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  • What is Crewel Embroidery?
    Craft

    What is Crewel Embroidery?

    Discover the characteristics, materials, and origins of this embroidery technique Crewel or crewelwork embroidery is characterized by the use of thick wool instead of delicate threads, as in other types of embroidery. This technique is at least a millennium old, and can be found on decorative objects such as tapestries and curtains, as well as luxury clothing. Recently it has been incorporated into contemporary embroidery in pieces such as cushions, clothing or decorative embroidery for walls. Origins The origin of the word is uncertain, but it comes from the name of a special type of wool that is used, which tends to twist. The Bayeaux Tapestry, or Queen Mathilde's Tapestry, is one of the oldest known pieces, and was embroidered in the 11th century. It recounts the events of the Battle of Hastings. This impressive piece has about 70 scenes from the battle, and is approximately 68 meters long.

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  • Domestika Diary: Emma Hanquist
    Illustration

    Domestika Diary: Emma Hanquist

    The Swedish illustrator shares her daily routine and how she incorporates creativity into her everyday Editorial illustrators face an interesting creativity challenge—not only do they need to consider the practicalities of page design, but they also have to create images that are visually striking and contribute to a larger conversation. Emma Hanquist is a Swedish illustrator who specializes in editorial illustration and who has also worked with brands such as Airbnb and Spotify. In today’s Domestika Diary, she talks not just about her daily routine, but also the places where she finds inspiration, and what she’s doing to foster her children’s creative habits.

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  • 5 Instagram Marketing Courses
    Marketing

    5 Instagram Marketing Courses

    Discover the best tools and strategies to better position your brand on the social network Due to its growing number of users and the constant implementation of new publishing tools, Instagram is now one of the most popular platforms to promote personal brands, products and services among all kinds of audiences. Learn how to create narratives, curate content, define visual strategies and measure the response from your audience with 5 experts in Instagram marketing. Brand Strategy on Instagram, a course by Julieta Tello Learn what storytelling is and how to build your brand around it with Julieta, a marketing strategist specialized in engagement on the social network. Generate content with measurable results and discover how to create a successful and professional strategy to gain followers.

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  • Creative Tools: HTML
    Design

    Creative Tools: HTML

    This is how the language websites are built with came to be All the websites you have visited share a similar basic structure. Regardless of their complexity, they are built with programming languages ​​that make a site have large or small fonts, bright colors, drop-down menus, or videos. This is how the first, and still the most-used, website building language, HTML, came to be.

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  • Download These Exercises and Learn How to Draw the Female Body
    Illustration

    Download These Exercises and Learn How to Draw the Female Body

    7 drawing exercises by Violeta Hernández for practicing the female figure The best way to learn to draw and improve your technique is to practice with different exercises. Violeta Hernández (@soyvioleta) is an illustrator and designer that frequently draws inspiration from the feminine and the organic, fascinated by the perfection of nature. Here she'll share a series of exercises that will help you improve your technique when drawing the female anatomy.

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  • How Did Digital Illustration Begin?
    Illustration

    How Did Digital Illustration Begin?

    From engineering to tablets, digital illustration has come a long way Digital illustration is part of the mainstream. But, not long ago, it was something that few artists used in their work. How did those artists start using computers to design? How did digital art become what it is today? In the video below, we review a brief history of the technique that is now vital to the creative process of countless makers and artists. Don't miss it!

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  • What Is Packaging Design and Why It Is So Important Today
    Design

    What Is Packaging Design and Why It Is So Important Today

    Discover the fundamental principles of packaging design Packaging was initially created as a utilitarian item–its sole function was to conserve a product as best as possible. However, soon the appearance of packaging also became crucial: packaging needed to attract buyers and drive sales. Today, these continue to be the two main ideas that all packaging designers work around. How did packaging come about? Packaging began to be developed at the same time that advances in technology and transport were being made, meaning food could be stored for longer and travel further. As more and more new products arrived, so did new types of packaging, printer technologies, and marketing techniques that set out to make products grab people’s attention. When it comes to graphic design, something similar happened. The art and culture trends can be seen reflected in packaging from different time periods. Memorable packaging Here are some examples of iconic packaging that show off the trends of the time. The Tiffany Box In 1887, Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of the jewelry brand Tiffany & Co, chose the turquoise blue that would become emblematic of the Tiffany Box. The box has since become almost as iconic as the engagement ring inside. In 1998, the color “Tiffany Blue” was registered as a brand and listed in the Pantone color system.

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  • Free Download: Textures for Caricature Projects
    Illustration

    Free Download: Textures for Caricature Projects

    Illustrator Jorge Arévalo shares a bundle of textures that will give your illustration projects a professional touch Jorge Arévalo (@jorgearevalo) is a Spanish illustrator who, since the end of the 90s, has seen his work published in countless international best-selling titles, such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue, Rolling Stone, and Esquire. His most popular works are the standout characters he creates for “La Luna”, a supplement of the Spanish newspaper, El Mundo–they make up an important part of its identity. Arévalo has authored several books, including “Portraits”, an award-winning compilation of portraits from the worlds of cinema, music, and fashion. As a creative director, Jorge has teamed up with such brands as Cartier, Sony Ericsson, BBVA, Kodak, Westin Palace, and many more.

