Mostly Carved Away Eggshell

National Geographic's Photography Contest 2010 National Geographic is once again holding their annual Photo Contest, with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30th. For the past eight weeks, they have been gathering and presenting galleries of submissions, encouraging readers to rate them as well. National Geographic was again kind enough to let me choose some of their entries from 2010 for display here on The Big Picture. Surreal Adventures Sergey Ryzhov invites us to join him on a surreal adventure through his magnificent digital paintings! The Moscow, Russia-based artist uses selective coloring to really enhance his pieces, creating a stark contrast between his subject and background. What an incredible imagination.

Stunning Self-Portraits by a 17-Year-Old (18 photos) Like Valerie Chiang or Kalie Garrett, Alex Stoddard is one of those talented teenage photographers who knows how to express themselves. His self-portraits are all incredibly unique and after viewing them you're left wondering where he's going to take you next. What I enjoy most is that you can almost feel his passion come through. His commitment to not only executing on an idea but doing it well, is apparent to anyone who sees his photos. TrustoCorp – Satirical Upstart Art TrustoCorp. It sounds as if it might be a global organisation bent on domination from a film such as RoboCop or Blade Runner and perhaps they may just as well be. Although the truth is somewhat different very little is known about this mysterious artist (or perhaps collective). One thing is known – TrustoCorp’s work is becoming more and more recognized and popular.

Earth from Above a collection of aerial photography "Earth From Above" is the result of the aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand's five-year airborne odyssey across six continents. It's a spectacular presentation of large scale photographs of astonishing natural landscapes. Every stunning aerial photograph tells a story about our changing planet. Coal mine in South Africa Sha Kibbutz, Israel Military cemetery in Verdun, France Imagine Pot Was Legal. How Would You Brand It? Woeful state budgets have relit the long-burning debate about pot legalization---couldn't California rescue itself by making weed legal, then taxing it? Meanwhile, more than 40% of Americans now favor legalization--which is the highest portion since the 1980s; Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight, has watched the trends and estimates that popular support will become overwhelming in 15 years time. So Print, the hoary graphic-design magazine, posed a challenge to four top designers: How should the package of legal weed actually look? Each of them took a radically different approach.

35 Hilarious Illustrations by Glennz Last June, the Sifter did a post on the awesome work of artist and illustrator extraordinairre, Glenn Jones aka Glennz. Glenn is a graphic designer and illustrator from Auckland, New Zealand. ‘GLENN’ from ‘NZ’ = GLENNZ; which was his user name on the T-shirt design site Threadless.com. What started as a hobby quickly became a booming success, eventually leading to the launch of his own t-shirt site where he now sells all of his designs.

Incredibly Realistic Sculptures by Adam Beane Adam Beane is quite unique sculptor. Since beginning sculpting in 2002 he is known for dynamic compositions, action poses, nuanced drapery work and his ability to capture likenesses with expressions. For the work he uses CX5, a tremendously versatile material he developed which handles like clay when warm but is hard as plastic when cool. Altered thrift store art: Some personal faves Unknown, via Reddit. Banksy, via Flickr user goldenticket. It’s a simple idea: Find some bad art, whether original or a print, for a song at a thrift store, then modify it to make, if not “better art,” then at least something that’s more entertaining to look at. (Is it the same thing? Yeah, that sounds like a productive argument.) Anyway.

The Beauty of Black Light “Light Me On” is an artistic series by Reka Nyari. Her work received 1st prize in category “Beauty: Pro” at the International Photography Awards. Notes about the artist (published at Flickr): Dalton Ghetti creates amazing art on the tips of used pencils Most of us will agree with the age-old saying that “patience is a virtue.” How many of you, however, would actually hang on for two years and a half to bring a piece of art into existence? Dalton Ghetti, 49, a Bridgeport artist, has spent 25 good years working with a razor blade, a sewing needle and a sculpting knife for carving his unique art on the graphite of pencil. The artist says: I don’t make money from it but I would love a gallery owner in England to fly me over and put on a show. The inclination to fashion something new did not surface all of a sudden.

Awesome girlfriend creates Star Wars pillow case When I finally get a girlfriend, I want her to be just like this. This young lady knows that her boyfriend’s love for Star Wars goes above and beyond. So instead of poking fun at him, she became the world’s best GF by making this epic Stormtrooper pillow case. via philstuffs

Mercedes Benz: Left Brain/Right Brain I saw these great Ads recently—which are absolutely amazing I reckon. These digital works were designed for Mercedes Benz cars, and are based upon the left/right brain functions: ★★★★★ Like this type of article? Why not subscribe for Free via RSS or Email. The Most Incredible Miniature Pencil Art [20 pics] Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News Dalton Ghetti is a 49-year old carpenter from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and he has been carving the most incredible miniature sculptures for over 25 years without the aid of a magnifying glass. His canvas? The tiny tip of a lead pencil. Dalton started carving tree bark when he was a child and experimented with everything from soap to chalk before settling on graphite.