4 Easy Watercolor Exercises for Beginners
Learn how to take your first steps in watercolor painting with these quick experimental exercises
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Favorites from community members and creative professionals in list format.
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3 Free Inspirational Books For Illustrating Japanese-style Waves
Boost your creativity with these early 20th-century illustrations from artist Mori Yuzan The ocean is incredibly hypnotic. Outlining the silhouette of a wave for an illustration requires letting the brush glide almost freely across the page. In Japanese art, waves express beauty and are packed with symbolism, and Hamonshū, a collection of three books from 1903, includes many great examples. Despite not being very well known, author Mori Yuzan demonstrates a unique ability to draw different types of waves with great accuracy. Thanks to Internet Archive and The Smithsonian Library, you can now access and download all three books free of charge. They will no doubt serve as an incredible source of inspiration and great reference material when creating mood boards in the early stages of your creative process.
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10 Professions That Wouldn't Exist Without Google
From SEO to YouTubers, we take a look at the creative jobs born thanks to the search engine giant In recent years, the digitization of the economy has led to the emergence of new professional profiles characterized by having the skills - and essentially tools - to adapt to a way of working that requires us to analyze, interpret, and respond to markets quickly and efficiently. Most of the tools that these new professionals know how to use have been created, acquired, or improved by Google - a company that since its founding in 1998 has led the way of future trends in industries such as marketing, design, and programming. To mark the anniversary of the search engine giant’s creation, which falls on September 27, here we take a look at ten professions that wouldn’t exist without Google - and the tools that make them possible. Considering a career change? Take note of these careers with great prospects...
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4 Drawing Exercises That Will Loosen up Your Hand
Illustrator Raúl Urias shares tips on improving your drawing and illustration technique Raúl Urias (@raulurias) is an illustrator and visual artist who finds inspiration in pop culture, traditions, and history to create work with a modern twist. Having worked on major projects for clients such as Google, Nike, Converse, and ESPN, over the years he has developed a methodology that allows him to constantly reinvigorate his creativity. In this article, Raúl shares one of his favorite illustration exercises, which is not just a great way to practice technique but also opens the doors to new ways of working and new aesthetics.
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4 Crowdfunding Platforms for Self-Publishing Your Work
Find out how to turn the dream of publishing your work into reality with these top crowdfunding sites
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7 Key Embroidery Terms You Should Get to Know
These embroidery posts are a must-read if you want to discover amazing tools, techniques, and styles If you've ever stepped into the world of embroidery, you'll know that it offers endless creative possibilities. In most cases, you only need two items to get started: a needle and thread. But how can you approach new techniques and styles or try out new tools? Besides constantly looking for new references, another alternative is to get to know different embroidery terms. Knowing more about crewel embroidery, needle painting, or latch hooking will push you to experiment. If you are just starting out or want to keep learning, discover these seven inspiring types of embroidery. To learn more about each one, just click on the titles in red. What Is Embroidery and What Are the Main Types of Embroidery? Did you know that almost every culture has some sort of history with embroidery? Some examples date back as far as the 5th century B.C. It is fascinating to explore its history and see its evolution. This is a great way to learn about different techniques available to you and experiment freely. Before picking up your needle, learn more about this exciting practice. This will also help you appreciate the value of each piece you create.
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12 Packaging Websites and Blogs to Inspire Your Designs
Discover the most popular packaging design web pages in the world to inspire all your projects Finding inspiration is something a packaging designer constantly does. Elena Sancho (@tatabi), creative director of Tatabi Studio and a designer specializing in sustainable branding and packaging, dedicates a few minutes every morning to sift through all sorts of new ideas. Sticking to this routine, Elena gets inspired when creating designs that go beyond the usual aesthetic. She shares some of her essential packaging resources below. The selection in this list includes blogs, websites, and an Instagram account that looks at the latest trends and jobs and can help you unleash your creativity. The Dieline Created in 2007 by Andrew Gibbs, what started as a personal blog became the most visited packaging website in the world. Its mission is to connect professionals worldwide and promote more sustainable solutions in the packaging industry by using creativity and innovation.
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4 Best E-commerce Platforms for Your Business
Discover the best platforms available for your business with a little help from top experts Choosing the right e-commerce platform to best serve your business requires some basic knowledge of what is on offer. Ellie Rivers (@ellie_rivers) is a London-based e-commerce and digital marketing consultant who has been helping small business owners and major brands develop tailored e-commerce and digital marketing strategies for over twelve years. In her Domestika course, she guides you through creating your own efficient and professional online business and makes some informed recommendations so you can make the right decision. Read on to discover different available options and how you can decide which one is the best for your brand or business.
