This is the first giveaway here on DwA. When I came to the idea to give something away to my readers I didn’t know what to give and what to ask in return. I realized that the tees from the huge Threadless collection are enough awesome for the creative artists and in a hope you will like it I’ve run this giveaway.

You are able to win a Threadless gift (25$) if you follow these simple steps below:

1) Download the illustration from Wallpaper alert! page.

The illustration, made by my dear friend Djuro, has improved the whole DwA behind story. Read more about Djuro and the illustration in this article, “You are safe now”.

2) Set it as wallpaper on your desktop.

3) Take a picture of your room/office… including you and your computer with DwA’s wallpaper on it. I don’t know how your place looks like, but I suggest you to open the windows in the daytime and use the natural light. When the sun is falling down try to catch the best light or make a spirits in the dark using tripod and long exposure. Things on your desk or wall can help to make an creative composition.

Submission mail: submit@diewithoutart.com (please title: Wallpaper alert!)

The submission must contain your full name, mailing address (because of the shipping), email and the pictures. Giveaway ends on March 20th at 0:00am and the most creative workspace, face and angle of shooting wins. Good luck.

(You can support this giveaway using #WallpaperAlert hashtag on Twitter or just posting this link on Facebook. Thank you!)

By the way, thank you all for the greatest weekend on DwA. Looking forward to see your crazy pictures. Lovely regards from Croatia.

To be honest, I’ve never spent more than 15€ (that’s about 20 bucks) for a piece of clothes, but I’ll think again about WTFJeans (early bird price 79€) because those pants worth more for sure. Micro-fiber interior protects your iPhone or iPod touch, as well as cleaning it when you take it out. There is a hidden Memory stick pocket, so put in your USB stick or something. Extra protection for boys? O’yes, extra padding on both sides keeps your family jewels cozy.

The pockets of WTFJeans are positioned in such a way to make your ass stand out in a crowd, behing the Your ass? Sexyass™. Furthermore, each and every part of the WTFjeans was specially sewed with the color of the Twitter timeline, blue. So, go and follow them on Twitter. I’m sure Sanja and Pedja will surprise us soon, with another WOW thing, maybe the stats or a new product. Good luck guys and do not give those promo codes to the mainstream.

Lotta Nieminen is a graphic designer and illustrator living and working in Helsinki. She studied graphic design and illustration at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Lotta’s work has won honourable mentions at Vuoden Huiput (Best of Finnish advertising and graphic design) as well as in various logo competitions (Aalto Univeristy, divided 2nd prize; Maritime center Vellamo, 2nd prize; Nuorisomerkki, 1st and 3rd prize). She has worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator since 2006. As an illustrator, she’s represented by illustration agency Agent Pekka.

I’ve read you began photographing at age 13, that’s amazing. How you started? With camera obscura?

I first started photography at age 13 as a way to share time with my mother and grandmother. Both were hobbyist photographers and we lived on a large farm in upstate NY that provided ample photographic opportunities. We would take walks together and photograph whatever we saw—fall foliage, mushrooms, farm animals, hay fields, and more.

Photography took on an important significance in those early days. First, it was an important memory sharing time with my grandma who later died of cancer. Second, it instilled in me the ability to appreciate the beauty around me. It is far too easy to become blind to all the beautiful things around you—you see them everyday and they just become ‘normal’. But photography provided me a way to explore and appreciate my environment.

While I began just snapping away with a point-and-shoot, my first real camera was a Canon Rebel 2000 SLR film camera. I took it with me everywhere, and when I was 13 I went on a trip with my parents to the American West—The Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. While on vacation I took some stunning images that later that year were published in a calendar. My career began there.

While in high school I started a portrait business which helped me learn more about photography and to also ‘fund my habit’ of photography (film and equipment is expensive!).

Throughout my experiences I have been a nature photographer, portrait photographer, photojournalism, commercial photographer… and finally I have become a fashion photographer.

Succesful photographer is not so easy to be, is the education important? Which school, college you chose?

I attended Syracuse University with the Newhouse School of Public Communications. I had a degree in Photography, Photojournalism and Entrepreneurship.

I have always had a passion for education and learning. Since I was young I always strived to excel in school, and graduated as Valedictorian of my high school (award given to the student with the high grade point average throughout all of high school).

That being said, education is not really that important to success as a photographer. Much of what I learned I taught myself. You must always be pushing yourself to take make more images, push your creative boundaries, and to keep up on new/exciting photographic techniques.

You must teach yourself if you want to stand out… otherwise your skill set and knowledge is the same as your peers.

