Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“Blue Tits & Poppyseeds” is a stunning still life from Noco Hammerer. It is inspiring to see the virtual metaverse continuing in pixels what began in ancient Egypt funerary paintings on the walls of tombs. The oldest still life that has been discovered, from the Tomb of Menna, had birds on it, too. The blue tits and the yellow lemons give us complementary colors. He uses threes, as well. Three blue tits, the lemons number more than three but are in three parts, two singles and a cluster. There are also three vases, but one pitcher and one hydrangea. With eleven poppy pods, he uses the rule of odds throughout the picture. 

So many more beautiful still life pictures ahead.

“Still Life” is one he deliberately created in homage to the still life paintings of the Dutch Golden Age. Here he kindly shared his technique in the description: “Amazing vase of cottage garden flowers in the style of a Dutch old master. I put these together to take some pictures and test some Photoshop skills. I've overlaid the image onto canvas and used lighting effects in Photoshop to enhance the WindLight and to also make the canvas texture pop a little.”

In “Golden Oriole” you can see how the colors of the cup and saucer, the pumpkin, and the pitcher are embodied in the oriole, a beautiful color story.  I also love how you can draw an isosceles triangle from the edge of the saucer, the pumpkin, and above the pitcher just in front of his beak. There is great skill showing in his compositions whether intentional or intuitive. 

Noco’s photostream is an exploration of his life and interests. In addition to fantastic still life work, he has landscape and decor pictures as well as pictures of him and his partner living life and having what looks like a lot of fun. 

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.