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Pigment & The Gallery

Pixite’s company mission is to empower creativity. This is our main goal in everything we do. We’re a small company, and we’re doing our best and figuring things out every day. As new challenges arise, as a company we have to review our options and decide what is best for everyone: our apps, our fabulous community, and our company.

It has come to our attention that the Pigment Gallery has become a source of stress or anxiety for a small minority. It saddens us to think the community may be tainted in any way for some, due to bullying, harassment, or users taking it upon themselves to police the gallery for improper use or copyright violations. We have Gallery Moderators on our staff for just that reason: to ensure posts, comments, and user behaviors are following our guidelines and the Gallery is kept a positive place.

We have decided to write this blog post as you may see some colorists are no longer in Pigment Gallery. This is due to repeat infractions of our Community Guidelines and company Terms of Use. Suspensions of accounts never bring us joy, and it’s always a hard decision to make. But it is never personal, and always strictly business. By joining our community you agree to adhere to our terms, and to foster the type of environment we strive for - one that is positive, warm, motivating, open, honest, and creative. Any individual who repeatedly acts in a manner that is inconsistent with that message is unfortunately not invited to stay. Posting in the Gallery is not a right, it is a privilege; but you will always have access to the artistic tools and coloring pages of Pigment, even if your access to the Gallery has been restricted.

Harassment of any kind is not permitted towards one another, and it is not permitted to the hardworking staff at Pixite either. We’re just trying our best, and we’re human, and not every decision we make is going to be popular with the entire Pigment community. There are reasons to every decision, often that our user community is not privy to, and that are quite difficult on us as a team. But please be certain it is never our intention to cause hurt to anyone. We love the Pigment community. We love our users. You all produce such beautiful, inspiring images and we feel so grateful to be amidst your creations every day.

As a treasured member of our Pigment family, you have one responsibility and one responsibility alone: to sit back, relax, and color. It is never the responsibility of our users to police the Gallery; tell others what they can or cannot post; put down fellow colorists; create fake accounts to talk with users who blocked you; discuss personal feelings and anger towards Pigment guidelines in a public setting; discuss personal medical issues that could be disturbing to some; try to bait other users to admitting copyright violations; spread false claims of internal conspiracies; make threats; or cause a scene. These rules apply to all users, all the time. It feels a bit silly to have to spell that out, because the above seems so obvious. But we’re all human, and sometimes emotions can get the best of us, so it may be helpful to see this in writing.

So please continue to color; to express yourselves creatively and artistically; to motivate and inspire one another to produce beautiful work; to relieve stress and relax with a calm coloring experience. We look forward to seeing you all in the Gallery.

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Grayscale Coloring in Pigment!

It's finally here: grayscale… in Pigment! Since the inception of the Gallery, colorists have been playing with grayscale images—everything from their own photos to pieces they've purchased or images they've found on the web. We knew that there was a place for grayscale in Pigment and we wanted to elevate the experience by offering grayscale images in a way that allows everyone to participate and explore to their hearts' content. A lot of brainpower went into the implementation of this new category of coloring pages; from market research to coding and testing to the careful curation of images we felt our colorists would enjoy experimenting with. We worked hard to bring this singular and special genre of pages to Pigment and we're overjoyed to see that it has been received so well.

It's been a pleasure to watch the Pigment Gallery fill up with grayscale images from our new books. Many people are remarking that it's their first time working in this genre and they're as thrilled with their results as we are! The colorings we're seeing are all so unique and fascinating and gorgeous that we find ourselves sitting and scrolling, for hours at a time, admiring the published pages with smiles on our faces as we watch our community of colorists dive into this new experience of grayscale coloring.  

And that's really what Pigment has always been about, after all—empowering and equipping artists to delve into the magic and wonder of coloring, learning, growing, sharing, and supporting one another.  We're excited to see this genre continue to be experimented with and enjoyed by our colorists and we can't wait to see more of the incredible colorings that you all have been working on! From all of us at Pixite: Welcome to the wonderful world of grayscale and we'll see you in Pigment!

Find Pigment tutorials, including a grayscale process video, on the Pixite YouTube channel!

Image colored by jupeter via the Pigment Gallery.

