technabob » painting

roombas make dazzling time-lapse light paintings

technabob — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:43:45 +0000

Ever wonder what sort of stuff was running through the electronic brain of your Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner? These wonderful time-lapse photos should give you a pretty good idea of what your Roomba has been up to.

These amazing photographs were made by strapping a colored LED to the top of Roomba vacuums and then capturing extra-long exposure photos (known as “light paintings”). It’s sort of like looking at a neon Spirograph and spider web rolled into one. I’ve posted a few of my favorites in the gallery below…

You can check out the complete archive of Roomba light art over at the Roomba Art Flickr pool. My Hoover definitely can’t do this.

[via New World Geek via Make:]

even the best pixel art is kinda square

alisha k. — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:52:48 +0000

You know, square? Like pixels? Oh, lame jokes, never desert me… and internets, please never stop supplying fantastic fan art. Even the dog from Duck Hunt–my most despised video game nemesis ever–looks great here.

Pixel art is a funny thing: it’s both simple and complicated. Artist and Sprite Stitch forum poster Brit.knee reports that, in order to create these paintings, she found beadcraft images or old screenshots and blew them up so that she could count the pixels required to make each picture. After that, it’s a matter of creating a grid on the canvas and “sketching” the piece out that way.

Me, I always like the little details in work like this, and here it’s the hearts on Link’s “screen” that bring a smile to my face. I can picture that screen immediately to the right from the starting point in The Legend of Zelda, and my first encounter with the Octoroks. Good times.

[via Sprite Stitch forums]

great showdowns of the 8-bit era [video game art]

technabob — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:30:37 +0000

I think I have a new favorite video game artist. I’ve already got a set of Scott Campbell’s hilarious Pac-Man illustrations in my house, and now I’m totally in love with his new “Great Showdowns (of the 8-Bit era)” series that he did for the 2008 iam8-bit video game art show at the World of Wonder gallery in Hollywood, Ca.

Scott’s mini paintings (3″ x 5″ each) offer a whimsical take on the confrontations between classic video game characters and their various nemeses. Dig Dug tries to make friends with Pooka and Fygar instead of exploding their insides, while Frogger contemplates how exactly he’ll jump onto that damned log so he can make it home from work once again. Back in the day, I pumped so many quarters into Moon Patrol, that the moon buggy vs. happy rock scene is my personal favorite.

While the original paintings have already found good homes, for $100 you can get your hands on a set of 5 mini prints (limited to just 30 per edition), signed and numbered by Campbell over on A Paper Tiger If you want a set for your wall, you’d better hurry.

awesome arcade game art by melissa jones

technabob — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:07:36 +0000

Looking for a way to make your game room really special? Look no further than these original 3-dimensional arcade artworks by sign maker Melissa Jones.

Melissa creates original wood carvings of classic arcade characters, then creates a resin casting of the original and hand paints each one with bold acrylic colors.

Her arcade designs include classics like Donkey Kong, Galaga, Robotron 2084, Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Q*Bert and Burgertime among others.

Prices for individual castings range from about $20 to $60 a piece, but complete sets with a matching canvas backdrop run from $225 to $375. But for about $2000, you can deck out your entire room with this complete collection.

She’ll also do custom orders on request. Check out Melissa’s entire collection over on her site NiceCarvings.

[via Flickr]

painting with light

technabob — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:36:55 +0000

While they might be a bit “new-agey” for my taste, I think these LED light murals are still pretty cool.

Perhaps better suited for nightclubs or restaurants than for your home, these Light Energy Paintings can fill a wall with a dazzling show of colored light. The displays come in sizes as large as 48-inches in diameter, and use up to a dozen super-bright multi-color LED fixtures to project a variety of color effects onto a translucent screen.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The company even makes versions which are mounted into cocktail tables and even a dining table too. What’s with that sculpture of the Fortress of Solitude in the middle of the picture, though?

The company’s LED displays range in price from about $2000 all the way up to $5000 and beyond, depending on the features you choose.

it’s super mario in toast form

technabob — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:24:10 +0000

I’ve been dying for an excuse to feature one of my favorite artists, Dan Goodsell on my blog, but his whimsical paintings never seemed quite appropriate for Technabob.

Today, Dan gave me just enough of an excuse by when he jumped into the video gaming world. The latest masterpiece in Dan’s Mister Toast series features two of my all time favorite icons of modern culture, smashed together into a single bite-sized morsel.

Without further adieu, I present to you Super Mario Toast…

While you’re at it, be sure to check out Dan’s other works over on Etsy, where he features original artworks, t-shirts, postcards, books and other tschotskes.

classic computer and video game art

technabob — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:55:39 +0000

Check out these nifty mini artworks by artist Cynthia Malaran, inspired by classic computer and video game systems.

Currently available works include the Apple Newton, Classic Macintosh (diptych seen above), Atari and NES joysticks and a 3.5″ boot disk. Each piece is a signed, limited edition print mounted on wood with bronze-painted edges and appx. 3.5″ x 5″ in size. Prices range from $40 to $60 USD. Available from Pixelgirlshop.

[via aeropause]