How is your Halloween Spirit?

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As fallen leaves carpet the ground with brilliant shades of brown, yellow, red and orange, a variety of strange and spooky images start to appear creating Halloween Spirit. Ghosts and ghouls hang from trees, carved pumpkins and gnarled broomsticks appear on doorsteps, spiders weave webs across windows and gravestones turn up on front lawns.

Halloween art sets the stage for the scariest and fun holiday of the year.

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The most common images in Halloween art include:

• ghosts and haunted houses
• witches, broomsticks and cauldrons
• pumpkins and jack o’lanterns
• spiders and cobwebs
• monsters
• werewolves
• vampires and bats
• skulls and skeletons
• gravestones

Both adults and children alike enjoy creating Halloween arts and crafts that bring these strange and macabre images to life. Here are some hands-on ideas for Halloween arts and crafts:

• Color in Halloween images with markers, crayons, paint, or even digitally using your computer
• Cut outlines of spiders, bats, and witches’ hats out of black paper
• Cut out body parts from magazines and paste them on thick paper to make your own monsters
• Create your own gravestone using black marker on grey paper
• Draw a pair of eyes and a wide, smiling mouth full of teeth on a pumpkin, and carve it out to create a jack o’lantern

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To get in the holiday spirit, hang your 2-D Halloween arts and crafts in your front windows or on your front door. Place your 3-D Halloween art projects on your doorstep or front lawn.
The most exciting form of “Halloween art” is your costume!

Whether you are a 7 years old or 77 years old, on October 31 you can transform yourself into someone (or something) else. This is where your imagination has free reign – you can change your appearance however you want by wearing a costume, a wig, and/or make-up. Whether you are the one trick-or-treating or the one answering the door with a bowl of candy, Halloween is a holiday full of surprises, where nothing is quite what it seems.

Read more Segmation blog posts about Art:

Colors Solve the “Monster Mash” Mystery

“The Pixel Painter”

Art Beneath Your Feet

Be a Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

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Colors Solve the “Monster Mash” Mystery

The “Monster Mash” caught on in a flash, but is it really a Halloween hit? Nowhere in the song does it mention Halloween buzzwords like “Trick or Treat,” “Ghosts and Goblins,” or “A witch and her broomstick.” All we know about the song is that it was a graveyard smash.

This month, Segmation is on a mission to find out if “Monster Mash” was a Halloween hit or a Frankenstein inspired tune. Was the song released in August 1962 so it could reach the top of the Billboard charts by Halloween, or was it just a coincidence?

A reason why Bobby Pickett’s song, “Monster Mash” provokes this question is because the lyrics do not mention anything about Halloween. More so, traditional Halloween colors aren’t apparent in the single’s album cover.

To explore this mystery, Segmation is using colors to solve the case.

Halloween Colors

What colors come to mind when thinking of Halloween? Orange and black, of course.

It is believed that these colors have been put in place because of what they represent. Orange is the color for autumn – leaves turn orange and seem to cast this shade throughout neighborhoods and countryside. This is most prevalent when the sun shines. If the sun is not out then skies are overcast. With summer over, dark days are approaching. Halloween black is used to represent this reality.

The History of Halloween Colors

Two historical sources also confirm that orange and black are Halloween colors.

Celtics and the Druids ­used to conduct after life ceremonies by burning orange, beeswax candles and using black cloths to cover caskets.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice that, when applied to a living environment, brings peace and solace. According to Feng Shui, orange and black exist at opposite ends of the energy spectrum. Orange is warm and full. Black, on the other hand, is mysterious and empty.

According to tradition and history, the colors represented on the “Monster Mash” album cover do not promote Halloween at all. There are some additional colors to explore before confirming this graveyard smash was just another Billboard 100 hit.

The Other Colors of Halloween

If orange and black were the only colors of Halloween, the holiday season would seem dull. This is the day of the dead, after all. Colors that symbolize death include: red for blood, green as the eerie color of decay, purples to signify mysticism and supernatural happenings, and white to reflect life after death in ghost and mummies, as well as the full moon.

Taking the other colors of Halloween into account, it seems completely appropriate to consider “Monster Mash” a Halloween song. While not using the obvious colors of Halloween, the album cover proves that this is, in fact, a holiday tune.

Snap your fingers, get in costume, and listen to the graveyard smash. Common’ everybody – do the Monster Mash.

Happy Halloween, from Segmation.

Read more Segmation blog posts about Halloween Art:

Ideas for Creating Halloween Spirit

Ideas for Creating Halloween Art

Halloween Scenes

Be a Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

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Ideas for Creating Halloween Spirit

http://www.segmation.com

Every October, as fallen leaves carpet the ground with brilliant shades of brown, yellow, red and orange, a variety of strange and spooky images start to appear creating Halloween Spirit. Ghosts and ghouls hang from trees, carved pumpkins and gnarled broomsticks appear on doorsteps, spiders weave webs across windows and gravestones turn up on front lawns.

