Category filter: Painting

Dusty Hand Painted Signs

Hand painted signs are one of those things that really intimidate me and thus I love them that much more. The above video shows Dan of Dusty Signs making a self promotional sign as captured through the lens of Hunter Johnson.

(via We Love Typography »)


Yasmeen Ismail

Illustration work like that of Yasmeen Ismail is vibrant, refreshing, and fun. The way she depicts people and animals is unique and abstract, while also simple to understand and connect with. The techniques she uses are DIY, combining painting, collage, and other media for a versatile deep compositions.

(via design work life »)

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Walton Ford New Work

Last night I had the pleasure of attending an opening at Paul Kasmin Gallery of some astounding new work by artist, and long time friend Walton Ford. If you aren’t familiar with his work it is best described as James Audobon with a level of social commentary and graphic sexual undertones. His new paintings titled “I don’t like to look at him, Jack” which are giant 9 foot by 12 foot watercolors capturing the emotions of King Kong. The detail of these pieces and the rendering of the facial expressions is exquisite. The show will be running through December 23rd if you are in New York City you should pop over to Chelsea and check it out.


The Highlands Mural

Hand painted murals are making a serious comeback, and I am loving all of them. This one sponsored by the Highlands Commerce Guild in Louisville Kentucky is bad ass. A true collaboration took place on this one with the design coming from Bryan Patrick Todd, and the sign painting was done by Kirby Stafford.

(via PUBLIC SCHOOL »)

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New Express Muffler & Brake

Andy Luce aka Visual Armory created this amazing hand painted sign for the client New Express Muffler & Brake. The the final product is beautiful, and is only made better by the fun Instagram process shots.

(via Pitch Design Union »)

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Robo Rainbow

I saw this video a few months, but after watching it for a second time I realized how much I love the ingenuity behind it. Such a smart mechanism applied to street art could only come from a genius creator like Akay. Robo Rainbow is part of a collection of objects designed by the Swedish street artist called instruments of mass destruction.

“instruments of mass destruction (complicated technical solution to aide in simple acts of vandalism)”


Raphael Vicenzi

The illustration work of Raphael Vicenzi has such an amazing depth of palette and the layer of textures to create form is really intense. Not to mention he has some great line drawing and hand drawn type thrown in for fair measure. You can check out more of his great work on his Behance profile.

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Pinstripe Skate Deck

Pin-striping is one of those arts that I could never fully wrap my head around. Just like hand drawn type it takes perfectly steady hands and an ability to visualize and execute an end product. Part of the beauty of this style of painting is how the imperfections blend into the overall beauty of a completed pin-striping work. These decks were done by Ryan Lange of Lost Garage and Code of Conduct two pretty cool sites creating fresh original content in the motorcycle, tattoo, skateboarding sphere.


Brett Amory

Painter Brett Amory has got some serious chops. The way in which he captures and slightly alters potentially mundane subject matter is astonishing. He also has a very interesting eye and approach to painting light and color, which gives his paintings an extremely graphic quality. Many of pieces walk a unique line between being hyper realistic and surreal all at the same time.

(via Surfstation »)

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Catherine Ryan

Painter Catherine Ryan’s work has so much depth and is charged with some unique social criticism. Despite the extremely 2D collage style of her compositions they achieve great depth and texture. She has a great knack for distilling character’s down into their simplest form. The way she presents people as faceless, but animals as having faces is interesting. I am not quite sure what to make of it, but I like it.

(via The Best Part »)

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Maria Corte

Spanish illustrator Maria Corte harnesses bright colors and unique shapes to create these compositions that bring up memories of seeing a Picasso piece for the first time. Her eye and methods for visual communication really set her apart.

(via grain edit »)

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Jacky Georges: Sign Painter

Most of the design and creative community has been obsessed with sign painting and hand lettering for a while now. It can more or less be attributed to the back to craft mentality and movement that seems to be inundating all forms of art.

I have not been spared, but on a personal level I find sign painting very nostalgic and it reminds me of my own childhood. For a few years when I was pretty young, no older than seven or eight, my dad made immaculate carved wood and hand painted signs as a way of subsidizing his woodworking business. I would often travel with him on the job and get to watch while he sketched, taped and finally painted a sign.

This specific sign painter Jacky Georges is obviously a skilled veteran and hold over from the generation before vinyl die-cuts and quick crappy window solutions. Work like this is a craft, it takes time to make, but because of that it lasts both physically and aesthetically.

(via excavation by spoonfuls »)


Nutmegger Workshop

Peter Vogel operates a super cool business, of which I am infinitely jealous, in Portland Oregon called Nutmegger Workshop. Basically what they do is create reproduction and historically accurate hand painted signs. Their work is extremely tactile and definitely brings you back to a time when painted signs clothed the landscape of towns and cities alike. The vernacular typography and hand painting techniques of sign painters seem to be in full resurgence right now, and I am really digging it.

(via Quipsologies »)

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Basquiat : The Radiant Child

I can’t even verbalize the amount of happiness I am feeling. Like a large portion of my generation I feel as though much of my creative inspiration is derived from the work of Jean-Michel. I will be at this movie opening day, and I will own it the moment it come out on dvd.

(via Surfstation »)


Veronika Kalacheva

Watercolor illustration has been one of the most pervasive forms of that specific area of art for a long time, and thus has become boring. Every once in a while though, you stumble across some one’s work that revitalizes the medium and adds so much color and life into it that you can’t help, but love it again. In this case that person is Veronika Kalacheva, and her work is stunningly realistic and colorful.

(via LOOKSLIKEGOODDESIGN »)

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Death Spray Custom

At first I was pretty positive their work was all just die-cut vinyl graphics, but to my surprise and delight after further research and inspection I found out it is all custom painted. The meticulous care and craft that goes into the work of Death Spray Custom is something very rare these days.

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