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This weeks Creative Palette is from my "Alone" Digital Mixed Media Graphic Art Illustration. "Alone" Mixed Media Graphic Art If you’re interested in learning how to create backgrounds like this yourself or how to use them in graphic art illustrations, check out my latest Skillshare Class .

Creating a graphic art background in Adobe Fresco is the first step to creating my mixed media graphic art illustrations, but they also become art pieces in themselves. Layer One ~ With the Live Oil Brushes paint in the background. This is a intuitive process...so there is no right or wrong way to lay down the color. I select a color palette I want to use and then apply the color across the page. For this first layer I used the OilPaint Chunky brush size 512 with paint mix se

For my Digital Mixed Media Graphic Art Skillshare class I created a ton of backgrounds so I could use them in my lessons. I thought it would be fun to share the color palette's with you in what I'm calling "Creative Palette". This background became the jumping off point for my illustration "She Found Herself". "She Found Herself" Mixed Media Graphic Art If you're interested in learning how to create backgrounds like this yourself or how to use them in graphic art illustratio

Each creative must actively wade through the uncertainty that comes with the very act of creating. Whether creating art, music, or the written word...each must explore, question, play and experiment with their subjects and voice in order to find where they sit comfortably and authentically as a creative person. Creatives can't sit by and wait for inspiration or even motivation to bite them in the rear-end and compel them to sit into action. Passion is the driving force. Creat

Being a self-taught artist has brought me both immense joy and overwhelming fear. The joy stems from the freedom to learn my way and to create a style that is truly my own and that reflects who I am and the life I’ve had. The fear seeps into those dark moments where I feel like a fraud or a failure. The moments when I compare myself to others and find my art lacking. Or when I put my art into the world and...crickets. 7 Tips for Being a Self-Taught Artist... 1) Be willing to

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from students is how they can find their artistic style. It’s followed by how do they find it if they are learning…copying…another artist’s style? Finding your unique style is a matter of finding yourself in the art. It’s noticing the little habits or traits that appear in your work over and over. These aren’t thing you choose but rather they are things you’ll find by looking at your artwork and noticing the little things y

When I began my daily journaling practice I was hoping to form a more consistent journaling rhythm as-well-as to form a more honest and personal relationship with myself and my writing voice. Up until that point, I found my journaling to be a list of things I did that day or a long winded dramatic dump of all the emotions I was feeling that day. But the idea of having an unlimited amount of space each day felt overwhelming. I ended up choosing the Moleskine 18-month planner .

I believe we all have a basic 5 rules we live by. The trick is, each of our 5 are not the same. This makes us each unique as we're guided by these rules. These are the things we filter through as we make decisions and move through our days. Our 5 can be partly dictated by our upbringing, our religion and our community. Here are my five~ Do not procrastinate - This was a rule that gathered steam as I got older and suffered major grief, loss of my health and facing my own deat

We began homeschooling our kids in kindergarten while working from home. The kids were little, and it was a choice we made to keep them at home with us. We had a curriculum and plans in place, yet our daily homeschool/work situation rarely looked like the pretty schedule I created and hung on the wall for all to see. For those of you who didn’t get to make this choice and are carrying tons of fear and worry around, these days are going to feel overwhelming. Here are things to

During the housing crisis of 2008/2009, my husband and I were running an architectural marketing company and overnight the phone stopped ringing, emails dried up and clients stopped paying their bills. Our world finds itself in the midst of very uncertain times again, but we survived the 2008 crisis and we can survive this as well. Below I’ve listed some of the practical things we implemented immediately to protect our business, and these are things you can do as well, no mat

My husband and I have been self-employed and working from home for 19 years. During those years I homeschooled two kids through graduation. I found in all those years the most important thing is to have a great morning routine. Otherwise your mornings drag out and by the time you get to work your day is half-over. There are a few things you can do to ensure you start your day right. No phone We all want to be informed but looking at the news seconds after waking up will only

This coronavirus crisis has forced many schools to close and has left many parents scrambling to find ways to occupy their kids during the day. There will obviously be schoolwork to stay on top of, but parents are forced to find ways to keep them busy. I homeschooled my two kids from Kindergarten through graduation so I'm quite familiar with finding things to do with kiddos at home. Cook Together This is a great opportunity to get your kids in the kitchen. Many people are eat

Handwritten letters are a lost art form. Modern technology and convenience have replaced handwritten letters (even viewing them as archaic) and replaced them with a crazy form of shorthand, filled with abbreviations and emojis. I may be somewhat old-fashioned, but I love handwritten letters and journals. It’s my goal to find handwritten journals, diaries, datebooks, and letters when I visit antique stores. It’s also why I love keeping journals myself. There’s something powerf

I hope you all had a chance to play with color last week and that you were able to discover which colors evoked emotions. Were you able to find a color palettes that spoke to you? What did you decide to create with your selected color palette? During my color play the purples were calling to me. The mood I was in this week was a bit dark, but there were moments of hope and for me purple inspires me without being overly bright and cheery. I decided to use the color swatches in

This week we’re continuing to explore colors and how colors affect our emotions. Your project will be to create color swatches and color mixing charts using watercolor paints. Colors Swatches Starting with the paints you currently have on hand. I want you to swatch out each color so you can get a true sense of the base colors you have. If you only have a limited palette of primary colors, that’s ok to start with. If you’ve got a couple of palettes or lots of miscellaneous pai