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In our continuing journey to offer our readers an artistic dose of inspiration to help carry them through the weekend and get them recharged and ready to go for the coming week ahead, we have put together another fantastic showcase to serve just such a purpose. This time around we have gone fully digital! Turning to that online hangout for artists who tend to walk the more anomalous path, we scoured through some of the freshest uploads over at Deviant Art recently to find some inspired pieces to pile into this imagination stirring post.
Given the volume of artwork being shared through the DA site, and the number of categories to sift through, for this inspirational installment we decided to narrow our focus and present our readers with only a slice of an expansive header like digital art. So for this post we have gathered some stunning fractals to kick things off, then we have a few vexels squeezed in, before we move on to wrap things up with a handful or two of digital paintings and airbrush pieces. Hopefully these will prove useful in reigniting your inspired fires so you can start your work week in the right frame of mind.
Fractal Art
We begin the showcase with a look at Fractal art. Fractals are an artform which uses algorithms to create and manipulate fractal objects represented by transforms that are assigned certain artistic properties by the artist. This complicated medium has been made more accessible for years now as the community has given rise to several fractal programs that while they may contain different levels of learning curves, they tend to be easier than working out the complex algorithms involved in the creations.
hyperben2
The first artist that we are featuring is hyperben2 on Deviant Art. An extremely talented fractal artist who manages to create pieces with such depth and an intricate nature that we could not put together this showcase without shining our spotlight on some of the pieces in their gallery.
krigl
Next up on the showcase, we have a few pieces from another fantastic fractal artist, krigl on Deviant Art. While most fractal work tends toward the abstract, these next pieces demonstrate how harmoniously these fractal elements can all be pulled together with a seemingly effortless ease to shape the abstract into something solid almost tangible.
HalTenny
Speaking of a more tactile feeling to some fractal artists’ work, our next bunch of breathtaking pieces are from the gallery of HalTenny on Deviant Art. With Hal’s work, we find ourselves more inhabiting strange new worlds with landscapes unlike anything we have seen beyond the scope of science fiction.
Momma Spider Tending Egg by: HalTenny
Random Artist Fractals
Before we check out of the fractal headspace and move into another digital artistic medium, we have a handful of other awesome fractals that we felt should be featured in the post. Though we only have taken one piece from each of the artists below, their contributions are just as inspired as the other works that wound up filling the spotlight, and we wouldn’t have felt right about passing them by.
Expanded mandelbulb virus by: carlahoon
Cybernetika by: Complete-Loser
Fractal 365: Day 172 by: wildekyote
Vexel Art
The next digital artform that we are going to explore on this inspirational journey, is Vexel art. No, not vector, vexel. Vexel art is an entirely pixel-based form of raster art that has the look and feel of being comprised of vectors. This mimicking of a vector graphics technique gives these pixel perfect pieces of art a much less whimsical tone than most of what we think of when we hear pixel art.
Pedro-92
The first vexel artist on our list today is Pedro-92 on Deviant Art. Pedro’s detailed face work, while maintaining a smidgen of that playful nature that one might expect from pixel work, combines an almost photo realistic contouring to give life to some spectacular examples of this artform.
hextupleyoodot
The next artist on our showcase is another skilled vexel visionary who flawlessly gives life to three teens in vexel form. hextupleyoodot on Deviant Art breathes character into these three faces through this somewhat contoured artistic approach.
Alvaro59
If it is the more whimsical works that you are looking for from your vexel viewing inspirational pleasure, then the work Alvaro59 on Deviant Art is right up your proverbial alley. With such vibrant and colorful work, Alvaro’s work taps brilliantly into the roots of the pixel art world.
pai-thagoras
In keeping with the cute and fun theme we have going after our last vexel artist, the whimsy rolls on in a much more macabre way via the artistic creations of pai-thagoras on Deviant Art. While still maintaining the playfulness one might expect, the artist beautifully illustrates from a small corner of the darkside.
Mexican Wrestler: The Yeti by: pai-thagoras
Random Artist Vexels
Once more we wanted to check in on a few more random pieces before we completely moved on to the next section of the post. So below are a few more examples of this artform being wonderfully explored and mastered. These final pieces further demonstrate the flexibility of this artistic arena.
Digital Paintings and Airbrushings
The final category of digital artwork that we are going to dive into for an inspirational recharge is digital paintings and airbrushed works. This expansive, and often breathtaking medium produces some truly imaginative and inspired works, which will hopefully rub off on our readers just as we planned. We wanted to finish strong, and feel that we have found stumbled onto some works that will allow us to do just that.
Valadrel
The first artist we have featured in this section of the showcase is the immensely talented Valadrel on Deviant Art, whose intricately detailed digital paintings virtually come to life off of their digital canvases. An easy addition to this round-up for sure.
Leviathan Vs Gabriel by: Valadrel
translucid
Speaking of easy additions to the inspirational showcase, the fantastic work of translucid on Deviant Art quickly found this interesting artist’s voice a spot. Technically, the third piece is a photomanipulation, but it shows the dynamic reach of the artists voice so we added in.
Station Windows by: translucid
A million lights flicker by: translucid
Hypa00
The next artist up on the showcase briefly takes us into space for a short journey through a fantastically rich verse in the gallery of Hypa00 on Deviant Art. With some spectacularly breathtaking scenery painted onto the digital canvas these looks beyond our world are inspiring to say the least.
Destroying planet and moon by: Hypa00
Vihola
Turning to somewhat of a darker place, at least in tone, we present the next artist on our showcase, Vihola on Deviant Art. The brilliant and bold artist’s brush breathes life into a much more sinister feeling world than we have come from, but does so with such grace it is hard not to admire the artistry.
Hideous Saber-Tooth Rat by: Vihola
nerdiesid
Lets keep this more macabre and somber train rolling as we unveil the work of the next artist in our showcase, nerdiesid on Deviant Art. This is another artist whose voice is so versatile and unique, even though it tends towards the dark, that we could not pass them by with our spotlight.
Random Artist Paintings and Airbrushings
As we wind up the post here we figured we would throw a few more digital paintings and airbrushed works at you just for good measure. Below are several more noteworthy additions to the Deviant Art archives that fall under this artistic heading that we could not let slip by under our reader’s radars! Hopefully you got the inspirational recharge you needed and if not, then perhaps these final few works will help get you there.
Kiss the Rain by: BecPriestess
Peskett loses his head by: MayPylb
That is a Wrap
That does it for this showcase of digital art, we hope that it has helped to once again get your flames of inspiration raging through your imagination. If there are any of the works featured that really stand out and speak to you, please feel free to let us know in the comments which ones those were. Also feel free to hit us up with your thoughts on the various works overall, not just the ones that you were moved by. So it is with that in mind that we now turn the post over to you!
Consider Some of Our Previous Posts
- Beautiful Photoshop Illustrations By Artists Around The World is a post from the Smashing archives that can also assist you in your inspirational searches.
- 35 Incredible Digital Painting Tutorials is another post from Smashing’s past that you might want to check out once you have your inspiration up and running once more.
(rb)