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, watercolor 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.