Pop Art - Afro American TV Stars of the 70-90s

Hi there!

Lately I've been busy creating Pop Art figures of some famous people (as seen on the previous post). During this work, I found myself creating more and more Pop Art portraits of African American TV stars, mostly from the 80s. I couldn't understand why, but soon I've realized that it was reminding me my childhood, when everything was simpler, when all the family gathered around the TV set and watched those classic shows. Most of the 80s kids will have warm feelings toward classic shows like "The Cosby Show", "Diff'rent Strokes" or "Family Matters". Even today those characters can make every 80s kid feel like a child again, and for a moment to make him laugh and to forget the everyday worries.

I wanted to make a tribute, and to create some fun and warm Pop Art portrayals of selected Afro American TV stars, who may have been forgotten, but still exist in our hearts.

B.A. Baracus - Mr. T.

"I Pity The Fool!" Mr. T.

Everybody knows who Mr T. is, his funny looking haircut and those fancy jewels are still his trademarks. His adventures on the A-Team, and his famous catch phrase were an 80s classic! Yes we laughed at him at times, and we couldn't call his performance - acting. But he was one of the most beloved TV personalities in his time.

Arnold Jackson - Gary Coleman

"Whatchu Talkin' 'Bout Willis?" Gary Coleman.

His cute chubby cheeks, and his feisty personality were his charm. Gary Coleman as Arnold Jackson was THE star of NBC hit show "Diff'rent Strokes". Unfortunately, due to awful financial management, and serious health issues, Coleman had lost all of his money, and had to work in many low paid jobs just to make a leaving. After falling down the stairs at his home, he was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition, being unconscious and on life support, his family decided to pull the plug. He died at 28/05/2010.

Heathcleef Huxtable - Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby was one of the most beloved American comedians ever. His "Cosby Show" was an immediate hit since day one, according to the "TV Guide" it was TV's biggest hit at the 80s. The show was about an African American family, and its everyday situations and problems. The chemistry between the characters on the set was astonishing, one could really believe that he was watching a family. There were no catch phrases or one punch-liners like other Afro-American sitcoms ("The Jeffersons", "Family Matters" etc.), and still, the show was very successful, some might say it saved the sitcom business with its freshness, and its absence of structure, the show was just about a life of a normal family (eating dinner, or going to a goldfish funeral) which opened many doors for new creative sitcoms.


Steve Urkel - Jaleel White

"Did I Do That?" Jaleel White

Cool hipster? Geek chic? Make a room for the super geek, the father of all nerds, and the official hipsters' stylist - Steven Urkel. Starting as a side character at "Family Matters" and finishing as the biggest star there (and a fashion icon). The nerdy Urkel set his hopes high from the beginning, and aimed for Lisa's heart. His love for her, got him in troubles, and has created a genuine slapstick comedy. He was quite irritating and over doer, but... we learned to love him, and to miss him when he wasn't around. 

If you want to see more of my Afro-American TV stars project, you are welcome to visit my portfolio at "The Untapped Source"

If you'd like to purchase or to see more of my art , please visit my online store.

I would love to read your comments, or questions!

Thank you for visiting have a wonderful day :)

Vector Art - Some Famous Faces

Hi there!

This time I decided to dedicate the post to some famous faces. Using Vector Art I recreated their portraits, and made them more colorful and vibrant.

Bar Refaeli - A Model
In my opinion Bar Refaeli is one of the most beautiful models ever. I decided to recreate her portrait, and tweak some elements, for example her hair color. The change has made her more mysterious and enigmatic than the cute blond typecast. Do you think that this new look fits her?

Charlie Sheen - An Actor
2011 was all about Charlie Sheen, he was involved in so many scandals, was kicked from his own show, fought with the producer, and began a weird tour - "Violent Torpedo of Truth". All and all we almost forgot that he is a very talented actor, and the truth must be told, "Two and a Half Men" will never be the same without him. Hopefully his new TV show "Anger Management" will succeed, and will give us the opportunity to see his talent again.

Woody Allen - An Actor and a Film Director

Woody Allen is one of my favorite directors, I can see his films over and over. It makes me very happy, knowing that he is still very active and keeps on making new films, even though that some of the recent movies weren't very good. Luckily he made the excellent "Midnight in Paris" in 2011, and won back the audience's trust and the reviews. 

