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 join the members of Lisa Bardot’s Art Makers Club for Founders Month –the fourth birthday for the club. I am a founding member and find inspiration and tutorials there that keep me making art every day. Everyone can join in with her free Make Art Everyday prompts and some of her tutorials on YouTube.
Carnival
The theme this month for Make Art Everyday prompts is Carnival. This week for July 16-22 prompts, I’ve illustrated funhouse mirror, ferris wheel, carousel unicorn, wooden rollercoaster, circus tent, ball-balancing seal, and ringmaster. Click an image for larger view.
The funhouse mirror was fun to create using Lisa Bardot’s Print Shop brushes which create a retro print effect. I did remove the mirror and person motifs from the red background and yellow star layer to maintain the colors. It was fun to create the stretched person in the mirror. First I sketched the standing person so I could imagine the stretched person. I made use of minimal lines with black ink– just enough to indicate edges of areas like the mirror, hair, clothing. To add to the carnival theme, I added in the yellow star, extending it past the background for visual fun. I’ll embed a replay so you can see the sketch and placement of the inking.
Light / Shadow Study
Jennifer Nichols provides two great lessons for light and shadow study. To learn about this technique and more you might want to join Jennifer’s community: affiliate link to Creative Journey membership. I first tried on my own after the first sketchbook practice session. Then, after the info lesson, I revised to include the light, shadow, reflections. My reference: a marble with red swirls.
If you look at the seal / balloon illustration from the carnival illustrations, you will see that I also tried to get the shadows and highlights correct on the seal.
Greeting Card
Again, I found an illustration that I’d created before and used it for an anniversary card to my friends. The little lovebirds are perfect for people celebrating over 50 years together!
CatCoq Mini Challenge / Carrie Cantwell Etsy
I’m also once again working through CatCoq’s Mini Collection Challenge. Last week we created “hero” illustrations that included an animal. This week we created blender patterns that coordinate with the hero illustration.
Of course choosing an animal is the first decision. It just so happens that I also watched Carrie Cantwell’s Skillshare class Etsy for Artists: The 10-Minute Niche Test to Find What Sells.
We learned how to use Etsy’s Picks and Stellar Sellers to see what is trending. Here’s my project and this is my process:
On Etsy, I tried several searches of possible art motifs I’d like to draw:
soft pond botanicals, folk frogs, dragonflies, illustration
folk art frogs, pond life, illustration
folk art frogs, dragonflies, illustration
folk art dragonflies, illustration
folk art frogs
frog life
The results were not as I expected, so shifted my focus to another animal but stayed with the “pond life” idea because those always showed quite a few. My new search was:
folk art birds by the pond print, which shows that the topic has been searched for and sold often:
This fits with Catcoq’s trend report that suggests that “Dreamy Water Gardens” are trending — with lavenders, mint greens, and chartreuse. So, I started an idea on that. I searched in Flickr commons for “pond life” plants and birds for ideas on what to include in my illustration using the plants, colors, and trend related to Pond Life. Here’s my first try:
My favorite part of the hero are the floating white flowers and the dragonflies. So in the second week of CatCoq’s challenge, I created a pattern with those flowers and dragonflies in two color ways:
So far, my “challenge” sheet that Cat provides looks like this. I may add in another blender for fun. Two more weeks for the challenge– give it a try: CatCoq’s challenge.
Thank You
So a big thank you to these artists whose communities, newsletters, and challenges provide the strategies and tools for other artists to improve their art.
Thanks for stopping by!
This is a fun month for drawing — quick and fun drawings for the Carnival theme. Take a look at last week’s Carnival drawings: Week 1. Remember that Lisa Bardot’s Make Art Everyday prompts are free and open to anyone to follow along; some of her tutorials are available as well. So join in! Try a new style or keep with your own.
Of course, if you love making patterns, CatCoq’s Mini Collection Challenge is a perfect way to learn how to create a collection, complete with information on hero and blender illustrations in a surface design collection. Check out her many resources. This is free too.
Carrie Cantwell’s Skillshare classes provide so much information about different platforms and your portfolio. Give her classes a look.
Jennifer Nichols [affiliate link] community, newsletters, and blog provide the artistic techniques for Procreate and analog art for beginners to keep you improving day by day. Check it out.
You can find many helpful artists teachers 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.
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!
I wonder, if I draw a line... 