“Learning how to Draw” should in my view be a discipline taught as early as possible as it teaches young children a fundamental life skill: how to ’see’ and from there think in a focused, simple and clear way. . . ideally beyond the surface of appearances.

The Importance of Drawing

The Importance of Drawing here is that the ability to ’see’ helps to ‘visualize’. . .  and from there to find solutions to any question or task at hand, solving possible challenges in advance. This helps to develop a healthy, natural way of decision making and common sense within the young, sensitive and receptive person . . . and sooner or later a personal Style and sense for Aesthetics.

 

“Dali through my Eyes with Rose” by Bianca Gubalke

Practise Drawing

While you might think this only pertains to the Visual Arts – Paintings, Architecture, Sculpture, Cinema etc and Web Design when it comes to the Internet -, the fact is that being able to ’see’ and from there develop a feeling for what’s essential is fundamental for many other professions where it might be less obvious – be it lawyers,  doctors, sales people, teachers or farmers – just to name a few.

Here as in all disciplines, Consistency and Practice are key. It means one needs to Practise Drawing. . .  just like a pianist needs to play daily or a ballerina does her daily exercises one needs to practise drawing in order to stay visually aware as well as in control of one’s online skills as regards the tools and graphic programs we use when working via the worldwide web.

Personally, I firmly believe that “. . . the more I draw the more I see” . . . which is in fact quite a profound thought. . . but it would explode the topic of this post :)

Online Drawing Tools

While we are all familiar with offline tools to create Drawings – pencil, crayons, pen, charcoal, pastels, brush etc – , equipping ourselves with good Online Drawing Tools to operate professionally online is essential if you want to succeed in Web Design or create more refined Web Graphics and Graphic Art.And believe me. . . although it may sound strange to the newbie and eternal skeptic: online drawing tools are just as efficient and sensitive as their traditional equivalent in the offline environment. . . if not more. It’s totally amazing – but something that needs to be experienced to be fully understood and appreciated.

I recommend simply the best: Wacom tablets. . . find out more HERE. This advice comes from my personal experience and is totally independent :)

Work In Progress

Just as sketches capture ideas and are as such materialized moments and visions of the mind, these Drawings… that seem to have an unfinished touch and often – but not always – are the pre-stadium for some major Artwork…, do in fact contain the essence of what is to follow.

Drawings document the “Work in Progress” – my favourite part of the creative process. . . and as you see above I continue my series of Web Graphics on Salvador Dali. This time I could not resist his beautiful red Dali rose. . .

Dali Quote

“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”

I just love this one!

It’s yet another great Salvador Dali Quote to learn from. . . even if it’s just to get to know ourselves better :)

Web Design with Passion

No Web Design without a keen eye for Design and Web Graphics… and lots of Passion! Check out some of my Web Design 2010 in my SHOWCASE.

Grunge Design is the current trend. . . a sort of liberating and highly creative  “do as you like” style we studied and integrated in the seventies in Paris, France… especially under the influence of the extraordinary Spanish artist Antoni Tàpies. More on him further down…

Grunge Design

Designing in the traditional way is one thing… achieving those results when creating Web Graphics is another and demands a thorough knowledge of the available web graphics tools. Only then one can become a real virtuoso!

But one needs to start. . . and this is my first try. Everything on this page was created from scratch; the only originals I outsourced so to speak is the “Grunge Font”. I will do more sketches once I have more of those to play with!

Antoni Tapies

Antoni Tàpies, the brilliant Catalan artist who started off as a surrealist painter – influenced by the work of Paul Klee and Joan Miró – soon became an abstract expressionist. When he started incorporating non-artistic materials such as waste paper, rugs and strings and added clay and marble dust to his paint, his style becoming famous as “Arte Povera”.

To this very day, Antoni Tàpies is considered as one of the leading artists in Europe. He says himself that he seeks… “to remind man of what in reality he is, to give him a theme for reflection, to shock him in order to rescue him from the madness of inauthenticity and to lead him to self-discovery.”

Today’s Grunge Design connects to Antoni Tàpies’ Oeuvre… with half a century between them!
Makes one think, doesn’t it?

Presenting your Artwork, Pictures or Web Graphics in a neat, easy-to-navigate and attractive way is just as important online as it is in the traditional environment and needs to be well thought… and it needs learning new skills, lots of them!

Presenting Artwork

While we visit Galleries and Museums to see Art offline, we are confined to a comparatively tiny computer screen when it comes to presenting Artwork online… so a lot of planning and preparation goes into what we want to present – for example pictures or photos – and one’s got to know one’s way around from a technical point of view… starting with the quality of the pictures we take on our digital camera, to the way we load it onto our PC, to how we edit the pictures in Photoshop and, most importantly, how we then save them for the web.

And then there is the whole aria of how to load to what and where on your Website or Blog!

Things aren’t easy but they can be learned. . . so that’s exactly what I do as anyone else who’s determined and committed to show their quality work in a quality manner on Web 2.0.

