They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these striking images of 2017 are no exception. The photo highlights include incredible snapshots of the natural world as well as some awesome animal and human encounters. The vibrant gallery also shows thrill-seekers pushing themselves to the limit with breathtaking stunts captured in perfect clarity. The pictures have been taken by a host of photographers from around the world. Here: The two lion cubs singing their hearts out at Antelope park in Zimbabwe. (Photo by David Jenkins/Caters News Agency)

Seiichiro Nishimoto, CEO of Shelter Co., poses wearing a gas mask at a model room for the company's nuclear shelters in the basement of his house in Osaka, Japan on April 26, 2017. With nearby North Korea increasing its show of power day by day with missile launches and nuclear tests, people in Japan are preparing for the worst by building private nuclear shelters, Reuters reports. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Zahra Lari runs in a scene shot for the Nike Middle East ad campaign filmed in Dubai, UAE, February 10, 2017. An online commercial released by Nike (NKE.N) this week that showed Arab women fencing, boxing and spinning on ice-skates has stirred controversy over its attempt to smash stereotypes about women leading home-bound lives in the conservative region. (Photo by Reuters/Nike)

Sprout A Pencil That Grows is a very simple but excellent concept. We all know that as soon as a pencil gets down to the point where there’s only an inch or so left it’s pretty much useless. The Sprout lets you put that little stub to get use. The end of the Sprout has a seed capsule that is water activated, after you plant your pencil and water it a few times the capsule dissolves and the seed’s start germinating. The plants usually take about a week to sprout. The Sprout pencils come in a number of varieties including vegetables, herbs and flowers like rosemary, tomato, marigold, and many more.

Suso33 spent the last few days perched on a yellow crane to work on this impressive new piece on the streets of Madrid, Spain. Using a rather simple technique, the Spanish artist painted a brilliant piece which enters directly amongst our favourite artworks this year. This mural is a concentration of slightly outlined figures which are persecuted by their shadows, but if the viewer, instead of focusing on details, looks at the entire picture, what he sees is another figure. Take a look at more images after the jump and if you are in the area, you'll be able to find the piece at plaza del Poeta Leopoldo de Luis.

hello! finally I got together all my energy leftovers from the day to write a journal entry... and stright to the point about commission works, yup those are still CLOSED. at this point I'm trying to take more time just to draw and paint for myself ( just like in childhood times haha ). whenever I will feel like opening more personal commission work slots I will definitely let you all know ( just in case I must warn about a little price rise, yup o; ). sooner or later I will open few slots this year!

During work hours on one of the busiest streets of Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, parking attendant Rafael Veyisov wipes off the dust on cars with his fingers, slowly contouring the shapes of tall buildings and flying birds. In his artwork, he generally illustrates real towns to educate people about other countries, but sometimes he also lets his imagination run wild and produces impressive original works. Surprised by his talent, the car owners who regularly leave their vehicles in Rafael’s care, often leave them dirty just to give him an excuse to play around, and take photos of his beautiful artworks.

“Hellfest is an annual music festival which takes place in Clisson, France in mid-June. It is held within the Val de Moine sport complex in Clisson, approximately 35 km south-east of the city of Nantes, and approximately 400 km south-west of the nation's capital Paris. Billed as an “extreme music festival”, the programme features a variety of heavy metal, hard rock, punk and hardcore acts”. – Wikipedia. Photo: HellFest 2013. (Photo by Cesar Hernandez)