Color Associations to Help Optimize Full Color Prints

Each element in the color wheel can provoke different emotions and memories, even without the use of words. Full color prints for marketing solutions automatically get a lift with the help of these colors. Here are the basic hues used and what each of them convey.

• Black
Black is the absence of all colors, hence it is not really classified as a color. It is closely associated to concepts of elegance, classics and night, as well as death. This color is particularly useful when you want to set a formal mood.
It also provides a good background to other colors. Setting a hue against it easily makes a good contrast and allows the color or colors to be more prominent.

• White
White, as opposed to black, is the presence of all colors. It symbolizes purity, cleanliness, simplicity, goodness and peace. It can also set the tone for something formal, especially when placed side-by-side black. Together, they make an unsurpassable sense of classic style that does not appear boring or dull. By itself, it is a good color for products pertaining to cleanliness and clarity.
It is also not considered as a color, as in the case of black.

• Red
Red is a good color for messages concerning love, sensuality, passion, power and danger, quite broad compared other colors.
Red is said to stimulate the heart, making it beat and pump blood faster. This is why some people advertise using the color red. This is said to excite people and result to more favorable responses like impulsive buying. For example, sales are written in red, in the hope that more would be compelled to check it out and make a purchase. This color also makes signs more striking.
In addition, red is associated with femininity. This color makes a good connection with women and a good enticer for men.

• Blue
Blue depicts serenity, loyalty, skies and water. This is especially complements products and services that are part of the wellness industry as it triggers the memory to think about peace and calmness. This goes very well with other cool colors to provide a soothing relief to the eyes against stressful visuals.
Blue is seen as a male color, particularly those of darker shades. It is a good color to establish masculinity.

• Yellow
This color represents vibrancy, enthusiasm, youth and sunshine. It is a surefire force of attraction that provokes happiness and a good mood. It easily captures attention because of its intense effect on the eyes. This warm color can highlight any detail on full color prints.
Since it symbolizes energy, this is more appropriate for a younger generation of consumers. It sets an opposite tone to exquisite black.

• Green
Green is synonymous to nature. It is the color that is used for eco movements and other environmental concerns. It can also represent freshness.
Green is also the color of cash. It can set the tone for businesses concerning money transactions, and financial industries.
However, green has a negative connotation since jealousy, envy, greed and slime are also associated to it so be careful with the shade of green that you use.

• Purple
Purple is reminiscent of royalty, as well as certain things that go with it such as nobility, ambition and affluence. Recently, it has also become appealing to children, especially to little girls.

• Orange
Orange is a warm color much like red but it is 'less serious' than the latter since orange is a reminder of bliss, happiness and youth. It also is reminiscent of certain foods especially citrus fruits.

You can use these common color associations to evoke deeper and more memorable messages in full color prints. Clearly, colors are a close ally in effective visual advertising.

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please visit our website Full Color Prints For other information about us please visit Affordable Online Printing Company

How to Make Vector Art

Bitmap Images

There are two main types of graphics used on computers. There are Bitmap graphics, which is a type of image that uses pixels to store image information. A pixel is a tinny square on the screen and many of them are used to make up an image. As the image is made up of many tiny dots, the image is not easily scalable. If you try to enlarge it, the quality of the image will decrease.

Vector Graphics

The second type is Vector Graphics. Vector graphics are scalable. They do not use pixels to store information. A vector application, uses mathematical information to store what an image looks like. If you remember maths from high school, you can use co-ordinates to record positions, formulas to record the angles of lines, and shapes etc. This is a very simplified explanation, however, the point is that vector graphics do not use pixels. Because of this they are scalable. You may enlarge them, and the quality of the image will not decrease. So it makes them ideally suited for any situation where you may need the image in different sizes.

How to make Vector Art

To create Vector Art images you will need an application such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Coral Draw, or the free open-source alternative Inkscape. Creating an vector image is different to traditional applications in that you can't just use an eraser rub out parts of an image which you want to delete. Vector images are made up of objects, which have sizing handles to manipulate your images with. Once you master your application, professional and crisp scalable graphics are easy to create.

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The author of this article has a site which offers: Free Vector Art and Free Vector Clip Art Downloads

Metal Clays Work Like Clay, But With a Whole Different Result

If you have never worked with metal clays, also commonly referred to as silver clay, you are missing out on an exciting media. Similar to what you can do when you make clay art with ceramic clays, metal or silver clays can be rolled, sculpted, stamped, sanded, filed, engraved, drilled and pre-polished, all prior to firing. This gives you limitless possibilities for your art. The difference between these two mediums really shows when you pull your fired project out of the kiln. The results will amaze you and the doors will be open to significantly broaden your artistic talents. Don't be afraid to explore metal clays.

The most common metals used in metal clays are silver and gold with silver being used by the vast majority of artists. Metal clay is a combination of water, binders, and small particles of either silver or gold. It works just as your traditional clays do. This resemblance to conventional clays allows you to form pieces of almost any size from jewelry to larger sculptures. You can use the same tools you are using on your ceramic clays or shape your project by hand. When designing your work, keep in mind your shrinkage will be about 8 - 12 percent. Up to the point that you kiln silver clay there is not much difference from the clays you have in your studio today.

So what happens inside your kiln that is different from ceramic clays? With mineral clays the firing process bakes the clay into a solid finished form. The difference with metal clays is that inside the kiln the binders burn away and the metal powders fuse together. This leaves behind a solid and durable object. Essentially you are sculpting metal which makes it great for jewelry making. Form beads or pendants with silver clay and add small gold clay accents to make a stunning one of a kind piece.

