Sam Spratt has PAINTED ALL THE MEMES!

Sam Spratt's website describes his work as having "sprattitude". This fine arts graduate combines classical training with current ideas, many of which stem from online media and internet memes. 


PAINT ALL THE MEMES!
Spratt's collection of paintings entitled Illustrated Internet is based on what he calls the visual vernacular of the internet. These paintings are based on popular internet media characters found in rage comics. Most of these characters are used online in their original form; simple black and white sketches of an expressive cartoon face. Spratt has fleshed out these characters by giving them a 3-dimensional existence.

Above: "Paint all the memes!" based on "X all the Y". This character has been used as a template for expressing a fanatical point of view. Notable variations are "Clean all the things!" and "Eat all the brains!"

Above: The rage comics fffuuu face. The painting of the meme character is complete with flying spittle and red eyes.

Above: An expressive painting of the meme Forever Alone.

Paintings of Memes

Although there are thousands of fan art works of internet memes, Spratt's paintings are original in that he has removed the characters from their ordinarily 2-dimensional state and given them a fleshy substance. Although each of the faces still stands alone, bereft of a body, the characters are complete.

Sam Spratt's art style uses a combination of messy brushwork and careful lighting to create the overall effect of a character suspended in endless space.

Above: Trollface in 3D. The troll face rage comics character is used to express delight or humor at someone else's misfortune, and is often used in forums, comics and .gif animations. See more trollface fan art works.

Above: LOL face. Rumor has it that the original lolface appeared in Garfield Christmas 1987.

Above: Me Gusta. The rage comics character is used to express a sickening enjoyment of disturbing media.

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Fan Art Character Hybrids

Fan art works are artists' renditions of their favorite celebrities or media characters. The aim of fan art is to show what it is about their idol that they appreciate, such as beauty, strength or humor. Fan art combinations merge two subjects to form an entirely new character. The tricky part is to express what it is about both of those characters that the artist appreciates.


Fan Art Spoofs
Character combinations are spoofs or parodies of popular characters, created with the intention of forming a humorous hybrid. The majority of character spoofs are non-official art works, though occasionally they are created on an official level by TV series producers as a means to entertain viewers.

Above: A combination of pikachu, a magical animal character from the anime series Pokemon, and a cthulhu, a fantasy character first introduced in literature by HP Lovecraft in the 1920s. The resulting character combination is a cthulhuachu.

Above: Family Guy's dynamic duo, Brian the Dog and Stewie, transform into a parody of DC Comics' Batman and Robin. This is an official transformation created by the artists of Family Guy for use in an episode.

Above: Mario Bros vs Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. Children of the 80s will recognize both sets of famous friends that have been used in this character combination.The transformation that the four characters have undergone reflects the transformations that the Mario games and the Pooh series have experienced over the last three decades.

Above: Wolverine Mouse? Mickerine? Wolvermickey? The usually light-hearted and lovable character of Mickey Mouse has been combined with the intense, angry persona of Wolverine from the X Men. The artist has combined elements from each character, such as Mickey's gloves and Wolverine's blades to create a balanced hybrid character.

Above: A Photoshop hybrid of Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean character and a na'vi alien character from the movie Avatar. Although the resulting hybrid character has mostly na'vi characteristics, such as the hair style, blue skin and wide, flat nose, Mr Bean's character traits shine through.

Above: A Muppet X Men spoof. Jim Henson's popular Muppet characters have appeared in a number of fan art hybrids.

Above: The Simpsons parody the famous photograph of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road, with Homer Simpson as John Lennon. The zebra crossing used in the original photograph of the pop group is now a popular tourist destination.

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Funny Cartoon Paintings

Modern artists have begun to reflect the cartoon style found in animated films and comics. This modern art style is being created in both fine art mediums (such as paint or ink) and in digital art programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.


Humorous Design
Cartoon character designers exaggerate facial features and twist the proportions of the characters' bodies, creating humorous creatures that parody the human form. Often, facial features such as eyes, ears or noses will be shrunk or enlarged, creating such a gross caricature of a human face that an entirely new character is born.

Above: Greg "Craola" Simkins has based this cartoon painting on real-time puppet and animated characters from the popular kids TV show The Muppets. 

Above: A cartoon painting by Brandt Peters. The main subject of the image is a female cartoon character whose face is a humorous caricature boasting a flattened head, no chin and a tiny, shrunken nose. Even the proportions of her body have been exaggerated or shrunk to complete the character's design.

Above: Photoshop artist Tiago Hoisel is a master of caricature, emphasizing not only the facial features of his characters but their emotions and attitudes too.

