Hyperreal Paintings by Diego Gravinese
While working tonight on several of my web based projects I decided to take a moment to browse a couple of my favorite sites and blogs, this always helps me to clear my mind and inspire my imagination.
This evening I decided to point my browser towards Juxtapoz.com and what I found was quite special, they had a small feature on artist Diego Gravinese who specializes in creating the “Hyperreal” and by “Hyperreal” I mean amazing oil and acrylic paintings replicating photographic scenes.
His work is mesmerizing (in my opinion) he’s able to take real life and in some cases what some might call “mundane” moments and create something quite captivating and compelling.
I’ve included a few of my favorite pieces in this post but for more info on Diego check out his site Diegogravinese.com but be warned in advance you may come across the occasional piece containing a “Hyperreal” scantily clad woman! lol
Happy Thanksgiving
I’m a big fan of any opportunity to spend quality time with friends and family and if it involves good food even better! With Thanksgiving doing such a great job of combing the two it goes without saying that this is one of my favorite holidays of the year.
Most people have grown up learning the history behind this American tradition but here’s the thing no matter your background, geographical location or religious beliefs I feel that on the simplest of levels it just a wonderful opportunity to remind everyone of the things that we have to be thankful for.
This is something which many of us overlook on a daily bases by becoming wrapped up in our day to day lives but this coming Thursday try to take a moment to appreciate everything and everyone in your lives that you have to be thankful for and more importantly let those people know just how much they mean to you.
From myself and Launch83 I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
Chris.
INFLUENCERS
While browsing the internet this evening I came across a great collection of short web documentaries by influencersfilm.com. The trailer attached to this post grabbed my attention from the get go, it’s well put together and captivating in it’s presentation.
I was intrigued to know more about this series, what was this all about? from their website they describe themselves as the following:
INFLUENCERS is a short documentary on how trends & creativity become contagious. The film is a polaroïd snapshot of the campaigns, artists, creators and bloggers who are shaping today’s pop culture. The aim is to show the mechanisms behind successful concepts/ideas and why some trends and messages spread massively.
I highly recommend that you checkout this short trailer, if it grabs your attention you can view the full video on vimeo here and if you become hooked as I did there is a whole slew of videos from this group that should have no trouble grabbing your attention.
You can also checkout their website influencersfilm.com and their facebook for the latest videos facebook.com/influencersfilm
Instagram Photo Sharing
I’ve been an iPhone user since it’s first release back in January 2007 and over time I’ve downloaded and tried my fair share of free and premium apps some of which were short lived while others have established themselves as long time favorites.
Now out of the many apps which I’ve tried a pretty large percentage would have to be photography based, I love the flexibility that the iPhone has brought to the mobile photographer and my latest download really shines.
Over the Halloween weekend I downloaded the Apple app of the week Instagram which according to their website boasts “Fast beautiful photo sharing for the iPhone”.
I have throughly enjoyed this app from the moment I started using it and as the old saying goes “It does exactly what it’s says on the tin” the basics are that the app allows you to take photos using your iPhone’s camera and then choose whether to keep the photo in it’s original state or apply any one of the twelve filters to the photos (each filter applies a different visual effect to your photo). Once your done taking your photo, picking your filter you then have the option to share your photo on the Instagram network along with several different social networks such as Facebook.
Instagram even promotes user interaction by offering a feed within the app for the most popular photos which you can choose to “Like”, comment on and even follow the photographers work.
This app has definetly shot to the top of my most used in just a short period of time, it’s simple, effective and produces great photos so if you own an iPhone go ahead and check it out.
Oh, and for anyone interested you can follow my photos on Instagram with my username Launch83.
Here’s a few of my recent photos:
New Website Test Run
So here’s the new Launch83 website and blog.
I’ve just finished up the preliminary work on the site and I have to say I’m very pleased with the current design and functionality. The entire site is based on the Caffeinated WordPress WooTheme which I’ve had my eye on for sometime. I’ve still got more work to do but I wanted to get the site live to fully test it’s functionality and to get some feedback from my clients, friends and peers.
This site consists of the standard features that you would expect along with some nice extras:
- Custom Homepage With Featured Work Portal
- Portfolio Page Template With Lightbox Gallery
- Custom Portfolio Post Type
- Widgetized Footer With Several Custom Widgets
So check everything out and let me know what you think of the new site.
Chris.