Mitch Loidolt is a talented illustrator with a bounty of impressive work, but his series of NES Dudes are bad. ass. Check out this gallery of dudes on his Flickr account. My favorites are his rendition of Bowser, Qbert (the colors are great in this one), and of course the Mario Brothers (shown above).
Shout out to CTZ and our old shared feature Art Attack Fridays for this one!
Avatar Machine is a system created by designer Marc Owens to emulate the sensation of the virtual avatar in real life. Owens describes on his site that "the system potentially allows for a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment."
Avatar Machine [LONDON] 2008 from MARC OWENS on Vimeo.
As made evident by the video, the camera feed is pretty effective in rendering the third person perspective of self that's so familiar in virtual spaces. However, I'm curious what the experience is like when the actor isn't dressed up like a polygonal Cloud Strife doppelgänger.via It's Nice That
Eric Testroete, inspired by large polygonal heads in videogames, created a papercrafted polygonal replica of his own head for one helluva Halloween costume. Using a combination of 3ds Max 2009, Mudbox 2010, Photoshop CS3, and Pepakura, Testroete mapped out, printed, and glued together facets of his own face piece by piece to create a stunning mask. His photographic gallery of the proccess and the results are well worth a look.
via n0wak
In a a similar vein as Videogramo and Elna Frederick, artist Math Wrath creates animations and illustrations using a retro-tech, animted .gif aesthetic. His work ranges from the comedic (see "How it ends") to the terrifying (see [or don't see] "Pleasurecrusher"), and are all worth checking out. Some of his works have sound, so keep your headphones on.
via blitblit
Destructoid is currently having a Critter Crunch themed contest for folks to win t-shirts, game codes, and more. Lending a helping hand, Capybara's character artist Nick “Qiqo” Stephan created the above illustration for one lucky person to win a print of. Just, wow.
This pertains to my interests for the following reasons:
I originally found hellojenuine (aka Jen Collin)'s work when she received some attention on Twitter for her "what i wore today" series, in which she illustrates her the outfits she wears from day-to-day. Her illustrations are really terrific, and recently she's started to illustrate artists across her iTunes library. The series is still in development, but with penciled portraits of Flight of the Conchords, Andrew Bird, and Hot Chip (shown above), it's a project to keep an eye on.
Spanish group Videogramo displays a series of colorfully mutated animated .gifs on their site. Each image is as unsettling as an animated .gif could possibly get, featuring contorted, dull-faced .gif manikins disected by pixelated tubes, patterned planes, and faceted shapes. Half Kid Pix and half Frankenstein, the whole display is simultaneously fascinating and disturbing.
Via Nullsleep
Can't say that I've heard of Sarah Larnach's work before I read this recent post about illustrated bottles of Becks on BitchBuzz. Apparently Larnach once lived with singing artist Ladyhawke as she was gaining popstar fame, and since has created various album cover art and music video animations for her. Larnach's work has a touch of beauty and magic, and her use of watercolors are vibrant and full of energy. My favorites out of all her work are the above illustration, and this adorable work to the right. And now you know all about my love for kittens and consoles (as if it wasn't obvious before). Oh, in case you were wondering, this is my favorite (remixed) Ladyhawke track:
Holy crap it's been way too long since I've drawn enough to make one of these posts. Last week was loaded with stress bombs, so I took advantage of the weekend to sit in the sun, draw, and watch lots and lots of Mad Men. One could argue that I'm not going anywhere new with these puppies (and I should really start to push myself to color them), but after two or three months of not drawing I'm just getting my groove back, so to speak. 
Shout-out to Mr. Andreas Schuster and Jacob Ferguson (who's painting I purchased a week ago) for the recent jolt of inspriation!
via pocket-monsterd
