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August 2020

  • What Is The Brush Pen?
    Typography, Calligraphy and Lettering

    What Is The Brush Pen?

    Many calligraphers and lettering artists consider the brush pen their favorite tool. Today, we will explain to you what it is and how to choose one Used primarily in calligraphy, the brush pen is a favorite tool for those who work with letters. What is a brush pen, you say? It is a marker with a synthetic fiber tip that imitates a brush. This allows the artist to obtain different stroke thicknesses in a single movement, varying the pressure exerted on the paper and/or the inclination.

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  • Domestika Diary: Lapin
    Illustration

    Domestika Diary: Lapin

    The urban sketcher visits Madrid’s Retiro Park to share his process and capture the Palacio de Cristal Art, at its core, is a form of expression and observation, filtering the outside world to create something that reflects an individual’s own unique viewpoint. Urban sketching is a popular format for those looking to capture and enjoy their surroundings, jotting down everything from travels to faraway lands to scenes of everyday life. A vibrant community of artists, urban sketchers create pieces that offer a unique blend of observation and personal reflection. A pioneer in the online urban sketching community, Lapin (@lapinbarcelona) has published over 30 books, many of which illustrate his travels across the world. In this Domestika Diary, he visits Madrid’s Retiro park to sketch the Palacio de Cristal and talk about his process and why he believes urban sketching is such a powerful format.

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  • Adobe Lightroom or Color Correction Software: Which Option Is Better for Retouching Images?
    PLUS Teacher Photography

    Adobe Lightroom or Color Correction Software: Which Option Is Better for Retouching Images?

    VFX expert Ro Bot shows you Lightroom's retouching capabilities There are many options on the market for color correcting images, photographs, and renders. To learn about the advantages of using Adobe Lightroom and different presets for retouching and post-production of your images, Ro Bot, producer and VFX expert gives you a tour of its features. He then shows you a different software, Fusion, and its different features for color correction:

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  • What Is an Artist's Book?
    Design

    What Is an Artist's Book?

    Susana Domínguez explains the definition and value of an artist's book Artistic binding is the answer to a creative need, and Susana Domínguez, an artist devoted to this trade, uses the art of binding to create unique pieces. The artisanal processes she applies are indeed the perfect techniques for binding treasured publications, such as artists' books. In 2017 she was awarded the National Prize for Artistic Binding in Spain. Today, she will teach us what artists' books are, using examples that vary instyle, form, image, and text.

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  • 5 Essential Courses to Get Started in Illustrated Storytelling
    Illustration

    5 Essential Courses to Get Started in Illustrated Storytelling

    Learn to use illustration as a narrative tool from these experts today Illustration can be as powerful as the written word. Used alongside common narrative forms, it can become an essential tool to reinforce a story and give it nuance and intention. It can also be the absolute protagonist in a narrative. Learn how to visually tell stories with help from 5 experts in the field of illustrated storytelling. They will guide you through the theory and give you practical exercises that will unlock your creativity and help you convey personal emotions and feelings using environments, characters, and worlds. Visual Storytelling with Graphite for Beginners, a course by Siamés Escalante In this course, illustrator Siamés Escalante will share with you the essence of her style. Full of innocence and melancholy, it has propelled her to work with brands such as Vans, Izzi, Telecom, or Disney, among others. Learn with her how to tell stories without using words and build your own visual narrative.

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  • The History of Embroidery: From Tutankhamun to the 21st Century
    Craft

    The History of Embroidery: From Tutankhamun to the 21st Century

    Before the advent of machines, embroidery served as a language that helped us understand the world When was embroidery first used? And where? Although these questions may seem simple, they are very difficult to answer. Examples from different cultures have been found all around the world. It’s an intrinsically human art form, the techniques of which have remained the same throughout centuries. Having endured the test of time, in recent years we have seen embroidery make a comeback and its popularity soar. Traditionally, embroidery was labeled a “feminine” activity. This mindset meant that society viewed it as a simple pastime. However, at the same time, it became a very intimate activity: a way of recounting history in secret. Do you want to learn more? Watch the video below!

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  • Free Download: 5 Photoshop Brushes for Digital Painting
    Illustration

    Free Download: 5 Photoshop Brushes for Digital Painting

    Samuel Smith shares a collection of his favorite brushes for digital illustration The possibilities of digital painting are only getting better and more exciting. Visual Development Artist Samuel Smith (@samuelsmith), after some years of hard work and dedication, achieved an understanding of this creative discipline, and he started to work on important animation projects and was hired by SPA, Spain, as a color artist. He has worked on many commercials, TV shows, and two feature films: Klaus for SPA Studios and another upcoming animated film for Illumination Studios.

