Domestika's blog

What is Photojournalism?

Photojournalist Manu Brabo on the history of photojournalism and its defining features Manu Brabo (@manubrabo) is an independent photojournalist who formed part of the team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for coverage of the Syrian civil war. Since 2007, he has captured uprisings, rebellions and civil wars in such countries as Haiti, Honduras, Kosovo, Palestine, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. He is a regular collaborator to the Associated Press agency and has seen his stories published by some of the most widely-read media titles around the world. Here, Manu talks about the history of photojournalism and its current rulebook. A record of history Since the beginning of culture, art has captured historic moments in different visual and literary formats. Manu Brabo reminds us that man’s first graphic works captured important events, such as the first-ever hunting expeditions and wars. The purpose of these works was to glorify military victories and teach others about historical events.

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Useful Tips for Drawing Comics

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Tips for Highlighting Brightness and Reflections in Product Photos

Karina Meza shares how to take advantage of light and shade in your photos using Photoshop Karina Meza (@karinameza) is a photographer with 15 years experience in digital retouching, specializing in advertising still lifes. She knows that special attention should be giving to retouch brightness and reflections for product photos, as much as to contrast. These details greatly influence the product’s final look. Below, she gives three basic tips you should consider when editing these elements on Photoshop.

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8 Websites to Download Free Stock Music

Give your audiovisual projects an original touch with these free audio resources Free music and sound libraries are a staple for creating video projects. They don’t only help you produce unique pieces with audio elements adjusted to your needs, but they help build your style. You’ve got to invest sufficient time to choose the right track instead of just the most popular ones. That way, you’ll make more professional and original projects. That’s why we’ve made this list of 5 platforms so you can find the perfect feel among an enormous variety of options. NoCopyrightSounds (NCS) This record label is one of the most practical and high-quality resources around for free music. NCS was founded by a British entrepreneur Billy Woodford in 2011 and, although his original idea was to provide music to video game developers, it’s possible to use his library for all kinds of audiovisual projects published on YouTube or Twitch. The collection is predominantly electronic music, and the only requirement is to credit the musicians and the platform.

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Sketchbook Tutorial: Why and How to Create a Sketch Thumbnail

Learn the basics tips to quickly create a thumbnail and why this is an important step in your painting with Alex Hillkurtz

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Tutorial for Freelancers: Practical Exercises To Help You Work Out Your Strengths

Discover your strengths and build your career with these exercises recommended by Mònica Rodríguez Limia Mònica Rodríguez (@rodriguezmon) is a business mentor for creators and creatives. She is passionate about her work and believes that everyone has it in them to keep getting better and better. For Mònica, education is key and has the power to change the world. Mònica shares how you can go about getting to know yourself better before launching your business project. She shares simple exercises that you can do to work out your strengths.

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What is the Color Font Trend?

We speak to Alex Trochut about one of the most interesting typography trends right now: color font Alex Trochut (@trochut), works in graphic design, typography, and illustration. He takes language further with innovative letter designs. In a journey of discovery, through fun and amazement, Trochut worked out that words and designs must be legible but can also transmit meaning visually in a less conventional way. We decided he was best qualified to explain what a color font is. Learn more about this new colorful typographic concept, and the impact it can have on digital design.

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Cinema to Watercolor: The Work of Alex Hillkurtz

Learn how this visual artist’s love of cinema inspired his painting Alex Hillkurtz (@alexhillkurtzart) is a storyboard artist and watercolor painter specialized in architectural motifs. Originally from England, he grew up in California, where he has worked on storyboards for films like Argo, Almost Famous, and Captain America: Winter Soldier. Alex says painting and drawing help us to live at a more relaxed pace by making us aware of our space and what surrounds us. Don’t miss his live chat on Domestika Live. Watch him create a sketch and see his process in action. Let’s learn more about how he developed his artistic style.

