Painting

Dive into the world of painting with tips, exercises, and painting techniques that will help you discover your creative side.

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  • What Is Pop Art and How Did It Revolutionize the Art World?
    Art

    What Is Pop Art and How Did It Revolutionize the Art World?

    Discover the art movement that flourished in the 1960s Today, we recognize both the artistic and commercial value of works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and David Hockney. In November 2013, Warhol’s serigraph, Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), sold for $105 million, setting a new record for the artist’s work. Warhol is considered one of the fathers of the Pop Art movement. Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece was auctioned for an even higher price in 2017: $165 million. While these pieces have been auctioned for millions of dollars in the 21st century, this movement has not always been held in such high regard. When Pop Art first emerged, critics described it as vulgar, sensationalist, and "a joke." Intrigued to learn more about its history? In this article, we will delve into the story of a movement that not only revolutionized the art world in the 50s and 60s, but raised questions about the true meaning of art in an ever-changing world.

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  • What Is the Color Wheel?
    Design

    What Is the Color Wheel?

    You've probably heard a lot about this tool, but what exactly is the color wheel, and how does it work? The color wheel is an important tool to get to grips with when you begin a visual art. To put it simply: if colors were words, the color wheel would be the alphabet–it’s what you need to speak this language well.

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  • Hilma af Klint: The Fascinating Story of an Abstract Art Pioneer
    Art

    Hilma af Klint: The Fascinating Story of an Abstract Art Pioneer

    Ahead of her time, this artist created hundreds of enigmatic paintings where the invisible became visible. Unseen for many years, her work has now vindicated her as one of the pioneers of abstract art It was 1935, and Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky wrote a letter to his New York gallery owner, where he claimed the authorship of his first abstract painting: a piece painted in 1911. “Without doubt, it is the first abstract painting in the world (...) it is, in other words, a historical painting”, said the letter. Nonetheless, in Sweden, in 1906, a woman called Hilma af Klint had already been painting abstract compositions in which line, color, and geometrical shapes had been the main subjects. However, her story and her contribution to abstract art remained unknown until the 1980s, when an exhibition taking place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) finally vindicated her role. Why doesn’t her name resonate when we think of this art movement? What happened that kept her prolific production unknown, unlike Mondrian, Malevich, or Kandinsky’s works? Here is the fascinating story behind one of the pioneers of abstraction.

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  • 5 Photographers Who Defined the Self-portrait
    Photography

    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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  • Beginner and Advanced Watercolor Painting FAQs
    Illustration

    Beginner and Advanced Watercolor Painting FAQs

    Ana Victoria Calderón answers what you’ve always wanted to ask about watercolors Ana Victoria Calderón (@anavictoriana) is a painter and illustrator who uses watercolors as her primary medium. She creates art for Hallmark, Papyrus, Demdaco, Galison, and editorial work for Glamour, Vanity Fair, InStyle, and Elle. One of her three Domestika courses, Modern Watercolor Techniques, has just reached 100K students! To celebrate this achievement, Ana Victoria has been answering some frequently asked questions about watercolor materials and techniques and giving professional tips in a live chat for the Domestika Live series. Read some of her answers below:

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  • Why Is No One Smiling in Classic Portraits and Photographs?
    Art

    Why Is No One Smiling in Classic Portraits and Photographs?

    Learn why smiling was so uncommon in paintings and early photographs "Smile!" We listen to this phrase practically every time we pose for a photograph. Nowadays, smiles are almost a requirement in photos and selfies, a reflex action: when we see a camera pointing at us or somebody asks to take our picture, our first instinct is to smile. But that has not always been the case. For most of recorded history, smiles have not been prevalent. Smiles are rarely present in paintings or old photographs. Why? A matter of vanity? One of the hypotheses that could explain this enigmatic phenomenon is the vanity of the subjects portrayed. Due to the lack of personal hygiene in past centuries, teeth condition left much to be desired. Subjects would keep their lips firmly closed when posing for posterity to avoid showing their teeth. But that is not the truth, for a simple reason: bad teeth were so widespread that they did not inspire shame in the subjects or their painters.

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  • The Art Institute of Chicago Is Sharing Thousands of Free Images
    Art

    The Art Institute of Chicago Is Sharing Thousands of Free Images

    The Art Institute of Chicago’s digital library contains over 40,000 files that you can download for free The Art Institute of Chicago has a collection of over 300,000 works of art and a history spanning back to the 19th century (having been founded by George Armour in 1879). It is one of the most important and relevant art institutions across both the United States and the world–up there with New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. The collection includes works by local and international artists from early and modern times. Standout pieces include those by artists from Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish schools. While many museums and galleries had already digitized part, if not all, of their permanent collections, The Art Institute of Chicago only made this leap more recently. Its digital library allows users to explore and download high-quality images of artworks from their collection.

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  • 10 Websites to Sell Your Art Online
    Illustration

    10 Websites to Sell Your Art Online

    Learn about the pros and cons of popular art selling sites for different creative disciplines If you are an arts, design, illustration or craft professional, you will surely know that it is a good idea to improve your sales method. In addition to having a sales strategy on your social networks, promoting your pieces on a specialized site could be of help to you. We compiled some popular websites that you can explore to decide if they fit your sales needs.

