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Articles for the ‘Art’ Category

When you think of Image Line, what exactly comes to your head? If you answered like me, your answer would be the Fruity Loops music production machine. Wait a minute… except it’s not called that anymore, is it? It’s now FL Studio. I think we’re up to version 9. Anyway, Image Line have been busy bees, releasing a batch of processors and plugins that are not only compatible with the FL Studio program but every VST host out there.

It is no surprise that their recent drum synths offering, then, has gotten a lot of attention. With the existing user base who make beats, as big as it is, it wasn’t hard to find guinea pigs to test drive the new system and new hip hop samples. I have had the pleasure of testing the new drum synth Drumaxx for a few days now. Truth be told right here: it’s not the greatest thing in the world, but it does deliver what it promises.

One of the most interesting aspects of Drumaxx is the 16 modelled drum pads it offers, where you can load up various drum sounds and samples for triggering. On that note, you can trigger the actual sounds with your mouse, external equipment (connected via MIDI or USB) and also via the in-sequencer MIDI tracks that you can compose in FL Studio, Cubase or whatever other host you are using.

Several parameters are included for easy modification, such as thickness, material, tension and shaping. These all shape the sounds in different ways, and you can experiment in real time thanks to its real-time modulation engine which allows for this.

One way that modification has been made interesting is the velocity triggering capability. This means that you do not need to twist knobs as you go about programming a nice pattern; no, you simply hit each note naturally and depending on the velocity with which the sound was triggered, altering and dynamic levels of tension and thickness (for example) are applied. A combination of these effects can make a sound indistinguishable from its source. You can certainly have some fun here…
So if you are on the fence about these products, I would say download a demo version of the package. I didn’t like a few of the things about it, and found about 20% of the sounds very weak or unimaginative which was unexpected coming from this veteran player in the audio game. One thing that made me warm to their marketing efforts was the promise of one donation to Haiti from every sale, as well as a pay-how-much-you-think-it’s-worth pricing system that will stay in effect for a little while longer.

How to Have a Photo Collage Puzzle made

Today most people have a digital camera and therefore the cost of taking a picture is almost zero. In the past, you might only shoot 5 to 10 photos of an event, but now you give little thought to the number of photos you take. Cameras have also got better allowing you to take great images easier than ever before. Many shots are deleted but it is likely that you will end up with far more keepers than before. The end result is an explosion in the number of great photographs and a growing demand from consumers to find an interesting use for these photos.

Most people love to solve a Jigsaw Puzzles so the idea of making your own unique Photo Collage Puzzle from your images is appealing. What attracts people to a Jigsaw has always been solving the the picture so being able to piece together a puzzle of your your kids, or a shot of your last vacation, or even a picture montage you have created, just makes it all that more fun.

The quality of Photo Puzzles has also improved significantly recently and puzzle print, build and cut is now consistant with locally bought store puzzles. No more poorly printed images or pictures that peel away from the cardboard that typified photo puzzles in the past. The selection of puzzle sizes has also improved so a 500, 1000 or even 1500 piece puzzle is readily available today. All you have to do is upload your favorite image to the Jigsaw2order.com website and within a few days have it delivered to your door.

Having a high quality high school senior photo takes a little preplanning.  Here are some of the essentials to an outstanding senior portraits:

Your choice of clothing has a great deal of impact on your appearance to the camera.  In fact clothing can literally make or break the photo. 

 Make-up can play an important role in the photo process.   It can enhance the look of the person as well as cover blemishes.  Consider adding a little make-up for your high school senior photos.  Just don’t go overboard.

The final decision about background is vital.  The background must blend well with everything in the photo.  Many a neutral background for their Portland senior portraits.   

Find the best facial angle and expression before you arrive for your portrait.  A quick and easy way is by looking into a mirror and practicing.  Test different poses until you find the best angle for you.  Don’t forget how important your expression will be.  Practice smiling until you find a pleasant smile that works for you.

To your successful Portland senior portraits!

Melissa Crawford, an Atlanta portrait artist, spends the majority of her artistic time painting commissioned portraits. Examples of her work along with procedures and fees can be seen on her website, www.MelissaCrawfordArt.com. Melissa strives to create portraits that go beyond a mere likeness. She wishes to create a beautiful work of art, admired for its beauty and merit, whether one knows the sitter or not. Melissa has developed quite a following, being commissioned by many local residents, along with clients outside of the area. She is a member of two national brokerage agencies, in which she is represented across the United States.

