For anyone who wants to see their place in the universe, there is hardly a better way to get perspective than taking a look at the stars. With head lofted towards the sky we see a multitude of worlds so distant that the light originated eons before our birth. These star maps from Stellavie Design Manufaktur are perhaps the most lovely we’ve seen, providing us with both attractive detailing and meaningful content… the perfect inspiration for becoming more familiar with our night sky. [Read more...]
Artist Hand Paints 47,000 Stars On Museum Ceiling
Well-known for hosting Rembrant’s The Nightwatch, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum invited Turner Prize winner Richard Wright to decorate the ceiling outside of the room that holds the piece. Laying on his back, hoisted up a few feet from the ceiling, Wright painted 47,000 black stars in his typical mind-warping fashion. [Read more...]
Cosmic Creatures Formed From NASA’s Space Images
Looking up at the sky and forming images from the stars has been going on for just about as long as human life has existed, but that was only what could be seen from the Earth. Digital illustrator Chris Keegan has taken constellations to a whole new level with the use of images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. He steps back from the images and tries to see what kind of creatures he can find, then digitally emphasizes those figures so that everyone can see them. The result is some highly unique creatures made up of celestial elements. In an interview with WIRED Keegan explained, “In one picture you can see thousands of stars and the idea of having a person or a bird taking up that sort of size was quite unusual.”
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Visual Bits #287 > Traveling Through Space
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Mugshot Doppelgänger: Old Mugs Get Celebrity Faces
We’re used to seeing the mugshots of celebrities on everything from TMZ to the latest grocery store tabloid covers… and whether we want to know or not, the stories of their problems seem to trickle down to us from the television, the paper or the the water cooler gossip at work. But, what if those familiar stories were removed from the context we are used to and placed in a past much like our own current era. These images take the familiar mugshot expressions of modern celebrities and place them on the mugshots of moonshiners, prostitutes and thieves from the 1920s. The vintage images have the effect of making us look at these modern miscreants with a new eye, perhaps reevaluating their humanity or even reimagining their storied pasts. [Read more...]
Hollywood Stars Go Colorfully Pop
If you could shoot bursts of controlled confetti and make it look like the Hollywood stars of old, you’d have portraits a lot like those of graphic designer and illustrator Alessandro Pautasso. This passionate Italian artist has created a large collection of famous American stars, from Audrey Hepburn to Paul Newman and Rita Hayworth, all with his signature bold colors and abstract geometric shapes. In doing so he hopes to revive the colors of the past… but he’s also breathing new and imaginative life into stars which have been re-interpreted many times. [Read more...]
Massive black holes shatter record
An international team of astronomers has discovered two gigantic black holes with masses about 10 billion times the mass of our sun. These black holes have a mass more than 50 percent greater than any other previously measured. [Read more...]
Perfect Caricatures of the Rich & Famous
Each of these impressive caricature illustrations has an uncanny resemblance to the famous star they portray… Stan Chow really has this down. Check out his James Bond tribute below for example: each martini drinking Bond is there, a perfect copy of their real life counterpart. A freelance graphic designer, Chow’s work is in high demand from periodicals around the globe and his inexpensive prints are hot sellers over at bigcartel.com. For more of his work, check out stanleychowillustration.com or Flickr, then get frequent updates through Twitter and Facebook. Can you identify everyone here? [Read more...]
Iconatomy: A Merging of Old and New Stars
These star-studded Hollywood tributes are simply astounding! In such a way that they are almost one person, jewelry arts student George Chamon has perfectly merged photos of such silver screen greats as Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant with their modern day doppelgängers. The classic amoeba shaped layers between the two iconic stars match seamlessly with the retro look of the portraits. Bravo! [Read more...]
Black hole eats star, spews light beam
A big, bright bang recorded by astronomers came from a distant black hole that ripped apart a star and blasted an energy beam to Earth. Seen above is an artist’s impression of the star just before it was ripped apart by the supermassive black hole. [Read more...]