Need more motivation to try metal clays? How about no need to invest in special equipment to try it out? Metal clays fire at lower temperatures in a short period of time. So if your kiln controllers don't have low enough settings you can fire these clays with a propane torch or even a gas stove top. Should you fall in love with metal clays as I'm sure you will, there are some great kilns available exclusively for metal clays. But to experiment and try your hand at this incredible media you can just pick up some clay and see what you create.

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Works just like traditional clays yet can be fired on your gas stove top if necessary. These are just some of the benefits of metal or silver clays. If they don't sell you on it, the beautiful finished pieces you will create are sure to do the trick. So why not order some silver clay next time your are in the mood to make clay art from The American Art Clay Company? As you probably know their website has everything from molds to kiln controllers at prices that allow you to try out new things with ease. Once you sculpt and kiln silver clay you will be hooked.

Learn How to Use Acrylic Paint

Acrylic paint is a popular painting medium and is very forgiving. Both beginning and advanced painters used acrylic. Acrylic paint is great for several reasons. First, it dries quickly. This may or may not be a good thing for you. It better for those who like to layer their paint. Oil paint takes a long time to dry and if you layer, it will take even longer if it ever does completely dry.

Acrylic paint can also wash out of your clothes with soap and water. You have to use terpentine or a similar solution in order to get oil paint out off the brush, your skin, and your clothes. That's if you're lucky it doesn't ruin your clothes. That said, acrylic is a better choice if you are a messy painter unless you wear some old clothes or an apron you don't mind getting paint on.

Before you start learning to paint, you need to get the proper tools. First, buy some acrylic paint. You can either get a set of a dozen or more colors, or you can just get a few of the primary colors and black and white, and then just mix all the colors you need. If you are a beginner, I suggest you get a set with small tubes until you get a handle of mixing.

Next, get some paintbrushes and canvas. You can usually get a small set of brushes that will give you a wide enough selection. You can either buy a canvas board, a stretched canvas, or stretch it yourself. I prefer the canvas boards that come in many sizes, big and small.

After you lightly draw out what you want to paint, although you don't have to do this, you can begin painting. Start with the lightest colors painting wide spaces. Layer in the darker layers as your previous layers dry. You can choose any brush you want to use, there is no right or wrong. Experiment and use what you like best.

As you go, become more and more intricate if you are doing a detailed lifelike painting. If you want to go abstract, let your imagination and paint brush guide you. Don't worry about if you are doing it right, just let yourself go. Add color where you want it and use as much paint as you feel is necessary. The more you paint, the better you'll get at it, and the more you'll enjoy it!

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Do you want to learn more about art and do you want to learn to paint acrylic? Go to BeginninginArt.com for more information about painting with different painting mediums, such as acrylic, watercolor, oil, and more.

Urban Art and Graffiti in Berlin - Urban Affairs Festival

Berlin has lived an important process of continual redefinition and change since the Reunification in 1990. Now it has become world-famous because of its international architecture, its performing arts and its cultural diversity. Moreover, Berlin rates as one of the best locations for street art and graffiti.

There is nothing unusual about graffiti covered walls in Berlin. The city has become a blank canvas for graffiti artists far and wide. The roots of graffiti culture can be traced back to West Berlin in the early 1980s, when the American-occupied sector was the reluctant melting pot of anarchist punks, Turkish immigrants and West German draft resisters. Nowadays, Germans accept graffiti in their cities because of the graffiti painted on the Berlin Wall. Once a symbol of division, the preserved parts of the wall now showcase some of the most famous graffiti in the world.

Grafiti may be vandalism, but it is also celebrated as street art and even regarded as an integral component of Berliner Strassenkultur. Some 45 street artists from nine countries are taking part in Germany's biggest-ever urban art exhibition, which has been extended to the end of August because of the huge interest. It is the URBAN AFFAIRS Festival. Located in a post-industrial building, this 900 sq. meter exhibition space is the ideal location for the largest and most comprehensive Urban Art exhibition in Germany to date. It is one of the most interesting showcases of more than 25 international artists in this context. Jochen Kuepper (riot arts) originally from Cologne is one of the initiators and curators of this ambitious project, which tries to contribute as an alternative platform for backjumps or planet process, both bigger but also more established festivals of street art.

Urban Art and Street Art are experiencing increasing global attention from significant collections, publications and institutions in the established art market, as well as an academic reappraisal of the genre within the art historical context. Works by selected street artists continue to break auction records and the fact that URBAN AFFAIRS participants El Tono and Nano 4818 are currently exhibiting at the Tate Modern Museum in London symbolizes the staggering development and widespread notoriety of this anarchic art movement.

Unlike other cities which have demonised its urban artists, street art today is an integral staple of the Berlin cultural scene. The whole city is a canvas. It has so many walls, so many atmospheric buildings. Berlin has become a magnet for artists who produce their art on concrete surfaces. Clubs and bars are also commonly decorated with graffiti. This is such a big contrast from most clubs and bars in the United States. The graffiti makes some travellers leery of venturing in to such establishments. Street art is gaining increasing global attention from the established art market, with work by its top exponents starting to break auction house records.

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Take a ride on an overhead commuter train and graffiti accompanies you on both sides for miles and miles of your journey. Rent your Apartments in Berlin to enjoy its amazing Urban Art!

American Impressionists in Old Lyme, Connecticut

What art lover can get enough of the impressionists? Not Emsworth, certainly, despite his vow to partake of more solid fare, and so last weekend found us in Old Lyme, Connecticut treating ourselves to a second generous helping of American impressionists this summer.