Halloween art sets the stage for the scariest holiday of the year. Well before October 31 rolls around, you’ll want to get busy creating the seasonal decorations that will set the tone for the entire month.

The most common images in Halloween art include:

• ghosts and haunted houses
• witches, broomsticks and cauldrons
• pumpkins and jack o’lanterns
• spiders and cobwebs
• monsters
• werewolves
• vampires and bats
• skulls and skeletons
• gravestones

Both adults and children alike enjoy creating Halloween arts and crafts that bring these strange and macabre images to life. Here are some hands-on ideas for Halloween arts and crafts:

• Color in Halloween images with markers, crayons, paint, or even digitally using your computer
• Cut outlines of spiders, bats, and witches’ hats out of black paper
• Cut out body parts from magazines and paste them on thick paper to make your own monsters
• Create your own gravestone using black marker on grey paper
• Draw a pair of eyes and a wide, smiling mouth full of teeth on a pumpkin, and carve it out to create a jack o’lantern

To get in the holiday spirit, hang your 2-D Halloween arts and crafts in your front windows or on your front door. Place your 3-D Halloween art projects on your doorstep or front lawn.
The most exciting form of “Halloween art” is your costume!

Whether you are a 7 years old or 77 years old, on October 31 you can transform yourself into someone (or something) else. This is where your imagination has free reign – you can change your appearance however you want by wearing a costume, a wig, and/or make-up. Whether you are the one trick-or-treating or the one answering the door with a bowl of candy, Halloween is a holiday full of surprises, where nothing is quite what it seems.

Read more Segmation blog posts about Art:

Art Therapy Treats more than the Heart

How to turn your Passion into Profit

Art Beneath Your Feet

Be a Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

The Main Ingredients to Creating an Effective Artist Website

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=artist+computer&iid=59271″ src=”http://view1.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/59271/artist-with-laptop/artist-with-laptop.jpg?size=500&imageId=59271″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]

In previous blog posts, we provided an overview of art marketing in the digital world and followed that with three main ways for artists to display their art online. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the most important elements that are needed to make sure your artist’s website delivers the results that you want.

Virtual Gallery – As an artist, the main goal of your website should be to display your work. Put your best foot forward: make sure to take good pictures of your artwork using a high-quality digital camera (or hire someone to take professional photos), then arrange them on your website in a well-presented gallery format. Your virtual gallery should be easy to navigate, so that viewers can conveniently browse your body of work.

Biography – When people view your website, they will want to know the person behind the paintbrush. When they can form a human connection with the person who makes the art, they will feel more comfortable with contacting you. Your biography can include basic information like: your birthday, your place of birth as well as your present location, if and where you attended art school, etc. You should also include more personal anecdotes, such as what inspires your art and what you are trying to achieve with your artwork. Some artists post their CVs that detail their exhibition history and gallery affiliations.

Contact – The contact page is one of the most important aspects of an artist’s website. Whether you are seeking gallery representation, direct sales or licensing opportunities, you want people who like your work to be able to contact you to get the ball rolling. Your contact information needs to be easily accessible – don’t make your site visitors dig for it, or they may give up and click away. People surfing the web generally have short attention spans. (Tip: it is best to have a page that includes a form people can fill out to submit comments or queries, rather than to post your email address online.)

Those are the three main ingredients that an artist’s website must have. If you are a self-representing artist, you might also want to include a sales page that explains what people can expect if they buy directly from you online (such as payment info, shipping info, etc).

Another option is to connect a blog to your website, so that people can get an even more behind-the-scenes peek into your life. In a future blog post, we’ll discuss what you’ll need to know to make your art blog interesting and insightful, so that readers come back for more!

Ideas for Creating Halloween Art

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=halloween&iid=292485″ src=”http://view2.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/292485/halloween-pumpkin/halloween-pumpkin.jpg?size=500&imageId=292485″ width=”347″ height=”480″ /]

Every October, as fallen leaves carpet the ground with brilliant shades of brown, yellow, red and orange, a variety of strange and spooky images start to appear. Ghosts and ghouls hang from trees, carved pumpkins and gnarled broomsticks appear on doorsteps, spiders weave webs across windows and gravestones turn up on front lawns.

Halloween art sets the stage for the scariest holiday of the year. Well before October 31 rolls around, you’ll want to get busy creating the seasonal decorations that will set the tone for the entire month.

