Category: Indie spotlight

May 10, 2014

Eduardo Vieira Introduces the World to Mario Yakuza!

Mario and Luigi pretty much symbolise the Nintendo Company. Their faces are everywhere, and whenever a new system is released you can be sure a new Super Mario Bros game will be right behind it. They happily go about their job of rescuing Princess Peach and driving around in Karts, while still finding time to defend their homeland. But what if we went to a warped alternative Earth, where all this is a different story? What if the defenders of this realm and its own ruler, decided to turn to crime to keep their hold of their mushroom kingdom? What if they also got really pumped up? Welcome to Mario and Luigi, Yakuza style!

Total Size (with borders): 30,8cm x 44,5cm. Printed on Couche Matte Paper 240gs, with a protective lamination layer. Limited edition of 30 pieces- Signed and Numbered. $25.00.

The incredible attention to detail on these prints is superb; with Mario and Luigi looking sinister has heck, but also retaining the mythos that Nintendo has created for them. Princess Peach looks menacing to and certainly is not someone that requires rescuing, especially with Bowser as back up! These prints can be purchased by clicking the link here. They are the brain child of Brazilian artist Eduardo Vieira. Vieira is a man of few words, but what he does have to say to sum himself up can be read below.

Hi! I am a Brazilian 2D Character Designer and Illustrator, trying to find my place in this big world. I also like eating pizza and playing Street Fighter.

Hard not to like a guy that draws great art, eats pizza and plays Street Fighter. Hopefully he never gets any of those confused, as that could prove quite disastrous! What is far from disastrous is Eduardo’s art style which is a quirky blend of Disney style animation, mixed with the computer game art. Some of his work reminds me of the DC Comic series Batman: Li’l Gotham. This may not seem apparent with the art work above, but some of his other artwork from Eduardo Deviant Art here makes up this claim a little better.

To keep up to speed with Eduardo’s art why not check out his Facebook page, which has a wide array of his work on it. Hopefully it will not be too long before he decides to make more Yakuza designed computer game characters. Laura Croft could quite easily be the girl with the dragon tattoo and who could not get a buzz out of seeing a Yakuza styled Ken and Ryu. Fingers crossed this could be in the future, but if not I am happy we have the above art in our lives.

May 1, 2014

The Disneyfied Fan Art of Fernando Mendonça

Recently it seems there have been a ton of Disney related mash ups appearing in the art world and on the Internet. People like James Hance have been doing this kind of thing for years, mashing up favourite pieces of fandom into Disney styled pieces. When Disney bought the Marvel brand however, artists far and wide could hardly contain them-selves, knocking out tons of different Disney/ Marvel related pieces.

However with Fernando Mendonca’s work, I saw something different. With his pieces it looks like you are actually looking at an animation cell, like a slice of the film has been taken off the reel and put directly in front of you. Now I know most film is digital now so the description does not entirely work, but you get the idea. His work is animated is the point I am making!

What Fernando has done is taken core characters from fandom and re-created them in a new and exciting way. The Game of Thrones pieces are spot on (and hopefully more of them will arrive on the internet in the future), but his take on things like Scooby Doo and Jack Sparrow are also hugely entertaining. Below is a selection of his work from his Deviant Art page. Below is a selection of some of my favourites from his Deviant Art page. At this present time I could not find any sites that sold his prints. If, however you dear reader find some links for them, then please feel free to post them in the replies section below so we can all check them out.

Fernando has his own Twitter feed, but alas it is not in English making it difficult for me to see what he has in the works. Still feel free to check it out, I will keep popping on just in the hope that he finishes off those incredible Game of Thrones pieces!

April 20, 2014

Alice Tams Presents Delightful Birds In Hats………And Star Wars!

I went to London recently with my wife and was been given a guided tour of the market places by brother in law and Londonite (if that is how you describe a person living in London), watching with delight as my mind was truly blown by all the creative stalls that were right in front of me. It was while walking around Brick Lane market that I came across an amazing thing. It was a thing so simple and genius that I was surprised to see it and more surprised that I had not seen it before. I am referring to Birds in Hats, a simple artistic premise which just looks frikking awesome.

The lady behind Birds in Hats is Alice Tams who I had the pleasure of having a quick chin wag with about her work. However her Twitter feed gives us a little bit more information about the artist in question than I gleamed from our short chat.

Illustrator, mainly (entirely) of the anthropomorphic. Coffee, gin and beard loving person.