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  • 11 Amazing Documentaries on Creativity
    Film & Video

    11 Amazing Documentaries on Creativity

    We asked the Domestika community to name their favorite inspiring documentaries that focus on creatives This documentaries about artists don’t just document history, they can change what comes next. They touch our hearts, raise awareness, and promote change. They remind us of forgotten struggles. They teach us about lives we’ve never lived. They entertain us, inspire us, and make us think. They move us. We’re talking about documentaries, a genre of cinema as varied as human nature itself. We asked the Domestika community to name their favorites, and these are the titles that received the most votes. Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingstone, 1990) Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, this documentary chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved. These groups of artists started their own balls as a form of protest in response to being excluded from those hosted by white, upper-class communities.

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  • A Guide to Children’s Book Categories
    Illustration

    A Guide to Children’s Book Categories

    Natalia Méndez explains the different categories used for children’s books in the world of publishing When it comes to illustrating or publishing a children’s book, understanding its category will help you to plan your project, not only in terms of content but also the format, illustration style, typography, as well as other factors relating to the editing process. All of this will help define what type of book you want to publish. Categories are also useful when choosing books and deciding on the direction in which you want to take the project. On the publishing side, you’re thinking not just about the content, but also more technical questions to do with the physical object itself–the shape of the book, the front cover, the design, and more. These steps may seem like a small part of the process but, in the world of publishing, they are vital. To better understand the differences, Natalia Méndez (@natumendez)–a children’s book editor and writer–talks us through the main categories for children’s book: Books for babies and young infants: Small books that can be explored by small hands with little mobility. The pages might be made from card or some other thick material that can be easily turned or even put in the reader’s mouth or bitten or sucked.

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  • Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Ableton Live 10
    Music & Audio

    Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Ableton Live 10

    Discover the basic keyboard shortcuts of one of the most popular digital audio editing programs Ableton Live 10 is a complete digital audio editing studio. It's incredibly popular among musicians, editors, and audio professionals because not only is it an excellent tool for composing, creating masters, recording, and mixing; it also allows working with live music, both for DJ sets and instrumental music. The different view modes allow you to use samples or MIDI files, control live sessions, and edit or produce music using the tools of a classic sequencer. Get to know the most used shortcuts that will allow you to improve your productivity and save time. You can download a PDF with these shortcuts at the end of this post.

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  • Domestika Diary: Aaron Walls
    Photography

    Domestika Diary: Aaron Walls

    The photographer shares how to take photos without having to leave the house Being a photographer doesn’t always mean counting on the best equipment or circumstances: photography depends on the eye of the maker and their capacity to see the expressive possibilities of their surroundings, regardless of their limits. In today’s Domestika Diaries, the portrait photographer Aaron Walls tells us how his work as a professional photographer is developing every day. Walls doesn’t stop looking for opportunities to create content from his home and remain active on social media. Learn more in the following video:

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  • How to Use Archetypes to Create A Graphic Novel
    Illustration

    How to Use Archetypes to Create A Graphic Novel

    Add meaning to your graphic novel by using thousand-year-old archetypes with Charles Glaubitz In Jungian theory, an archetype is described as a primitive mental image inherited from our earliest human ancestors, concepts present in our collective unconscious. Multidisciplinary artist and graphic novelist Charles Glaubitz (@mrglaubitz) explains how we can use these literal and visual archetypes that have been used throughout the history of human literature to create a comic. The most famous and widely-used archetype theory in storytelling is Joseph’s Campbell Hero’s Journey: a concept that describes the basic archetypes of any story.

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  • A Rival for After Effects? We Talk to Zenzuke About Cavalry
    Film & Video

    A Rival for After Effects? We Talk to Zenzuke About Cavalry

    The motion graphics director and animator shares his thoughts on Cavalry now that the open beta version is available Adobe After Effects has established itself as the leading software for creating motion graphics, and with good reason: its variety of tools, stability, and ease of use have made it an essential program. But this robustness can make the app feel too rigid, or drift away from more organic or dynamic workflows. After Effects has almost everything you want, but it's not perfect. To fill this gap, a few months ago, a new app emerged: Cavalry. Its marketing strategy has rested mainly on convincing us that it will be capable of doing some of the same tasks that After Effects does–working with a large number of objects, simplifying data graphics or creatively warping texts, for example–in a fraction of the time. Now, its creators have just announced that an open beta version is now available. But we wanted to know first hand about the advantages and disadvantages of using this program created by Scene Group. So we turned to motion graphics director and animator Carlos "Zenzuke" Albarrán (@zenzuke), an everyday user of Adobe After Effects and one of the lucky ones who have been able to test the closed beta of Cavalry.