Old Lyme is home to the Florence Griswold Museum, the only museum I know of devoted solely to American impressionism. For a decade or two, beginning around 1900, a number of painters, including Childe Hassam and Willard Metcalf, came each summer to stay at Florence Griswold's boarding house and to paint in the congenial and picturesque surroundings of Old Lyme. Metcalf depicted its classy facade in one of his best-known paintings, May Night.

The boarding house is no longer the home of an art colony, but instead a small, unpretentious museum. The gardens have been nicely restored, a new gallery building (sadly devoid of architectural interest) was erected several years ago, and a good (though narrowly focused) art collection has been assembled.

The show that now fills the new gallery spaces (through July 27, 2008) consists of American impressionist paintings from the Terra Foundation. These were painted by Americans working from about 1885 and into the 1920s in Giverny, of all places, the French town where Claude Monet lived and tended his celebrated garden with its Japanese footbridge and lily pond.

These young Americans must have been quite a nuisance to Monet and his family. One of them, Theodore Butler, succeeded in marrying Monet's step-daughter, Suzanne Hoschede, an event memorialized in Theodore Robinson's painting The Wedding March, which is part of this show. Several of Butler's own paintings, which did not especially appeal to us, were also on display. Willard Metcalf, who collected birds' eggs (on display in this exhibit!), managed to be hired to teach botany to Monet's son and stepson.

Still another American, John Leslie Breck, apparently tried and failed to marry another stepdaughter, Blanche Hoschede. Breck surely did his best to curry favor with the girl's stepfather; he joined Monet in painting those tiresome haystacks. One wall of the galleries was wasted on a dozen small haystack studies by Breck.

But we did enjoy a large and impressive pastoral landscape by Breck entitled Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon), which shows the influence of Barbizon painters Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton. Everyone in our party agreed, however, that Breck had devoted too much of the canvas to the foreground.

The show in Old Lyme has a satisfying set of works by Theodore Robinson, some of which brought to mind paintings by Ernest Lawson we had recently seen in the exhibit from the Phillips Collection in Rochester. For example, Lawson had a habit of putting bare tree limbs in the foreground of a landscape as a sort of screen for the rest of the painting. Robinson's earlier painting, Winter Landscape, done in 1889, used the same device.

Lawson's work is characterized overall by the use of thickly applied, jewel-tone paints. But Theodore Robinson apparently used this technique first, as evidenced by my favorite of the Robinson pictures in this show, Pere Trognon and His Daughter at the Bridge.

The highlight of the show for me was a wall of several paintings by my favorite American impressionist, the bold colorist Carl Frieseke, who produced his best work in the second and third decades of the twentieth century while Matisse and Picasso were taking modern art in quite different directions. In Frieseke's Lady in a Garden, the stripes on the lady's dress become indistinguishable from the reeds through in which she is standing; she becomes one with cultivated nature.

For an art museum junkie who cares about American art, and Emsworth stands at the front of that line, the Florence Griswold Museum is worthy of regular visits for its excellent permanent collection. Most of that collection is, unfortunately, in storage when the museum has a traveling exhibition like the present one from the Terra Foundation occupying its new exhibition space. However, highlights of the collection, including this quintessentially impressionistic work by Childe Hassam, can be seen in the first- and second-floor rooms of the old boarding house. A particularly pleasing painting by William Chadwick shows the veranda of the boarding house as it was when Chadwick, Hassam, and the others were working there a hundred years ago. Amusingly, the panels of the kitchen cupboards were all painted by the denizens of the art colony back in the day.

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http://emsworth.wordpress.com

Cartoons Are Fun to Read and Watch

In the same way, cartoons are fun to draw. Hard to believe? But it is absolutely true.

Seeing our favorite cartoon characters, playing, enjoying, having fun on the screen, we have all wished to draw them on our books, copies, walls and wherever possible. We have all been searching for an answer to "how to draw cartoons?". Well, here is the answer.

You need not be a professional artist, you need not get special classes on how to draw cartoon characters, all you need is the desire to learn to draw cartoons.

The easiest method of cartoon drawing is distortion. As the name suggests, it refers to drawing things disproportionately. For-ex, the head and feet are drawn disproportionately to give a comic effect. This effect is very impressive and attracts many and renders a formal drawing into a cartoon all by itself.

Remember, every drawing starts with a few simple shapes - circles, lines etc - don't try to add any detail until you are done with the outline. If you are not a seasoned cartoon artist, you will confuse yourself with the details. Therefore, it is recommended to add details, after you are finished with the outline.

With a little practice you will find you can draw just about anything! So the conclusion is Everybody can draw cartoon, even if YOU do not have a talent to draw cartoon

I learn this method from Lou Darvas. Every one can draw cartoon, I can do it you can do it

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Semmy is a graphic designer and cartoonist, if you want to learn to draw cartoon you can visit his site at http://www.cartoonsdrawingsecrets.com

The Influence and Power of Flower Paintings

From rose flower paintings to flower garden paintings, you will find many different varieties of paintings that have to do with flowers. They may come in all colors of the rainbow, starting from red, and going all the way to indigo.

Flower paintings make quite an impact on a wall, whether to accent the rest of the room, to stand out in itself, or to give some color vibration to the room. But either way, the painting is there for a reason, and thats all that matters.

Flower field paintings are not the most common type of flower paintings, but they are definitely plentiful in flowers. A lot of times you'll see one color of flower, not a huge assortment like you might in close-up pictures. This color has a tendency to be yellow, which happens to be also very common in the real world.

