About
I'm Nela Dunato, a graphic designer and mixed media artist who also dabbles in anything related to arts and crafts.
Apart from basic art class in elementary school and a few months of drawing classes, I'm self-taught in everything I do, which includes drawing, painting (traditional and digital), graphic design, web design, photo-manipulation, photography, jewelry design, sewing, and crafts in general.
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.
Cwtam
Cwtam is baby-talk for crtam which means "I'm drawing" in Croatian. This blog used to be a repository for my sketches, studies, and work in progress – anything that doesn't belong to my portfolio.
Everything you see on this website has been created by me, including the blogging tool. Which is rather crude, but works fine for me. If you notice any errors, please let me know.
Tools
You'll find tools and materials listed below every work. They include: graphite and charcoal pencils and sticks, mechanical pencil, ink, fineliners, ballpoint pens, color pencils, pastels, conté crayons, acrylic paint, watercolor, coffee, various papers, cardboard, canvas, polymer clay, plaster... and I won't even get started on mixed-media.
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.
Library
Here is a list of reference books I own, and sometimes mention in my posts. Bold ones are recommended!
Educational
- Ann Baldwin: Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed-Media Artists
- Michael Burns: Digital Fantasy Painting
- Tom Bancroft: Character Mentor: Learn by Example to Use Expressions, Poses, and Staging to Bring Your Characters to Life
- Nita Engle: How to Make Watercolor Paint Itself
- Eliot Goldfinger: Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form
- James Gurney: Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
- James Gurney: Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist
- Robert Hale: Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters
- Robert Hale: Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters
- Jack Hamm: Drawing the Head and Figure
- Jack Hamm: How to Draw Animals
- Burne Hogarth: Drawing the Human Head
- Burne Hogarth: Drawing Dynamic Hands
- Burne Hogarth: Dynamic Figure Drawing
- Andrew Loomis: Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
- Marco Mateu-Mestre: Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers
- Philip W. Metzger: Perspective Without Pain
- Stephen Rogers Peck: Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist
- Darrel Rees: How to be an Illustrator
- Ray Smith: The Artist's Handbook
- Joseph Sheppard: Drawing the Living Figure
- Valerie L. Winslow: Classic Human Anatomy: The Artist's Guide to Form, Function, and Movement
Artbooks and art history
- Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer: M.C. Escher - The Graphic Work
- Trewin Copplestone: The Life and Works of Hieronymus Bosch
- Michael Gibson: Symbolism
- H. R. Giger: WWW HR Giger Com
- Mary Hollingsworth: Art in World History
- Gilles Lambert: Caravaggio
- James Laver, Amy de la Haye, Andrew Tucker: Costume and Fashion: A Concise History
- Gilles Néret: Dalí
- Alessandro Parronchi: Michelangelo Sculpture
- Auguste Racinet: The Complete Costume History
- HR Giger Arh+
- Images of the Human Body
Design
- Bob Gordon: The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design
- Maggie Macnab: Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication
- Maggie Macnab: Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design
- Carola Zwick: Digital Color for the Internet and Other Media
- 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
- David Airey: Identity Designed: The Definitive Guide to Visual Branding
- Jessica Hische: In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist's Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector
- Sue Apfelbaum: Designing the Editorial Experience: A Primer for Print, Web, and Mobile
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
- Nicole A. Fende: The Prosperity Dimension: A Small Biz Sci-Fi Adventure
Creativity
- Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way
Links listed above are Amazon affiliate links.
