With Google Maps, we can fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Paris and New York—all in a matter of seconds. We can zoom in with relative ease and flock around the city of our choice, checking out restaurants, historical landmarks, traffic and scuba divers. Easily the most recognizable and iconic part of Google Maps are the markers that signify all of these locations and point of interests. The iconic markers have already spurred artists to create Google Map inspired art pieces—with one such arti...
For most street artists, it takes a considerable amount of time to paint large art installments on the walls of urban structures. The more time it takes, the better chance there is of getting caught, since nearly all of the rogue artwork is slapped on the sides of city and privately owned buildings.
Video games and art have somewhat of a sticky relationship. Many video games have large teams of talented artists doing amazingly creative work, and yet the art community is only just beginning to utilize video games as art (sometimes). Perhaps if video games were shown not just as a medium of expression, but as a means of creating great art as well, the art community would be forced to consider it differently. The third part in the Hacked Kinect series will focus on the artistic possibilitie...
Have you ever heard symmetrical is sexier? Yep, according to scientists, symmetry is inherently more attractive to the Homo Sapien eye. Back in the days of Helen of Troy, Phidias, Plato and other great philosophers all observed the golden ratio, "a sum where the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one". Confusing? Let's apply it to the human face only: the features of the human head were measured in calculated, precise proportions to d...
If you missed our previous posts on Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal's attempt to go cyborg, here's the short and skinny: First, Bilal announced a plan to implant a camera in his head, a project entitled 3rdi, which would record his daily life while simultaneously feeding the images to monitors at the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar. Then, he actually did it (and, yes, it was gnarly).
Chris Burden's latest piece is a portrait of L.A.'s hot mess of traffic, entitled Metropolis II. The artist has constructed a miniature highway system, complete with 1,200 custom-designed cars, 18 lanes, 13 toy trains and tracks, and a landscape of buildings made with wood block, tiles, Legos and Lincoln Logs. Burden tells the New York Times:
The engine has a number of cylinders, whether it's 3, 4, 5, 6… 8…. whatever, and each one of those cylinders is designed to produce the same amount of power. If one is not able to produce the same power as the rest, then that cylinder is down and the engine might miss a bit or have a check engine light. If you think this may be the case with your automobile, this video from Eric the Car Guy will show you how to perform a power balance test on your car's engine. It's very helpful in nailing do...
Want to know why the sky is blue during the daytime and red during the evening and morning? A simple experiment is all that is needed.
This educational math video describes the steps necessary to solve an equation involving absolute values. "Absolute value" refers to the magnitude of a quantity and is always expressed as a positive number. You can think of absolute value as the distance a number would be from zero if plotted on a number line. Positive 17 and negative 17 both have the same absolute value because both are 17 units from zero on a number line. Because of this, all absolute value problems have two answers, one wh...
Love doing science experiments? Want to impress your friends with your science skills and look good? Then you must watch this video.
This four part Fruity Loops tutorial shows you how to compose a cool hip hop beat from scratch. Learn how to produce a hip hop beat starting with the drums, then adding melody, then strings, and finally the layout all within FL Studio 7. If you want to produce your own hip hop music, this FL Studio tutorial is a good example to learn from.
This small but very powerful electrolyzer produces gas that increases the fuel mileage of your car. The elctrolyzer runs on baking soda (4 volts/cell) and produces hydrogen. Electrolyzers in general are machines that uses a direct electric current to drive a chemical reaction that would otherwise not occur on its own.
We all love it when the Google logo changes to celebrate or commemorate special events— pop-culture touchstones, civic milestones, scientific achievements and holidays— their latest one for this holiday season is a Christmas card to everyone— an interactive Google Doodle with 17 artworks from different artists, each depicting a seasonal greeting from a variety of cultures and countries.
Most recipes usually don't call for whole vegetables, which means that if you're learning to cook, you'll eventually have to learn how to cut vegetables.
Portrait drawings are difficult for most artists, but one thing's for sure— drawing nerds is as easy as they come. Nerds are easier to draw because you can stray from the formality of portraits, putting your own spin on it, over-compensating the details, exaggerating the dorky features. It's a drawing class in its own, and Merrill shows you how to draw his version of the NERD!
Trance music in it's pure form is a dark, brooding music that can bring you down just as fast as it lifts you up. If you produce trance and have been trying to nail the synth pluck / lead that gives so much of trance it's brooding vibe, watch this video to learn how to make a patch on a MicroKorg that sounds just right.
If you are the proud owner of a laser cutter, you had better be careful with your expensive new toy. Some materials can damage the optics in your laser or produce poisonous gas when you cut them, so you need to make a gas containment chamber to work in. Watch this video to find out how to do that out of silicon wafer, silicone sealant, and a metal cookie tin lid.
So, you've got a copy of Reason 4 now huh? Congratulations, you own one of the most powerful music-making tools on Earth. It is infinitely complicated though, and getting started can be tough. Watch this video to learn how to load a .wav sample into Reason 4 using ReDrum, something you're going to be doing a lot of as you produce your tracks.
Most good rap songs, or at least those modeled on the 1990's model, feature a thumping sub bass track designed to max out whatever size subs you've got. If you want to produce classic hip-hop beats yourself, watch this video to learn how to create epic sub bass synth tracks in Reason 4.
