Welcome to Nita Leland's Exploring Color & Creativity Web Site At last my two new DVDs have arrived on my doorstep. The previews have been online for a while, but I hadn't seen the finished videos until they came right after Christmas. I think they turned out very well. The artistsnetwork.tv studio is now set up for multi-views of the action and close-ups of techniques, which make a big difference. The creativity class has 100 minutes of instruction. The collage video is 75 minutes long. Both are packed with information and demos. I had such a good time doing these at the Cincinnati studio with Jennifer Lepore Brune coordinating the production and a group of North Light editors and staff who came in to help out. For previews, search the titles or "Nita Leland" at ArtistsNetwork.tv New Creative Collage Techniques has been very well received. The book is stunning and so easy to use with the stay-flat spiral binding. I enjoyed working with my favorite editor, Stefanie Laufersweiler and the production editor, Holly Davis. Wendy Dunning designed a visually exciting, yet easy to follow, layout for the book. Production Coordinator Mark Griffin did a good job, too. Even after 26 years of writing books, I find that aspect of publishing is still a mystery. I'm grateful for the continuing support of my publisher, North Light Books. For a limited time I'm offering signed copies with free shipping. Click on the image to read more and to order the book. Read a review of New Creative Collage Techniques here. I enjoy bragging about my Exploring Watercolor class. Their latest accomplishment is a 3-way challenge from a recent series on painting one subject three different ways: realistic, stylistic, and abstract. This activity is in The New Creative Artist on page 167. Shown at right is Sylvia Dugan's stylized version of a still life with three peppers. My class had their sixth exhibition--their best yet--in July at Hithergreen Center. You can see it here.. And, here's a link to our fifth exhibit and another to the fourth exhibit in 2009, "Exploring Watercolor.". Visit my blog starting here to see their wonderful self portraits over the past few weeks. We've covered a lot of ground since the class started in 2002. Check out the 2-hour Challenge, too: Exploring Watercolor 2-hour Challenge and enjoy this mosaic of colorful artwork that the class did a while ago. We explored some of the concepts in my new book, Confident Color. Their response to this exercise was awesome. Please check out my two earlier DVDs: Creating Confident Color and Paper Collage Techniques. For previews, go to ArtistsNetwork.tv I love this site Color Scheme Designer as an online tool for the color schemes described in my book, Confident Color. The book is available from amazon.com and now at my publisher's new online North Light Shop. You can also purchase signed copies of all my books from this Web site using PayPal. Click on the book icons on this page for more information. FWMedia and North Light Books have distributors in Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, so my books can be ordered around the world. Photoshopping with The New Creative Artist--Check out this recent entry on my blog, then view a few pages from the book. Please visit my art blog and let me hear from you. Subscribe to my Blog with Bloglines, a newsreader that shows when the blog is updated.

Art Quote One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. Leonardo da Vinci

Here & There on the Web Here's a fantastic resource for learning about SLR camera settings: CameraSim demystifies camera settings by showing you what happens to your image when you change settings. Love sky photos? Check out The Cloud Appreciation Society for fabulous cloud pictures. Put your art studio on TheArtsMap.com and artists from all over the world can contact you or visit you online. This is a great resource, now in Beta version, created by collage artist Jonathan Talbot and Robin Colodzin. If you'd like to try making photocollages, Photovisi has 21 templates that make it easy. Just select a template and load your photos into it and choose a background. You'll need to edit your photos before loading them into the template. Very easy to use. Daily Painters Art Gallery is a juried site with some awesome art on it. I certainly admire artists who have the dedication to do a new painting every single day. Art Festival Guide is a good resource for equipment and listings of art fairs and exhibitions. I love this blog: History of the Color Wheel. I wonder why? Please bookmark this site: snopes.com and check it before forwarding messages circulating on the Internet. The site researches urban legends, virus threats, and political chicanery. You might save yourself some embarrassment if you investigate before you forward false messages. Inflation calclulator is an eyeopener, for sure. The Learnlist is a simple resource for graphic designers, illustrators, web designers, developers, basically anyone creative! It lists the best websites and books available to help you learn something new, along with rankings. 411us.info is a comprehensive search site for up-to-date information all over the Web. Key in your zipcode and you can search for news, weather, TV programming and much more. artquotes.net is another good resource for inspirational quotations. Active Music Therapy for Parkinson's Patients interests me because of two family members who have Parkinson's. Another program that intrigues me is Nia, a beautiful movement fitness program involving graceful dance and music that I experienced with my friends in Canada recently. Catherine Whipple's Self-help healing arts journal is packed with inspiration and creative ideas.

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Art Product News PicFull offers unique, high quality photo filters that are easy to use--try for free. American Science and Surplus has a funky catalog that has unusual items and art and craft supplies. Browsing the online catalog is fun. Now that full-spectrum fluorescent lighting has become all the rage, there are many sources for the bulbs. My favorite is Vitalite. However, I've been replacing my Vita-Lites with General Electric Sunshine F40. The bulbs are 5000K, not the 5500K of the Vitalites, but with a CRI of 90, they seem to do the job as well at a lower price. The manufacturer claims 9 years of life for these bulbs--my Vitalites lasted 15 years and more. Ott Lites also come highly recommended for artists' studios. If you hate cutting mats, here's a source for pre-cut and custom mats: Matcutter.com. MAToMATic allows you to upload your photos or art images and select mat colors, mat liners and frames--even see how the finished picture will look on your colored walls. The home site for MAToMATic is Matshop.com.

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Artists Read... "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. " Jorge Luis Borges The Watercolour Gazette published by Eileen Korponay of Manitoba has reviewed Confident Color. Other articles include artist features, brush tips, online tips and essays. There are also listings of shows and workshops. Watercolour Gazette is an amazing little magazine. A complete list of recommended books is on my Awesome Book List. I've read all of these books and have found something useful in all of them, some more than others. If a book isn't on the list, then I haven't read it or didn't think it very useful. Go to Books Online to download free books. You don't need an expensive reader if you already have a computer! LibraryThing is a neat site where you can catalog online to keep track of the books you read or own. What a useful tool! I hate it when I pick up a book to read and realize after the first few pages that I've already read it. New reviews of The New Creative Artist: A Guide for Developing Your Creative Spirit, are appearing here and there. Read these reviews to see how people are using the book for inspiration, motivation and just plain fun. I'm moving my art book reviews to my blog, where it will be easier to post them as I read them rather than setting up a section with several on my web site. Here's a blog entry with three reviews on books about pouring watercolors. Past reviews are archived at Mini Book Reviews. Here's my list of 25 favorite art books on Amazon.com's Listmania. Use Book Sale Finder to locate events in your area. Amazon Canada

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