5 simple tips for artists & crafters to get in shape.

Published February 8, 2010 Inspiration Leave a Comment
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Awesome picture from Dennymont via Flickr.

… and why it’s good for us!

Since the new year started, I’ve been looking forward to get back in shape as I had some difficulty to manage my time with online school and my full-time job in 2009.

Spending more than 8 hours a day on a computer or a drawing table is everything BUT a healthy habit. :-/ Being an artist/crafter doesn’t excuse this. We all need to balance our life a little better.

I don’t know if you’ll find this useful or if this is related to this blog’s purpose, but I thought that I’d post it, anyway. It’s something that me and my creative friends often struggles with, so I thought that some of you might have the same problem, as well.

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Here are some major benefits for us to get moving:

  • It gets your creative mind flowing and out of “clutter”.
  • You will have more energy, so you’ll produce more and better art/craft.
  • Your mood will get better so it will enhance your relationships with other creatives.

1. Choose something that you like.

It may seem like a “duh” thing here, but it’s very important to find an activity that appeals to you.

Don’t choose something just because you want to please your friend or because “it looks cool”. Be sincere at what you like and you’re much more likely to keep going.

2. Organize a group.

This shouldn’t sound as a surprise, but most of us love being with people and have fun interractions.

If you’re thinking about getting into a sport, tell the world.
Your friends, at your job, on social medias sites… you will certainly find at least one person who is interested in joining. Even more if you do this in january. (Eheh.)

The main advantage of organizing a group is that it will keep you going. You won’t want to let your group down and vice-versa. Overcome the couch potato!

3. Go with the season!

If you’re living in Canada where it’s -30 degree celcius (Hello, me!), you may not want to go for a run on the sidewalk.
For example, this year, me and some friends decided to go skating together after work. Not only has this proven to be a very effective way to keep us moving, but since it’s a seasonal, we know it won’t last forever. So we tend to go skating more often. :)

4. Hire a gym coach.

“But I don’t have money for this!” A common excuse. But I’m sure we all had the money to buy the latest craft supply or a new techie tool. Busted!
A coach can be a great source of motiviation if you’re planning your 6th membership to a gym you yet have to try. They will call you to make sure you’re going to your next meeting, will give you tips and answer all your newbie questions.

5. Still no money? Be creative!

Do what you’re best at; Look for an alternative way to keep you in shape.
There’s never been so many options availables. :

  • DVD’s. (Even Youtube have some demos & classes.)
    I found some interesting and different ones via World Dance New York. (Belly & tribal dances, hoop, etc.) Never tried them but I’m tempted!
  • Local YMCA &  clubs.
    They are often less expensives than specialized classes or at local gyms.
  • Start taking walks, go running, make an easy home-gym or use a Wii-fit!

Is there anything else you can think of? I’m sure there is. :-) Happy moving!


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Winners!

Published February 8, 2010 Giveaway Leave a Comment
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So here are the winners for the Craftleftovers zine, drawing made by random.org:

The winners of your drawing are…

1st Ni
2nd April
3rd Alicia Law

http://www.random.org/draws/details/?draw=1477

Congratulations! :) Thank you to all who entered the contest. If you didn’t win something this time, you may want to visit my blog once in awhile as I will have more giveaways coming in for this year.

And now, back to our regular program!

Giveaway: February Craft Leftovers monthly

Published February 2, 2010 Giveaway , Zines 13 Comments
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As you already know, the new February Craftleftovers monthly is out and, with The Crafty Life comic, it now makes me a monthly contributor.

I love this month’s new zine because it’s all about:

  • Being crafty for the Pets & friends you ♥!
    There’s tutorials for making kitty snacks, a dog toy and friendships bracelets (Remember thoses? :) )
  • Tons of information on garden planning.
    This comes right on time as I’ve been looking forward to start a new garden adventure, this year. Kristen shares so much useful information, from seed planting to vermicompost.