Justice might not have produced any new material in a while, but their place in electronic music history is already secured due to their filthy electro-house beats that have become ubiquitous in the years since they first broke out. Watch this video to learn how to make a dirty electro bass synth line like theirs in Reason 4.
Glitch is enjoying a renaissance of popularity right now along with it's cousin dubstep, and stuttering hip-hop vocals are hallmarks of both. Watch this video for detailed instructions on producing stuttering vocals in Reason 4 for your glitch and hip-hop tracks.
Trance is a genre to which the word "epic" is too often attached, but with good reason. A properly epic trance song can take you to places you've never been before. Watch this video to learn how to make a gated trance synth lead in Reason 4.
"Better Off Alone" by Alice Deejay is one of the all-time-great trance anthems, and untold millions have danced the night away to it's classic beat. Watch this video to learn how to produce the beat and the lead parts to the song using Reason 4. Do YOU think you're better off alone?
Dirty south hip-hop has become the most commercially viable genre of rap over the last decade, and it is great stuff to party to. Watch this video to learn how to capture some crunk magic by producing a dirty-south-style bass beat using Reason 4.
If you've listened to a lot of dirty south / crunk-style hip-hop you've probably very familiar with the pitched snare roll drum beat, it's in nearly every crunk song, and it is a really tight style of drum beat. Watch this video to learn how to produce this type of beat in Reason 4.
Dr. Dre has produced many of the best gangsta-rap beats of all time, and his deep luscious bass beats are perfect for dancing and relaxing at the same time. Watch this video to learn how to create a very Dr. Dre-style beat yourself using Reason 4.
The iconic rap songs that Dr. Dre produced in the early 1990's were the best party rap songs of all time, and many were lead by a high-pitched synth melody that became the hallmark of Dre tunes. Watch this video to learn how to make a similar synth lead effect in Reason.
Drawing human subjects can be tough if you're not an experienced artist. getting every detail just right it quite a task, because of the intricateness of the human body. But Merrill is going to show you how it's done.
Lady Gaga is definitely in shape. No one can deny that. But how does she do it? How does pop music's most popular artist stay in perfect shape? How does she get those great looking abs?!?
Can't figure out what you love best? Baseball or art? Well, combine your two favorite pastimes and draw a baseball player. You can even create your own baseball cards if you want to go the extra step. But in this video, you'll specifically learn how to draw a baseball player hitting the ball (batter's stance).
Michael Jackson appears to be more popular know than he ever was, which always seems to be the case with fallen pop icons. Not just his music either… we're talking about art. Since MJ's death, more and more artists are looking for ways to create their version of musical master, and you can draw him, too. With the help of this step-by-step drawing tutorial, you can have your own Michael Jackson masterpiece.
Purchasing mass-produced sets of ornaments during the holidays does save you time, but why have your tree resemble those of every house on your block when you can make your own, personalized Christmas ornaments?
When soap making, soap molds save you a lot of time, allowing you to produce prettily shaped bathtime goodies in less time and in greater quantities. Designs (decals) can then be added on top of these soaps for a personalized effect.
Paper is good for more than just scribbling your crush's name in hearts during a boring history class lecture. Watch this video to revitalize your understanding of paper power and to make a spring craft that will scream hugs and kisses to anyone whom you give it to.
If you're thinking about venturing into the world of using Camera Raw in Photoshop, you've come to the right place. The camera raw function in Adobe Photoshop provides easy access to raw image formats produced by many digital cameras. In this video, learn all about how to get started using the Camera Raw Utility plug-in for Adobe Photoshop.
This is the ultimate guide to drawing correct human proportions. If you've always had trouble with it in high school art class or in art school, this video condenses all the information into a tight package that's fun and easy to understand. This will uncover all the tricks to human proportions for figure drawings.
Ever daydream about making your own comic strip? Well, what's stopping you? With this lesson from television cartoonist Bruce Blitz, you'll learn everything you need to know to produce your very own comic strip suitable for publication in a newspaper or on the web. For more information, and to get started making your very own funny strips, watch this free video guide.
Here is a very easy method to draw a Sasuke in a step by step process by the artist Jack of Jill. First draw a circle for the head part. Then draw two lines crossing through the circle to match the eye part. At the bottom draw a small triangle similar to chin. Now draw the real cheeks. Now draw a stick figure showing its body and hands. Draw other circle touching down to the first one. Now connect the circle with his hands to make his arms. Draw neck portion, so that it touches the shoulders....
The make-up artist Kandee Johnson demonstrates how to create a cute look of big dolly eyes for Asian girls. The first step is to make the eyelid look bigger and lighter by using a white eye pencil from Sephora. The second step is to use a light-colored eye shadow from Mac, which needs to be applied all over the lid and under the eyebrows. Then take a black pencil and accentuate the outer corners to make your eyes look bigger and rounder. Start from the outside and work your way in to create a...
Want to run Apple's popular word-processing application, Pages, on an iPad? It's easy. That didn't stop Apple from producing this clean video overview, however. Get started creating, editing and sharing your own newsletters, reports, flyers & other documents with this how-to.