allRGB - cool graphics geek stuff

The objective of allRGB is simple: To create images with one pixel for every RGB-color (16,777,216 to be exact); not one color missing, and not one color twice.

Each image is 4096 by 4096 pixels, so they are large images, so allow time for them to load. But it's incredible that each pixel is a unique color not duplicated within the entire image. COOL.

Here's a couple of examples below. There's currently 15 entries on their website. Click to enlarge for full-size image:





[Growabrain]

Mati Klarwein Album Cover Art

Abdul Mati Klarwein (April 9, 1932 – March 7, 2002) was a painter best known for his works used on the covers of music albums.

Klarwein was born in Hamburg, Germany. His family was of Jewish origin and fled to Palestine when he was two years old after the rise of Nazi Germany. Klarwein grew up in Palestine but in 1948 when the territory became Israel, his family traveled to Paris. There Mati studied with Fernand Léger, after attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Klarwein traveled south to Saint-Tropez and met Ernst Fuchs, who would have a profound influence on him. Leaving France in the 1950s, Klarwein traveled widely and lived in many different countries, including Tibet, India, Bali, North Africa, Turkey, Europe and the Americas. He eventually settled in New York City in the early 1960s.

Much of Klarwein's most famous work is inspired by surrealism and pop culture, but also reflects his interest in non-Western deities, symbolism, and landscapes. The alleged connection between Klarwein and the so-called psychedelic art of the period is not entirely unfounded, as he has detailed his experience with LSD in his 1988 book Collected Works; however, Klarwein also explains that drugs were never his prime inspirational source, and in one interview, denies their influence entirely. His extensive travels and wide interests (notwithstanding the fact that his style had fully developed before the so-called "psychedelic era") are further support of his claims. Klarwein claims that his friend Timothy Leary once told him, based on the character of his paintings, that Klarwein "didn't need psychedelics."

Klarwein's painting Annunciation (1961) was seen in reproduction by the musician Carlos Santana, who subsequently used it as the cover image of his band Santana's second album Abraxas (1970). In the following years Klarwein produced comparably striking designs for the covers of two Miles Davis albums, Bitches Brew (1969) and Live-Evil (1971), as well as a portrait of Jimi Hendrix, which was supposed to have been used for the guitarist's collaboration album with big band leader Gil Evans, which never came to fruition due to the guitarist's death. His painting Zonked (1970), originally planned for use on a Betty Davis album of the same name, would later be used as the cover of a Last Poets album Holy Terror (1995).

During the 1960s and 70s, Klarwein would occasionally search for cheap paintings at flea markets and "improve" them, painting over them or adding things at his whim. Klarwein made over a hundred of these "improved paintings" throughout his career.

In the mid-1970s, Klarwein began a series of paintings which he referred to as "real-estate paintings" or "inscapes". In the late 1970s he collaborated with trumpeter Jon Hassell for a couple albums on Brain Eno's Ambient label; these albums used several of Klarwein's "inscapes" on their covers. Klarwein also contributed art to three albums by Per Tjernberg.

Late in this life, Klarwein contracted cancer, which would eventually take his life. He died on March 7, 2002 in Deià, Spain on the island of Majorca, at the age of 69.

www.matiklarweinart.com
www.matiklarwein.com [in German]

Frank Frazetta Album Art

Now for my favorite fantasy-genre artist. I admit that I bought the Molly Hatchet albums just for the album covers back in the late 70's without even knowing the music. I did end up enjoying Flirtin With Disaster though. Great hard Southern rock music.

Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for his Buck Rogers comic book covers for Famous Funnies and paperback book cover paintings on series' such as Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard. His paintings gained added popularity in the 1970's, appearing in books, posters, prints, record covers, and various other merchandise.

Frank Frazetta, born in Brooklyn, New York, discovered the wonders of drawing before he was three, when he sold his first crayon drawing to Grandma - for the tidy sum of one penny. It was through her interest and encouragement, that he continued his drawings through those early years.

In 1964, Frazetta's painting of Ringo Starr (see below) for a Mad Magazine ad parody caught the eye of United Artists studios. He was approached to do the movie poster for What's New Pussycat? and earned the equivalent of his yearly salary in one afternoon.

Frazetta's paintings have been used by a number of recording artists as cover art for their albums. Molly Hatchet's first two albums feature "The Death Dealer" and "Dark Kingdom" respectively. Dust's second album, Hard Attack, features "Snow Giants". Nazareth used "The Brain" for their 1977 album Expect No Mercy. Frazetta also created brand new cover artwork that appeared on "Buddy Bought The Farm", the second CD of the surf horror band "The Dead Elvi", making them the only known band Frazetta has created brand new cover art for. Recently, Wolfmother used "The Sea Witch" as the cover for their self-titled debut. Wolfmother has also used other Frazetta paintings for the covers of their singles and for some of their merchandise, such as t-shirts.

He is the subject of the 2003 nationally televised American film documentary Frank Frazetta, Painting with Fire.

frazettaartgallery.com
frankfrazetta.org