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Domestika Diaries: Joel Santana

Joel Santana, an illustrator specialized in character design, has a daily routine that helps him start the morning with more creative energy Staying active and creative, especially during times when you can't leave the house, can be difficult if you fall into certain routines. But thankfully there are always ways to reignite that creative spark and to get back on track. In this Domestika Diary, the concept artist and children's book illustrator Joel Santana (@themaddhattr) shares his routine and the daily rituals that help him start his morning off on the right foot so that he can stay focused throughout the day. Learn more in the video below:

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Photomontage Tutorial: How to Create an Artistic Narrative

Discover the key steps to tell a story using photomontage with Carlos Herrejón Camera, Photoshop, and lots of imagination. You don't need much to tell a good story with a picture. In this tutorial, Carlos Herrejón explains the basic elements for creating a narrative through photography and creative editing on Photoshop. Internationally celebrated for his surreal style, inspired by the great artistic masters, Carlos teaches the Domestika course Artistic Photography Compositing. Below, he shares his tips for expressing yourself through narrative photography.

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Photography Tutorial: How to Make a Pinhole Camera at Home

Learn to make your own pinhole camera at home with Fotolateras Nowadays, almost everyone can take photos. Even if you don't have your own digital or analog camera, your cellphone should. But if you want to go that bit further and you're a fan of a more artisanal approach to your photography, we've got another option for you. Fotolateras share how to make a pinhole camera with simple materials: a metal box, black paint, black adhesive tape, aluminum adhesive tape, and a drill. Are you ready to step into the world of analog photography?

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10 Steps to Make a Self-Portrait Collage

Follow the steps below to create a unique collage with the materials you have at home I recently shared techniques and ideas to create collages at home with your family in a Domestika live chat. After the live chat, I received several beautiful portraits of the Domestika community. I decided to document the process of portrait collage as a photo tutorial to share with everyone. Read on as I explain how to create a portrait and give it a personal touch step-by-step: 1) Gather all materials We are going to use various types of paper, scissors, glue, and a mirror. We will not need pencils or markers. Best to keep them off the table. Now we need to look at ourselves in the mirror with affection. Remember that a self-portrait not only depicts us physically but also reveals something about us: what we feel, what we desire, what excites us and represents us.

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Domestika Creatives: Shinji Nagabe

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Designers Against Coronavirus

Learn more about the project that is engaging with people through images all over the world During these difficult times, the response of the international creative community of all industries has been amazing. Many illustrators and designers have created images to inform, express solidarity, and spread a sense of hope. CaroselloLab, the Italian agency specialized in brand building and designing, wants to make sure all this work does not fade away. Over the past few weeks, they have built Designers Against Coronavirus, DAC, a platform gathering this artwork and making it available to the public.

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3 Museums Offering 2000 Art Books

Learn about free use of art books to awaken your creativity If you are looking for inspiring content on fine art, art criticism, theory, or art history, the following resources will interest you. Three museums are letting you download and read thousands of books covering all of the above areas, as well as monographic studies on schools of thought, movements, and artists of all different eras and regions. Find out about the collections available in three large New York museums and some of their most significant treasures free to consult right now. The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Met has collected around 1,700 art books from across the world. You will be able to consult the contents table to check if any particular book has what you need to research. Each book also indicates any award or press review received and includes links to related work and areas of interest. You can download the books for you to keep or read them online here.

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Instagram Tutorial: How to Create A Content Strategy

Learn how to create and maintain a content strategy on IG that suits your brand identity and values, with Dot Lung

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5 Websites For Free Stock Videos

Discover the best sites for downloading free footage to use for your video projects These are the top sites for downloading free stock videos to use in whatever project you’re currently working, be it audiovisual or web. All of the sites we’re recommending are free both for personal and commercial use, and some of them even offer photography, music, sound, and motion graphics content as well. Among their libraries, you will discover footage in 4K and a range of aerial shots that have been captured by drones or using time-lapse, as well as archives that you can search by category or using tags. Life of Vids This free selection offers videos, clips, and loops without any copyright restrictions, to use for both personal and commercial projects. The footage includes a range of shots of the great outdoors, the workplace, aerial shots, food, cities, people, and more. The only thing they do ask is to limit redistribution across other websites and, providing you’re happy to, credit the authors. You can upload your own footage as well.

