To prove my point, I’ve scoured the web and DeviantArt in search of great graphics. The result was absolutely exhilarating. Not only did I find many magnificent pieces made entirely with open-source software, I also was surprised to find a growing community of professional visual artists dedicated to spreading the word about GIMP, Inkscape, MyPaint, etc. using them exclusively to produce their artworks and even extending them to produce improved painting packages like GIMP Paint Studio. There were too numerous works worthy of mention here, but including all of them would have probably made this too long of a post. So here are some stunning pieces flowing around deviantArt.

Inkscape 0.47 Contest Entry

Author: ~sko on deviantART

Software used: Inkscape

Inkscape Is My Bitch

Author: ~wflu on deviantART

Software used: Inkscape

sm_2

Author: ~hrum on deviantART

Software used: Inkscape

Bjork Vector Inkscape 2

Author: ~ndop on deviantART

Software used: Inkscape

Inkscape 0.48 Screen Contest

Author: ~Arwassa on deviantART

Software used: Inkscape

Jacky D Icon

Author: ~uberdiablo-pixels

Software used: Inkscape

Pinkitude For Life

A reminder for women that self-breast exams are key for early detection & prevention.

Author: ~QuicheLoraine on deviantART

Software used: Inkscape

Nixie Pixel Portrait

Author: *TheShock on deviantART (author of GIMP Paint Studio)

Software used: GIMP and GIMP Paint Studio

Jensen Ackles – GIMP Painting

Author: ~LasiaNicole on deviantART

Software used: GIMP

Ailvhe Ni Faolain

Author: Anokorok on deviantART

Software used: GIMP

Princess Of The Wind Kingdom

Author: *Anokorok on deviantART

Software used: GIMP

Sweet Candy

Author: *starca on deviantART

Software used: GIMP

Attack Of The Gnome

Author: hrum on deviantART

Software used: GIMP

big_water

Author: ~hrum on deviantART

Software used: GIMP

Negra In Vector

Author: ~pretojackson on deviantART

Software used: Inkscape & GIMP

Interesting DeviantArt Groups

If you’re interested in exploring additional paintings, be sure to look at the galleries of the following groups on DA. Each group has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to and most even accept members without any eligibility restrictions. That way you can constantly see artwork and be motivated to keep learning.

• FOSS Designers
• Open Artists
• Ubuntu Artists
• Linux Deviants
• MyPaint
• Gimp Dome
• GIMPies
• GIMP Artists
• Master GIMPers for resources, patterns, tutorials
• Krita Free Art App

I imagine at this point you’re bit curious to learn more about Inkscape and GIMP. If so, check out some hand-picked beginner video tutorials, some easy text-based tutorials to create your own wallpapers, or some dedicated websites. After being through with those, you can have fun creating cartoonish versions of your photos, or use GIMP for some non-artistic work, such as making GIFs, image maps, adding speech bubbles or callouts, zoom effects, and optimizing (read shrinking file sizes of) images. If you want to use GIMP to paint, you should definitely check out GIMP Paint Studio, which offers a variety of brushes and goodies to improve the drawing and painting features in GIMP.

Do you know of any beginner-friendly tutorials for open-source software that are worth mentioning? Please let us know in the comments!

Wikipedia tells me that the first animation film was made way back in 1917. We perhaps link the history of animation more with Walt Disney. Even then, from the days of Snow White to today’s cutting edge CGI powered flicks like Avatar, the world of animation creates a fantasy bubble which lately adults too have found captivating.

But what’s rendered on the screen takes hours of toil and painstaking detailing. Let’s see what happens behind the scenes with the help of these top animation blogs that also give pointers to anyone who wants to learn about the art of animation.

Cartoon Brew

This animation blog takes a look at the industry as a whole and covers animation news, views and lots of teasers too. Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi are a duo of animation historians with a really good hold on what happens in the world of animation.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

Currently, it has gone into a bit of a temporary limbo because of lack of funding, but this long-standing animation resource deserves a spot because it’s a rich source of historical information on animation. The archive is especially useful for students who can see how animation and animators have developed the craft over the years.

Animation World Network

The Animation World Network is the largest animation-related publishing group on the Internet. The site and its network of other animation related websites cover the industry in depth bringing you everything from news to lessons. The free blogging service – Animation Blogspot is also a must follow for animation buffs.

TAG Blog

The daily updated blog is an opinion piece that brings together interviews and news from the animation industry. It is a front row show as the voices belong to the members of The Animation Guild.

