True Creativity

Creativity is making something new and the way to make something new is to be you. We are each unique; that's how we were created. To be creative we need to know and love ourselves as we are. The way to know ourselves is to come to the place of stillness and peace—of oneness. That's where we find our true selves.

We need to be authentic which means being the whole of who we are—the happy and the sad, the good and the bad. We need to share our whole selves even when sometimes we'll be a bit idiotic—that's also how we come to know ourselves.

Creativity comes from our life experience, our own particular insights and know¬ing. It helps if we live our lives fully and honestly—we're creating from that place. We don't need to think too much to be creative; we just need to dive in and do the work. Diving in is our decision to begin. Ideas come in the midst of working. Shall we do it this way or that? Watch for the moment of insight, then act on it without hesitation. That's what it is to fol¬low inspiration. Toss out hesitation, doubt and worry. We need to be bold.

All artists take inspiration from other artists. Creativity is making new connec-tions between established ways of seeing too. We learn from each other. At first, we may imitate in order to understand and acquire skill or to internalize what's possible. But soon we need to strike out on our own or we'll only make second-hand art. We're more than that. We can set off on our journeys, like pilgrims—there isn't any final destination. The journey goes on, unfolding with each new exploration, one thing leads to the next.

To be creative means to be in the flow of vital exploration. Whatever we're doing, we can throw our whole selves into it. Why hold back? We'll feel alive and excited when we do our very best. We can't know what will happen in advance—we're diving into into the unknown. Who knows what's there? Learn to trust that there are gifts everywhere and look for those gifts. When disappointment or failure comes, and it will, find its gifts too. We each have our own art journey and life journey. The important thing is to be ourselves and to be happy to be ourselves.

Logo Creation: Symbol - infographic

Today’s infographic about logo creation: symbol.

+ click on image to enlarge

The Ways We Draw

There are many kinds of drawing: realistic (as much as anything can be), subjective, schematic, abstract, cartoony, impressionistic, expressive, controlled, free, tortured, obsessive, spare, inventive. We could go on. And on. But we'll divide drawing into three main categories: making marks, drawing what we see, and drawing from imagination. Children begin with making marks, basic scribbling, then go directly to drawing from imagination. As we grow older, we want the skills that come from doing observational drawing so that we can draw whatever we want.

Here, we'll begin with making marks and go directly to drawing what we see. Then we'll come back to where many of us left off as children to drawing from imagination but this time we'll do it with heightened awareness, a sense of our own purpose, and greater skill. Our goal is to find our creative voice, not to stop with careful rendering. There are now cameras to record the world around us, but we can still benefit from drawing it, if we're so inclined. Careful observation gives us a more intimate connection with our world, and knowing how to draw what's around us, in one way or another, can give us greater freedom of expression. Even if we focus on this kind of drawing, we want to discover our unique, imaginative self in it.

We'll soon see that drawing begins to ask questions questions like, who are you and what do you want to say or do? We don't need to answer right away, just know that the questions will arrive, one after the other, at awkward moments, niggling like uninvited guests. We can be well mannered, of course, and hospitable, too. We provide a bed and a little food, but we'll go on with our lives and get to know our guests in time. We can't rush these things. Still, it's good to know that in drawing we don't just learn skills; we come to know ourselves as creative beings.

So, now, let's begin. Get out your paper, your pencils, charcoal, pens. Get out your ink and brush. From a tree outside, pluck a twig to dip into ink and draw with. As you read what follows, try each kind of drawing yourself. By experimenting, you'll start to get that feeling of freedom we need so much in making art and in living a full, rich life.

"All things come from nowhere. How vast, how invisible, no way to explain!" —Chuang Tsu

Drawing with ink

Drawing with ink is the most exciting drawing material in my view. Although pencil and charcoal have certain attributes and characteristics, drawing with ink is so much more demanding and at the same time versatile. The very nature of the ink as a substance and the multiple ways that it can be applied as a medium gives it a wider spectrum of use both in traditional and experimental ways.

Personally, I have found that working with ink can help correct our weaknesses and enhance our strengths. Artists tend to develop traits and these tend to fall into two types. We can be artists who are very much controlled by our intellect or thinking processes, and use our materials accordingly. Alternatively, we can function by allowing the processes to take us to a visual conclusion that is furnished by a more emotional, expressive approach.

Each one of these ways of working has to have a bit of the other in it to bring about some form of aesthetic order. Ink is a medium that allows these innate qualities to flourish.

** Put your ballpoint pen to shame with these tips.

system for hard pencils

Hard pencils are mostly appropriate for drawings requiring accuracy. As we have pointed out previously, such drawings are usually done by engineers, industrial designers, graphic designers and architects. The final drawings they produce have to be to scale and precise so that other people, such as craftsmen, can follow the instructions to construct or make the designed object. These drawings come in a number of different types of perspective, or parallel projection systems, ranging from flat orthographic plan or elevation drawings to 3D perspective illustrations.

