Nela Dunato Art & Design Blog
Six months ago, I could not have even fathomed that I would ever feel this good again. Six months ago I wasn’t able to imagine a brighter future or what would it take for me to reach it. Six months ago I was at my lowest of lows since 2008, and the years in between weren’t exactly Disneyland.
Six months ago I was wondering, “what if this is the real me, and what if the happy, content me was a fake? What if there’s no way for me to ever feel better because that’s just my melancholic nature?”
You may be wondering why I feel so compelled to write about depression, on my art and business blog no less? Read more...
Do you feel like you spend so much time on social media, and it's giving you little to no results? Are you feeling overwhelmed with all the choices and advice, and you have no idea who to listen to and what will actually work for you? If so, I have an important message for you: Stop wasting your time online and share your work where it really matters Read more...
If I were to choose one secret weapon that helps my productivity more than any other, I'd have to say it's meditation. I know, it sounds weird to associate meditation – the epitome of non-doing – with productivity, which is all about doing, but if you think about it a little, it actually makes perfect sense. Meditation and action are polar opposites, but as with any opposites, one cannot exist without the other. We need the state of non-doing in order to be able to define doing, and vice versa. Meditation acts like a reset button on those thoughts, and enables me to get the most out of my time. Here are 5 ways meditation can boost your productivity. Read more...
This Saturday, June the 20th, was the opening reception to a group art show called "Visions from the Fairy Realm" featuring art by me and a fellow fantasy illustrator Karin Bogdanic. Here are some photos from the show opening. Read more...
New business owners get overwhelmed with all the options when it comes to professional presentation. Additionally, each type of design service is a special beast with its own science behind it, and people often specialize in one area. In this guide I give an overview of the most common visual design services for small businesses, and you'll be able to tell if you need it right now or may need it later, and how much to budget for it. Read more...
You know how it goes. You come up with a brilliant idea for a project you want to bring to fruition. You break it down into phases and tasks, and create a foolproof action plan with deadlines when everything needs to get done by. And then weeks and months go by, and you're constantly running behind. You move things around and postpone them, and then postpone again and again. 'What the hell is wrong with me?!' you think to yourself, despairing. You have no clue why those Other People seem to have it all together and follow through on their goals. Life would be so much easier if you could just stick to your plan and do the things you wanted to do within the deadlines you set. Read more...
I imagine that a lot of people reading this are artists that either have a job in a creative field, or have a business that relies mostly on creative services. On the surface, it sounds like the best possible way to live as an artist, right? Here you are, doing the stuff other people would kill for. But there are days when you realize it's not as shiny as it seems on the outside. Read more...
Popular marketing advice for small business owners is to be authentic and transparent online. But some of us who may be careful about what we put out in public are asking ourselves the question: is too much authenticity unprofessional? That's a valid question. After all, we grew up in a society that generally shuns authenticity like the plague, and showing our true self to the world feels extremely risky. Read more...
Some people say ideas are worthless without execution. Others say ideas are the currency of the future. You, however, seem to have a problem cashing in on this currency because you have more ideas than you know what to do with — it's both a blessing and a curse.
While I don't have a magic pill that will stop this craziness (and honestly, we wouldn't want to stop it), having a system to manage our wealth of ideas helps a lot.
Here are my suggestions how to handle this 'problem'. Read more...
If you were to examine how you spend your time, you'd realize that a lot of it is wasted on activities that don't really bring you joy and fulfillment, but you're doing them over and over again because they became a habit. I'll show you how I make sure that when I sit down to do something for my work or personal projects, I stay focused. Learn the 5 ways you can create the ideal conditions for focus and creative flow. Read more...
I realized I haven't shared any of my creative processes in a while, so I decided to share some work-in-progress photos of my latest watercolor painting, Sing Me Of Better Times. This is not intended as a how-to by any means and I'm not describing every step in detail, but I hope it will still provide some value to you. Read more...
I want to talk about an issue that I feel is greatly affecting our ability to be successful in our art and business. It's about our willingness to stand firmly in our uniqueness, and put our individuality in the spotlight in everything we do. Read more...
Often when I'm talking with new clients about their goals for the branding or website design project, they half-apologetically say something along the lines of 'I'm not sure what I want in terms of design'. What they really wonder is, how do I convey my ideas to a designer if I'm not a visual type? I'm telling you that you don't need to worry about that. Read more...
Let's welcome the new outdoor sketching season with a little art supplies geekout! I'm always voyeuristically scavenging blogs and Pinterest to see what sketching tools other artists are using. I've only mentioned my sketching kit once before on this blog, so I decided to create a post about this topic alone. Read more...
I'm getting a fed up with the right/left brain myth that became so ingrained in our culture. Rarely anyone outside of the scientific world is even questioning it, and it's even more pronounced in our creative circles where people wear the right-brained label like a badge of honor. I'm sure many people won't agree with what I have to say on this topic, and even my best friends and most loyal readers might find this idea in opposition to their views. But I cannot in good conscience support the story I feel is inaccurate and harmful. Read more...
Writing about topics like these always invokes a lot of fear and self-worth issues in me, so I've refrained from publishing this post for a good long while. What if giving up on old dreams translates as being flaky, lazy and not able to finish anything? But usually when I get cold feet about publishing something, it turns out there is a bunch of people who feel exactly the same and are so glad to see someone else writing about it, because they too are a bit embarrassed to admit it. Read more...
For the entire month of November I've been drawing a fairy a day and posting it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #MonthOfFairies. Today I'm sharing my works from the last week and I'm taking you through the entire sketchbook flip on video. Read more...
For the entire month of November I'm drawing a fairy a day and posting it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #MonthOfFairies. Here's an overview of the artwork I created during the third week of the project, from November 17th 'till November 23rd. Read more...
For the entire month of November I'm drawing a fairy a day and posting it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #MonthOfFairies. I'm now officially half way through the journey, and here's an overview of all the artwork I created in the past week, from November 10th 'till November 16th. Read more...
For the entire month of November I am drawing a fairy a day and posting it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #MonthOfFairies. Here's an overview of all the drawings, paintings and sketches I created in the first week. Read more...