My education was important for two reasons. (1) It helped me mature mentally as an individual. I learned more about the world around me and how to be better prepared to face the world. When I entered college I was still a bit of a child, but college gave me a safe and free environment to figure out who I was and what I believed in. (2) College helped me find what exactly I wanted to do in photography. I did not always know I wanted to be a fashion photographer. In fact, I’ve tried every type of photography there is. In college I started to take fashion-influenced images. I then proceeded to take a fashion photography course that introduced me to the work of ‘the masters’—Avedon, Watson, Penn and more. This helped give me a perspective on fashion photography and also confirm that this was my desired career path.

In the end, education is not imperative. If you know you want to be a photographer, go work for a photographer whose work inspires you. You can learn most of what you need from them if you have real drive, passion and determination.

I’m sure DwA readers wanna know how you are finding your clients? Or they find you?

Finding portrait clients has been relatively easy. For ‘normal’ portrait a majority of my business has come from Facebook and word-of-mouth. Basically I started by photographing some local friends in the area, then I would post their images on Facebook and tag them, then all their friends would see the quality of my work, and then they would call and book my services. Fashion photography is much more of a challenge. Basically you just take it one step at a time.

To find my magazine clients, I slowly started to submit fashion editorials I have created to different fashion magazines. Slowly but surely my work was getting published in a variety of small magazines. Then as my work and contacts became stronger, I started submitting to larger magazines.

This editorial submission work is completely unpaid. Most people don’t realize this at all… there is NO pay or compensation for fashion particularly as smaller publications.

Instead magazines treat this as an advertisement for yourself. This is a showcase for your work, and helps you achieve the exposure and tearsheets that help you get an agent.

Once I started to get published more, magazine would hire me to shoot covers or images for special stories—and these pay. From there my exposure through model mayhem and within the industry have helped me find clients to shoot model portfolios, ‘look books’ for designers, and other misc jobs.

Fashion photography, until you are at ‘the top’, can be a bit messy with doing jobs here and there to build your reputation ad support yourself.

I often use dmy teaching and portraiture to fund the fashion photography while trying to get on my feet.

You started the FPI Workshops with Lara Jade, can you tell me more about it?

When I lived in London after college, I supported myself as a photographer by teaching 3-day fashion photography intensive courses. These were very popular and I had a great time doing it. Recently I have decided to start teaching these courses again in the US and started promoting the classes to Calumet, Unique Photo and other major camera companies. I very quickly got booked for NY, LA, SanFran, NJ and more.

These 3-day intensive courses provide photographers all the tools they need to successfully complete their first fashion shoots. They learn about inspiration, gathering a creative team, finding models, working with models, lighting, retouching and more. They will learn about getting editorials published and even have the opportunity to work 1-on-1 with professional styled models. It is a great learning opportunity.

I decided to bring Lara on as a partner for a few reasons. (1) Since she lives in England, she could help organized the European side of the business. She could arrange our courses with in London, France, Germany or wherever else we desired. (2) These classes could certainly benefit from having multiple instructors to help give the best one-on-one attention when needed. (3) Lara is a very talented individual and could certainly bring some important knowledge to the table.

You can learn more at fashonphotographyintensive.com.

Your first book “Linked Photographer: New Media and Social Networking” will be available in bookstores in May. What is the book about?

In short, this book helps photographers to utilize social networking to build a reputation, find clients and networking with colleagues to help their business grow. The book guides photographers through the tools and best practices of uses social media as a business tool. We cover blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Search Engine Optimization and more to provide photographers with the essential tools for online success.

I decided to write this book because after college I found that a great deal of my business for magazines and portraiture was coming DIRECTLY from social networking activities. I thought it would be very helpful for photographers to learn from my experiences and the experience of others to get online quickly and efficiently to reap the benefits.

The book will be out sometime this spring (probably May), and is published through Cengage (a large publisher).

Now when we know a little bit more about your career, I wanna know how your usually day looks like? New York-London relation?

My day varies every single day. No day is the same. Most days I wake up and spend all day behind my computer answering emails, responding to interview questions, writing blogs, retouching portraits and writing articles for magazines. Recently a majority of my time was spent on the book, and most other things fell to the wayside. Other days are packed with client shoots. I go into the studio and line up portraits back to back… each client is allotted about 2 hours for a typical portrait shoot. Other days are filled with networking… going around to different agencies, writing important emails, meeting up with potential clients.

The most exciting days are my fashion editorials. I come up with a concept, gather a creative team, and then spend a full day shooting the editorial.

After college I lived in London, and since have moved back to New York. Both cities provide amazing opportunities with fantastic creative minds. While I am mainly based in NY, I travel to London often for editorials and business opportunities.

In the end, do you have any advices for the beginners? Just simple short tips.

* Teach yourself and push yourself. Don’t rely on others or college to teach you what you have to know. Go out there and work for a photographer you admire. Watch online tutorials. Practice and experiment.