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#DrawThisInYourStyle - We have an Assembly Remix Challenge! @jelly_fishie is sharing her process videos and project files. Let's see your version of the Mother of Dragons! Tag with #AssemblyApp and #AssemblyAppRemix - Links to files in our bio. . . . #QueenDaenerysStormborn #HouseTargaryen#FirstofHerName#QueenoftheAndalstheRhoynarandtheFirstMen#LadyoftheSevenKingdoms #ProtectoroftheRealm#LadyofDragonstone #QueenofMeereen#KhaleesioftheGreatGrassSea #theUnburnt#BreakerofChains #MotherofDragons#DaenerysTargaryen #Daenerys #GOT#GOTfanArt #FanArt #🐉 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwx2WXYAv0h/?igshid=ur3hqaofssc

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Vector or Raster? A Guide to Image Formats

Image formats are known to most of us as three-letter acronyms like GIF, JPG, PNG, etc. These formats control how a computer compresses and decompresses the image data into something we can display or print. Some image formats use tricks to make the image small enough to load quickly on the web (png). Other formats are designed to carry transparency information (gif). Others are designed to carry dense enough data for high quality printing (tif). For our purposes, we are selecting digital images to color. So which format is best for us? Image formats fall into one of two categories of information storage: raster or vector. In general, raster images are better for greyscale coloring, hand-drawn artwork, photography, etc., while vector images are better for traditional “black line” coloring pages and for creating graphic design elements, such as a company logo. Understanding how these two format categories differ can help you choose which type is right for your creative needs.

Raster images like GIF, JPG, and PNG store image information in the form of pixels. Pixels are actually the smallest element of a digital image, the "atom" of a digital image. A pixel carries exactly one piece of information: color. A raster image is a defined grid made up of millions of dots (pixels), each one carrying a color value. When we look at the image, the pixels are so tiny that we see a picture and don’t see the dots at all. It is important to understand that raster images often do not respond well to dramatic changes in size because the clarity of any given raster is determined by how many pixels fill a specific amount of space, like an inch. If a raster is resized dramatically, those little dots of color information are squished or shoved apart, and the result is the all-too-familiar “pixelated” image—Blurry, jagged, and not very pretty! Vector images like SVG and even PDF take another approach for encoding the image as data. Instead of storing a grid of dots with values like a raster image, vector images encode the mathematical instructions required to draw the image from points, lines, curves, and polygons. When you display a vector image, the software follows those instructions and recreates the image in a nanosecond. It can be helpful to think of vectors as blueprints or as the DNA for creating an image. Vectors resize easily, without losing quality, because all that changes is the math or basic instructions for making a line, curve, or polygon larger or smaller.

Thanks for reading - now get out there and create! Team Pixite

pixiteapps.com go.pixiteapps.com/pigment go.pixiteapps.com/assembly go.pixiteapps.com/union

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Assembly: Graphic Design & Art (@assemblyapp)

In this tutorial, our friend @Aaron_Smillie (Instagram) creates an interesting bit of architecture by tracing a photograph. Find it on the Pixite YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/LYZNiVpzIuI #AssemblyApp #drawingtutorial #processvideo #tutorial #drawing #vector #vectorart #howtodraw https://www.instagram.com/p/BwnMkcBAy16/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ilf2akitklch

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The Courage of a Dot-Less Workplace

A virtual office is exactly what a creativity-driven business like Pixite needs. The majority of our team operates remotely, many working from home and/or telecommuting. This kind of remote work environment might seem worrisome to those more comfortable with the traditional office setup where employees are a few literal steps away at all times. But it’s a brave, new, technology-driven world in which we find ourselves, and Pixite embraces this change.  

We understand that the core of extraordinary and flourishing creativity, throughout the ages, has been a wholly internal agent, a metaphorical chemical that productively reacts when highly personal conditions are met. For some, it's the condition of solitude, even voluntary isolation. For others, it's a need to clear away nuisance distractions and have access to uninterrupted focus. For others, still, to surround themselves with the stimuli of movement, activity, and noise.

