Pablo Framed

Framed version of Pablo Picasso from a Freaking News Photoshop contest.

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Nancy Exposed

Morning all. This was an entry in my 29th "Freak Show" contest at FreakingNews.com featuring Nancy Pelosi and guest starring George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Credit to Andrzej Dragan for Marta the anorexic woman and Ron Mueck's giant chicken sculpture. It took silver.

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The Amazing Art of Sebastian Krüger

I would like to share a short video of one of my all time favorite artists, Sebastian Krüger. Early in his career, Krüger met the members of the Rolling Stones. He was invited backstage by the band, who had become familiar with the artist’s work. Krüger was obsessed with the look of the band, and especially with Keith Richard’s face. The following is a glimpse into Krüger's work.

Sebastian Krüger Biography:

Sebastian Krüger was born in Hamelin, Germany in 1963. Krüger naturally developed left handed, however (as was a common practice) was forced to write with his right hand. Today Krüger writes, draws and paints with his right hand, and throws a ball with his left.

Krüger grew up the son of an architect. His artistic deluge began at age 3, when his father dragged him to numerous Disney movies. Krüger became plagued with drawing Donald Duck. His mind would recall Donald vividly, but the image kept moving around in the young artist's mind, it wouldn't keep still, causing Krüger to waste piles of discarded paper. Krüger's parents wouldn't allow him to purchase a still image of Donald at the comic stand. So he would study and memorize the image, then hurry home to draw it. If he felt unclear about a particular detail, he would revisit the comic stand for further study. Unknowingly, this trained the artist's mind to retain an accurate impression of the subject, to observe and memorize the details. A talent that would later become essential to the artist's work.

Krüger's fanaticism with lines and drawing continued until after high school, when Krüger enrolled in the Braunschweig University of Fine Arts. In his first painting class, he was handed a paint box with little colored squares of watercolor paint and a large paintbrush. These articles made no sense to Krüger (a detail minded artist). In general he found the art classes below his expectations.

To pass the time Krüger drew pencil drawings of the teachers. Not all of them, only those that he felt had interesting features or characteristics. Krüger's caricature drawings had gained enormous popularity among the student body and faculty alike. In hindsight, Krüger found school useful in that he learned valuable color theory.

Krüger’s first assignment (in the real world) was to paint cover artwork and inlays for video cassette movies. Supplied with a set of brushes and acrylic paints, it was sink or swim. He began teaching himself how to paint out of necessity. Krüger learned that he had to paint in many layers to get the desired effect. Also discovering he needed to use a brush down to one single hair in size to paint the finest details.

Sebastian Krüger proved to be an effective teacher as well as a star pupil. He has since painted the cover artwork for many important magazines such as Stern, Spiegel and Rolling Stone. And additionally completed cover contracts with Capital and L’Espresso Magazines. Krüger has also done feature spreads for Playboy and Penthouse, and has designed and painted several commission works for LP and CD covers.

Early in his career, Krüger met the members of the Rolling Stones. He was invited backstage by the band, who had become familiar with the artist’s work. Krüger was obsessed with the look of the band, and especially with Keith Richard’s face.

Krüger identified with the Stones, both artists considered outsiders, forced to transcend the doctrine of their generation in order to practice their crafts with freedom from established precepts. The Rolling Stones have come to occupy a large place in the artist’s heart and in his artwork. Krüger has become good friends with the band over the years, especially with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.

Krüger considers himself a portrait painter. Although many of his early commission jobs were for cartoons and caricature type images, Krüger’s free time was dedicated to his greatest love, portrait painting. In 2005 Krüger made the decision to discontinue commercial illustration, to concentrate solely on portrait painting and personal projects. Currently Krüger paints subjects of interest or commissioned pieces for private collectors.

Krüger’s approach is to study his subjects carefully. He reads their biographies and studies photos and video clips of each person before he paints them to get a strong impression of their characteristics. Then, while painting, Krüger becomes his subject, right down to the clothes they wear. Krüger once said, “I was Keith Richard’s shirt today” while walking out of his studio. Krüger intimately becomes what he paints to the point that he believes all of his paintings are a kind of self portrait. Krüger has a no nonsense approach to his art. When he paints, he uses intense concentration. The artistic energy takes over and its just the Krüger heart and the canvas; the outside world a distant memory as he layers down the foundation for yet another masterpiece.