Alpha - Our Pet Dog
Last but definitely not least, Alpha the friendly pit bull! Alpha is our pet dog, he is very friendly and loves human company, sometimes too much! He was found in a carton box outside the dog shelter, 3 months old puppy with his ears cropped. Since we took him in, he makes us laugh, takes us for long walks, and sometimes just being annoying :) When he wants my attention he likes to stare at me and to push my arm, he is so powerful that you can not ignore him. When I give him a mad look, he always give me an innocent look back. I just had to make a picture of him.

That is it for now!

Hope you enjoyed the portraits :) If you want me to create your own portrait or to surprise your loved one, send me a message via Facebook, Twitter or just leave me a comment, and I will gladly contact you back.

Make sure to visit my Online Store for more art and surprises!

Photography - Black/White and Color

Hi there,

We are all familiar with black and white photography. Color photography is obvious and more common. A combination of those two styles is becoming more popular these days, especially due to photo applications (instagram etc.). The idea behind this technique, is to emphasise an important part of the object or to highlight a certain area, and to make the whole atmosphere more dramatic and appealing.


Let's take a look at some examples.

 On the left photo we can see a pit bull staring at us. The first thing that draws our attention is the eyes, they are penetrating and have that special wolf's yellow-orange color. In order to make those eyes more dramatic, we have to get rid of the fur's red-brownish color. The result (on the right) is far more intense. The eye color is the same, but now you can REALLY feel them. Many people told me that the processed photo is too scary, and intimidating, well...after the process you cannot ignore the photo, and that is a good thing.

On the left we can see two beautiful white roses, in a nice composition. The roses are in the same color, therefore the rose in foreground loses its uniqueness and its special structure. Instead of cropping the picture and deleting the background, I decided to paint the rose, and to make it pop out as a red silky object. The background remains in black and white, and helps the red rose to be the star of the show. The new processed photo is more dramatic and romantic, you can even use it as a valentine card :)

Unfortunately I haven't kept the original photo, but you can sense that the bourbon bottle, with its tempting amber liquid, was a little bit blended in the background. The new colorless background, highlights the bottle, and makes it more appealing and even royal.



If you think that all Black/White and Color pictures look great, think again... Like in every other photo, we must be careful not to overdo things, and to use it only when we need to make a point. To my opinion, using this technique just for "show off", will make it tacky and ridiculous.
here is an example :

This photo reeks of cliche and bad taste, and was created just to make a point, so be careful! :)


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Digital Art - Making of a Vector Art Portrait (Video)

Hi there!

This post will be dedicated to Vector Art.
For those of you who have never heard about it, I can describe it as a technique of creating a picture or an image using different geometrical shapes (lines, polygons and other). The advantage of this method is the ability of enlarging the image, without damaging the image's quality, unlike other methods.
If you want to learn a little bit more you are welcome to visit my Vector Art lens

This method is easy to learn, but it takes time to practice, and... if you want to use it properly, you need to spend a lot of time in front of the computer. As we can see on the video, I've spent more or less 7.5 hours making the image, so... you have to be dedicated to your project!

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Photography - Happy New Year's Blues

"It’s almost New Year, snow‘s still fallin’ down/
Yes, it’s almost New Year, the snow ‘s still fallin’ down/
And my baby ain’t here to hold me/
I’m the loneliest man in town." Lonnie Johnson - New Year's Blues


Well.. as you probably guessed, this post will be dedicated to the new year's blues. 
I guess I am not the only one having the blues this year, and therefore this post was created for all of you who have the new year's (x-mas' or birthday's) blues.

You know the drill - last year everything was perfect... You had the woman/man of your dreams, maybe you had money or a good job, you had the feeling that this is just the beginning and life is going to be even better! But, in few months everything was gone.

"Now the stage is bare, and I am standing there, with emptiness all around." 

Elvis Presley, Are You Lonesome Tonight.

Here are some photos who make the loneliness and the blues look pretty.

A Lonely Streetlight

This streetlight, actually been captured in the morning...

It is a classic 40's or so design, and I decided to give the picture a film noir touch. A darkness and a spotlight were added in order to make the streetlight stand alone with all his glory. We can feel the coldness and the darkness of the night, as well the loneliness. But... the minimalism and the clean lines, make us admire the object.

A Dry Tree

I was wandering around a field, when I found this dry tree.
It was standing all alone, with its yellow leaves. It was kind of sad to see the tree out there without any flower or a bird around it. Everything around was dead and dry, except the sky. I took the picture with a wide angle lens, my intention was to capture the gloomy brown and yellow tree with the perfect blue sky.