The most common images in Halloween art include:

• ghosts and haunted houses
• witches, broomsticks and cauldrons
• pumpkins and jack o’lanterns
• spiders and cobwebs
• monsters
• werewolves
• vampires and bats
• skulls and skeletons
• gravestones

Both adults and children alike enjoy creating Halloween arts and crafts that bring these strange and macabre images to life. Here are some hands-on ideas for Halloween arts and crafts:

• Color in Halloween images with markers, crayons, paint, or even digitally using your computer
• Cut outlines of spiders, bats, and witches’ hats out of black paper
• Cut out body parts from magazines and paste them on thick paper to make your own monsters
• Create your own gravestone using black marker on grey paper
• Draw a pair of eyes and a wide, smiling mouth full of teeth on a pumpkin, and carve it out to create a jack o’lantern

To get in the holiday spirit, hang your 2-D Halloween arts and crafts in your front windows or on your front door. Place your 3-D Halloween art projects on your doorstep or front lawn.

The most exciting form of “Halloween art” is your costume! Whether you are a 7 years old or 77 years old, on October 31 you can transform yourself into someone (or something) else. This is where your imagination has free reign – you can change your appearance however you want by wearing a costume, a wig, and/or make-up. Whether you are the one trick-or-treating or the one answering the door with a bowl of candy, Halloween is a holiday full of surprises, where nothing is quite what it seems.

How Works of Art Become Famous

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=mona+lisa&iid=1612007″ src=”http://view1.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/1612007/vinci-code-locations/vinci-code-locations.jpg?size=500&imageId=1612007″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]

Have you ever wondered why certain works of art are so famous? For instance, why does the Mona Lisa enjoy celebrity status, even though there have been scores of other well-painted portraits throughout history?

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is currently known as the most famous painting in the world, but in previous centuries, it was merely regarded as a well-executed portrait by one of the Renaissance’s greatest luminaries. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the painting skyrocketed to fame. It was stolen in 1911 and recovered in 1913 – two dramatic events that catapulted the painting into the limelight. Mechanical reproduction and commercialism further propelled the fame of the painting, with the image being sold on various types of merchandise as well as appearing in countless advertisements. By now, the Mona Lisa’s fame is self-perpetuating and her legend is well-established.

The Venus de Milo is another example of a work of art that became famous not just for its beauty. Although it is one of only a few extant sculptures from the Classical period, the Venus de Milo enjoys its particular fame due to the massive propaganda efforts put forth by the French in the early 19th century, in an attempt to proclaim that their Venus was a better work of art than an Italian version of the Goddess.

The relative fame of an artwork depends on far more than just skill or execution; factors such as the timing and location of the piece, the social and political atmosphere of when it was created, and the artist’s ability to create an emotional resonance between the artwork and the viewers all play a part in why some artworks are more coveted than others. In the end, a healthy dose of fate, luck or chance doesn’t hurt, either.

Halloween Scenes

New Pattern Set for SegPlayPC recently released (see more details here)

Halloween is a popular holiday celebrated on October 31. Although it has roots with the Christian holiday of All Saints’ Day, Halloween is not a religious celebration. Activities associated with Halloween include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes, carving jack-o’-lanterns, attending bon fires, apple bobbing, and visiting haunted houses. Our set of Halloween Scene patterns includes many illustrations of witches, black cats, vampires, mummies, grave yards, and pumpkins. Happy Halloween!

This set contains 25 paintable patterns.

The Body as a Canvas

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=body+painting&iid=9620363″ src=”http://view3.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9620363/2010-daegu-international/2010-daegu-international.jpg?size=500&imageId=9620363″ width=”380″ height=”570″ /]

Ever since humans discovered they could make marks with clay, mud, and other natural pigments, body painting has had its place in human culture. Tribal cultures around the world initially painted their skin for ritual purposes and camoflauged themselves for hunting, traditions that many extant tribes continue to this day. In modern times, body painting has taken on a more decorative tone in Western cultures, such as face-painting at Christmas and Chanukah and football matches. Some artists have even elevated body painting to a fine art form that is celebrated at international body painting festivals such as the one held in Daegu, South Korea where the photo above was taken.

Body painting is a temporal form of art; before long, the paint will either wear off or be washed away. This fleeting characteristic of body painting is also part of its charm, allowing people to temporarily adorn their bodies as part of a costume, to make a statement, or to alter their appearance as a form of self-expression.

On a broader level, you could also consider applying makeup, dyeing hair, and painting fingernails and toenails as mainstream forms of body art in modern Western culture. In each case, pigment is applied to the body as a temporary decoration that will eventually fade, chip or wash off. Other common modern applications of body paint include soldiers who camouflage themselves with earthy colors before heading into combat, just like their ancient ancestors, as well as clowns and other types of performers such as professional wrestlers whose painted faces are an important part of their appearance.

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