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10 Female Crypto Artists to Keep an Eye On
Discover the works of female visual artists selling their art on NFT marketplaces As the crypto art market grows, it is becoming more and more male-dominated. While the overwhelming majority of artists embracing this market are male, more and more women are beginning to band together to help each other get a foot in the door of virtual galleries where they can access the highest-paying collectors. Below is a list of ten female creatives—designers, illustrators, animators, and digital photographers—who are active in the NFT community. They all seek to gain better exposure and do so through collaborations, mutual recommendations, and sharing their artworks online.
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8 Essential Concepts for Art Lovers
Expand your knowledge of art through concepts such as color, style, movements, and techniques Despite their importance, many fundamentals of art are often unfamiliar. We have included a list of some of those concepts below. Even if you are already familiar with some of these ideas, you’ll probably learn something new: how they came to be, their traditions, and their development. It is a varied selection that includes essential notions, such as color theory, popular artistic movements such as Pop Art, professions, and techniques such as collage. If you want to explore the topics in detail, click on the red links to access the full blog post.
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9 Free Websites With Textures and Models for Your 3D Projects
Discover where to find textures, models, and resources to give your 3D projects an edge When starting a 3D project or assembling a mood board for one, one of the most important steps is researching and gathering reference images. This stage will give you a more precise and more defined idea of what you will need to create the final project in terms of assets, models, textures, and other graphic elements. To help you find free textures and varied types of assets, Ali Sahba (@alisahba), a multidisciplinary designer and photographer, shares a list of the sites he uses in his projects and what you will find in each of them. When searching for textures Textures.com This site features numerous royalty-free textures but is mostly limited to 1k (1024 x 768 pixels) or 2k (2048 x 1080 pixels) resolutions. These images are not ideal for close-ups, but you will find varied textures—fabrics, ceilings, floors, metal, and many others—and you can use them to have a general idea of how your project will end up looking
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Teacher DomestikaTop 10 Creative Projects of 2020 on Domestika
We have compiled a list of the most-liked projects to be shared by the Domestika community in 2020 There are only a few days left of the year, so we want to present the projects that have received the best feedback from the community out of all of those published in 2020 on Domestika. As was the case in 2019, the projects of the year are dominated by the medium of illustration. Final projects for different courses have also made the list, while fantasy and poetry have been celebrated as much as hyperrealism. Illustrator Adolfo Serra also gets a special mention for having authored two of the ten final projects to make the list. These are the top ten creative projects of 2020 to be published on Domestika: My project for the course: Watercolor Illustration with Japanese Influence, by Jessica Alvarez (@vanila_ryder) This final project, which was created for Flor Kaneshiro’s course, is titled Mandado. In this artwork, Jessica–the author–draws on Japanese influences, yet takes it a step further: she combines oriental techniques with a Latin American aesthetic inspired by Mexican markets.
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Teacher Film & Video10 Great Television "Bottle Episodes"
This formula works! Check out this selection of great bottle episodes that have shaped television history The term "bottle episode" refers to a type of episode in a television series that has particular characteristics: –The episode focuses on a particular problem, usually being faced by one character. However, all the other elements of the series become entangled in this problem. –The episode usually takes place in one location. –Production is kept simple. There are no effects, perhaps no soundtrack, no props, just the characters and a conflict, which develops through dialog and long scenes.
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8 Interior Design Trends for 2021
Discover how our homes will look next year: the return of long-gone pieces of furniture, the new role of industrial designers, and the unexpected role of walls Juan Pablo Fuentes studied industrial design at Diego Portales University in Chile in the late 1990s. Since then, he has founded several studios and built his own design space, COMODO, the first in Chile dedicated to producing, manufacturing, and marketing the so-called new national design. He was also the School of Design's director at the University of the Americas, which connected him to Latin America and Europe's design world. As a designer, @juanpablofuentes can study every aspect of an object: aesthetic, functional, economic, and social. His work enriches this skill at the editorial project Nuevos Creativos Chilenos, through which he focuses on product design, clothing, and graphics. His global vision is also nourished by the National Design Space, the first design gallery in Chile, a place that he shares with other partners and to promote, disseminate, and market serialized or limited design pieces sourced from local talent.
