***newbies! Welcome! Please Share You, Your Art & Your Questions Here! (themed Thread)

Welcome to FAA Christina! I love your black and white rose image. Lovely! How long have you been a member? Do you work exclusively in photography? Please tell us more about yourself.

Hello,

I'm Julie Ahmad, an Abstract Artist living in Austin, TX and a newbie to this art community. I mainly work with the combination of acrylics and oil pastels on canvas, but use wood panel as well. I have always been interested in art & design in one capacity or another, but it was only when I became pregnant with my daughter, Aaliyah that I had this burning desire to create and I was immediately attracted to abstract art. I started playing with different mediums such as watercolors, nail polish, glitter glue, basically anything I could find in the house.

It didn't take long for me to discover my love for acrylic paints. It wasn't only the fun tubes of color you could fill your shopping cart with but, the forgiveness it offered, in that it dries quickly and you have the ability to paint right over the layer before with no consequence. Now couple that with abstract art having no rules and layers (or perhaps your "mistakes") create texture which only enhance the art & I found my champion!

When I create my art it's almost as if I go into a trance or to my "happy place", the world is full of harsh criticism, myself being the toughest and here I find this space to be gentle and kind. Each layer influences the next, there are no mistakes, i'm simply on a journey fueled by emotions and intuitive actions. My mantra is that it always comes together and it will always be what it needs to be when it's ready.

The practice of painting makes me a better person for myself and my family. When we are kind to ourselves we can be kinder to others. Wow, I guess I went on about that… I looked up and saw that you only asked about what mediums I use. Well, I guess there is a bit more of a share happening there.

Currently, I have my art on Fine Art America and on an etsy shop.

As a new artist, I would appreciate some feedback, please tell me your experience when you view my work. How would you classify it, etc.?? Thank you Rose for posting this and creating this forum.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/sunday-morning-julie-ahmad.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/make-it-work-julie-ahmad.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cant-get-enough-julie-ahmad.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/mixed-signals-julie-ahmad.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/late-may-julie-ahmad.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/quick-sand-julie-ahmad.html

Welcome, Julie! Wonderful biography that you shared above. I love that the creation of your daughter drew you to create in other ways too. I hope you don't mind my sharing your actual pictures here:

This is lovely! I was immediately drawn to it's floral like features.



and I also really enjoy this one too...and it's colors!



I am not a painter, so hopefully some other painters will stop by this tread to chat with you. God bless!

Any more "newbies"? I know we must have lots of them!

I joined a month ago AFTER I made my daughter join and post some photography...but between vacation and having my thyroid out last week...summers a bit busy...I've loved art and nature my entire life. I love the rigidness of pen and ink but love color as well so a lot of my art has evolved into using both..incorporating my interests and passions. Usually takes me just as long to "think" about something as to doing it.
I'm from the US...love all sorts of art and enjoy seeing how others "think" when viewing their pieces.

I don't have art on other sites, I have sold ACEO's in the past...especially when my kids were little...they were easy to cart around anywhere and work on. In the past year I joined a local artist association which has given me a bit more self confidence. Here is one of my pieces...


Ok testing that resizing thing you posted above.....

Hi, I'm April. I joined FAA in February and I just love it here. So many helpful, talented, and inspiring artists, all in one place!

I'm a born-and-raised Pacific Northwesterner. I currently live in Washington state with my husband, son, and cat (who is perched on me as we speak). I have always been a creative person. I used to practice drawing portraits and horses so much when I was a little girl that my parents banned me from the reams of new paper. Instead I started drawing on pages of old phone books and on used wrapping paper. When my husband (boyfriend at the time) bought me my first computer in 1999, I started drawing in MS Paint (if you can believe that), and graduated to Photoshop Elements shortly after my son was born. I decided to go to school for graphic design because I had a knack for it, and because I wanted a career I could do from home. I moved up to CS4 (full versions of Photoshop and Illustrator), and that is what I have been using ever since to create my digital paintings, which I do either from scratch (all in PS from start to finish) or by scanning my hand drawn sketches into the computer and painting and texturing them in PS. On rare occasions I will use photographs I have taken and make them into "painterlies", but I prefer to make my art the new-old-fashioned way, if that makes sense.

