THE BEST Art

Artist Lucy Sparrow specializes in crafting felt sculptures. Her largest installation is Sparrow Mart, a “supermarket” in The Standard, Los Angeles that features 31,000 hand-sewn and hand-painted felt replicas of grocery items. It took her and her team a year to make.

We first came across artist Alexey Zakharov aka seccovan when he created a full CG version of the world of Futurama, and then his wild 3D update to vintage imagery. But he also has an interest in transforming works of art into versions with motion and depth.

Thomas Pavitte’s clever illustrations offer a unique spin on adult coloring books. Each image is hidden within a pair of concentric spirals, which only reveals itself as you fill in the lines. Use two colors to create a duotone. Choose from music icons, cities, or animals.

Artist Heath Knuckles creates stunning organic works of art by taking pieces of uniquely textured wood, cutting them into layers, and filling the in-between bits with colored resin. He then works them on the lathe into a perfect spherical shape. More here.

Director Douwe Dijkstra presents a transportive short film in which a man travels the streets and beaches of Brazil carrying a portable green screen. After capturing the vignettes of modern life, he replaced the contents of the screen with other scenes from around the country.

Artist Rene Eisenbart demonstrates Ebru, a wonderfully-satisfying technique which uses paints floated in liquid suspension. After dropping colorful pigments into the vat, she uses a giant comb to create marbled patterns for printing. Learn more about Ebru here.

The perfect way for artists and creators of all types to carry the tools of the trade. Measuring 14″ x 10″ x 2″ when closed, Le Whisper’s handmade canvas/leather bag holds dozens of pens, pencils, markers, notepads, and accessories, and even a small tablet.

Among his diverse works, artist Jason “REVOK” Williams creates enormous Spirograph-style images using a wall-mounted set of wooden gear rings, which allow him to spray paint geometric patterns. Here’s an earlier circular rig he set up.

Glass artist Raven Skyriver demonstrates the team effort required to create a large sculpture of a sea turtle. His studio creates all kinds of incredible glass animals, including lizards, sharks, whales, seahorses, fish, octopi, and more. Video by Derek Klein Films.

After wowing us with his million dot illustration, David Bayo is back with an even more intricate image. He claims there are about 3 million dots in this portrait, though we still have no idea how he keeps track of how many dots he drew. Find original images and prints of his work here.

Sculptor and builder of things Bobby Duke decided to do something that serves no purpose but to prove that it could be done, as he bought a pack of pencils, then carved a tiny pencil from it’s wood, and then an even tinier pencil from the lead of the tiny pencil.

Watch as sculptor LoreCraft transforms a hunk of styrofoam, clay, mesh, and paints into a detailed bust of the nightmare-inducing demogorgon from Stranger Things. Those teeth still get us every time. Oh, and watch the volume on your speakers at 5:00.

In Coffee We Trust. The talented Shaun Hughes walks us through the painstaking process of transforming an old 1959 US penny into a wonderful coin engraved with an image of Cuphead’s eponymous character.

Sitting somewhere between a coloring book and a paint by numbers set, but without the mess, Paint by Sticker books are offered for both adults and kids, with images inspired by classic works of art, famous musicians, travel posters, animals, and more.

Korean barista Kangbin Lee creates beautiful, but temporary artworks in latte foam, painting detailed and colorful illustrations using food coloring and syrups as his media. His portfolio of drinkable art is as diverse as it is tasty.

A few years back, we saw breathtaking images of The Kelpies, a pair of 98-foot-tall horse sculptures in Falkirk, Scotland. Now you can see how they came together in this wonderful time-lapse by Walid Salhab, who captured over 120,000 individual images to complete the film.

This electromechanical sound maker uses moving turntable arms to select and play grooves carved into an enormous cylinder. The positions of the arms and sounds played correspond to the positions of 27,000 pieces of space junk drifting about over our heads.

A white-on-black version of Humans Since 1982’s segmented analog timepiece which offers the same 24 analog dials, but a bolder and easier to read display. It’s as amazing as ever, though we only wish it were more affordable. Measures 15.75″ h x 35.5″ w x 1.5″ d.

Fans of American traditional tattoos and pop culture will love these awesomely illustrated prints inspired by everything from Taxi Driver to Totoro. LA artist Quyen Dinh of Parlor Tattoo Prints also offers designs on t-shirts and a limited-edition wall calendar.

Kelli Anderson’s This Book Is a Planetarium, features six usable pop-up constructions, including a tiny planetarium, a Spirograph-like drawing machine, a secret decoder ring, and an acoustic amplifier. Each object is accompanied by an explanation of the science behind it.

In early 2017, protest artist Banksy opened The Walled Off Hotel, an actual hotel right in front of the infamous West Bank barrier. Now it has a gift shop where you can get miniatures of graffiti on the wall, t-shirts, and a mug with the hotel’s slogan: “The Worst View in the World.”

While shooting pics to promote illustrator Jon Burgerman’s new book It’s Great to Create, photographer Bas Berkhout decided to turn some of the leftovers into a wonderful documentary about the inspiration behind his whimsical, googly-eyed style.

WIRED UK introduces us to artist Patrick Tresset, whose latest exhibition includes a classroom filled with robotic “students” each of which has been equipped with a pen and paper. While the students doodle, three smarter robots at the head of the class draw portraits.

A wonderful piece of wall art for any music fan, Dorothy’s open edition litho print features the titles of nearly 600 colorful songs, each arranged by the hue in its title. The 2017 edition includes 38 new titles. Measures 100cm H x 70cm W (~39.3″ x 27.6″).