Historically, Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new and ...]]>

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art. It also has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BC, to the present.

Historically, Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new and alien ideas followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world. Over time the Japanese developed the ability to absorb, imitate, and finally assimilate those elements of foreign culture that complemented their aesthetic preferences. The earliest complex art in Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. in connection with Buddhism. In the 9th century, as the Japanese began to turn away from China and develop indigenous forms of expression, the secular arts became increasingly important; until the late 15th century, both religious and secular arts flourished. After the Ōnin War (1467–1477), Japan entered a period of political, social, and economic disruption that lasted for over a century. In the state that emerged under the leadership of the Tokugawa shogunate, organized religion played a much less important role in people’s lives, and the arts that survived were primarily secular.

Painting is the preferred artistic expression in Japan, practiced by amateurs and professionals alike. Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush rather than a pen, and their familiarity with brush techniques has made them particularly sensitive to the values and aesthetics of painting. With the rise of popular culture in the Edo period, a style of woodblock prints called ukiyo-e became a major art form and its techniques were fine tuned to produce colorful prints of everything from daily news to schoolbooks. The Japanese, in this period, found sculpture a much less sympathetic medium for artistic expression; most Japanese sculpture is associated with religion, and the medium’s use declined with the lessening importance of traditional Buddhism.

Japanese ceramics are among the finest in the world and include the earliest known artifacts of their culture. In architecture, Japanese preferences for natural materials and an interaction of interior and exterior space are clearly expressed.

Download the High Quality Japanese People Vectors II

You only need to download one of the files below.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/416457918/JAPANESE_VECTORS_I.zip

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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AJMLL6LU

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http://hotfile.com/dl/66279898/d4589ec/JAPANESE_VECTORS_I.zip.html

Additional info:

• Quantity: 10
• Contains: Japanese people
• Created in Illustrator CS4
• Size 3.45 Mb
• Format AI

Usage Terms

Free to use for commercial and non commercial work no credit or link back needed, but please don’t redistribute or sell them as your own and have fun using them.

preview

Digital Art Empire is pleased to announce we are partnering up with Next Day Flyers to host one of our largest giveaways to date! We have $25 credit to give away to all the loyal readers!

Thats 1500  Full color ,14 PT Ultra-thick Cardstock, UV coated business cards . OR

100 14PT Ultra Thick Stock , High Gloss UV or Flat Satin Matte Finish Flyers  ...]]>

Digital Art Empire is pleased to announce we are partnering up with Next Day Flyers to host one of our largest giveaways to date! We have $25 credit to give away to all the loyal readers!

Thats 1500  Full color ,14 PT Ultra-thick Cardstock, UV coated business cards . OR

100 14PT Ultra Thick Stock , High Gloss UV or Flat Satin Matte Finish Flyers  check it out for yourselves Next Day flyers

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It’s easy! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before September 23^rd , 2010. We will then select 1 random comment as the winner. Be sure to use a valid email addresss o we know who you are.

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PETER FUNCH Born 1974, Denmark. Lives and works in New York City

EDUCATION Photojournalist from the Danish School of Journalism in Denmark

Thanks to JABFinger for this one. He says:

Danish photographer Peter Funch stakes New York City street corners out for two weeks at a time, taking pictures of passersby from the very same spot. But what he does next may be ...]]> Today we look at some professional photo manipulation from New Yorker Peter Funch . This photography and photoshop is amazing .

PETER FUNCH
Born 1974, Denmark. Lives and works in New York City

EDUCATION
Photojournalist from the Danish School of Journalism in Denmark

Thanks to JABFinger for this one. He says:

Danish photographer Peter Funch stakes New York City street corners out for two weeks at a time, taking pictures of passersby from the very same spot. But what he does next may be even more labor-intensive.

For his “Babel Tales” photo series, Funch picked dozens of samey pedestrians — smokers, cell-phone gabbers, hospital-scrubs wearers, yawners — and Photoshopped them into the same frames. In one photo, Times Square shutterbugs turn into a swarm of paparazzi. In another, an ocean of kids seems to wash over the city. Funch has even created a New York where everyone carries flowers.

Remember to subscribe to our RSS : )

Here are the lucky winners of our PrintRunner Free Massive 1500 Business Cards Giveaway!