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Books to Inspire Your Personal Projects

We review a set of readings featuring Ji Lee, creative director of Facebook and Instagram, that will inspire you to turn your creative ideas into personal projects Ji Lee (@jilee) is an artist who works in many media (Photoshop, installation, street art, product design, illustration, video, photography, among others). Ji is passionate about working on personal projects, and they have hugely benefited his personal life and professional career. Among these are the Bubble Project, Word as Image, and Drawings for My Grandchildren.

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Download a Free Escher-inspired Typeface, by Manolo Guerrero

The Mexican designer has created a typeface from the alphabet he designed for 36 Days of Type and he’s sharing it for free 36 Days of Type–the challenge that invites graphic creators from around the world to design an alphabet, making one letter a day for over a month and publishing it on their Instagram profiles–is an incredible opportunity to get inspired and see how others approach the same brief in a completely different way, adapting it to their own styles and skills. It’s also the perfect breeding ground for projects like this typeface by Manolo Guerrero (@bluetypo), the Mexican graphic designer who heads Blue Typo who has shared it completely free for anyone who wants to use it. It’s a completely experimental typeface with which Guerrero wanted to play with perspective, creating a design reminiscent of Escher’s most interesting work.

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What is a Graphic Designer?

Renowned designer Sagi Haviv reflects on the three essential characteristics of a modern designer Sagi Haviv (@sagi) is a partner and designer for the famous branding and design studio, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. The Animal Planet, US Open and Conservation International logos are among Haviv’s biggest designs. This influential and legendary designer has launched a course on Domestika focused on how to develop your own voice as a designer. Here are his thoughts on what exactly a graphic designer is. A designer must be multi-skilled You might think the work of a designer consists of simply organizing certain elements on the computer so that they are pleasant to the eye. However, Haviv asserts that a good designer must master a series of skills. They should understand drawing and typography, computers and clients, and resolve numerous problems, among other things. Their most important skill, however, is to be able to keep coming up with new ideas. This is the heart of their work: creativity.

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Susan Kare: an Iconic Career

Susan Kare is the artist and graphic designer famous for creating icons and typefaces for, arguably, the best-known computer in the world There was a time, not too long ago, when computers were the domain of programmers alone. When the machines eventually made the transition to our own homes, they needed to become accessible and easy to use. They needed a new visual language to be understood by the masses. Every day we come across hundreds of icons and designs on our computers and cell phones, and we’ve built quite an expectation for high definition graphics on our devices. Let’s learn how this came about.

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5 Tips on Social Media Communication in Quarantine #StayAtHome

Content marketing expert Reina Rodríguez shows us how to get the right tone for your posts, strengthening you and your brand’s image Weird times these, unprecedented for most. It seems the only thing normal about quarantine is our need to communicate, stay informed, or—equally legitimate—combat boredom on social media. However, should you to get your tone wrong, you could end up accidentally upsetting your followers with your message. To understand what language to use or avoid, and how to make the most of the situation we find ourselves in to strengthen your social media presence, we’ve spoken with expert communicator Reina Rodríguez, who teaches the Domestika course Content Marketing for Social Media. She gave us her top 5 tips for getting the tone of your posts just right.

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You Now Have 2.8 Million Free Images to Use on Your Projects

The Smithsonian Institution releases millions of high-resolution images from across its collections into the public domain The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum and research complex, a must-see attraction in Washington D.C. that documents the history and heritage of the United States while also highlighting the world's natural and cultural diversity. The collection held in its vault is, by all accounts, staggering. It is estimated to have nearly 155 million pieces altogether, including more than 146 million artifacts and specimens at the National Museum of Natural History. The Institution has started digitizing its entire catalog, a process that will take years to complete. Less than 25% of it has been digitized thus far! The site offers high-resolution 2D images and 3D models, as well as research datasets and collections metadata. The Smithsonian's 19 museums, research centers, libraries, and even the National Zoo have contributed. The database includes content across the arts, sciences, history, culture, and design, from portraits of American historical figures to 3D scans of dinosaur skeletons.

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Tutorial: How to Cut an Image in Photoshop in Less Than 5 min

Learn how to cut out objects from photos using the Polygonal Lasso Tool in Adobe Photoshop, and get them ready to animate in After Effects Photoshop–the most popular editing software in the world–is the best tool for cutting out objects or figures from photos. Once the selected part of the photo has been cut out, you can add any background, correct mistakes, or apply it to other images to create a collage. Today, we share a step-by-step guide, which is suitable even for those who are new to Photoshop. Given that the edges of an animated object needn’t be perfect, this is a great exercise for those who haven’t used this technique before and need some practice.

