On Domestika's blog, you’ll discover new ideas, trends, and projects from the world of creativity and design to find inspiration in and develop your creative side.

Illustration
10 Steps to Make a Self-Portrait Collage

Follow the steps below to create a unique collage with the materials you have at home I recently shared techniques and ideas to create collages at home with your family in a Domestika live chat. After the live chat, I received several beautiful portraits of the Domestika community. I decided to document the process of portrait collage as a photo tutorial to share with everyone. Read on as I explain how to create a portrait and give it a personal touch step-by-step: 1) Gather all materials We are going to use various types of paper, scissors, glue, and a mirror. We will not need pencils or markers. Best to keep them off the table. Now we need to look at ourselves in the mirror with affection. Remember that a self-portrait not only depicts us physically but also reveals something about us: what we feel, what we desire, what excites us and represents us.
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Masters & Creatives
Domestika Creatives: Shinji Nagabe

The Brazilian photographer talks about his creative process, his series full of ironic and surreal images, and his inspirations. Shinji Nagabe followed the same path as many photographers of his generation and those before. He began his career in journalism and hard news and witnessed the often harsh reality of São Paulo's periphery, a city where he also lived for some years. In his transition to a more artistic style of photography, which has earned him international awards and recognition, he developed a more commercial version of his discipline. Little by little, he achieved the look he was after: a hybrid of art and storytelling brought together in a very personal style. In his series, ordinary people are adorned with multicolored accessories, masks, plastic bananas, and bright objects that contrast against arid landscapes. The viewer's initial shock and bewilderment give way to reflection. The condemnation of poor living conditions around sugar cane plantations or of Brazil's complex political sphere, which the photographer's ironic gaze converts into a banana republic, set the tone for his work and other criticisms. In this video, Nagabe talks about his creative process:
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Illustration
Illustration Tutorial: Tips to Illustrate a Children's Story

Learn the method used by Teresa Martínez to transform text into images in the most efficient way Illustrating children's books can be a beautiful project but also one that requires a great deal of expertise when choosing the style and elements to use. After all, the goal is to synthesize a whole story into a series of images that capture the imagination of readers, both young and not so young. To help you start translating words into images, illustrator Teresa Martínez shares with us her typical workflow. She explains the importance of sketches and considers three ways in which an illustration can be related to the text.
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Illustration
Designers Against Coronavirus

Learn more about the project that is engaging with people through images all over the world During these difficult times, the response of the international creative community of all industries has been amazing. Many illustrators and designers have created images to inform, express solidarity, and spread a sense of hope. CaroselloLab, the Italian agency specialized in brand building and designing, wants to make sure all this work does not fade away. Over the past few weeks, they have built Designers Against Coronavirus, DAC, a platform gathering this artwork and making it available to the public.
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Art
3 Museums Offering 2000 Art Books

Learn about free use of art books to awaken your creativity If you are looking for inspiring content on fine art, art criticism, theory, or art history, the following resources will interest you. Three museums are letting you download and read thousands of books covering all of the above areas, as well as monographic studies on schools of thought, movements, and artists of all different eras and regions. Find out about the collections available in three large New York museums and some of their most significant treasures free to consult right now. The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Met has collected around 1,700 art books from across the world. You will be able to consult the contents table to check if any particular book has what you need to research. Each book also indicates any award or press review received and includes links to related work and areas of interest. You can download the books for you to keep or read them online here.
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Creativity Tutorials
Instagram Tutorial: How to Create A Content Strategy

Learn how to create a content strategy for each of the 5 channels on IG with Dot Lung
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TOP 10
Books to Inspire Your Personal Projects

We review a set of readings featuring Ji Lee, creative director of Facebook and Instagram, that will inspire you to turn your creative ideas into personal projects Ji Lee (@jilee) is an artist who works in many media (Photoshop, installation, street art, product design, illustration, video, photography, among others). Ji is passionate about working on personal projects, and they have hugely benefited his personal life and professional career. Among these are the Bubble Project, Word as Image, and Drawings for My Grandchildren.
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Cinema & Filmmaking
5 Websites For Downloading Free Stock Videos

