Oddity Central |
- Australian Artist Takes Camouflage to a Whole New Level
- 85-Year-Old Vietnamese Man Hasn’t Cut His Hair in 70 Years
- Illustrator Challenges Reality in Awesome Video Series
| Australian Artist Takes Camouflage to a Whole New Level Posted: 29 Aug 2012 05:06 AM PDT
Adelaide-based artist Emma Hack, 39, creates incredible works of art where she paints male and female models and makes them blend into complex background images. If you’re one of the 300 million people who watched Gotye’s video for the international hit “Somebody That I Used to Know“, then you’re probably already a fan of Emma Hack, and just didn’t know it yet. She’s the mastermind behind the unique music video where Gotye and Kimbra gradually transform into painted works of art that morph into the background until they become entirely camouflaged. Emma worked with the artists for 23 very long hours, but the public reactions to their work made the efforts worth it for all parties involved. Although she’s been a camouflage artist for 22 years, Emma says she feels her career has just now started taking off and she’s finally being taken seriously as an artist. Emma Hack started her career as a make-up artist, but drawing inspiration from the works of Veruschka, a famous model who during the 60s and 70s painted herself against naturalistic settings, she started exploring the art of camouflage. After decades of experience, Hack’s works have become so good that it’s often hard to spot where the model is “hiding” in the background. Her first ever camouflage artwork took 19 hours to complete, with more recent works taking anywhere between 8 and 15 hours, depending on the complexity of the project. As you can expect, the long hours and painstaking work take their toll on both the artist and her models, but the spectacular results are reward enough for both of them. So move over Liu Bolin, the so-called Invisible Man, there’s a new camouflage master in town, and she means business.
Sources: Design You Trust, Artinfo Australian Artist Takes Camouflage to a Whole New Level was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| 85-Year-Old Vietnamese Man Hasn’t Cut His Hair in 70 Years Posted: 29 Aug 2012 03:09 AM PDT
85-year-old Nguyen Van Chien, from Vietnam’s southern province of Tien Giang, hasn’t had a haircut since he was in the 12th grade, 70 years ago. As a result, his hair now 4-meters-long and weight 2 kilograms. Even as a young boy, Nguyen Van Chien liked to let his hair grow long. He would braided it into a bun on top of his head to keep it from interfering with his daily activities, but one day, while he was in the 12th grade, his teachers advised him to cut his hair. He took their advice, but as soon as he got a haircut, he started experiencing a strange pain that not even painkillers could make go away. Before he cut his hair the man had had no health problems, not even a common flu, so he decided to let his hair grow, and never cut it again. It’s been 70 years since he made the decision, and now his “dragon tail”, as he calls his hair measured around 4 meters long and weighs over 2 kilograms. Although Nguyen Van Chien is determined to never cut his hair again, it has caused him some inconveniences throughout the years. As the dragon tail grew, even washing it became an issue because it took so long to dry that he started getting headaches, colds and dizziness, so he decided to stop washing it as well. For the last 30 years, the Vietnamese Buddhist has never washed his hair. Instead, to combat the itchiness of the scalp, he rubs oil at the base of the hair, and rinses his head with water, careful not to wet too much of his “tail”. He also has problems moving around and gardening with over 2 kg of hair on his head, but he’s not considering cutting it again. But the hair isn’t the only thing that makes this Vietnamese gentleman special. At 85 years of age, Nguyen Van Chien has an enviable health, and is able to read and cross a piece of thread through a needle without using glasses. He’s also able to perform exhausting tasks like chopping wood and working in his vegetable garden. The secret to his well-being is sometimes attributed to his long hair, while others say it’s his fruit and vegetable-only menu, or the fact that he only eats once a day, at noon. Whatever it is, this guy is doing something right. While his dragon tail is certainly impressive, it’s quite short compared to the hair of Tran Van Hay, also from Vietnam. His locks were over 6 meter long and weighed over 10 kilos. Sadly, he died two years ago, at the age of 79. Sources: Talk Vietnam, Ngoisao 85-Year-Old Vietnamese Man Hasn’t Cut His Hair in 70 Years was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Illustrator Challenges Reality in Awesome Video Series Posted: 29 Aug 2012 02:18 AM PDT
Renown illustrator and author Mark Crilley demonstrates his insane drawing talent in a series of videos in which he recreates everyday objects with pencils, ball-point pens and fine paintbrushes. As you’e probably already noticed, we don’t just post oddities here on OC, we also feature lots of cool, amazing stuff, and Mark Crilley’s “Realism Challenge” video series is as amazing as hyperrealist art gets. Using his super skills and basic utensils he creates incredibly realistic drawn replicas of everyday stuff, like crumpled paper, a torn playing card or a mushroom. The Michigan-based artist makes great use of the trompe l’oeil technique to effectively trick your eyes into thinking they’re looking at a real object instead of a masterful drawing. Apart from these realism challenges, Mark also posts how-to videos for aspiring illustrators on his YouTube channel.
via Boing Boing Illustrator Challenges Reality in Awesome Video Series was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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