a pedestal. In this way my father’s remains function as a symbol and represent art, the author said.

The piece has a price tag of $2,000 if you feel you can’t live without it.
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This is a great instructables tutorial by Andrew546 showing off how to make a pic jump off the photo using some simple but effective techniques. The tutorial is using Gimp but it is simple enough to do using photoshop tools. The key is finding or taking a good photo with a single object of focus. Advanced users might also be able to take a step further and use two different images. This technique has a lot of potential.

My friend passed along a great site showing the great illustrations from Capcom. These are useful as either reference or inspiration.

drawing-workshop.com (**careful** models are without clothing) offers 360 degree views for life drawing. This is great reference for figure study or life drawing. Life drawing is one of the most useful techniques an artist can learn from. Its teachings can be applied to everything from cartoons to 3d modeling.

Scott Wade from San Marcos, Texas is using dusty car windows as a canvas to create very impressive art. He uses a frayed popsicle stick to get the variation in hue.

This is a great example of someone using a different medium to discover a new way of looking at art. All his artwork lasts only until the next rain or dusty road. Here is his gallery where you can find many more pictures of his art.

Pete from Wired.com wrote a post discussing 15 must have gadgets for artists. Some of his list is very useful while other choices are more for the artist who has everything and just wants to blow their latest check. The hardware depends on the artist of course. For example if you are digital artist I think one of the best things you can purchase is a second monitor. But this is useless for a sculpture artist.

Wired.com’s list:

• A Graphics Tablet
• Poseable Mannequins
• A Tiny (But Good) Camera
• An Airbrush
• Electric Eraser and Pencil Sharpener
• Wacom Cintiq 21UX
• Inkjet-Coated Art Papers
• A Natural Light Lightbulb
• Moleskine Sketchbook
• Loupes
• Flat Files
• L.A.S.E.R. Tag
• An Air Purifier

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