Friday Links and upcoming events

This weekend I will be helping in Phoenix at the Copic Certification. One of the other things I will be doing is a special workshop for the new Spellbinders Design team, however, I don't want you to feel left out of what I will be talking about.

Next week I will be at the grand opening celebration of the new Blick Art Store in Seattle, WA. I will be demoing on the 22nd, from about 2 to 5pm. Come join me for some prizes and to have your Copic questions answered.

Friday Art Links
Elements of Good Design
The first subject I'll discuss in Phoenix is based on this post I did last year on composition. Read through this post and I hope it inspires you to look at your projects a little differently.


The Meanings of Shapes Then, to understand how shapes have an emotional feel to them in a composition, look at this that I complied from some different sources. If you are putting shapes together to convey a mood or emotion, think of how each shape adds a dynamic to the whole (think of flowers as big circles)

These concepts are arbitrary, so you can choose to agree with them or not.

Circles and Round shapes:

Tenderness - Love - Friendship - Care - Support - Protection - Affection - Compassion.

Squares, rectangles, pyramids:

Stability - Strength - Power - Balance - Reliability (BTW, Triangles on point do not convey these emotions)

Vertical shapes and lines:

Strength - Masculinity - Power - Aggression - Courage - Brutality - Dominate - Menacing

Horizontal lines:

Peace - Tranquillity - Feminine - Calm - Rest - Weak - Peaceful - Composed - Silent - Still

Soft curves:

Rhythm - Movement - Pleasure - Natural - Generosity - Femininity - Happiness

Sharp angled lines:

Explosive - Violent - Anger - Rapidity - Dynamic - Metal - Movement - Energy - Lively - Young

Fun Color Theory The last links I wanted to direct you toward are all about colors.

ColorMatters.com This is a fun site to just dig around in and find all sorts of interesting factoids on color. They discuss everything from Pink jail rooms to the Egyptians bathing in different colors of light.

For interactive color playing you can go to the Kuler website (requires flash plugin), where you can type in a word and it will pull up a color scheme. This is always handy if you need a new color idea for tired, old concepts.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll see you in Phoenix and Seattle! Next week, stay tuned as I have some exciting news and a fun giveaway.