About

I'm Nela Dunato, a graphic designer and mixed media artist who also dabbles in lots of different arts and crafts.

I never formally studied art, design, nor writing, but through sheer passion I managed to create a career that allows me to design, write, and make art.

You may see my actual work on my official web site: Nela Dunato Art & Design. This blog has been a little dead lately, since I started writing regularly on my official blog – go check it out. I also have a new sketchbook gallery that features a selection of my looser work and studies.

You may also find me on Facebook and YouTube.

Tools

You'll find tools and materials listed below every work. They include: graphite and charcoal pencils and sticks, mechanical pencil, india ink, fineliners, ballpoint pens, colored pencils, pastels, conté crayons, acrylic paint, watercolor, cardboard, canvas, polymer clay, plaster...

For my digital work I use a Wacom intuos3 large (A4) tablet (I used a small Genius tablet until July 2007), paint in Photoshop, and draw vectors in Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator.

Recommended books

I often reference books in my posts, and here is a selection of the books I recommend if you want to learn how to draw or design. (I own many, many, more but I wasn't equally impressed by them.)

Drawing & painting

• Anatomy for Artists: A visual guide to the human form
• James Gurney: Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
• Jack Hamm: Drawing the Head and Figure
• Jack Hamm: How to Draw Animals
• Andrew Loomis: Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
• Philip W. Metzger: Perspective Without Pain

Graphic design & lettering

• Maggie Macnab: Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication
• Maggie Macnab: Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design
• Andy Clarke: Art Direction for the Web
• Alina Wheeler: Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team
• Iván Castro: The ABC of Custom Lettering: A Practical Guide to Drawing Letters

Comics

• Scott McCloud: Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
• Lynda Barry: Making Comics

Business

• Emily Ruth Cohen: Brutally Honest: No-bullshit business strategies to evolve your creative business
• Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
• Darrel Rees: How to be an Illustrator

Links listed above are Amazon affiliate links.