“If you’re to create something powerful and important, you must at the very least be driven by an equally powerful inner force.” ~ Ryan Holiday 

Little to be found in the ancient and revered scrolls of "effective work environments" actually works for those of us who think, design, and create for a living. Yet, as the physical-office construct disintegrates, fears have surfaced that employees who are out of sight mean jobs that are out of mind. It’s a huge, complicated misconception at best, and, at worst, acts as a repressive force against the forward motion otherwise so critical to the success of a business. We can already see that just a few years of acquiescing to these fears, (through what some have dubbed the “green dot” phenomenon of omniscience and immediate, often unending availability,) has contributed to a new permutation of the Office Culture that not only fails to respect employee agency, but actually demands higher degrees of responsiveness and availability than the physical office ever did. It certainly demands higher degrees than are reasonable for healthy, productive humans. 

The questions du jour:  How will we know if our remote employees are actually working during office hours? How do we stop them from (we assume) goofing off? 

These are antiquated questions being co-opted for a modern, if imagined, business-world dilemma, and are entirely the wrong questions to be asking. Yet, at the time, the industry continues to respond with an arsenal of Big Brother tools intended to create more deadline-driven practices, cultivate a sense of “hustle”, aim for more granular project tracking with more reporting mechanisms and finer conditions of progress, call for more recommended meetings of more types with more people (the “meetings about meetings”), and so on. In some cases, businesses have even introduced new invasions of privacy like internet-usage tracking or draconian rules that require employees to have a "green dot" indicating their availability, according to company policies (hence, the birth of the term.) All this in the name of increasing engagement and inclusion, at least ostensibly. In practice, however, this kind of heavy-handed monitoring and on-the-rails approach tends to backfire. Behold, a sort of “green dot rebellion” movement that is taking place at a grass-roots level and gathering notable momentum already.

The "green dot" requirement—that is, the expectation that remote employees not only be available to degrees that aren’t realistic but also to constantly ping or report that expected availability at all times to everyone they work with—is the antithesis of what creativity-based work needs to thrive. It doesn’t work for many, it doesn’t work for long, and it doesn’t work for Pixite.  

Pixite is people. Real people with children who get the flu and have science projects due in twelve hours. You know, the “that jar of fruit flies isn’t going to write its own report, Dad.” project. Real people with the in-laws that drop in unexpectedly, or the internet service provider experiencing an outage, or the dog that just produced something truly exciting on the good rug while we’re in the middle of composing an article. Pixite is doing something truly remarkable in the business world: we are choosing to respond to the matter of our developers and Creatives being real people by being, well, realistic.  

So, how do we manage a remote workforce? We use Basecamp. A web-based organizational and communications platform for businesses that enables us to keep in touch with each other without relying on the proverbial “online” signal. There’s nothing in this tool that indicates to others that an employee is or is not available to be, quite frankly, interrupted. In fact, Basecamp was one of the first companies to use the expression “green dot rebellion” to describe the movement away from over-monitoring.  

At Pixite, we recognize that each of us is busy. We’re all working. We’re all doing things. We’re all linked and we’re all productive. But we’re not watching each other and measuring productivity or availability against some arbitrary, archaic yardstick that no longer has any utility in this modern world of mobile employees. We check in with one another regularly, but not compulsively or under any strict orders to do so. We’re not helicopter employees, circling one another with an eye for every opportunity to interfere, interject, or otherwise intrude. We appreciate and support one another’s capacity for agency and self-management, both from a professional standpoint and from a generative one.  

It’s not that we have anything to prove, but we’ll prove it anyway: Creative people work best when they aren’t trussed up by the pressure to produce inside a business construct designed around performance and presence auditing, dictatorial pursuance, and rigid schedules that contradict the natural behavior and lifestyles of most human beings. It takes some courage to trust that one’s employees are going to do everything they need to do without being monitored every moment of their work day. Pixite trusts. And we think we’re doing pretty great.

“Routine kills creative thought.” ~ Scarlett Thomas 

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Pixite: Why We Party.