Discover the best sites for downloading free footage to use for your video projects These are the top sites for downloading free stock videos to use in whatever project you’re currently working, be it audiovisual or web. All of the sites we’re recommending are free both for personal and commercial use, and some of them even offer photography, music, sound, and motion graphics content as well. Among their libraries, you will discover footage in 4K and a range of aerial shots that have been captured by drones or using time-lapse, as well as archives that you can search by category or using tags. Life of Vids This free selection offers videos, clips, and loops without any copyright restrictions, to use for both personal and commercial projects. The footage includes a range of shots of the great outdoors, the workplace, aerial shots, food, cities, people, and more. The only thing they do ask is to limit redistribution across other websites and, providing you’re happy to, credit the authors. You can upload your own footage as well.
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Typography
Download a Free Escher-inspired Typeface, by Manolo Guerrero

The Mexican designer has created a typeface from the alphabet he designed for 36 Days of Type and he’s sharing it for free 36 Days of Type–the challenge that invites graphic creators from around the world to design an alphabet, making one letter a day for over a month and publishing it on their Instagram profiles–is an incredible opportunity to get inspired and see how others approach the same brief in a completely different way, adapting it to their own styles and skills. It’s also the perfect breeding ground for projects like this typeface by Manolo Guerrero (@bluetypo), the Mexican graphic designer who heads Blue Typo who has shared it completely free for anyone who wants to use it. It’s a completely experimental typeface with which Guerrero wanted to play with perspective, creating a design reminiscent of Escher’s most interesting work.
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What is
What is a Graphic Designer?

Renowned designer Sagi Haviv reflects on the three essential characteristics of a modern designer Sagi Haviv (@sagi) is a partner and designer for the famous branding and design studio, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. The Animal Planet, US Open and Conservation International logos are among Haviv’s biggest designs. This influential and legendary designer has launched a course on Domestika focused on how to develop your own voice as a designer. Here are his thoughts on what exactly a graphic designer is. A designer must be multi-skilled You might think the work of a designer consists of simply organizing certain elements on the computer so that they are pleasant to the eye. However, Haviv asserts that a good designer must master a series of skills. They should understand drawing and typography, computers and clients, and resolve numerous problems, among other things. Their most important skill, however, is to be able to keep coming up with new ideas. This is the heart of their work: creativity.
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Design
Susan Kare: an Iconic Career

Susan Kare is the artist and graphic designer famous for creating icons and typefaces for, arguably, the best-known computer in the world There was a time, not too long ago, when computers were the domain of programmers alone. When the machines eventually made the transition to our own homes, they needed to become accessible and easy to use. They needed a new visual language to be understood by the masses. Every day we come across hundreds of icons and designs on our computers and cell phones, and we’ve built quite an expectation for high definition graphics on our devices. Let’s learn how this came about.
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Digital Marketing
5 Tips on Social Media Communication in Quarantine #StayAtHome

Content marketing expert Reina Rodríguez shows us how to get the right tone for your posts, strengthening you and your brand’s image Weird times these, unprecedented for most. It seems the only thing normal about quarantine is our need to communicate, stay informed, or—equally legitimate—combat boredom on social media. However, should you to get your tone wrong, you could end up accidentally upsetting your followers with your message. To understand what language to use or avoid, and how to make the most of the situation we find ourselves in to strengthen your social media presence, we’ve spoken with expert communicator Reina Rodríguez, who teaches the Domestika course Content Marketing for Social Media. She gave us her top 5 tips for getting the tone of your posts just right.
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Art
You Now Have 2.8 Million Free Images to Use on Your Projects

