Fine art

- Fine art, unlike illustration, is to be appreciated primarily or solely for its imaginative, aesthetic, or intellectual content. For many, fine art is a form of visual meditation. To have the luxury to create whatever you want in your own time is one of life's greatest pleasures. Whatever you dream of creating is your choice. So never limit your ideas in any way. For those interested in two-dimensional art, it should be no surprise that drawing is an important place to begin. So once again, I'm going to urge you to explore our Drawing Foundation Series. Here, you'll find courses on drawing the landscape, cityscapes, and even figure drawing. In our figure drawing course with Amy Wynne you have the opportunity to draw from a live model while getting instruction from the author. If you're interested in working in more traditional media, Will Kemp has some great courses on painting. Check out Foundations of Acrylic Painting and Foundations of Painting: Creating Palettes for the Landscape. If you'd prefer to create digitally and are just starting out, you have a number of options in terms of programs. If you're already familiar with Photoshop, this might be a good place to start, and a great course to begin with is Drying and Painting in Photoshop: The Great Training. From there, try out Natural-Media Painting in Photoshop, Pastel Drawing with Photoshop, or Customizing Brushes in Photoshop. Each of these are with John Derry, a man Adobe designated as a Photoshop painting pioneer. Another Photoshop pioneer is Bert Monroy, who creates hyper-realistic digital paintings, which he builds as a traditional artist would, adding color and texture but on a digital canvas. To be completely amazed, check out his three-part series, The Making of Amsterdam Mist. If you're really starting from the beginning, I'd suggest Digital Painting Fundamentals with John Derry. In this course, he works in Corel Painter and not only helps you understand the program, you'll learn the basics of digital painting from one of the original authors of the program, Corel Painter. For those who want to create on the go with a mobile device, Adobe has a whole suite of amazing apps, where you can capture images and colors, then take them into other programs like Photoshop and Illustrator for further refinement. Creating a Poster with Adobe Mobile Apps and Adobe Mobile Apps For Designers will get you up to speed quickly. Sometimes, we need a bit of inspiration to know what's possible. One of my favorite documentaries in the library is Jason Seiler, Digital and Traditional Painter. Not only is his work incredible, but he has such an inspiring and funny story. It's a must watch. Additionally, he walks you through the development of a portrait of his dad, so you can see the work come to life and learn some of his hard earned tips and tricks. Another author you must look into is Mary Jean Begin. She has several artist at work courses that will help you understand critical concepts in image making. There are a ton of inspiring courses and documentaries, so dive in.