Gotta love this little guy! He reminds me of Earthworm Jim. Remember? ;-)

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***IGIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER. Thank you to everyone who participated. :-) ***

Kristen was nice enough, once again, to give me some extra zines so I could give them away to my blog readers. Gotta love free zines!

To get one, all you need to do is to comment below this post to win one of the 3 FREE February Craft Leftovers Montly zine. :)
Giveaway ends on Monday, February 7th.

** Make sure to leave me a way for me to join you (email, blog, etc.) **

The winners will be chosen by a random drawing. Good luck!

Drawing tool: Col-erase pencils

Published February 1, 2010 Drawing tool 1 Comment
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I realised that I sometimes talk about differents drawing tools that I’m using. As someone who’s been drawing for a long time, I tend to take for granted that theses tools and ways of working are known by everyone.
Which couldn’t be less true.

Each of us have our own experience with drawing and art. We live in different countries, therefore, not all materials are known or available in different places. We’ve been to different schools and developped different ways of thinking depending of the program we went to study to. We have a  lot to share so I decided to do even more with the new “Drawing tool” blog category.

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When I studied film animation, years ago, I learned that animators were drawings mostly with Prismacolors col-erase pencils. It is also used by architechs for blueprints.

Why is this tool so loved by animators & architechs ?

  • It doesn’t “stain” as much as a regular HB pencil, so you can work more on your drawing’s structure before it starts smudging.
  • Of course, easier to erase than HB pencil.
  • The lighter colors doesn’t shows on scanners/copy machines.
    Which can sometimes be useful when you’re cleaning a drawing. (Inking, re-drawing, etc.)

To this day, I still use col-erase pencils for most of my sketches.

Remember that illustration I posted? Here’s the final draft I did with a col-erase pencil.
I like to use a lighter color at first and enhance the details with a darker one. In this case, a light and dark blue.
But what’s even  nicer is that you can get the pencils in pretty much any color, depending of your mood and fancy. ;)

Blue is the color’s that is the most used. I am guessing that it is because it is a softer color, which is better for the eyes after you’ve spent hours in front of a drawing. And also because most people can see blue and it’s different shades. Gotta love blue!

So, if you’ve been drawing for awhile and haven’t tried this tool yet, head over to your local art shop supplies and try them. They cost around 1$ and are worth the try.  :)

ArtRage: inexpensive and easy software drawing

Published January 28, 2010 Reviews , Worth-a-click 1 Comment
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One of my teacher in graphic design once showed us a very interesting drawing software: Artrage.

It has a very user-friendly interface (Kids can use it!) and it is very inexpensive compared to the other drawing softwares around. (20$US for Artrage 2, 40$US for Artrage 3 and 80$US for Artrage Studio Pro).

If you’d like to try it out, there’s a free demo right here, it will last you 30 days.

I yet have to figure out all the amazing things that can be done with it, but so far I really like it’s fun features.
I even did my inking with Artrage 2 for this poster:

Mama mia! Italian restaurant poster!

I’ve cropped the poster so you could focus on the drawing instead of the other part of the poster that’s been done with Photoshop.

I just got the new Artrage Studio Pro and can’t wait to try it more seriously as they have a new tool especially made for inking.

I found that Artrage 2 is great if you’re planning on doing more sketches or painted-style drawing, but I did have some trouble using it’s inking tools to get a clearer drawing. I was happy to find out that they improved this very important function.

Take note that this is a drawing software and it will be best used for this kind of work.
If you’d like to get a photo editing software (Such as photoshop) to make, say, blog banners. ;-) I recommend you use a software more like Gimp, Picasa or even Picnik.

Let me know if you try it out and what you think about it.
Happy drawing!

Marmalade making for the first time

Published January 25, 2010 Food , Tutorial 3 Comments
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January is a perfect time to make some citrus marmalade. :)
It’s been on my “to-do” list since early december, but with school and that thing called “Christmas”, I just couldn’t manage the time. I finally did my first marmalade this Sunday afternoon.
Here’s the recipe I took from Conserves maison. (Excellent french blog about canning).