The contrast between them, makes the picture more interesting and optimistic.

Mr. Blue

The man is standing in front of the sea. Reflecting, thinking about his life. He doesn't look very happy, he is Mr. Blue. 

The blue tones, the texture of the water and the wood rail, give the photo a lyrical quality. It is indeed a melancholic scene, but a beautiful one.

Even though this post was a little blue, I wish you a very happy new year, may 2012 will make all your wishes come true!

Photography/Digital Art - The Importance of Composition

Hi there!

This post is dedicated to the importance of composition, in photography and in art.
Now's days we have many applications and software that help us improve our photos - to enhance the color, to retouch the pic, to make it retro/vintage style and more... We can even find a camera that can take a perfectly focused picture, so we don't have to master all the photography techniques - the technology will help us with most of them.

All of these apps and gadgets ARE helpful, but they cannot transform a boring picture to a more interesting one. If you don't have a good composition, you could make the picture prettier, but it still going to look boring, nobody will give it a second glance. The other way around is different, if you have a good composition, most chances are that people will tolerate (to some point) a poor focus, light or noise.

Let's look at these photos:

Good light and color, poor composition

Poor light and color, good composition

Which picture is better? Most of us will find the second picture more interesting. The composition is much more appealing (the movement and the position of the bar), even though that the light is poor. On the other hand we can't do magic with the first picture, it has a better light and a stronger color, but that is it! Take a look at the second picture after a little bit of lighting, crop and contrast...

Good composition, light and color

I had the same situation, the other day. I was walking in a rural area, looking for an interesting place to take some pictures. Suddenly, two cyclists popped up in front of me... my camera was off, and I tried to capture them as quick as I could. The picture was blurry and the light wasn't perfect, but the composition... it was awesome! The minute I saw the picture, I knew that it has a great potential.

Let's look at the evolution of that pic.

The original - interesting composition, far from perfect focus, light and contrast

Improved light and contrast, better but still imperfect focus

The post processed result was better, but still I thought that this composition needs a better presentation.
So I decided to think out of the box, and to change the photo to a digitized impressionist paint... I had to experiment some filters and to adjust some variables, but the final result was exactly as I imagined - bright colors, noticeable brush strokes and a well presented nature.

Digital impressionist paint

The cyclists and the green background also gave me an idea for a logo - created with vector art.

So, (I'm sure that you already know) in my opinion a good composition is a major (maybe the most important) part of photography and art. You can play with the filters, light and the focus, they are the side dishes... the composition (as shown) is the main course.

That's it for now!  Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you enjoyed it :)

You can find more of my art at my Zazzle store, feel free to browse around!

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Pop Art
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Photography - Anti Beauty

Hi there!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder thay say, I must agree. Especially in photography, the most unatrractive scenes and objects, sometimes look apealing and interessting even more than our usual everyday eye candy.

In this post I gathered some of my Anti-Beauty gallery. Maybe you'll find some beauty here too...

I was strolling on a sunny day, looking for something interesting to shoot. It was hot and I couldn't find anything. All the flowers have gone, not a single color around, besides that dead boring brown. I thought to myself, if I can't find something worth shooting, I must find the beauty in the ugliness. Suddenly I saw a common housefly buzzing around a dried flower, with thorns around him. In my mind I was thinking, everybody wants to take the perfect photo of the beautiful flower with the bee or the butterfly around it, and I have the perfect opportunity to shoot the exact oppsite! so I did.




I hate to see garbage on the streets, it's an ugly habbit, just throw it to the near trah can, it's not so hard!
Saying that, I couldn't ignore the photo opportunity here... The red plastic cup laying there on the green grass. The contrast, the minimalism, the inappropriate object and the question : "why did you take that photo?!" all make it worth while.

Respect the elders!
Those two dead leaves were hanging there, in a majestic way. The sunlight was caressing them, showing every detail of their old being. All the young leaves were standing in the background in a perfect position, just to make those two oldies pop up even more.
What can I say, sometimes death is beautiful.

12 long years I was driving on the same road to the same job. Every morning I've noticed that wreck on the side of the road. Many times I thought to myself that I must go there, to look around, I really liked it, especially in the winter time. Last year I finally did. I picked a very cold and cloudy weather and examined the place.

The green grass carpet, and the grey clouds have created a perfect scenario. all I had to do was to find the right angles.

Take a look :

Well... I hope you enjoyed all the garbage and wrecks around!

Thank you for visiting my blog :)

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