* Use social networking. Get yourself out there however you can—start a blog, have a Facebook page, get a twitter account. Do whatever you can to get your work in front of more eyes. Don’t be afraid to promote yourself and share your work with others. On similar note, use your social networking to share your knowledge and experiences. This will encourage people to pass your work around and to see you as an expert.

* Shoot what inspires you. We all have to shoot ‘boring work’ that pays the bills. That’s the nature of the game. But no matter how busy you are or how much work you have, you must make time to shoot for yourself. Shoot editorials or subjects that inspire you. It is this personal work that will be most powerful, and when seen by others will most likely spark the most interest. This personal work will likely get you more exposure and help others to understand your personal style.

* Start small, work up. You most likely won’t land big clients right away. Start with any work you can get. This will give you experience and money to fund your passions. Don’t be too proud to take small or insignificant jobs. Far too many photographer give up early because they don’t ‘hit it big’ early or because they are too proud to take the jobs that will pay the bills.

And a few words of mine…

Thank you Lindsay for sharing your story with us and for giving those important advices for begginers. Hope they will learn a lesson from your example.

My life has always been an exciting drama, pregnant with possibilities, I always had a passion for novelty. The only thing I never seem to get bored of is meeting really fascinating people who inspires me.

Marta is extremely passionate when it comes to her work. She said photographs are her babies. Her best work has been produced when a client says “I want your style in it”. Marta has a director’s approach to shooting, it’s never about a pose, it’s always about an emotion and personality.

In over the past 13 years I did numerous of photographs for which I was commissioned: from covers of books to covers of magazines, from fashion editorials to advertising photography, I’ve done it all – from being an assistant to being an editor.

I’ve read her CV and I’m still catching my breath. Wow, amazing and successful girl. How old is she? 35? No way, she looks younger. Marta has collaborated with more than 30 different magazines like Cosmopolitan, Joy, Elle and Playboy. Unbelievably awesome! Marta also had one solo and several group exhibitions, the last one at Paris Fashion Week in 2009.

Interesting thing is that American filmmaker and visual artist David Lynch had a huge influence on Marta’s work and she admire him more than anyone else.

One year ago I had a dream I meet him, and today when I research for my final project at Central Saint Martins I can say it is a tribute to David Lynch, a tribute to inspiration he have me in the last 20 years through his art.

Marta intents to remain active in fashion and advertising photography as well as portraiture where she think she’s able to develop original ideas and become known for her specific style, also intent to start looking for gigs in London within an photography agency. However, after Marta’s graduation show at Central Saint Martins she will hopefully also exhibit her work in London’s galleries.

I would like to my work represent two Marta Lamovšek – one is a portrait-fashion-advertising photographer with an ability to create strong and timeless images, and another Marta Lamovšek, the artist would be the one who reveals dark secrets of the human soul and speaks of fears and obsessions.

About the photoset, The Stranger and the Gypsies

The Stranger and the Gypsies was described by world known English writer Warren Ellis who had on his web page published the photograph of Ali (the model) walking among gypsies. He said: “There’s something powerfully weird about this beautiful photoset by Marta Lamovsek, not least in this image, where the model really does look like an alien landed in eastern Europe.”

Marta’s story in brief was about “The search for the sense of “freedom” brought aristocratic woman the forgotten-from-the-world village of gypsies in the south of Macedonia. She was deeply touched by the passion for life and a raw attitude that gypsy culture possess.”

You don’t tell gypsies what they should do (for a good photo), they tell you that. You just have to treasure what you have within that exclusive moments as this is an intimate space of some people homes. One of the most memorable photo sets in my life.

To make this photo story possible they came there and just let go their rawness. They didn’t know what will happen in a minute after minute, Marta’s directional skills didn’t work with more than 30 wild kids around.

What means Zadeta od lajfa?

I wanted to know what the name of her blog means, and Marta answered. She came up with a name of the blog more than 3 years ago when she wanted to find words that would be a good metaphoric expression of what kind of person she is. Zadeta od lajfa “High on life” is a name that describes Marta’s enthusiastic nature, everyone that knows her know she become very passionate and excited about very ordinary things. And she’s constantly inventing new stuff to be excited about! Marta feels that the name has to inspire others, people who feels “high on life” loves life, they see it as a special gift, and strive to make the most out of it.

Isn’t her story interesting, very interesting? That’s just a little piece of her life, trust me. Marta I wish you much success and stay young as you feel. Bring us new creative work and good luck with your next exhibitions. Did I mentioned, you look like Cameron Diaz on this photo.

You others, be like Marta, high on life and forget about your age through art, regardless you’re too young or too old. Peace!

Artists were always incomprehensible and what’s wrong with that? Our work is our inside expression, you can like it or not. Being an artists is a big advantage. You can sit on the ground in the middle of the street at the summer season, drawing your masterpiece. Passers are watching? No problem, they are just a piece of the urban environment.

