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http://design-seeds.com/ I find this is very useful to an artist who needs color palette advice. It helps me to learn colors from a different perceptive as well.

Oh that is a good one. I think we all need colour help once in a while. I have even asked here before :)

The designer posts different colors each day, whenever someone needs help in colors, it always is a good place to check out :D!

I like vectorstock.com for great selection, yet affordable vector art. I LOVE fontspace.com for free fonts!

For reference photos for painting I use the following site, PaintMyPhoto. It is an expansive gallery of reference's. You have to join to use it but it is free.
http://pmp-art.com/

for collapsible canvases that ship in tubes at a fraction of the cost with double the quality: www.geniecanvas.com

I use "Clear Bags" for assorted sizes/quantities of resealable bags, precut mats and backing/mounting materials.

http://www.clearbags.com/

These are wonderful.

Since we no longer have any decent art stores here anymore I buy most of my art supplies from http://www.dickblick.com/

I enjoying participating in the http://www.wetcanvas.com/ artist forum.

Michael's coupons...EVERY week there is either a 40% off one item or 20% of complete order at this store. It has an extensive art department with all grades of quality products. You can get a smartphone app and always have these coupons handy when you shop.

Check out your city for senior discounts on gallery and museum admission as well as other cultural events.
Also senior artist networks and alliances.

Using a Michael's coupon might get you down to Blick's regular price. When I shop locally it's usually at Hobby Lobby, they carry the brand of acrylic paint I use and they have weekly 40% coupons and unlike Michaels their regular price isn't full retail.

KEH has never done me wrong as far as buying used photo equipment.

Oh, my yes, Dick Blick is a great source for art supplies. When I lived in Pennsylvania I must have been in and out of their brick and mortar store once or twice a month.

Barney Davey's blog is great for marketing advice. I've been following him for years.

http://artmarketingnews.com/how-to-find-collectors-sell-more-art/

I'm with Marlene...would not like to live without my Michael's coupons. I use those 40% off ones to buy the big stuff.

"But do you shop at Dreamtime for reference images?" Don´t forgot, that you need Print Extended License for that, not regular RF. And you are not allowed to resell it via licensing.pixels. Other stock sites like Shutterstock are not allowing this at all. So be carefull with 3rd sources.

Great reminder! thank you. Yes, you MUST read the licences on all these sites very carefully

I like Tim Grey's advice on Photoshop and Lightroom (I don't use the latter, but I still learn things): www.timgrey.com You can sign up for an email newsletter that I find easy to read and relevant.

I also learn a lot from photosapps.expert which was born out of the Aperture Expert site (and for Apperture users, you know what happened there!) - one of the few sites that I've actually sent a donation because I was so thrilled at having a problem resolved from the information provided.

I bookmarked the following resource but must admit I haven't tried it: thevirtualinstructor.com They provide art lessons.

** Mary Lee Dereske

Anyone here used Craftsy?

If you cannot afford/have access to photo editing software, then you can do a few things here for free:

https://pixlr.com/

This was the best, no cost, online, in-browser photo editor that I ever found. Good for web stuff, but also pretty good for setting up calendar images. Maximum pixel size is 4000 x 4000 pixels, ... will NOT import tiffs or raw, ... WILL export tiffs, pngs, jpegs.

PHLEARN tutorials on Youtube for photoshop tuts. (intermediate to advanced)

Just downloaded Krita as a digital painting program. Free. https://krita.org/ Seems rather good.

Design cuts offers freebies, free tutorials, and incredible package deals on fonts, brushes, backgrounds, etc.

Here is a freebie link: https://www.designcuts.com/freebie-area/

I video-surf through You-Tube and search for videos that have titles, "How to paint a....[fill in the blank]" They're a mixed bag -- the quality of the videos varies widely, but they're great as a way to get free art lessons, you don't have to sign up for a class, and you can watch a video more than once if you think you missed something and you want to see it again.

Sometimes I just type in random words for the "fill in the blank" part, to see what comes up.

These are great resources for keywords… I discovered MyKeyworder thanks to an FAA post in another discussion :-)
http://www.wordhippo.com
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordlist
http://describingwords.net
http://www.mykeyworder.com

And some other excellent resources…
Precisely cut professional custom frames and great service… http://www.framedestination.com
Exceptional quality paper and service… http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/
And a plethora of helpful tutorials… http://digital-photography-school.com

It's hard to pick a favorite. Xueling Zou posted one of mine regarding color so maybe http://www.pantone.com will do? Posts like http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr/?season=spring&year=2015&pid=11? help to keep up with color trends in fashion. Eliedecor will post Pantones predictions for all fields, including interior design such as http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/color/advice/g821/2015-pantone-color-of-year/

Awesome brushes from www.Rosemaryandco.com they are a little pricey but well worth the costs. Located in England but shipping is not outrageous. Less expensive brushes, great buy from www.thebrushguys.com

Deke.com expert Photoshop [ and occasional Illustrator ] tutorials every Tuesday... years of archived podcasts.

http://www.wutz.at/templates/ - mr wutz keeps a running update of member donated DAP templates.

http://designinstruct.com for stuff you didn't know you needed

These are all wonderful! Thank you!