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Don’t Miss: BBC Culture in Quarantine

The BBC's Culture in Quarantine is delivering a new program of art and culture to Brits at home In challenging times, art and culture have the power to unite, inspire reflection, and offer solace. Since museums, theaters, cinemas and other cultural venues across Britain closed their doors in March as a result of the national lockdown, the BBC has been collaborating with organizations and individuals–from the Tate Modern and the Royal Shakespeare to writer Margaret Atwood and scholar Mary Beard–to deliver an eclectic mix of art and culture to the public at home. The BBC’s Culture in Quarantine Festival grants access to shuttered exhibitions and performances, festivals which have turned virtual, as well as new work, offering a rich program available to consume via the BBC: online, on television, or over the radio. "It’s important during this period that we maintain access not just to news and information, but to the arts and culture. For many people, they are a valuable part of their lives and a way of stimulating imagination, thought, and escapism. It’s a vital part of who we are as individuals and part of our identity as a nation,” said Director-General Tony Hall. Here, we pick some of the highlights from the program that are sure to not only entertain but inspire.

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Spark AR: Create Filters for Facebook and Instagram Stories

Learn to merge the real world with the virtual world, creating unique experiences with your designs Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories offer infinite options for all sorts of projects. You’re probably already familiar with filters, having used them regularly to enhance images and videos. But do you know which software you can use to create your own? Now, everyone can create their own filters thanks to Spark AR, an intuitive app that can transform your illustrations into augmented reality filters.

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Sketchbook: 5 Great Masters Who Sketched

Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Goya all sketched before their masterpieces Seeing them hung in art galleries around the world, it can seem that the most important paintings in the world came out of nowhere. However, the creative process is often far more important, the tests and mistakes, in creating something really great. Many of the greatest artists in history would take their sketchbooks everywhere, drawing whatever interested them. Behind every masterpiece, there is an entire life of practice. See in the video below five of the biggest artists who also sketched.

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5 Procreate Timelapses to Inspire Your Illustration and Lettering Projects

Observe, enjoy and learn with these time-lapses on illustration and digital lettering A timelapse is a video that compresses many hours or days into just a few seconds or minutes. It is ideal for sharing creative processes related to illustration, design or lettering. Aware of this fact, Procreate added a function that allows you to record your work process, save it as a video file and easily share it on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. At Domestika we love observing and learning from the best professionals and these timelapses have become the perfect way to discover their way of working. On the Domestika YouTube channel, you will find a playlist with exclusive timelapses made by a range of artists. Here, we recommend just five by some of the professionals who teach courses on our platform: Creating Characters From Scratch, with Microbians (@microbians) Gabriel Suchowolski, better known as Microbians, is a creative and art director specializing in character design. In this speed painting, he shows how to create an attractive character composition in Procreate, from the skeleton and the first sketch to the work of light and shadow, application of color and gradients, and the variation of lines.

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How to Embroider Hair in Less Than 4 min (TUTORIAL)

Learn to use the nuance stitch and different tricks and techniques to create hair for embroidery portraits with Bugambilo Hair is something so fine, with so many shades, colours, shapes, and movements that it can be difficult to embroider it realistically. In this tutorial, Bugambilo goes over a series of techniques and tips for drawing hair with thread. So prepare your mouliné thread and needle and let's go.

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How to Set up a Sound Recording Studio at Home

Advice for recording and producing your own audio projects at home Whether you work in audiovisual, music, or a specialized area of audio production, going that extra mile will not only help you stand out amongst the competition but will make your experiences more enjoyable and improve the quality of the work you produce. Where and how best to record audio at home is one of the first hurdles those looking to develop their own audio projects are currently facing (whether you’re looking to launch your first-ever podcast or to improve the quality of your video projects). While the amount of money and time you invest in a home studio is entirely your choice, it’s important for you to consider the following information before you decide for certain that you want to go ahead.

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