Animated Views

The informative animation site has a community and a cool contest corner. Throw in news, reviews, retrospectives, and interviews and you get a model of a well rounded animation website. The site’s focus is more on animation in media.

11 Second Club

If you like to stick with contests, then the monthly character animation competition on this website could be worth a look. You have to download an audio file and then take a month to animate a character performing the line, using whatever acting you feel fits the audio best. Feedback from your peers can help to make you a better animator and perhaps you can win the cool prizes while you are on the learning curve.

Drawn

This simple and neat Tumblr blog is not only about animation as such, but you can get inspired with the showcase of cartoons, illustrations, comic art, and animations on display. You can also contribute your own work or something that has inspired you.

Animation Physics

Physics and animation? If you thought you could leave that subject back in school then let this blog and the companion wiki change your mind. Its physics that will help you define the range of motions as you go about animating objects. The lessons on the site should be a great help to teach you all about realistic motion.

Animation Tips & Tricks

As the name says, this blog teaches you all about the insider tricks that go into creating great animation. Animation professionals like Industrial Light & Magic animator Shawn Kelly among a host of others teach you the philosophy behind animation. The lessons extend back to 2008, so do check the archives too.

All About Animation

The animation blog revolves around podcasts that seek to inspire, inform, and entertain. The blog is run by a trio of animators from my own country (India). It is neatly designed and also contains information on the ‘master class’ they run to teach aspiring animators. The blog seems to be a bit dormant now.

Out of the hundreds of animation blogs out there, these are just ten. You will find a few more core animation links in the blog rolls these ones have. Over the years we also have covered some cool free animation apps which can help you spark your creativity. Which are your favorite animation blogs? Get animated and leave a link in the comments.

Image Credit: Wikimedia

Now, graphics have evolved and a lot of it is 3D and more realistic. But pixel art lives on in the digital world as icons, in the real world as advertisement graphics, for hobbyists as a way to go retro and connect with the past.

The popularity of this form of art is also well illustrated by the range of online pixel art creators that help you create some cool pixel art drawings. We have covered some of them. What we haven’t yet are some free tutorials and websites that show the joy one gets from these not-so-simple little graphics.

Pixel Joint

It’s a pixel art community, an online gallery, resources, and as the site itself says – the world’s most disreputable source for pixel art! The Hall of Fame and Weekly Showcases are where you should go to for the best examples. If you fancy your skills on a graphic editor, check out the Weekly Challenges. The site gives you a large dose of pixel art learning resources through tutorials and videos. Other links worth noting are those for news, games, free downloads, and of course, the large community of fans of this form of art.

Mark’s Pixel Art Tutorial

A very simple site, but one that gives you the first instructions you are expecting on pixel art. If you are starting out, then the simple instructions on this site could be worth a look. The advantage is that you can go through the site in one sitting and then move ahead with more advanced tutorials elsewhere. The sore point is that the links section of the site contains a lot of dead ones, so you cannot jump to other sites from here.

About.com

If you want to learn how to paint pixel by pixel, then the brief resources listed here could be of help. The guide also includes links to other sites on pixel art, some of the ones we are covering here. The Microsoft Paint tutorials and the ones on editing icons and cursors are great help for beginners.

Pixelation

The pixel art forum and discussion board has quite a permanent presence in the community. You can ask for tips, post your work for feedback, and also search for jobs.

Pixel Museum

The pop-ups are the only things that will bother you, but once you enter the virtual museum of pixel art, expect to be wowed by the work of nearly 150 international top artists not only in pixel art, but also in digital art and photography. Wannabe pixel artists can visit the ‘two floors’ of the museum and check out the art works on display.

eBoy

The work of three German pixel artists – Steffen Sauerteig, Svend Smital and Kai Vermehr, the site is a must visit if you are a pixel artist on the move. The landing page itself is colorful designed and is a showcase of their work and collection of reusable objects, posters, sketches, and toys. Some items though are for sale only.

Supertotto

This is a pixel art website that showcases the works of Totto Renna who is an artist, illustrator, graphic designer, and also a teacher. His work is detailed and colorful and all of them seem to be created on Photoshop. Some of his famous clients include Adidas, MTV, Rolling Stone, and Coca Cola.

This is definitely not the end of the list of great pixel art websites, but it is a fair sampling of the resources you can expect to find with a search. From basic tutorials to personal portfolio sites, there is no shortage of inspiration.

Some of the other must visits include:

Army of Trolls

Rodhunt

Flickr – The Pixel Artists Pool

Are you inspired? Tell us if you have ever tried your hand at drawing with pixels.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Typography is art in its truest sense, and the web has certainly made it more mainstream. Choosing the right fonts and a theme to go with it are joined at the hip when it comes to web design. The right combination gives us a web design that spells ‘wow’.