Will give you 7 to 9 marmalade jars of 250 ml.

  • 2 limes
  • 2 oranges
  • 1 citrus
  • 1 medium-sized grapefruit
  • 3 cups (700 ml) of water
  • 8 cups (1530 g) of sugar

    • Wash the fruits to make sure there are no wax left. If you wash them in cold water, they will be easier to cut.
    Cut the fruits in the smallest parts that you can. Use your sharpest knive for this part, it will be much easier.

    You first start by boiling the limes for 15 minutes as their peel takes longer to soften.

    Add in the other citrus fruits. Boil for 30-45 minutes. Once their peel has soften, you can add in the sugar and boil for another 45-60 minutes.

    If you wish to can your marmalade, it’s very important to follow good instructions for sterelization.

    SAFETY NOTE    : ** The only way to sterelize jars is by boiling them. The dishwasher or oven method doesn’t work. You absolutely need to sterelize them with boiling water. **

    You may want to use a large saucepan/canner with a rack to avoid the jars touching the bottom.

    Tadaa! You’ve made marmalade. :)

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    Of course, this is not a very detailed tutorial for canning, you may want to check theses ressources if you’re new to this and would like to know more:

  • The Bernardin guide to home preserving is a good and cheap guide to get you started.
  • Marmalade tutorial (with lots of pictures!) by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.
  • National center for home food preservation. Lots of information about home canning, in general. (PDF documents)
  • Golda’s kitchen. This is a very useful online shop to buy kitchenware.
    I used it to order a couple of things I couldn’t find for home canning.
    French written ressource:
  • Recettes de conserves maison by Vincent. A must-read  blog about canning.

    • The crafty life comic in Craft Leftovers monthly

    Published January 24, 2010 Comics , Zines 3 Comments
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    The new Craft Leftovers monthly is in Kristin’s shop and, guess what, I’m now a monthly contributor! :-)

    The The Crafty Life comic is now a regular feature in the zine and I hope you’ll like it. I’m also writing a new article for the zine, but I can’t talk about it yet. ;)

    In the moment, I’ll be bringing you more comic goodness on the blog, I just need to organize my time better.

    Speaking of time managing, if you’re blogging and you’re wondering how in the world you will manage your time to write more blog posts for 2010, Pam from Gingerbread snowflakes has an awesome tutorial about this.

    Do check it out. :)

    Waterhouse @ Montreal museum of fine arts

    Published January 21, 2010 Inspiration , Montreal 2 Comments
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    Yesterday evening, I went to see the John William Waterhouse exhibition at the Montreal Museum of fine arts. (It’s half-price on wednesday.;) )

    For thoses who don’t live in Montreal, it’s the most well-known and very probably biggest art museum in the city. (I’m not sure which one, either the Fine art or contemporary museum is bigger, does anyone know?) In the last years, they had some “popular” exhibitions such as Disney (Yes, disney!) and Yoko Ono.

    It reminded me how much I miss going to the museum and how it is important for an illustrator to learn from theses masters. It is really amazing to being able to see one’s lifetime work in one single place at the same time. You can see the differences between years and how it influenced it’s technique.

    Waterhouse had some very strong drawing skills. It was fun to see his famous masterpieces and I loved his sketches as much, if not more. There is so much you can learn from them just by looking.

    I really love mermaids, so it’s just normal that I love this painting from Waterhouse. Surprisely, it isn’t one of his biggest sized work (It could fit nicely in a small living room.) but it took him years to finish. And, now, it’s one of his most well-known piece.

    Sure, you can take a look on the web or books to see his work, but seing it “live” cannot be compared. You realize how much work have been done how much time it must have took him.

    One of my friend, who was at the museum with me, told me: “When you think about it, they had NO electricity during this time.” So that meant he probably couldn’t paint during the evening.
    He really had to take the most of his day time and be well-organised. I certainly could have learn a few tricks from him.

