April 22, 2022
Sending a handmade card is the new warm hug!
In the last few years, I have dedicated my life to a new mission — making art creation accessible to anyone. Think about this for a moment: Many people can cook, but it does not make them professional chefs. Many can take beautiful shots using their phone, but it does not make them professional photographers. Many can throw a ball, but they are not Tom Brady. However, when it comes to art, most adults can’t express themselves artistically.
Can art creation be part of our daily lives?
I kept asking myself why does the art world only belong to the gifted ones? Why can’t I join this fantastic process of creativity and bring ideas and emotions into the form of art? Even more than that, creativity is proven to positively affect our brain and our mental state. Making art is a process that involves special tools, precision, and practice. It is a messy experience to do at home. But there’s something even deeper than that. We were all raised in a right-or-wrong educational system. By nature, we try to avoid criticism and follow the rules. These rules do not apply to art. There is no right and no wrong in art. After looking into it for over four years, I found the answer: Art is hard to do:)! I am sure you expected a more sophisticated conclusion, but that’s the truth.
“Me??? Na! I am the worst when it comes to art”. If I had a penny for every time I heard this line, I’d be a millionaire!
– Elad Katav
Art creation is not magic.
Many people don’t know this – but art creation is not magic, it’s a highly structured process. Artists are using well-defined methods and techniques to create their art. Very few just walk in front of a canvas and create a masterpiece without careful planning.
These techniques make it possible to deliver an idea onto a canvas in a beautiful way. It doesn’t take away from the artist’s creativity. The famous 17th-century Dutch painter Vermeer, used a camera obscura to project the objects he painted onto the canvas. This technique enabled him to paint details the human eye couldn’t see from a distance. And no one doubts Vermeer’s creativity.
We had all these thoughts in mind when we were building the Sketch it Forward Handcrafted Greeting Cards program, and the Team Painting program. Our goal was to design clean, fun, fail-proof, personalized experiences with “wow” results that ANYONE can do. We were looking to invent techniques that will help people with no artistic background to get great results. We soon realized that mobile apps can help guide our users and make art creation accessible. This app allows you to choose from thousands of different licensed artworks. By offering this, we allow users to connect with artists from all over the world through art creation. You can explore art by visiting a gallery, but now you can paint and experience it on a whole new level.
Take any photo and turn it into artwork.
The most incredible feature, which we’ve spent years to perfect, is the ability to take any photo and turn it into an artwork you can paint. The app takes photos you took and extracts their outline. Then, we use augmented reality to superimpose the outline over the surface. The process of painting involves looking through your phone while the hand is drawing on the surface. We expected people would love it, but we didn’t expect the level of precision and the final results people shared with us! It became clear that these benefits of art creation are a dream come true!
Benefits of using this art creation technique:
- Boosts creativity
- Relaxing, like meditation or therapy
- Practice and-eye-brain coordination
- Everyone can be an artist
Which medium would best facilitate the creative experience? Handcrafted Greeting Cards were an obvious choice. Especially now, during and after the COVID crisis, the importance of sharing gratitude, support and encouragement has never been more critical.
We recently launched the popular Sketch it Forward program, where teams and companies create beautiful hand-crafted cards filled with stunning artworks and personal messages for deserving first responders, health care heroes, veterans, isolated seniors, and for many other occasions we want to celebrate such as Mother’s day. We LOVE this program as it is all about the act of kindness and sharing gratitude. If you are looking for a “state of the art” experience involving creativity and purpose, we believe this program is for you! The added bonus- it benefits the heart and soul of both sender and receiver.
