RubikCubism - Rubik's Cube Art

Invader's Rubikubism Gallery

The original. The most amazing. The inspiration for the movement.1 point

2

DIY Mario Wall Hanging

Gfixler shows you just how to spruce up your cube mosaic with a nice frame.1 point

3

RubikCubism by CIX

CIX is a modern contemporary artist who uses Rubik's cubes to make art. Buy custom RubikCubism here.1 point

4

Rubik's Cube Art

Dubbed electronic coffee table book. Contains many pictures of mosaics. By Jacob Davenport and Andrew Looney.0 points

5

3D Rubik's Cube Art

Three dimensional stacks of Rubik's cubes makes.... a giant cube made out of Rubik's cubes!0 points

6

Torontoist: Rubik's Cubism

Rubikcubism from a man in Toronto, Robert Mckinnon.0 points

7

TwistyPuzzles.com: Rubikcubism

Great thread on one company's experience with a huge mosaic.0 points

8

Invader does the Mona Lisa

A street artist known only as Invader is making a killing recreating famous images such as the Mona Lisa out of Rubik's Cubes.0 points

9

Work in progress by Invader

Rubik's cube 360 News Reviews and User Feedback

Information on the latest Rubik's Cube 3600 points

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Rubik's Cubes on eBay

Find a great deal on Rubik's cubes

Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by

A portrait mosaic in progress by Invader

Check Out Chewing Gum Art

Chewing Gum Art

What do you do with your bubble gum after you're done blowing bubbles? You know you're not supposed to put that piece of gum under the desk. Welcome to the world of chewing gum art. There are several artists out there who use chewing gum as their pri...

Rubik's Cube Wholesalers

Where can I buy hundreds of cubes?

The biggest obstacle to doing Rubikcubism is getting the Rubik's Cube. Unless you're super rich, there is no way you'll be able to afford hundreds or thousands of Rubik's cubes at full retail price.

The cheapest way is to look abroad. This is the age of the internet so it's very easy to find manufacturers in China, for example. While the quality may not be the best, keep in mind that you do not need high quality cubes.

To buy from China or Taiwan, you need to know that in Chinese, the Rubik's cube is called a "Magic Square" or "Magic Cube." Alibaba is a B2B marketplace and is the best place to start. Contact individual manufacturers and be specific about the size and design of the cubes you want. Note that there may be minimum order requirements and the quote is not likely to include shipping.

For reference, I was connected to a manufacturer in Taiwan through a family friend. Here is what I paid for my cubes in 2006:

$0.50 per cube
$1.00 shipping per cube, cases shipped by boat
1024 cubes total (16 cases of 64)
1 case lost in shipping and was not received

Still it was much, much cheaper than anything I could get in the US.

CIX (see his artwork below) gets his cubes from a UK supplier on eBay who charges about £220 ($400) for 500 (4.5cm cubes). Commission your own custom RubikCubism!

CIX: Rising Rubikcubist

Up-and-coming UK Rubikcubist

Elvis rubikcubism mosaic Amy Winehouse rubikcubism mosaic
Elvis and Amy Winehouse in Rubik's Cubes

Space Invader Video

He talks about his mosaics

Show Your Love for Space-Invader!

From:

Price: 0.00

Space invader T-Shirt

From: Dissenys David Berzal

Price: 18.99

Bloggers talk about Rubikcubism

What bloggers are saying about Rubik's cube art

Awesome Rubik's Cube Art | Geeky Gadgets: Irish artist John Quigley has created some of the coolest geek art we have seen here at Geeky Gadgets, John used hundreds of Rubik's cubes to create these pieces of geek art.
Sonic Rubik's Cube Pixel Art | zone otaku: Sonic Rubik's Cube Pixel Art. Sonic only took 784 cubes to get his hairdo done. Sonic Rubik's Cube Pixel Art. This Mario didn't need 40000 cubes, only required 24 cubes to construct. I can solve the Rubik's Cube, but I don't think I can ...
Here's What's Awesome: Prescription Ice Cream, Rubik's Cube Art ...: Here's What's Awesome: Prescription Ice Cream, Rubik's Cube Art. By Brady Carlson on Sunday, November 8, 2009. Now making its way down the aisle, from Parts Unknown, the undisputed heavyweight champion of awesome links. ...
rubik's cube pixel art: the ultimate geek art form on [technabob]: What do you get when you've got a crapload of Rubik's cubes lying around the house, and some serious artistic talent? You make some major pixel art, that's what. These Rubik's pixel portraits by Irish artist John Quigley are truly ...

Anyone Can Do This

Really. You don't need to be able to solve a cube.

rubikcubism 1-up mushroom from mario rubikcubism grow mushroom from mario

The above mosaics were made by ASH and me. Although we can both solve the Rubik's cube, we are not speedcubers. In fact, you don't need to be able to solve the cube in order to get the colors you want on only one side. This beginner's Rubik's cube guide shows you everything you need to know, and there's no need to memorize the whole thing. 8-bit video game characters are popular Rubikcubism subjects because of their limited color palette, but you can use photographs if you'd like. See the next section.

Grayscale Mosaics

New Rubik's Cubes for Grayscale Art

Rubik's ICON new Black/Silver very cool!