HARD PENCIL

Hard pencil marks have very little variation in the range of mark making. They only usually vary through a linear progression. Tone is usually made from a build up of crosshatch effects. Hard pencils are denoted by the letter H. As with soft pencils, they come in a range, comprising HB, H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6H, 7H, 8H and 9H (the hardest).

These pencils are mainly for use by designers, architects and people who produce precise technical diagrammatic drawings for which a fine, accurate line is essential, such as perspective or other projection drawings. Although the marks made with hard pencil show very little variation it can be used in an expressive manner. As with soft pencil, tone can be built using a cross-hatching system, although the result is much finer and more formal, the cross-hatching emerging out of a series of linear progressions.

THE PENCIL

A pencil is a rod of graphite encased in a soft wood such as cedar, about six or seven inches long and exposed at one end.Crude forms of graphite pencils were first used as early as the 17th century. Before this, rods of lead or silver (known as silverpoint) were used as implements for making drawings. The modern form of lead or graphite pencil with its wooden encasement first came into use about the beginning of the 19th century.

The pencil fundamentally works by pushing or pulling the lead end across the surface fibres of the paper, which act as graters, breaking up into small flakes. Pressure on the pencil pushes the flakes of lead into the fibres of the paper to leave a mark or trace.

Graphite, a form of carbon, also known as mineral black or plumbago, is the major constituent of the modern pencil. The softness or hardness of a pencil varies depending on the amount of clay mixed with the carbon. The softest varieties of pencil contain little or no clay. Artists and designers will use a range of pencils, varying their choice according to the effect they are trying to achieve.

As the graphite is worn away by use, it can be repeatedly exposed. This is done by the action of sharpening the pencil using a purpose-made sharpener or blade. Sharpening and exposing the graphite should be regarded as an important act, because how it is done changes the type of mark you make with it. There are many ways of sharpening. A particular point produces a particular result. The artist should experiment to discover what is possible and how to make each type of pencil meet his particular needs at any given time.

The pencil can be used for a variety of purposes and, as with any material you use, you must be fully aware of its potentials and its limitations - different pencils and types are designed for particular uses. In the ensuing chapter some of these practices will be revealed with particular relevance to the appropriate pencil or graphite material. The marks shown over the following few pages give some idea of the wide range of mark making possible. When you have looked at them, take each of the pencils in turn and see what marks you can make.

Apart from being very stimulating and a way of opening your mind to new possibilities with your drawing, you will find it increases your ‘feel’ for the pencil itself. As artists, what we feel through the materials we use has an affect on what we produce, and familiarity with those materials is vital to a good outcome.

What is Drawing and Sketching?

Drawing is not just making lines with a pencil to represent a figurative scene. Drawing can be done with tone, line, texture, colour, pen, stick and ink, pencil, charcoal, brush, pen, pastel, crayon, in fact almost any medium.

There is often a very fine divide between drawing and painting, as a drawing may be tinted or coloured. Drawings are usually associated with the above mediums, but you may well ask yourself the difference when using a brush as to whether you are painting a line or drawing it? Painting, for our purposes we will assume that a colour work covering nearly all the surface and done with a brush and paint, pastels, or laid by tools such as rag, knife will constitute painting. A Drawing we will consider as done in linear colour, or a little tinting on a drawing, linear work, tonal work other than in paint, or textural work other than in paint. Sketching should not be considered an excuse for a bad drawing, merely a fast and perhaps looser drawing which is slightly governed by constraints in time and has to give maximum information in its limited content. An artist such as Munch with his style of using linear strokes of paint almost seems to border on drawing with paint!

Neither does drawing mean a photographically correct representation of a scene. Drawing can lean towards the abstract, even decorative.

I will explore drawing under the following headings =)

Materials and Tools, The Illusion of Perspective, Shapes and drawing skills, Techniques and examples in Line, Tone, Texture.

 

  

A drawing of an artist done approx. 440 B.C. – Almost Art Nouveau in appearance! A drawing by Degas 1865, then a tonal print of a painting by Munch “The Scream”, almost seems like a drawing?

Materials and Tools: What can we draw with?

Aboriginal sand paintings are done by carefully sprinkling coloured sand. A stick will make a mark in the sand on the beach, the tatooist on the human body! The answer is that almost anything that can make a mark can be drawn with.

Not only can all of these different mediums be used on their own for different effects, many can be used together.

We will concentrate, here, on the most commonly used and readily available drawing materials, but you should not be afraid to experiment further yourself whenever you wish.

Paper.

For most ordinary drawing purposes with pencils, ordinary white drawing cartridge paper is most commonly used. The term sketch pad refers, usually, to a book or pad of cartridge paper that can be easily taken anywhere for drawing. Some are of slightly higher quality and thicker paper is used. This is useful if a little paint is to be used, but beyond that and into watercolours you may need to get a proper watercolour pad! Sugar paper is another cheap and lower quality coloured paper that can be useful when a tonal or coloured background is needed. Hand made papers are expensive but can be purchased in wonderful textures and surfaces, some including seeds and petals in their makeup. Brown paper can also be a good ground to draw on and will allow some lights as well as darks to be used.

Pencils.

