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  • Basic Materials for Coloring Photos with Watercolors
    Photography

    Basic Materials for Coloring Photos with Watercolors

    Discover which materials you need to start experimenting with paint and photographs After Joseph Niépce produced the first photograph in 1826, around 100 years passed before the first color film arrived. However, you would be mistaken to think that all photographic records produced during that century were in black and white. Long before the legendary Kodachrome, one of the first great photographic color films, color was added by hand using processes such as photo painting, also known as hand coloring.

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  • How to Combine Watercolor and Oil to Get the Best Results
    Pro Illustration

    How to Combine Watercolor and Oil to Get the Best Results

    Ale Casanova explains how to improve your creations by combining watercolor and oil painting techniques Ale Casanova (@casanova_ale) is a painter and teacher with a degree in fine art. He works mainly with oil paints and watercolor to create striking portraits and nudes. His work has been exhibited in cities across Spain and Europe and has enabled him to build a career as a teacher, carry out workshops around Spain, and develop a technique where color and light become focal points in his paintings. In this exclusive tutorial for the PRO community, Ale challenges what we have always been told: we shouldn’t mix watercolor paints with oil paints given that they are oil- and water-based. He shows us how to combine these seemingly opposing techniques. How? Using an intermediary element. The painter guides us through his process so that we too can mix these techniques and use them to our advantage, no matter our level. He shares tips and helps us to discover new uses for our paints that will give us unexpected results.

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  • How to Find a Great Story
    Pro Marketing

    How to Find a Great Story

    Writer Shaun Levin shares his techniques for finding great stories in everyday life Shaun Levin (@shaun_levin) is a writer and creative writing teacher with over twenty years of experience in the creative sector. For the past fifteen years, he has edited literary magazines and short story collections and set up small publishing houses for whom he has designed different publications. He has also created writing maps that help to inspire other writers in whatever situation they find themselves in. According to Shaun, we tend to think that the best stories are somewhere out there, in the world, and that we have to go searching for them. However, over time, he has realized that most of the stories we want to write are already inside us. In other words, we are already carrying special moments around with us that have great narrative potential. But how do we unlock them?

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  • Free Illustrated Typography Glossary for Beginners
    Typography, Calligraphy and Lettering

    Free Illustrated Typography Glossary for Beginners

    Discover typography and lettering terms such as stem, serif or spine and learn how to identify them in other languages Unlike calligraphy, the practice of lettering does not follow predetermined patterns or rigorous standards. Although it follows, in some cases, a typographic basis, the act of drawing letters goes through a freer and more spontaneous creation. To create your own letterings, therefore, it is necessary that you have knowledge of typographic terminology to understand where and how you can innovate to create new combinations. After all, the possibilities are endless for you to test and experiment by combining manual and digital techniques.

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  • Photographer Claudia Andujar: a Life Dedicated to the Socially Invisible
    Photography

    Photographer Claudia Andujar: a Life Dedicated to the Socially Invisible

    Discover the work of this 90-year-old Swiss-Brazilian creator and activist, defender of the indigenous cause Half a century ago, when Claudia Andujar first visited the great land of the Yanomami, a territory larger than Portugal, situated on the extreme North of Brazil, and inhabited by around 30,000 souls, this ancient civilization was living in isolation, leading existences embedded in tradition. Over the next few decades, she was able to document what assimilation had meant to the villages of the forest—illegal mining of metals, land-grabbing, loss of traditions and landmarks, illness, and misery. During the most critical moments of the aggressive developmentalism by the military dictatorship and the failing democratization at the end of the 1980s, the Swiss photographer, with Brazilian naturalization, captured the accelerated transformation that impacted the surviving people who originally inhabited the country.

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  • What Is a Comic Book and What Are Its Main Features?
    Illustration

    What Is a Comic Book and What Are Its Main Features?

    We look at the features and uses of this popular narrative format made up of pictures and words If you want to tell a story, you can be really experimental using a comic format. You can write humor, social commentary, or fantasy, and even tell secrets. You can fit all sorts of genres and ideas into a comic if you know how to exploit it. To evaluate all these possibilities, it is important to understand what exactly is a comic, and what are the main elements it consists of. Once we know this, we can start to structure and organize our messages on the strips. Illustrator and artist Sol Díaz Castillo (@soldiazcastillo) is an expert and explains some of the essential technical notions.

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  • How Should I Look at Art When I Go To A Museum?
    Art

    How Should I Look at Art When I Go To A Museum?

    Learn what two experts have to say about how to approach and what to pay attention to when we visit a museum Going to a museum is a special experience. We know we will find a lot of information there, a great deal of beautiful and historically significant stuff, but we don't always know how to manage all the stimuli. If you are not an art student or specialist, you may feel unsure of doing this right: are we able to appreciate the most important aspects, or have we missed something crucial? Often, we may feel we have not retained all the information we should at the end of our visit. Maria Lightowler (@maria_lightowler) is a museologist and lecturer of museum studies and art history. She is also a consultant for collectors. Julius Wiedemann (@julius_wiedemann) is a former senior editor of design and pop culture at Taschen and one of Domestika's chief curators. We asked them for tips on ensuring our museum visit is the best possible experience.

