Digital Artwork Inspiration for the Weekend

In our continuing journey to offer our readers an artistic dose of inspiration to help carry them through the weekend and get them recharged and ready to go for the coming week ahead, we have put together another fantastic showcase to serve just such a purpose. This time around we have gone fully digital! Turning to that online hangout for artists who tend to walk the more anomalous path, we scoured through some of the freshest uploads over at Deviant Art recently to find some inspired pieces to pile into this imagination stirring post.

Given the volume of artwork being shared through the DA site, and the number of categories to sift through, for this inspirational installment we decided to narrow our focus and present our readers with only a slice of an expansive header like digital art. So for this post we have gathered some stunning fractals to kick things off, then we have a few vexels squeezed in, before we move on to wrap things up with a handful or two of digital paintings and airbrush pieces. Hopefully these will prove useful in reigniting your inspired fires so you can start your work week in the right frame of mind.

Fractal Art

We begin the showcase with a look at Fractal art. Fractals are an artform which uses algorithms to create and manipulate fractal objects represented by transforms that are assigned certain artistic properties by the artist. This complicated medium has been made more accessible for years now as the community has given rise to several fractal programs that while they may contain different levels of learning curves, they tend to be easier than working out the complex algorithms involved in the creations.

hyperben2

The first artist that we are featuring is . An extremely talented fractal artist who manages to create pieces with such depth and an intricate nature that we could not put together this showcase without shining our spotlight on some of the pieces in their gallery.

krigl

Next up on the showcase, we have a few pieces from another fantastic fractal artist, . While most fractal work tends toward the abstract, these next pieces demonstrate how harmoniously these fractal elements can all be pulled together with a seemingly effortless ease to shape the abstract into something solid almost tangible.

HalTenny

Speaking of a more tactile feeling to some fractal artists’ work, our next bunch of breathtaking pieces are from the gallery of . With Hal’s work, we find ourselves more inhabiting strange new worlds with landscapes unlike anything we have seen beyond the scope of science fiction.

Random Artist Fractals

Before we check out of the fractal headspace and move into another digital artistic medium, we have a handful of other awesome fractals that we felt should be featured in the post. Though we only have taken one piece from each of the artists below, their contributions are just as inspired as the other works that wound up filling the spotlight, and we wouldn’t have felt right about passing them by.

Vexel Art

The next digital artform that we are going to explore on this inspirational journey, is Vexel art. No, not vector, vexel. Vexel art is an entirely pixel-based form of raster art that has the look and feel of being comprised of vectors. This mimicking of a vector graphics technique gives these pixel perfect pieces of art a much less whimsical tone than most of what we think of when we hear pixel art.

Pedro-92

The first vexel artist on our list today is . Pedro’s detailed face work, while maintaining a smidgen of that playful nature that one might expect from pixel work, combines an almost photo realistic contouring to give life to some spectacular examples of this artform.

hextupleyoodot

The next artist on our showcase is another skilled vexel visionary who flawlessly gives life to three teens in vexel form. breathes character into these three faces through this somewhat contoured artistic approach.

Alvaro59

If it is the more whimsical works that you are looking for from your vexel viewing inspirational pleasure, then the work is right up your proverbial alley. With such vibrant and colorful work, Alvaro’s work taps brilliantly into the roots of the pixel art world.

pai-thagoras

In keeping with the cute and fun theme we have going after our last vexel artist, the whimsy rolls on in a much more macabre way via the artistic creations of . While still maintaining the playfulness one might expect, the artist beautifully illustrates from a small corner of the darkside.

Random Artist Vexels

Once more we wanted to check in on a few more random pieces before we completely moved on to the next section of the post. So below are a few more examples of this artform being wonderfully explored and mastered. These final pieces further demonstrate the flexibility of this artistic arena.

Digital Paintings and Airbrushings

The final category of digital artwork that we are going to dive into for an inspirational recharge is digital paintings and airbrushed works. This expansive, and often breathtaking medium produces some truly imaginative and inspired works, which will hopefully rub off on our readers just as we planned. We wanted to finish strong, and feel that we have found stumbled onto some works that will allow us to do just that.

Valadrel

The first artist we have featured in this section of the showcase is the immensely talented , whose intricately detailed digital paintings virtually come to life off of their digital canvases. An easy addition to this round-up for sure.

translucid

Speaking of easy additions to the inspirational showcase, the fantastic work of quickly found this interesting artist’s voice a spot. Technically, the third piece is a photomanipulation, but it shows the dynamic reach of the artists voice so we added in.

Hypa00

The next artist up on the showcase briefly takes us into space for a short journey through a fantastically rich verse in the gallery of . With some spectacularly breathtaking scenery painted onto the digital canvas these looks beyond our world are inspiring to say the least.

Vihola

Turning to somewhat of a darker place, at least in tone, we present the next artist on our showcase, . The brilliant and bold artist’s brush breathes life into a much more sinister feeling world than we have come from, but does so with such grace it is hard not to admire the artistry.

nerdiesid

Lets keep this more macabre and somber train rolling as we unveil the work of the next artist in our showcase, . This is another artist whose voice is so versatile and unique, even though it tends towards the dark, that we could not pass them by with our spotlight.

Random Artist Paintings and Airbrushings

As we wind up the post here we figured we would throw a few more digital paintings and airbrushed works at you just for good measure. Below are several more noteworthy additions to the Deviant Art archives that fall under this artistic heading that we could not let slip by under our reader’s radars! Hopefully you got the inspirational recharge you needed and if not, then perhaps these final few works will help get you there.

That is a Wrap

That does it for this showcase of digital art, we hope that it has helped to once again get your flames of inspiration raging through your imagination. If there are any of the works featured that really stand out and speak to you, please feel free to let us know in the comments which ones those were. Also feel free to hit us up with your thoughts on the various works overall, not just the ones that you were moved by. So it is with that in mind that we now turn the post over to you!

Consider Some of Our Previous Posts

• Beautiful Photoshop Illustrations By Artists Around The World is a post from the Smashing archives that can also assist you in your inspirational searches.
• 35 Incredible Digital Painting Tutorials is another post from Smashing’s past that you might want to check out once you have your inspiration up and running once more.

(rb)