It is very rare that you see a field of blue flowers, the ultra rare green flowers, or even orange flowers for that matter. Purple is another common color as well. But, having a painting of a flower field on a wall that make quite the difference, it's likely there to give energy to the room, as bright colors give off that energy.

Lets move on, similar to the flower field paintings is the flower garden paintings. These two have many aspects of similarity to them, but there is one huge difference, color. Like the flower field is mostly one color, the flower garden can vary in all types.

A flower field is usually dominated by one color simply because it is the most dominant flower in the area, or simply because there is a mass growth of that certain flower. A flower garden usually takes place in the garden of a home, where a large variety of flowers and plants are usually grown.

This is where you will see beautiful combination's of colors and many greens in the picture, this makes for a very balanced painting, both in color and intensity.

Another one of the great paintings that you will find is rose flower paintings. Roses are quite common when it comes to gardens, you almost always see at least one bushel of roses. They play quite a big role in the flower world as well.

Valentines Day leans heavily on roses as a symbol of love, especially red ones. Also at every flower shop, you will see a large variety of colors of roses, from red to yellow to white, even dyed ones that are green, blue, and even sometimes black.

Roses are all-around flowers that look great, and anyone can add their own style to a painting, unlike some flowers that are just too bland, or too complicated to look good.

You will often see roses all around the world simply because they are very easy to maintain and grow, as long as you keep the little chompers out of the way that eat the leaves, then you should be okay.

It never hurts to have a few helpful bugs to keep the little insecticides out of the way of your growth, because even little eaten leaves can lead to a dead plant in a matter of time.

Anyways, you never see rose flower paintings with eaten up leaves, it just doesn't happen. Overall, if your looking to purchase a flower painting, these are some great options to have. It's always nice to know what your looking for before you go out and buy something that you regret later.

Flowers are peaceful, and they never do any harm, it never hurts to take the time to water your plants even if you didn't plant them, they provide us with the oxygen we need to live, and as long as we provide them sunlight and water, they will keep us living.

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Kevin Bailey loves serenity.

Flower Garden Paintings and Rose Flower Paintings are two excellent examples of artwork that can change the feel in a room.

Find out more excellent information about Great Paintings and more.

Random Lines of Great Art - Automatic Drawing

When you are drawing an elephant and your son tells you it's a UFO, you seriously have trouble with your drawing. Avantgarde experimentation aside, when you can't portray what you're envisioning properly, or your drawings come out like a three year old drew them, you might consider trying another hobby wherein you'd be more competent. But drawing confusing pieces of art which look prima facie juvenile has been adopted by some of the greatest artists of the past generations.

Automatic drawing was used by the surrealists like Andre Masson as a means to express their subconscious thoughts. They may look like childish scribbles on the surface but there is great method behind it. By allowing 'chance accidents' to take over the creation process and by freeing the hand to more or less travel as it will, it frees the artwork from a lot of conscious control. Thus the drawing would be in part, a creation of the subconscious, portraying something that would otherwise be repressed. People who were into spiritualism like psychics were also fond of automatic drawing, frequently claiming that they were under the control of spirits.

These drawings would feature art that appear disjointed, random or lacking any cohesive form. These were said to be creations of a rationality beyond rationality. However even artists such as Masson would argue that automatic drawing was not completely automatic as the artist had to exert certain conscious intervention to make the artwork. Acceptable on a visual level or even slightly comprehensible. Masson believed that his breed of automatic drawing combined processes of conscious and unconscious activity. Even artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Jean Arp at one point in time used automatic drawing to create works of art.

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Though 'drawing like a three year old' has been used to great effect by the great masters, it also helps to learn the right tricks of the trade! If you'd like to draw like an ace instead, you can visit: http://lifehackery.com/2008/06/25/art-design/

The Midnight Buffet - Visual Medium

No one could resist the hard-boiled penguins, the egg fish with fins of carrot, and the fish eggs spooned out to resemble the ship's pool. Standing between Styrofoam busts of Napoleon and Josephine, the head chef, a Swede, nodded in response to innumerable compliments. His staff had succeeded in creating sculpture from food and in transforming the cruise ship's dining room into a floating museum.

It was the fifth night of our European cruise-a gift from a generous parent- and we were accompanied by more than one thousand merchants who had received the trip as a business incentive. A queue of these passengers, many of whom wore formal attire, began to form by quarter past eleven, though the French doors would not swing open until midnight. Ushers informed them that during the first half hour of the midnight buffet the food was to be seen but not eaten. Inside, a windmill and a cannon fashioned from bread would greet them; so too would a Styrofoam Eiffel Tower and casually leaning Tower of Pisa. There would be vases carved from watermelon rind that resembled pieces of Venetian glass, game fowl carved from apples, Gaudí-inspired pastries, and numerous questions about the tools that had been used to craft the radish mice. It would be a sensorium of edible art, camera flashes, and compulsive eating; a race to consume,both visually and gustatorily, the icons of Europe and la bonne vie.Yet, embedded within this display of European taste and decorum, other flavors were also present. At both ends of the buffet, we detected a bovine presence - namely, matching cow and bull heads carved from butter and garlanded

with fruit and vegetable flowers. The Scandinavian cruise ship employed 720 people from over fifty countries, but we had learned that many of the hundreds of members of the kitchen staff hailed from the Indian subcontinent, particularly from Goanese Christian communities on India's west coast. Though the waiters,servers, sommeliers, and assistants had been hired from port cities throughout Asia, South America, and the poorer countries of Europe, ethnic difference was either put on the proverbial back burner or rendered palatable. During dinner one night, for example, our Romanian waiter and his Indian assistant joined the rest of the kitchen staff to entertain the guests, singing a few lusty verses of "O Sole Mio" in English, in what was described as "fifty-two different accents." Australian and British staff members, nevertheless, stood closest to the microphones.