Now I did not see any gin on show at her stall but I saw plenty of animals. Whole heaps of them covered to the brim in hats. The great thing about these pieces is that the hats suit the animal so well it now seems odd to imagine them without it. A Pigeon with a top hat and monocle seems just right to me. But then the same can be said for a Penguin with the same get up! The Budgie with the glasses on takes me right back to watching Timmy Mallet on Wide Awake show for some reason! Alice’s art style reminds me of the bird portraits I have seen around market stalls before, but the simple element of adding a hat to them just adds that little bit more character to each piece. Below is a selection of her works that can be bought through her shop on Etsy. These are the A4 prints but there are a few A3 on the site as well as card sized prints.

All prints are archival quality digital prints, created using the original illustration. Professionally printed onto A4 190 gsm, acid free paper. All prints are signed and dated on either the front or back. All are priced at £10.00.

Here a few others that have popped up on her Facebook page.

Aside from the places listed above you can also check out Alice’s work on Twitter and her official Birds in Hats page. Now if you feel like your fandom urges have not been satisfied with these cute creations then do not panic because Alice has a sideline of sorts. She also draws Star Wars pieces. These pieces like the Birds art are great fun and retain that cute aspect to them. They are only currently available at her market stall but as she said to me via email they are “only an email away”. If you can wait Alice will soon be setting up a website to buy these from so keep checking the usual channels for information on that and enjoy the Star Wars pieces below.

April 8, 2014

Candykiller Brian Taylor’s Retro Warped Art Style And Alternative Movie Art is Awesome!

Most of the time when I am compiling these artist showcases I do it from either memories of artwork I have seen in the past or internet art which regularly flashes up on my Facebook wall or turns up on Youtube. So it makes a refreshing change when a previously unknown artist (well to me anyway) is brought to my attention. This time it was thanks to our very own Cult Collective creator James Henshaw, so I had a feeling it would be a fun one to do. My instincts were correct.

Brian Taylor (AKA Candykiller) is a Scottish artist who has taken the influences of his childhood and turned them into some pretty incredible art. The influences seem to come mostly from early Disney features from the 40’s onwards, but also Hanna Barbara and Tex Avery cartoons pop up in his work. This fun, yet slightly chaotic and anarchic style also reminds me of the underground comix book era (70’s – 80’s) with its use of bold colours and strange, sometimes even disturbing imagery not only been incredible to look at, but also truly unique.

His website store seems slightly on the bare side at the moment (with tons of stuff been sold out), but here are some of the cooler items I saw on there.

Signed and Numbered ‘Beast’ Letterpress Print. Size – A4 (210mm x 297mm / 8.3in x 11.7in) . Two colour inked letterpress. Printed on Somerset off-white 300gsm 100% cotton art paper. Signed and numbered edition of 100. $20 / £12 (approx) including shipping.

Original painting : hand-painted in acrylic on watercolour paper. Painted area 29cm x 38cm / 11.5″ x 15″. Signed in pencil on surrounding paper. $280 / £170 (approx) including shipping.

Original painting : hand-painted in acrylic on watercolour paper. Painted area 27cm x 36cm / 10.5″ x 14″. Signed in pencil on surrounding paper. $280 / £180 (approx) including shipping.

Original painting : hand-painted in acrylic on watercolour paper. Painted area 31cm x 38.5cm / 12″ x 15.4″. Signed in pencil on surrounding paper. $160 / £100 (approx) including shipping

Original painting : hand-painted in acrylic on watercolour paper. Painted area 26cm x 36.5cm / 10.3″ x 14.4″. Signed in pencil on surrounding paper. $220 / £140 (approx) including shipping.

What is not in short supply though is this guy’s volume of work. He has created tons of items from figures, art prints to trading cards and plushies. Here are some of my favourites from my search on the World Wide Web.

Recently Brian has been doing some great alternative film posters, with a his recent Aliens poster selling out exceptionally quickly and becoming a huge hit over at the Candykiller Facebook page. Below is a handful of this art which will hopefully result in a full set of sci fi movie posters. (Hensh – That Blade Runner needs to be a poster soon!)

Candkiller also produced this brilliant Hellboy/ Breaking Bad crossover piece and will be featured in Hero Complex Gallery’s upcoming Hellboy 20th anniversary celebrations.

You can keep up to speed with all of Brian’s work via the usual social networking avenues Facebook and Twitter as well as his website. With an art style that reminds me of Ron English’s work (not sure if it is just me on this!) it smacks you straight in the face with artistic joy. Now I am hooked on Brian’s work I cannot wait to see what he creates in the near future.