I love http://www.dpreview.com/ for camera reviews. I check this out when thinking of buying a new one. Realise I can't afford it then look again the next week lol

Good is http://snapsort.com/ for camera comparation and http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ for lens and camera comparation

I use https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/ for color reference. You can create your own, search the most popular combinations, or save to your library for future reference. But, you have to log into Adobe Creative Cloud to access the site.

For PS tutorials, I love Marty with BLTV https://www.youtube.com/user/bluelightningtv

One of the best resorces that I ever used is https://www.creativelive.com/ They have free live events to watch online and it has taught me so much. I recommend signing up and they send your emails when they have new free view live classes. From photography to photoshop to social media marketing. New gear what to get what it does how to use it. To Wedding photography, Senior portraits, baby photography! Etc etc.

Google
YouTube including some Phlearn videos

Statscounter on my site
I was using Quantcast, but I decided to lower my site time

GTMetrix.com

Dave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT_vv5moEm8

Chase Jarvis - founder of CreativeLive has a great series of interviews on artist promotion. Like the above - "Get Off Your Ass & Get Noticed with Gary Vaynerchuk "

Just cut and paste these links:

I use luminous landscape for anything related to photography..Lightroom questions asked and answered, printer issues, framing issues,locations etc.

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php

I used Fredmiranda.com to sell camera equipment.similar to DPReview.com but little more civilized. I use dpreview if i want to see latest equipment out there.


Canonrumors.com if I want to see latest canon rumored to be coming out..Although I got thrown out of their forums for complaining about Canon camera's

Largest shipping box I could find for artwork http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-11251/Moving-Boxes/48-x-6-x-38-72-275-2-piece-Telescopic-Boxes

For large format printer issues i frequent this forum.They ask and answer problems printing your own work..https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/EpsonWideFormat/info

For issues about framing your own work http://www.theframersforum.com/ or across the pond

Haha, sorry, that made me giggle......Canonrumors.com if I want to see latest canon rumored to be coming out..Although I got thrown out of their forums for complaining about Canon camera's

Most forums remove complaints and kick out the offenders. Gotta love this one. The staff are so forgiving ;) lol

Snapsort is great for looking at a quick review of a camera. Highlights the good and bad things in a very simple format, giving each camera a score. Good for when you need to know the quality of a camera fast. http://snapsort.com/compare/Nikon-D5200-vs-Nikon_D7000

No one has mentioned GIMP yet so I'll do that. You can google GIMP + your operating system to find the one that works for you. Softonic and CNET both have downloads available. I'm currently using GIMP 2.8 for Mac, but my older son has the Windows version. It's a really powerful photo editing tool, plus it's a free download. I'm currently working with it to create png files using a tutorial at this website - http://gimptips.com/articles/gimp-tips

The learning curve is a bit steep but if you already know how to use other photo editing programs (which I don't) you should be able to figure out this one, too. I like Pixlr and still use it for resizing and cropping, but I suspect I'll eventually end up solely on GIMP once I'm used to it.

This is a great thread! I've saved all kinds of bookmarks to check out. Thanks for starting it.

I started to mention GIMP, but I figured a lot of people here already knew about it. I use it.

You WILL eventually leave pixlr behind, I can promise, because GIMP will become your preferred freebie.

I have worked in the business for too long. I could not recommend a Michaels or Hobby Lobby for art supplies, only if you are desperate. But the times have changed and many don't know what an art supply can be any longer.

Dick Blick - art supplies
Jerry's Artarama - art supplies
Art Supply Wholesale (ASW) - art supplies
Cheap Joe's Artstuff - art supplies
A super pastel supply - http://www.dakotapastels.com/pages/specials.aspx
Awsome heavy duty stretchers - http://simonliuinc.com/#home

There are more, the specialty suppliers for pigments, encaustics, stained glass, etching supplies, papers, canvases etc. Which no Big Box like Michaels will ever carry.

A website to find long tail keywords.

http://soovle.com/

They are all very helpful, thank you :D!

Another very good keywording site is http://www.arcurs.com/keywording/

Do remember to only use the words that apply to your image and not just use all of them.
You click on the images that look like yours and scroll to the bottom and click the tab.You then read through the list of words found and click on the ones that you want to use.Once selected click to show the keywords,copy and paste.
I do always use my own first and use this to see if I have missed any

For all my silks I use http://www.dharmatrading.com and will now be using them for my gutta serti and thinning fluids as they are no longer selling them at the art stores here in NZ.

