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In this episode of Nela’s Art Chat I share a watercolor & mixed media drawing and painting process that I’ve developed in recent months, which enabled me to create the kind of paintings I want with more ease and confidence. I’ll be talking about the challenges with the "ugly stage" that I’ve had before I started using this process, and how it has impacted my work since.
Self-employed creative professionals have significantly more control over our schedules than those employed in other organizations, but finding time for our own art can still be a challenge. While I was writing and editing my first book, I started using a technique that helped me keep up the momentum until I was ready to dedicate more of my time to it. Now I'm using it again with my second book. I believe this is the most reliable way of fitting self-initiated or personal creative projects into our busy schedule.
Journaling is the most potent way to resolve inner challenges, find solutions to problems, and develop your own creative voice. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite journaling techniques that I use quite often when I want to explore two sides of a problem.
Social media platforms have helped many people establish their business, but what if you don’t want to play the algorithm game? Is it possible to find clients without social media in 2024? The short answer is yes, and here's how.
I have never used generative AI software to produce original written content, images, code, audio, or video, and do not intend to in the future. All of the art, design, photography, writing, video, and audio material published on NelaDunato.com and other websites I own have been created the old-fashioned way, without the use of AI. I do not use AI for idea generation or research. I have never given consent to my original art and content being used to train generative AI models. I do not intend to license any of my original art and content to be used for training generative AI models.
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The other day I was working on something where I needed to use CSS to apply multiple background images to an element, e.g. <div> My content with background images. </div> <style> div { background-image: url(image-one.jpg), url(image-two.jpg); background-position: top right, bottom left; /* etc. */ } </style> As I was tweaking the appearance of these images, I found myself wanting to control the opacity of each one. A voice in my head from circa 2012 chimed in, “Um, remember Jim, there is no background-opacity rule. Can’t be done.” Then that voice started rattling off the alternatives: You’ll have to use opacity but that will apply to the entire element, which you have text in, so that won’t work. You’ll have to create a new empty element, apply the background images there, then use opacity. Or: You can use pseudo elements (:before & :after), apply the background images to those, then use opacity. Then modern me interrupted this old guy. “I haven’t reached for background-opacity in a long time. Surely there’s a way to do this with more modern CSS?” So I started searching and found this StackOverflow answer which says you can use background-color in combination with background-blend-mode to achieve a similar effect, e.g. div { /* Use some images */ background-image: url(image-one.jpg), url(image-two.jpg); /* Turn down their 'opacity' by blending them into the background color */ background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.6); background-blend-mode: lighten; } Worked like a charm! It probably won’t work in every scenario like a dedicated background-image-opacity might, but for my particular use case at that moment in time it was perfect! I love little moments like this where I reach to do something in CSS that was impossible back when I really cut my teeth on the language, and now there’s a one- or two-line modern solution! [Sits back and gets existential for a moment.] We all face moments like this where we have to balance leveraging hard-won expertise with seeking new knowledge and greater understanding, which requires giving up the lessons of previous experience in order to make room for incorporating new lessons of experiences. It’s hard to give up the old, but it’s the only way to make room for the new — death of the old is birth of the new. Email · Mastodon · Bluesky
I thought lately about what has changed in my life over the years. People change (even if they don't admit it). And there are always some sort of triggers that cause these changes. Some people start a habit of running, maybe; some start hanging out with friends who
