Because of COVID-19 many of us are staying at homes for a period of time. I have created some coloring pages for children ages two and up. Feel free to download them for free. You can print out any of the pages and color them with your children using traditional pencils, or you can download them and use them in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or Adobe Fresco on mobile.
I also created some elegant backgrounds you can use in your digital workflow (digital painting, photo compositing, or graphic design). All backgrounds are free of charge, so download them and create something beautiful, and positive.
Those of us that come from another country or just trying to get out to this world, we try to adapt and become “like everybody else”. We do this for one simple reason: we want to be accepted. You can ask me, “what’s wrong with this?” My answer would be: Nothing Is wrong about adapting or wanting to be accepted, but everything is wrong about becoming like everybody else. We all are individuals, and as individuals, we are having a different vision, different style, different education. And this what makes us and our art unique. I tried to be as everybody else, and I decided to create my art, take pictures in a way I thought it would be “accepted” and “appreciated” From the beginning, I was telling myself “don’t create art based on how you feel. Create your art in a way to be accepted. With some time, I started creating my art on “autopilot” without any passion, and guess what? I lost my vision, I lost my individuality. One day I was talking to a woman, she said, “How can you do it to yourself? Is it like slowly killing yourself? Your vision, your background, your accent is who you are. This all that makes you who you are.” I was thinking about what she said for several days, I understood that she is right. My background, my vision, my accent is who I am. Stop trying to be “accepted” by society and social media. Be who you are. Because if you are who you are, you will create art reflecting your vision, your soul, and your style. Creating your art will help you to tell the story to make this world much better. Creating art that reflects your soul, passion, and vision will bring people close to you and will make people understand who you are. And this is the most important. Because, as an artist, each of us has a voice to make a difference in someone’s life, make this world brighter and kinder. This is possible only if we will truly be who we are.
Wacom introduced the new Wacom One tablet. I have been using the Wacom One for the last few days and I really love it.
The Wacom One display size is 13,3″, and the screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 is great for any of my workflows (painting, web/graphic design, photo restoration or photo retouching). Wacom One’s pen has 4,096 levels of pressure and a tilt angle of 60 degrees. This all makes it very enjoyable working with the Wacom One.
Wacom One is light ONLY 2,2 lbs which means you can take it everywhere you go. Personally, I will take it with me on all my business trips, I will be working with it from my chair in front of the TV, or from my kitchen or just outside when I want to work in the park.
Wacom One system requirements: Windows 7 or later, Mac OS 10.13 and later, you can connect Android device as well.
If you just started your digital journey, if you are a student this tablet is for you. The price is $399.99 and it comes with a one year warranty.
Some of you asked me if it’s possible to create a successful image/project using limited assets and tools. My answer was “Of course, it’s possible!” Creating an entire project using only one image and one tool/workspace could be as challenging and exciting as working on the project using multiple images/assets with multiple tools/ workspaces. And today we will create the project from scratch in Adobe Photoshop using only one image and one workspace. I have opened the image I will be using today (I downloaded and License the image from Adobe Stock. You can use any image you like).
Open any Creative Cloud library, that you would like to work with and save your assets to. At the bottom of the Library panel, click on “+” sign and then, choose “Create From Image”
Now we will build our image going through all the tabs in this workspace. I will start with the “Patterns” tab. Using this tab, I will create a pattern for my project. You can use any pattern type and setting to create a pattern. After you’re happy with your pattern click on “Save to CC Library” and your pattern will be saved to the active CC library.
Time to start working on our shape and to do so click on the “Shapes” tab. Now you can create a shape from your image. Click on “Save to CC Library” to save the shape to an active CC library.
The next stop is “Color Themes”. Using this tab you can create colors based on your image. Feel free to move color pickers to specify exact colors in the image you want to create your new theme from.
The last tab is “Gradients”. The Gradients tab is a very powerful tab. I create custom gradients all the time for my workflow.
After all the assets are created and added to CC library it’s time to start putting everything together.
Create a document any size you like. Click on the gradient in your CC library to apply it to an active layer.
Double click on Pattern in your CC library and specify scale value
Click OK and bring the layer’s opacity down.
Now click on the shape in CC library and drag it into your document.
Window > Shapes> Click on the “Palm” icon and drag it into your document. Use any Color Scheme in your CC library to add color to the shape.
Your image is ready. As you can see, you can use one image and one workspace to create all the necessary assets for your new project.
In the tutorial below I added just a few extra steps.
The girl who just wanted to create art: An autobiography
It wasn’t easy to share the story of the biggest part of my life. I never shared it with anyone because part of me wanted to forget everything about it. But my family asked me to share my story because this book can help many girls in the same situation that I was in.
This is a story about a girl who just wanted to create art. The universe arranged everything in a different order. This is a story of one of many women who fought to survive during an ethnic war and continue their survival journey after it to build a better life for her and her daughter. After many decades the same girl came back to what she was dreaming about – creating art.
Adobe Fresco was released last week. Adobe Fresco is the new painting application for your iPad. I can put my imagination to work from anywhere. I have a thousand brushes available under my fingertips, and I can put my imagination to work fro anywhere. The best part is that I can combine pixel, live, and vector brushes in the same project!
Usually, I am starting my project using the simple Pencil (from pixel brushes set) to outline my subject. I can continue working on my project using watercolor and oil brushes (from live brushes set). Finally, I can apply a few extra details using vector brushes.
If you want to paint without relearning how to paint digitally or you want to experience the “traditional method of painting” digitally, the Live brushes are for you. The live brushes set includes watercolor and oil brushes. Using these brushes, you can create your next masterpiece. Adobe Fresco blends watercolor brushes in real-time (yes, exactly like watercolor brushes from our childhood!). You can even control how much you like your colors blended.
All your colors will stay wet even if you close your project or application.
You can start working on your project today and come back at any time to continue working on it, and you still can mix and blend all colors.
Oil brushes are for creating a masterpiece in Leonardo da Vinci, Van Goh, or any other oil painting style.
Adobe Fresco works with Adobe Photoshop (yay!! You all know how much I love Photoshop!). You can use both applications working on the same files back and forth. If you want to bring your brushes from Photoshop to Adobe Fresco, you can do it as well.
You can create and export projects in different sizes and different formats. And the best part, because Adobe Fresco is a part of Creative Cloud you have access to all your brushes, files, colors from anywhere!
I love this application, and I know you will enjoy working with this app.
I need your help. I started my new project that I have been thinking about for some time, “Art for support.” The purpose of this project is to bring positive emotions to child cancer patients. I will draw our favorite Disney’s characters and super heroes. But they will not be the “usual”look for these characters. All characters will have a bald head. I have been talking to many cancer patients and ALL of them were talking about how important it is to have positive energy and how important it is to understand and to feel that losing hair or any other visual signs of cancer is just a step to fight the illness. It’s the sign of your strength. If you ask me why the bald head? The loss of hair is the most common side effect of chemo therapy and of the cancer patient’s frustrations. Having our Disney and super heroes characters being bald means BEAUTY, POWER OF FIGHTING THE ILLNESS and HOPE.
Each character will be painted in my favorite applications: Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Illustrator Draw and I will be using Wacom tablets, iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. I am an artist, I believe in art, and I believe that art has a power of healing.
I will send the painted character to the child (who is beating cancer) with the child’s name on it ABSOLUTELY FREE. Also if any child want a specific character with his/her name on it, I will paint that character for that child. Again: THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE.
I need your help. I am asking you to share this project and spread the word. Without your help, the children and their parents will never know about it.
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