Last Night’s Live – More Colouring

Last Night’s Live – More Colouring

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After getting back into a groove of alternating between Story Time and Colouring Book pages, I threw my own groove off and did a second colouring book page in a row. Because that’s what we do around here lol. Not too big of a deal though, we still had a lot of fun.

Last night I did a page inspired by the jungle I am accumulating around my place throughout this pandemic. It’s an overwhelming and completely satisfying hobby (when things are going well lol).

We went through all of the usual steps, and got almost all of the way there before I had to head out for some training. I went in with a very vague plan and I think that it came together nicely. I still think that there is a little something missing, but I will sort that out in my “last 10 minutes” efforts this weekend.

If you missed this week, don’t worry, I will be back online next week, and the week after… and even the week after. I go live on Facebook, Instagram and Behance every Thursday night at 7PM EST. We go through all kinds of different projects that I have on the go, and I am hoping to get some of my less digital studio work up and running really soon. Please join me next week and we can chat!

Here’s last night’s stream if you want to get caught up!

Creativity – Revisit Your Work

Creativity – Revisit Your Work

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I came up with the idea for this post while I was chatting on my live last week. We were talking about the line weights and confidence in the strokes when I was using the vector brush in Fresco. I was impressed on how much they had improved. After the session I went back to the first couple of colouring book pages and saw a huge difference. My lines were much more straight and confident.

Even looking back in my first Behance Beauty of last year. The difference in the development and process from that Ballerina to my more recent Black Beard is huge! The layers are used differently, the original sketch plays different roles in each one, and the colour palette is a lot more defined.

I think that this is a great reason to keep your old work around. Don’t throw it away. I’ve gone through my old sketchbooks from high school too, and it’s so interesting to see how far my art has come, or how much it has changed.

For the few years ahead of the pandemic, I wouldn’t have had that available. I wasn’t creating art on as regular of a basis, and so there was no learning or skill tuning happening. Now that I am creating art more regularly with some more specific styles emerging, I have these great comparisons to look at. It’s comforting to know that I am learning, improving and expanding with each piece.

Now, I am not saying that your old stuff is bad. All I am saying is that this is an occasion for you to see results first hand. It’s a cool comparison to have. If you keep working at something you’ll learn and grow through the whole process.

So if you’re working on something that allows to you keep a record of where you started, I highly recommend that you do so. Sometimes that growth and change is so gradual that you won’t notice it’s happening. When you put those pieces next to one another you’ll see how far you and your creativity have come.

Behance Story – Black Beard

Behance Story – Black Beard

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After all the beautiful work this month, I was able to finish this guy on time. There was some consideration of taking an extra month to get the right effect, but at the last minute the right brush strokes knocked everything into place. Whew! Just keep going.

As promised, there is no lady here. This month we have our first gent in the form of Mr. Teach himself… I present to you, Black Beard!

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Quick Prompt – Experiment

Quick Prompt – Experiment

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A great way to jog a few ideas is to experiment. Don’t put down any rules, just let things happen. Start putting some ink down on paper. What would it look like with a different colour added to it? Maybe some markers? Some chalk? What about a magazine clipping?

I have a sketchbook dedicated to these kinds of experiments. Sometimes it is daunting to go in without a plan, sometimes it is the most fun ever! Some of the pages I haven’t used yet, but some have turned out to be a lot of fun. This one below was my first try at spray inks. I let it dry, took a look, and then let this sketch build over top.

It’s a great way to try something new, and to find out something that really pushes you and your style a little bit further.

What did you come up with?

Last Night’s Live – The Clawwww

Last Night’s Live – The Clawwww

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Last night we did another illustration in my Story Time Series. I am having a crazy amount of fun with these. Now that I am finding a bit of a rhythm, with a few brushes that are working for me, they are turning out to be a quicker turn around than anticipated. So much fun!

If you want to join in the fun, join me at 7PM EST every Thursday night on Facebook, Instagram and Behance. I am there to answer questions, go over my process, showing new tools I am finding, and talking about what I have coming up in the studio. All the fun things.

Here’s the little guy from this week! I look forward to seeing you all out next Thursday.

