Trena's Creative Space

Free Workshop - From Paint to Pattern

Hello Beautiful!

It's that time of year when Sarah teaches! Sarah is an excellent teacher if you have ever wanted to learn Adobe Photoshop to clean up your artwork.

She's offering a free workshop to introduce people to her teaching style and give them a taste of what she teaches in the course.  I tried learning Photoshop several times before attending Sarah's course and never got the hang of it. Sarah breaks down the features and shows what features are helpful to artists.  When you sign up for the workshop, you get a 34-page guide showing the steps. 

 Shout Out: Sarah! I had such a great experience that I am partnering with Sarah to share the class.

#trenabrannonart #free #photoshop  #workshop

Take Care and Stay Positive!

Behind-the-Scenes - Beach View

Hello Beautiful!

Are you ready for the beach?! These lovely ladies are relaxing and enjoying the peaceful water view while sipping a refreshing drink. Ahhhh…

Today I'm sharing a behind-the-scenes look at one of the ways I design greeting cards.  Sometimes I intentionally create a design for a greeting card; other times, I create something and later think, oh, that would work on a greeting card!  The design could start from a pencil sketch, a painting, a mark, a scribble, playing around in Photoshop, or a coffee spill in my journal.  For these lovely women on the beach, it was intentional.

I completed the design entirely on my iPad using the Procreate app. It has become my favorite digi drawing tool! In Procreate, I have all the art supplies available with no prep or cleanup. Many, many, many brushes emulate traditional painting - and there are many more available. You can even design your brushes. Procreate also has a solid fan base of artists who teach how to use the tool. 

I found a great printer that captures all the love I put into my art. I also found the right combination of quality paper and cardstock. I’ve been making greeting cards for years, starting with stamps and inkpads [shout out to my dear friend Marge!]. I’ve experimented with all brands of cardstock -I have a bit of a paper library. 😁 I still enjoy stamping, but there’s nothing like having my artwork on a card. ☺️

#trenabrannonart #thebrannonfactory #handmadecards #handmade #greetingcards #procreate #ipadart #digitalart #canonusa #canonpro200 #redriverpaper #polarmatte #neenahpaper #beach

#pinkandgreen #red #blue #blackgirlmagic #blackgirlsillustrate #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram

Take Care and Stay Positive!

Private Policy's Noah's Ark - Peace for All Collection

Hello Beautiful!

I'm Sharing my artwork submission for the @drawadot open call for the PRIVATE POLICY S/S 2023 collection, "Noah's Arc - Peace for All." 🕊🕊🕊 What a fabulous collection! The winner of this open call was announced.
@alixstemmelin !
Congratulations Alix!

And congratulations to the runner-up finalists:
@zohascreations
@evelindemeterillustrations
@andreadelhoyostudio
@sereneillustrations
@l_lloyd_illustrations
@elisawalter.art
@stainonthefloor
@adris_world
@agusselnikova

You can visit them to see their beautiful, colorful illustrations!

#trenabrannonart #drawadotprivatepolicy #drawadot #privatepolicy #ss2023 #fashionillustration #digitalart #procreate

 Shout Out: @mistermkan for running Draw A Dot

Take Care and Stay Positive!

Fashion Illustration Fun - From My Art Journal to PhotoShop

Hello Beautiful!

Hello Beautiful! Sharing my illustration for the @drawadot @schiaparelli Haute Couture F/W 2022 open call.

I did some research on Elsa - a fascinating woman with a very interesting story!
@danielroseberry is the current Creative Director. His 2022 F/W collection is fabulous!! Having so much fun with drawing fashion and seeing all the beautiful creative illustrations!!

I started this piece by painting the individual illustrations in my art journal.

I took a photo of the pages and pulled them into Adobe PhotoShop.  Inside the tool, I put the individual images on their own layers, improved their look, and played with the layout to find something I really liked.   I learned how to do all the steps from Sarah Watts.  Sarah is offering a course on how to take your artwork into Adobe PhotoShop and create surface pattern designs. I took the course last year, and I'm taking it again this year as she has made updates.  I just love how Sarah explains the tools and shows examples with her own artwork. In addition to teaching PhotoShop, she shares a lot of information, and has guest speakers, from the surface design and illustration business.  You can use what you learn to create your own designs for your personal use or for your own business.  I continue to take classes from Sarah and had such a great experience, I became an affiliate for the course. 

 #trenabrannonart #fashionillustration #drawadotschiaparelli #gouache #adobephotoshop

Take Care and Stay Positive!

Trena

I'm a Children's Book Illustrator!!

Hello Beautiful!

I have been working on an illustration project for the last 2.5 months - I’ve been illustrating a children’s book!! It is surreal! This is a dream I’ve had for years.