Not all of us are graphic designers or art directors; but that shouldn’t stop us from exploring the wonderful world of typography. Typefaces and fonts are just a part of it. There are varied web applications and websites that can help perk up your interest.

Explore these ten websites…some of them are practical tools and some are just cool. In the end, I am sure you will see that fonts aren’t just print on a page.

Flipping Typical

When you first land here you won’t immediately grasp what it is about. The single page display of fonts shows you the popular typefaces you have on your computer. The whole thing is a bit of Javascript ‘magic’. You can also type in any text and see it displayed in different typefaces. Also, you can change the font name in the top black bar to change the display with the new default font. (See Directory mention)

You can also try the similar STC fontBrowser 2.0 online tool to view the active fonts on your system.

TypeNavigator

You have seen a font somewhere but can’t exactly place the name of the typeface. TypeNavigator helps you sort through the probabilities with its unique visual search system. Select the closest look from the choices on display; then work through the forms like width, angle, contour etc to narrow down your search. Think of this useful font app as a filter to jog your memory cells and get that fuzzy font you remember from somewhere.

Identifont

This web app gives you two routes to get to an obscure font. Answer a series of questions or search for a font by giving part (or whole) of its name. The site says that it is the largest independent directory of typefaces on the Internet, with information about fonts from 645 publishers and 175 vendors. Click on any of the tabs to search fonts by appearance, name, similarity, or by a descriptive word. (See Directory mention)

Typechart

This useful font website is for the web designer who wants to compare web typography and settle on one. Typechart’s usefulness comes in because the web designer can also download the CSS for the particular font. Using the preview, font rendering for Windows and Mac can be compared against each other.

We Love Typography

Membership to this cool type related blog is by invitation only, but that’s because the site wants to focus completely on beautiful typography from around the web. If you love typography, then the visual website is a must visit.

Typedia

Typedia is a community encyclopedia of typefaces. Using the search engine on the site you can search for typefaces, designers, foundries, and other related links. Another way to look into the world of typography would be through the listings on the site (check Browse Listings). The site explains its principle as – think of it like a mix between IMDb and Wikipedia, but just for type.

Typetester

Typetester as the name indicates is a very useful tool for web designers who want to compare the appearance of different fonts on the screen. You can pick the ones given in the list or also use the ones detected on your system. You can also compare each font against each other by changing the parameters like color, size, case etc.

FontStruct

We have looked and admired fonts. Now, if you think that it’s time to design a few fonts, you can try out this free online font-building tool. If you have ever tried your hand at designing icons on a grid editor then this tool will be familiar to you. Using simple strokes you can design fonts. It’s not difficult, but you have to be patient and creative. Fonts can be saved, shared, and downloaded for your use. Check out the gallery to see the scope of this online app. (See Directory mention)

The Rather Difficult Font Game

This simple guess the font game can leave even the most well versed designer stumped. But you can discover cool new fonts while you rack up the score. There’s even an iPhone app.

Dance Writer

Typotheque Dance Writer is a fun application that takes your letter inputs and converts them into dance movements. You can for example type in your name and make the interactive human figure move to it. There’s no useful application for this…except a bit of fun. One of its fun uses is to type in a text message and email it as dance movements to your friends.

We have seen that fonts and typography websites come in many flavors – from the practical to the fun. For more regular uses of fonts, check out some of our previous posts on fonts –

5 Excellent Sources To Download Free Text Fonts
10 Cool Free Computer Fonts That Will Make You Stand Out
How To Create Your Own Fonts & Characters on Windows

If you love typography, let us know about your favorite website.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Yes, it is seen as malicious mischief by some, but nobody is denying that it’s also a part of mainstream pop-culture as an art form. Graffiti or street art’s place in the sun as an art form may still be open to debate, but if done well, it is not only eye-catching but also a rousing social communication tool.

So, where does a wannabe graffiti artist go for inspiration?  First take a look at this old Smashing Magazine article to see just why it deserves respect as an art form; then head on to these seven graffiti websites before you stock up with cans of spray paint.

Art Crimes ““ The Writing on The Wall

The site says it is the first and largest online aerosol art archive. It is definitely one of the oldest as it started in 1994. The site showcases graffiti art and style from around the world. The news link is something you might be interested in to know what’s happening around the world with this art form. Another page that’s a virtual shortcut into this world is the one which lists other interesting and useful sites in this genre.

