Internetopia: How to Draw the Internet

Overview

Have you ever wanted to ask a famous artist to create something for you? Thanks to artist Benjamen Redford, you can pledge a dollar and get a piece of custom-tailored immortality on Internetopia.com.

Redford launched his Internetopia project on Kickstarter this past December. After successfully backing his first drawing, he has indicated that he intends to produce more drawings moving forward. Each drawing features hundreds of images intricately interwoven to create a crowd-funded landscape of the Internet.

The complicated picture takes, on average, three months. The basic notion is, the more people pay, the more space they get, and the end product all is posted for people to see on Internetopia.com.

To enhance the acquisition and make the outcome more of a prized event, only 300 drawings are produced. They are poster-sized and $50 each.

One buyer asked for the famous stripe-shirted Waldo to be incorporated in this piece. Can you find him? Draw your own character hunt with a Blackwing 602 pencil (the large eraser is always a blessing).

Development and Process

This concept of buy-a-piece art was initially designed by the artist Benjamin Redford of London, England. He does everything in drafts, starting in pencil and tracing over with pen. It began as an experiment and has turned into an expected and anticipated event for many.

Redford’s art used to only come from his head. With the idea that people might actually pledge money to see something come to life, he linked Kickstarter with a website that displays and explains the artistic process.

Bidding can become slightly high-pressure, even though the base cost is only $1. Not only are there limited spots that demand an eventual drawing, but there is only 30 days to put in a request before the bidding is closed. The decision is not as serious as choosing a tattoo design, for example, but the outcome is something participants greatly anticipate.

Final product

An added bonus is the “live”version of recently funded posters that resides on the main website. You can see the city of ideas being built. It is truly representative of the flurry of action that occurs in order to build the piece and how the pieces come together.

Graffiti-like style is meshed with symmetry and pointed accuracy to make sure the customer’s request is exactly what they asked for. Reactions to the final product are all over the Internet. There are countless positive reviews of overjoyed clients posted on the social media sites associated with Interntopia, in addition to art-fan blogs, clubs and personal posts in which the artwork is tagged and mentioned.