January: Watercolor Birthdays, Digital Doodles, and Craft Tutorials
Happy 2024! In true “mosey creative” fashion, this month I’ve meandered through and explored a few different creative mediums. I am halfway through my second pregnancy and am experiencing quick surges of energy and motivation, followed by lots of fatigue and rest. Posting this January recap has helped me to realize, “hey, I actually worked my creative muscles more than I thought!” – so that’s always encouraging.
Here’s what I’ve been learning and creating this month:
Watercolor Birthdays
To celebrate some special birthdays this month, I made custom digital watercolor prints from photo references. I still have so much to learn as a developing artist – and it’s amazing how a little pressure (like a birthday party deadline!) can push us outside of our creative comfort zones.
Happy Birthday Coop & Mama!
Custom digital watercolor drawn in Procreate on my iPad, using brushes from Watercolor Wonder by Lisa Bardot. To complete the gift, I printed on cream card stock from my home printer and used this modern frame from Amazon.
Happy Birthday Emily!
For this piece, I collaged multiple photo references and tried to use bold, warm colors and shading techniques. After gifting the framed print to Emily, I reworked the artwork in Adobe Illustrator to make a poster for one of her upcoming shows. If you’d like to learn more, here you can listen to Emily Persha’s music!
Doodles & Tutorials
One of the artists that inspires me, Sarah Hand, said that she draws birds and apples whenever she is feeling stuck or uninspired. So with that in mind, here are my silly cat and bird doodles. It’s also fun to see how different brushes can give you an umph of inspiration and influence the illustrative style. Here I’m using the Dry Ink brush, native to the Procreate app.
I’m always learning something new from my favorite art teacher, Lisa Bardot! Here are pieces I made while watching a few of her “Making Art Everyday” videos this month. I highly recommend trying her fun-filled Procreate tutorials at BardotBrush.com.
Craft Tutorials
This month I posted two colorful, whimsical craft felt tutorials – they were so much fun to design and sew!
