Featured artists: Olga Gogole, graphic designer and illustrator

Russian Artists Team on Etsy has so many talented artists. We love to introduce them to our readers and share their stories. So today, please welcome Olga Gogole, graphic designer and illustrator from OlgaGogole shop. Visit her shop, you will love her art as much as we do.

Here is her story:

 I am Olga Gogole from Latvia. I am 36 years old, and I have been drawing all my life. Putting together the years in art school, art classes and art academy, I spent at least 16 years perfecting the skills. I adored drawing even back in kindergarten, using every piece of paper I could find. I remember my teacher told my mom that it might be worth considering showing me to a psychologist J

I certainly had my moments of creative stagnation when I wanted to abandon it all and start something totally new. Sometimes it was unclear where to head and what I want to do next. I aspired to get higher education in arts, but it seemed like an impossible dream at times. Eventually, with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, I made the dream come true, and finished Latvian Art academy, majoring in graphic design. Higher education in Latvia is of very good quality, but it is full-time attendance only, so there was no chance to have a regular-hours job during the studies. As they say, there are only 24 hours in a day, but there is also the night J During my first year at the academy, I founded the graphic design company. I studied during the day and drew posters, logos, leaflets, designed corporate style for the clients at nights. My company will celebrate 10 years anniversary next year.

I certainly did a lot more graphic design in the early years of my professional development, as well as worked as full-time packaging designer for a large cosmetics producer “Dzintars”. Later on in my career, I increasingly turned to illustration. Sometimes I draw for my own pleasure, and I love when the works end up light and positive, in one go. I like when people buy my ready-made works, not the pre-ordered ones – this means that they like them as they were intended, the way I see them and that buyers relate to my perception and the mood I was in when creating the piece.

After the birth of my son, life certainly changed. Thanks to my child, I started focusing on illustrations for children and collect children books illustrated by famous artists, frequently when visiting bookstores on my trips abroad. 

Olga Gogole,

Graphic designer and illustrator.

16 ways to greet Autumn

Fall is a beautiful and cozy season. The colors of nature are changing, you can see the yellow, orange and brown everywhere.

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Let's say hello to Autumn by changing the decor in our homes. You don't have to paint the walls in cheerful colors, all you need is some fall decorations.

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I like to buy new items for my wardrobe every season, it feels like you have changed too. Just a couple of new things will make you feel this way!

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Don't forget the accessories, the easiest way to transform your look and be ready for the season!

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Have a great Fall!

By Tanya (Socksandmittens)

Very berry inspiration

Recently I’ve been getting out to my back yard every morning to stretch in the sun and eat some blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries that grow in my garden. That gives me a good dose of energy to start the day and get busy creating.

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The summer abundance of fresh fruit and berries is exhilarating and we want to prolong it as much as we can. This berry inspiration goes far beyond making jams and jellies. We try to preserve summer by creating berry inspired art and crafts.

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The beauty and exciting freshness of berries is an inspiration for people working in many different techniques. Check out these works by Russian Artists inspired by strawberries. Each one of them is unique and reflects the berry inspiration in its own way.

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No matter what the techniques or materials are, berry inspired accessories liven up any wardrobe and bring a happy smile to our faces. So eat up on fresh berries and design something berry inspired this summer!

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Story by Yana (WineCountryLife)

Freebie from KarisaGraphic

Today, we are happy to share with you one more free collage sheet. It's alphabet letters in American colors from KarisaGraphic shop. The images are 1x1; they are great for scrabble tiles, glass tiles, scrapbooking and so on. The file is 8.5 x 11 inch (standard letter size) with resolution 300 dpi. So it's perfect to print on your home printer.
The file may be downloaded there.
Please just click the link and full printable image will be loaded. Than save it on your computer and print as many as you need. Please be advised that the collage sheet may not be used for resell in digital form.

Freebie from KarisaGraphics

We are continuing our series of freebies on Monday.

Today, we are happy to share with you one more free collage sheet. It's alphabet letter monograms from KarisaGraphics shop. The images are 1x1; they are great for scrabble tiles, glass tiles, scrapbooking and so on. The file is 8.5 x 11 inch (standard letter size) with resolution 300 dpi. So it's perfect to print on your home printer.

Make right click and save the image. Than save it on your computer and print as many as you need.

Please be advised that the collage sheet may not be used for resell in digital form.

Subtlety on the Etsy Front Page!

Our team's azure treasury Subtlety created by our teammate BlueberryCream was featured on the Etsy Front Page! Misty morning colors and amazingly beautiful items hand crafted by our talented teammates made a great Etsy Front Page! Congrats Nastya from BlueberryCream and the featured!

The following unique and beautiful Etsy artists were featured in this treasury:
Yevgenia, LAccentNou, Jezek, HappyfrogfromAlaska, Beautyspot, Lightkeeping, Galafilc, Herbolution, Cushyadornments, Kpersonboutique, Justlena, KarisaGraphic

Secrets of Photoshop – How to make the background more brightly

Not all of us are good photographs and not all of us have a light box and a good photo camera, that’s why the photos come in shaded completely or from one corner. I want to show you how can correct such photos. It is not always possible to apply, but only for photos with a solid white or grey background. In any case you should try and take experience for the future.

In this article are used Adobe Photoshop Cs3 Extended English

1. Take the photo.

2. Open Image -˃ Adjustments -˃ Curves (or press Ctrl+M). It’s opens a window. Gently raise the diagonal curve. More you raise it the image becomes brighter. Don’t do it too much, otherwise with the background becomes lighter the object too.

3. That's what we got. The background is still not enough light, and the object seems too dark. But if again raise the curve, the black dots on the beads turn grey and we will lose details in the shadows.

4. Therefore we do the following. Open Image -˃ Adjustments -˃ Brightness/Contrast. Opens a window where you can move two sliders. Move it just a little on right and you will see how the image becomes even lighter, but the black dots remain black.

5. That's what we got.

6. If it's necessary, you can adjust the size of the image with the tool Crop.

7. At the bottom of the photo the background still remains dark, so we take the tool Brush, choose a large brush with a diffuse edge.

8. Make a transparency about 15-30% and the white colour. Now you have to draw with a brush the background for first time and then the places witch needs 1-2 times more.

9. That's what we got at the end.

10. There is a slightly different way. Take the tool Polygonal Lasso and put points around to the object point by point.

11. Than open Select -˃ Modify -˃ Feather selection (or press Alt+Ctrl+D). It’s opens a window to control the blur of the selection. The higher number you set - so to a greater number of pixels selection blur.

12. Then repeat the operation 2-4.