Despite the multicultural character of the crew, the cruise catered primarily to travelers from the United States. The food presented at most dinners was pseudo-continental fare, tailored to North American palates and waistlines, complete with low-sodium minestrone and nonfat crème brûlées. One ship employee bore the lofty title of "foreign ambassador" and sat at a small, walnut-paneled table ringed with a United Nations of miniature flags. When we inquired what her job entailed, she answered that she assisted passengers who couldn't understand English.

Even the waitstaff used English as a lingua franca; notwithstanding the occasional Indian film song sung under a waiter's breath as a table was being set, no other language was heard during meals or in public spaces.Many members of the waitstaff were young, with lofty aspirations, which ranged from completing medical school to sending money home to relatives who were finishing other professional degrees. No country could tax the crew's wages;once on board, they became citizens of the vessel. In exchange for months of

grueling hours, last-minute calls for overtime, and few moments of privacy in their shared rooms, the ship's employees would receive free room and board and a healthy salary, though little free time to spend it. Crew members had few opportunities to leave the ship and indulge themselves; one such occasion did occur,though, when the ship arrived early in Barcelona. We invited our Romanian waiter to go dancing, and upon departure he was made to deposit his ship's identification card as collateral with the only crew members obligated to remain on board-a core of Filipinos, the lowest group on the ship's totem pole. The staff had no need of passports. The ship was their floating nation.

In struggling to define the style of art represented by the midnight buffet, one may be attracted to the notion of kitsch, yet absolutely no irony was evident in the display or reception of its edible sculptures. In fact, the midnight buffet may have more in common with the Dutch still life, especially seventeenth-century pronk paintings ("pronk" meaning "to show off"), which offered lavish displays of food to the viewer in order to "lubricate man's gaze amid his domain."1 In any case, the cow and bull heads require a different interpretation. Made from butter-which along with milk, urine, dung, and curds constitute the ritually pure and purifying "five products of the cow" for many Indians-these divinely garlanded bovine heads physically bracket the midnight buffet. While this may suggest the midnight buffet as a sanctified arena, such a reading could hardly have been anticipated for the predominately American passengers on the ship. Since these bovine heads were the only edible objects at the buffet that were never even tasted, their role was more performance than discourse, produced by and for the staff-perhaps in play but surely not in jest. Still, questions linger: To what extent does a visit to the midnight buffet, replete with its symbols of the cities that the ship had visited (or those that could and should be visited by a sister ship on the cruise line), constitute a visit to every site/sight in Europe worth eating? What are the logistics of such consumption by proxy? As an Indian parallel, consider the twelve jyotir lingas, or fiery phallus emblems of the god Shiva. Although these lingas of light are conventionally located in twelve different Indian cities, they have their counterparts in the city of Banaras so that by visiting the one, many locals claim, one can visit the other. Or better yet, as is inscribed on a souvenir plaque that contains representations of all twelve sites, a devotee can have darshan or an embodied visual engagement of all the jyotir lingas through darshan of this plaque. As one scholar has written, "the important thing about the location of these . . . is not that by being in one place they be visited more conveniently, but rather, by being in this one place, they need not be visited at all."

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ProVFX Visual Effects and Editing School has been written by Pranay Rupani who is a Freelance Writer.

Tips on Pencil Portrait Drawing - Hair

Drawing hair is not all that difficult but it does take quite a bit of time to make the result to look real and natural. In fact, it usually takes two to three times longer to do the hair than it does to do the rest of the portrait. So, do not get frustrated and know that you will have to spend the time.

Here are some pointers to help you succeed at drawing the best hair possible:

* Line Drawing As always, the first step is to produce a line drawing that shows the overall shape of the hair and maps out some of the main value areas. At this stage, you should look at the hair as a shape and ignore all details such as strands. Do observe however how the hair flows, i.e., take note of the growth directions of the hair.

* Values Next, using the map you created on your line drawing, start laying in the major values, i.e., the major darks and lights. Make sure you always follow the growth direction of the hair. This is very important. Follow the flow.

* Blending At this stage, you can blend the darks out towards the lights. Then, reapply the darks and pull them into the light areas using a tortillon or a pencil (if there is not enough graphite on the paper). Work from the dark areas into the light areas. After that, use a pointed kneaded eraser as a drawing tool to pull the lights into the darks.

This process should be repeated several times until you reach the desired look of fullness.

* Curls If your subject has curls, you should treat each curl as a separate object with its own darks, lights, and highlights. At the same time, make sure that each curl fits into the overall layout of the hair. This means, for example, that a particular curl should flawlessly connect to its neighbors.

* Shadows Often the hair cast a few shadows onto the forehead. These cast shadows should always be rendered in the correct value. You will be surprised how much they contribute to the realistic appearance of the hair and the subject in general. They very much help to show the fullness and three-dimensionality of the hair.

* Forehead The forehead, like anything else, has a certain value. When the hair falls over the forehead, it is important to apply the same forehead value to the areas of the forehead that are visibly located under the hair. If you leave these areas white, you will loose a lot of realism.

