Archive for the ‘Art’ Category:
Looking for Acrylic Frames
Acrylic frames are a smart investment for most folks because of their price and durability. Cheaper and less easily damaged than wood, they come in all shapes and sizes, and can usually be had for less than their natural counterparts. You can also find acrylic frames that are designed to look exactly like wooden frames, so if you’re going for the natural look you’ll be in good shape.
Of course, most acrylic frames are of the purely translucent variety. They’re designed to hold a single picture with no actual “framing”, making them them more stands than frames. These can be found all over the internet, from EBay to Overstock.com to literally hundreds of retailers, large and small, that can provide what you’re looking for. Many will have the ability to provide custom shapes and sizes if that’s what you need. Got a standard size picture that you want to display? You’ll be good to go within seconds. Need a stand for something larger? There are acrylic frames that can work for you there, too.
I personally have nearly all our pictures in acrylic frames in the house. Having two cats that like to knock things over has made it almost a necessity to make as much of the house shatter-proof. They knock it down and it goes boom, but I can just put it back up on the shelf and not have to worry about cleaning up shattered glass or splintered wood. Learned that lesson early – our older cat is a real climber who simply adores knocking stuff off of shelves. It’s some weird compulsion that I’m sure other cat owners can relate to.
Pricing on acrylic frames is tough to beat. You can get an eight-and-a-half by eleven inch frame for six bucks if you do a bit of digging. Smaller frames will obviously be cheaper. And the best way, as always, is to buy in bulk. You can probably find big box retailers like Costco or Sam’s Club that will sell acrylic frames for as cheap as a dollar a piece as long as you’re willing to buy about fifty of them. It’s not a bad investment, really.
If you’re looking for a little higher class, you can check out top-end retailers like Crate and Barrel, which has their own line of acrylic frames that most consider to be stylish and acceptable in just about any decorative motif. Or you can aim even higher – Williams Sonoma has acrylic frames, too. Obiously you’ll be paying more at these places – significantly more at Williams Sonoma – but if the style is what you want for your decorating, then go for it. It’s not written anywhere that all plastic is gaudy.
Well, actually it probably is, but I don’t necessarily think you should trust people who make broad generalizations, since all broad generalizations are false.
 | US $2,850.00 End Date: Thursday Apr-08-2010 7:17:13 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $2,850.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $1,900.00 End Date: Tuesday Mar-30-2010 12:34:59 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $1,900.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $1,250.00 End Date: Tuesday Apr-06-2010 13:46:05 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $1,250.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $1,000.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 13:23:25 PST Buy It Now for only: US $1,500.00 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Tags: acrylic frames
Searching out used art books is one way for the art lover to build a substantial and diverse art library, inexpensively
Given that most of us don’t have a lot of disposable income these days, you might think that building a library of art books must be put on the back burner for the time being. Have you considered the used book market? Used art books are plentiful and most are in great condition. (Art lovers tend to take good care of the finer things in life, among them books.) While new books may be too costly, exploring the used art book market is an excellent solution for the art lover.
Art majors, art museum lovers and families looking to build a personal home library can, relatively quickly, build a fine collection of used art books at a fraction of the cost of new. There are several resources for you to look into, both online and off. Let’s take a look at some of your possibilities:
Check out your local book store’s offerings. You’ll be surprised at the diversity of used art books, from comprehensive tomes on the collections of the Louvre, the Uffizi and the Vatican to smaller volumes on individual artists. Online used book stores also carry an ever changing stock of used art books. Both local and online used book stores are fun venues where you can find some
You can find some gems on eBay. One such used art book I spotted on eBay recently was a signed, first edition of a collection of reproductions of Chagall’s works, with a history of each painting. I couldn’t afford to snap it up, but if your budget allows, there are some valuable used art books to be found on eBay.
Book locater services are another resource for rare and out of print books you’ll want to check if you have a particular book in mind that you’re unable to find elsewhere. These generally cost more than you average used books, but, again, sometimes it’s worth the higher price.
Library sales are yet another cheap way of adding to your library of art books. Some libraries will even send you a postcard notifying you of upcoming sales, upon request.
College and university students often advertise used art textbooks for sale, both on campus bulletin boards and online at the school’s website. The prices are usually quite attractive.
Another way to find interesting art books is to visit local museums specializing in modern and contemporary art. Some of these museums offer exhibits of lesser known, but talented artists. The same is true of art galleries, showing the work of contemporary artists you may never have heard of, but are well enough known in the art community to have a book of their work published.
Certainly, there are new art books you’ll want for your library as well. However, the bulk of your art library may well consist of used art books, at a reasonable cost.
How To Draw Manga
Japanese comic books, or manga, have swept American shores in the last few years, singlehandedly revitalizing the struggling comic book market. Hit titles like Dragonball, Death Note, and Bleach bring fast action and dynamic characters to life in page after page of stylized black and white artwork. And now American creators are getting in on the manga boom as well, creating their own epics that are seeing print in both America and Japan. If you have ever wanted to do your own, this guide will teach you how to draw manga from the ground up – panel borders, characters, vehicles, backgrounds, and more. As a professional cartoonist, I feel that I am uniquely suited to guide the learner in exploring this exciting new art form.
The most important thing in learning how to draw manga is fairly simple – even though manga has a number of rules that most artists work within, there is still plenty of room for you to demonstrate your own style as an artist. The difference between manga legends like Katsuhiro Otomo and Osamu Tezuka is fairly broad, but they are both instantly recognizable as manga. How to draw manga is not a set of specific instructions, but rather help in getting into the mindset of a manga creator, or manga-ka, and understanding what makes it unique.
One major difference between manga and Western comics is that manga reads from right to left – the opposite direction as you are used to. One of the biggest hurdles in learning how to draw manga is getting over the flipped direction. However, this can help you grow as an artist – examining a drawing from an unusual perspective can assist in finding compositional flaws. If you are still having problems, draw your pages as normal and reverse them in an image editing program such as Adobe Photoshop.
What most people who want to learn how to draw manga are interested in is the unique stylization found in most manga faces, where eyes are enlarged to a sizable portion of the face, mouths and noses are shrunk (except in cases of extreme emotion), and hair becomes a jagged collection of geometric shapes. There is no one way to master this style, but one important maxim to keep in mind when you are developing characters is to make sure that their expressions match their emotional states. There is nothing worse that using a technique in a place where it is not appropriate, so ensure that you understand the reasons behind every line you place on the paper.
I hope this article has helped you in your path to becoming a manga artist. May your stories and creations find fame the world over.