Street Files

When you first land here, it will seem that this photo sharing site is the “Flickr” for graffiti artists. 33,445+ members and 462,369 photos makes up quite a huge collection. The site is an independent street art & graffiti photo community. The site traces the popularity of graffiti as a social art form through the photos that are contributed from across the world. The quickest way to reach the streets is via the little blue map on the right which pinpoints cities around the world. There’s also a photo filter for a more precise search.

The Graffiti Creator

This site is for those who still haven’t found a wall to “deface” or would like to practice without wasting paint. The online graffiti creator lets you experiment with varying preset styles. You can create customized text art work using the available styles & concepts. This online graffiti tool is useful because graffiti art can find expression on web banners, animation, and, logos too. One of our fellow authors has done a complete review on this online Flash application.

Learn Graffiti

If you want to learn the stylized lettering involved in graffiti art, then this is a nice place for some of the basics. The online tutorials on graffiti take you through alphabets, styles, block 3D, arrows, coloring etc. Some of the lessons are still incomplete, but you can still get a pretty good picture of what’s needed to start of with graffiti. The URL and the website’s name are different.

Graffiti Playdo

You have a palette, a can of spray paint, and a whole blank wall to work your magic. What else do you need as an aspiring graffiti artist? The advantage of doing graffiti online as this little Flash application shows is that you can undo it all with a press of a key and start again. Also, the Flash app lets you connect to Facebook and share your wild inspired ideas. Check out the little thumbnails at the foot, they should make you feel either inspired or inferior as a graffiti artist. As you can see, I feel the latter.

Also, you can deface a lot many more public properties at another cool street painting site – ZeWall Online Painting.

PureGraffiti

This is one of the more complete graffiti website and blog with a range of all round features that includes – graffiti news, graffiti pictures gallery, graffiti artists, interviews, street art, graffiti supplies, and a large forum. There doesn’t seem to be any contests held now, but the site also features graffiti battles between participating graffiti artists.

FatCap

This is a very nicely designed site to come to if you are searching for a well rounded graffiti and street-art resource and a social graffiti community rolled into one. You have entire sections on featured artists, graffiti pictures, videos, interviews, and news. Check out the nicely laid out navigational cues on the right sidebar which let you browse graffiti according to their type.

I used to think that graffiti was an anonymous form of art, where you really didn’t know the artist. But as these graffiti websites prove, graffiti and street art has moved into the mainstream and is getting its due. There is a lot of appeal in graffiti. Don’t you think so?

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Since practice makes perfect, this is a great way to not only have a bit of fun with your photography, it will also improve your photographic skills, and you could very well end up with some of your best work yet. Online communities, competitions and tutorials are just a few of the ways you can find the inspiration that has been eluding you, and find images where you wouldn’t have normally.

Online Communities

Online communities are the most obvious place to start when you’re looking for inspiration for your photography. With such a huge variety of styles of photography, techniques, and ideas, you’re bound to find something that will spark your creativity.

There are two ways to browse the most popular work on Flickr. If you want to see the most recent work that has left its mark on the community, you can check out 7 days worth of interesting photos. If you want to go back even further, Flickr’s explore page features popular photos, sets and groups.

DeviantArt is another site with a strong photography community. Two ways you can look at the best work on DeviantArt is to check out the handpicked photos, selected by moderators, or, like Flickr, you can just take a look at the most popular photos based on comments and favourites.

Stock photography communities such as Stock.Xchng, Shutterstock and iStockphoto are also great sources of inspiration.

Entertainment Art

The entertainment industry is full of artistic inspiration. Whether it’s in movie posters, album covers, a few lines in a song, or a scene in a movie, there is no limit to the ways in which one form of art can inspire another.

A great source for just about any movie poster is MoviePosterDB. The database is searchable by movie title, artist, actor or tag. If you just want to browse randomly you can do so by decade, popularity or just browse random posters one by one.

If you’d rather be selective, the best movie posters are posted on the database site, IMP Awards. The database can be browsed by actor, director, designer, or year.

Album covers can be just as if not even more inspirational than movie posters. Sleavage features some of the more interesting album covers from the past decades, which you can browse by cover artist, music artist, genre and more.

For a wider selection, Album Art is a great choice where you can search for your favourite artists, and see how their album covers can inspire you.

Another way in which you can use these images is to mimic them, creating images that are identical to the album cover or movie poster, adding your own personal twist.

Professional & Classic Art

While your peers can be a source of inspiration, so can professional photographers who you look up to or aspire to be like. If you have a favourite photographer, keep up with their website to see what they’re doing artistically. If you don’t want to look up someone specific, a photography or art database is a great way to get inspired.

