The Statue of Liberty was given to the American people from the country of France in the late 1800s. The statue is a symbol of hope and freedom, and has become one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world.
A Humorous Liberation The real Statue of Liberty wears a solemn expression and is surrounded by several symbols of serious intent such as a tablet of the law, a flaming torch and a broken chain. Photoshop artists have taken this serious lady and transformed her into a funny parody of her former self.
Above: Using image manipulation, a Photoshop artist has given the Statue of Liberty a smoke break.
Above: The mother of liberty. In this Photoshop spoof, the artist has replaced the tablet of the law with a baby.
Above: A sexy Statue of Liberty sheds her robes and poses.
Above: The Statue of Liberty discovers the freedom of dancing. It is said that break dancing was created by American slaves.
Above: The ballerina of liberty, courtesy of a Photoshop artist.
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.
Snow has many different forms. It can be light and flaky, wet and slushy, crunchy and brittle and it can be compacted to form a dense modelling medium. Snow sculptors work with snow in a similar manner to potters and ceramic artists, using tools to carve away areas of snow or their hands to shape a feature of the sculpture.
Man Made Snow Art
Making a snowman is a fun activity for kids, but there are some artists who never outgrew their childhood passion for making figures out of snow. Around the world, winter festivals bring these snow artists together to compete for prizes and appreciation.
Above: Several cultural characters complete this Japanese Snow sculpture, including a samurai warrior and a dragon. Snow sculptures such as these are popular with children and make ideal attractions for public areas in winter.
Above: Clean curves and straight lines make this snow sculpture a winter art masterpiece. The artist's attention to detail gives the sculpture a unique appeal. Each window and door has been carefully shaped, and trees, stairs and decorative architectural elements have been added to complete this artwork.
Above: Large snow sculptures make impressive, imposing statues. Snow art is short-lived. In colder climates, snow sculptures can last for a few weeks, but at the end of winter these snow statues become nothing but a wet patch, a few memories and a handful of photographs.
Above: Snow sculptors often model man-made objects or human subjects. For some reason snow creatures such as penguins, polar bears and seals make a rare appearance in snow art.
Natural Snow Art
Nature is the most skilled artist in the world, creating incredibly detailed creatures, environments and natural wonders such as these natural snow artworks.
Above: A snow rose, sculpted by the wind.
Above: Wind creates a variety of different snow sculptures. These snow rolls were formed in strong wind situations, when the temperature dropped below zero. They are winter's equivalent of tumbleweed.
Above: A combination of heat and extreme cold in thermal basins create a velvety snow coating for these rocks, transforming them into winter curiosities.
Above: This type of snow formation is found at high altitudes and is called snow penitents.
Above: A combination of weather elements creates a textured snow carpet in the Yellow Stone National Park.
A snow covered beech tree becomes a fantasy artwork in an other-worldly environment.
Layers of snow piled on uneven rocks create a detailed, organic sculpture.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting is famed for having eyes that follow you around the room. The principles used in da Vinci’s paintings can also be applied to sculpture or paper-folding to create a hollow face illusion.
Hollow Face Illusions Videos:
These videos show a variety of hollow face illusions at work. As the camera operators move around the sculptures, the faces (sometimes just the eyes) turn to watch the viewer.
This sculpture is an artist’s rendition of St Francis. Though small, the bust of St Francis is an interesting piece, as no matter where you are in the room, St Francis has his eyes on you.
Even when rendered in 3D animation software, the hollow face illusion still has an essence of magic. The eye is tricked into believing that the heads are turning as the 3D model rotates.
How it Works:
Hollow face illusions are exactly what their name implies. The artist sculpts, carves or in the case of paper or origami art, folds the material to form a “hollow” face. The human eye is trained to see a face as being convex (bulging towards the viewer), that it naturally mistakes a concave face (bulging away from the viewer) as being convex. Small sculptures can be rotated horizontally and vertically to create the impression that the head displayed is turning from side to side or up and down. For large sculptures, the viewer can move around the sculpture, marveling at the supposed manner in which the face turns to follow the viewer around the room.
Above: The face on the left is convex, and the face on the right is concave. From this angle, with the light coming from above, the illusion is easily broken.
Above: Because the light source is apparent, the illusion created by this Buddha hollow face illusion is strong. The contrasting colors between “raised” and “indented” surfaces adds to the illusion.
Above: This image of Einstein appears to protruding out of the background, but is it?
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
The theories used in hollow face illusions and by da Vinci for the “Mona Lisa” are similar, but not exactly the same. Instead of creating a hollow face for Mona, da Vinci used perspective, contrast, shadows and shape to create the illusion that the Mona Lisa’s eyes turn to follow the viewer around the room. Da Vinci created a sketch called Proportions of the Face, which he used as a base for the proportions of the Mona Lisa’s face. The proportions created by da Vinci are based on the same mathematical principles as hollow face illusions, and create a similar effect.
Above: Working stages of the Mona Lisa painting, showing how da Vinci incorporated his sketch, Proportions of the Face, into the final Mona Lisa masterpiece. The reason why Mona's eyes seem to follow you around the room is a combination of light and shadows in the piece and layers upon layer of paint that give the painting a slight 3-Dimensional effect.