Every year, Pixite team members from across the United States come together for a week to spend time with one another, vis-a-vis, at our company retreat. The experience is a chance to connect with coworkers whose disembodied voices we hear through our headsets all year long but with whom we are rarely afforded the opportunity to physically interact—something many in the workforce take for granted and something that is vital to the development and sustainability of a company. Though we may be daily painted into our digital landscapes, tangled in USB cords and hunched over laptops, we are still so very human. The simple act of sitting down to lunch with one’s team helps fill in those subtle gaps in communication, understanding, inspiration, and shared initiative that are so intricately tied to body language, facial expression, and common, real-world experiences of all stripes and scope. It is team-building at its most fun, and this year was no exception!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Pixite touched down in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Monday and we began our adventure on the world-famous Rue Bourbon, better known as “Bourbon Street”. With the instruments of jazz punctuating our sentences, we laughed and “caught up” with one another over cocktails and beignets: ‘How are the kiddos?’, ‘How are the doggos?’, ‘powdered sugar is a good look on you!’, and ‘I don’t know what’s in this drink but I’m glad it’s in ME!’ Despite the purest of intentions, we found ourselves, like so many do, unable to resist the seductive pull of the French Quarter night. Our first evening together was spent sampling Sazeracs and boudin as we cut a path through Bourbon Street’s joyous throngs and beaded, feathered cacophony, utterly saturated with the sounds, sights, and scents native to this unique locale.

Tuesday arrived quickly and, after reinvigorating cafe au laits (or aspirin and Gatorades, but who’s keeping track,) we stepped into the sunshine and freshly washed streets of downtown, headed for Louis Armstrong Park to have our pictures taken. At the direction of our photographer, Harlin Miller, we basked in the shade of venerable oak trees and the towering New Orleans Municipal Auditorium whose majestic limestone facade still bears the indelible fingerprint of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. Widely regarded as the birthplace of Jazz and other musical genres, such as Zydeco, the park was both a beautiful and stirring environment. New Orleans’ history was palpable there, soaked into the sunbaked cobblestones of Place Congo, stitched in the satin rustle of a distant bayou breeze through stately magnolias, and carried in ghostly echoes of brass band music wafting from the alleys and doorways of the Tremé. It was the perfect place for us to focus on the concept of a shared human experience and find both individual and collective creative inspiration.

Tuesday afternoon was spent hoofing the streets of the French Quarter with a colorful guide who peppered the tour with bits of New Orleans’ more macabre history, including tales of pirates, ghosts, and lovely cottages built directly on top of the original, St. Peter’s Street cemetery during the Spanish colonial rule of the city, (much to the horror of the Catholic church.) Slowly, we wound our way to the Saint Louis Cathedral, across a plaza bustling with musicians and artists, to rest awhile on the banks of the Mississippi River.

It had been a busy, entertaining, educational day and there seemed no better way to end it than to enjoy a sumptuous meal at the world-famous Commander’s Palace restaurant. Nestled in the heart of the Garden District and situated across from one of the city’s loveliest old cemeteries, the experience was a special treat for the team in every way. The most adventurous among us sampled the house specialties—turtle soup, boudin, and Creole bread pudding souffles—while others enjoyed delicious selections like strawberry shortcake, artisanal cheeses, exceptional wines, and roasted Gulf fish. With tired feet and full bellies, we retired to the hotel again.

By Wednesday, we were ready for some hands-on art—This is Pixite, after all! Together, we made our way to the New Orleans Glassworks & Printmaking Studio, an artists’ co-op space on Magazine Street specializing in glass and metal sculpture, torchwork, and a variety of printmaking techniques. After being divided into two groups, half of us began with an introduction to Suminagashi, the Japanese paper marbling process wherein vibrant inks are layered on top of a thickened liquid before being transferred to paper; the other half of the team donned sunglasses and played with fire. Okay, they were really learning the challenging art of glass beadmaking using table-mounted torches...But playing with fire while wearing sunglasses did make the experience seem relatively edgy. By the end of the session, we’d all tried our hands at both art forms. And, as we’d hoped, the experience was team-building, inspiring, and sparked several discussions around new ideas for apps and app features.

