Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

Loving these expressionistic paintings of classic arcade games by Brock Davis. He created them as part of his Make Something Cool Every Day 2009 project.

Before you watch this insane music video by Jérémie Perin, note that is totally not safe for work. Its video-game inspired animation contains pixellated 8-bit depictions of both sex and pooping. The YouTube description reads “Think Spielberg’s Duel + Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat Kill Kill! and Marc Dorcel’s wildest fantasies.”

But what it lacks in decorum, it totally makes up for in animated awesomeness. The look is a pixel-perfect replication of the era of video games I grew up playing. And though it’s sad that there are no more games being made that look like this, I am thrilled to be living in an age when the kids who grew up with this aesthetic are now the grown-ups making new things of their own.

I swore off video games a little while back because I get too obsessed, and really I have a lot of things I want to do/draw/make/etc. But this new offering from Double Fine is not only epic-looking, but the artwork is stunning, hilarious, and so completely metal! I may have to rethink my policy for Brütal Legend, and I’m not even into metal.

The work of concept artists Peter Chan (previously (EDIT: see comments) ) and Scott Campbell (previously) (EDIT: plus Nathan Stapley (previously), Mark Hamer, Levi Ryken, and Razmig Mavlian) is featured in this epic post on BoingBoing. The “Headbanger” character depicted above can be seen realized in the game’s trailer starting at about 1:15.

Rock on, my friends.

Amusement Magazine has posted this superb series of photographs by Marc Da Cunha Lopes depicting the workshops and factories that create iconic video game imagery: Made of Myth. Shown here: the Pong factory.

It took the Reynolds Metals Company three months to manufacture the 140,000 raquets and 440,000 digits Nolan Bushnell had ordered, plus an extra two weeks to transport the merchandise from Kentucky to California. Completed in 1972, this memorable job brought about the rebirth of Louisville’s metallurgic industry.

Also included: Tetris, Mario Bros., Sonic, and Arkanoid.

Max and the Magic Marker looks like it will be fun. It’s an upcoming platformer for the Wii that incorporates drawing into the gameplay to help solve puzzles and adventures.

Artist Jay Epperson has been posting lots of concept art that he created and art directed for the Nintendo DS game Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. Check out his blog for background paintings, character designs, sketches, pixel art, and more.

In this video Dan Paladin works in Flash on the Undead Cyclops boss for the game Castle Crashers. It’s roughly 20 minutes in length, but it was interesting to watch as someone fairly unfamiliar with Flash.

Tom Rhodes has been drawing reimagined versions of favourite video game characters. They’re all pretty great. I couldn’t quite choose a favourite, so here’s Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft:

And I love this Goomba and Koopa from Mario:

(Thanks, Joy!)

Illustrator Jude Buffum’s work is influenced by infographics, video games, and other computer graphics. Visit his blog as well.

These videos from the new PS3 game, LittleBigPlanet, are hilarious.

The game which was released last week in North America allows users to create their own levels. So naturally there’s a slew of awesome retro games being re-imagined in the LBP universe.

LittleBigPlanet: Galaga
(To play this level, search for user RRR30000)

The Tetris video had me laughing out loud as you watch the Sackboy jet around the screen trying to fit the blocks together.

LittleBigPlanet: Tetris

More videos after the jump….

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