Digital Art | CJMS Communications

Paris – New York: A Comparison

'Paris - New York' is an animated version of Vahram Muratyan’s book

Paris – New York: In 2012, Penguin Books published Vahram Muratyan’s book called ‘Paris versus New York’ and being huge fans of Vahram’s work, Nord Collective always wanted to create an animated version of the book. However, in order to make this tribute, they couldn’t source original illustrations directly, so they used Vahram’s ideas as the base, completely reworking the design and illustrations while trying to keep visual similarity to the original. Nord Collective animated all scenes and asked their dear friend The Cosmic Setter to write and perform original music and sound design for the ‘Paris – New York’ project. It’s fantastic – LOVE!

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One Bright Dot – Video of the Day

'One Bright Dot' is a beautiful short film about a little light

One Bright Dot: ‘One Bright Dot’ is a beautifully animated short film directed by Clément Morin with music by Etienne Forget and sound design by Hugo Thouin. Check it out & enjoy!

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Projection Napping – Video of the Day

'Projection Napping’ videos people snoozing & projects it on buildings in NYC

Projection Napping: In an original and tongue-in-cheek take on projection mapping, Brooklyn-based digital studio Dawn Of Man has been projecting giant-sized video of slumbering people on buildings around New York City for their ongoing project ‘Projection Napping’. According to the studio, the site-specific installations use the very latest in “projection napping technology” and note “These massive nappers were projected throughout NYC over the course of several weeks, occurring unannounced, and each lasting only for a few hours. An unsuspecting audience usually emerges at each location, often sparked with intrigue, sometimes enlightenment, and always a whole lot of questions.” See, it does pay to grab a snooze wherever you can. Take a look below:

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Conrado Salinas – A Selection of Digital Illustrations

Conrado Salinas' portfolio fusions illustration, digital art & graphic design

Conrado Salinas: While flicking through our daily feeds, we stumbled across the amazing work of Los Angeles artist Conrado Salinas who is a freelance illustrator with a background in digital art and graphic design. Conrado Salinas has an impressive digital illustration portfolio. He was featured in Versus Magazine’s 2014 Summer Issue and had his ‘Bone Collector’ piece printed and featured at Adobe MAX 2014. Conrado Salinas also has a few more process steps of certain digital pieces that you can see on his website. Below are a selection of illustrations from his Behance portfolio which can also be purchased from his on-line store. LOVE!!

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Butcher Billy’s Post-Punk Marvel Superheroes

Butcher Billy mixes his favourite pop & trash punk universes to create amazing mashups

Butcher Billy: ‘Superpowered Post-Punk’ is a new series of illustrations created by Butcher Billy, who continues to mix his two favourite universes to offer us beautiful mashups between the pop world of Marvel superheroes and the trash world of Punk and Rock. A creative director at a busy digital agency in Brazil by day, Butcher Billy was just a kid when he first realised with just a pack of crayons in his tiny hands – no walls were safe. It’s that sort of rule-breaking, devil may care, chaotic attitude that inspires Butcher Billy’s art. He takes what is considered pop culture from a variety of sources – music, comic books, movies, games, etcetera – and mashes them all together to come up with something that draws on nostalgia while, at the same time, provides the audience with a fresh take on a familiar scene. In this side of the world, making a pop culture reference can be tedious and common place. Everyone does it these days, but somehow only a few people, Butcher Billy in particular, get away with it. In Butcher’s case, it could be because of his use of dynamic colors: bright, bold, hard to miss or it could be because of his unique take on childhood favourites. Butcher Billy is a one-man assembly line when it comes to his pieces and can churn out new creations at a cracking pace, drawing stuff without sacrificing quality. It’s that passion for his craft that, like one of his superhero mashup creations, seems to make him virtually unstoppable. For a complete look at Butcher Billy’s entire portfolio of amazing work, we strongly urge you to visit his Behance site and if you are interested in purchasing any of his pieces, visit his website.

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Natalie Shau – Lost in Wonderland

Natalie Shau's dark, strange and surreal world

Below are a selection of the latest creations by Natalie Shau, a photographer, artist and graphic designer who combines illustrations and photographs to lead us into a dark, strange and surreal world populated with beautiful creatures. Natalie Shau is a mixed media artist and photographer based in Vilnius, Lithuania who has an amazing talent in fashion and portrait photography as well as digital illustration and photo art. Coupled with her personal work, Natalie also creates artwork and photography for musicians, the theatre, fashion magazines, writers and advertisements. Her specialties include digital art, painting, CD artwork, photo manipulation, book covers, illustration, CD design, collage, digital painting, art direction, production design, advertising and fashion photography. Her digital masterpieces have graced the pages of French Vogue during a Lydia Courteille jewellery campaign and her extensive client list of music labels includes Island Def Jam, Sony Music Entertainment, Century Media, and Nuclear Blast. Gothic horror fiction, fairy tales and Russian classics (e.g. Dostoevsky and Gogol) are among the influences she lists for her surreal and strange creations. Natalie Shau uses a range of media, mixing photography, digital painting and 3D and the quality she seeks is “at once fragile and powerful”. “My works are digital mixed media. I mix photography, 3D elements, vector elements and digital drawing. I also enjoy creating surreal and fashion photography. My photography and digital works are often surreal portraits of women; however, I love portraying animals sometimes.” Natalie Shau regards her works as ‘pretty motionless and doll-like’, but they express the burden of waiting, and the inner conflict that boils within the characters. You can sense this in their expressions or in some contradictory elements or symbols hidden in the work. When questioned whether there is a reason that most of her illustrations and images are of women, Shau notes that she does not choose her characters, they choose her – she’s unable to explain how this happens. Her influences are many however Alexander McQueen, Eiko Ishioka, Trevor Brown are amongst them. Describing her creative process, Shau reveals “I have a flash of an idea or vision and, after exploring it in my mind, I try to sketch it and see if I can express it. I collect all the materials I need for that, take portraits, photograph elements, find any elements needed, and then I start working on a piece.” Take a look at Natalie Shau’s beautiful work below and be sure to visit her website:

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