Pencils are not made of lead, the black colouring is Graphite. This comes in different hardness, the softer graphite giving a darker mark. They are coded with H and B grades. Think of these as standing for H for Hard and B for Black! 4B is very Black and soft 2B is not so soft, H.B. is in the middle and 4 H would be like using a needle to draw with and give a faint line.

I would suggest having only an H.B, a 2B and a 4B in your box for drawing and shading. Softer darker pencils can be used by choosing charcoal pencils. These have a much richer blacker mark but lose the silvery depth of the graphite. A pure stick of graphite with no wood encasing is available, it is the same size as a pencil and can be sharpened in the same way. This is simply called a “graphite stick”

Charcoal.

Charcoal sticks are made from thin twigs of Willow, heated with a lack of oxygen. It is useful to rake around in an expired outdoor wood fire for a possible lump of charcoal to draw with. It is also possible to wrap a piece of willow up in tinfoil and bake it in the oven, but an extractor fan is wise as the resulting smoke can be evil! Different woods will give different effects of charcoal.

Stick and Ink.

A piece of dowel or simply a piece of twig from a tree, which is sharpened, then dipped into a bottle of Indian Ink, will draw a lovely line. This is far nicer than the line drawn with a felt tip and is very useful for fast flowing drawings of moving animals.

Pen and Ink.

A traditional way of drawing than if used with waterproof ink can be tinted with watercolour or coloured inks at any time. New, fine line pens are now available in waterproof inks and are more easily transported and used – but their permanence is still suspect and after duration in sunlight they can tend to go brown and vanish.

Aquarel or Water soluble Pencils.

These are coloured pencils that can be blended with water as they are used or later. They are usually softer than ordinary coloured pencils.

Coloured Pencils.

As they sound, simply coloured pencils. They are usually fairly hard.

Pastel Pencils.

If softer coloured pencils are required, especially for working on sugar or coloured pastel paper then these will be useful.

Brush Drawing.

The brush is a wonderful drawing instrument. The Japanese have been taught to write and draw with a brush before a pencil! It gives a versatility of line that cannot be obtained any other way. Used with inks or paints both flowing and textural marks are possible.

Drawing Board, Clips/Low Tack Tape/Drawing Pins.

A board large enough to hold your paper and with a smooth surface. A piece of hardboard is cheap, will do, and is light, but a board of one inch ply is better still and will not warp, especially if paper is stretched wet onto it. Hardboard will not like drawing pins and is a bit thin for clips.

Rubbers.

A rubber can be used for blending and smudging as well as rubbing out. I would advise a putty rubber as being most useful. It can be cut in half and one half kneaded into a clean point for fine rubbing out and highlights, the other for getting messy and blending.

Pastels.

Conte’ or Inscribe pastels are the obvious choice for drawing, other than pastel pencils, as they are fairly hard.

Pencil Sharpener or Craft Knife.

Clearly you will need to sharpen your pencils.

Camera Obscura.

This simply refers to a piece of card about five inches long by four inches high with a window cut out of it to see through and choose your composition through. It aids you to gauge scale and the relative position of objects one to another. You can mark the facing inside window into halfway and quarters and eighths. Some artists even make the window into a grid by gluing dark cotton across at these measurements. The use of this and checking scale with a pencil will be dealt with later in these notes.

Plumb Line.

Very few artists use this, but a lot of sculptors do. Most artists simply gauge a rough vertical with a brush handle or pencil, but a piece of string with a small fishing weight at the end can be very useful if you are not sure of a vertical angle, figure or building.

 

The Illusion of Perspective

Each mark that we make upon the paper that is supposed to represent a real scene or object, and therefore fool the eye and brain, is a lie. It is not creating a real scene, merely the illusion if a scene. What I am going to do here is to show you how to “lie” more effectively! Perspective is an invention by artists to give the illusion of distance and receding objects.

The paper’s surface is a one dimensional plain, it is flat. We are going to give it the effect of being two dimensional, of going back, by the use of line, tone and texture. Painters can also use colour and potters and sculptors can take the surface forwards and back to produce low relief and full sculptures that are three dimensional, seen all round.

I will divide this into two halves of basic and advanced perspective.

The basic will give you all you need to know to start drawing most landscapes and still life, whilst the advanced you can attempt with a bit more experience and if you need more of a challenge?

See how many deliberate “perspective” faults you can see in this picture?

The Horizon Line.

This is the foundation stone to most perspective laws and scale. The Horizon is not where the sky meets the land, as there could be mountains! The horizon is where the sky meets the land if the land was absolutely level all of the way until the gentle curvature of the earth means you can see no further and the sky meets it. E.g.

In Fig. 1 the grey area represents the earth’s curved surface, at the very point that the girls eye level sees over the top of the curve it is the horizon. When we view it from her point, as in Fig 2. it becomes a level horizontal line. Anything at the same level as this horizon and on the same ground level, is the same height as she is, or we are. Therefore the figure on the left is only half our height! The two lines that appear to make a road away from us in Fig 2. are parallel lines which will meet at the horizon, this is called the Vanishing Point. Here they would disappear over the horizon due to the roundness of the earth. Having just one vanishing point, like his, is called single point perspective. The next illustration will demonstrate this in more detail.

