Artist Ed Fairburn does awesome things with maps.

The top two images are from his North America Series. They’re pencil drawings on climate charts of North America.

“The angled perspectives have been plotted to compliment the sweeping shape of North America,” he states, “the variations between the colors of Part I and Part II were a conscious decision; the warmer colors reflect a passionate pose while the colder blues suggest a more sombre mood.”

The second and third pieces were created in collaboration with Bobbie-Jo, Ed Fairburn’s partner and printmaker. The second is part of the Western Front Cutout Series and the third is entitled Stafford Lane. Both are ink drawings on old military maps that were then cut and layered over the more colourful North American climate charts.

Visit Ed Fairburn’s website to view more of his beautiful artwork.

[via My Modern Metropolis]

Redditor SquishyMcPhee recently made an awesome discovery while visiting his car dealership in Norman, Oklahoma for an oil change. He found a styrofoam cup left behind by another customer who had covered the entire cup, inside and out, with intricate ballpoint pen doodles. Look closely and you might recognize Dilbert, one of The Smurfs, Beetle Bailey, and the entire Simpsons family. 

There are also a couple messages inscribed on the outer ad inner rim of the cup:

On the outside rim of the cup, it reads: “Each of us has choices to make each day. What you choose determines your future and the person you become.” On the inner rim: “If you look deep within a piece of art you will find a piece of its creator.” And, on the bottom, inside the cup: “Smile - It’s easy ‘N’ it’s free”

SquishyMcPhee immediately set about trying to learn the identity of the artist responsible for this amazing cup. Eventually his efforts paid off and he is now trying to persuade the artist, identified only as “Mister Hershey”, to agree to a Q&A session on Reddit:

“Come to find out he’s done OVER A THOUSAND OF THESE CUPS IN THE PAST 5 YEARS… Some of the others he’s done put this one to shame. This guy’s a freaking Master…”

For now we a description provided by the cashier at the car dealership:  

…SquishyMcPhee was able to learn a bit about him from the cashier who described him as a young man that had come in to get work done on his car. The job would take about three hours and so the anonymous artist resolved to doodle on a nearby coffee cup. Astonished by the skilled handiwork, especially taken aback by the impressive amount of detail administered inside the cup, the Redditor questioned the cashier further and says, “She said that he didn’t even seem that intent on it, just had his feet up most of the time. He’d doodle, pitch it down and go get a drink, doodle some more, walk around the showroom for a while…”

It’s clear that Mister Hershey has a gift for killing time. We hope we get to see more of his decorated cups soon. 

[via My Modern Metropolis and Reddit]

An epic guitar for an epic tale. Vivian Xiao, artist, graphic designer, and illustrator, transformed a humble acoustic guitar into an awesome Lord of the Rings Guitar using sharpie markers. She spent 25 hours working on this beautiful piece.

If you’re familiar with world of J.R.R. Tolkien, you may recognize Bag End (Bilbo’s house), The Gates of Argonath (The Pillars of Kings), a Great Eagle, Rivendell, one of the Nazgûl, Isengard, Arwen’s water elemental horses, Minas Tirith, an Oliphaunt, and of course Barad-dûr with the dreaded Eye of Sauron, and more. Awesome.

[via Obvious Winner]

The Department of Awesome Parenting has been fantastically busy lately. We recently posted about an awesome dad named David LaFerriere who has been illustrating his kids’ sandwich bags since 2008. Now it’s time to meet an equally awesome mom!

Nina Levy is an artist and mom living in Brooklyn, NY and she has been creating awesome illustrations on her sons’ lunch napkins every day since 2007. Waterproof markers and a skilled hand transform humble white paper napkins into awesome scenes featuring superheroes (sometimes even canine superheroes), animals, silly cartoons, fantastic creatures, and sometimes even Nina’s sons themselves dressed as costumed crime fighters.

Nina has over 2,000 illustrated napkins to her name thus far and she’s still going strong. She documents these wonderful pieces over on her Daily Napkins blog.

Click here to view the entire collection.

[via Design Taxi]

It’s time for another heartwarming visit to the Department of Awesome Parenting where we meet David LaFerriere, graphic designer, “illustrator with geek-like tendencies,” and a completely awesome dad. Located in Attleboro, Massachusetts, David has been drawing delightful illustrations on his kids’ lunchtime sandwich bags since 2008 and has photographed almost all of them.

Consider the scope of this for just a moment: So many sandwiches… So many drawings… Over 1100 of them now and he’s still going!

David’s lucky kids get to enjoy new surprise drawings (and the sandwiches themselves) every day, but we get to enjoy them all at once over on his Flickr account.

[via Colossal]

Chinese artist and student of chemical engineering Gaikuo-Captain combines Manga artistry and photo manipulation to create awesome images that depict himself, armed only with his trusty drawing pen, interacting with his inked creations. According to GeekTyrant, this project began simply to make a personal profile photo, but evolved into the epic series where comic book characters appear to have crossed over into our own world.

Head over to GeekTyrant to view more of Gaikuo-Captain’s playful self-portraits.

San Francisco-based sculptor Agelio Batle creates works of art that are themselves tools for making more art. These beautiful objects are made of solid graphite, which means that all of their surfaces may be used for drawing. The only question is, while these lovely sculptures are absolutely meant to be used, could you bring yourself to alter their wonderful shapes by using them?

Click here to view many more of Agelio Batle’s awesome Graphite Objects. 

Ghostpatrol is an Australian multimedia artist living in Melbourne who sometimes uses sets of pencils as cavases for his beautiful drawings. Visit the Ghostpatrol website to view more of his awesome artwork.

[via Toxel]

It’s Writing with Perfect Pens and Pencils Day on Geyser of Awesome!