April 1, 2014

Who is Brett Hardin? A Fantastic Mash-Up Artist That’s who!

Now it may seem strange to title an article with a question about the artist. I should already know about the artist as I am writing about him. But it does serve a purpose. Not only did it (hopefully) drag you into the article it is also how Brett starts his own introduction on his website. Here is a description of the man in his own words.

I am a left and right brain thinker. I excel in conceptual ideation/design, creation of digital/traditional art/illustration/animation/motion graphics, and possess a thorough understanding and ability to execute Internet technologies. With over 15 years of experience and a life time of honing imagination and skill, I have a passion to be creative and have established an award-winning career as both a professional digital artist and Creative Director.

And just for some more scope on the man here is his views on art itself.

Art is the expression of creativity and imagination. It is the ability to translate thought and emotion to an audience through the execution of any medium distributed through any media.

One may say suggest that anything can be deemed “art”… I believe anything can, but it is subject to the eyes and ears of the beholder that determines if a message is successfully communicated or not. It is intrinsic to communicate thought and emotion, but it is how well of an impact that communication creates that separates strong from weak art. Knowing your audience, purpose of your creation and most importantly, the execution and understanding of the medium in which you create, defines the strength of your art.

Now, I do not know much about art but I do know what I like and I like Brett’s stuff. He incorporates numerous different art styles into his pieces making a look at his back catalogue a very interesting experience. From portrait style art, to black and white sketches, comic art and caricatures he shows a wealth of experience as well as ideas. My favourite pieces have to be the painted style set pieces that mash up numerous Geekdom characters (the Back to the Future / Doctor Who pieces especially catching this reviewer’s eye). Below is a collection of some of the pieces he has on offer in his shop. They come in numerous sizes and design types, but just to give you an idea on price structure I have included the smallest size and lowest cost.

Wrapped in a bow. 5.50” x 8.00”. $27.00.

Darth Borg. 8.00” x 6.00”. $29.00.

Snarf. 6.38” x 8.00”. $27.00.

Gizmo. 8.00” x 6.00”. $27.00.

Doc Doctor and the Delorian. 8.00” x 5.38”. $27.00

Regeneration. 6.00” x 8.00”. $29.00

Joker. 7.88” x 8.00”. $27.00.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. 8.00” x 7.25”. $27.00.

Bizarro. 5.13” x 8.00”. $22.00.

Sloth. 7.88” x 8.00. $27.00.

Here are some of his 2D prints which may also interest the nerd in you.

You can buy all these prints and many more through his shop, while also catching up with his work via his Facebook and Twitter pages. So if anything in this article has grabbed your interest then hit those links as fast as you can. If not then all is not lost, at least you now know who Brett Hardin is!

March 25, 2014

Jude Buffum Pixel Art Will Make You Pine for 80’s Retro Games!

I am a child of the 80’s. Anyone who looks at my Facebook wall with find it filled with internet memes, fan art and quizzes all relating back to that time that was magical for me. It was probably coming of age in the 80’s that made me have such a fondness for the 8 bit computers. I had one myself and have always been fascinated by the art form of using such small dots to create a larger canvas. Seems I am not alone in this as numerous talented artists have gone the retro route with their artwork. Cult Collective has covered numerous artists employing this style ourselves. One new artist who recently caught my eye was Jude Buffum whose work with 8 bit blew my mind.

Buffum’s pixel art uses the now popular again art style and mixes it with his own form of humour as well as love of all things fandom. Here is a little look into his world (thanks to his website).

Jude graduated from the Tyler School of Art in 2001 with a BFA in Graphic Arts and Design, where he went on to teach design and typography courses for five years. After that he taught illustration at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia for several years. While he was a part of the design and illustration duo Headcase Design (2002–2007), Jude designed books for such pop-culture phenomena as the Broadway show “Wicked” and HBO’s “The Sopranos”, as well as the best-selling book The Baby Owner’s Manual, which he also illustrated. Other clients include the New York Times, SONY, UPS, Target, Square/Enix, Brooks Running, Courtney Love, the US Postal Service, Disney, Publix, and Toyota/SCION. Jude’s design and illustration have received awards from Graphis, Communication Arts, AIGA, Print Magazine, Society of Illustrators, 3×3, and American Illustration, and his non-commercial work has been exhibited internationally.