 

 In the illustration above you can tell the door is slightly higher than the person’s head as it is above the horizon. All of the lines that recede go back to the one vanishing point. The others remain horizontal, the two trees are the same size, even though one is smaller in the distance. You know this by it’s height above the horizon being the same as the one closer to us to scale and eye level. They are approximately twice as tall as the figure?

 In this drawing you see two point perspective, there are two vanishing points. All of the receding lines go back to the two vanishing points on the horizon. Again you can tell the scale of people on the level ground, as their eye level is the same as yours. The smaller figure (3) would have to be a child or someone in a hollow? I have shown a figure (2) on top of another’s head to show that the house is twice the height of you. The figure in the distance (1) is a bit taller than us as the head is slightly above the horizon, or they are on a slight rise.

In (1&4) above, you can see how a cube and a tube would be extended back to a vanishing point. In (2) how a vertical tube would be cut into sections at different levels. This would give you the ellipses for a table top (3), tree, still life object such as a cup or bottle, tower or any tubular form. The tube (5) does the same but explains that this is still, actually, happening in perspective like the cube going back. The ends of ellipses are always rounded and never become a point! Where it is cut off at the horizon line it would be absolutely level.

Now let us look at how to make things seem lower or higher than us. For instance a valley and some hills?

As things recede into the distance so they become smaller and appear to become closer together. Three is a very simple way to make equally spaced objects do this correctly. This could be used on fence posts, railway sleepers, trees, or anything that is equally repetitive. (A) & (B) are a single point perspective going to a vanishing point. Th first and second lines are drawn as fence posts. A diagonal is then drawn from the top of (1) at (A) to the bottom of (2) at (B). After (2) the diagonal is drawn again at exactly the same angle to reach the base line (B) and that is where the next fence post will be placed. The single vertical line on the right has had a diagonal dropped from it ready for the second post. This would then be repeated, the posts will automatically become closer as the perspective lines converge.

Tip. Verticals in normal perspective remain Vertical. A common mistake is to let fence posts fall over at an angle!

Free Tutorials on Advanced Drawing Techniques

This tutorial aims to show a good technique for working out ideas in both a fast and readable manner. To be able to produce sketches which read as 3D objects, a basic understanding of perspective is required. For this reason the tutorial begins by giving a brief overview of the rules of one and two point perspective, including wheel ellipses. It then talks through three examples, all using different perspective viewpoints. Each one shows how to build a sketch from a blank page, through the rough line work, and finally simple colouring methods.

Following all this collection of great tutorials on advanced drawing techniques, including general theory, useful tips, comic inspired art and some methods for transforming your creations into digital format.

1. How to Draw a Car

Use a range of pencil drawing techniques to create an American classic, the Corvette. This tutorial from DueysDrawings.com covers the process from roughing out the initial outline through to shading with a range of tones.
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2. How to Draw Hair With Naughty-Kitty

Follow this tutorial by Naughty Kitty to gain some useful tips on recreating Manga inspired hair in a range of styles.
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3. How to Draw Cute Characters

Learn the tips and techniques in this Manga tutorial to draw a cute female character, paying particular attention to body language and facial features.
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4. Tips for drawing hands

Discover a range of tips for drawing hands, generated from the artist’s own experiences. Techniques include foreshortening, drawing nails and finger shapes.
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5. How to Draw a Ninja

Start by sketching out the wireframe skeleton and work through this tutorial to produce a dynamic ninja character ready for action.
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6. Traditional Sketch Rendering

Swedish designer Mikael Lugnegard shows us his techniques for creating a traditional sketch render of a BMW car concept.
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7. How to Create a Three Color Wolf Skull in Illustrator

Use a Wacom tablet directly in Adobe Illustrator to trace a reference photo and shade the illustration with a range of hatch lines.
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8. Inking and Coloring the Comic Strip The Brads

Follow tips from cartoonist Brad Colbow to discover how to create your own comic strip.
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9. Drawing the Human Eye

Pay close attention to the anatomical structure of the eye and follow tips in this tutorial to produce a highly realistic sketch of a human eye.
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10. Eye drawing tutorial by Lianne

Follow this tutorial from Lianneissa.com to draw a detailed female eye from scratch.
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11. A Pseudo-Sugar Skull: From Start to Finish.

Create a highly detailed sugar skull illustration by following this expert tutorial, with details on the process from sketch to final digital design.
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12. Comic Book Style Graphic Design.

Discover useful tips and techniques while following this design process of drawing a stunning comic book style character.
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13. From Sketch to Vector Illustration.

Follow these tips on producing impactful digital creations starting from a hand drawn sketch.
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14. Character Drawing.

Follow this artist’s personal recommendations and tips on creating your own characters.
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15. Create Your Own Impressive Cartoon Character.

Create your own character by following these tutorial steps, starting with a skeletal framework to build the cartoon features.
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16. Sketching Figures with Lines.

Although the site requires an account, this extensive collection of tutorials is extremely useful for anyone looking to improve their drawing skills.
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17. How to Draw a Fashion Figure.

