I thourght some of you budding artists and photographers might like too see this if you haven’t already, I will try to explain it in my own words too but the picture alone is insane…

Ok, this sort of looks like a coincidence right? Lightning storm runs into a volcanic eruption? Wrong. This is a volcanic lightning storm. It works on the same principles as a normal lightning storm being that tiny pieces of ice in the atmosphere collide with each other creating static electricity which builds up and is eventually disbursed as a bolt of lightning. In this case its rocks and dust, not ice that are creating the static. This is a very rare phenomenon and a photograph as good as this is even rarer.

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This image was created by railgunlwt (Railgunlwt.deviantart.com). Time taken 2 hours.

This is one of my many speed paintings in photoshop with my Wacom A4 tablet. There are a few areas i need to work on, including reflections and proportion. Notice the size of the trees in comparison to that of the mountains, this may not seem that bad, however mountains that small wouldn’t have snow on top. Realism aside the picture has nice color tones and the foreground-background is perfect.

Ubie.net has been officially running as an art blog for 3 days now. That may not seem like a lot, but we have achieved a great amount. Firstly i would like to inform you that in this small amount of time we have already been indexed in Google! Personally, this is the shortest amount of time for any of my websites to become indexed, one site Wiioodle.com has been going for almost a month and still has not been indexed!

Our second success was a huge 78 unique visits in the first 24 hours of being live on the web, over the past few days this has steadied out to around 30-40 per day, thank you!

All this and we haven’t even finished the site (don’t tell anyone!). Internet explorer users may notice a glitch with the navigation, we are working on this problem and hope to have it fixed very soon. Please get in touch with us and let us know what you think of the new layout - thanks to Smarter Templates for the original theme we edited.

Now we are up and running we need your work! Please submit any artwork you wish to be featured on the site, provided it covers all the rules we will guarantee to publish your art!

Thanks for being apart of our launch!
Ubie.net team.

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These images were created by James Clarke (JrCDesigns.co.uk). Total time taken 2-3 hours.

I made these two in photoshop and illustrator. I started in illustrator using the pen tool to create the ‘VENDETTA’ text (second picture) from scratch. I also used illustrator to create the dragon like figure at the top of the first picture. After using illustrator i was pleased with the result but the clean cut, crisp images didn’t suit the image of the band so i took them into photoshop. I built up a background using photographs of fire smudged and layered together. I used the eraser tool with a 1px brush to create the scratched effect in the first picture. In the second i just smudged the text outwards. “Time For” in the second image was not made in illustrator but a font in photoshop.

The pattern around ‘Vendetta’ was also made in illustrator. As you can see, the second image was used as a backdrop for the first to create a familiar style throughout. The grungy style works well for the image the of the band of which is no longer together.

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This image was created by James Clarke (JrCdesigns.co.uk). Time taken 1-2 hours.

I created this purely in photoshop using original stock photography and textures. The background is scanned in from an old book i found, i really like the text at the top of this. The main building was a photograph of a huge modern skyscraper in Vancouver, Canada. To put it simply, i distorted it to the left, and removed one side. I then put a threshold over the picture and cut out the background leaving just the building on the canvas. Then i scanned in another section of writing, this time from the novel “Lord of the Flies” - the book used is of no significance to the art, i just liked the way the text looked up the side of the building. What took the most time with this piece was the colors, it took a long time to get these vibrant, powerful colors that I’m happy with.

This image was created by Wipeout (Wipeout55.deviantart.com). Time taken 1 hour.

This signature was created in photoshop using a range of brushes to create the brilliantly textured background. The brush layers have been set to blending modes to allow the under light source to shine through. Unlike most signatures, which are a a mess of unrecognizable brushes, what i particularly like about this are the ‘X’ shapes that are clearly visible in the background. The lighting is perfect and creates a fantastic burning atmosphere which relates perfectly to the war theme of the signature.

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These images were created by Vakuum (Nihiline.deviantart.com). Total time taken 2-3 hours.

These two pieces took a while to do. I used one stock for the lightning, which thinking about it, realized i could have done myself. In total i used two different Cinema 4D renders, each of which I painstakingly modified, pixel by pixel. The wallpaper sized piece was created after the smaller banner and is not as focused. I’m not as happy with the big one. I haven’t made a banner I was proud of in a long time.

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This image was created by Inksarat. Time taken N/A.

This is what i like to see, fresh, and unique. Not conforming to any trends or trying to imitate something. Inksarat created this in Photoshop using the pen tool to create the cute apple characters and brush techniques for the ground. The bright colors really complement the fun theme and feel of the design.

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This image was created by James Clarke (JrCdesigns.co.uk). Time taken 3-4 hours.

This picture was made using a large variety of different media outside of photoshop. I used textures, images and typography of which i had collected from different sources. I also used a range of techniques including pens, inks and tape. The entire image was not worked on as a whole but as many different aspects built up as it progressed.

One of the main techniques used was one i had never used before. Its creates great results and i recomend you try it. This method results in removing the background from ink pictures, this works best with images printed with a laser printer or directly from magazines. Once you have found an image you like take some clear sticky tape and lay it over the image until completely covered (try to avoid bubbles and folds). Rub the tape so it is firmly stuck to the image. Tear the remaining paper from around the tape and head to a sink. Place the taped image under a running tap and gently start to rub the paper away from behind the tape, you should start to notice that as the paper falls away the ink remains on the tape. This technique is perfect for this type of image as it allows for a build up of images without having to use photoshop so soon.

I continued to build up the image by tracing in pictures and adding unique doodles of my own, keep layering images and text to create the grungy effect. Remember that you don’t have to work on a blank canvas, try working on squared or lined paper for a more interesting effect. I added some color using ink and pens. To complete the image i scanned it into photoshop and layered down more textures and typography.

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This image was created by James Clarke (JrCdesigns.co.uk). Time taken 3 hours.

I created this using photoshop, illustrator and freehand drawings. The combination of these together, i think looks great. Using a scanner is one of the best things a graphic artist can do, it allows the artist to be so much more unique and creative. There are only so many styles that can be created in photoshop, but scan in some photographs or textures and it brings your work to a whole new dimension.

With this picture i started with an ordinary picture of a sunny country side, i used photoshop to effectively ‘destroy’ the image. Using basic techniques like changing contrast and using the threshold feature. I flipped the image upside down (will explain later). Next step was to print the image. On the printed image i used a fine marker to add in the buildings and doodles, the doodling and winding lines suggests the pointlessness and the corruption of the theme. The buildings represent the the corporate world.

On another piece of paper i drew two fighter jets from reference photography. I scanned in both pictures and used photoshop to position and blend them both. After that i opened Illustrator and created the ‘pop-art’ explosion effect. The word ‘Why?’ in the middle is a twist on the usual ‘Bang!’ or ‘Boom!’ this type ‘comic book’ media would normally incorporate. This word also gives the feeling that the image is a freeze frame of an event, like its about to happen, but someone just stopped everything and said, “Why?”.

Overall the image tries to reflect how the modern world, with war and huge corporations running it effects the lives of ordinary people. This is done by having two sides to the picture, the country side being flipped upside down.

This image is made to be thourght provoking, so please, comment and have your say.