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Resources
Recommended Resouces
Resources section, a curated list of the tools and websites I strongly recommend for building and honing your art and crafts.
Before digging into these resources, an important disclosure:
Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a small commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the commissions I make if you decide to buy something.
Please don't spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS.
It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster graphics editing, but in digital art as a whole.
The software's name has thus become a generic trademark, leading to its usage as a verb (e.g. "to photoshop an image", "photoshopping", and "photoshop contest") although Adobe discourages such use.[5] Photoshop can edit and compose raster images in multiple layers and supports masks, alpha compositing and several color models including RGB, CMYK, CIELAB, spot color, and duotone.
Photoshop uses its own PSD and PSB file formats to support these features. In addition to raster graphics, Photoshop has limited abilities to edit or render text and vector graphics (especially through clipping path for the latter), as well as 3D graphics and video.
Its feature set can be expanded by plug-ins; programs developed and distributed independently of Photoshop that run inside it and offer new or enhanced features.
You can check out Photoshop here…
Phlearn
Everything you need to know about Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photography from YouTube's #1 Instructor. 450+ tutorials for any style and skill level ...
You can literally become a Photoshop ninja in less than a month, totally free of charge!
Yes, you read that correctly - 100% FREE.
There is nothing to buy, subscribe, or pay for. 30 Days of Photoshop is completely free for everyone. Follow along with included sample image downloads, a calendar to keep your schedule and, an episode guide PDF.
Perfect for Beginners
You start at the very beginning with a tour of Photoshop, then move into the basics like layers and common tools. Next, you move into essential techniques like selections, masking, and changing colors. On day 15 you begin goal-oriented tutorials – learning how to cut your subject out, retouching, and more.
Discounts & More
Once you’re in the course you can join the PHLEARN mailing list to receive weekly progress emails to help you along your journey. When your 30 days are done, you will get a special code to save on your PHLEARN PRO Membership!
Step-by-Step
Phlearn has been teaching Photoshop for over 10 years and has never forgotten what it feels like to be starting up for the very first time. That is why they cover every step of the process and don’t skip information or make assumptions – making all the tutorials entertaining, quick, and easy to follow.
Whether you just want to get the best from your own images, or you want to become a Photoshop Professional, this is the best place to start!
Click below and to access the course.
ConvertKit
With a free ConvertKit account you can build unlimited landing pages to start growing an audience for your new project. Choose from 30 different templates, add your content, personalize the design, and hit Save.
If you’re starting a new project; a book, a podcast, or maybe building a community around your pet subject, you can use ConvertKit to create a free landing page to test and validate your idea.
Here’s a short video showcasing how to create a free landing page inside of ConvertKit:
Create a Coming Soon page and see what kind of response you get. Set up a waitlist to get your audience excited about what’s coming up.
Having a landing page up and collecting interest gives you more time to create a better product and an invested audience to sell that product to.
The ConvertKit Free plan is the best way to start your creative project today.
With a free ConvertKit account you can build unlimited landing pages to start growing an audience for your new project. Choose from 30 different templates, add your content, personalize the design, and hit Save.
So take 10 minutes right now and think about what excites you. What do you love learning about? What kind of advice do your friends and family always ask you for?
All it needs to be is a rough draft. Nothing permanent. You can always hit delete. You can change everything tomorrow.
The point is that you do something today. Just start…
Teach:able
Create online courses and coaching services. Transform your experience and know-how into a thriving knowledge business.
Have you ever thought about passing on your artistic skills to someone? Most of us would be more than happy to share our talents and experience with others. Well, thanks to technology it can be done without a lot of effort.
There’s been a huge surge of online teaching courses over the past couple of years. Many, set up by necessity due to the dreadful Covid-19 situation. People are teaching everything from computer programming to personal development.
From an artistic point of view, there are courses on drawing, writing, painting, design, photography, music, crafting, and much more.
However, there are teaching tools that were around long before the pandemic. One of the most established platforms is Teachable, of which I have first-hand experience. Teachable was originally known as Fedora (when it was first set up in 2013) to help independent teachers and learners get together online without the restriction of international borders. It has since developed into the full-blown teaching platform you see today.
If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of starting your own online school, a series of courses or even a single mini-course, then Teachable has to be on your radar. I’ve actually got a couple of mini-courses planned for ArtyFacts readers over the next few months and I’ll be setting them up on the Teachable platform myself:)
Do I have to be a qualified teacher?
No. This is a platform for anyone who knows their subject enough to help others by sharing that knowledge. There are tutors showing others how to practice feng shui, play handpans, understand email marketing or bake sourdough. No formal qualifications are necessary, just knowledge about your subject and the desire to pass on that knowledge to others.