Watch this simple video tutorial to learn how to use existing reference imagery to trace a fashion inspired sketch.
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18. Figure drawing video tutorial.

View this figure drawing video lesson with Matthew Achambault to gain a useful insight into life figure drawing.
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19. How to Draw a Head.

This useful series of video tutorials cover some highly useful tips for drawing a human head.
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20. The Dragon Tutorial.

Pick up some techniques in this dragon inspired tutorial that can be put into practice in your own fantasy drawings.
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Color Awareness

Color is sensed by the eye, but the perception of color takes place in the mind, and not necessarily at a conscious level. Colors are understood in context. They are experienced at different levels of awareness depending on how and where they are seen. Colors may be perceived as an aspect of form, as light, or as surroundings. Colors permeate the environment, are an attribute of objects, and communicate without words.

Environmental color is all-encompassing. Both the natural world and man-made environments immerse us in colors, whether they are the cold whites of Antarctica, the lush greens of tropical forests, the accidental color compositions of urban streets, or the controlled-color environments of architecture, landscape design, interior design, or theater design.

Surrounding colors have a powerful impact on the human body and mind, but most of the time they are experienced with an astonishing lack of awareness. Environmental color is noticed only when it is a focus of attention, like a dazzling sunset or a freshly painted room. Someone who expresses a dislike for the color green may nevertheless take enormous pleasure in a garden, describing it as a blue or yellow garden, when in fact the surroundings are overwhelmingly green, with blue or yellow present as only a small part of the whole.

The colors of objects are perceived very directly. The separateness of an object allows the viewer to focus both eye and mind on a single entity and a single color idea. We are the most consciously aware of color when it is an attribute of a defi ned object: a blue dress, a red car, a yellow diamond.

The Experience of Color

Color is, first, a sensory event. Colors are true sensations, not abstractions or ideas. The beginning of every color experience is a physiological response to a stimulus of light. Colors are experienced in two very different ways.

The colors on a monitor screen are seen as direct light. The colors of the physical world — of printed pages, objects, and the environment — are seen as reflected light.

The perception of colored light is a straightforward experience: light reaches the eye directly from a light source. The experience of real-world color is a more complex event. Real-world colors are seen indirectly, as light refl ected from a surface. For tangible objects and printed pages, light is the cause of color, colorants (like paints or dyes) are the means used to generate color, and the colors that are seen are the effect.

All colors, whether they are seen as direct or reflected light, are unstable. Every change in light or medium has the potential to change the way a color is perceived. The color of a carpet underfoot is very different from that of its image on a screen, and each of these is different from its illustration on a printed page. In addition, the same color will appear to be different colors depending on its placement relative to other colors.

Not only are colors themselves unstable, ideas about colors are unstable as well. The color that one person identifi es as “true red” will be a bit different from another’s idea of “true red.” When colors are used as symbols, their meanings are equally mutable. A color used symbolically in one context may have another meaning entirely — and even be called by another name — when it appears in a different situation.

Most of the work of the design industries today is done in images of direct light, on a monitor, for products that will ultimately be produced as goods or printed pages. Are the screen image and the product the same color? Can they be the same color? Which one is the “true” color — the one on the screen, or the one that is the actual object? Is there such a thing as a “true” color at all?

Designers use color. Their concern is with effects, not with words, ideas, or causes. Understanding what is seen, and how and why it is seen — how colors work — is background knowledge that supports the art of color. Designers work with color every day in a comfort zone; a healthy mix of fact, common sense, and intuition. A skilled colorist exploits the instabilities of color and uses them to create interest and vitality in design.

We understand color in much the same way that we understand the shape of the earth. The earth is round, but we experience it as fl at, and act on it according to that practical perception of flatness. Color is light alone, but it is experienced so directly and powerfully that we think of it as a physical entity. No matter what we may understand about the science of color, or what color technology is available, we believe our eyes. Color problems in the design industries are solved with the human eye. Designers work with color from the evidence of their eyes.

Symbols, Brands and Nameless Logo?

Can be roughly categorized into three areas:

• Typographic logos which feature the name of the company or brand, for example Harrods and Calvin Klein.
• Type and symbol logos which consist of some sort of symbol combined with the company name, for example Jaguar, Ferrari and Mercedes Benz.
• Symbol only logos. These are the big boys of the branding world, so famous they don’t need a company name to be recognized, examples include Nike, Shell and Apple.

There is sometimes an assumption that typographic logos are easy to make, but the fact is, there is a lot of skill in choosing (or making) a suitable typeface to represent a brand. The most popular logos are the type and symbol logos as they cover all bases – a symbol which is aesthetically pleasing, recognizable and representing the company ideals, but with a reminder of the company name included. As mentioned above Symbol-​​only logos are generally used by very well established companies where there will be little doubt about who or what the company represents.when the students first start designing logos that there is a temptation to throw everything but the kitchen sink in, with gradients, warped text and bevels regularly appearing. Good design involves taking away elements until you’re finished rather than adding to try and make something look “designed”.

Tips on Using Symbols in Logos and Brands.

1. Storytelling

Remember, not all symbols are created equal-choose symbols that tell a story. Do your research and make sure the symbols incorporated in your logo are not just pretty faces, but convey clear and concise representations.

2. International perspectives:

Examine symbols from multiple perspectives-that of the clients, that of their target audience, and even beyond their normal social and cultural contexts. What a symbol represents in one culture may not be what it represents in another. This is crucial for companies who seek to create international identities and brands.

3. Conflicts of interest:

Again, do your research. Do not use multiple symbols in one logo or brand that might possibly represent conflicting ideas. It is ok to combine forces, but be careful to not overload on symbols, or couple symbols that cause friction. You want the logo to express a unified message.

4. Clarify the Communication

Each logo should communicate something. That something is left up to the client to determine and the designer to execute. Symbols are powerful communication devices when used wisely. One smart symbolic element in a logo design can express everything, but the designer needs to be careful to express one thing well, not many ideas poorly.

As with any device, there are limits to what these graphical tools can do, therefore, keep it concise. The client may resist being overly specific in their message, but as the designer it is your job to stress the need for symbolic impact.

5. Symbols that Interact:

Everything that visually represents the company comes to define it. This is the general idea behind the brand and its logo. The hope is that people understand who the company is and want to incorporate the brand into their lives. The designer must be conscience that symbols do not exist on their own, since conception they have been in a constant state of interaction. Therefore, symbols have friends and they have enemies. The designer must learn to recognize how this will affect the overall impact of the brand and logo.

source: hongkiat.com

Drawing Books and Papers

BEGIN YOUR EXPLORATION of drawing, you need a drawing book. There are dozens to choose from. Gleaming store purchases vary greatly in format, binding, color,texture, thickness, quality, and cost. Homemade books can be assembled easily from found materials or selections of loose sheet papers, which are also sold in an enormous range. Art students often make use of printed books picked up from secondhand stores into which they draw, cut, and collage their ideas. It is also useful to own a portfolio. A high-quality one will last a lifetime; cheap corrugated plastic ones fall apart in days.

Alternatively, study the structure of a good portfolio and make your own. You simply need two strong boards hinged together well, ties on either side to keep your papers in place, and handles to lift the weight of your artworks. Drawing boards are invaluable. They can be very expensive in art stores; it is better to have them made at a lumber yard or home improvement store. Calculate a range of useful dimensions and have several cut at once. Smooth plywood, thick enough not to flex, is perfect. Sand the edges to avoid splinters. If you intend to carry your boards for a distance, be sure they fit comfortably under your arm.

DRAWING BOOKS

Select drawing books to suit your aims. For evening classes, choose larger formats to give you scope for experiment. For traveling, chooe smaller hard - bound books that fit in your pocket or bag; their jackets will act like drawing boards and protect your work . Many artist sin vent ways of binding their own books. Dissecting a discarded hard - bound book will soon show you how it is made; this is how I learned:

1. CANVAS-COVERED HARD-BOUND: Ideal for carrying around; a length o f black elastic tied around the middle will hold the contents together when you fold in collected items. Note the widely differing choice of papers with which these are made.

2. BLACK POCKET BOOKS: Hand-sized with ready-made elastic binder and a marker ribbon. Most contain thin paper and are perfectfor use with disposable pens.

3. COLORED PAPERS: Largeart supply stores of ten sell thick books full of colored papers.These are perfect for working in color If planning t o use pencils, pastels, and crayons, be aware that paper texture effects and changes their marks.

4. RING - BOUND PADS: These are t he least expensive and useful for opening flat. However ring bindings often break. Purchase a high-quality ring - bound pad if you wish to keep your drawings together long-term.

5. FOUND BOOKS: Old printed novels, catalogs, and reference books found in second-hand stores make unique subjects for experiments and collage.

6. HOME MADE: I made this book from drawing paper that I folded, stitched, and glued to a strip o f bias binding. The hardboard jacket is stretched with canvas beneath the paper sleeve.

The Thinking Eye

Techniques and materials are the grammar and vocabulary of drawing and can be studied and shared. An artist's personal voice is something that also evolves through lessons learned. However, it is this voice that is the subtle part of their art and something that ultimately, when they are more experienced, comes from within. Imagination needs nourishment.

It rarely flourishes in isolation. As you draw, seek ideas in the life around you. Look to your own experience and also learn from the work of others. Drawing is a living language that over millennia has grown and changed, adapting its form and occupation, and enfolding new media. Many more reasons for drawing the world. To these I have added my own drawings to explain elementary materials and techniques and offer introductory approaches. Note that the drawing classes are allocated to subjects, but not confined to them. In the total wealth of these pages, we still only glimpse a corner of the magnitude of this subject and the infinity of what can be achieved. This practical journey will take you through the door into the vivid heart of drawing. Once there, the path is yours. The real drawing book has yet to come; it will be your creation as you discover your own personal vision.

Freeing the hand

If you are just beginning to learn how to draw, try not to grip your pen worrying about the technical terms you might have heard. Ignore these at first and allow yourself the freedom to play. Start by choosing a material you like the look of and cover a piece of paper with different marks.

