Pastels, Scallops, Collage

Welcome

On most Wednesdays, check this blog for a strategy, process, or reflection for illustration with the iPad app ProCreate or Affinity Designer. This week I’ll share my patterns, pastels, and collages. It’s been a busy week of art.

Pastels, Again

I am determined to improve in my pastels, and Jennifer Nichols shared more pastel lessons.  Click this affiliate link for information on how to join — she sponsors a fabulous community with so many Procreate lessons with templates and brushes. Her pastel lessons helped me be more flowing in my paint strokes and to paint on mostly one layer. Here’s what I worked on this week based on her lessons and using her pastel brush sets.

For this piece, I illustrated with only two brushes: a soft brush for shapes and a faint texture brush for shading, texture, and backgrounds. Both are brushes from Jenn’s Pastel brush sets: Jen’s Pastel Pencil and Jen’s Side Stick Faint.

This piece was for a prompt in Peggy Dean’s Boot Camp– a shop sign. Make Love. Not War. The slogan from the 60s seems relevant now. I imagined a Peacemaking Shop. It’s not an easy path to find or follow.

Collages and More from Boot Camp

This week I continued  Peggy Dean’s Procreate Bootcamp prompts, which included more collages and more. The collages:

This collage prompt asked us to tell a story from a memory. I used a smooth brush and a side stick faint brush from Jennifer Nichols pastel set to either paint or erase. Here’s my true story:

I live along the Columbia River in eastern Washington. My young grandkids would come to stay with us in a “Cousin Camp” for a week. So of course we walked along the river, watching the whirlpools twirl and bubble throughout the ribbon of blue. And, of course, those whirlpools were the result of dragons and their babies swimming through the water world where they now live, away from humans.

“Look,” Allison would say. “I see one.”

Ashlyn, “Me too.”

And so on through the five grandkids, except for a two who were certainly questioning me, but still wondered.

Years later, Allison would write a story about the dragons, chocolate, and the wildfires we have every summer.

Years passed, the cousins grew up.

But one year, when Allison was 16, she called me, a bit put out and a little angry with me. “Gramma. You did not tell me dragons were NOT real. I’ve been arguing in my science fiction class that dragons were real, but they are not!”

So every time I walk by the river, I think about Allison and how much she trusted me. I never thought in a million years that she would hang on to those stories as real.

So here’s our river, the dragons I still believe in, and Allison pointing to one she saw… and she did forgive me; we’re great friends and both still believe in dragons and fairies… her daughter’s first birthday was called “My Fairy First Birthday” with a fairy theme.

Sheri Edwards

This prompt asked us to create a collage poster or symbol for a mantra or quote we want to live by. This photo of a country road near me popped up as my lock screen photo. No matter the chaos around us, we bloom, we rise, we resist, we renew, we are joyous.

“All around the storms wail, yet” and the banner requirement streaming on the dead tree reads “No Matter What,” while the peony still blooms. We bloom. We renew. We resist.

Brushes:
peony: : Jen’s pastels 
banner: wide soft pencil / Jen’s Streaky Pastel
text: dry ink / Jen’s dip Pen

This collage I do not like, but the prompt asked for a portrait. Here I am in the coulee, with the basalt cliffs, the lake is also a reflection of the stars in the universe; my phone includes a star map and I have stars for hair and eyes. The patterns are reflective of the ocean with fish and starfish. A sunflower blooms at my temple. “We are stardust. We are children of the universe, no less than the trees and stars.” Don’t you think?

Peggy also asked us to create an illustration of vintage art supplies with some kind of map too. So, I chose ink, pen, dabber, and sealing wax. The second picture shows the new Procreate brushes I applied to create this illustration. Playing with the new brushes was part of the experience.

Lastly, I created the shop sign for a Peace Shop, which I explained above.

On the side — Fancy Frames

From Lisa Bardot’s YouTube lesson for Art Makers Club, we learned how to create fancy frames, which I chose to frame around part of the motif from last week’s scallop pattern.

This was quite fun and relaxing to do, as usual with Lisa’s lessons.

Patterns

This week I also worked on patterns, although I’m not sure weather I’ll enter these into Spoonflower challenges I delved further into the scallop pattern Jennifer Nichols taught.

This Sun Beach pattern is vibrant, and the Beachy Boho challenge wants neutral colors. So I tried this pattern– it’s closer, but not quite there. This one is exploring clover on the ocean beach. Do you see it in the three color ways?

The next pattern is for the Mediterranean Hues challenge. I so enjoyed this one — it’s just fun and flowing with the suggested colors. What do you think? Do you see lemons, starfish, fish, florals? I chose the diamond pattern, but in symmetry — I like it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring is in the air, and the daffodils are open. I’m so excited! Join me: Make some art to spread some joy!

You can find many helpful artists teachers, including the ones mentions in this post, on my Artist Resources  page. Take a look at their IG and YouTube. Find one that fits your learning and art preferences and stick with them a while to develop your skills. If you have any questions, just ask!

You’re welcome to follow this blog for art inspiration. We can share with #warmup4art to enjoy our work together! I look forward to your sharing and find me at @42Sheri, on Mastodon Sheri42, on Flickr teach.eagle Sheri 42. And, I’m so thankful you’ve been joining me with art this year! Take care!