Welcome!
I’ve enjoyed providing each week a “Wednesday Warm Up,”— a day of usually quick drawing, inking, brushing as warm up to our serious art. I share a strategy to try each Wednesday using the iPad app ProCreate.
This Week
Another look at what some of my CLmooc friends and I participate in each day– this time what we call “Daily Create,” in this case to show the beginning and ending of something.
I thought about the stories I share of Artist Gems— usually bloggers who share their art journeys. And that could be a telling of my story with a beginning and ending.
A Story of Choke Cherries
One of my journeys has been based on a childhood memory of eating choke cherries at the lake on hot summer days in North Dakota. It’s been my beginning artist’s journey over the course of 1.5 years of writing and art on “choke cherries, a childhood memory” — the beginning to the end, so far…
The progression of events for considering this story about creating the design for Red Bubble [ Singular and Pattern ]and Spoonflower:
- The inspiration: Daily Create
- My Story in Procreate: Choke Cherries
- My Story in Google Slides: Choke Cherries
- Blog Post on the Daily Create: Begin and End
- Tweet to Daily Create: Begin and End
- Resource– Choke Cherry History Blog Posts:
- January 31, 2020 Blog Post Childhood Memory
- July 3, 2021 Blog Post Choke Cherries Poetry
Wednesday WarmUp: How I Created My Story Portfolio
After creating this Daily Create, it seemed that how to do this would be a great Wednesday WarmUp. After all, part of my journey is sharing the story of my own and others’ art adventures.
I love writing and blogging and art– and I am thankful for the sharing by others. I am also not a fan of FB or IG: neither puts the user in charge, but rather decides what you can do. I prefer Flickr and WordPress– both of which allow the user to organize and display their stories in the ways that meet their purpose– in ways not meant just to sell art, but rather to share the story of the artist and their work with ways to connect each to another– through blog posts and groups.
So how could we tell the story of a piece of our art?
Begin with your choice and the thoughtful consideration of how the piece began– for me a childhood memory as a drawing prompt.
Next choose and use the tools that best allow for sharing that beginning and the continued journey through the finished piece. For me, that began with Procreate, moved to Google Slides, and then posting to my blogs.
Story Portfolio Process
After the initial idea from the Daily Create, I searched my other blog for “choke cherries” to figure out how I started the memory and researched the lovely blossoms and berries of the bittersweet choke cherry.
After gathering the progression with links and screenshots, I chose Procreate [ Choke Cherries ]to make the portfolio piece that would show the beginning to the end, exporting it as jpg [or png].
Next I opened Google Slides, adjusting the page setup to match the size of the jpg piece, and importing the image.
For each area that needed a link, add a rectangular shape, drawing it in and choosing a transparent fill and border. Select that shape and insert the correct link.
Share the document so “anyone can view with the link” to share out.
Publish the document to the web [link] and copy the embed code.
Create a new blog post in WordPress and insert the embed code with the “custom html” of the block editor. Add the story in text and any additional information/links and publish. [ Begin and End and this post]
The Final Piece: A Story of Choke Cherries
Note: Also here’s a video from Shake Up Learning for how to layer and order images in Google Slides.
For a specific HowTo, enjoy this video of the above process.
Embedded Slides: Choke Cherries
Try it!
If you haven’t started a blog, today is a great day to start! And consider how you could share the history and story of your own art adventures. Who knows? You may inspire another to a similar path. How about starting with a childhood memory?
As always, ask if you have questions from blogging to portfolio. Follow this blog and comment– join the bloggers sharing their art, and if you’ve a strategy or favorite daily prompt, please share. And please– share with #warmup4art so we can all enjoy your work too! I look forward to your sharing and tag me at @42Sheri.
Thank you, and make art every day!
I wonder, if I draw a line... 