The rules for the competition were simple, leave a comment and stand a chance to win. Today we announce the lucky winner.

LUCKY WINNERS: Steve Capell Ben Kuyper cam thomas

have fun designing and remeber to come back and show us your designs – we’ll showcase them for you

I hope you enjoy using them and if you like please feel free to showcase them in our flickr group

As usual these are 100% free to use in commercial and personal work just attribute to Digital Art Empire and add a link if you want to share ...]]> Today I am excited to present some fantastic high resolutionOrnate Border brushes. These were created at 2500 pixels and created at this size so the quality is at its max.♥

I hope you enjoy using them and if you like please feel free to showcase them in our flickr group

As usual these are 100% free to use in commercial and personal work just attribute to Digital Art Empire and add a link if you want to share them.

Please remember to subscribe via our RSS: )

download: Excellent Old Style Ornate Borders (13.21MB) added: 09/08/2010 clicks: 350 description: Ornate brushes - all high res 2500 - Good for making things look classical and old - tested in CS4 -probably work in CS3 an CS5

If you thought these or any other of the resources here were in any way helpful please consider donating – it doesn’t have to be all your savings but that would help   ♥♥

The pen tool is located near the top left of the tool panel (circled ...]]> Getting Started :Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Guide

Here’s a quick guide to the Pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. Mastering the pen tool is invaluable if you are ever to use Illustrator successfully. Some people seem to have trouble getting to grips with this tool, also known as the Bezier tool, and if you don’t understand how it works it can be quite confusing.

The pen tool is located near the top left of the tool panel (circled here in red), it can also be accessed by hitting the letter ‘p’ on the keyboard.

The black triangle at the corner of the icon indicates that there are a few more tools grouped with the pen tool. These are the Add Anchor Point tool (+), Delete Anchor Point tool (-) and the Convert Anchor Point tool (Shift + C) and they can be accessed either by using the keyboard shortcuts detailed above or by holding the mouse button on the pen tool icon then making your selection.

A quick run down of what these do:

The main pen tool is used to put anchor points onto the artboard with a vector path linking them. Each point can have handles that control the curves extending from that point.

The add anchor point tool is used to – yep, you guessed it – add an anchor point to an existing path.

The Delete Anchor Point tool is for taking away unnecessary anchor points – too many points can lead to curves that aren’t so smooth. And I’m all about keeping it smooth.

Using the Pen Tool
Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Guide
With the pen tool selected, left click somewhere on the artboard to put down a point, move the cursor to another position and click again. Do this a few times, marking out a shape before returning to your first point and clicking to complete the path. You will notice a small circle appearing next to the cursor – this indicates that you will be closing that path and you can then start a new one.

Now this is ok if you only need to draw straight lines, but the real power of the pen tool is in its ability to draw any curve. To draw a curve, simply click and drag to pull out a handle. When you place the next point you’ll see that the path is curved according to how far out you pulled the handle. Play about with this a little to see how you can use the handles of two points to affect the path. Basically the length of the handle determines how much influence it has over the path, i.e. the longer the handle the closer the path will be pulled toward it.

Adding & Removing Points Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Guide

Sometimes you may not quite get the curve you need (if you’re redrawing something, for example) and it may be necessary to add a point. If you use the Add Anchor Point tool this will let you add extra points onto a path as you need them simply by clicking on the path. Drag out the handles as normal when doing this to manipulate the curve.

Similarly the remove anchor point tool can be used to get rid of any anchor points you don’t need.

Convert Anchor Point Tool

Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Guide

So far the handles on either side of a point have been the same size, and in a straight line.  To adjust the length of the handle – if you wanted to reduce the amount of curve in the path – you would use the direct selection tool (white arrow tool) to grab the end of the handle. This keeps both handles in line with each other and keeps a smooth curve. If you want to add an angle to the path then using the convert anchor point tool, you can move the handle independently of its partner.

Clicking on a point with the convert anchor point tool will get rid of the handles, and you can easily pull out a new set by dragging as before.

Extra Functions

Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Guide

There are a few hotkeys you can use with the pen tool to temporarily change to another tool. This really helps to speed up your workflow.