Creativity – Ask Why

Creativity – Ask Why

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For a while, I felt like my art studio and work was all on hold for “eventual” things. I was too tired after work, I didn’t want to post what I had, I wasn’t sketching as often, my style wasn’t ready, my pencil wasn’t sharpened. Sometimes it’s a creative block, sometimes there is something in the way. I don’t recall what made me do it, but I started to ask the ever persistent question… why?

Here’s a few examples:

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Creativity – Don’t wait…

Creativity – Don’t wait…

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When asked what his biggest regret was at Adobe MAX 2021, Ken Lashley responded by saying, “don’t wait too long to listen to your inner voice.” This is something that has resonated with me for some time in different degrees. Why would you spend one more day away from something that speaks to you?

Hearing this quote reassured me to keep going. His quote isn’t even about the shortness of time, if you wait one day, that’s one day you aren’t doing something that calls to you, one less day to spend with the joy that something can bring.

There is A LOT I could say about this, and no balance will be right for each individual person. But really, at its simplest form, when I wonder about what I am doing and if it’s the right thing, I ask, “are you enjoying it?” and “if I were gone today would this be what I want done?” If I were gone today, what would I regret NOT doing? Do that thing.

I’ve had many checks on this in my life, a friend who was taken too soon, family members full of life and still brought down, there’s never enough time. Even light realizations of “you’ll never read all of the books on your list”, or “knit all the yarn in your stash” at a certain level hit pretty hard. It’s a lot.

It’s also really easy, in our fast paced life to think about taking a quick break and doing things tomorrow. While I do advocate for that now and again, we all need breaks, some take too many and put things off for forever. I keep putting off projects that I know I will enjoy because of minor things, these are days I am not spending with a project I know will fill me up. Girl… believe in yourself. Do the thing!

A little bit of a bleak one, but it’s the kick in the pants I use whenever I have any doubt or wonder if I am putting my energy into the right things. My studio is where I am at my happiest, why would I put that off any longer than necessary? What are you putting off?

Quick Prompt – 100 Day Challenge

Quick Prompt – 100 Day Challenge

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This is going to be a two part prompt. This one is the kick-off post.

I keep hearing all about these 100 day challenges, and I want to play the game too! The idea behind 100 day challenges is to put focus on something we want to do day to day, or develop into a habit in our lives. There are millions of ways that people can incorporate this into you lives, not just artists. 100 days of cooking, reading, water drinking, etc.

For myself, I want to get back to my hands on art supplies. Adobe Fresco has taken over a bit lately, which is NOT a bad thing, I just find my markers are a little impatient with me right now. So here is my 100 day challenge:

100 days of non-digital art!

I’ll still be creating my usual content (Stories and lives) and go ahead with my regularly scheduled plans. I am just going to spend 20 minutes minimum per day working with my hands, off of the iPad and computer. I don’t want to force myself to do a finished piece everyday, maybe one full one every few days or in a week. For those of you who want to follow along, I am going to be posting my progress through reels on Facebook and Instagram. I will probably post piece by piece rather than day by day, but we will see how it goes.

What will you be doing for your 100 day challenge?

Creativity – Trust Your Intuition

Creativity – Trust Your Intuition

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Lately I have struggled a little with the idea that I might not have a consistent style across all of my work. It has come to the point some days where I won’t work on a piece because I don’t think that the final result will match what I have created lately. As soon as I realized that I knew something had to change.

Surrender to who you are and accept it. I am who I am, that’s why I draw this way. Trust your intuition, and do your own thing.

Yuko Shimizu

This quote from Yuko Shimizu really helped me. Just let the art happen. Your art is your own no matter what it looks like. Let the work do its things and the style will come through naturally. I also find that trying new things can really evolve your style and make it better. Holding yourself back will only create limitations.

If you’re true to yourself and the work that you do, and you don’t fight it, it will all work out. When I was updating some portfolio information a couple of weeks ago I saw that pieces that I originally thought of as completely different, had a lot of similarities in them. They each had their own energies and their own elements, but there were some subtleties that really made them look like my art.

As with most of my activities, I find that the more natural you let things flow, the more amazing the final result. The more you fight it the harder you struggle. Just surrender to it, and it will all work out.