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  • 7 Film Editing Tips from an Oscar-nominated Editor
    Film & Video

    7 Film Editing Tips from an Oscar-nominated Editor

    Niels Pagh Anderson, the editor of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing and Ai Wei Wei’s latest film shares his philosophy and tips on how to edit a powerful film Niels Pagh Anderson is a master film editor and has worked with some of the world’s greatest artists and directors, including Joshua Oppenheimer and Ai Wei Wei. His ability to understand, collaborate, and challenge their visions has earned him his place in the documentary film halls of fame. This week, DocsBarcelona hosted him–online, of course–for a masterclass in film editing. You can watch Niels for free on the DocsBarcelona website. Niels is adamant about the importance of stories and storytellers: “We live in chaos, we need to make sense of it.” The notion that every civilization has used stories, from creation myths to archetypal struggles, to make sense of the chaos is what informs Niels approach to editing, well as the title of his soon-to-be-released book: Order in Chaos.

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  • SketchUp Tutorial: How to Import a CAD File to SketchUp
    Teacher Architecture & Space

    SketchUp Tutorial: How to Import a CAD File to SketchUp

    Basic tips to convert an AutoCAD project to SketchUp with Fernando Neyra Moreta An architectural project made with 3D resources allows potential clients to visualize important details such as the distribution and proportion of the spaces, as well as the forms and textures of the materials that will be used in the work. For this reason, it is essential to know how to correctly import a 2D design from AutoCAD to SketchUp tool, a program that allows projects to be made in 3D. In this tutorial, architect, illustrator, and educator Fernando Neyra Moreta (@fn23grafica) shows us the process step-by-step, highlighting important tips, such as creating layers and reference objects, and the SketchUp commands for executing the different tasks. Find out more in the following video:

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  • BCN Rise & Fall: The Street Art of Barcelona
    Art

    BCN Rise & Fall: The Street Art of Barcelona

    Watch this documentary on the golden age of Barcelona street art In the nineties, Barcelona became an unmissable destination for urban artists. Suddenly, the city walls were flooded with the art of internationally renowned creators such as Banksy, Space Invaders, London Police, and Os Gemeos, among many others. The documentary BCN Rise & Fall reviews the golden age of street art in Barcelona and reflects on its current state. It is an important analysis of how the peculiar graffiti and urban art scene was created in the city.

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  • The Amazing Letters of James Lewis
    Typography, Calligraphy and Lettering

    The Amazing Letters of James Lewis

    This British artist’s lettering projects certainly stand out, literally and figuratively If you are interested in typography and lettering, it is very likely that you have stumbled upon some of James Lewis' videos on Instagram or TikTok. This British artist has become one of the most viral lettering artists on social media thanks to his amazingly precise and totally hand-drawn 3D characters. Learn more about his work watching his Domestika Live chat. James (@jamesllewis) makes a live logo painting and also discusses the impact that working from home can have on creativity.

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  • Domestika Maestros: Tom Geismar
    Design

    Domestika Maestros: Tom Geismar

    Tom Geismar, one of the most important graphic designers of the 20th Century, took us through his career and his life-long commitment to design Founder of the influential agency Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, and the creator of the visual identities of many of the most well-known brands in the world, such as Mobil, Xerox and PBS, the story of design would look very different if it weren't for Tom Geismar. Over 50 years in design have confirmed Geismar's place as one of the greats of modern logo design and visual identity. Always up to date with the most recent trends, Geismar guided us through his most recent achievements such as the visual program for National Geographic, making it clear once more that good design doesn't depend on eras or styles but timeless principles. Find out what he had to say in the video below:

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  • Follow These 7 Tips For Your Next Personal Project
    Marketing

    Follow These 7 Tips For Your Next Personal Project

    Starting a big personal project from scratch can feel overwhelming, here are some strategies to help you along the way Embarking on a personal project always brings mixed feelings. There's the excitement that comes from starting something from scratch knowing you will have total control of the process, and the joy of spending more time doing something you feel passionate about. But there is also the fear that the results will not live up to the initial expectations or, if we are talking about a very complex project, of the stress that comes with organizing the multiple tasks involved. Fear no more. These tips will make working on any project, big or small, much easier so you can focus on letting your creativity flow.

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  • How to develop a unique style, according to Marcelo Vignali
    Teacher 3D & Animation

    How to develop a unique style, according to Marcelo Vignali

    An interview with the wonderful art director and concept artist Marcelo Vignali is a well-known name in the animated film industry. He has been involved in titles such as Hotel Transylvania, The Smurfs, and Lilo & Stitch, to name a few, and his particular way of thinking about art can give us insight into our own training as artists. We recently interviewed him about how to cultivate a personal style and find our own voice. We also chatted with him about some ideas that we can use to market ourselves better.

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  • Download Free Presets for Adobe Lightroom
    Photography

    Download Free Presets for Adobe Lightroom

    Rafaella Bertorini shares the tools to improve your photographic post-production processes Rafa Bertorini (@rafabertorini) got into photography thanks to her mother. Her most vivid childhood memory is taking photos of everything around her with her mother's camera. It was her first hobby, and over the years it became a much greater passion. Now, it's her profession, her full-time job. These days, Rafa is a professional photographer and instagrammer focused on fashion, portraits, and travel.

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