Art.In.General

An alternative of Flickr, this Japan based photo sharing community looks very fresh and promising. What's the best part? You don't need to understand Japanese for they offer English version as well.

- ian

by the way, you better use IE instead of FF. ;)

Patterns Drusilla Cole Theme: Graphic Design By: Drusilla Cole Publisher: Laurence King Year: 2007 Pages: 240 pages Format: 17x24 cm Features: hardcover Languages: English ISBN: 978-1-85669-505-3 Pattern is back, and what better way to celebrate its revival than with a cool compendium of the best pattern design from around the globe? This exciting new book showcases some of the most innovative pattern designs, including graphics, textiles, fashion, furnishings, ceramics, tiles, wallpaper, and stationery. While many of the featured designers work commercially, others are independent players whose work is cutting-edge even though, or perhaps because, they don't follow conventional techniques or disciplined structures. Figurative, funky, abstract, pixel-based, graphic, or retro patterns are all featured in this visual feast of the best work to emerge in the last five years.

Spreads:

Overview Lightbox is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers. What's New in Version 2 Image Sets: group related images and navigate through them with ease Visual Effects: fancy pants transitions Backwards Compatibility: yes!

AutoViewer is a free Flash image viewer. AutoViewer is designed to display a linear sequence of images and captions. AutoViewer is easy to use with your images (see instructions below). Demo: AutoViewer Demo Download: Download AutoViewer (zip file - 54k) Features: Auto-Play allows you to view a gallery hands free. Displays image captions and gallery title as a text overlay. Intuitive image navigation via mouse.Keyboard navigation (Spacebar, cursor keys, 'Home', 'End' keys) Interface rescales to fit any aspect ratio images and monitors.Lightweight (34k). Image pre-loading to prevent waiting for each image to load. Cross platform - Windows/Macintosh (requires Flash 8 or higher).Flash 8 detection. Users without Flash 8 are redirected to an upgrade page. Free!

Thinking about starting a webshop so you can sell your lovely pictures or magnifient paintings? I guess we are all in the same boat. My first choice would be Shopify (just look at how many ppl have saved it on del.icio.us!), but for a Trial/Free account, very very sadly, you take up to 5 oders, w/o SSL security or domain name, and that pushes me into looking for a perfect plan B. I found VirtueMart, haven't tried it but it looks very promising. Just look at Demos for some real actions; worried 'bout support already, I'm sure that a bunch of know-it-alls on Fourm would love to give you a hand.

- ian

Certainly not every deviant has more than 445,000 visitors (or ever will), but this can only be tranlated as a mere fact that Mr. Jasiniski has something special in his works (as the left image called "The Drummer") that reminds you of songs like "Can't Takes My Eyes off of You." It's quite a long journey if you wanna take a trip through his visual gallery, but it's never tiring but pleasing and refreshing. From simple composition to crowds of cartoon characters, from deadly facial expressions to barely possible combo of colors, his aesthetic power never stops but always explodes in each work. My instinct let me bookmark his page immediately and jot down those words, as for my nature, it tells me uniqueness can't happen unless you run into it at times.

- ian

The challenge: create a high-res, jaw-dropping piece of digital art, based on the theme "Infinite Future Chaos". We're giving away a stunning 30-inch Apple Cinema Display.
It's bloody huge, and has beautiful color reproduction. Photoshop never looked so good. Check out the specs: dimensions:sit back a bit.. it just barely fits on your deskrefresh rate:4000 times per picosecondlovely:yesmax. resolution:64 gazilla-pixelsawesome factor:10 "But.. WTF is Infinite Future Chaos?", we hear you ask. Fair question. To be honest, we don't really know what it means. It's possibly something to do with jetpacks... or perhaps trees taking over the city... or trees wearing jetpacks taking over the city with lasoos. Only time will tell. The winners of the 30" Apple Cinema Display and the RedBubble voucher, plus four runners-up, will have their work published in the November issue of Photoshop Creative. How To Enter: Sign up Upload your creations Tag your work with "photoshopcreative07" The Rules Go anywhere you want with the theme. There are some http://www.re

Killer JeansTo be honest, Taxi Design Network is quite a place to see something you would never dream of seeing. Take the work you see, Killer Jeans, of this Indian illustrator/designer/artist Sameer Kulavoor for example, strength, composition, skill, and execution are all there in a single piece. In his résumé, he said "without any particular background in graphic design, his liking for art led him to exploring different mediums," and from my point of view, the variety of his works is a solid proof that you would bookmark his website and be a faithful admirer. At 22yrs of age, he has worked internationally in areas like illustration and design for editorial and advertising; motion graphics and animation for web, television and cinema. He has created two Music videos, a few shorts and hundreds of illustrative designs for a vast and varied portfolio of clients, from MNCs to Music Bands. Go take a look, especially when you are desperate for some fresh inspiration. - ian

Honestly, I'm not a guy into overmuch, though I alaways admire the idea and labour of creating art. As for geuclide's works, THANKS GOD he knows the boundary and jumps out of the stereotypes skillfully and stylishly. I can pull out a whole package of adjectives to describe his works, one of them is MARVELOUS. As you can see on the left, his abstract appear like an abstract landscape painting, with soft, appealing color schemes, plenty of space around and a bit of darker doodle that brings extra moves and delightful surprise to the image, which basically makes me wanna pick up the phone immediately and ask him how much he would like to sell it. :O) If you can' agree my viewpoint more, go check out his humblevoice gallery, for he has lots of things to feast your hungry eyes.

- ian

I love stumbing upon something beyond my expectation. Today I checked out my account on terminus1525.ca, found a name listed under Recent Visitors, and I can't help but clicked on the link. That's when I was drawn to the abyss of imagination of Jean-Félix. This artist created something that is soft, solid, organic, futurist and dynamic. The way he plays with composition and colors are really incredible for a guy who is only 26. Do pay attention to his details - that's how you feel the power of his ART.

It's something like flickr, deviantart, imagekind and terminus1525.ca, you publish your works, write journal, meet peeps, have your art and photographs for sale - you do them all in one place! sounds like fun? Of course it does.
-ian

it's quite a big digital art community, full of artwork that certainly make you see God more than once or twice. The fee for annual membership costs $29.95, but if you're really good, I'm sure extra exposure is worth the money. Make sure you do drop by the gallery and the features, btw, with a free membership, you can join the forum and start communicating with all the members.

A sub-forum of WetCanvas (a really HUGE art community) that I found particularly helpful. I just asked a dumb question like how to sign on your prints and I got 2 replies right away. Nice service! : ]

There are sticky threads like Threads Worth Reading!, or discussions of Post Card printing companies, Do you sell digital prints of your paintings?, Free Gallery / Bio Hosting Offer Open to all artists, Ebay Sales, or poll like

A great place you see how a simple idea transfers to an work full of surprises. His works got the forms, the colors, and great concept - definitely a good place for you to hang out in a lazy summer afternoon.

- ian

with 8,612 registered members, i'm sure you can get some helps if you care to ask.

Podcasts from a retired aristing about his personal experience of selling art & general marketing.

numerous great font for mac and windows.

btw, each font comes with rating and visitors' comments.