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15 Contemporary Designers Working with Prints
Be inspired to create unique and charming clothes with the beautiful print work of world-renowned fashion designers Julia Pelletier (@julia_pelletier) is a textile designer who has specialized in silk screen printing, drawing, and teaching for over 15 years. In her Domestika course, she will teach you to combine creative techniques to design unique garments. Creating art that you can wear is a great way to show off your style and personality. Before you get started on your creation, she encourages you to look to some of today’s most creative contemporary designers working with prints for inspiration. Find the list below:
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Teacher Illustration10 Illustrators to Discover in 2025
Spanish Illustrator and Domestika teacher Puño introduces us to some inspiring illustrators with unique styles from around the world Earlier in the year, I wrote a post in the Domestika blog called ‘Puño recommends,’ in which I shared some of the illustrators whose work is a source of inspiration. Some of them are featured in this article to inspire you with their work, whichever your drawing or illustration style. Click on their name highlighted in red if you want to learn more about them. JooHee Yoon South Korea JooHee Yoon’s work is an exemplary demonstration that traditional and digital techniques can live together in harmony. They create a perfect symbiosis in which the digital evens out the rough side of the traditional processes, and at the same time, enhances their essence.
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5 Design Trends to Look Out for in 2021
Discover which trends will impact photography, editorial design, and typography in 2021 Silvia Fernández Palomar, also known as Silvia Ferpal, is a designer and artist with a well-trained eye. She won the 2019 National Design Award for the young designers category; has worked at companies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Paseo, Designit Madrid, and Designit New York; and is a design teacher at IED. While Silvia believes that our perception of trends is subjective, when you listen to her make observations, you start seeing how new patterns emerge where you hadn't noticed them before. Her opinion, she says, is based on requests from clients, the projects she’s recently worked on, and her personal judgement. "The important thing about trends," she warns, "is to use them as a guide. These are, for her, five trends that will make an impact on the design world in 2021.
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Top 15 courses for those who love crafts
Discover how to start working with carpentry, embroidery, ceramics, concrete and crochet with the best specialists Talking about crafts is opening the doors to a fascinating universe that brings together numerous manual techniques. From creating ceramics to dyeing fabrics with natural pigments, the possibilities are endless. If you love crafts or know someone who wants to venture into the area, there are several worlds that live side by side and can be explored together. To help you decide where to start or which gift may be most suitable for a friend or family member, we have selected several techniques, and the best specialists, in 15 unmissable courses.
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Top 15 Digital Marketing Trends for 2021
Discover the digital marketing trends that will make their mark in 2021 Business interactions are increasingly taking place in the virtual world. Therefore, planning and developing digital marketing strategies that are relevant to the current market is essential. It is a sure-fire way to help you reach new customers and strengthen your relationship with those already loyal to your brand. To help you with this task, check out the incoming trends for 2021 across this field. This list not only takes into account predictions from international publications such as Business Insider and Forbes, it also draws on information shared in several Domestika courses dedicated to the best digital marketing techniques. Make sure to stay up to date. In a market as vast and competitive as the Internet, every little detail that makes you stand out is vital and may be the factor that determines whether a business is successful or not.
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5 Photographers Who Defined the Self-portrait
Discover painting’s influence on the photographic self-portrait and how it can build a visual narrative Across all artistic disciplines, self-reflection can be expressed in different ways. The creator inevitably leaves a piece of himself in each of their creations. Since the days of Ancient Greece, it has been believed that creativity goes hand in hand with self-exploration. When it comes to the self-portrait, there is a whole other level of communication between the artist and spectator. The artist shows themselves exactly as they are, or, how they want others to perceive them.
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Top 10 Photography Books of 2020
If you're looking for a book to give to a professional photographer or photography enthusiast, check out these 10 titles that we recommend History repeats itself: the year draws to an end and we celebrate and exchange gifts with our loved ones. If you have a photographer or photography enthusiast on your gift list, it’s hard to go wrong with a great photography book. In this blog post, we share our top ten recommendations to help you find the ideal title. Don't forget to write a personal inscription! Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, by Hugh Nini This book is a visual narrative of rare sensitivity showcasing Hugh Nini & Neal Treadwell’s previously unpublished collection of over 2700 unique photographs taken between the 1850s and 1950s, depicting romantic love between men. The images are almost all anonymous and from all over the world. They were sourced from flea markets, family archives, and online auctions. The exceptional quality of the collection and the emotions it conjures up are reasons alone to include it on our top ten list.
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5 Great Comic Adaptations for Television
A compilation of fantastic graphic novels that were successfully adapted for the small screen Gone are the days in which graphic novels were considered lesser work. Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the first-ever comic to receive the Pulitzer Prize, Joe Sacco’s comics journalism, and Alan Moore, possibly the greatest artist in this genre’s history, are brilliant proof that a great story can be told in all sorts of formats. Over the last few years, to confirm comic books’ growing standing, we have seen many characters leave the pages and come to life in cinema, TV, and other platforms. The most significant success in the history of cinema, Endgame, earning 2798 million dollars at the box office, is based on the superhero comic book, The Avengers.
