Wikipedia characterizes an optical illusion as “visually perceived images that differ from objective reality.”

Emily was browsing through Flickr the other day and came across the above image by LLLearner. When she showed it to me, I was really captivated by how a static image can appear to move. You will notice that if you stare at the artwork straight on, nothing will happen. It’s when you move your eyes that the shapes begin to rotate.

You can see more of LLLearner’s optical illusion artwork such as Wave and Wavy on Flickr.

This artistic style has really taken off just over the past few decades. It is a relativley new genre and is most often referred to as Op Art. The way Op Art functions is by artists creating “two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition.” It is amazing how artists can create in this way.

Fascinated, I clicked on over to Imagekind to do a quick search. I wanted to see if any of our member artists had a similar style. I found quite a few. Though they vary in effect, they are all really captivating.

Check out some of the Optical Illusion artwork I found:

Optical Illusion Art: Laser Wood by JaNell Golden

Optical Illusion Artwork: Opt Illusion by Beth Marie Lee

Op Art: Liquid Light by Holly Johnson

One of the greatest optical illusion artists was M.C. Escher who was fascinated by math, in relation to art. Two of his most famous pieces include Drawing Hands and Waterfall. Both images portray improbable situations that at first glance appear almost possible. Like all optical illusions, his artwork is not always what you first perceive.

This artistic style is really fascinating to me, so, if you have any others to share, let’s see em! Whether it’s your own or another artists’, post a comment with the URL back to the image and let me know what you like about it.

Find Op art on Imagekind!

The Challenge: Take one self portrait each day for a year.

Do you think you have what it takes?

Emily recently told me about this social phenomenon happening over at Flickr where members try and do just that. Their goal is to take at least one photograph of themselves each day and submit it to the Flickr group. Sure, it might sound easy at first. I mean, how hard is it to take a picture of yourself? But do you think you can do that every day, for a year?

Well, that is exactly what the instigator of this task set out to do. Steven Poff, who also sells his artwork on Imagekind, decided to take up the challenge well before there was even a Flickr group dedicated to the craziness. After starting the project in 2006, there are now over 9,000 members of the group. If you are working on your own 365 day set, then leave us a comment with the links!

Travis, Emily and I found this quite fascinating and decided to try it out ourselves. However, let’s be honest, we soon realized we don’t all have the resilience necessary for this extreme challenge. So instead, we decided to change things up a bit, and now we need your help!

Instead of one self portrait everyday for a year, we decided to do one self portrait for one day of the year; today! Also, to make things even more crazy (since it is Friday), we changed the medium from photography, to illustration, and have all drawn our self portrait.

We had quite the argument around here as to whose was the best, so we thought we’d elicit your opinions, to help us determine without bias, who has the best mug. Check ‘em out below.

Make sure you vote for which one you think is the best!

[poll id="2"]

Emily

Travis

Nate

Compiled below is a list of the top five networking sites Imagekind artists can utilize to help promote their art prints for sale on Imagekind.

I have broken each of the five sites down by:

1. giving a brief explanation of what the site is and how it functions
2. how the site is helpful for artists
3. a list of some of the Imagekind artists who currently use the site to help promote their work

If your name is not under one of the sites, it’s probably just because I don’t know you use it. So, feel free to paste your respective site URL in the comment section and I will be happy to check it out.

Every artist who wants to increase their sales should have a few different ways they go about promoting their work. What other sites should be added to this list?

1. Flickr

About Flickr: It’s hard to say anything new about Flickr that most of you don’t already know. So, this is for the few who don’t. Flickr is by far one of the largest photo management and sharing sites online. Flickr members can upload, manage, organize and share their digital images with a worldwide audience. Members range from professional photographers and artists, to amateurs, to casual photo takers sharing personal pictures between select groups of people.

What this means: The Flickr community is one of the largest and most knowledgeable photo communities online. When people look for images online, Flickr is often one of the first sites they check. This provides a great opportunity for artists selling their artwork. Through a strategic partnership, Flickr members can easily upload and sell their Flickr images through Imagekind. With a few simple clicks, visitors to Flickr can click over to Imagekind where they can purchase an Imagekind member’s art prints.

