Bring sketching and painting effect to your photos

I am not a tech person but love to learn graphics. I spend most of the time working for my blogs and part of time is spent experimenting with the layout and look of my blogs. Photo editing software's inspire me a lot because you can edit and enhance your digital pictures with it.
I love painting, drawing etc and keep a collection of software or tools to draw or create painting effect. There are many photo editing softwares like 'Photoshop' or 'Illustrator' but without a good knowledge you may not use them. So for novice persons like me, graphics tools or mini softwares with easy usage are better  option.

While searching online for graphics software I found 'Artweaver' which helps you to paint creatively with many painting tools.
You can easily create sketches from photos. This small size but useful software provides you multiple tool to customize it. It also offers tandard image editing tools like gradient, crop, fill and selection tools.

If you have some knowledge of photo editing softwares then you may work with layers, group layers.


Other features of "Artweaver":

• It supports of different digital brushes e.g. chalk, charcoal, pencils
• Customize the default brushes or to create new brushes
• Support for the most common file formats like AWD (Artweaver), BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TGA, TIFF,   PNG, and PSD
• Transparency, Layer and Layer Group support
• Effect filters like sharpen, blur, emboss and mosaic
• Editable text layers 
• Pen Tablet support for a realistic feeling
• History function to und/redo last editing steps 
• Support for many languages through language files

Size of this handy software is only 7.5 MB.
Happy to share it with you that this software is free to download:
 Download link: 'Softpedia'
or you may go directly to the developers site where you can download free version.
Softpedia guarantees that Artweaver 3.0.3 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors.

"Found Myself"- An online community serving the art and artists

There are many places at the net where you can buy or sell art, but you are asked to pay fee or commission to the site, but "Found Myself" is a community which serves art and artists by offering a free to join place for them. You can submit, sell or buy paintings, digital photos, illustration and sculpture work at the site.

Found Myself has a forum (4986 members) dedicated to people with something to say or something to show, and provides a forum for their artwork or hobbies.

Here you can buy art and sell your work commission free. Post your feelings on painting, photography, design, movies, sports, music, or whatever else in the art community message board/art forum. Upload your work to the image gallery, where artists' creations are showcased. You can even get and style your own personal online art gallery.

Foundmyself currently gets more than 50,000 visitors per month, with 200,000+ page views. They provide an audience and the tools necessary for selling your art, but the sale is between the seller and the buyer.

They show no ads, and continually work to improve the community. The entire system is based on trust.

What they need in exchange for their services?

If after using our services for a few months you find that they're beneficial to your life and/or career as an artist, we would expect you to donate some money to help keep the site going. If you sell a painting through the site, or find a client through the site, we would also expect a donation relative to the money you make. They expect an active participation and a minimum 20% donation for the site, otherwise there are no commissions or hidden charges around.

Every person with a free account can sell their art, view statistics, style their gallery, and use all the tools and goodies on Foundmyself. Individual gallery size has been increased to one gigabyte (1,000 megabytes) per person. That's thousands of large images.

Check the help section for more information.

They have another exciting tool 'Online painting program' where you can draw anything and then share it with others. It is interesting to see other member's drawings at the same place.
Link page: "draw"

Note: The pictures shown in this post are taken from the forum gallery.

Hobbies and Recreation in 'Art Therapy' For Life Enhancing

It is obvious that art is a form of creativity and hobbies or recreation activities can enhance the quality of life. Importance of hobbies relating to art forms is proved by 'Art Therapy' for the development and enhancement of humans.

Let's learn what is "Art Therapy"?

Art therapy is a mental health profession that uses the creative process of art making to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. It is based on the belief that the creative process involved in artistic self-expression helps people to resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight.

Art therapy integrates the fields of human development, visual art (drawing, painting, sculpture, and other art forms), and the creative process with models of counseling and psychotherapy. Art therapy is used with children, adolescents, adults, older adults, groups, and families to assess and treat the following: anxiety, depression, and other mental and emotional problems and disorders; substance abuse and other addictions; family and relationship issues; abuse and domestic violence; social and emotional difficulties related to disability and illness; trauma and loss; physical, cognitive, and neurological problems; and psychosocial difficulties related to medical illness.

Art therapy programs are found in a number of settings including hospitals, clinics, public and community agencies, wellness centers, educational institutions, businesses, and private practices.

Art therapists are masters level professionals who hold a degree in art therapy or a related field. Educational requirements include: theories of art therapy, counseling, and psychotherapy; ethics and standards of practice; assessment and evaluation; individual, group, and family techniques; human and creative development; multicultural issues; research methods; and practicum experiences in clinical, community, and/or other settings. Art therapists are skilled in the application of a variety of art modalities (drawing, painting, sculpture, and other media) for assessment and treatment.

The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) is an organization of professionals dedicated to the belief that the creative process involved in art making is healing and life enhancing,
ABOUT ART THERAPY