And the Artist of the Year is...

It’s been another awesome Sktchy year. Thousands of artists from around the world joined the community and created so much beautiful art. In fact, as 2015 runs out of clock, we are approaching a new milestone of 100,000 original artworks shared on Sktchy, every one of them inspired by a member of the Sktchy community! Even better we are looking ahead to a very exciting new year, with major app updates, new features and, best of all, new artists and art lovers joining Sktchy.

Of course, we couldn’t let 2015 end without naming our Artist of the Year. In addition to everlasting glory, this year’s AOTY will receive a Moleskine prize package, featuring a beautiful black backpack and a classic black sketchbook, and an ArtSnacks Studio Collection box with seven premium art supplies inside. Sweet, right? Thanks to our friends at Moleskine and ArtSnacks for the goodies!

With so many amazing artists in the Sktchy community, it was incredibly hard to choose one to be the 2015 Artist of the Year. That’s why we asked you to draw your nominees in the latest Weekend Art Extravaganza (#WAXaoty) – but that made the choice even harder! 

In the end, this is a good problem to have. There is no such thing as too many amazing artists in one community. With that said, we want to thank every single artist on Sktchy. Thank you for sharing your creativity with us. It truly is a gift, and it makes building Sktchy a delight, a privilege and an exciting adventure.

Now, without further ado…

Artist of the Year: Ana Lopes

In 2015 Ana made ‘em say “wow” more than any other artist in the Sktchy community (the “wow” is Sktchy’s “like”), created 13 of the most-wowed pieces and was prolific, sharing 171 pieces with her followers. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. Not even close. Ana’s dreamy watercolors and Renaissance-reminiscent drawings have lit up Sktchy’s virtual halls all year. Not bad for someone who’s never taken an art class. Above all Ana has been an inspiration to her fellow Sktchy artists, many of whom nominated her with a #WAXaoty drawing this past weekend, perhaps the biggest endorsement of them all. 

Congratulations to Ana, Sktchy 2015 Artist of the Year! Needless to say, you should follow her on Sktchy. You may get lucky and be her next portrait subject. (Just remember: No duckface. Ever.) Here are just a few of her lucky subjects from an incredible year of creativity.

http://sktchy.com/IHHkvD

http://sktchy.com/R8iY8c

http://sktchy.com/MBBCiH

http://sktchy.com/GHfCiD

http://sktchy.com/Buq36c

http://sktchy.com/UDficc

http://sktchy.com/FNvoQH

http://sktchy.com/C4OKeC

Shout out to our friends over at Sktchy!

Cars and Their Faces

Did you know that billion of dollars are spend each and every year on cars design.Automotive Design is one of the most important things in cars industry since the design will be most important thing when car should be sold. If you take a closer look at “car faces” you can recognize couple of things. Generally, happy faces are used for family cars and sedans and angry faces for luxury and sports cars. They’re designed to elicit emotion because it makes them sell better. source:carsodd

· Frog-skin ·

The Fusion Of Colors In Leonid Afremov’s Nostalgic Oil Paintings

The elegance of the rich colours playing together on Russian-Israeli artist Leonid Afremov’s nostalgic oil paintings gives us the opportunity to spend some time in luxurious autumnal cities. His paintings seem to slow down time, letting us enjoy the precious details of these closed autumnal cities.

The painter is famous for his unusual, yet very effective technique: all he uses for his paintings are oils, canvas and the palette-knife. The brush-free paintings give an astounding edginess to the luminous cities and landscapes. Source:boredpanda

Impressive Animals by Maxim Shkret 

on Behance 

Maxim Shkret is Russian digital artist based Krasnodar city. Using 3d techniqes Maxim creates beautifully shaped digital animals portraits. Spare a moment to get familiar with his works.

Antoine Doré

Facebook

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Teacosi x INPRNT.

INPRNT and I have teamed up this month to bring you some holiday gift ideas (art is the best gift!) with 25 Days of Christmas with INPRNT.  Today’s selection, is the weird, wonderful work of illustrator Teacosi who has all the above and more available as prints in their INPRNT Store.

