Awesome Paintings

Diamond painting kits offer a fresh take on paint-by-numbers. They let you recreate works of art by placing tiny rhinestones to create shiny, pixelated versions of pieces like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. In addition to the sets we found on Amazon, the guys at Pretty Neat Creative can make custom kits based on your own images.

Spray-painted art is usually pretty imprecise. But the unnamed artist in this clip shows off an impressive amount of control as they painted a portrait by modulating the spatter from a thin line of spray paint, much like the lines produced by a dot-matrix printer. The technique is amazing, but that face is a little creepy.

Artist Phil Vance paints portraits of famous people using their own words to create their images. In this time-lapse video, he builds up an image of author Hunter S. Thompson, layer by layer. His image of Dave Chappelle made from the words of his 8:46 special is equally incredible.

Vincent van Gogh’s painting Starry Night is famous for its swirly brushstrokes. Rather than replicate the painterly style of the original, dP Art Drawing copied the design with rulers, french curves, and a compass, resulting in a geometrically-structured interpretation. She used gel pens on black paper to make the colors pop.

Artist PEJAC created this outdoor work, which looks like a giant crack has formed in the concrete, but upon closer inspection is actually an ant-like colony of thousands of tiny people. The work, titled Social Distancing appears outside Valdecilla Hospital in Santander, Spain. Be sure to visit the artist’s website and Instagram.

It took CG Geek almost a month of work, but he managed to create a digital 3D environment inspired by the style of artist Bob Ross. Instead of paint, he photo-scanned real-world nature imagery to create textures for his happy little trees. We love how he makes it sound so easy.

You could hang a hunter’s trophy on your wall, or perhaps choose something a little more friendly to animals with this colorful, abstract image of a powerful stag. Created by artist Koby Feldmos, this original 67″x 34″ painting has an almost sculptural feel to it thanks to its thick layers of oil paint.

Artist Thomas Trum is known for making paintings with unusual tools and techniques. Among the weapons in his creative arsenal is this paint gun designed for road line marking, which he uses to spray a gradient rainbow of colors as he moves it along a canvas.

Erik Jensen creates art using a non-traditional medium. Instead of paints, pencils, or ink, he creates original works and replicas of famous paintings using computer keys. He dyes the the keys with various colors then painstakingly arranges them into pixel grids. Erik sells originals and prints on his website.

Watch in awe as this unnamed artist works some serious black magic. She first paints what seem to be abstract shapes inside of rice bowls, but they come together to form a detailed portrait. Then the real trick happens when the camera flips to the other side of the room. Two images are based on characters from The Untamed.

Developed by software engineer sato_neet, this online plaything lets you upload a portrait, and then uses deep learning technology to transform your image into a renaissance painting. The resulting outputs range from artful to hilarious.

Artist Thomas Blanchard follows up his stunning short film The Other Side with a more singular effort, filling our screens with colorful planetary bodies and galaxies. Like his other works, there’s no CGI here – the images you see are made entirely from paint, oil, inks, and soap.

Motion designer Agustín Vidal Saavedra takes us through the process of digitally manipulating images from 15th century church ceilings into a trippy moving image using Adobe After Effects. Find more of his wildly inventive animations on Behance and Instagram.

Artists, put down your paint brushes for this one. To achieve this abstract painting technique, you’ll just need some acrylic paints, a mixing cup, and a workbench you don’t mind getting messy. Tiktus Color Art shows how a mix of pouring paints and canvas tilting can create some sweet marbled patterns.

Artist Darian Mederos creates incredible portraits that appear to have been painted behind a sheet of bubble wrap. In fact, every individual bubble – and the light, shadows, and distortion that come with them, is hand-painted. Check out some of his works and process on Instagram.

Artist Young-Sung Kim captured time-lapse footage over the course of ten months, as he painstakingly created a hyper-real oil painting of a fish. Everything looks so incredibly shiny, we just want to reach out and touch it. The painting is currently for sale from Saatchi Art.

Artist DP Truong creates works in a variety of medium, from paints to pens to pencils, but one of his most intriguing approaches to art is portraiture made from thread. Watch as she transforms 44 white threads into a portrait reminiscent of the waveforms on the cover of the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures.

Herschel Supply Co. pays tribute to the enigmatic NYC artist’s work with a dynamic print of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s most iconic 1981 painting Untitled (Scull/Skull). The featherweight snap-front windbreaker comes in a water-resistant, polyester diamond dobby ripstop fabric, thin enough to pack inside an internal storage pocket.

Despite his phenomenal posthumous popularity, and having painted thousands of works of art, it’s nearly impossible to find an original Bob Ross painting anywhere. The New York Times dug into the mystery behind what happened to Ross’ numerous paintings in this great short documentary.

Artist Jimmy Swift spent hours getting beat up by the waves and sand to paint this pointy rock off the coast of South Goa, India to look like an angry great white shark. It makes for amazing photo opps for visitors, though smacking into a rock might be just as dangerous as swimming with sharks.

Back when science fiction was considered pulp fiction, art directors and artists had the freedom to run wild with the cover art for sci-fi books. Nerdwriter pays homage to some of these notable people and their work, and reminds us to have a greater appreciation for cover art.

Flying Dog Brewery teamed up with famed artist Ralph Steadman to produce this sweet limited-edition deck featuring 18 classic works in a style sure to be familiar to any fan of his good friend Hunter S. Thompson, who helped bring his surreal, splattered imagery to the forefront.

This 3D-painted anamorphic illusion by artist Leon Keer will mess with your head. Watch as a toddler drives her mini car into the middle of what appear to be a stack of giant Hot Wheels cars. Be sure to check out more of his amazing imagery on Instagram.

Tom Scott recently paid a visit a truly unusual and extraordinary collection – a working research library dedicated to the history of color. The Forbes Pigment Collection has spent decades cataloging and storing rare pigments to help verify the authenticity of works of art.

Filmmaker Pablo Mengin (aka Megalopolis) created this intense and surreal music video for NYC rapper Bashton by painting 2000+ images over the course of 18 months. Each of the video’s individual frames could serve as a framed work of art all on its own.

Artist Dito von Tease turned classical portraits into selfies, alluding to the opposite backgrounds of the commissioned portrait and the digital self-portrait. The former was a privilege of the rich, while the latter is available to anyone with a phone.