Fun Friday Resources

Me, traveling, allegedly

HI there! Did you miss me? I’m back in the States after a week+ traveling all over Italy — read all about it here. (Full disclosure: I’m still not finished with that series. I figure I’ll the last three days of the trip done this afternoon or tomorrow.)

I chose not to try to do my blogposts over here, and wisely so: I didn’t even have time (or brain energy) to get my daily travel posts done at my personal site.

But now I’m back, and it’s time for some Ort, as Molly Ivins used to say.

First up, Pixel Art, where you can draw… pixel art. It’s pretty detailed in what you can do, almost a Pixelmator-level set of tools. You can save, share, animate, all kinds of things.

Next, in a more serious vein, a boatload of drawing lessons. If you’re one of those who “can’t draw a straight line,” head over to DrawSpace and learn why you don’t even have to do that even.

And finally, an app called Daily Art. If your knowledge of art history is — shall we say — lacking, this would be an easy way to catch up so that when you tour Italy, you too can tune out the tour guide half the time, or head to the Uffizi Gallery rather than go shopping.

Seriously, if you already know the world’s great paintings before you hit the museums, the experience you will have will be ten times richer. As I’ve said before, there is nothing like standing before a work of art and being overwhelmed by the details, by the artist’s technique, by the work’s aliveness in ways that even a good reproduction in a book can give you. Sometimes STEAL FROM THE BEST applies to your role as AUDIENCE too.