"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.

Online Calligraphy Learning resources

There are many online links from where you can learn calligraphy for free. You don't need to spend lot of money for this hobby as the material you need to learn or practive is easily available from a stationary or art/craft shops or you can buy it online as well.

You need to be patience if you want to learn this 'art of lettering' or writing. (Note that calligraphy is called 'art of lettering') If you are passionate about writing and have a little bit knowledge of drawing then you can easily adopt this hobby to improve your skills.

There are some places where you would be asked for some fee or donation, but if you don't want to take it as a career, then don't waste money and use the free links to learn it.

Calligraphy Learning resources:

* Learn Calligraphy.co.uk is a place where you can learn basic lessons of calligraphy like, How to use the calligraphy pen, which inks to use, how to build up the letters and how to plan and decorate your calligraphy project.

* Free calligraphy lessons from Chuck McGavren's site

* An online resource with easy to learn articles: Learn Calligraphy

* Read an online magazine for calligraphers 'Pen People" but it is not free.

* The Edward Johnson Foundation is a research centre for calligraphy and the lettering arts. It is dedicated to the promotion of public awareness of calligraphy, not only as an art form in its own right but also as the seed and reference point for many other lettering disciplines including modern typeface design. Based in Ditchling, Sussex the birthplace of the modern revival of calligraphy, the Foundation is working towards the establishment of a permanent centre for learning, research and education in the lettering arts.

Calligraphy - An art of beautiful writing

I have been concerned some way with the topics 'I have written at this blog' about various hobbies. One of may favourite hobby is calligraphy. I have learned Arabic calligraphy from a tv tutorial. As Urdu is my mother tonue, Arabic calligraphy was easier for me to learn. Later I bought a book and other calligraphy material to keep practicing for Urdu and English calligraphy. I am proud to say that due to my interest in calligraphy I am one of the teachers who's writing and art skills are appreciated well.

I am including all useful links and resources which would help you learn the basics of this hobby. You can use your calligraphic skills to make many things which would show your art/drawing skills, your innovation, and creativity as well.

Few Things You Can Create With Calligraphy:
Scriptures and inspirational quotations, Poems, Invitations, Greeting Cards, Business Cards, Announcements, Maps, Posters, Certificates, Awards, etc.

Calligraphy (from Greek kallos "beauty" + graphẽ "writing") is the art of writing and the meaning of this word shows the simple definition of this term "beautiful writing" - Another definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"

Before the invention of the printing press some 500 years ago, it was the way books were made, each copy being written out by hand by a scribe in a scriptorium on materials like vellum or parchment with a quill in one of the period bookhands like rustic, carolingian, blackletter, etc.

The principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen, which may be flat- or round-nibbed, and the brush. For some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have also been made with felt-tip and ballpoint pens, although these works do not employ angled lines. Ink for writing is usually water-based and much less viscous than the oil based inks used in printing. High quality paper, which has good consistency of porosity, will enable cleaner lines.

Arabic calligraphy, is the art of beautiful or elegant handwriting as exhibited by the correct formation of characters, the ordering of the various parts, and harmony of proportions.

In the Islamic world, calligraphy has traditionally been held in high regard. The high esteem accorded to the copying of the Quran, and the aesthetic energy that was devoted to it, raised Arabic calligraphy to the status of an art.

Useful resources:
* 'Calligraphy' article at "Wikipedia"

* Society of Scribes is a non-profit educational organization which promotes the study, teaching and practice of calligraphy and related disciplines. It was founded in 1974 in New York city.

* An article from John Stevens of "Caligraphy Centre"

* "Calligraphic Islamic" A site dedicated to Arabic and Islamic calligraphy.

* Cynscribe Directory is a resource for calligraphers,lettering artists, papermakers, typographers, graphic designers, paper decorators, scrapbookers, rubberstampers,greeting card makers,book designers and artist bookmakers.

Get Scrapbooking Tips and Tutorials at- "A Cherry On Top"

I love scrapbooking as a creative hobby and after searching the net for "scrapbooking" resources and links, I was simply amazed to see many wonderful sites with scrapbooking ideas, tips and layouts. And most amazing thing is that most of the stuff is FREE.

is one of the sites which offer scrapbooking, paper craft, stamping tips and tutorials absolutely free of cost.

What more you can get from "A Cherry on Top"?

* It is a place to find contests, challenges and online crops, so you
can win prizes, getting exposure of your work through their contests.

* Search the Gallery to view digital layout, photograph, crafts and
card pictures to get thousands of ideas for your scrapbooking
projects.

* Join the ACOT Community with 35600 members. It is the place where
you can get in touch with other hobbyists, get tips, ideas and share
your suggestions with all.

It is one of the hobby sites with largest collection of scrapbooking products. When you are inspired by any layout or project, simply
search the database for scrapbooking products.

Sign up for our Newsletter to get weekly newsletter with layout ideas,
thoughts and product information. Get general scrapbooking or digital
scrapbooking newsletters by registering FREE.

Learn free online photography tips and techniques

Inernet has become a rich source of information for hobbies. You can search and get hobby ideas which helps you learn and choose them as your pastime. You don't need to join any course or read books to learn photography, world wide web has offered many useful resources and links where you can learn photogaphy tips and techniques for free.

* Photo.net is an online community with hundreds of thousands of active members and many more casual viewers visiting daily. It started in 1993 helping people who wish to become better photographers.

* Photography.comPhotography.com is a comprehensive online source of information for amateur and professional photographers alike. Providing in-depth articles on everything from equipment to techniques. Product reviews help users make important decisions on how and where to spend their money. Photography.com also offers an extensive collection of stock photos that can easily be searched and sorted to quickly find exactly what you're looking for

* Photography tips is intended to help beginners get started in photography, and become so good at it that they turn into advanced amateurs. It also offers useful tips and hints for accomplished photographers. You have to be a member if you want to access whole site content. But still you can access many site features.

Free Online Photography Course

Photography is one of the popular hobbies which is a profession as well. I still love to take pictures and it is one of the hobbies I enjoy most. As photography is directly linked to scrapbooking, you can easily use your photos to make artistic projects. I remember taking pictures with my first 'Yashica' camera. Now I have 'Sony'cybershot, 8 mega pixol which my 9 year old son can handle very easily. Even my cell phone has camera can take 2 mega pixol pictures and the pictures are really nice. I believe that despite of huge development in technology, you still need to learn about photography. Digital cameras has made 'photography' a child's play, as you can take high difinition pictures within seconds. Learning photography has become easier due to latest digital cameras, and by applying some tips and techniques you can create wonderful pictures.
This post is about a FREE online photography course and as it is from a professional photographer, you can learn it easily while sitting at the comfort of your home. Either photography is your hobby or not, you can still learn from this online tutorial.

Jodies Coston's Free Online Photography Course

Freelance photographer Jodie Coston offers a free online course in photography, covering everything from aperture to zoom.

The course is divided into 10 lessons, each presented with loads of sample photos and assignments at the end. Coston employs a friendly, personal style and provides plain-English descriptions of complicated subjects. Even better, host site morgueFile maintains a separate discussion board for each of the lessons, so you can ask questions, share info with your "classmates," etc.
This course is actually a couple years old, but it's still an excellent introduction to photography.
(You can't download the lessons as PDFs they're in HTML)

Site link: Site link

Interesting related posts:

- Photography tutorials at 'YouTube'

- Rick Sammon's Top Ten Digital Photography Tips at YouTube

- 30 Photos That Inspired Me to Learn Photography

(Note: Both pictures of this post are taken by me, with a 2 mega pixol Nokia N70 camera)