Enjoy discovering what your hand and the material can do. Choose other materials and do the same. Much will be learned on these test sheets and in your first drawings, just through the act of making. With no help and advice at all, you will naturally make progress on your own in response to concentration and the decision to look and draw. As you follow lessons in this book, take your time and don't worry if you need to make several attempts to grasp a concept.

Drawing is exploratory, and mistakes are a valuable process of learning. Try to keep all of your first drawings, even those you dislike. Put them away and look at them later, at a point when you feel you are not making progress; you will be
surprised and encouraged to see how far you have come. One of the advantages of a drawing book is that you can shut it. Pages do not have to lie open for other people to inspect and comment on. It is yours. Such books are personal: the territory of new exploration and experiment;potential ideas still forming; diary-like observations; and miscellaneous items of inspiration.

Types of sketchbooks

Sketchbooks come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, with varied covers, and differing numbers of pages. Sketchbooks began as a way to provide a readily available supply of drawing paper in the convenient form of a book. Finish of the work found in the sketchbook varies widely from artist to artist, with some having very simple drawings and lots of notes, and some having highly worked images.

Over time, it might allow others to see the artist's progress, as his/her style and skills develop. Many artists personalize their sketchbook by decorating the covers.

Sketchbooks made out of high quality paper, differentiated by weight (referring to density of the sheets) and tooth (also called grain), allow for a wide variety of techniques to be used, ranging from pencil drawings, to watercolor, to colored pencil, to pen and ink, and so on. Certain paper characteristics might be more desirable for use with certain mediums. Sketchbook paper also comes in a variety of tones, ranging from pure white, to yellow, and includes less common varieties, such as gray.

The sketchbook is more frequently used in displays of contemporary art, as well as historical retrospectives, now that 'intimate' and 'ephemeral' records are increasingly seen by some as more informative than the planned and finished drawing, painting or sculpture.

The form is also now being used as inspiration for the development of online/digital sketchbooks.

refferer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchbook

how to made plasticine:video

What is plasticine?

According Wikipedia: Plasticine, a brand of modelling clay, is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. The name is a registered trademark of Flair Leisure Products plc. Plasticine is used extensively for children's play, but also as a modeling medium for more formal or permanent structures.

Plasticine has distinct properties that make it useful. Unlike clay and wax, plasticine stays soft and workable: it neither hardens nor dries. Unlike pottery clay, it comes in a wide array of colors that can be used as purchased or blended. Also, unlike clay, plasticine doesn’t stick to your hands.

Plasticine can be shaped and worked with modeling tools for shaping, sculpting, blending, texturing, thinning, scraping, poking, and cutting. It can be worked on its own or built on a pre-formed armature. Note, however, that it cannot be fired.

Two important new uses of plasticine have developed recently. Canadian illustrator Barbara Reid has developed a book illustration technique using plasticine. She creates illustrations of scenes using plasticine relief sculpture, employing a variety of techniques to convey distance, size, texture, and lighting. Her illustrations for The New Baby Calf by Edith Newlin Chase, copyright 1984, are the first published example of this technique. The Party, from 1997, for which Reid won the Governor General’s Literary Award, and The Subway Mouse, from 2003, are other works illustrated using this technique.

History

Plasticine was formulated by art teacher William Harbutt of Bathampton, in Bath, England, in 1897. He wanted a non-drying clay for use by his sculpture students. Although the exact composition is a secret, Plasticine is composed of calcium salts (principally calcium carbonate), petroleum jelly, and long-chain aliphatic acids (principally stearic acid). It is non-toxic, sterile, soft, malleable, and does not dry on exposure to air (unlike superficially similar products such as Play-Doh, which is based on flour, salt and water). It cannot be hardened by firing; it melts when exposed to heat, and is flammable at much higher temperatures.

A patent was awarded in 1899, and in 1900 commercial production started at a factory in Bathampton. The original Plasticine was grey, but the product initially sold to the public came in four colours. It was soon available in a wide variety of bright colours.

Plasticine was popular with children, widely used in schools for teaching art, and found a wide variety of other uses (moulding for plaster casts, for example). The Harbutt company promoted Plasticine as a children's toy by producing modelling kits in association with companies responsible for popular children's characters such as Noddy, the Mr. Men and Paddington Bear.

The original Plasticine factory was destroyed by fire in 1963 and replaced by a modern building. The Harbutt company continued to produce Plasticine in Bathampton until 1983. It is currently made in Thailand.

From 1983 to 2006, the brand went through a number of ownership changes and was off the market for a long time. Plasticine was owned by Bluebird Toys plc following its acquisition of Harbutt's parent company, Peter Pan. Then, following Bluebird's takeover by Mattel in 1998, the brand was sold on to Humbrol Ltd, famous for its Airfix kits and model paints. In 2005, Flair Leisure licensed the brand from Humbrol and relaunched Plasticine. A year later, when Humbrol went into administration, Flair bought the Plasticine brand outright.

