An Optical Illusion Plays Tricks with our Eyes

An Optical Illusion Plays Tricks with our Eyes

In 32 tips to get ideas to spend your free time is a pencil drawing of a shape, giving the optical illusion that the inner circle is much whiter than the surrounding white outside the circle.

A former colleague even made an airbrush in which the inside of such a form was darker than the environment, and still, it seemed lighter.

So I wanted to examine that. How much black can I add until the inner shape seems darker than the outer space?

Read more

How to Transfer Photos and Texts to a Gelli Print? 2 Methods

How to Transfer Photos and Texts to a Gelli Print?

In my personal challenge, an assignment to make a collage daily for 365 days, I am focusing on one aspect a month. More or less. It’s not written in stone, of course.

The month before, I primarily worked on art journaling, using illustrations and text. February 2023 was dedicated to transferring pictures to the Gelli prints.

I used several methods. The main difference was either Gelli printing or using the copy machine on tissue paper.

Read more

Intermezzo – Get Inspiration from Creativity

Intermezzo - Get Inspiration from Creativity

Inspiration and creativity are must-haves for me. I make drawings, collages or mixed media in some kind of theme.

It helps me keep my creative skills flowing.

An intermezzo is a short piece of music written to be played on its own or as part of a longer piece. For me, it’s a welcome break from my daily activities.

In the video are a couple of examples.

Read more

Are Inspiration and Creativity Important for an Interesting Life?

Are Inspiration and Creativity Important for an Interesting Life?

Although many people don’t consider themselves creative (which I don’t understand and even disagree with), inspiration and creativity are important to us.

Both the word inspiration and the word creativity are used in 2 ways. Physical versus mental.

Inspiration literally means inhalation on the one hand, expressiveness or divine force on the other. The latter is attributed by some to a higher power and by others called the flow or being in the zone.

Read more

How Does a Colourblind Person See the World? Be Considerate of Others.

How Does a Colourblind Person See the World? Be Considerate of Others.

The biggest advantage of being a graphic designer is that you meet so many kinds of people and work for so many different types of companies.

Some clients wanted to talk as briefly as possible, while others shared more about their interests and their lives.

That’s how I found out that my printer was red-green colourblind and one of my clients was red-colourblind. How does a colourblind person see, became an interesting topic this way.

Read more

10 Tips to Crop Pictures the Right Way for your Blog or Magazine

10 Tips to Crop Pictures the Right Way for your Blog or Magazine

A well-chosen picture explains the content of your article for a blog, magazine, or newsletter at once. A photograph can show something in a single image that otherwise would need a lot of words.

Sometimes it is better to crop a photo to get the focus on the desired part. In this article, I give you 10 tips to crop pictures the right way.

Cropping is considered making changes to a picture. When you use photographs that somebody else made, make sure you have permission for these changes.

Read more

A Creative Approach to Add Text to an Art Journal, 7 Tips

A Creative Approach to Add Text to an Art Journal, 7 Tips

An art journal can be created in 2 ways. The focus can be on images with added text. Or the focus can be on texts to which images are added.

That depends on your own preferences. Are you primarily visual or are you mostly text-oriented?

If you’re going to add text to an art journal, it’s a good idea to try both methods. As an artist, we sometimes have to step out of our comfort zone and challenge our personal preferences to take leaps forward.

In this article, I describe a number of ways to display text, but also to create text.

Read more

Creating Unique Text in an Art Journal and my Pages of January 2023

Creating Unique Text in an Art Journal and my Pages of January 2023

My personal challenge, an assignment to make a collage daily for 365 days, is almost halfway.

This month I focused on the combination of text and image. As I describe in another article, you can make text in many ways.

In some cases, very few tools are needed, whereas, in others, a bit more effort is required.

Either way, just as making images unleashes a lot of creativity, so does making texts. 🙂

Read more

3 Ideas for DIY Valentine Cards that are Simple and Beautiful

3 Ideas for DIY Valentine Cards that are Simple and Beautiful

Even if you consider yourself as non-creative, as a lot of people unjustifiable do, it’s pretty simple to make something.

These 3 ideas for DIY Valentine cards will inspire you to have a fun afternoon beforehand and a great day on February 14th.

Valentine’s Day used to be about secret love, yet has turned into a commercial fest. Personally, I don’t like that. It’s so simple to go to a store and buy all kinds of stuff, or even order it online. 

Read more