As mentioned, one of the most important aspects of the Pixite retreats is to create time and space to interact with one another and communicate in ways that aren’t always as effective when done over an internet connection. This goal was realized again via an impromptu meeting-in-the-round that Wednesday afternoon. On the pool deck, we arranged our chairs in a circle and discussed ways we could better interact with each other and foster an internal environment of support, attention, and connectivity. The way a company functions on the inside has a huge influence on the way it delivers products and services to its customers; we at Pixite recognize that and unscripted gatherings such as this are an excellent way to ensure we stay connected to one another and to our collective goals as a business. We shared ideas and thoughts in those final hours leading toward evening and another lovely dinner together wrapped up the last full day of the retreat. At GW Fins, an icon of the French Quarter restaurant scene, we indulged in fresh seafood prepared with New Orleanian flair and enjoyed each other's company one last time.

The real reason we party. Thursday came too soon, it seemed, and it was time to part ways again and return to our specific corners of the country. As we rolled our suitcases into the damp heat of another New Orleans spring morning and scattered to our taxis and flights, we took with us a rejuvenated creative spirit. Why do we party?—Not for the reasons most who visit Bourbon Street do. Instead, we party so that we can work harder, better, and with a stronger sense of common purpose. We party as a team of people committed to making the digital world a more beautiful and accessible place for creative individuals, everywhere.

Cover image created by Gregory Darroll for Pixite using our Assembly app. The project file is available to download (and remix) here. 

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Announcing Grayscale Category in Pigment.

In the next couple of weeks, we at Pixite are excited to bring grayscale coloring to Pigment! While Pigment has long offered the ability to import photographs and other images, (a process that renders them in shades of gray and allows artists to reintroduce color using Pigment’s tools,) we’re thrilled now to offer a new category of themed coloring books, full of gorgeous, high-resolution images that have been carefully selected for their responsiveness to the special techniques of grayscale coloring. Since the term “grayscale” can refer to several things in the art and coloring world, we’d like to take a moment to go over the term and talk more about what awaits artists in the app.

“What is grayscale?”

Simply put, it’s complicated—But don’t let that scare you. The experience of grayscale coloring could become your next creative obsession once you give it a try! The best place to start is to understand the term and the different, but related, things it refers to. “Grayscale” can mean any or all of the following:

The literal definition of the term which is the gradient, or expression of the range of shades and tones, between pure black and pure white. Johnny is using a grayscale palette—his “colors” are all just differing intensities of black and white.

The general category of images that are rendered in this gradient format, which often includes but is not limited to photography. Johnny’s favorite kind of pictures are grayscales—whether it’s a photo of a dog or a sketch of a tree.

The specific category of coloring pages, both analog and digital, that are rendered in this gradient format. Johnny’s favorite kind of coloring books are grayscale coloring books...he just loves the realism grayscales inspire!

The techniques and processes associated with introducing color to these images. Johnny has a lot of experience with grayscale coloring.

The literal definition of the term which is the gradient, or expression of the range of shades and tones, between pure black and pure white. Johnny is using a grayscale palette—his “colors” are all just differing intensities of black and white.

For the purposes of advanced/adult coloring, the term “grayscale” most often refers to the namesake category of images and the techniques involved in coloring them. While any image can be turned into the familiar black-and-white by stripping the color information away, that does not necessarily result in an image that will provide the best canvas for grayscale coloring. Great grayscale coloring starts with a great grayscale coloring page and that requires a unique balance of darker and lighter areas, both in quantity (the overall amount of black and white in a picture) and in quality (the intensity of those black and white areas—that is, how dark or how light those areas are). The images we’ve curated for you in Pigment are perfect for grayscale coloring because they represent that critical balance of light and dark that will help you make your grayscale colorings look their best.

“How do I add color to a black and white image in Pigment?”

Since grayscale images are much more complex than the line art images that have historically filled the Pigment library, they do not respond to the “automatic” and “advanced” coloring modes. Those modes rely on simple, clear black lines that separate white areas from one another. With grayscales, there are no obvious black lines or pure white areas to separate from one another, so the best mode to work in is Pigment’s “freehand” mode. This mode is also the most realistic coloring mode since it mimics analog coloring by placing no restraints on where color is deposited when touching the “paper” (screen). We’ve made things a little easier by ensuring that when you open a grayscale coloring page from one of our grayscale books, you’ll automatically be put in “freehand” mode so you don’t have to remember to switch over. Just like paper coloring, you’ll be free to move across the page and place color anywhere; there are no lines to color in or outside of which means you’ll be in charge of making sure color goes where you want it to go. The great thing about digital coloring in Pigment is that if (whoops!) color goes where you don’t want it to, you can always undo your stroke or use the eraser tool. You can also color directly over another color and eliminate any mistakes you might make that way. How cool is that?!