* Gray Hair The illusion of gray or white hair is created through using pencil strokes sparingly and through more blending with a tortillon or a paper tissue. A soft and silky look can be created by using the kneaded eraser to lift out the appropriate.

Much more can be said about the drawing of hair. This includes such subjects as hairstyles, men's versus women's hair, thin hair, hair color, etc. However, the above remarks will suffice to set you on the right path. Later, you can always consult an advanced work on hair drawing.

Author Info:

Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter. Samples of Remi's pencil portraits and other articles can be found at Remi's Pencil Portraits.

Tips on Pencil Portrait Drawing - Preparing the Photograph

Once you have acquired an acceptably clear subject photograph from your customer, the question remains what do you do with it? Well, you prepare that photograph to be used as a reference for your pencil portrait drawing effort. The preparation procedure I will describe works well for me and I have been using it for years. Of course, as you get better at pencil portrait drawing you may want to adapt the procedure to better suit your own working habits. So, here we go:

* First, I scan the photograph into my computer at a fairly high resolution. You can always reduce the resolution if you feel that this will better suit your purpose.

* Then, I bring the scanned image into a graphics computer program such as Photoshop and adjust the brightness and the contrast so it brings out the best in the subject. This is also the time to transform your color photograph (if that is what the customer gave you) into a black and white (grayscale) image.

* Next, I adjust the size of the image. For that, I focus on the size of the head, i.e., the vertical distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin. The best distance to work with is between 9.5 and 10.5 inches which is about life-size.

* Keeping the size of the head fixed, I now crop or expand the image to a size corresponding to my drawing paper. For example, if I am going to draw on a 14 by 17 sheet of paper, my image will be about 10 by 13 inches. This leaves about 2 inches of empty space all around the edges of my drawing paper.

At this stage I also pay attention to the composition, i.e., the layout of the final image, the relationship between the subject and its environment, and how much of the subject, other than the head, I will represent. Make sure you do not change the already established size of the head when you manipulate the overall size of the image.

* Next, if you wish, you can draw a grid onto the image. I often use a grid consisting of 1 by 1 inch squares. So for a 10 by 13 inch image you will have 130 squares to work with. Photoshop has the option to easily draw such grid lines over an existing image.

Don't worry, using a grid is an age old tradition and does not constitute "cheating". Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Edgar Degas, to name only a few, all made use of grids. However, you should also keep on practicing without grids and draw directly from the real world where the sizes and proportions usually differ from the corresponding ones on your drawing paper. Later, when you get much better, you may want to increase the size of the squares and eventually dispense with them altogether. But, for now, you can rely on grids. They are, after all, just the ideal tool to use when drawing from photographs.

* Finally, it is time to print out the manipulated image in black and white (grayscale). You are now ready to start drawing your pencil portrait. Note, that after you scanned in the original photograph you do not need it anymore. Put it away carefully so you can give it back to your customer in its pristine condition. Do not loose or misplace the original photograph. Above all, do not burn it!

With this, you are now ready to create your first pencil portrait masterpiece.

Author Info:

Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter. Samples of Remi's pencil portraits and other articles can be found at Remi's Pencil Portraits.

Things Required to Make Oil Painting Easier

The process of painting with varnishes is popularly known as oil painting. Varnishes are a combination of oil like the linseed oil with the resin such as pine resin. Other than linseed oil, oils like poppy seed oil, walnut oil and safflower oil. Oil paintings provide extremely versatile color combinations. For a thick coat oil paints can be used in impasto, which is a textured application where the marks of the paint brush remain visible. They can even be used for a thin layered image like glazes.

Here are some oil painting tips which will make your painting experience more enjoyable and disciplined.

• First the selection of a non porous palette is of vital importance; it would be extremely useful if he would place it in the same order as you paint so that it could be dipped instinctively thus constituting a good flow of painting. Always pour a good amount of whites. Arranging the colors at the end of the palette is considered as good practice thus providing space in the center for mixing.

• It is always suggested to invest in a good set of brushes because cheap set of brushes often tend to lay their bristles. Sometimes it extremely becomes difficult to clean the brush, then it would be suggested that you mix some thinner along with some liquid soap, the brushed can be dipped and then it could be wiped with a newspaper.

• At times it becomes a major chaos to find the right combination of colors to get a lighter combination or a darker shade. The commonly used colors come from the spectrum viz; red, blue, violet, orange, yellow, green. The chaos would be easily solved once we become aware of the properties of colors value, intensity, temperature and hue. Intensity or purity of a color indicates how bright or dull the color is For example when orange is directly used from the tube it has higher intensity. On the other hand value of the color refers to the darkness and the lightness of the color. Colors vary in temperature from warm yellows to cool violets. Hue is the synonym of color like apple and cherry are shades or hues of red. Ivory black can be avoided to be used for underpainting or outlining as it dries much slower than the rest of the oil paints.

• To avoid cracks in the painting always follow the fat over lean i.e.; the proportion of oil should be increased for each additional layer because the lower layers penetrate the oil of the layers above, thus causing cracks.

• It is much preferable that the oil paintings should never be dried in the dark this will constitute to the formation of a thin film of oil raised above thus yellowing the paints.