    Sadly, JWW didn’t leave too much letters behind him when he died. Which explains why we hardly know anything about his private life. Because of this, historians cannot explain in certaity why he chose to paint mostly womens. Sure, it had to do with the upcoming feminist in Great Britain during that time, but there certainly was more to it… but we’ll never know.

    Perhaps he was aware of his private life in a time people didn’t mind about it. Certainly a precursor, Mr. Waterhouse!

    + Here are some links of interest about JWW+

    JW Waterhouse website
    JWW: Comprehensive galleries of John William Waterhouse paintings website
    JWW on Wikipedia

    IPod touch art

    Published January 19, 2010 Illustration , Inspiration , Worth-a-click 2 Comments
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    One of the greatest thing that  revolutionned the way we make art theses day is technology. Better known as: computers.

    If, like me, you’re in  your late twenties, you certainly remember the first time you did a drawing on the computer. You probably also remember the first time you got your first hacked version of Photoshop, but that’s another story…

    Right now, I’d like to talk about what “technology” brought us in the last year: IPod touch art! You can also make this on an IPhone, as well.

    Now, I don’t own one (yet!), but I’ve been checking out theses little pieces of art floating around Flickr, lately. Here are some of them:

    From John Bavaro.

    I love the texture and shapes in this one. Love me some, Budda! (Which, for some odd reason, reminds me of this part of a funny documentary made by Réal Béland, a Quebec comedian. Watch if you have some free time. :-p)

    From Robert Dawson.

    I could totally see myself draw people in a cafe with this gadjet.
    (I can hear my mom saying:”Isn’t what you’ve been doing for years with a sketchpad and a pen?” :-p)

    From Toubab.

    I really like the movement, lines and colors of this one. Simple, yet, very eye-catching. 

    From Suzi54241

    I adore Suzi’s work. She’s a retired artist and you can defenetely see that she has many years of drawing behind her. Check out the website she has with other fingerpainters. She also reccomends us to take a look at Fingerpainted.it.

    ***

    Have you tried this before? If so, how did you like it? If  not, would you consider getting an Ipod touch just for this special feature? Share your thoughts!

    Magazine review: Crochet today

    Published January 15, 2010 Reviews Leave a Comment
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    Since she has a column in it, I recently discovered Crochet Today via Jennifer from Craftsanity.

    First off, I must say I really felt in love with the magazine’s overall design.
    Most knit or crochet magazine’s design are usually a little bit too kitschy to my taste. But this one reminds me lot of Adorn’s look (Bless it’s crafty soul) and it’s got a web feeling to it.

    The way they use their website as a complement to the magazine is very neat. Not only can you preview all the current projects, but there’s also a How to page where you can learn crochet and get you started. And, amazing enough, they have interesting posts on their blog!

    For your viewing pleasure, here are some of my favorites projects in the current issue:

    May I say it? ROBOTS! ;-) Not just one, but two, and it’s a couple! (For the Valentine’s day special, of course).

    Seriously, what’s not to like about this? If I ever get married one day, I’ll seriously contemplate on making this ring box.

    Theses mittens looks so comfortable and the design reminds me of some Europe winter wear look.

    I dream of the day I’ll get good enough at crochet so I can make socks. I’d make a pair for him and I, of course. ;-)

    There is also many projects for babies and kids including this cool winter-themed amigurumi doll.

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    Since this is a difficult time for magazines, I think it’s important to subscribe to the ones we like best if we still want to have them on the market. And it’s even more important for magazines with a niche as they have a smaller audiences then, say, Oprah.

    But it’s also important for them to understand how the web work and it’s importance in our daily crafty lives. They absolutely need to see the web as an allie rather than unfair competition.

    Do you have a favorite magazine on a specific subject that you’d like to share with us? Feel free to do so in the comments. :-)

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    Art vs Craft.net is the blog where arts & crafts are no longer fighting!
    It's about illustration, crafts & related events.

    My name is Fanie and I’m a Montreal based illustrator & graphic designer. You may know me from drawing The Crafty Life comic in CLM. I ♥ comics, vegan food & ghost stories.

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