Many earlier Krüger paintings were completed in one to five days, while some of his recent large-sized paintings have taken as much as six weeks or more to create. Krüger is revered by fellow artists and art aficionados, for his consistent ability to capture the true nature of his subjects, displaying precision detail and a remarkably accurate use of light and shadow. Krüger utilizes ever developing masterful techniques to capture his subject's personal aura.

There are currently in the neighborhood of 800 original Krüger works, 700 paintings and 100 drawings; Encompassing many different styles, with no two alike. Visit his awesome Blog below.

KRÜGER NEWS & EVENTS

Pablo Picasso

This is a caricatured manipulation created for a contest at FreakingNews.com called "Picasso Celebrities". I chose Pablo himself for my entry. Here is the source pic of Picasso and a rough caricature.

SpunChops Blog

I wanted to take a moment this morning and thank SpunChops Blog for featuring a sampling my caricature work from my Blog on their site yesterday. It was entitled Good Caricatures or the Best Caricatures? Very flattering. It was a big success. There was lots of traffic and I got to meet some new Bloggers. I'm very pleased with the outcome and wanted to share this awesome Blog with you. Be sure and visit SpunChops Blog when you have a chance. It's a great Blog to follow with lots of interesting and funny entries along with some very valuable tutorials. You don't want to miss it. Thanks again to SpunChops Blog!

Kratos The Gladiator

This was an entry in my 28th Freak Show at FreakingNews.com. It's a spoof on the movie Pince of Persia featuring FreakingNews' and DeviantArt's own DesignerKratos. Forgive my Arabic for those of you who can read it. The tag line is suppose to say "Freaking Badass". I was told it says Bedouin. I used Google Translator and that's what came out so blame them. :) It took gold.

Hell Fire ~ Terry Jones

This was an entry to a "Week in Pictures" contest at FreakingNews.com. The news article that this manipulation was created for read; "Fla. pastor wins car for not burning Quran". You know they guy, Pastor Terry Jones... idiot! It took silver.

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Professor Funkwood

This was an entry in my 27th Freak Show at FreakingNews.com. The main character is "Funkwood", a fellow artist and ranked number 3 at FreakingNews.com. Also depicted are "Hitspinner", "SidKain" and DeviantArt's own "DesignerKratos". They were all good sports. It was a good contest with 52 entries and mine took gold.

Funkwood source image below.

I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Who's Your Mama?

This was an entry in a 'Week in Pictures' contest a FreakingNews.com. The news story required for the creation of this piece read; "Michelle Obama Ranked World's Most Powerful Woman". It took silver.

Presidential Malfunction

This was an entry to my 26th Freak Show at FN. I am not pleased with the final outcome and debated as to weather or not to post it. It was really an experimental manipulation intended to test my skills. Technically it is clean and precise but doesn't have the impact I was striving for nor does it meet my standards. It didn't do well in the contest as I expected. 8th place. Oh well, next time!!

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Nancy Pelosi ~ Rejected

This was an entry in a "Week in Pictures" contest at FN. The news story for this manipulation read; "Poll: Pelosi as Unpopular as BP". There was some heavy competition in this contest and some excellant work. Mine took silver. Below is a WIP animation.

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George

This was an entry to a contest at FN called "Caricature Paintings". The rules required that we take any famous art work (painting, drawing, fresco) and turn it into caricature. I chose a classic, George Washington. It didn't do so well in the contest. It came in 4th .

Nasal Eclipse

This was an entry to a contest at FN called "Big Nose Celebrities". This contest went wild. There were initially 141 contestants, later whittled down to 138 entries. I chose this image of Robert De Niro because his nose cast such a large shadow hence the name "Nasal Eclipse". I exagerated it just a bit. My entry took silver.

Helter Skelter

This was an entry to a "Week in Pictures" contest at FN. The news story headline read, Oksana: Mel Threatened 'Brains All Over the Wall'. Mel just can't get that mouth under control. It took bronze.