“Is there a right or wrong way to color grayscales?”

Nope! However, there are some tools that will work better than others for coloring grayscales in Pigment. There are also some techniques that you can use to get the most out of grayscale coloring and maximize the “wow factor” of your finished images.

The tools: 

In general, the basic brushes (such as pencil, marker, airbrush, paintbrush, and oil brush) and basic fills (such as plain fill and pillow fill) will give you more control and result in a better grayscale coloring experience than the patterned brushes (like the wood brush) and patterned fills (like the floral fill). Also, keep in mind that since you’re working in freehand mode, all fills will literally fill your entire picture because there are no boundaries between areas like you see with simpler, line art images. This can be useful if, for example, you’re coloring a grayscale portrait where most of the image will be skin tones—you can use the plain fill tool to deposit an entire layer of color and then go in with one of the brush tools and refine that color by adding light and dark versions of different colors, (check out the instructional video here to see what we mean: How To Color Grayscale)

“Can I import my own grayscale images?”

You can. We’re making it easy to enjoy grayscale coloring by curating gorgeous, high-resolution images that we know will respond well to grayscale coloring techniques...something that isn’t always true of imported images. We’re also simplifying things for you by making sure you’re automatically placed in the correct coloring mode when you’re working on a grayscale image from the library. You’ll still be able to import images and color them just as before, but we invite you to take advantage of our themed, curated collections and see if you have as much fun experimenting with grayscale coloring as we do.

We can’t wait to witness the creativity grayscale coloring inspires amongst our community of artists. Be sure to share your work in the Gallery and we’ll see you there!

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Art painted by: @AmeliahMariah @Chr22840 @brady

Pigment - Adult Coloring Books

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There’s a new coloring book by Steve McDonald for Pigment.

We’re thrilled to announce “Home Sweet Home”, our latest artist collaboration and coloring book for Pigment.

Steve McDonald is an International best selling Canadian illustrator and artist. He is the creator of the Fantastic series of coloring books from Chronicle and has also done illustration work for Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Architectural Digest, and Blue Man Group among others. His distinctive and detailed line drawings are recognized around the world. Steve is also known for his fantastical illustrations of imaginary places and vehicles. Steve studied editorial illustration and fine art at The Ontario College of Art and Design. Steve, his wife, and two teenage daughters call Ontario home but have spent time living in India, Italy, Indonesia, and the Middle East. 

We had a few questions for Steve, and he was kind enough to answer them for us. Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do? I always wanted to be a visual artist. For as long as I can remember. I was lucky that way, I was going to do this no matter what. My grandmother was an artist and when I was little just the site of her paint box full of oils and brushes filled me with awe. It was a sort of magic as far as I was concerned...the ability to capture a scene or person on a panel or canvas with color and lines, to make it your own...I was determined to do this. My tools have changed over the years, I mainly use a tablet and a stylus now, but the same wonder remains. The act of image crafting - whether it be for drawings for coloring books, full-color magazine illustrations, web images or even fine art was always the only option for me - and I consider myself fortunate to do what I love for a living. 

What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever created? My favorite artistic creation would have to be the Fantastic coloring book series from Chronicle. It was an incredibly rewarding experience in so many ways. The series consists of five books - Fantastic Cities, Fantastic Structures, Fantastic Collections, Fantastic Planet and Fantastic Machines. They have become an internationally best-selling series with over half a million books in print. They have been published in more than 30 countries and have been translated into more than twenty languages. The project allowed me to widely showcase and share the work I love doing the most - my detailed line drawings - in a way that so many people could enjoy them and also be encouraged to get creative themselves. The idea that the books gave many people a mindful break from the busy world around them was such a pleasant surprise. I received countless letters remarking on how the coloring books helped people get through various personal challenges. Any kind of creativity is good for the soul, the fact that this project was so successful at helping others be creative has to be the most rewarding part of it all. 