All of my online stores (AW, Zazzle, Oarttee) are linked through my website - http://aprilmoen.com - and my latest blog post also features the time-lapse video I made for last week's One Hour Art thread. You can read it here - http://www.aprilmoen.com/blog/what-is-this-digital-painting-you-speak-of

Here are my most popular (sold) pieces thus far...




And the one I just finished today...

Hi
I'm Kathleen. I have been on this website for about a little over two weeks now. Art has always been a passion of mine. As a child and into my teens I would draw and paint. Recently I have been taking more of an interest in photography. So far I love the FAA website. There are so many inspiring artist here. It seems to be a very fun and interesting community.

This is my most recent post taken just a few days ago.




This was my first post to FAA. I took it a few years ago with my iPhone believe it or not.

Hi Rose.. I've only been a member for 7-8 weeks..
I joined in May after becoming restricted in my mobility and being forced to give the heavy art a break for now..I originally joined to show off and maybe sell some of my Stone Carvings and Sculptures, but I am now embracing the p.o.d. aspects of the site. I uploaded a few poor quality shots of my stone work but now I am going through a process of turning these into printable images..
Anyhow..here's a selection of both...

And here's some "straight" photography too...
Forgotten Hero.

The Slime From Your Video.

Christine: welcome! Your work is lovely. How do you add that colorful border? It's so beautiful and unique. Pen and Ink was my first "love" before I ever started with photography. Unfortunately I can't seem to create new works just from my imagination...so, I learned Pen and Ink by reading books by Claudia Nice (have you heard of her?). In her first series of books she gave permission for her works to be 'copied' for fun and profit. I will be checking out the rest of your lovely work in a few moments!

April: Wow, you have been such a great contributor to these forums that it seems you have been here for far longer! I didn't realize you were a 'newbie'. I am so amazed at your lovely work especially now that you said that you create them on your computer! Such an incredible talent you have. They are gorgeous!

Kathleen: Welcome to you also! I too and in 'awe' of the amazing artists/artworks on this site. I love looking at the "recently sold" page and garner many 'favorite' artworks and artists from there. Keep up the good work and have fun on FAA!

Barry: You too seem like you've been here 'forever'. I really love your stone work! What kind of stones do you need to use for those? They all look like different materials. I've only done one carving in my life, in plaster for a class in college, and was amazed at the results....intricate interwoven hearts. I always wanted to do more carvings....maybe someday I will.

Thank you all for sharing yourselves and your great artwork here in this thread, and with the world through FAA.

Just found this thread. I must say, it's a bit comforting to be in the company of others who are new to FAA! I've been here since the last week of May 2014.

I live in a tiny town called Round Top, Texas, population 91. (We had a population explosion over the last several years; in 1999 it was 77. ;) ) Round Top is often described as "a place where Norman Rockwell meets Andy Griffith", and that's a pretty apt description. Walking into our town is like walking into 1940s America, especially if you happen to visit during our Independence Day parade, which is the oldest one west of the Mississippi. The photographic potential of this tiny place is endless, and I love capturing and sharing images of it with others.

In addition to that, my oldest son works as a cowboy (yes, that is his true and only profession) so I sometimes find myself photographing cowboy-type images as well.

My husband bought me a camera for Christmas three years ago, and although I've had a fine time playing with it, it's only been during the last three months that I've forced myself to move forward by learning the technical aspects of photography such as aperture, shutter speed, exposure and the like--and wow, has a whole new world been opened up to me. As a newbie, I've got a long way to go, but I'm learning tons every day just by reading advice from the many amazing artists on this site.

Hello,

I´m from Portugal a litle country in the western part of Europe. I am an emerging artist and I started in 2010 painting. I´m a seeker of inspiration and a believer that each painting or image has a hidden message waiting to be found. I find inspiration in the great surrealist masters, and I have a sayng that a message must be delivered with caos to shake the minds of people. Also with the surrealism I add the figurative influence and abstrac, so my works a little minimalism. Also I like to photograph, nature, landscape and make what I call photographic modelations that is like my paintings.

I discovered FAA I´m not a premium member... yet but I hope to learn a lot here.

I leave some of my works, hope I will be able to upload more soon.

Regards to all.