Imagekind artists using Flickr successfully:
Notley Hawkins (on Flickr) | Trey Ratcliff (on Flickr) | Irene L (on Flickr) | Roger Butterfield (on Flickr) | Mr. Vedd (on Flickr)

2. MySpace

About MySpace: To many, MySpace might seem like nothing more than a paradise for socially awkward and confused teenagers. However, MySpace has proved to be one of the best places an artist can use to help promote and sell their work. In short, MySpace claims to be “a place for friends.” In other words, it’s one site, where millions of people congregate to meet and interact with others. Think having the opportunity to network with more people than are in Time Square. You are given a personal page that is almost limitlessly customizable.

What this means: Artists have the opportunity to engage with one of the largest clusters of people ever developed online. The potential is enormous. Artists can connect with new and existing fans of their artwork. Music groups (bands) are almost required these days to setup a page on MySpace to connect with their existing fans, and provide a way for new fans to quickly and easily find their music. This same principle applies to artists. Setup a MySpace profile and start connecting with people who love your art. Include your unique Imagekind URL on your page to connect people directly to your art prints for sale.

Imagekind artists using MySpace successfully:
Rob Dobi (on MySpace) | Natasha Newton (on MySpace) | Porter McKnight (on MySpace) | Metrofader (on MySpace) | Mike Cressy (on MySpace)

3. Facebook

About Facebook: Facebook is like a cleaned up version of MySpace. Not only is it more polished looking, it is also more family friendly. Similar to MySpace, Facebook “connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.” Facebook is less customizable than MySpace, but provides ways for members to share and interact with each other in ways that MySpace does not. Facebook members can easily create and join groups that inspire them, encourage them, they are passionate about, or just make them laugh.

What this means: Similar to MySpace, artists can use Facebook to connect with people who love their art. Facebook members can setup groups for just about anything to collaborate and share ideas. Artists can create their own personal groups for people to join who love their work, or join other groups for particular styles of art. With Facebook, it is easy to connect and share ideas to help promote your art prints for sale on Imagekind.

Imagekind artists using Facebook successfully:
Scott Anderson (on Facebook) | Rich Collins (on Facebook) | Edward Kinnally (on Facebook)

4. Youtube

About YouTube: YouTube is “…the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide…” YouTube allows people to upload and share their personally created videos with an audience around the world. There are videos on YouTube for almost everything.

What this means: Artists use YouTube in several different ways. I have seen everything from artists who create instructional videos on painting, to an artist sharing their unique style when creating art, to artists who create video advertisements of their work. Once you have a video created and ready to upload, add an interesting title and appropriate tags for people to find your videos easily. Imagekind artists can include their unique Imagekind URL directly to the video and also make it a link in the info box on the right hand side. That way, when viewers see an artist’s work on YouTube, they can find out how to buy their art prints for sale easily.

Imagekind artists using YouTube successfully:
Natasha Wescoat (on YouTube) | Hall Groat II (on YouTube)

5. Squidoo

About Squidoo: When trying to understand Squidoo (though we may never understand the name) it’s often best to think of a blog that mated with Wikipedia. With Squidoo, anyone can setup a free, single page of whatever it is they care about most. There are Squidoo pages (lenses ala Squidoo) on nearly everything. Squidoo members can then interact with, discuss, and meet others who care about what they care about. Even Martha Stewart and Jane Goodall have lenses sharing what they’re passionate about.

What this means: Artists can use Squidoo to create lenses about their passions and interests: namely, their artwork. It’s quite simple for an artist to setup a lens and start connecting with others who love their art. They can easily add images and videos on their Squidoo lens to showcase their work. It is easy to direct people who find your artwork on Squidoo over to your artwork for sale on Imagekind.

Imagekind artists using Squidoo successfully:
Anne Vis (on Squidoo) | Andrew Gibson (on Squidoo)

Remember these are only five of the sites artists can use to help promote their art prints for sale on Imagekind. I am sure there are several more. How do you use these sites in different ways? What other sites have you found successful for promoting your art prints?

- Nate

It’s really cool to see how artists are seizing opportunities to help promote their artwork for sale. Two of our Imagekind artists got some great press this last week in their local newspaper and I wanted to pass it on. In the article titled Connecting with Cameras, Notley Hawkins and Chris Wolters share some helpful tips on how to use Flickr to promote their art print sales on Imagekind.

How do you use Flickr to help promote your artwork?