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  • What Is Kawaii art, Japan’s Culture of Cuteness?
    Illustration

    What Is Kawaii art, Japan’s Culture of Cuteness?

    Discover the power of cute and the secret formula behind Japanese kawaii adorable illustration characters The concept of kawaii was born in Japan during the 60s. In just a couple of decades, this idea of "adorability" has spread to all corners of the world, attracting legions of fans. It is difficult to resist smiling at the perfectly designed features of a kawaii illustration but, what does kawaii exactly mean? We spoke to Azul Piñeiro and Carlos Higuera, two designers and illustrators specialized in kawaii illustration and founders of Estudio Kudasai (@estudiokudasai), to learn more about the origin of this term and above all, what is the formula to create kawaii —or extremely lovable— characters.

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  • Essential Materials for Cross-Stitch
    Craft

    Essential Materials for Cross-Stitch

    Discover the materials you need to cross-stitch, from the basics to the full kit, with Emily Peacock With a background in graphic design, cross-stitch creative Emily Peacock (emilyp) creates bold and unforgettable graphic cross-stitch work. She was named designer of the year during the first National Needlecraft awards and has collaborated with brands such as Liberty of London, DMC, and Appletons. In this tutorial, she talks us through the materials you’ll need to get started in cross-stitching and shares tips for how to develop your kit as you go. Watch the video!

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  • 12 Online Courses For Creating Books for Children and Young People
    Illustration

    12 Online Courses For Creating Books for Children and Young People

    Learn how to write and illustrate engaging stories for children and young adults with our experts Children and teenagers know what they want to find in a book: adventure, fantasy, humor, originality, and many surprise elements to escape from boredom. If you are an author searching for a young audience, you’ll need to create that magic, both with words and illustrations. So, if you want to publish a book, you’ll need to master several techniques and work on a whole set of elements: plot, characters, language, and images. But, keep your eyes on the prize: your work will bring them enjoyment and excitement, and above all, will make them think.

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  • 21 Free Photoshop Illustration Brushes
    Illustration

    21 Free Photoshop Illustration Brushes

    Gain speed and ease in illustration by practicing with this series of brushes in different types of exercises In illustration, the first years are essential to gain ease and confidence. The illustrator Del Hambre (@del_hambre) knows this well. He has spent more than 15 years professionally dedicated to this world. Practicing so that your works are unique is the most important thing. Del Hambre, who draws every Sunday in El País newspaper, recommends you put on daily routines with exercises of all kinds. In addition, he also provides you with a series of 21 brushes for Photoshop. The goal is for you to learn to draw immediately and without thinking too much, something that is only achieved when you feel confident illustrating.

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  • How to Apply Japanese Wabi-Sabi in Interior Design
    Design

    How to Apply Japanese Wabi-Sabi in Interior Design

    Discover this interior design trend from Japan, highlighting the beauty in imperfection and the passing of time One of the most current styles used in home decorating, Wabi-Sabi or “the art of imperfection,” is also a different way of viewing the world. The Japanese word is almost impossible to define. However, it is used to highlight the singular beauty of things where time has left its mark. This article, besides explaining how the concept of Wabi-Sabi evolved, also shows how this style is applied in home decor. What materials are predominantly used? What are the most common colors used? What role does nature play in this style? You will be able to implement Wabi-Sabi in your interior design project using this knowledge.

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  • The PhotoBook That Vindicates the Memory of Argentina's Trans Community
    Photography

    The PhotoBook That Vindicates the Memory of Argentina's Trans Community

    Archivo de la Memoria Trans preserves the happy moments of the trans community during a time of criminalization Argentina became the first country in South America to establish the Gender Identity Act in 2012. Before that, trans identity was criminalized and repressed by the police. Those who were forced to live on the edge of society had to look for ways to find refuge and create a fantasy parallel life for their community. The Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina is an audiovisual collection that aims to preserve, build and vindicate the memory of the Argentinean trans community through photographs, videos, and diary entries. The archive contains some 10.000 images, dating back from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1990s. Part of this material has been turned into a book. Its goal is to recall the memories of the protagonists, captured in a happy moment during an otherwise difficult era.

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  • Animation Tutorial: How to Encode for Instagram and Vimeo
    3D & Animation

    Animation Tutorial: How to Encode for Instagram and Vimeo

    Learn the basic settings needed to encode your animation projects so that you can share them online, with Dan Zucco One of the most exciting parts of creating an animation is the final step: getting to share your work with the world. To do that, you’ll need to encode and upload it to an online platform like Instagram or Vimeo, where it can be enjoyed by your followers and be discovered by new viewers. Dan Zucco (@dan_zucco) is a freelance 3D art and motion director who produces 3D content for commercials, events, and social media. In this tutorial, he shows you how to use Adobe Media Encoder to prepare and encode your animations so that they’re ready to share online.