The Smithsonian Institution releases millions of high-resolution images from across its collections into the public domain The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum and research complex, a must-see attraction in Washington D.C. that documents the history and heritage of the United States while also highlighting the world's natural and cultural diversity. The collection held in its vault is, by all accounts, staggering. It is estimated to have nearly 155 million pieces altogether, including more than 146 million artifacts and specimens at the National Museum of Natural History. The Institution has started digitizing its entire catalog, a process that will take years to complete. Less than 25% of it has been digitized thus far! The site offers high-resolution 2D images and 3D models, as well as research datasets and collections metadata. The Smithsonian's 19 museums, research centers, libraries, and even the National Zoo have contributed. The database includes content across the arts, sciences, history, culture, and design, from portraits of American historical figures to 3D scans of dinosaur skeletons.
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Art
Don’t Miss: BBC Culture in Quarantine

The BBC's Culture in Quarantine is delivering a new program of art and culture to Brits at home In challenging times, art and culture have the power to unite, inspire reflection, and offer solace. Since museums, theaters, cinemas and other cultural venues across Britain closed their doors in March as a result of the national lockdown, the BBC has been collaborating with organizations and individuals–from the Tate Modern and the Royal Shakespeare to writer Margaret Atwood and scholar Mary Beard–to deliver an eclectic mix of art and culture to the public at home. The BBC’s Culture in Quarantine Festival grants access to shuttered exhibitions and performances, festivals which have turned virtual, as well as new work, offering a rich program available to consume via the BBC: online, on television, or over the radio. "It’s important during this period that we maintain access not just to news and information, but to the arts and culture. For many people, they are a valuable part of their lives and a way of stimulating imagination, thought, and escapism. It’s a vital part of who we are as individuals and part of our identity as a nation,” said Director-General Tony Hall. Here, we pick some of the highlights from the program that are sure to not only entertain but inspire.
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Creativity Tutorials
Photoshop Tutorial: How to Cut out Images so You Can Animate Them

Learn how to cut out objects from photos using the Polygonal Lasso Tool in Adobe Photoshop, and get them ready to animate in After Effects Photoshop–the most popular editing software in the world–is the best tool for cutting out objects or figures from photos. Once the selected part of the photo has been cut out, you can add any background, correct mistakes, or apply it to other images to create a collage. Today, we share a step-by-step guide, which is suitable even for those who are new to Photoshop. Given that the edges of an animated object needn’t be perfect, this is a great exercise for those who haven’t used this technique before and need some practice.
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Photography
Spark AR: Create Filters for Facebook and Instagram Stories

Learn to merge the real world with the virtual world, creating unique experiences with your designs Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories offer infinite options for all sorts of projects. You’re probably already familiar with filters, having used them regularly to enhance images and videos. But do you know which software you can use to create your own? Now, everyone can create their own filters thanks to Spark AR, an intuitive app that can transform your illustrations into augmented reality filters.
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Art
Sketchbook: 5 Great Masters Who Sketched

Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Goya all sketched before their masterpieces Seeing them hung in art galleries around the world, it can seem that the most important paintings in the world came out of nowhere. However, the creative process is often far more important, the tests and mistakes, in creating something really great. Many of the greatest artists in history would take their sketchbooks everywhere, drawing whatever interested them. Behind every masterpiece, there is an entire life of practice. See in the video below five of the biggest artists who also sketched.
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Illustration
5 Procreate Timelapses to Inspire Your Illustration and Lettering Projects

Observe, enjoy and learn with these time-lapses on illustration and digital lettering A timelapse is a video that compresses many hours or days into just a few seconds or minutes. It is ideal for sharing creative processes related to illustration, design or lettering. Aware of this fact, Procreate added a function that allows you to record your work process, save it as a video file and easily share it on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. At Domestika we love observing and learning from the best professionals and these timelapses have become the perfect way to discover their way of working. On the Domestika YouTube channel, you will find a playlist with exclusive timelapses made by a range of artists. Here, we recommend just five by some of the professionals who teach courses on our platform: Creating Characters From Scratch, with Microbians (@microbians) Gabriel Suchowolski, better known as Microbians, is a creative and art director specializing in character design. In this speed painting, he shows how to create an attractive character composition in Procreate, from the skeleton and the first sketch to the work of light and shadow, application of color and gradients, and the variation of lines.
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Illustration
5 Courses to Get Started With Acrylic Painting