Checkout the article below to read how some artists on Imagekind use Flickr to help promote their artwork. Not only are they seeing an increase in art print sales, but they also share some helpful tips and advice on how they get their work published and recognized. Imagekind’s strategic partnership with Flickr not only gives artists a great way to help promote their work, it’s really just as easy as a few simple clicks to get started.

Read the full article here.

If you are a lover of Polaroid photos, then you have probably heard the sad, awful news: Polaroid has decided to discontinue the production of all its instant films to make room for new technologies. I am an artist of many mediums, and one of my favorites is Polaroid. Amateurs and professional photographers alike have embraced the instant gratification that a Polaroid gives us. Some well known artists who loved the medium include such names as Ansel Adams, Chuck Close, Walker Evans, Andy Warhol… the list goes on and on.

I bought my first Polaroid camera from a Goodwill in Rhode Island, and never looked back. I have taken thousands of Polaroids since then – a mix of snapshots and more formal pieces. Some of them stay as they are, others are incorporated into mixed-media resin sculptures, or used to make digital negatives for alternative processes. The loss of Polaroid as a medium is absolutely heartbreaking to me. Reading the testimonials on Save Polaroid made me want to do everything I can to keep this medium alive.

Artwork: Untitled by Colie Parks
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If you are a Polaroid enthusiast, you know that they made many other films besides the consumer 600 film, with only a few of them having the “Polaroid” white frame. The 669 film is especially unique in that the photographic emulsion is on the surface of the photo, not protected by a plastic layer. An artist can take the emulsion off of the plastic backing and apply it to almost any surface. With the consumer films, one can manipulate the photos after taking them too -the emulsion doesn’t harden right away, and so with a blunt tool and imagination, the artist can physically move the emulsion around in the frame. The long-discontinued Time-Zero film was renowned for its dreamy and soft manipulations.

Artwork: Vintage Court by Sarah Hazel
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Unless another company picks up the manufacturing rights to (and WANTS to manufacture) the film, then our Polaroid cameras have a bleak future (Fujifilm makes some instant films, which does give me hope!). So lets enjoy all of the Polaroids that are already in existence. I was so excited to find a large group of artists here on Imagekind who have digitized their Polaroid pictures and made them available for sale as prints.

Artwork: Hotel by Marianne Luther
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Though the demise of Polaroid film appears imminent, you can help keep them alive by buying and selling them as high end art prints. Here are four tips to help give your Polaroids new life as giclee prints. I have a few personal recommendations for making them as awesome as they possibly can be.

1. Be sure to scan them at very high quality. I leave all the scratches that the surface gets in the scan because I like the way it looks – but be sure to carefully look at the final scan to be sure it is free of anything that you don’t want to show up in the final print.

2. When scanning photos made with a consumer-grade camera, consider whether or not you want to keep the signature white frame around the image. One may argue that the kitsch factor is dulled by removing it. Take a look at what others have done and decide if your image is effective when cropped. If you do decide to keep the frame as part of the image, consider making it so you can see all the edges – adding a little bit of contrast or shadow to the edges to really make it stand out in prints.

Artwork: Hard Candy by Manuel Branco
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3. You should feel free to manipulate your pictures in Photoshop! Once your image is on a computer, take advantage of the tools that you have to make your photos even better. Or experiment even more and combine other elements into your photos that may be unexpected, such as drawings or textures. Let your Polaroids be a starting point for other works. You’ll still have the original to cherish, so have fun with your reproductions!

4. Consider the paper that you are going to print on. The Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl paper will give a similar stiffness and surface as an original Polaroid, but a watercolor paper (such as Somerset Velvet or Hahnemuhle Torchon) can bring out more painterly aspects of your images. Polaroid emulsion lifts or transfers look especially beautiful when printed on these papers.

Artwork: Polaroid Mix 4 by bradstrain
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If you want to read more about this amazing medium, there are some great resources out there. Our friends at COLOURlovers have interviewed some fantastic polaroid artists in their blog. If you want to join the petitions to save this amazing medium, please check out SavePolaroid.com. Spread the Polaroid love and post your Polaroids to polanoid.net, join the Save Polaroid Flickr Group, and of course start selling your Polaroids on Imagekind!

Artwork: The End by Lord Schmindie
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R.I.P. Polaroid. Hopefully we’ll see you again someday.

-Emily