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  • Free Calligraphy Exercises for Beginners
    Typography, Calligraphy and Lettering

    Free Calligraphy Exercises for Beginners

    Practice with brush pen and chisel tip from scratch to loosen up your calligraphy stroke in your lettering projects Calligraphy is extremely important when approaching a lettering project. One of the reasons is because it helps you understand how some tools behave with lettering. Also, the grip, pressure or rhythm of the writing changes depending on the tool you are working with. That's why the calligraphy exercises shared by Eduardo Morgan (@eduardo_morgan) are so useful. The graphic designer specialized in lettering proposes you to practice the dynamics of the brush pen and the chisel tip. The goal is to prepare you to imitate these dynamics with pencil and paper, feeling comfortable and confident.

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  • The Pattern Library: The Home of Free Design Patterns
    Design

    The Pattern Library: The Home of Free Design Patterns

    Download pattern designs from this virtual library and take your illustrations and designs to a different level When a pattern design is good, it can be repeated to great effect. The samples included in The Pattern Library are precisely that: a handy tool for designers and creatives looking for patterns and inspiration. Furthermore, this virtual library allows you to download your favorite designs free of charge. Read on as we tell you how this website works and what you’ll be able to find in it. You will also find out about three artistic ways for applying pattern designs.

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  • History of Interior Design: From The First Chair to The Contemporary Home
    Design

    History of Interior Design: From The First Chair to The Contemporary Home

    Discover how thousand years of evolution–and great creative geniuses–helped shape our homes Interior design was born together with the very idea of humanity. Organizing the spaces we inhabit and work in, giving them security and practicality, is a basic need. Throughout history, interior design has always reflected changes in our lifestyle. In the Middle Ages, for example, when lords and vassals lived practically together, in the same spaces, furniture was scarcer and shared. The Renaissance brought the idea of privacy, giving rise to an endless number of innovations that brought us comfort and beauty. But this story starts much earlier. Although it has not always been documented and valued enough.

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  • The NASA Lens That Ended Up in the Hands of Stanley Kubrick
    Film & Video

    The NASA Lens That Ended Up in the Hands of Stanley Kubrick

    Discover how the legendary film director shot scenes from Barry Lyndon with a lens designed to photograph the dark side of the Moon Of the thirteen feature films that Stanley Kubrick directed during his career, Barry Lyndon appears relatively far down the list when ranked according to commercial success (according to IndieWire, the top spots go to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, and The Shining). However, Kubrick’s adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel following the life of an ambitious young Irish social climber, played by Ryan O’Neal, who sets out to achieve wealth and status by all means possible, is often considered a favorite among cinephiles.

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  • What Is And How Did the Brazilian Tropicália Movement Begin?
    Art

    What Is And How Did the Brazilian Tropicália Movement Begin?

    Discover tropicália's influence on music, cinema, architecture, and design, and how it changed Brazilian style Brazil, 1967. The country is under full military dictatorship. As a result, cultural identity in such a diverse place as Brazil is drifting, almost at a loss. While Bossa Nova and the Jovem Guarda are the ruling forms of expression and are considered mainstream, they do not reflect the sentiment and artistic expression of a large part of the younger generation. This is the context in which tropicália was conceived, with its innovative songwriting, new sound, and a big desire to create a new Brazilian identity. Tropicália, also known as tropicalism, or tropicalist movement, as we know it, was inspired by modernist poet Oswald de Andrade who published the Manifiesto Antropofágico (Anthropophagic Manifesto), in 1928. To Oswald, the term anthropophagy, despite relating to cannibalism, meant "to feed off foreign culture" and referred to a number of ideas that would help shape something uniquely Brazilian. What is foreign and international must not be ignored but rather transformed into something new and incorporated into the local and thriving culture.

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  • Free Top Tips Guide for Writing Blog Posts
    Marketing

    Free Top Tips Guide for Writing Blog Posts

    Discover top tips for improving your blog content, building a strong community and connecting with your target audience Emma Jane Palin (@emmajanepalin) is an award-winning blogger, writer, interior stylist, and digital marketing specialist. She knows the importance of building a community around your blog and how to best reach out and connect with your target audience. The beauty of a blog is that it’s personal, but for your business, you might not want it to seem as if it’s just you. The real focus when it comes to writing should be about bringing your voice to the forefront. Do you want to be formal or passive, educational or inspiring? Emma has prepared a brilliant guide to help you work through your blog posts methodically.

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  • Everything You Need to Know About Vector File Formats
    Design

    Everything You Need to Know About Vector File Formats

    Learn what a vector file is, discover the most common formats and why it's better to work with these file types Before we dive into categorizing the different vector file formats and discovering when it is more appropriate to use one over another, let’s clarify what a vector file is and why, on some occasions, it is better to work with these file types. Vector files are used for example in Vector illustration, that is a type of graph that represents images or shapes through mathematical formulas.

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