Melissa recently took part in a prestigious juried competition put on by the Portrait Society of Atlanta. It was open to artists across the country. Melissa won second place, finishing behind California artist, Tony Pro. The competition was judged by Raymond Kinstler, perhaps America’s most well known living portrait artist. Melissa won with her commissioned portrait of local girl, Julia, in Julia with Toy Horse. After the competition, Melissa was notified that she was awarded the Society’s Member of Merit Status.

Although oil painting is a “fine art”, there are many people who find it intimidating and this is understandable since there are lots of things which you have to know, such as color mixing. You can learn how to paint with oils if you have the knowledge regarding the few basics and this will make it easier for you to overcome your doubts of painting with oils.  

The first key point that you have to keep in mind is that the process of painting with oils is completed by layers. The first layer that is painted should be basic and each one should gradually build-up with detail. With that said, there are three areas in general, where you can begin to learn about oil painting. The number one thing that you should concern yourself with is the colors which you will end up using and the second is how to mix the basic shades to create secondary colors. Lastly, you have to be familiar with using linseed oil and turpentine.

What Colors To Buy?

There are eleven colors that you should include when starting out in oil painting. The colors to purchase are cadmium- red, light- yellow, cerulean- blue, cobalt -blue, burnt- umber, alizarin crimson, titanium- white, black, yellow- ochre, burnt- sienna and viridian- green.

The Basic Of Mixing Colors

Before you can begin painting, the basics of color mixing should be familiarized, for you to accurately obtain the colors that you want.

Yellow and Red = Orange
Red and Green = Brown
Red and Blue = Purple
Yellow and Green = Blue
Yellow and Blue = Green

Use Of Linseed And Turpentine

Remember that by squeezing paint out onto the pallet directly, you are taking the risk of mishaps from happening and wasting it. If you do this, pure oil paint may take a long time to dry up and can get very messy. With the addition of linseed oil and turpentine, you are able to thin out the paint being used, thus having control over all the layers, etc. It’s important to remember that the more turpentine you use; the quicker the painting will dry. For this reason, the base layers should be applied with a mixture of three parts turpentine and one part linseed oil.  

For the second layer, go ahead and mix two parts turpentine and two parts linseed oil. Store it in a jar that’s labeled 2, so that you will know what you’re working on from time to time. For the third, you then use a mixture that’s one part turpentine and three parts linseed oil; place it in its own jar as well.

Along with these tips and knowing how to go through paint color mixing, you will know the essential methods of oil painting.

While we may occasionally choose a work of art with a different theme, when we’re looking for a way to brighten a wall or create a focal point, we often look to art that depicts a scene from nature.

If that nature is mountains, valleys, trees, rivers and forests, then we’ve chosen a landscape. When the work depicts the ocean, it is a seascape.

In either type of art, the main subject is a wide view of the terrain with the parts arranged in a logical, cohesive manner. Whether the scene is real or imaginary is unimportant to its definition.

Sky is almost always included in the view and weather may also be an element of the composition. Storms and snow are frequently used to add a different aspect to the works and some artists specialize in scenes created with these weather additions.

Landscapes and seascapes can also form an important part of other types of paintings, where the central subject may be something else entirely, or they can be the focus of a work that includes manmade structures, such as farmhouses or ships.
 
Landscape art goes back over 1000 years, although the word landscape, which comes from the Dutch, did not enter the English vocabulary until the start of the 17th century. Landscape photography has held an important role in the art world since the 19th century. Seascape photography developed later as photographic techniques improved to the point that wave motion could be captured.

There are different traditions of landscape art in the east and west. In early works of the Roman and Chinese traditions, there were typically panoramas of imaginary landscapes with ranges of spectacular mountains. In China, the works frequently included waterfalls, while in Rome there were seas, lakes or rivers. Often the Roman style included a near figure and a transition to the panorama, while Chinese works were generally only the distant view.

A bigger difference in the two art forms was their value in their cultures. Until the 19th century, landscape painting was not a popular art form in the West, where the focus was on religious or historical scenes or portraits. In East Asia the Chinese watercolor of mountains and waterfalls was the most prestigious form of painting. As ocean travel grew, the need to create seascapes as part of paintings grew as well.