Well I am on microstock since 2010, but I am a total noob on this site. I joined this site in october 2013, but I have sold 1 card and 1 phone for stunniing 2 USD. I had 1 print sale, but it was returned by the buyer :D I realized that this site isn´t good for me. So I won´t pay again for my premium membership. I will have only 25 images here, rest will be uploaded on my shutterstock account. If you are interested, my RF prices on pixels are close to the microstock prices !
http://licensing.pixels.com/profiles/martin-capek.html?tab=artworkgalleries/




It seems my work isn´t good enough for this site.
I hope you will be more successful on this site than me.

Hi,

My name is Melinda and I've only been on FAA since mid-June. I'm still bumbling around in the dark on a lot of levels. I've always been very involved in creating art, but have never tried to sell it before. Instead I've always just given it away to who ever expressed an interest in it. I struggle with trying to figure out appropriate prices to put on my work and how best to market it/reach a public that might be interested in it. I have a personal facebook page, but I've never done things like twitter ...etc. So if you see me crashing around into walls here, this is why.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/colored-cultural-zoo-c-eastern-woodlands-tortoise-melinda-dare-benfield.html

See...I know which link I'm suppose to copy and paste to show my image, but I can't even figure out how to do that.

Clueless,

Meli

I'm liking what I see here! Great stuff!

Check out my work! I'm relatively new (3 years off and on) and could use pointers with landscape photography to enhance and improve upon my work!

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/preston-tenney.html

Thanks!

My name is Nedeljko Djilas and I come from the Croatian. Two years ago I asked here 5 photos as free connection and a little later they wiped and now the other day I put 25 photos. I am interested in whether I was good enough for a professional amateur.

Sorry I haven't responded to you all in awhile! I had a long post typed up and hit a wrong button on my computer and it disappeared! I am also hoping that some other members who have been her awhile chime in to welcome you!

Wonderful stories and works being shared here. Thanks so much for all your posting.

Melinda, the work you tried to post here is stunning:



I also love these! Keep up the wonderful work and don't forget to 'share, share, share' on Twitter, FB, Google, Pinterest, etc.... The search engine 'bots' will find you better and so will others!

Flat owl photo you have some gorgeous works! I love this:



And these!

Gabriel, as well as the works you posted, I really like these:

Rose, thank you. I appreciate it. you have great photos yourself.

Hi I'm WiIll Harnett from Ireland. My passion is travelling and photography; I've just stumbled across this site today and am impressed; lets hope can turn those images to sales.

If you like my images please leave a comment as would be greatly appreciated; I diverse from architecture to wildlife ; but love landscape and urbanscape.





Please check me out if wish to see more

www.willharnett.com
www.facebook.com/whp14
@whp_14
www.willharnett.500px.com

Welcome again to the newest members who posted here. I love hearing about you and seeing your works. Please keep them coming! If you've already posted some pictures in this thread, feel free to add more...up to 6 per individual post tho. God bless!

I'll take you up on that offer Rose :-) Thanks..

Squally...

Bath limestone.
195 million years worth of stormy seas pounding away at primitive lifeforms created this stone...
And now a (slightly less) primitive lifeform pounding away at this stone created these stormy seas..
What a beautiful fractal universe we are!

Sagara and Mani...

The stone for this piece was reclaimed from an ancient wall which had been demolished by a drunk driver. It is quite a grainy stone and doesn't lend itself well to fine detail, but it has some beautiful layers of mica running throughout.
Over time, as the layers recede through degeneration, the child figure will become larger and the mother figure will diminish.

The Fred and Wilma series...(i-phone cases)

As promised...here is the first of my new i-phone cases from the "Fred and Wilma" series.
Comes in a range of finishes including:- Welsh slate (as seen), Indian sandstone, Scottish green marble etc:
This is my first attempt at commercializing my art....I agree.. I'm not the most astute business man :-)

Hello everybody!! I joined this site in March of this year! I have been drawing since I was a little girl. I eventually got into chalk pastels. I joined the military and stopped drawing as much. Then I discovered acrylic paints. You can see I have improved with each painting I have done. The ones I posted below are my favorite ones and proud of. The rest, well, they will just stay in my gallery.

I currently live in North Carolina, but I am from Colorado. I just love it here in North Carolina! The mediums I use are pencils, chalk pastels, acrylic paint, and oil paints. I do have another place for my Artwork and it is is called Ambre Wallitsch's Art on Facebook. I don't have a website yet, but would like to have one. I am not to sure how to do that yet nor do I want to spend a crazy amount of money either as I have three skin children and three fur children!

Well below are four of my favorite pieces.