This black and silver cube would make great mosaics. 6 level grey! Give it a shot!

Amazon Price: $18.95 (as of 11/09/2009)

RubikCubism Photoshop Tutorial

Now that you've seen 'em, here's how to make 'em!

You'll need at least 30 Rubik's cubes and have some idea on how to rotate the faces to get what the color "pixels" you want on one side. Preparation is easier with Photoshop or some other comparable program.

I use Photoshop 7.0 and my example picture is by André Karwath and can be found here. The photo is used under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license. This example is 42x42 pixels, requiring 196 3x3x3 cubes.

Using the number of cubes you have available, figure out the pixel dimensions you want to have.
Find a picture that excites you! Crop or shrink the picture to the correct number of pixels. [I shrank the daisy picture to 42x42.]
Zoom in on the image so you can see individual pixels. Then go to Image -> Mode -> Indexed Color.
Set Palette to "Local(Selective)" and Forced to "Black and White" if needed. Uncheck Transparency. Now, change the number of colors to 6.
Change Palette to "Custom" in order to bring up the Color Table.
Starting in the upper left, click each box and match the color to the colors on your cubes. You may save this palette for later, too, if you'd like. [I chose #FFFFFF, #000E98, #FF0000, #25C200, #F6FF00, and #FF9C00.]
Be sure the preview button is checked. Under options, leave Matte set at "None." You can change the type of dither and the percentage until you like the picture. [I left the percentage at 75%.]
Hit Okay!
You probably want to print it out so you can look at the pattern when you build your mosaic. Go to Image -> Image Size, uncheck the Resample Image box at the bottom and set your document size to the size of your desired printout.

A: B:
C: D:
A: No dither. B: Diffusion dither. C: Pattern dither. D: Noise dither.

Alright! You're all set. It's time to start turning those cubes! Be sure to come back and submit your link to this lens.

More Photos of Rubik's Cube Art

Omino71 has a lot of Rubik's cubes in his Space Ghost photoset. Check out these cubes! Shown here with permission.

curated content from Flickr

Show Off Your Rubik's Cube Pride

"Cube-Aholic" Organic Cotton Tee

From: Juggling Kid Shirts & Stuff

Price: 22.99

Get More Pixels!

Rubik's Revenge Cube 4 X 4

Take Rubikcubism to the next level! To my knowledge, no major RubikCubists use the 4x4. You can be the first, and have your art featured here!

Amazon Price: $16.38 (as of 11/09/2009)

Rubik's Professor Cube 5x5

The ultimate Rubik's cube. For the same number of pixels, you'll need a lot fewer cubes. Plus, each pixel is smaller so if you take a step back and squint, whoa! It looks like a photo!

Amazon Price: $23.93 (as of 11/09/2009)

Advanced Rubikcubism Notes

A couple of details you should keep in mind

It's easy to get just the front face of the cube organized for the mosaic, but what if you want the make the edges a single color?

The side edges and the top/bottom edges cannot be the same color because your corner cubes are part of two edges.
Pick an edge color that doesn't show up on the front face of the mosaic for any of the cubes on that edge.
Make sure the color you choose is adjacent to all the centers of the front face of the edge cubes.
Using the beginner's algorithm, do the front face, then the second layer on the side face, and finally the third layer. For the third layer, orient the edge piece and then the corner pieces, then move the edge piece between the corner pieces.

Are these cubes different? Yes. They are mirror images of each other, so it is impossible to rotate one cube to have the exact orientation as the other cube. In other words, there is a chirality to the color orientation on the cubes. This is especially important if you design you mosaic so the two side edges are a single solid color. You must find a "right-hand" cube and a "left-hand" cube for your two corner cubes!

If you buy high-quality cubes from a manufacturer dedicated to ensuring every cube is the same (ie, the Official Rubik's Cube), you will not be able to find a pair of cubes like this. Strangely enough, this is one situation where six-sigma will not be to your advantage.

The results of enthusiastic turning of low quality cubes. It happens. Always get extra cubes.

Are you ready to start RubikCubin'?

Are you inspired? Fingers twitching and ready to cube? Leave me a message, and let me know if you've spotted any RubikCubists lately. Also, you can rate this lens at The Isle of Squid or even submit your own lens there.

Thanks for visiting this page! If you liked it, please take some time give props to this page by giving this lens a star rating at the top of the page. If you aren't a Squidoo member, you'll have to join Squidoo before you can rate. Thanks again and leave me if note, if you'd like.

Kate-Phizackerley wrote...

Who'd have thought ... Fabulous. Blessed of course.

Posted November 06, 2009

Game-Maiden wrote...

I like your page here. Thanks for pointing out the typo on my Big Fish Game Club page. That's what I get for copy-pasting too much and too fast.

Posted May 04, 2009

Lensmaster

det-det wrote

cool!!!! you rock .... i love your creativity in doing that ...... good job... keep on doing an artistic work....

Posted April 03, 2009

cheaptoys wrote...

cool lens! you should visit my [url=http://www.squidoo.com/Rubix-360]Rubix 360[/url] lens too! btw gave you 5 stars for this lens!

Posted February 18, 2009