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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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  • Free Download: Stages to Complete a Painting with Ink and Watercolor
    Illustration

    Free Download: Stages to Complete a Painting with Ink and Watercolor

    Illustrator Alex Hillkurtz shares a visual guide of the stages used in watercolor and ink painting Alex Hillkurtz (@alexhillkurtzart) was born in England and grew up in California where he is a renowned storyboard artist for feature films, television, and commercials. His film credits include Argo, Almost Famous, It’s Complicated, and many others. He uses the language of cinema to compose his images, moving beyond what one sees and depicting what he wants others to see. He believes that in our overly crowded lives, sketching and painting invites us to move at a more deliberate pace, giving us a true sense of place, where unexpected stories are revealed.

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  • Ukiyo-e: the Beauty Behind the Classic Japanese Woodblock Prints (For Free)
    Art

    Ukiyo-e: the Beauty Behind the Classic Japanese Woodblock Prints (For Free)

    Find hundreds of thousands of prints on the most extensive online ukiyo-e database Woodblock printing is one of the most famous Japanese art forms, an elaborate technique that was first used by temple monks to reproduce Buddhist texts efficiently. We associate it nowadays with ukiyo-e art, illustrations from the 17th to 19th centuries that capture scenes from everyday life: kabuki theater, geishas and courtesans, sumo wrestlers, folk tales, and landscapes.

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  • More than 270,000 Free Nature Illustrations from the Biodiversity Heritage Library
    Web & App Design

    More than 270,000 Free Nature Illustrations from the Biodiversity Heritage Library

    Discover this free catalog of nature illustrations dating back hundreds of years and boost your creativity The Biodiversity Heritage Library has been dubbed the world’s largest open-access digital library for resources on natural history and biodiversity. Right now, the world is experiencing a major extinction crisis and widespread climate change. Aware that many heads are better than one, the Biodiversity Heritage Library was launched to pull together resources from libraries all around the world, pushing to advance global research by digitizing their collections and provide free worldwide access to its catalog.

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  • Fill Your Ceramics With Color With This Simple Marbling Technique
    Craft

    Fill Your Ceramics With Color With This Simple Marbling Technique

    Paula Casella Biase, potter and founder of Bambucito, shows us how to marble our pieces quickly and easily The creation and personalization of ceramic pieces goes beyond modeling, although this is an essential part. The shape of the piece is completed with the decoration that we want to apply, and the use of glazing techniques usually contributes to a much more attractive and unique finish. One of the simplest glazing techniques is marbling, with which we can use a few colours and some heat to create more interesting work. To help you learn to apply marbling, ceramicist Paula Casella Biase (@paulacasellabiase) explains her technique in the video below:

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  • What is Negative Watercolor Painting?
    Illustration

    What is Negative Watercolor Painting?

    Find out what watercolor in negative is and how to use it to create light and depth in your illustrations Unlike other painting techniques, with watercolor, you can’t use white paint to add light and depth to your illustrations like you can with oil or acrylics. Instead, you must learn how to manage the white of the page on which you are painting to your advantage. One of the most effective ways to do this is by painting watercolor in negative: leave principal elements of your illustration unpainted so that they jump out at you. Instinctively, the most important elements of our paintings seem like the parts that we should be painting most. Painting in negative turns that idea on its head requiring you to paint everything but the object you want to highlight. Examine the picture below:

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  • How to Decorate Your Notebook
    Craft

    How to Decorate Your Notebook

    Transform a boring notebook into a floral explosion with these simple steps Maya Hanisch (@mayahanisch) is a Chilean artist who works in editorial illustration for books. Her figurative art is strongly influenced by Latin American and European folklore. Her compositions are generated using layers of paint, which act as a solid gradient to give volume, contrast and intensity to various elements of nature.

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  • VFX: Peter Ellenshaw’s 7 Defining Moments
    Film & Video

    VFX: Peter Ellenshaw’s 7 Defining Moments

    The moments that defined the remarkable career of matte painting artist, Peter Ellenshaw Born in London in 1913, Peter Ellenshaw went on to become one of the most inspiring matte painting artists of the 20th century and an integral member of the Walt Disney team for over 30 years. In 1965, along with Hamilton Luske and Eustace Lycett, Ellenshaw was awarded an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on “Mary Poppins,” for which he painted 102 different mattes with scenes of Edwardian London. In 1993, he was named a Disney Legend. Here we take a look at his life and highlight the moments that defined his remarkable career.

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  • Download Free Coloring Pages #StayAtHome
    Teacher Illustration

    Download Free Coloring Pages #StayAtHome

    Have fun with five Andonella's illustrations to color digitally or by hand Andonella (@andonella) is a self-taught Mexican illustrator and cartoonist. Her colorful style and unique sense of humor have made their mark within the contemporary illustration scene today. Her work is full of portraits inspired by real people and the scenes that arise from her imagination, characterized by plenty of irreverence and graphic humor.

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