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  • 5 Timelapses That Highlight Photoshop's Possibilities
    Illustration

    5 Timelapses That Highlight Photoshop's Possibilities

    Illustrated portraits, spectacular photomontages, and character design are some of the things Photoshop allows you to do You know it as the go-to app for photo retouching, but Adobe Photoshop offers endless possibilities that are impossible to cover at first glance. In this compilation of timelapses, you will discover some of the most incredible uses of this unmatched design and retouching program, which most professional illustrators and photo editors choose to work with. Drawing Grimes with Felixantos (@felixantos) Starting with a photograph of the famous singer and a blank canvas, illustrator Felixantos shows us the complete process of drawing a real-life character. Beginning with the main lines and then adding color, highlights, and shadows using the tools Photoshop offers, he finishes a portrait with caricaturesque touches that highlight Grimes's most striking features.

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  • 7 Artists Exploring Our Relationships With Our Screens
    Illustration

    7 Artists Exploring Our Relationships With Our Screens

    Seven powerful images exploring our relationships with screens and technology Screens. We have a love/hate relationship with them. While they are a window to an infinite world of information, tools, possibilities, and interactions, being dependent on our device can be harmful to our quality of life. While certain apps might make life easier and unlock a vault of creative potential, being bombarded by messages and alerts has been proven to increase stress. During lockdown, our dependency on our screens became even more intense. They provided tools to combat loneliness and stay connected to the world, while churning out overwhelming information and monopolizing our attention. Life events were shared over webcam–birthdays, bachelorette parties, even funerals–and cultural events were live-streamed to audiences watching from the comfort of their own sofas. Here we round up seven artworks that explore our relationships with screens, reflecting on both the good and the bad.

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  • The Importance of Taking Notes
    Illustration

    The Importance of Taking Notes

    Turn your intuition into a creative tool to give substance to your ideas and emotions with Fito Espinosa Fito Espinosa (@fitoespinosa) is a painter, illustrator, and ceramicist. During a career that spans 20 years, he has managed to create a fantastical universe of characters, mixing his ingenious style with his own ideas and philosophical reflections.

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  • What Is and How to Apply the Rule of Thirds in Illustration
    Illustration

    What Is and How to Apply the Rule of Thirds in Illustration

    For centuries, we have known that geometry plays a fundamental role in the composition of an image Throughout history, the golden number has been heralded and, in most visual and aesthetic terms, it can embody an almost mystical perfection. The Ancient Greeks explained everything sacred through geometry, art, and mathematics, using the golden ratio as a symbol of excellence and divinity; this ratio is constantly repeated in nature and has been replicated in art over the centuries.

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  • Everyone's a Creative: Keys for Having Good Ideas
    Teacher Design

    Everyone's a Creative: Keys for Having Good Ideas

    We can learn from having good ideas, or at least we can have fun. Discover these keys for awakening your creativity Despite what many might think, creativity is something we are all born with. It doesn’t come from some god-given talent and it’s, without a doubt, something we can cultivate and exercise so it continues to flourish and work at full capacity. In the words of graphic designer and creative director Juan Carlos Fernández Espinosa (@jc_ideograma): "[Creativity] is developed like a muscle, it can be trained like a pet, and harvested like a well cultivated field.”

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  • Learn to Use Masking Fluid with Watercolor Paints
    Illustration

    Learn to Use Masking Fluid with Watercolor Paints

    Painter Ale Casanova teaches us how to create interesting effects with watercolor paints and masking fluid Leaving areas blank when painting with watercolors can be very complicated–just a drop too much water and the paint will run all over your page. This is where masking fluid comes in–it’s a liquid that enables you to protect areas of your drawing so that they stay clean and dry. Painter and teacher Ale Casanova (@alecasanova) shows us how to use this tool in our watercolor paintings so that we can achieve original effects, textures, and styles that enhance our final piece. Learn more below: To carry out this exercise, we will need: –masking fluid –an old toothbrush –a nib pen –watercolor paints, brushes, water, paper towels, a portrait to paint

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  • Tutorial Illustration: How to Use Shapes to Create Vector Drawings
    Teacher Illustration

    Tutorial Illustration: How to Use Shapes to Create Vector Drawings

    Learn the basics of how to draw over your original sketch using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator, with Nathan Jurevicius Making the jump from a sketch to a digital illustration doesn’t have to be as daunting, or require as many tools, as you might think. Using just a mouse and the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator, multidisciplinary artist Nathan Jurevicius (@nathanjurevicius) demonstrates how to create shapes which will serve as the building blocks for your vector drawings. In this video, learn how to add detail to your illustration using the pen tool, how to keep your workflow organized, and how to build on your original reference sketch.