I thought it would not happen until I gained more experience and exposure as an illustrator. Well, God had a different plan for me! Cliff Notes: Through a Facebook group connection, I learned of an independent author who was looking for an illustrator. I decided to take a chance and reach out to the author. We used email to chat. I learned she lived halfway across the world. She looked at my IG page and agreed to meet on Zoom. I instantly felt a connection with her. She described her next book, which resonated with me. We continued to chat through email. I sent her a couple sketches. And then it happened! Hilda said she would love to work with me on the project! I have been smiling inside ever since! This project, this journey, this partnership that we’ve shared over the past few months has blossomed into a friendship across the world.  For you - your dream may come sooner than you think in the form of an opportunity that you initiate. I encourage you to go for it! Even if you think you’re not ready. You get ready along the way!

In addition to all the joy I experienced working on this book project with Hilda, I learned so much! I learned: how to understand another person’s vision well enough to draw it out;  what independent book publishing looks/feels like; more ways to use Adobe Photoshop and how to use InDesign [sending a big shout out and a bug hug to Helena, the illustrator of Hilda‘s first book Snowy and Zoey In a Whole New World, who gave me some great tips. 

It was so much more than just drawing and coloring!! Snowy and Zoey go to school in this story. For some of the pages I actually had to do research. 🙂 It’s been a minute since I’ve been in a grade school classroom. 😄

Hoping you are having a wonderful weekend!

 Shout Out: to all the people (in person/on line) who have encouraged me!! Peace and Love to you!! XXOO

#trenabrannonart #snowy_and_zoey #illustration #illustrator #takeachance #drawing  #artistsofinstagram

Take Care and Stay Positive!

You Got This

Hello Beautiful People!

Today I'm playing in my journal. The two page layout features Seth Apter's "You Got This" mini stencil and one of my digi faces.

 

I started with a background that already had color laid down from when I cleaned paint brushes off from other projects. I used a variety of stencils, paint, and gesso to create layers of color and design. I printed the digi face I made in Procreate onto regular printer paper, cut it out and adhered it on the page with gel medium.

After it dried, I painted her hair a base color of dark blue, gray and purple. After that, dried I painted her face.  I'll just mention, at this point I poured a glass of wine - nothing like wine and journaling. :) I used variety of art supplies for the details in her face. To add dimension to her curls, I used high flow black paint in a Fineline applicator and a paint pen.

#trenabrannonart #stencilgirl  #goldendpaints #liquitex #mixedmedia #acrylicpaints #artjournaling #art #drawingfaces

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!

InLinkz.com

All Natural

Hello Beautiful People!

She's going all natural. I drew her in Procreate ... learning to use layers and enjoying it!

 

#trenabrannonart #procreate #ipadart #browngirls

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!

Designing with Digis

Hello Beautiful People!

One of the reasons I love designing with digis is that you can make the image any size you want - well any size your printer will print out. :)  I used one image in different sizes on greeting cards and in my art journal page.

 I drew this lovely woman in Procreate on my iPad, inspired by beautiful photos and images I saw on the internet. I just googled head wraps and found hundreds of images. 

 

I inserted the image into Microsoft Power Point, softened her lines, sized her and printed smaller images on cardstock  for the greeting cards and a larger image on copy paper for the art journal page. I colored the smaller images with markers.

The greeting card backgrounds are from a variety - purchased design paper, alcohol ink backgrounds I made (click here to see my post for making the one included here), and gelli prints I made (click here to see how I make my gelli prints). 

 I used matte medium to adhere the larger image on a page in my journal. The background was created using layers of paint and Stencilgirl stencils...

... and colored her with a variety of supplies

#trenabrannonart #thebrannonfactory #ipadart #procreate #drawing #stencilgirl #istencils #copics #artjournaling #goldenpaints #gelliprints #matissepaints #greetingcards #mixedmedia

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!

InLinkz.com

Combining Sketching and Digital Art Painting

I used the face I sketched last week in a digital painting I created with my iPad.  Click here to see the sketch.

#trenabrannonart #digitalart #ipadart #faces #procreate #procreateapp #digitaldreams #robinmead 

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!

Digital Art Piece

There are lots of software painting and drawing tools/apps out there - many are free and some cost.  I took a class last year and found it very helpful to educate myself on all the options. This piece was done in ArtRage on my iPad.

I dig the variety of features - tools and colors. There are pencils, water color , oils, chalk, pens and more! You can change the sizes, width,  and opacity. It's easy to blend and get similar results to paper and paint.  It also has a nice help button.  The best part - no clean up!!

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!

Digital Art

For those of you who enjoy drawing, painting, and doodling, have you tried digital? I am taking an
on-line iPad art class and I am having a ball!  I really like the flexibility of practicing my designs, erasing and starting over with no paper waste. Many of the apps have an undo feature - which is priceless. :o)  Some also allow for layers, which is so convenient! You can sketch your rough draft on one layer and your final on another, then delete the first layer - no tedious erasing.

Jessica's iPad Studio workshop is like having a library of user manuals with tips and techniques. There's also a place to ask questions as well as share your art work and experiences.  Jessica is a wonderful, sharing artist.

The beauty for me is that I can take the workshop at my own pace.  Another beauty is I have a variety of mediums, endless pallets and paper - all in my purse to easily take with me anywhere- AND, there's no clean up! :o)

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!