Get started in acrylic with these online courses taught by some of the best experts Acrylic painting is a type of art that uses quick-dry plasticized material made of pigments contained in an emulsion of an acrylic polymer. Although acrylic paints are soluble in water, once they dry they are resistant to it. They also have great color versatility, making it the favorite medium of many artists. These five courses will introduce you to the vast world of acrylic and help you learn and improve your skills: Introduction to Floral Illustration with Acrylic, a course by Maya Hanisch Using acrylic as a means of expression, Chilean artist Maya Hanisch shares her creative process to fill all kinds of surfaces with life and character, using them as a canvas to make unique art pieces. In this course, Maya shares tips on composition, color and symmetry, and teaches you how to use the tools and materials you need to paint with acrylic. She wraps it up with tips for managing highlights, shadows and volumes that will give true character to your work.
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Creativity Tutorials
Embroidery Tutorial: How to Embroider Hair

Learn to use the nuance stitch and different tricks and techniques to create hair for embroidery portraits with Bugambilo Hair is something so fine, with so many shades, colours, shapes, and movements that it can be difficult to embroider it realistically. In this tutorial, Bugambilo goes over a series of techniques and tips for drawing hair with thread. So prepare your mouliné thread and needle and let's go.
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Cinema & Filmmaking
How to Set up a Sound Studio at Home

Advice for recording and producing your own audio projects at home Whether you work in audiovisual, music, or a specialized area of audio production, going that extra mile will not only help you stand out amongst the competition but will make your experiences more enjoyable and improve the quality of the work you produce. Where and how best to record audio at home is one of the first hurdles those looking to develop their own audio projects are currently facing (whether you’re looking to launch your first-ever podcast or to improve the quality of your video projects). While the amount of money and time you invest in a home studio is entirely your choice, it’s important for you to consider the following information before you decide for certain that you want to go ahead.
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Photography
Domestika Projects: Time Management Disorder

Discover the creative process behind Dorin Olaru in this self-portrait photo project
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Domestika
Share Your Sketchbook with the Community

Stimulate your creativity and share your work Creativity does not belong to a select few. We all have the potential to create and it is very important to foster that power since in doing so we are developing our imagination, intellectual curiosity, self-esteem, ability to solve problems, and many other things. Many people use a sketchbook to dump the ideas that spring into their minds, and it becomes their little treasure. We invite you to show us your creativity in this initiative: share your favorite page from your sketchbook, regardless of the technique used: it can be doodles, sketches, collage, photographs, lettering, illustrations, as long as it’s important for you and you want to share it.
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Creativity Tutorials
Calligraphy Tutorial: How to Care for Your Tools

Learn the techniques to clean, dry, and keep your calligraphy tools in great condition with Bego Viñuela When we finish our work, the last thing we might want to do is clean our tools. However, while our work dries, we have to clean and take care of our them. Calligrapher Bego Viñuela shares how to maintain our brushes, brush pens and watercolor palettes so they last longer.
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Illustration
Three Watercolor Timelapses to Boost Your Creativity

Discover different watercolor techniques in these speed painting videos Watercolor is one of the oldest illustration mediums. Almost everyone who has ever been interested in drawing and painting has practiced it. By diluting pigments in water, it is possible to create stains of enormous depth and beauty, which have been part of our cultural heritage for millennia. We share these three timelapses that will allow you to discover the work process of great creatives, or simply relax and enjoy the care and affection that they put into their strokes. Timelapse: Illustrating with Watercolor and Procreate, by Naranjalidad
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Art
Four Initiatives to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