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  • Textile Museum of Canada: Free and Unlimited Inspiration Online
    Teacher Art

    Textile Museum of Canada: Free and Unlimited Inspiration Online

    Explore fashion history from around the world through the Textile Museum of Canada’s digital collection Located in a modest neighborhood in Toronto, the Textile Museum of Canada was founded as a museum of carpets in 1975. Half a century later, it is one of the biggest textile museums in the world. Having digitized its entire collection, today it is a global reference, housing more than 15 thousand pieces that have been used throughout history by people from different places around the world. Its collection helps us better understand and appreciate the history of clothing and the customs and cultures of past and present civilizations. The museum’s collection includes every type of garment and item of fabric imaginable: uniforms used in ceremonies and rituals, carpets, blankets, bedding, hats, bags, and shoes. It’s an anthology that inspires and educates, not just when it comes to fashion, but any creative or scientific field, due to each piece’s historic significance.

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  • Keynote Tutorial: How to Create Basic Effects & Transitions
    Teacher Marketing

    Keynote Tutorial: How to Create Basic Effects & Transitions

    Learn how to apply effects and transitions to a Keynote presentation with Katya Kovalenko Across all industries, presentations are a necessary but potentially problematic format for sharing information. Offering an important opportunity to inform and influence an audience, if a presentation is prepared poorly, it can easily become boring and result in losing audience engagement. Thankfully, with just a few simple steps, it’s easy to create professional-looking presentations that help you share your message and get people interested. One popular tactic is using effects to create movement and add interest to slides, but not all effects (think, dizzying spinning transitions) are created equal. In this tutorial, presentation and data designer Katya Kovalenko (@katyakovalenko) demonstrates how to create basic effects and transitions within Keynote presentations.

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  • Domestika Diary: Caroline Kjellberg
    3D & Animation

    Domestika Diary: Caroline Kjellberg

    2D animator and motion designer Caroline Kjellberg talks us through her creative routine and life as a freelancer based in Bali Being far away from home during a global pandemic is a complicated situation to find oneself in. Danish animator and motion designer Caroline Kjellberg had to lengthen her stay in Bali as a result of lockdown measures, and she’s been working from there ever since. The multifaceted artist welcomes us into her house in Bali to talk us through her day-to-day routine working as a freelancer during unprecedented times. She also speaks about the advantages and disadvantages of working as a freelance creative, and shares advice for preventing professional exhaustion, which can set in if we don’t stick to a good routine. Discover more below:

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  • Apollo Program: a Universe of Photographs
    Photography

    Apollo Program: a Universe of Photographs

    Browse over 15 thousand images from NASA’s photo archive In 2004, the Johnson Space Center began digitizing the negatives of all of the images taken by NASA astronauts assigned to the Apollo Program. These images are property of the Project Apollo Archive–an initiative created in 1999 to compile all of the visual material from these missions and share with the world the emotion and historic moments that they document. Since then, NASA has been periodically updating the collection. Today, the Flickr account hosts nearly 16 thousand stunning images.

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  • What is Shibori?
    Craft

    What is Shibori?

    Discover this traditional Japanese technique for dyeing textiles Costume and textile designer Carolina Raggio (@carolina_45) reinterprets ancestral techniques to achieve modern results. Carolina is the creative director of her own eponymous brand, for which she develops timeless garments and accessories. In this blog, Carolina explains more about the history of this technique and how you can experiment with it to create unique designs and patterns.

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  • Free Download: Isotype Print Test Template
    Design

    Free Download: Isotype Print Test Template

    Use this tool to perfect your identity and branding projects Graphic designer Andres Ávila (@andresilustra)specializes in branding and is passionate about the world of visual identity. His day to day goes between development, conceptualization and brand design projects in which he helps brands gain relevance to their audience. He has worked with clients in the United States, Ireland, Bangladesh, Chile and Venezuela.