Many times people were gathered around me when I was holding my camera and performing, creeping on the street etc. That’s what I like in the public, relaxed you can do anything.

Wearing “strange” clothes can be unacceptable for an serious businessman, but not for you, a person with creative brain. Look, I’m writing this article next to 5 people who are loud-talking about… actually I can’t hear them thanks to Mory Kanté on my iPod . I’m in my world.

As a creative guy on Djuro’s illustration up there, he’s safe and away from everything he don’t need. Djuro said, a piano is the quintessential thing to be falling from the sky, killing random non art – loving people.

So, go and create something, and feel free to be strange and incomprehensible.

With his young daughter Nasc has watched Disney’s new computer-animated film “Up!”, so he paid homage to the man with balloons in the work area. Can you find him? He’s so little, I know. You can see a bigger picture here.

Thank you so much Nasc and welcome to DwA’s *friends with creative brains* (not just a sidebar blogroll). Respect!

Keep receiving DwA signals from the tower!

RSS feed will always bring you up to date daily fresh content. Click ‘n’ Subscribe! Or/and follow Die without Art on Twitter, @DieWithoutArt!

Now, artists can digitally “paint” a surface in the same way they can tag a wall with traditional spray paint.

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. — Socrates

Isn’t that minimalism? We can connect it with our daily routine, not just the arts. First reduce stress and organize yourself. Enjoying the art will help for sure.

Have you downloaded your Die without Art wallpaper?

Not yet? Don’t worry you can find it on Wallpaper Alert! page. Choose your screen resolution and enjoy it every time you minimize your windows. Read more about the illustration.

She’s currently working on improving her drawing skills, her design eye, reorganizing both her online and physical studio, preparing fish and going to bed no later than 5am. I’ve spent a few great weekends with her and had so much fun. For Christmas Djuro bought me a book called “Sexy Web Design”, by Elliot Jay Stocks which is still on my *Read me* list. She sometimes tweets about these things. And sometimes, when things consume her enough, she will draw them and put them on her blog.

To realize what she meant with the illustration I asked her a few questions:

The illustration you’ve done is not far away from the blog concept, and that’s why I like it very much. How did you come to the idea?

Well, since our initial Skype musings on Die Without Art blog, we both loved the idea of the illustration to literally represent that title. Your only wishes were to make it black and white, with a dash of red. So that was perfect, because we both wanted it bloody :).

Later I spent (how much?) two – three weeks, just letting my sick and bizarre part of mind do its work. At first I was getting all sorts of suicide – scene ideas, but soon I threw those out and just wallowed in ironic and more “bad luck” ones. And those came suprisingly easy.

This idea came to me while I was in the exact position our guy there is – the living one. I was drawing, with my iPod on and thinking “Okay, so I am indulging in some form of art, so I am safe now, but what if I weren’t?” and BAM! A piano falls right next to me! Well not really, but piano is the quintessential thing to be falling from the sky, killing random non art – loving people. The dog came to the picture later, as I felt bad for killing the poor guy, so hey, why not give him someone to fire the alarm?

It is a very self-explanatory idea and I liked that, header – wise.

I’m sure readers wanna know how you draw it.

I like to have a photo reference when drawing people, so after an unsuccessful web search for the exact poses I imagined, I turned to my only model available at midnight – my boyfriend, and made him pose for both our guys. I must say he was very cooperative, even stayed in the “you were just crashed by a piano” pose longer than needed. The piano was easy to find. So that was the sketch.

After realizing I sketched a way too vertical composition for a header, I traced it on a another paper. Actually two papers, glued together (you can notice the seam on the piano). I traced it with a pencil, and then traced it again with a thin black pen. I used Staedtler Tripulus Fineliner. Originally I planned on on coloring it in Photoshop, but I got carried away with the fineliner, and did the shadowing with hand. I also used a red fineliner and a grey Faber-Castell crayon. And lots of eraser!

I know you’re attending a drawing course, can we expect new works, soon?

Well if I do wish to exhibit something soon, it will surely go up on my blog. I’m trying to keep myself in a learning-mode as much as possible, and the drawing course is extremely valuable for that. Most of my work now is school-work. I sometimes publish that work on Twitter, while the initial “I made a drawing!” enthusiasm is still with me. To publish something purposefully, I need a backstory, an idea, a blog post, or a fun project such as DwA here :)

Thank you Djuro!

You’re following Djuro already?

Djuro is one of DwA’s friends with creative brains, read her blog at drawingdjuro.com. Hope she will publish new stuff more often. There you can find her drawings and sweet words. For short updates please follow her on Twitter.

Wallpaper alert!

You like the illustration ninja Djuro made? You can have it on your desktop. Just choose the resolution 1280×1024, 1680×1050 or 2560×1600 pixels and enjoy it every time you minimize your windows.

DwA logo is on the way. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading.