This is a lens about art-making, especially mixed-media art-making. It is designed to encourage anyone who wants to make art, and to provide support and ideas for other artists. It is also designed to showcase the art of Christine Hennig, a mixed-media artist from Omaha, Nebraska.
Latest Posts from My Artbin Blog
The Artbin--An Artist's Blog
Here are the latest posts, containing tips, musings and ramblings on art-making, from my blog, also called The Artbin.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byArt-Making Articles
- Where to Get Cheap Art Supplies
- This Associated Content article contains lots of tips on how to save money on art supplies.
Art-Making Links
- Lani Gerity's Art Zines
- Lani Gerity is an art therapist that has put together some wonderful e-zines on art-making for fun and personal growth. They are free downloadable pdf files.
- Altered Art Techniques & Tools
- Great lens on altered art.
- Art Cards: The ABCs on ATCs and ACEOs
- Altered trading cards (ATCs) are small, baseball-card-size cards with art on them that are traded by artists. This lens goes over the basics on ATCs, as well as ACEOs, which are cards artists make to sell.
- ATCs - Exploring Art in Miniature
- Another great lens on the basics of ATCs.
- Your Art Online
- A great lens ab74-220the basics of exhibiting and selling art online.
Art Supply Sources Online
- American Science & Surplus
- American Science & Surplus carries all kinds of bizarre items from industrial surplus at very cheap prices. I have had fun ordering stuff from them for years. You never quite know what you're going to get, but that just adds to the creativity, if you go about it in the right spirit.
- Manto Fev
- A great site for ordering vintage materials for collage and assemblage. I've gotten some wonderful stuff from this place.
- Dover Publications
- Dover has great books and CD-ROMs of vintage clip art and advertising art at very cheap prices, most of it copyright-free. They also have art instruction books, art history books, postcards, giftwrap, and stickers. They have great sales, too.
Art Swaps!
- 14_Secrets
- This is a really fun and active group based upon Lani Gerity's zine "14 Secrets for a Happy Artist's Life." Their swaps are really creative and fun.
- Art Swaps
- This group hosts some fun mail art swaps.
Free Scrapbooking Downloads
- Shabby Princess
- This site offers a number of free digital scrapbooking kits on various themes. I love the quality here, especially of the papers. I've used a number of their papers in my artwork and they are indistinguishable from papers from a scrapbooking store.
- Digital Scrapbooking Place
- This site has a message board where free downloads are posted regularly. I've gotten some nice stuff here.
- House of Lime
- This site has a whole bunch of free fonts, including some that are really unusual (though be sure to check their terms of use).
- ACME Laboratories
- Under "Toys and Amusements," this site has several tools for making customized digital images that can be downloaded and used in your artwork. The ACME Label Maker allows you to make labels that look like Dymo Label Maker labels. You can also alter the look of your labels by experimenting with different fonts, colors, and special effects. The ACME Heart Maker allows you to make images of candy hearts with your own very short messages on them. The ACME License Maker allows you to make images of license plates with your own words on them, in any state's design that you want.
- Antique Alphabet Blocks
- This page has scans of vintage alphabet blocks for free download.
- Dover Sampler
- Enter your e-mail address here and Dover will send you a bunch of free downloadable images from their books every week. They have wonderful vintage images, so this is an incredible deal.
- Artist Freebies
- Great lens with lots more links to free downloads for artists.
- ScrapbookScrapbook.com
- This site has a whole bunch of scrapbooking sets for free download.
Books on Art-Making and Creativity
If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
This is the single best book about the creative process I've ever read. It's not just about writing, it's about any sort of creative work.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/03/2008) 
Sark's New Creative Companion: Ways To Free Your Creative Spirit
SARK's books are wonderfully playful and inspiring.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 12/03/2008)
![The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CHAK9ASCL._SL75_.jpg)
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]
Julia Cameron's method is somewhat arduous, but there is much wisdom in this book about enhancing creativity and living creatively.
Amazon Price: $10.30 (as of 12/03/2008)
Learning by Heart: Teachings To Free The Creative Spirit
Corita's "assignments" are wonderful creative starting points, that teach much about art-making.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/03/2008)
Drawing with Children
This is not just for children. Mona Brooke's method is one of the best for learning the basics of drawing.
Amazon Price: $12.21 (as of 12/03/2008)
My Favorite Graphic Novels
Our Cancer Year
Harvey Pekar pioneered the autobiographical comic book with his "American Splendor" series. I highly recommend all of his books, though my favorite is this story of his struggle with cancer.
Amazon Price: $15.40 (as of 12/03/2008)
One Hundred Demons (Alex Awards)
Lynda Barry exorcises her personal demons in this wonderful happy/sad collection of comics about her childhood.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/03/2008)
Blankets
A wonderfully touching story about a teen growing up in an utlra-religious family and experiencing his first romance.
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 12/03/2008)
The Acme Novelty Library
I absolutely love Chris Ware's graphic style, but his story content is generally too dark for my taste. However, this book contains some really interesting subtle comics featuring the super-collector-nerd pair of Rusty Brown and Chalky White. Ware took what were originally one-note savage parodies of obsessed collectors of pop culture memorabilia and fleshed them out, making them complex and highly interesting characters. I sense more than a bit of autobiographical content snuck in here, too.
Amazon Price: $18.15 (as of 12/03/2008)
In the Shadow of No Towers
Art Spiegelman tells his story about how he was affected by the tragic events of 9/11.
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/03/2008)
Favorites from My Image Library
The Label Made Me Buy It: The Best-Dressed Boxes, Bottles and Cans From Aunt Jemima to Zonkers
This book is full of absolutely gorgeous vintage can and bottle labels.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/03/2008)
Abz
This is a book about the development of modernist fonts and graphic design during the early 20th century. It is full of beautiful and unusual fonts and graphic layouts.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/03/2008)
Meet Mr. Product: The Art of the Advertising Character
This book is full of wonderful advertising characters, both well-known and obscure, including various forms of singing and dancing food, which I love.
Amazon Price: $16.95 (as of 12/03/2008)
Hey Skinny! Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books
Remember all the great ads that used to be in comic books? They're all here in this book, including Charles Atlas, X-Ray Glasses, and Sea Monkeys, as well as lesser known ads.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/03/2008)
Striking Images: Vintage Matchbook Cover Art
Matchbooks used to be tiny canvases for advertising artists. I love the cute little square and rectangular vintage matchbook ads in this book.
Amazon Price: $16.95 (as of 12/03/2008)
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