January 28th, 2008 by admin
Handprint.com is a strangely organized site that has some really great information regarding watercolors, the tools associated with the paint and their usage . Click here for the site map!
January 21st, 2008 by admin
As a bit of a filler until some new entries are finished — Interesting Instructional Animation Blogs!
Spline Doctors — Has several different contributors (who are teachers, apparently!), all discussing animation, from techniques to thought processes to interviews and more. They have tons of links to sites of interest. Definitely a place to visit if you’re into the production of animation.
Flip — This blog is written by an animator who has been working for six years and includes tip and tricks of the trade. It looks to be computer animation, so it’s definitely an interesting blog to note!
January 15th, 2008 by admin
Illustrator Nate Williams has had work appear in magazines, fashion, music, advertising and tons of other stuff. [See his portfolio]. He’s not exactly in the animation, comic, fantasy or anime artist world, but I think he’s got some good advice on being an illustration artist, which turns out to be good advice on being an artist in general.
Snippet:
Marketing your illustrations
All your marketing efforts should point back to your web site. A web site is a place where you can centralize information, keep it up to date, and gives the client a few actionable options (contact you via email, phone, subscribe to your RSS feed so they are updated whenever you post new work, book mark a piece of art they like, etc).
So the first thing you do is make sure you have a good web site.
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Informational
You can save yourself a lot of extra work by asking a few questions up front.
First, get the basic information:
* Dimensions
* Resolution
* Color or Black and white
* Important Dates
* etc
If this is the first time working with this person ask them:
* Why did you choose me for this project?(I like your concepts, I like your painterly style, your work is cute and works well for teenage girl magazines, your style is rough and dark and works well for this editorial piece on drug abuse, etc)
* Which pieces of work do you particularly like and why?(I like the man on the boat cause it’s funny, I like all the texture in the piece you did for Converse, etc)
* How did you discover my work?
This will give you a better idea of what the client likes about your work, why they chose you for this particular project and what they expect.
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January 15th, 2008 by admin
n.design studio is an interesting place, particularly if you’re into using Adobe Illustrator for vector drawings. Nick La, the website creator, is a web designer and has graciously put a ton of illustrator tutorials up that will help any artist interested in learning about vector art. I was able to use his photo tracing tutorial to practice tracing over my sketches with the vector tool. Still sloppy, but a decent start on getting comfortable with the process! He also has wordpress themes, dreamweaver tutorials and much more. Plus his site’s web design is pretty bangin’. 
January 15th, 2008 by admin
ArtistADay looks like a very interesting site — I really like their about page, since it is dedicated to the promotion of artists. So take a glance at them!
From their about page:
Artistaday.com’s goal is simple. We feel artists are under-valued, under-exposed, and generally under-appreciated. We want to bring attention to artists that otherwise don’t get the attention they deserve. If we can bring their art to one person that would have otherwise missed the opportunity to see it, we feel like we have made a contribution to the art community. If you like the artist’s work, take a second to leave a comment to tell them so. If you don’t, feel free to tell them that as well (constructive criticism is always appreciated). We don’t intend to showcase all the artist’s work, in fact we only show one or two images by the artist. Be sure to continue through to the artist’s website to find more of their work.
January 10th, 2008 by admin
This is a pretty cool blog — they detail a little bit about a lot of ink pens of every sort (markers, fountain pens, etc)– it’s a good way to get exposed to some pens maybe you’ve never seen! You may just find something interesting to try out