His artwork, as you can see, has gotten around and below is a selection of items he has for sale. They come in numerous sizes and different price ranges. Listed below is the cheapest and smallest size prints for sale, but check out the Society 6 link at the end of the article for more details on other sizes.

Art Print. Mini 8 ” x 8″. $20.00. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Art Print. Mini 6″ x 10″. $20.00. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Art Print. Mini 8″ x 10″. $20.00. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Art Print. Mini 9″ x 8″. $20.00. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Art Print. Mini 10″ x 7″. $20.00. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Art Print. Mini 8″ x 8″. $20.00. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Art Print. Mini 10″ x 6″. $20.00. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Finally we move onto some of the artwork he has showed cased on his Facebook page, all of which sharing that cheeky charm and his tongue in cheek humour.

If you want to see more of Jude’s work you should check out these links as well as check out his Twitter feed as well as well as this link to his art for sale. Jude’s work fills my nerdy retro heart with glee and I cannot wait to see more of his work gracing the internet very soon.

March 25, 2014

Dave Gaskin Illustrates The Best of Pop Culture Characters

Illustration’s is how Dave Gaskin describes his work but looking at it there is so much more to see. Illustration seems slightly limiting and Dave’s work is anything but limiting. Another child of fandom Dave rather than hide his love of all things geek, embraces them in his work. His description of his own work is short and sweet and goes like this.

As an avid movie fan, I take great pride in creating portraits of some of my favourite directors, actors and movie characters that have had an effect on me personally.

Short and to the point much like his work. Dave’s illustrations are mostly portrait based with the odd foray into other art styles. His black and white sketch style shows incredible detail of the subject matter because of the style you get to see every line and detail. Below is a selection of his work all of which can be found on his website. A lot of this work is either sketches, specials or work in progress so to date I have no artwork information other than his work comes in either A4 or postcard sizes (ink & Polychromos pencils on 3″ x 4″ Bristol board).

Some of these pieces were done just for ebay.co.uk for the charity Kidney Research UK but he does have other items available for sale which you can find out about via his Facebook and Twitter. Dave is UK based so if you are a fellow Brit then you can catch him at numerous conventions around the country. I caught him last year in Nottinghamshire and managed to snag some nice Obama style prints of him (the Father Ted piece is a personal favourite of mine that I managed to grab). So stay tuned to these sites and his Deviant Art page for updates on his work.

March 7, 2014

Jenny Parks Gives Us a Look at What Happens When Fandom and Cats collide!

If they ever removed access to cat memes or videos on the internet then there is a good chance that the World Wide Web would shut down until further notice. Cats are everywhere! The other major thing people like me like to have a look at online is the world of fandom (or people falling over but I have omitted them because there is not much art on the subject!). So it was with much delight when I found an artist who had actually managed to combine these two into an awesome art piece. Here name is Jenny Parks and here is a wee bit about her from her own website.

Jenny Parks is a scientific illustrator that also happens to be a shameless nerd, with a penchant for drawing animals, dinosaurs, imaginary creatures… and occasionally, people as cats. Somehow, she found herself with a bit of internet fame with the illustration ‘Doctor Mew’, and has been baffled ever since. With a BFA in illustration from the California College of the Arts, and a graduate degree in Science Illustration from UC Santa Cruz, she now resides in San Francisco as a freelance illustrator, fulfilling her destiny to make a living drawing cute, fuzzy things.

She has most recently done variant covers for a few Marvel comics for their Animal Variant series.

Her prints show some of fandoms most famous creations shown as their cat equivalent. Below is a selection of some of my personal favourites from her online shop.

Doctor Mew.$15.00. 11×17 poster on 80# glossy paper.

Dexpur. $3.00. 4×6 Postcards on glossy card stock.

Daryl Dixon Cat. $10.00. 8.5″ x 11″ print on glossy paper.

Purrlock. $15.00. 11×17 poster on 80# glossy paper.

Harry Pawter. $10.00. 8.5″x11″ print on glossy paper.

Star Trekitties. $15.00. 11×17 poster on 80# glossy paper.

Batcat and Bane. $10.00. 8.5″ x 11″ prints of either BatCat or Bane Kitty.

Spider-Cat. $10.00. 8.5″ x 11″ size prints on glossy paper.

Catvengers. $15.00. 11×17 Poster, with all of the Catvengers assembled!

Some of Jenny’s variants are just as interesting as the prints for sale here and below is an a example of these fine pieces.