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The Music Videos That Have Inspired Director Lyona Ivanova
Discover the music videos that have shaped the creative style of the successful Spanish director For many, Lyona Ivanova (@lyona) has the dream job: to imagine and create visual worlds for songs. The director has created over 100 music videos for artists including Love of Lesbian, Amaral, Leiva, Sidonie, Lori Meyers, Carlos Sadness, and many more. Ivanova started developing a passion for film as a child when her grandfather was head of programming at a local cinema and organized Sunday sessions. As a teenager, she was inspired by Tim Burton's film Edward Scissorhands. Lyona started making home movies, and after finishing school, she enrolled at ESCAC (Catalonia’s School of Cinema).
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Collection of Lettering-based Logos by Simón Londoño Sierra
Learn about the development of several logo projects and the creative process behind them Hi! I’m Simón Londoño Sierra (@simonlond), and I’ll be sharing a collection of my lettering work for the logos of various brands, clients, and projects. Each logo was developed from scratch, without the use of typefaces, but using drawings or calligraphy style letters.
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15 Realistic Portrait Illustrations That Make an Impact
Discover the illustration talent within the Domestika community Drawing, as a discipline, encompasses a plethora of techniques and styles. Realism is one of them, and it requires a lot of practice and great attention to detail; it demonstrates great technical ability. In this blog, we present 15 realistic portrait illustration projects from the Domestika community. To discover the process behind each piece, click on the title in red. Profile of a Man, by Krystan Grace Art (@krystangraceart) United Kingdom This detailed portrait was created with white chalk and Derwent Charcoal pencils on black paper.
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5 Sustainable Graphic Designers You Should Know
Designer Núria Vila Punzano shares the work of those who have inspired her You have probably heard about the sustainable design movement happening across fashion or architecture. However, it’s also a rising trend in graphic design, setting out to reduce the environmental impact of printed items (such as posters or packaging) from the get-go. Many designers take inspiration from nature to create and commit to caring for the planet in all stages of their work. Graphic designer and creative director Núria Vila Punzano (@nuriavilapinzano) is among them. She takes special care to reduce the negative impact her designs could have on the environment and to minimize her carbon footprint.
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5 Examples of Animation Combining 2D and 3D
Animator Andrea Gendusa shares work from his animation portfolio In animation, you can adjust different techniques and styles to suit each project. Whether you choose to use 2D or 3D animation will depend on your personal preferences and the type of project you’re working on. However, you can also use 2D and 3D animation in the same project, giving the piece a unique style. That's exactly what animator Andrea Gendusa (@andreagendusa) does, combining working in both Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D.
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20 Years of Pantone Color of the Year
Over the past two decades, Pantone has chosen 22 colors of the year based on trends, research, and analysis Imagine a world in which creatives were unable to guarantee how the final color of a print, fabric, product, or poster would turn out. Imagine a world in which, whenever you printed a copy of a design, the color was always different. Sounds scary, right? Well, that's exactly what the world was like until the arrival of Pantone. This unpredictable way of working was transformed in 1963, when Lawrence Herbert, Pantone's founder, created a system for identifying, combining, and communicating colors. Today, the Pantone Matching System is considered the international standard. The PMS is quite simply a color manual that opens out like a fan. Creative professionals use it on a daily basis to ensure that all the colors they use in their projects are universally understood. You’ve probably come across one of these catalogs of different colors.
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11 Basic Concepts to Get You Started in The 3D World
Learn about some areas of work and the possibilities of 3D in modeling, illustration, and animation If you are thinking of getting started in the world of 3D, or want to expand your field of work, we compiled this list for you. Learn about some of the main creative areas of 3D modeling and animation. To read each article with detailed information, just click on its red title.
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Let The Bets Begin: 7 Colors That Could Become the 2021 Pantone Color of The Year
Domestika's community on Instagram tried to guess what the Pantone Color of the Year will be 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the Pantone Color of the Year declaration, which serves as inspiration for all kinds of creative projects. As happens every year, as we approach December, speculation and bets arise about what will be the new color that Pantone will choose. This color of the year arises from a long investigation, and its choice has repercussions in sectors ranging from fashion to graphic design. That's why we asked the Domestika community on Instagram what they think the Pantone color of 2021 will be, and below we show some of the most voted bets:
