Illustration Friday: Edge

Here's my quick sketch for this week's Illustration Friday: Edge.

This is a digital drawing but it's a bit different in that I started it on my new iPad with the Procreate program. It's pretty cool that I can create a drawing just about anywhere and then instantly send it to my computer's Photoshop program. Ahh technology.

It will take some getting used to though because now I will have to learn how to draw really well with just my finger instead of a stylus. The bird drawing below is my very first iPad sketch. I'm pretty excited at all the possibilities with my new toy but I've been feeling the urge to reconnect with some old-fashioned paint and paper. Stay tuned.

Illustration Friday: Haunted

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one.

Online courses with FoiloAcademy.com

As I work towards a career I always feel a little nervous that maybe I don't know enough about being an illustrator because I never took it formally in school. I learned the technical aspects of printmaking but we were never given any hints as to how we were to make a living with our creativity. I know this is a common complaint of art school graduates but for some reason those students who took graphic design and illustration as their major were given those necessary building blocks.

As such, I have taken extra courses centered on illustration and the business of it. I have taken courses offline as well as online and I really enjoy getting the chance to work towards my career goals. One of the last courses I took, Digital Painting in Photoshop was online through FolioAcademy.com with Will Terry. I really enjoyed the format of the course in that it was all pre-recorded videos that let me go at my own pace. I was able to draw and follow along in Photoshop which made me very thankful to be able to use the pause button as I'm still learning the program.

I really admire Will's work and I find myself regularly clicking his Facebook links and reading his blog posts. Each video and post has a wealth of information without giving the feeling that a career in illustration is insurmountable. Will teaches illustration  offline as well at a university and I find myself pretty jealous that his students have such direct access to this great resource. I'm pretty happy though that through FolioAcademy.com and the wonders of the internet that I'll be able to keep learning too and I will be able to get closer to my goal of being a children's book illustrator.

I should clarify that FolioAcademy.com doesn't just offer digital illustration courses. If you're interested in oil painting, ceramics,acrylic painting, screen printing, watercolors, or pastels  you might be able to find something just for you. Take a look at what they have to offer and know that there is no monthly commitment or huge course fees to pay. Yet another reason to love FolioAcademy.com.

Have you taken a course too? How did you like it?

Taking myself to school.... Photoshop that is

 I've been pretty proud of myself lately for finally submitting to the Illustration Friday weekly topics. I had put it off for so long because I didn't think a week was going to be long enough to come up with an idea and execute a finished piece. I finally convinced myself that each  piece didn't have to be publish worthy and that I could even just submit a sketch. After I eased up the pressure I've been able to create some images faster than I thought I could. You can find my Illustration Friday collection started on my Flickr here.

Besides actually just attempting the weekly topics, I've been trying to keep my submissions as digital pieces so that I can finally learn Photoshop. I'm a bit too old to have learned the program in school so everything I know on it is self taught with the help of a few online tutorials. I really want to paint in watercolor and oils digitally but the program is really too huge for me to have figured out how to do that. It's been pretty frustrating and for last weeks topic: vocal, I decided to try the image in digital watercolor and in traditional watercolor to see how each one translates. What do you think? What are the differences? Which one looks more fresh?

I'm going to keep trying to figure digital painting out with the help of Lynda.com courses but so far it still doesn't give the same level of satisfaction that a brush to paper does.

Just pluggin' away

We're into March now and I feel myself getting discouraged again. Everyday I work on my Etsy shop and continue with my projects. I keep telling myself that creating is my job and learning new ways to create is important. On the days that Money demands attention (it was just rent day) I feel that I should be spending all my time finding ways to bring in more money. Then I feel guilty for wanting to create all the time. I have wished many times to be able to shut my brain off to for 40 hours a week and just do a job that pays the bills. To want nothing more. I haven't figured out how yet and I find myself going loopy after 15 hours a week. Yup, I haven't had a full time paying job for well over ten years. Ask me how many hours I could spend in the studio a day. I could easily do 10-12 hours a day, no problem. There I get to use my brain. Too bad it doesn't bring in an income. Yet.

Below are some things I have been working on with my tablet, Photoshop and Corel paint.   There's still quite a learning curve I'm trying to overcome with Photoshop but it's been good for creating studies for finished pieces. The skeleton pieces are studies for linocuts, the cat is just me trying out some fur brushes I downloaded and I'm using the mermaid sketch to learn layers.

How about you? Do you find yourself in conflict with creating and money?