drawings

This may have started off as a joke, but Hercule Van Wolfwinkle's "rubbish" pet portraits are being sold like hotcakes and have raised over £50k for a homeless charity. Also, we want one too. 

As BBC News reports, Phil Heckels, from Worthing, West Sussex, started working until the alias Hercule Van Wolfwinkle in 2020. Jokingly, he drew his his dog and put it on Facebook, offering paid-for commissions. He was just as surprised as anyone when genuine requests started coming in. Not only that, but his drawings have gotten really popular, and as pet owners ourselves, we can totally see why. Because the volume of requests was so big, it essentially became a lottery where Wolfwinkle decides who he draws and who he doesn't.

In addition to the drawings, Wolfwinkle writes accompanying fake profiles for each pet as well as reviews from the 'customers' - also written by Wolfwinkle. Additional merchandise, such as tea towels and calendars, has also been created. 

Initially, the drawings were marketed at the joke price of £299. Later on, that became Wolfwinkle's original fundraising target. Now, "he has ambitions to reach £75,000, and has publicly vowed to get his first tattoo - his signature on his buttocks - on reaching that goal."

Wolfwinkle told BBC: "This whole thing is absolutely brilliant. To be honest it still doesn't feel real. I remember being sat on the sofa with my wife, laughing that we would never reach £299, and now we're here. I'd love to do this forever, it's just working out how we keep it going because I've basically created a second full-time job for myself. The money and publicity for Turning Tides has been phenomenal."

They're kind of all amazing, in their own crappy, adorable way. 

Meet Hercule Van Wolfwinkle, the acclaimed pet portrait artist, who has come up with a creative and fun way to help raise money for the charity Turning Tides Ending Local Homelessness, a homelessness charity local to Hercule. The charity is described in the fundraising site as, " local charity that believe everyone has the right to a home, regardless of the difficulties and issues they may face in their lives. They believe in showing those who need their help, that the wider community are there to support them too!"

The acclaimed artist seems to be in demand, the fundraising project already 577% more than the target. And with the donations comes the beautiful, and highly realistic pet portraits. Also explained within the fundraising project, Hercule has two styles when it comes to his masterpiece creations, "one super realistic full colour which is just like looking at a photograph or alternatively the more contemporary black and white portrait that will grace any home."

Check out some of these museum-worthy drawings and start donating to obtain your one original Hercule Van Wolfwinkle! 

Meet the talented Em Paquin, an animation student who desperately wanted a cat. We came across some of her lovely re-created digital paintings of popular cat images online and reached out to ask her to explain the meaning behind this project and the goal of painting 100 cats. 

Em explains that the project was originally titled, "Day __ of drawing cats until my parents let me adopt one." Em continues to reveal her longing for a cat of her own, "I wanted so desperately to adopt a cat, and being home for quarantine was the perfect time to introduce a new furball to the family. The only thing in my way was my parents who I've been living with, now that my college courses are online."

"These daily illustrations were a subtle way of voicing my wish to adopt a cat."

On day 21 of the project, Em brought home a new kitten named Beanie. However, Em realized how much she enjoyed drawing cats and wanted to push herself but taking it further, thus setting the goal of drawing 100 cats!

So, what will Em do the moment that goal is reached? Seeing as how she's already on Day 68, the 100th drawing isn't too far away. 

"After that goal is reached, they will probably continue, maybe for a year, or maybe I won't ever stop." 

Well, we're glad to hear that because we love them! Keep up the beautiful drawings, Em! Follow Em on Instagram for daily cat drawings!

What if dinosaurs were around during the old wild west days, living amongst people? The talented visual development artist, Shaun Keeman, brought that vision to life in a book titled, "Dinosaurs of the Wild West."

As Keeman describes it on the Kickstarter page for the book, back in 2018, "A collection of illustrations depicting the everyday lives of dinosaurs and people living together in the old west."

Who wouldn't be interested in that? 

Check out the incredible illustrations below to see what it would be like if dinosaurs were indeed living with the cowboys. You can also see what Keeman is up to currently on Instagram. And if you find yourself crazy about his incredible work, art prints are available! 

Things I Have Drawn is an Instagram account where father-of-two and book author Tom Curtis shares kid's drawings from all over the world. But that's not all – he decided that it would be more fun to bring those cute, childish doodles into the real life. The result is both funny and terrifying at the same time.

Dutch muralist Telmo Pieper uses Photoshop to recreate his childhood drawings of two decades prior in his awesome series "Kiddie arts".  

Redmer Hoekstra. an artist from the Netherlands,  creates unusual and imaginative drawings that delineate bizarre artwork. His incredible detailed illustrations are filled with irony and very wacky characters. He merges different vehicles and things with animals, books, birds, keyboard etc. 

Artist David Zinn lights up his neighboring streets and well just only where he gets inspired, but adding chalk drawings of cute animals and even some adorable creatures. He uses his imagination and with the surrounding he is given creates one of a kind drawings.