Author Info:

Ben Jonson is a Copywriter of http://www.paintingmax.com

He had written many articles in various topics. For more information visit: Barbizon School

Contact him at paintingmax.ben@googlemail.com

The Cycle of Influence on Post-Modern Art

Art always changes with the movement of the wheel, with the different ages the stroke of the artist on the paper also changes. Since the romantic period we observe a kind of modern expression in the artist painting which even challenge the classical beauty of the universe. An explosion occurs in this type of art, the symbolist, expressionist, primitivist, realist, cubism and certain kinds of abstractions are noticed in modern paintings. New kind of expressive modes was invented in this modern art. The neoclassical foundations of the history of art and aesthetics found that this modern artist in their painting emphasized on ideal beauty and intrinsic hostility. This continue with the portrayal of aberrations, accidents, failures of the everyday world, hurdles and struggle for existence in this world etc which are beautifully displayed in realist imagery of this artists. Mannerism's has a great impact on modern paintings.

Do you remember the images of Horace; they are totally ornamental in their look. The relationship of the comic with the ugly and the horror is portrayed brilliantly in the work of the eighteenth century artists. The new appellation "post modern" was finally adopted by Jenecks in 1976 to describe a new style of art whose main characteristic is heterogeneity. The changes that are associated with the post modern art are actually the result of the semiotization. In the post modern art, the narrative mode was abolished and a certain ritualistic quality is adopted by the artists. The goal of the artists in the post modern paradigm is no longer behavioral but it becomes cognitive in their approach. The post-modern is the art of the artificial environment.

In the post modern era, aesthetic expression is conveyed more successfully by systematic destruction of traditional aesthetic practice. The conventional rules of paintings are broken and heterogeneity, faking especially aesthetic cheating becomes the desire of every artist which are committed in paintings intentionally. Post modern art is nothing else but a critical display of broken conventions and rules. However it is not known properly to what degree the sex images play the importance in modern paintings. Nowadays all type of art is available and you will be stunned to know that you can buy art online even.

Author Info:

Jennifer Salerno is a veteran in Internet marketing and a wordsmith par excellence with countless articles on a wide range of subjects to his credit. Online Art Gallery

Christian Art Work - What it is What It's Not

Looking for Christian art work?

Before you buy your next Christian art work to adorn your walls, think about what it is and is not to make sure you have a quality product as well as making sure you represent Christ to the best of your ability.

Christian art work is not necessarily mass-produced, cheesy, or made poorly. It is not necessarily outright religious, portraying a cross, Jesus, an angel, or a church.

Genuine Christian art work is work that truly inspires! This may include a religious symbol or an important Biblical figure, but it may not! What about gorgeous scenery, like a mountain or a beach scene? Well-done photographs and paintings of landscapes can inspire, too! After all, God made the mountains and beaches and more!

He gave His many different talents to everyone, especially the gift of art to some! You can see his wonder everywhere! A beautiful drawing of a rose, a sweet picture of your favorite wild animal...surrounding your home or office with this can also be Christian art work! It gives your eyes a visual feast, a place to rest, a reminder that God is in control!

But Christian art work is different in that it does not destroy but builds up. Perhaps the art work makes you think, but it is never evil or self-serving! It does not glorify godless behavior. The ultimate goal of Christian art work is to bring you, and others who see your art work, into a more intimate relationship with Jesus!

How can Christian art work do that? Because as the creator of all things, especially art, he can redeem, heal, touch, encourage, lift up, especially through art!

Why be careful and discerning about what Christian art work is and is not? Because if you put a piece on your walls, realize you are reflecting Christ. Just because a piece of art is stamped with the name "Christian" does not make it necessarily excellent! Poor quality reflects poorly on God, giving nonbelievers ammo to discredit us. And that discredits God!

On the other hand, high quality work, whether blatantly Christian or not, stands out in today's world of dark art that glorifies evil. It's not that we should be afraid to put something that smacks of religion on our wall for fear of offending. If it's good, display it! But along with it, other subjects of art work can be just as Christian and just as inspiring!

Author Info:

For more ideas on how to use Christian art work as a ministry, visit http://www.angelartswebstore.com and http://www.angelarts.biz, including Christian art work, inspirational cards, jewelry, originals, giclees, an online inspirational art gallery and more, including a FREE e-booklet that combines a gospel message with art!

Painting - The Fundamentals of Painting

Looking plus coming across

A passer by appears at a surroundings or a scene. An artist gives the look in addition to sees beyond the purely physical vision. Bask in this comes the desire to paint. Thus gander, glimpse as well as you will detect a subject matter that you delicately ought to interpret.

The Essay

Get ready a piece of rigid card stock around 8 inches prolonged with 6 inches wide. Create a 5 by 4.5 crawl windowpane in the card stock. Hold this card prior you, between your master eyes along with the focus you have chosen. Converted the card in addition elsewhere or closer to you pending your subject is framed, as you would be with a camera. You now have your subject as it will appear on the canvas.

Don't be inside a sprint to start. Listen to your impression, your artistic sensibility.

* What made you choose this issue?

* Whatsoever stands out near to it?

* Whatsoever your vision of it?

* Do you notice numerous colours or do some shapes arouse you?

The matter that attracts you is at an equivalent instance your rival. Despite how nice-looking it is, it may well betray you and observe you turn your painting into postcard material.

Geometry is the foundation stone on which rests the composition of the painting. It doesn't area if it doesn't just reflect reality. The subject attracts you. The artists temperament must eradicate the issue.

The personality and sensitivity of the painter will allow one another with colours or greys in addition to extend the painting derive pleasure from the subject. You catch a glimpse it because it appears inside your soul, everything that's disappeared is to recreate this vision you have had of it.

French novelist Andre Malraux remarked that many people don't like painting, excluding they are also sensitive to the issue that impacts somewhat mentally on one another - horses, boats, tom cats inside baskets.