Like with movie posters and album covers, you can emulate photos taken by professional photographers, or even create photos based on famous paintings.

The ideal database of photography, fine art and vintage art is the aptly named art.com. Searchable by style, subject, artist, or collection, there is no limit to the kinds of inspiration you’ll find here.

Tutorials

No photographer can ever say they know all there is to be known about photography. There is always something new to learn. Tutorials can be a great source of inspiration, encouraging you to try new techniques and tricks.

There’s no limit to online photography tutorials, one of the best and most popular is the website, Digital Photography School, with tips on photography techniques, equipment and processing.

PhotoRadar is another popular site packed with tips, tricks and techniques.

PixelTango has a great list of 20 useful photography techniques which are bound to give you some ideas for new photos, as well as a long list of inspirational ideas and styles. Smashing Magazine also put together a stellar list of 50 photography tips and tutorials that will keep you busy, and inspired, for quite a while.

Lighting Diagrams Creator might not provide tutorials, but is a great resource for better understanding how lighting affects your photography. Photographers share their photos, accompanied by a lighting diagram displaying how they set up the photo.

A simple Google search will reveal the wealth of knowledge and inspiration that is to be found online in the form of photography tutorials and tips.

Competitions

Online photography competitions and magazines are another great source for inspiration, even if you don’t want to enter).

The World Photography Organisation is a great source of inspiration both for its competitions and the incredible community photography on the site.

Also be sure to check out the article, 5 Websites With Free Photo Contests To Improve Your Photography Skills.

Where do you get your photography inspiration? Let us know in the comments?

Image credit: Shutterstock

A lot of times when you’re making your own graphics, you might need the help of scripts or plugins to reduce steps to achieve something you constantly find yourself doing. If you’re into making your own drawings and digital paintings, you will probably be excited to find out about GIMP Paint Studio.

I certainly was when I found out through Asian Angel (thank you!). That’s because GIMP Paint Studio (GPS) is a package filled with goodies that improve GIMP’s drawing and painting features, especially useful if you own a drawing tablet. It consists of new brushes and tools that will likely make the digital painter-inclined user comfortable with the program from the moment GIMP is launched. The plugin is actually put together by a digital artist who has an incredible gallery on the download site to further demonstrate what can be achieved with GIMP and GIMP Paint Studio.

Installation

If you want to try the package, download the zip file from the Google Code site, which packs brushes, palettes, gradients, patterns, and tool options. Assuming you have GIMP installed, after you unzip the download file, you’ll have to copy or move the files inside each folder of GPS into the original GIMP folders. Personally, I moved the entire GPS brushes folder to GIMP’s brushes folder, for example, so they stay separated from the built-in ones, in case GIMP starts up too slowly for the new amount of brushes to load. For Windows Vista and 7, you can find the original GIMP folders in “C:\Username\.gimp-2.6″’; in Windows XP, locate the folders in “C:\Documents and Settings\Username\.Gimp-2.6\”; in OS X, they should go in “/Users/Username/Library/Application Support/Gimp”; in Ubuntu or any Linux system, they should be in “/home/username/.gimp-2.6″. If you have the portable version like I do, find the folders in “GIMPPortable/App/gimp/share/gimp/2.0/”. Now that you now where to move or copy the files, move GIMP Paint Studio’s brushes into the original GIMP’s brushes folders, the new gradients into GIMP’s gradients folder and so on.

There are also sessionrc (can be used to rearrange the layout of GIMP to optimize working comfortably with graphics tablets) and toolrc (can be implemented to add tools to Toolbox) files in the GPS package that you can use to replace GIMP’s built-in, but you should back up the original files in case you wish to restore original layouts and tools.

What GPS provides when compared to GIMP’s built-in offerings is a wide range of tools for graphic designers and digital artists: different shadowing pencil brushes (graphite, 2B, 6B, etc), pen brushes (BIC pen, sketching pen), oil brushes, etc; and other presets for airbrushing, using the ink tool, smudging, etc. You can find the whole list of offerings here.

Artwork Made With GIMP & GPS

Here are the many astounding art pieces in the Gallery (some made by the digital painter author of GPS) that show the potential of GPS and GIMP.

If you’re inspired enough to try your hand at drawing and making your own creations, definitely check out GPS! Meanwhile, you can also check out where to get brushes if you want something smaller than the GPS package.

What programs do you use to create your artwork?

Photo credit: Ramon Miranda, GPS Gallery