As an added bonus, INPRNT is offering 10% off anything when you use the discount code “SSA2015″ so get shopping!

Check out all the INPRNT artists I’ve chosen here.

Incazzato nero (Outro), Mezzosangue - il monologo è tratto dal film “Quinto potere” (1979)

Veronica Fish x INPRNT.

I’ve teamed up with INPRNT to bring you some awesome holiday gift ideas (art is the best gift ever) this month with 25 Days of Christmas with INPRNT.  Today’s selection is the wonderful, pop culture inspired work of artist Veronica Fish.  You can purchase all of these and more in Veronica’s INPRNT Store.

As an added bonus, INPRNT is offering 10% off anything when you use the discount code “SSA2015″ so get shopping!

Check out all the INPRNT artists I’ve chosen here.

 Plays with Silhouettes and Optical Illusions in Miniature Artworks Pejac

Facebook 

Pejac shared a simple window drawing on his Facebook profile, as a tribute to legendary French high-wire walker, Philippe Petit. This simple idea, captured on camera by his friend Silvia Guinovart Pujol, shows the riskiness and fragility of the art of tightrope and is a great example of the  Spanish artist’s style: simple, minimalist yet effective. Back in 2011, Pejac started experimenting with paper and acrylic works on glass. By using the view from his house as a backdrop for these miniature works, he created little urban art pieces in privacy of his living room.

Photos by Silvia Guinovart Pujol and Paco Esteve.   Source:Hi Fructose

Fusion Frames by Darryl Cox

Etsy

People forget that the frame is part of the art and  it does a lot  for the canvas. We discovered this artist and fell in love. To purchase his art, please visit http://www.fusionframesnw.com/

Source:eastlakeframing and joliegazette / neatorama

Watercolor on watercolor paper

Christopher Gideon’s 2D 3D.

Collage sculptures by artist Christopher Gideon that use cut pieces of paper to form mind melting, seemingly 3D works of art.  In some cases the paper is layered to create even more complex ideas and forms.  Gideon also has talent in painting and illustration which you can see on his site.

Typefightin’ by Luke Ritchie Follow us on Instagram @graphicdesignblg

The strange children of Hikari Shimoda

A selection of the paintings by Japanese artist Hikari Shimoda, who features strange children through colorful compositions but deceptively childlike. Between the childhood naivety, the myth of Japanese magical girls, the fear of growing up and the loss of innocence in the transition to adulthood, Hikari Shimoda reveals a complex series of portraits, hiding the harsh of the reality of our world behind the imaginary universe of childhood.  via: ufunk

Landscapes Distorted by Geometric Fragments by Reynald Drouhin

To discover, “Landscape Monolith” this amazing series of landscape Reynald Drouhin photographs taken by the artist which has just reversed geometric selection of the image at 180 ° for a visual rendering of the most interesting. source: trendsnow

 Abandoned fishing village in China and shows us the beauty of Mother Nature  verdure

Nanning-based photographer Tang Yuhong explored the village recently and came back with some mesmerizing photographs of his trip. The village looks like a movie set with its incredible greenery and cobbled stone laneways – a beautiful contrast to the bustling streets of China we’re used to seeing in travel photos. via: lostateminor

The Pedestal  by Alexandra Reeves

Alexandra Reeves is a student from Houston, who has realized  this superb erotic creature, with long hair, onto a huge pedestal for goddess. Fantastic achievement. Source: artstation

Portfolio Demo Reel from ApeironDiesirae on Vimeo.

A reel highlighting my 3D and 2D self taugh work.

Tree Line Project by Zander Olsen

Zander Olsen’s series is an ongoing collection of constructed photographs rooted in the Forest. These works, carried out in Surrey, Hampshire and Wales, involve site specific interventions in the landscape. Wrapping trees with white material to construct a visual relationship between tree, not-tree and the line of horizon according to the camera’s viewpoint.  Source:emptykingdom