Happy Birthday To Us!

Muddy Colors turns 3 years old today!



Over the past 3 years, we have never missed a single scheduled day. That's more than ONE THOUSAND posts detailing our paintings, our process, our failures, and our inspiration. Somehow, after all that time, this amazing group of contributors still manages to share something insightful week after week.



There have been some real gems scattered throughout the last 3 years of posts. How many of the 1000 have YOU read? Here are some of my favorite, and some of the most popular posts, you may have missed:



Our very first public post on October 25, 2010, by Arnie Fenner:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2010/10/hit-beach.html



Greg Manchess' first "10 things" post, which has since turned into one of my favorite recurrent posts on the entire blog:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/03/10-things-to-remember-about-training.html



The inimitable Adam Rex tells us how he crafts one of his award-winning picture books:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-i-make-picture-book.html



Serge Birault gives us tips on how to make your digital paintings look more like real paint:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-emulate-oil-painting-with-your.html



The introductory post to 'Dragon Fortnight', 2 weeks of nothing but dragon-themed posts:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/09/enter-dragon.html



How to build a free website in less than 10 minutes (seriously!):

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-make-free-website-in-less-than.html



The ever aloof, and amazingly talented, Paul Bonner graces us with a guest post:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-blogger-paul-bonner.html



In one of my favorite posts ever, Chris Moeller talks about those incredibly difficult years immediately following art school:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/05/life-after-art-school-five-years-to.html

Jesper Ejsing shares his entire process in an in-depth 2-part post:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/04/griffin-vs-blood-demon.html

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/05/by-jesper-ejsing-this-article-is.html

One of our most popular posts of all time, Jordu Schell proves that nothing goes viral quite like Star Wars fan art:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/05/jordu-schell-grand-moff-tarkin.html



Eric Fortune starts a great dialogue asking if Art School is even worth it any more:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-art-school-worth-it_24.html



A quick rundown of some of my favorite art books from 2010:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-art-books-of-2010.html

Arnie Fenner gives us an inspirational glimpse at what some of our favorite artists were doing BEFORE they were our favorite artists:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/05/beginnings.html

Our very first "Crit-Submit", where we revised our reader's art (which I promise will make a return someday soon!)

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/03/crit-submit-1.html



Todd Lockwood does a 2-part guest post, and blows us all away with his comprehensive understanding of Curvilinear Perspective:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/06/todd-lockwood-curvilinear-perspective.html

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/06/todd-lockwood-curvilinear-perspective_03.html



Justin Gerard, always in search of better methods and mediums, shares his experiences with traditional oil paints vs. water soluable oil paints:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-fangled-water-mixable-oils-vs-old.html



A posthumous homage to one of the greatest fantasy artists to ever live:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/03/i-moebius.html



10 different artist's takes on the same subject, shows us that even old ideas can still prove innovative:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/03/eowyn-and-nazgul.html



A comprehensive step-by-step on how to professional photograph your artwork:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-to-photograph-your-paintings.html



Donato instills us all with a little bit of hope, as he shares the progression of his work from age 10 and up:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/01/humble-beginnings.html



Paolo Rivera discusses one of the most important, and under appreciated, aspects of any painting, Presearch!

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/12/presearch-part-1-of-3.html

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/01/presearch-part-2-of-3.html

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/02/presearch-part-3-of-3.html



Last but not least, the last known videos of Moebius drawing:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/08/moebius-drawing.html



So what were some of your favorite posts? Please share with us in the comments section!