Uses

Plasticine is often used in clay animation. One of its main proponents is Aardman Animation's Nick Park, who used characters modeled in Plasticine in his Oscar-winning short films A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995), as well as the feature film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. This technique is popularly known as claymation in the US, and is a form of stop motion animation. Plasticine is appealing to animators because it can be used with ease: it is moldable enough to create a character, flexible enough to allow that character to move in many ways, and dense enough that it can retain its shape easily when combined with a wire armature.

Plasticine is also used in party games such as Cranium, Rapidough and Barbarossa.

Television presenter James May together with Chris Collins, Jane McAdam Freud, Julian Fullalove and around 2000 members of the public created a show garden for the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show made entirely of plasticine called 'Paradise in Plasticine'. The garden took 6 weeks to create and 2.6 tonnes of Plasticine in 24 colours was used. May said, "This is, to our knowledge, the largest and most complex model of this type ever created." It couldn't be considered as part of the standard judging criteria as it contained no real plants, but was awarded an honorary gold award made from plasticine. The garden was extremely popular with the public and went on to win the Royal Horticultural Society’s 'peoples choice' for best small garden.

What is "Contemporary" Art?

This is an excellent question, and one that isn't asked often enough. Presumably, this is another one of those art definitions we are all supposed to know - most likely by osmosis, or some other telepathic means, because (heaven forbid) you wouldn't want to ask a "stupid" question at some Art World function. (Well, you might, but I wouldn't. At least, not ever again.)

Anyway, the answer is divinely simple. Contemporary just means "art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes". In other words, contemporary to us.

Now, of course, if you are 96-years old and reading this (By the way, congratulations, if this describes you. Way to keep up with the times!), you can expect a certain amount of overlapping between "Contemporary" and "Modern" art in your lifetime. A good rule of thumb is:

* Modern Art: Art from the Impressionists (say, around 1880) up until the 1960's or 70's.
* Contemporary Art: Art from the 1960's or 70's up until this very minute.

Here at About Art History, 1970 is the cut-off point for two reasons. First, because it was around 1970 that the terms "Postmodern" and "Postmodernism" popped up - meaning, we must assume, that the Art World had had its fill of Modern Art starting right then.

Secondly, 1970 seems to be the last bastion of easily classified artistic movements. If you look at the outline of Modern Art, and compare it to the outline of Contemporary Art, you'll quickly notice that there are far more entries on the former page. This, in spite of the fact that Contemporary Art enjoys far more working artists making far more art. (It may be that Contemporary artists are mostly working in "movements" that cannot be classified, due to there being around ten artists in any given "movement", none of which have shot off an email saying that there's a new "movement" and "could you please tell others?")

On a more serious note, while it may be hard to classify emergent movements, Contemporary art - collectively - is much more socially conscious than any previous era has been. A whole lot of art from the last 30 years has been connected with one issue or another: feminism, multiculturalism, globalization, bio-engineering and AIDS awareness all come readily to mind as subject matter.

So, there you have it. Contemporary art runs from (roughly) 1970 until now. We won't have to worry about shifting an arbitrary point on the art timeline for another decade, at least. Go, be of good cheer, and fear not the term "Contemporary Art".

What is "Modern" Art?

Please know that this is a good question. We are contemporary to modern times. No one should be sneered at for not knowing that The Art World has its own separate definitions for each of these terms. In any other instance, the English language pretty much allows for "modern" and "contemporary" to be swapped at will.

As you have doubtless guessed, the single most important thing anyone needs to know about Modern Art is that it'sdifferent from Contemporary Art.

A good rule of thumb is:

* Modern Art: Art from the Impressionists (say, around 1880) up until the 1960's or 70's.
* Contemporary Art: Art from the 1960's or 70's up until this very minute.

Here at About Art History, Modern Art starts as the Impressionists were winding down. While this is acceptable,strong arguments can be (and have been) made that Modern Art began at a variety of different dates. Depending onwhich survey course a person takes, Modern Art is said to have begun with:

* Romanticism, in the early 1800's,
* Realism, in the 1830's,
* Daguerre's announcement, in 1839, that he had invented a method for making a direct positive image,
* The writer Baudelaire who, in 1846, called upon artists to "be of their time",
* The first Impressionist show in 1874 or
* The "-isms" of the 1880's (Tonal-, Symbol-, Post-Impression- and Neo-Impression-)

Which one is right? Well, none of them are "wrong". (Here, it was simply a case of "1880" working out well, for me,in terms of organization.) For simplicity's sake, let's just say that Modern Art began in the 19th-century, and ranthrough a whole slew of "-isms" up until the end of the 1960's.

Regardless of chosen starting date, the crucial factor is that Modern Art means: "The point at which artists :
1) felt free to trust their inner visions,
2) express those visions in their work,
3) use Real Life (social issues and images from modern life) as a source of subject matter and
4) experiment and innovate as often as possible."

Wordy, I know! Art is kind of messy that way. It's often easier to make it, than to try to explain it - and making it can be about as easy as childbirth, some days. But that's Modern Art (and Modern Life) for you. Say, now that you're positive of the meaning, why not go have some fun poking around in all of those delicious "-isms"?