Why Teachable? Because Teachable is user-friendly for students and makes the process of creating online teaching programmes easy. Students can enrol without hassle and it takes care of everything like setting up your courses and quizzes with pre-built templates. It also helps with marketing your courses and taking payments (or not, if you decide to give your course away for free).
And believe it or not, you can get started as a teacher, tutor or instructor for FREE
Yes, you read that correctly. The people at Teachable are so confident that you’ll love their system, they’re happy to let you set everything up and use the platform completely free of charge. In fact, once you get started, you’ll receive guided communications from Teachable showing exactly how to get it all done, whether you’re a paying member or not.
And since you don’t need to put a credit card down, Teachable will never charge you. Once you’re ready to upgrade to a paid plan, you can do so entirely on your own terms.
Take a look for yourself…
Craftsy
Craftsy is home to a collective group of curious, driven doers who believe in the power of creating. From our expert instructors to our passionate employees—we’re here to answer your questions, share inside tips and ensure all of our members thrive in our community.
Making lives better through creativity. That's the watchword for Craftsy and that's what first drew me to investigate their offering further. The Craftsy community teaches everything from knitting, cooking, cake decoration, crochet, painting, sewing, quilting, paper-craft and pretty much every other activity you can think of, with more than 1,500 individual classes available.
Craftsy also offer discounts on a regular basis, so go check them out and see what bargains you can pick up on the classes that appeal to you.
Check out Crafts here…
Lightroom
Lightroom is an image enhancement and image library suite of tools developed by Adobe. It is my most used tool and to be totally honest, I simply could not run my business without it.
The software is a fantastic tool that allows you to organise and manipulate your images without affecting the original. This is known as non-destructive editing. You can adjust and retouch unlimited versions of your images and still keep the originals intact. It's akin to producing multiple prints from a negative back in the day. No matter how many prints you make, and how much you adjust the each print, you will always have your original negative to fall back on.
Lightroom was first released in 2007 and has been in continual development and improvement since then. This is my 'Go To' tool for all artwork and photography projects.
Find out more here…
SmugMug
SmugMug is a cloud-based image storage, catalogue and management service. No matter what style of photography you create, whether it be as a hobby or as a working professional, SmugMug is my personally recommended go-to for keeping photos safe and sound.
I originally signed up with SmugMug back in 2005 and have used the service constantly ever since. I started using it as a failsafe for important family photos, as I've had a few hard drive disasters over the years, and soon began to include client photography as additional backup.
Since then SmugMug has added numerous extra tools for photographers to easily upload, enhance, manage, showcase and sell images, prints and a range of photo-products directly from their account.
If you're looking for a safe place to protect, share and sell your photography, I cannot recommend SmugMug highly enough.
Learn more about photo storage here
If you want to set up your own photography website find out more here
PhotoBox
PhotoBox is an online photo processing and printing service. They specialise in personalised photo products and gifts, with easy-to-make, high quality products and printing, at affordable prices, everyone can enjoy bringing their photos to life.
I started using PhotoBox way back when my daughters were tiny, 20+ years ago. Back then they provided an excellent quality photo printing service at very reasonable rates, and still offer that very same service today. I can tell you, their print quality is the very same, if not better, than many of the so-called professional printers out there, at unbelievably low prices.
Since I started using PhotoBox, they've added a plethora of new print products to their portfolio. Mugs, canvases, photo-books, phone cases, cushions and fridge magnets are just a few of the items you can have personalised and printed. Another benefit is that PhotoBox always offer promotional discounts and if you time it right you could get up to 70% off your order.
They are well worth checking out.
Learn more here...
Polkadoodles
Polkadoodles is a UK-based online retail website that offers an extensive range of stamps and craft products, aimed at paper crafters and scrapbookers worldwide.
A majority of the beautiful designs are created by site owner and chief illustrator Nikky Hall.
Nikky's unique style is a big hit with Polkadoodles' loyal crafting fans, who just keep coming back for more great inspiration to create unlimited original greetings cards and poster designs.
There's far too much to try and wrap up in a couple of paragraphs, the best thing to do is take a look for yourself.
You can do that here...
Envato Placeit
Envato Placeit is a powerful DIY design tool - allowing anyone to effortlessly create designs, mockups, logos & more in just seconds. All within Placeit’s powerful and intuitive web application.
How often do I use it? Most days. Whenever I need to create a mockup for one of my own products or those of a client, Placeit is my first stop. It makes photo and videos mockups crazy-quick to produce and the quality second to none.
Check it out for yourself here…