Art as a Cartoon

Traditional animated cartoons and comic books feature characters that have heavy outlines and solid areas of color. With the advent of 3D animation software, these strong outlines have begun to fall away in favor of semi-realistic, 3-dimensional characters. These characters are most often reflected in the work of digital artists.

Above: Philip Bosman's painting style is influenced by graffiti, an art form that often incorporates cartoon characters into street art murals. In this painting, we can see the influence of traditional animation and comics in the dark outlines and three tone shading.

Above: A cartoon painting by Mark Fredrickson of a cow with butterfly wings, flitting about like some kind of a bovine fairy. Fredrickson produces his art in Photoshop, mimicking the subtle shadows and highlights found in 3D animation.

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Cute Cartoon Tattoos

Cartoon tattoo designs are often based on popular comic or cartoon characters. These characters are fairly common as tattoo designs, so for a more unique, personalized tattoo design, customers will sometimes ask the tattoo artist for an original cartoon tattoo.


Toon Tats
Most cartoon tattoos have clear outlines and solid areas of color. These kinds of designs are easier to ink into the skin than designs with intricate detail or shading. This means the resulting body art is often of a high quality. Most cartoon tattoo designs use one character, with little or nothing in the background. This gives the image a clearly defined silhouette.

Above: A cute baby bat cartoon tattoo, for a humorous gothic effect. The clear outlines and crisp edges makes the tattoo really stand out.

Above: A cartoon bird design with a graffiti tattoo influence. By using a few subtle highlights and shadows, the tattoo artist has given an otherwise flat tattoo depth and interest.

Above: A cute cartoon character with the typical cartoon design elements of big, shiny eyes and a cute little smile.

Above: A cartoon cat tattoo design. The tattoo artist has highlighted parts of the cartoon kitty to give this design more definition.

Cartoon Tattoo Designs

Cartoon tattoos are often colorful and interesting to look at. Unlike many tattoo designs, cartoon tats have no distinct meaning or symbolism, other than that the wearer of the tattoo liked the cartoon character.

Above: These cute characters have been influenced by cartoons, but the style is 3D, using careful shading to smooth out the characters. See Kelly Doty's best tattoo designs.

Above: This geeky gecko tattoo makes a humorous body art piece. The tattoo artist has added shadows to create the illusion that the gecko is perched on top of the skin.

Above: Big eyes and a large head are two popular character design techniques that cartoon artists use. The tattoo artist has uses soft shading in flesh tones to mimic human skin, a tricky effect to achieve on skin of a similar color.

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Chainsaw Carving is a Chip Off the Old Block

Chainsaw carving combines the ancient art of carving with the modern technology of the chainsaw, commonly used for tree felling. The artist uses the chainsaw to carve a wooden trunk or block, in a performance that is fascinating to watch.


As with most art forms, chainsaw carving has been used to create fan art of popular media characters from films and games. Most of these character statues are carved from several pieces of wood that are fitted together during the carving process.


Carving of Big Daddy from Bioshock
A chainsaw artist, Jason, creates a chainsaw carving of a Big Daddy from the game, Bioshock. The video below shows the process from selecting wood to completing the tiniest detail.

Above: A video of the chainsaw carving process, which shows a chainsaw artist called Jason carving a Bog Daddy character from the popular game, Bioshock.

Above: The finished sculpture. The large statue is highly detailed and beautifully finished.

Chainsawed Characters from Star Wars

George Lucas's famous movies, Star Wars, have inspired artists to create fan art of the movies' characters. Chainsaw carving lends itself particularly well to woolly and furry characters such as Chewbacca and the Ewoks.

Above: Chewbacca, with Jar Jar Binks. These chainsaw carvings were displayed at an extreme sports event. Apparently the artist won the audience's heart when he cut Jar Jar Binks' head off with a chainsaw.

Above: The Ewoks, a furry alien race from the Star Wars films. The artist has painted the wood to give the statues more character.

Lord of the Rings Characters in Chainsaw Art

JRR Tolkien's famous fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, has a cast of fascinating and unique characters.  A favorite character from the books and films is Gandalf the wizard, with his long beard and flowing robes, this staff-carrying warrior wizard is highly recognizable, even from afar.

Above: A flat panel chainsaw carving of Gandalf the Grey, from The Lord of the Rings. 

Above: A B-grade depiction of Gollum, mutated hobbit who lives underground and speaks in sibilant riddles.

Above: An ent, a tree character, carved into the trunk of a living tree. Ents can move, talk and have a culture of their own.

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