Here is one, its a local gem I came across for buying canvas by the yard specially for doing murals or large custom artwork http://www.musson.com/

CG Textures are a good resource
http://www.cgtextures.com/

Just checked out cheap joes, so much cheaper for the glass painting supplies than my usual stockists, will definitely be using them, thanks Dave :)

Loving these resources! Thank you so much for sharing, everybody x

So glad that GIMP was added to the list :-D

Free software is amazing in my opinion. You'd be amazed at what you can get for nowt:

Luminance HDR (http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/) for free HDR tonemapping images. Very powerful.
RawThearapee (http://rawtherapee.com/) is a great full function RAW file developer.
Lightzone is a very good digital darkroom product (http://lightzoneproject.org/)
Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/en/) for vector graphics

There's plenty more too :-)

Richard Reeve
ReevePhotos.com

Alphabetizer to check & organize tags:
http://alphabetizer.flap.tv/

I use for my paintings MyPaint an opensource program.
You can download and try it from http://mypaint.intilinux.com.
There are versions for Linux and Windows.

It is excellent and very light. Almost consumes resources. For me this is important because I paint in very large sizes.
It comes with multitude of brushes and from their website you can also download many created by users.
Moreover, each of them can be customized to suit the user.
It is not as complete as Corel Painter, but one person can use it without having a powerful personal computer without any problems.
MyPaint perfectly fulfills its function supplies an canvas or paper and brushes and paint colors. What else?
And it is "very cheap"

Greetings to all the community and thank you very much for sharing so much interesting information

Hi,

We have our own web site that we sell all out stock images on cheaply.

This is what my other 1/2 uses to do her artwork from, I wrote the site for her basically, so that it organised all our images better for her.

We also have a small free section, that every week gets picked randomly from our entire collection.

Take a look: https://www.ca-stock.com/

Rob.

I love Craftsy. I think their videos are very well done and I've purchased several. The most current one I purchased was by Larry Moore and I learned a lot!

I have allowed many artists here on FAA access to my photos for reference art. Several have asked for my Africa shots, most are not nearly good enough to publish but are great for reference.

That's interesting, Robyn. Larry Moore is a local artist in my hometown. His work is stunning. (I actually hired him as an illustrator about 20 years ago when I was an ad agency art director. I bet he would not remember me, but we have about a dozen mutual friends.) I have never used Craftsy but he raves about it on his FB page.

aliexpress.com... they sell everything... like amazon, but below is a search on painting supplies with free shipping [ no minimum purchase ]. Copy and paste the whole link into your browser.

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?shipCountry=US&shipFromCountry=&shipCompanies=&SearchText=painting+supplies&exception=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&minQuantity=&maxQuantity=&isFreeShip=y&isFavorite=n&isRtl=yes&isOnSale=n&isBigSale=n&similar_style=n&similar_style_id=&isAtmOnline=n&CatId=0&initiative_id=SB_20150820162846&needQuery=y

Hmm. looks like you can just click on the link.. surprise.

This discussion got buried. Took me a long time to find it. So I'm bumping.

Thanks for all the helpful info!

Great references here! I missed this discussion altogether.

I use ipiccy.com for (free) online photo editing

Youtube - look up "Put Some Colour In Your Life" 25 mins with an artist doint their thing. Mixed bag, - I especially liked the watercolour artists..

Fantastic Resources,

i buy photo equipment, Primarily from nikonusa.com, I almost always buy refurbished as the warranty is still good, and I save much cash. They even run additional 10% off sales nearly monthly.

I also buy used gear from adorama.com, their rating system is very good.

If any of you want to do your own wordpress.org site I have the resource.

emediacoach.com

There are several good videos. One of the longer videos is on how to set up a site step by step.
Suggesting you watch that hour 20 minute video once through and then with a hosting account set up,
you run the video, stop the video and do a step in setting up your site, then run the video to see the next step.
Rinse and repeat.

Dave

http://emediacoach.com

fontsquirrel and dafont for fonts...
someone mentioned design seeds and yes, I used to love that site but now that I have the cc suite, the eyedropper tool is expanded and creates a wide range of pallets from an image like you find on design seeds. it is amazing, if you have not played around with viewing the other collections, you are missing out.

@David Bridburg

this is JUST what I needed right now - been thinking of doing some serious work on Wordpress instead of just dabbling

thank you!!

James

James,

Good luck to you. It is not hard work once you are up and running. You will get the hang of it after a good run at it.

But think twice about using the free slider. Sliders slow down the download time for your audience.
Remember often you are marketing to people who did not ask to see your work. They will not wait more than two seconds
for a download. I am at or under 1.2 seconds.

Later one ask me what plugins I use. I will PM you a list of what I use. It will help you. The plugins I use are free.
You do not need to pay for plugins. You can work with free plugins. I learned that after a lot of trial and error.

Dave

From another thread.....

I leave it all in sRGB as well.

Plus I bring down the brightness in my monitor considerably, 80 cd/mm^2.
I also use daylight bulbs in the room I am working in, not regular bulbs.

I went to Wolf Faust or Wolfe Faust for my color card, grayscale card. It is very cheap out of Germany.
The card is for calibrating the monitor.

I think the new Dell Graphics monitor has that grayscale card preset.

Dave

http://www.sumopaint.com/home/
Sumo Paint- free editing software

BUMP

bump