During the Impressionistic period the fascination that drew artists to explore changing light drew them to water, where light was ever changing and reflected from the water.  Monet is perhaps the best known of the Impressionist artists to explore seascapes and sea scenes during that period, creating works that are enduring and fascinating for more than the fact they were created by one of the masters of the period.

Artist Caroline Japser creates modern impressionist seascapes in her unique colorful style.

Although oil painting has been around for a very long time, even dating back to the 1400’s; it’s still relatively new compared to other forms of art. However, before oil painting came to be, paint was mixed with plaster that was found in frescoes or eggs in tempera paints. It was not until Jan Van Eyck came along, that oil painting rose to fame, as he attempted to have more realism in art.

In the early fifteenth century, Europe had the desire for a more realistic appearance in artwork. This was because before that, art was basically decorative and mythological in aspects; however, at the start of the Renaissance, artists began to realize concepts and guidelines behind ideals of color, as well as perspective. They wanted to create images and objects that were more realistic to the world around them, so as a result, artist started to paint more realistically.  
 
Jan Van Eyck wanted to mimic in his paintings what nature really is and in order to do this, he made sure to paint every detail that he could of whatever object he focused on. His attention to detail made his paintings livelier; however, methods of painting and materials could not truly bring his work to full potential. Therefore, Van Eyck developed oil paintings, which changed the entire concept of painting known to artists. Before Van Eyck and others like him, painters in the Renaissance period did not have the luxury of being able to purchase colors that were already made. They had to make paints themselves, which were made from ground- up pigments contained in plants and minerals to attain shades from the entire color wheel. These were used to form a paste called tempera paint. The issue with this type of paint was that it dried quickly and made it almost impossible to have smooth transitions; hence, Van Eyck made the decision to use oil instead, which would allow him to work at a slower pace. With oil painting, accurate paintings came about.

To further create detailed images in his paintings, he also used a tiny pointed brush and many people, as well as other artists, became impressed with his work. They too began to use oil paints and due to this, oil paintings became a very popular form of art. Although today oil colors have evolved, its principals and color theory guidelines are still the same.  If you learn about this method and use oil paints correctly, you too can create wonderfully vivid and detailed paintings as Van Eyck and others of his time did. When you choose the medium of oil painting, you’ll be able to create paintings that are more detailed in settings, through the uses of shading and in addition, create portraits that are more lifelike. With time and effort, you will be able to mimic the greats of the Renaissance era.

Learn how to create beautiful oil paintings yourself by enrolling in an oil painting workshop with artist Caroline Jasper. Caroline’s workshops include both oil painting instruction and color instruction.

Atlanta Portrait Artist Melissa Crawford can now be found on Google Maps. She has lived in the Atlanta, Georgia area for 25 years. She started painting portraits full time from her home studio near Atlanta about 5 or 6 years ago.

She keeps busy painting commissioned portrait oil paintings for two portrait agencies and also has many commissions she receives on her own. She travels the country to do photo shoots for the commissioned portraits. She recently had to fly to Baltimore, MD in February 2010 while they were having a record snowstorm of over 38 inches in some places. She had to use one of the client’s car battery to power her lights in order for her to take her pictures for the portraits of their girls because their power was out at their home for over 24 hours.

Melissa is a Member of Merit of the Portrait Society of Atlanta where she has won numerous awards on her portrait paintings. She also paints landscapes in oil. She has some landscapes she has painted of local areas near Atlanta as well as paintings from her trips to Italy, France and England.

You can see many of the portraits and other paintings by Atlanta Portrait Artist Melissa Crawford by visiting her website at www.MelissaCrawfordArt.com.

Did Bram Stoker write his novel Dracula based on the infamous character Vlad the Impaler?

The following has been extracted from Literature Library Online in this context.

There are debates about whether or not Dracula was a fictional character resembling Vlad the Impaler aka Vlad Dracula. In reality, the Transylvanian background of Dracula makes him different from the Wallachian ruler Vlad. Dracula’s claim about his pride of ancestry: “We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights…” – again here it might be noted that Vlad was not a Szekely. Hence the resemblance probably ends here. The only certainty is that Stoker had certainly come across the name Dracula, and borrowed it for his vampire because his source said that the name meant “devil.”

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