What’s the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative? Don't be so critical. Have fun. Create what you want. Experiment. The act of creation can be a personal one. Try not to think about the result but the process. I truly believe we should all draw more. Play more music. Write more poetry. About what? Whatever it is about the world that resonates with you. Document it. Record it. Paint it. Write it down...your view is valid and interesting. So much of life is 'creating'...the clothes you wear, the way you decorate your house, your hairstyle, even the way you lay out your desk...enjoy those acts of creation and let yourself be original or singular. In the world today we are so busy and online so much of time that any act of creation becomes a challenge. Sometimes we need to turn off the noise, get offline, take a walk outside and let your true self emerge in order to find that creative center in ourselves. Are there other coloring book artists or illustrators that inspire you? There are so many coloring book illustrators that I admire. Carlo Stanga is wonderful at architecture. He has such a beautiful nostalgic style. The coloring books of Kerby Rosanes are amazingly imaginative and detailed. I think you have to give Johanna Basford credit as well...she was really the first to recognize a market for adult coloring books and her work is really wonderful. As far as other illustrators that I admire, there are so many. I've been spending a lot of time looking at anime lately. I love the artwork from Tekkonkinkreet by Taiyō Matsumot - It was directed by Michael Arias, which established him as the first non-Japanese director of a major anime film. The story was based on the homonym three-volume seinen manga series by Taiyō Matsumoto, which was originally serialized from 1993 to 1994 in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits. I'm also a huge fan of the wonderful art of Teikoku Shônen Aka Imperial Boy. His cityscapes are so rich with life and detail. You can look at them for hours. I also love good traditional painting. The work of William Fisk, he paints super realistic huge canvases of everyday objects, is mesmerizing in its detail but still quite expressive. I love the interior spaces and figurative work of Zoey Franks - her use of color is so bold and brave. Speaking of figurative work, the paintings of Daniel Hughes are worth exploring. His subtle style of playing with light on the human form is so effective. Nathan Walsh's architectural drawings/paintings are super fun to contemplate.

Richard Hind is an illustrator/artist I follow on instagram, I love his line drawings. Vera Berezina is another. Her architectural drawings are a delight to look at. Roman Maklakov's work is also really amazing...I could go on and on here. I do love the fact that social media (especially Instagram) has allowed so many artists to exhibit and share their work with a wide audience. There is so much inspiration to find there. It's worth exploring.

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Find Steve online: https://sdmcdonald.com/

https://www.instagram.com/stevedmcdonald/ https://www.facebook.com/fantasticcities/ https://www.facebook.com/artbysteve/

Purchase Fantastic Cities:

https://www.chroniclebooks.com/fantastic-cities.html

Interested in Pigment? You can find everything you need right here.

Happy painting! Team Pixite

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Captain Marvel, a new book for Marvel: Color Your Own, released on International Women's Day.

We're thrilled to announce our continued partnership with Marvel and the release of the Captain Marvel book for Marvel: Color Your Own. Bring your own coloring style to the Marvel Universe with a diverse selection of coloring brushes and fill styles. Available for download now!

Download Here

pixiteapps.com color.marvel.com

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Assembly Weekly Roundup

Incredibly well done pieces made with AssemblyApp.co :)

Tap on the individual piece for artist details. 

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Incredible generative piece made by @kylerstewart, developer at Pixite :)

Follow along with his 100 days of Generative art. 

DAY 01: Pinwheel

[pixiteapps]

We’ve got a new Tumblr page featuring incredible illustrations by our beta team using our latest app, Assembly. 

Amazing animals created with primitive shapes as designed by Davis Evans http://instagram.com/blackhippo_design 

[pixiteapps]

Beautiful piece!

ABSTRACT 379

#abstract #geometric #glitché #surreal #iphoneonly

[pixiteapps]

In honor of watching me some ouija I decided to get creepy with it! #VSCOcam #mexturesapp #composite #pixiteapps #tangentapp #horror #creep #takemetochurch #unionapp

[pixiteapps]

Shop Link: http://society6.com/product/detonate-sq4_print?curator=designpine

[pixiteapps]

#wave #fragment #edit #circle #element #water #ocean #sea #sky #beach #clouds #instalifestyle #igersdurban #sa