Holding Shift when pulling out a handle restricts the angle to 0°, 45°, 90°, 135° or 180°, and holding Shift before clicking with the pen tool keeps the new point in line with the previous one, on the same angles as before. If you find that you’ve put a point slightly off from where you want it, you can either use CTRL + Z to go back a step and try again, or hold the space bar before letting go of the mouse button to move the point to the preferred position.

You can quickly switch to the convert anchor point tool by holding Alt (Option). This is useful for making adjustments to the handles as you work. You can also change the appearance of the cursor when using the pen tool by hitting Caps Lock to toggle between the fountain pen symbol and a cross hair.

The main pen tool changes when hovered over different areas of a selected path. So when it’s hovered over a point, it temporarily changes to the delete anchor point tool and when hovered over a path it changes to the add anchor point tool. These are just quick aides to save time on changing tools manually.

Conclusion :

Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Guide

With a bit of practise you will become quite fast at working with the pen tool and you won’t have to think about the keys used for extra functions as it will become second nature.  You’ll also develop a sense of where best to place the anchor points and how you can create the same curve with fewer points as beginners tend to use too many anchor points.

Once you have mastered the pen tool you can easily create any shape in Illustrator which hugely increases your ability to use the program effectively. The pen tool in Photoshop is very similar so you can take what you’ve learned here and use it in other programs too.

All in all, the pen tool is a pretty useful weapon to have in your design armoury, so it’s worthwhile learning how to use it.

Digital Art Empire is pleased to announce we are partnering up with Printrunner.com to host one of our largest giveaways to date! We have 3 sets of 500 business cards to give away to all the loyal readers! Yes, you heard right 3 sets of business cards!

It’s easy! All you have to do is leave a comment ...]]> PrintRunner Free Massive 1500 Business Cards Giveaway!

Digital Art Empire is pleased to announce we are partnering up with Printrunner.com to host one of our largest giveaways to date! We have 3 sets of 500 business cards to give away to all the loyal readers! Yes, you heard right 3 sets of business cards!

This is a massive givewaway all you have to do is write a comment -

How to enter

It’s easy! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before August 16^th , 2010. We will then select 3 random comments as the winners. Be sure to use a valid email address.

Please note that shipping is not included and will need to be paid when placing the order. Shipping costs vary depending on where you live, but U.S. shipping is generally around $10 or less (for ground shipping).

Earn points for the following activities to increase your chances of winning!

-Digg, Stumble, Retweet, DesignBump, DesignFloat, etc. (Social Media) this article

-Follow us on Twitter

-Comment on this post, on why you should win the business cards (Required)

-Total number of points you have earned. (optional)

-Mention this post on your site (5 points)

And thats it! This contest will expire at the end of July 31, 2010, so you have plenty of time!

Think of all the business you will win with these high quality cards

Official Rules

• One entry per person
• Open to U.S. residents online
• Must be 18 and over and not an employee or relative of an employee of PrintRunner LLC
• No purchase necessary

PrintRunner.com is one of the top printing companies on the web. PrintRunner specializes in affordable high quality printing and offer a wide range of products including business cards, catalog printing, flyer printing and more. Check the website for all the latest PrintRunner coupon codes.



ps also we have had some issues with our server and the ht access file – namely an http error when using the flash uploader with images – basically Modsecurity is  blocking the useragent of the flash uploader. this doesnt seem related to wp 3 but ...]]> Here we present you with a real treat , ( we think ) Absolutely Stunning Images from Le Mans 2010 . I think you will enjoy them – : )

ps also we have had some issues with our server and the ht access file – namely an http error when using the flash uploader with images – basically Modsecurity is  blocking the useragent of the flash uploader. this doesnt seem related to wp 3 but happened when we upgraded  – anyway to cut a long and dull story short thats why we haven’t been posting that often here – the solution has ben to upload images via FTP to the server and use a plugin top drop them into the media folder- if anyone knows a solution then pls email us  : ) cheers

thanks to

Laurent Nivalle

Fin Andrey Gordeev on the web .

http://gordei.com/

...]]> Today we feature the absolutely amazing artworks of Andrey Gordeev from Khabarovsk, Russia. His unique and witty style caught my attention and I realised you the my readers would love to see this.

Fin Andrey Gordeev on the web .

http://gordei.com/