What I love about Jenny Park’s work is the way she has managed to pick just the right feline for the job. From The Hulk to Harry Potter the cats all share the characteristics of their fandom counterpart and even without the costumes you could hazard a guess on what character they are portraying. You do not even have to like cats to admire the clever way these pieces have been constructed. You can see more from Jenny on her website and the social network sites like Facebook and Twitter so if you dig her work here you should really check them out. They are purffeccttt……..sorry about that pun!

February 28, 2014

Andre De Freitas Fandom Portraits Show Heroes and Villains in a Whole New Light

The portrait is probably one of the easiest art forms to identify for the art newbie. They can range from abstract, to comical and to heart wrenchingly honest. It is with a portrait where the person is laid bare for all of us to see. A simple brush stroke can create a look of happiness and yet mystery. Even today the Mona Lisa is one of the most puzzled over pieces in museum with no one quite sure how she is feeling. It is the frozen stillness of the subject that grabs our attention. Artist Andre De Freitas also saw the potential of this stillness. Below is a quote from his website focusing on the reasons behind his artwork.

Hello, my name is Andre De Freitas and I’m a photographer and illustrator. I studied in Full Sail University and got a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Animation. But oddly enough, the concept of stillness captured my imagination, and I focused more on illustration. Instead of just drawing, I tried to imagine myself taking photos of my subjects. That way the illusion of stillness would be a little more believable, almost like a photograph. After that, my insertion into the world of photography was almost based on instinct.

What type of portrait does Andre focus his talents on? Well his talent lies with face on photographic style portraits similar to police mug shots. Though he does numerous other designs the ones that interested me the most were the superhero pieces. These hauntingly realistic pieces show some of comics most well known characters at their most vulnerable at the end of a camera lens. Below is a selection of some of my favourites.

Anung Un Rama

Ororo

Victor

He also turns this style to something far more surreal zombified characters. This style makes them seem that much more alive though and the selection of characters is fun yet grotesque to look at. Again their flaws and characters are laid bare and in some cases it would have been better to see them hidden away!

Zombie Buzz

Zombie Batman

Zombie Popeye

Zombie Raph

Zombie Ryu

Zombie Wally

There is a selection of this prints for sale on his website as well as examples of his other pieces of art. My favourite choices can be seen below.

Zombie Charlie Brown. $24.96. Art Print. Mini 8″ x 9″. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Diana. $22.88. Art Print. Mini 8″ x 8″. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Zombie Donald Duck. $24.96. Art Print. Mini 8″ x 9″. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Zombie Iron man. $24.96. Art Print. Mini 8″ x 9″. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

Barbara. $22.88. Art Print. Mini 8″ x 8″. Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing.

I love the way these pieces show every aspect of the person character and easily encapsulates them. Barbara Gordon’s freckles and dazzling green eyes of youthfulness counter balance with Diana Price stern, battle worn yet stunning face of experience. You can keep up to speed with Andre’s art via Face Book and Twitter and be sure to look at his other pieces of art which are just as interesting as the selected pieces above.

February 26, 2014

J-Monster Art Celebrates The Return Of A&E’s “Bates Motel”

Last week we brought you J-Monster Art’s, aka Josh Kelly, Alien alternative movie poster. Now J-Monster has taken the time to put together a great poster for A&E’s returning Psycho prequel/ reimagining television series Bates Motel, which returns on March 3rd.

Capturing the duality of Norma and Norman Bates, J-Monster’s art is a creepy as the characters itself and is drenched in an eerie colour scheme which would look great as a screen print. Here’s what Josh Kelly himself had to say about working on Bates Motel.

Being a fan of Psycho, Bates Motel was a must watch series to see what had gone on before and if it would do the lead up to Psycho any justice as a lot movies made into tv series doesn’t always work. But I feel Bates Motel has.

[My] Inspiration behind this piece was for a quote I saw from the upcoming season which was “I will die if you leave. We’re like the same person.” Said by Norma Bates. Really thought that was a good quote to base the main part of the poster on. I really wanted to capture that Norman and Norma have a very strong and close relationship, almost too close that they are pretty much the same person and by making no dividing line between them in this poster I feel as tho I managed to capture that. Hope fans of Bates Motel enjoy the poster as much as I enjoyed creating it.

You can check out more of Josh Kelly’s J-Monster Art over on his Facebook, Behance and Twitter. Told you this guy was gonna produce some great work!