Cootie Crunch Cereal

This was an entry to a contest at FN called "Bug Food" in light of the recent news about Similac infant formula being recalled bucause it contained bug parts. The contest required that you Photoshop any food products or food items made with insects. It took bronze.

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Oprah

This was an entry for a contest called "Bearded Women". Pretty obvious what the goal was.

Bill Murray - Retrospective

This is a caricatured entry for a contest at FN honoring Bill Murray's, 60th birthday. There was alot of compition in this contest and some fine entries. It came in 4th.

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Prophecy

This was a Freak Show entry ar FN featuring Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and John McCain. It took silver.

Cry Baby

This was a Freak Show entry ar FN featuring Glenn Beck. It took gold.

Slash ~ Shredded

This is an caricatured entry to a contest called "Slash That" honoring famous guitarist, Slash. It took bronze.

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Obamabot 2.0

This was an entry to my 24th Freak Show at FreakingNews.com. It took bronze.

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Ghostbusters 4

This was a caricature manip I did for a contest honoring Bill Murrays 60th birthday. I chose to go with another design instead so this was a reject.

The Obama Sisters

This was an entry in my 23rd Freak Show at FN. I decided to caricature Obama as his two sisters hillbilly style. It won gold out of 54 entries. Original source images below:

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Pirates of the Caribbean 2010

This was an entry to a contest called "If Piratesd Ruled" honoring September 19 as International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I decided to make the old guy a pirate. Clint Eastwood looks tough as heii even at his age.

The Beans II



This was an entry to a contest honoring Mother's Day. The object was to photoshop any famous person as BOTH mother AND child in the same entry. It won bronze.

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The Beans

This was an old entry to a contest honoring Father's Day. The object was to photoshop any famous person as BOTH Father AND child in the same entry, male or female subjects allowed. It won bronze.

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Dead Man Walkin'

This was an entry for a contest at FreakingNews.com called "George Michael in Jail". The object was to show George in a jail environment in light of his recent arrest for driving stoned out of his mind. I chose to do a caricatured "Green Mile" theme which is where the name Dead Man Walkin' came from. Tom Hanks rocks! It took silver.

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Motivation

This was an entry in a "Labor Day" contest where we were asked to create a demotivational poster with the message to work harder. In this case we were allowed to use an image from a previous chop in the poster design. It took gold.

Not in Church George

This was an entry to a "Week in pictures" contest requiring that you find a news story and make a chop that relates to it. The news story I chose read; "TONY BLAIR: GEORGE W. BUSH WAS NO 'DUMB IDIOT'." There are 11 caricatures in this chop including one of our own FN choppers, (SidKain). It took gold.

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Fingers

This was an entry in my 22nd Freak Show contest at FN. I decided to try something different this time. This piece was inspired by the works of one of my favorite artists, Max Sauco I'm becoming known as a caricature artist so this was a change for me and a bit outside my comfort zone. It came in 4th of 61 entries, so I guess that's not bad for an experimental piece. Hope you enjoy!

A Parody

This was an entry in my 21st Freak Show at FreakingNews.com. It's a caricatured manipulation of President Obama in a parody of the movie "Forrest Gump". I came up with the idea after seeing an image of Obama with his mouth and eye in such a way that made him look like a geek, so I decided to do a Geek Show for the Freak Show. Actually, to tell you the truth, the concept was mi wife's so she gets credit for that. It took gold out of 49 entries. This manipulation is made up of approximately 40 source images. This one was a blast to do. BTW, No political statement here, just a random parody on a movie I love featuring my all time best subject, Barack Obama.

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Bouguereau Ripped Off

This was an entry to a contest called "Stolen Art". In light of some recent news of famous art theft, the contest required that you take a famous painting and steal something from it. I chose a Bouguereau because I love his work and it's fun to manipulate. Original painting by William Adolphe Bouguereau: "Cupidon (L'Amour Mouille)". This one is also featured at Bouguereau.net.

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MelVille

This is an entry to a week in pics contest. The news story was about Mel's sanity.

Royal Blunder

This is an entry to a week in pics contest. The news story was about the queen and a little stain on her dress.