If you’re experiencing creator’s block during quarantine, here are four initiatives to get your juices flowing Most creatives would agree that the best source of inspiration is to go out into the world and make observations, so what happens when you are stuck staring at the same four walls every day? If you’re experiencing creator’s block during lockdown, know that you are not alone. It’s OK to not be at the top of your game right now. This is a challenging time. So, first things first: give yourself a break. Being housebound will affect everyone in different ways–perhaps you are dealing with increased anxiety, feeling lethargic, and/or struggling to concentrate on work. You don’t have to be productive right now. But if you are itching to create and are not sure where to start, look to the creative community for support and inspiration. Right now, lots of brands and organizations are reaching out to their followers and the wider creative community to unite artists and inspire them to get started on different creative projects by setting fun tasks and launching competitions. So if you’re stuck for ideas, here are four initiatives that are sure to get your creative juices flowing.
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Typography
Four Tools for Transforming Your Handwriting Into a Font

These useful tools will enable you to create typefaces from your handwriting and drawings If you want to add a personal touch to your designs, here are four fun tools you can use to convert your handwriting into a font. From creating a digitized version of a loved one’s handwriting to turning your drawings into an alphabet of emojis, the following tools are great for experimenting with type–we’ve even included some more advanced options for those already familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator. Calligraphr This website (which replaced other tools such as Myscriptfont and PaintFont) allows you to create your own font following a simple process. All you have to do is download a PDF template that contains spaces for every letter, number, and punctuation mark. Afterward, upload the file with your handwriting (take a photo or scan the document) to download your font as an OTF or TTF file. You can start with a free trial that will allow you to create an unlimited number of fonts of up to 74 characters. The premium version includes more advanced features for professional needs, such as adding ligatures or adjusting the space between the characters.
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Digital Marketing
Discover the Do's and Don'ts of Instagram with Dot Lung

Do you want to make better use of your Instagram account to grow your following? Dot Lung, Mother of Social Media Dragons, gives us 3 Do’s and 3 Don’ts for Instagram to gain more followers and grow your social media presence Like other social networks, Instagram has become a perfect place to show our talents as creatives or promote our brand, but it is important to know the rules by which the platform is governed. To reach more people or, rather, reach those people who interest us the most: this is the obsession of many Instagram accounts. Do you want to take better advantage of your Instagram account to build a greater audience? Dot Lung (@dotlung), specialist in social networks, gives us 3 Do’s and 3 Don’ts for Instagram. Discover them in the following video:
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Illustration
The Greatest Albums Covers By The Man Who Defined The Jazz Look

David Stone Martin is the album cover artist who defined how jazz looked for the greats for Astaire, Coltrane, Fitzgerald, and dozens of other jazz greats He’s the only artist who worked with Fred Astaire, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and many more jazz greats without ever recording as much as a ditty. You might now know David Stone Martin’s name, but he made it onto the cover of Time Magazine eight times. Nowadays, record collectors scour stores searching for his work, not to listen to it, but to see it. Martin is perhaps the most iconic designer of jazz record sleeves of all time. His signature hand-sketched graphics, with just one or two bright colors, epitomized the sharp energy and spontaneity of the world of jazz.
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Interviews
Interview with Ji Lee, Creative Director at Facebook and Instagram

Lee explains the importance of personal projects and the power of actions over ideas Ji Lee gave us this interview to speak about how personal projects have influenced his career. Ji Lee strongly believes in the transformative power of personal projects and taking action on ideas that can feed your creativity and give life to your day to day. Lee also believes we are in the best era for creatives thanks to the democratization of technology and access to the internet. After eight years as Facebook and Instagram’s creative director, and Google’s creative director before that, Lee’s work is currently focused on helping brands and agencies create different kinds of campaigns for smartphones.
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