Image:

Energetic Baby No.15  

*Links

Those are the places I frequent, to meet peeps, get inspired, catch up a bit of trend or for general resources, and if you're looking for a longer list, well, I runs a bookmark group on diigo called Art.In.General, where I collect the bookmarks related to different aspects of art. These are link and feed of it.

Communities/Online Gallery:

DeviantArt - for everything and anything about contemporary art. It's also the place I started my first baby step towards visual art.

ESBQ - a place for you to build a portfolio and gain exposure -- with a paid membership.

Terminus1525.ca - a  fresh, neat, user-friendly general art communities on Canada.

illustrationMundo - quite an exciting gathering for illustrators with various styles. Highly recommended.

Taxi Design Network - as dazzling as DeviantArt, honestly.

Blogs:

Today's Inspiratin - hosted by an artist - Leif Peng - I met on flickr, with lots of articles on Al Parker, a master in illustrations and designing.

EmptyEasel - daily post concerning great concept, info, tips and knowledge about different aspects of ART.

lines and colors - I have to say I admire the author's constant labor in writing all the articles on really wide branches of Art, it's really a wonderful thing to see an artist devote himself so much for what he enjoys and share his insights and viewpoints with us all.

Shops:

Art.com - everyone knows what it's about.

Ukanvas - artist portfolio site providing exclusive designs on canvas print

Sistino - a branch of art.com for contemporary artists with Print-On-Demand system

ImageKind - similar with sistino, but getting more popular since it's collaboration with Flickr

References:

Definition of Art - for the geek of definition of word.

Wiki - get quick ideas about the old time masters.

ArtLex Art Dictionary - Find definitions for more than 3,600 terms used in discussing art / visual culture, along with thousands of supporting images, pronunciation notes, great quotations and cross-references.

News:

Graphic Competitions - worldwide graphic competitions directory.

Dexinger Design Directory - clear and general directory for any sort of designing like web, digital, craft, illustration, architecture,  magazine, etc.

Softwares:

Picasa of Google - do you know you can build a gallery to showcase your works with this fantastic picture viewer?

GIMP - always a good buddy when I need HIM most. : ]