The White Canvas

The Environment

You meet up with two options to choose from: start off with a white canvas, as a result a white background, or commence on a prepared art. As your background, you are already aware about the tone of your canvas. You additionally identify if you're coping with cooler tones equivalent to greens plus blues, or warmer tones like oranges, reds as well as browns.

So you can as a whole or partially cover in the base tones from your canvas that best suites your 'atmosphere' of your subject.

Sketch

In addition to the remedy of a charcoal crayon on pallid work of art, or a fine paintbrush, sketch the outlines in black or Prussian blue. Don't be overly definite; you have reached with the rough draft.

Painting

Primarily, plan your palette of colours. Put in the primary colours you'll crave, not forgetting black also pallid. Formulate the tones that will help you to get started in the early stage. Now you can start to paint.

Bear in mind: spend more time on subject rather than on a painting.

Frequently come back to your focus. Occasionally, come again and check and arrange your palette, attaining sure it's not prettier than your painting.

Author Info:

Grab my free ebooks filled with tutorials.

http://www.paintonmycanvas.com

Do you want to learn how to draw and paint with simple steps? Follow these steps for your perfect creativity flow.

http://www.paintonmycanvas.com

Murtaza Habib has helped hundreds of newbies to start their painting courses, now you can do it too...

Tips on Pencil Portrait Drawing - The Line Drawing

In this article I will discuss the importance of a line drawing in producing a pencil portrait drawing. I will also discuss the details of rendering such a drawing. We start with a gridded reference image that has the same dimensions as the drawing we will produce. By the way, a gridded image which has the size of your actual drawing, will usually be too large for most printers to handle in one piece. So, print out the image piece-wise on regular 8.5 by 11 inch paper.

The first step is to draw the same grid on your drawing paper that you drew on your reference image. Use an HB or F pencil with a sharp point and draw very lightly. Remember that this grid eventually will have to be erased.

Once we have drawn the grid we are ready to start putting in the contours of the subject.

The advantages of using a grid are many. Here are a few:

* You can draw the content of one square at a time.

* All proportions and placements are easily discerned.

* Negative spaces become more evident.

* Rendering the correct perspective is greatly simplified.

Here are some guidelines on drawing the outlines (line drawing) of the subject in the photograph:

* For now, only draw lines, i.e., do not do any shading yet.

* Draw lightly and loosely. Use maybe a 2B or 3B sharp pencil. Sharpen your pencils frequently.

* Although you should concentrate on one square, you should not loose sight of the overall structure of the drawing. For example, make sure that the subject matter smoothly transitions from one square to the next. Stand back once and awhile and inspect your progressing drawing from an overall perspective. While concentrating on a particular square, also use your peripheral vision to keep an eye on the neighborhood.

* At this stage, accuracy is of the essence. All drawing at this point is judging lengths and angles within a single square. Use short soft lines which, if needed, you can easily erase.

* Put a sheet of bond paper under your drawing hand so you avoid smudging of the already finished portion of your drawing or of the grid.

* Also draw in the contours of the shadows and other worthy details you notice on your subject. At this stage your task is to produce a detailed map of your subject. We are actually in the process of readying the drawing for the next phase, i.e., shading.

* Try to see in terms of shapes or masses and draw the contours of these shapes and masses. Drawing is doing two things simultaneously (actually, more than two). On the one hand, you need to concentrate on that one current line you are drawing (its length and angle) but simultaneously you should always be aware that this line is part of a shape.

* Make use of the concept of negative space. Also, once and awhile, turn your reference image as well as your drawing upside down or sideways. This often gives you a better perspective on lengths and angles.

* In fact, at this stage, try not to be aware that you are drawing a definite subject. Look at each shape as just a blob without meaning but with definite dimensions and a definite orientation. This will help you with seeing and reducing the involuntary introduction of preconceived notions about noses and such.

* Look at your reference image frequently and carefully.

* Make some choices. What is important? What can you leave out? Drawing is often an exercise in elimination of unnecessary detail.

In this fashion, continue working out one square after another until you have a line drawing of your entire subject. By now, you should already see a fairly good likeness of your subject. Review in detail the entire drawing and make corrections wherever necessary. This is also the time to erase most of the grid. When you are satisfied, you can lightly spray the drawing with workable fixative, just enough so it does not smudge but you can still erase things if you have to.

Author Info:

Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter. Samples of Remi's pencil portraits and other articles can be found at Remi's Pencil Portraits

Fake Magazine Covers With Your Picture

Why not you add more visual effects for your gifts, are you ready for that, so you can do it by creating a professional personalized magazine cover with photos of your choice. All things can be customized to suit your needs and your favorite looking.

What are occasions this idea would be good for? Believe me; all occasions can be better with this idea. All occasions like Birthdays, Father's day, Mother's day, Graduation day, Holidays and all special events. Send a unique gift to your lover and make it say WOW.

You can also create a personalized magazine cover for your self to record a special event or moments in a special holiday. There are hundreds of ideas you can use when you decide to create a personalized magazine cover.

How can I design my personalized magazine cover? You can order a professional design from an online service, there are very good websites that allow you to choose your personal photos, content and design. And they will send your personal magazine in a heavy glossy paper.

So, if you want to send a unique and a so cool gift to your lover, you can create this unique gift that will be good for all occasions. If you want to record a special event for yourself, you can record it in your personalized magazine that includes your main photo in the front and the other photos in the back of the cover. I don't know cool gifts like this one, so enjoy sending this one.

Author Info:

Design your personalized magazine cover
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