Great New Artists

January has been a successful month so far here so I thought I would do a little time-out housekeeping-type post for all my lovely readers.

So far 2009 has seen a lot of new artists from YouTube and other sites on the internet but I thought it would be in keeping with my more academic nature if February took a slightly different track. I feel it is neccessary to understand old art in order to truly appreciate new art so the month of Feb will be dedicated to some of those old favorites with short descriptions of why they were so great.

Hopefully the rest of 2009 will get back to my roots here at Great New Artists and find some more great painters &ct. making great new art for everyone. Since the summer is usually pretty heavy with this kind of thing floating around we’ll keep our eyes peeled for that around that time.

It’s hard not to fall in love with Locksin. The 23-yr-old illustrator/photographer from Malaysia endears herself to her audience with her blog which showcases her talents and personality without a lot of flashy graphics or bright colors whcih is very admirable in this age when it seems MySpace has made awkward graphics the norm in many cases.

She takes photographs, draws and writes short stories all of which shows up in her blog in some form which is headed by an adorable “here I am” picture and an about me quote: “I love what I do, I’m appreciate what I have, I’m enjoying with my life,” a sentiment we could all use in the new year.

OK this site transcends a few different types of artistic interests. It’s for fashionistas who want to try on a lot of different looks without a lot of time or money, it’s for web design students who need something great to write about in class and of course it’s for readers of this blog. It’s called Taaz a free virtual makeover tool that not only allows users to try on new make up and hair on virtual models or their pics but also will show you which brands and colors you are using. You can come up with some pretty great high fashion stuff or some pretty prctical looks that look awfully realistic with minimal effort.

So if you haven’t noticed by now, I like time lapse stuff but even more than that I like fun stuff on YouTube and at first I have to admit I had to decide pretty heavily whether or not I liked iJustine first based on her tweets and then based on her YouTube channel. Although the stuff I watch the most by her is on her YouTube channel she also has a blog in which she writes about tech stuff and life stuff and stuff stuff like getting her hair done. I honestly can’t figure out why it’s called Tasty Blog Snack but I still love her. IMO I still think you need to read her blog and watch her videos to get the full extent of her knowledge and experiences.

We Heart It is not only another internet bookmarking site but it is visual internet bookmarking site. Perfect for anyone looking for great art and photography. It also serves as a great reference for looking up cool sites online without having to remember the name of it.

I created a user account to get some hands-on perspective about this site as I don’t usually have a ton of internet bookmarking to do. One of the problems I have always had with internet bookmarking is that I hate the sites they’re so bland and wordy and non-inviting that I don’t ever use them. So the first thing I noticed about We Heart It was that it was easy to do and very simply laid out but not bland or too business-like (like delicious).

Plus as a web designer and blogger I would mush rather someone “Heart” my work (i.e. love it) than “Delicious” it or some other non-existant action. This site in the tradition of Twitter is for a much younger crowd than other internet bookmarking sites I think and that definitely appeals to me.

So hopefully this post will explain a little about why I’ve been so sporadic in the past with my posts. I am a freelance writer for a magazine called Suite 101. Some of the articles I have written there which are relevant to this blog have been Planet Shanghai Book Review, Song of Lawino (which won an award), Harajuku Fashion, and Esquire’s 75th Anniversary Issue but check out my page for all my articles because there actually are a lot more that are relevant in topic and scope.

But that is of a digressary nature (ok not a word and certainly not a habit writer’s should be in), the real reason I mention Suite 101 here is that it is a great place to hone your skills as a writer not only to explore topics you may not have thought of but also to explore the possibility of article writing if all you’ve ever thought of was writing a novel. In my case I evaluated which topics were getting the most views and what kind of articles were doing the best and I saw that my fashion articles were the ones that were doing that for me. Winning the award from the editor for my review of Song of Lawino wasn’t too bad either.

It also pays and there are many other benefits like business cards, opportunities for advancement and press credentials all after a certain number of published articles. Anyone with a mind to writing should definitely check it out. 

I love Meekakitty! There I said it. I love her for the same reason I love everything I write about here–she’s brilliant (otherwise why would it be called Great New Artists?).

The videos that prompted this post were both posted very recently. One to her Meekakitty channel and one to her other channel which is collaborative 5awesomebuckfans.

I think the idea for these videos started with the challenge posted by another member of 5awesomebuckfans to post a video which showed something about your life either silently or not (she obviously chose silent) which was a brilliant idea (BTW I do watch 5ABF but only because Meekakitty’s is a member not because I love Michael Buckley).

Meekakitty is really a model named Tessa and she has a MySpace page too.

Was this post too stalkery…? I may want to ask her about that (she would know)

In keeping with the tradition of counting down and looking back which seems to transcend generations and religions every year round about this time I decided to write about some of the best new artists I found this past year.

Valsartdiary I actually found out about her a while ago before 2008 started but her style is classic.

Katarina Sokolova one of the best digital painters I have ever seen.

Kawaii Goods.com great little shop full of pink stuff.

Graffiti Paris is a book not a person or organization but it still counts as one of the best art related things I found this year.

Of course there have been a lot more great things this year than just these but it’ll be more fun if I don’t tell you what else to like

After the recent holiday blowouts that left many of us with no money for charitable giving in the first part of the new year I thought it would be nice to write about a charity that takes nothing but a little time and talent (ok it may be a little more than that).

Operation Photo Rescue is a charity run by a network of volunteers who give their time and talents to restore old photos and documents that have been ravaged by flooding and other disasters around the US in the past years.

I got involved with this charity through NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) shortly after becoming a member in September of 2008 (what a difference a day makes!).

Volunteers typically do two photos a week but they do choose which photos they do which means that it not only helps the people receiving the finished product but also can be a great boon to developing your talents in photo restoration. They always have thousands of photos and need volunteers so check them out.

Happy New Year everybody!

I have a confession to make; I am a Nerdfighter (if you don’t know what that is then go here). Actually this confession is not so shocking once I tell you what I have to tell you in this post but nevertheless I think it’s something that doesn’t get said enough.

The reason I brough you this news is that the Project for Awesome is coming up once again on Dec. 20 and it was started by, you guessed, John and Hank Green who wanted to further the Nerdfighter’s cause of decreasing world suck by bringing attention to charities that Nerdfighters in the YT community liked.

I will be participating this year for the first time making a video about two charities Free Rice and the Christmas Day Art blog network which raises money to drill wells in Africa. What’s unique about these two charities is that they don’t require supporters to give money they both get all their support from ads (sponsorship for Free Rice and Google AdSense for Christmas Day).

Watch the video and visit the site to learn more about the Project for Awesome. Also visit Christmas Day Art you can also score some free clip art and learn about some other cool stuff.