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  • The Adventure of Publishing Your First Children's Book, by Flavia Z Drago
    Illustration

    The Adventure of Publishing Your First Children's Book, by Flavia Z Drago

    We spoke with this talented Mexican illustrator about how she got her children's book published Flavia Z Drago (@flavia_zdrago) studied Graphic Design but specialized in illustration and children's books. She has illustrated more than ten books, a Hermès carré (scarf), a Frida Kahlo coffee pot, and cups for Chocolate Abuelita, among many other things. This year, Walker Books published her first book as an author and illustrator, titled Gustavo, the Shy Ghost, a dream that has haunted her for over a decade. We talked with her about her passion for storytelling, her influences, and the experience of preparing her first book.

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  • Domestika Maestros: Ouka Leele
    Photography

    Domestika Maestros: Ouka Leele

    Photographer and painter Ouka Leele uses reality to build new worlds of color and fantasy Should the photograph be a faithful reflection of reality or of the photographer's inner world? Maybe both? These kinds of questions have been asked of the art of capturing still images since its beginnings, giving rise to an infinite number of different photographic styles, depending on the philosophy of the person pressing the shutter. In the case of the photographer, painter, and artist Ouka Leele (Madrid, 1957), icon of Spain's cultural revolution in the 1980s and winner of the country's National Photography Prize, the answer to these questions might seem simple: Leele is known above all for her combination of photography and painting, for her black and white snapshots that she later painstakingly colors to obtain a new reality. A world apart. But she herself assures us that, if she does so, it is because those are the true colors of reality. We visited Ouka Leele in her studio in Madrid to learn about her particular photographic philosophy, go over the milestones of a fascinating career, and hear her advice to new generations of photographers. Discover her story in the video below:

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  • Mobile Photography Tutorial: How to Take Photos of Models with Natural Light
    Teacher Photography

    Mobile Photography Tutorial: How to Take Photos of Models with Natural Light

    Learn how to take professional photos at home with your mobile phone using natural light, with Nay Jiménez Although professional photographic equipment and studio lighting are ideal for a good photo shoot, we don't always have access to that kind of material. However, if we know how to take advantage of the resources we have, a smartphone and natural light may be enough to achieve professional results in our modeling photo sessions. That's why Nay Jiménez (@nayjimenez), a publicist and photographer specialized in art direction, has shared this series of keys to an at home photo shoot, with natural light, using only our smartphone. You can see the tutorial here:

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  • Product Photography: Flash Vs. Natural Light, Which One To Choose?
    Photography

    Product Photography: Flash Vs. Natural Light, Which One To Choose?

    Learn the advantages and disadvantages of working with natural light vs. flash when photographing products, especially if they have reflections Lighting is the key to perfect photography, and Martí Sans (@marti_sans), who discovered his calling as a product photographer while training as a chef, is an expert on the subject. As he says, photography allows him to control and take care of each ingredient to achieve an exquisite final product, and light is an essential factor. That’s why Martí has explained some of the pros and cons of working with natural light or flash when doing product photography. He also has some basic tips to achieve soft and hard lighting with any type of light.

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  • What is Fabric Marbling?
    Craft

    What is Fabric Marbling?

    Discover the secrets to this traditional technique that combines painting and design Fabric marbling is a process that involves floating paints on top of a thick solution. The paints are manipulated into patterns that are later transferred to an object. You can use this craft to dye fabrics and paper, while some people also use it to dye leather and ceramic pieces.

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  • What Is Calligraphy and What Is Lettering?
    Typography, Calligraphy and Lettering

    What Is Calligraphy and What Is Lettering?

    Discover what these two handwriting techniques are and what sets them apart with TECK24 Confusing calligraphy with lettering is a common mistake: both techniques build unique and personalized letters; require a specific knowledge; and, to some extent, share tools and artists that make both. But calligraphy and lettering are not the same. In the following video, TECK24 (@teck24horas), graffiti artist and expert in the world of letters, explains the basics that will help us differentiate between calligraphy and lettering, two techniques that may look similar but are actually quite different. Discover the video below:

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  • Legendary Photos Taken on Leica Cameras
    Photography

    Legendary Photos Taken on Leica Cameras

    Discover the history of the Leica camera and how it changed the course of history For over 100 years, image-makers worldwide have documented decisive moments in history with a Leica in their hands. Wars, pop culture, the environment, the everyday... shot over decades, both on film and digitally. This is the story of the Leica camera and how it changed the course of history. Leitz and Oskar Barnack In the early 20th century, Leitz–founded in Wetzlar, Germany in 1849–was the world’s largest manufacturer of microscopes. In 1911, the company was looking for a new master mechanic to oversee research. Following a recommendation from a friend, Ernst Leitz II hired Oskar Barnack, whose subsequent work would revolutionize and shape the history of 20th-century photography.

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