Storyboard and Sketches

Currently, I am working on getting the collection of arum lily pictures from my garden I display as a Storyboard and Sketches below…  into a Gallery Widget on my Author Blog.

"Arum Lilies from my Garden" by Bianca Gubalke

Aurum Lilies

Again, these are quick photos from my garden… zooming in and out between heavy downpours but look at the light! It’s a real thrill… and if I wasn’t so focused, you’d get some rainbows inbetween! Well, you’ve gotta imagine them . . .

It’s midnight passed and I know tomorrow I’ll get it done . . .  :)

. . .

This brand-new Blog on Web Design (title) and Graphics (tagline)  -  “Web Design Graphics” -  is dedicated to everything from what’s happening behind the scenes when creating a new Blog or website (the so-called ‘back-end’) . . . to the visible part of direct interaction with visitors, readers or potential customers through content – meaning the text and images they see when they come to the Home page or any other webpage they might pick up from the relevant keywords or keyword phrases they are looking for on. . .  Google.

Web Design Structure

As on Google Top 10 you want to be…  and for this it is crucial to first go through an in-depth mental process and establish a logical, concise and user-friendly Web Design Structure – similar to the Index of a book – that organizes the future Content and facilitates the website navigation from chapter to chapter as well as inbetween sub-chapters not only for the reader but also and most importantly in a search engine optimized way, namely for Google.

In that sense, this new Blog consists of three main Categories:

1. Web Design
2. Website Design
3. Graphics

These three main categories are divided into sub-categories as follows:

1. Web Design

Under Web Design we will focus on the basic chronological process when creating Web Design – from establishing the Purpose to the Planning phase, from Content and Corporate Identity needs expressed by our customers… to Web Design translation in terms of Architecture, Appearance and Visibility on Google (Search Engine Optimization).

We add some useful FAQs that might answer urgent questions and are always an invitation to fellow Web Designers and Graphic Artists to comment and add their professional and spiffy input…:

Web Design Planning
Web Design Content
Web Design Corporate Identity
Web Design Architecture
Web Design Appearance
Web Design Visibility
Web Design FAQs

2. Website Design

Under Website Design we will discuss more general, informative and educative matters including Reviews, Tips and our own Ycademy Seminars and Workshops…:

Website Design Development
Website Design News
Website Design Tools
Website Design Reviews
Website Design Tips
Website Design Workshop

3. Graphics

Web Design Graphics will take us from spontaneous Sketches and preparatory Images to the final Artwork we integrate into our Web Design to accompany the written content, to communicate and stimulate emotions well beyond words, or to advertise and sell.

It's all about Architecture - Leonardo da Vinci

As usual, we will document and explain useful steps within the creative idea-to-execution process, look into various sources, tools and techniques, study and learn from the masters and give practical tips for practical applications in form of ideas and thoughts…:

Sketches
Images
Art
Ideas

Showcase

Here we will feature some of our original Artwork.

Contact Me

You are welcome to comment on any topic of interest to you. Alternatively, please use the Contact Form for any questions that need an answer – thank you.

Sketches and Drawings

If you are anything like me, I personally prefer ‘sketches’ and ‘drawings’ to the finished Artwork or Painting. I admire the spontaneity of a quick drawing or sketch; ideally it has the expression of the movement and its whole essence in it.

If not . . .  if it’s a flop… off it goes into the wastebin… ooooops! delete button I mean… and next!

As simple as that!

Spontaneous Sketches

If you remember, I did a number of “Spontaneous Sketches” with what we called the “Jackson-Pollock-Tool” at the time. I loved experimenting with it; these rapid and almost gestual lines (… confined to a little space, true, that’s the only drawback…) are liberating and wildly inspiring at the same time!

And they are enough to motivate more elaborate Artwork… as was the case HERE.

Preparatory Sketches

Besides, for anything I do when it comes to Graphics or any form of Art… or even the setup of a Blog: I do sketches. I have books filled with them… and so do sculptors, painters, architects, designers and writers of all kinds … etc.

Sketches are quick notes, reminders, moments to ban a fleeting vision or idea… and they may be translated into something more substantial only years later! If at all!

In fact, if short of inspiration, go back to your old notes… your old sketches – and you’ll be busy with something that grabs you even before you become aware of it… and then you might fly off like one of my favourite masters of all times, Leonardo da Vinci with his “Flying Machines” . . .

Sketches for a Flying Machine by Leonardo da Vinci

Web Design Sketches

Even when preparing a new website or blog it is tremendously helpful to do these quick Web Design Sketches to find the right distribution of the presentation of the hypertext and hypermedia – straight from your imagination into your pen or whatever you use as a drawing tool and what’s convenient.

Don’t judge… rather do the next. Come back later and pick what inspired you and work from there.

Besides, it’s a good exercise for learning how to ‘see’… to get a feeling for the distribution of volumes and values, finding your own style and having great fun!

So expect more of this in this chapter: Web Design Graphics – Sketches! I love this!

. . .