New on ATCsJr Forums: Lego Art!

We've got a whole new set of forums out on ATCsJr.com now!  It's all about Legos!  Not only do we have line art so you can design your own lego head, but we've also got line art so you can design your own lego person!  Stick 'em on an ATC card and trade those fun little pieces of art.

There's tons of fine art out in the world; online, in museums, even in print/poster form! What would it look like if you made some of those artists' works out of legos? What would it look like if you incorporated some legos into their pieces??

Give it a shot! Pick your favorite piece of art, and Lego-ify it!

Self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh LEGO’d by “nismo4banger:” 

I've no idea who did these next ones, but they're some great examples!

Girl with the Pearl Earring

The Last Supper

Vitruvian Man

Mona Lisa

My clay Starry Night

As promised, here's my process.  Pictures just don't do this justice - it looks so much better in person!

First, I made the scene out of fast drying clay:

Then, after it was dryed out (it took a bit longer than I expected, probably because it was so thick), I started painting it with acrylics.  Here's the first go at it, before I had to let the paint dry or risk messing it up:

Here's the final version of it:

And a few of the close ups next.  You can begin to see in these three photos what I can see here sitting before me:

A CLOSE look at Starry Night

In keeping with the Try It Tuesday theme of the Night Sky, I found a * fantastically wonderfully awesome* site to take a look at Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night (it's one of my favorite pieces of art).

Want to see it?  I know you do - you can get in close enough to see the brush strokes and how he mixed the paints right on the canvas...

See that little window inside the picture I've uploaded?  That's the section of the larger painting that you're looking at with all the brush strokes and everything!  Browns, greys, whites, blues, some blacks, and look that yellow!

Quick! Break out the Clay!

I'm creating an ATC out of clay.  I like the idea and that the media gives texture and depth.  Since I'm doing a Vincent Van Gogh inspired piece of art, it was ideal, so I didn't have to put on thick layers of oil paint to get the same effect as he did.

I built the clay up in some places and used a toothpick to carve into the base in other places.  Over all, I'm really pleased with how it's turning out!  With most traditional clay, you have to do your masterpiece, then take it somewhere and get it fired, so it's bisque (hard) and paintable (or glaze-able!).  Myself, I'm too impatient for that.  I want to get to the next stage as fast as I can!

With that in mind, I used Crayola's Air-Dry Clay (you can find that in the ATCsJr store & I'll get a little kickback to pay the expenses ATCsJr incurs - I think I'll get around 15 cents per purchase of this product). It's pretty awesome stuff.  As you can see from the image, it's a no baking clay!  That means, you get to make your art, then leave it over night.  After the 24 hours, you can come back to it and paint it to finish it up.  No trips to a kiln for firing!  No cooling off period!  No waiting for a week after you've created your masterpiece!  It's awesome!

Paint with acrylics, oils, or tempura paints and you're all set!  I think you could even color it with sharpie markers, if you really wanted to.  :)

Tilt Shift Focus on Van Gogh

Tilt shift focus is a method of making a photograph look more 3D, even though it's 2D.  It's a cool effect and was really popular a little while ago online.  It's making a comeback, but in the art world, by applying the concept to paintings.  Take a look at a few of Van Gogh's paintings over on artcyclopedia.com that have been manipulated this way.  It gives a whole new feeling to some of his works.  Here's one to start your journey...  --->

Cool stuff!