Designing Again

It has been so hot here to think about the big stuff…so I thought I’d think about the little stuff!

I haven’t uploaded any new designs to RedBubble for awhile and lately I’ve been loving the geometric designs with bright colours and simple shapes.

I created these 4 designs on Canva where it is surprisingly easy to create a repeat pattern – much easier than Photoshop!

I’m never sure when it comes to repeating patterns though – do people prefer larger patterns or smaller repeating patterns (on things like pillows and bags etc.)?

When it comes to designing for RedBubble I try to make sure that the floor and throw pillows, for example, have the same pattern but in different sizes, so it’s a matching set kind of thing. And then you get a choice – big or small pattern!

I find it quite hard to place the pattern perfectly on things sometimes! There are some limitations with the software as it has to be accessible and usable by everyone, not just people who are professional designers. RedBubble is still my favourite Print On Demand platform for usability and the aesthetics of it. The others look a bit naff in comparison. Haha, oh well…it’s fun anyways!

It’s fun messing around with shapes and colours and seeing what you can come up with, I’m not an artist, not by a long stretch but I am starting to wish I’d done something more visual and creative at university than a foreign language!

I’m back in the mood for more creative stuff now!

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WoollyOrbit2000.redbubble.com

I wrote a design post on Medium about how I decide whether to use a tiny or a larger pattern on products. You can find the link here:

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/print-on-demand-tiny-pattern-repeats-or-big-ones-eee11e53849a

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Making a Dog Bone Procreate Brush

I figured out how to do a technical thing! I can create digital brushes now…yay!

I always thought it would be a lot harder than it actually is. It’s actually super simple to create a nice texture brush in Procreate.

If you don’t know, Procreate is a drawing app you can use on the I-pad. You can make raster (pixel) drawings on there, which almost every artist uses. It’s very versatile, you can make backgrounds, repeat patterns, lettering, text based designs, pictures, cool effects like neon sign writing…anything really.

I’ve made really simple ones, like a textured brush of a macrame wall hanging I made years ago. And simple diamonds and stars brushes, which are so simple but nevertheless quite effective.

My favourite has to be the dog bone one though!!!

The coloured bones were ‘stamped’ and the writing just by writing with the Apple Pencil as you normally would write.

I drew the bone on a page using the symmetry tool (so it didn’t take long at all!). Then exported it to my files and imported that file into the shapes tab in a new brush. Tap the image invert the colours and that’s pretty much it! Play around with the sizing and spacing of the shapes to create some really cook effects.

It might sound complicated but hey, if I can do it…!

As I say, I made other shapes too…like these…

For first ever tries, they’re not bad! Although the cactus didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped…oh well!

You can either use the brush as you normally would to draw or write, or you can stab it on the screen and use it as a stamp. The stamping method works particularly well if your brush has a shape design such as the stars or dog bone.

The lighter you press with the Apple Pencil, then the more faded out the brush looks.

I did try to upload the dog bone brush as a freebie for you. BUT, WordPress wasn’t having it, so you’ll just have to look at the picture with longing I’m afraid!

You can buy Procreate brushes quite cheaply on sites like Creative Market or Creative Fabrica.

For example this cute Rainbow Brush from Creative Fabrica.

Procreate brush, rainbow brushes stamp

Creative Fabrica

Or how about this sweet mushroom stamp brush set?

Procreate Brush Stamps Mushroom Doodle

Creative Fabrica.

There are lots of options to buy…I’m going to have a look around, and hopefully once I’ve developed my skills a bit, be able to sell some creations on there. That’s the plan, anyway!

The links to Creative Fabrica above are affiliate links, which means if you use the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission with no extra cost to yourself.

Something Funny I Made – It’s So Bad!!!

Yesterday, I was waiting for my computer to update. It took HOURS! So, I decided to mess around on Procreate.

I figured out how to import a reference photo and used an old one of me (I don’t have that hairstyle anymore!). And…um..yeah.

It’s my first ‘proper’ go at drawing digitally, everything else has been just playing. So was this really, but I didn’t trace it, I actually drew it freehand and used layers. The time-lapse is hilarious, but I don’t think I can upload videos here.

On the plus side, I can only get better from here, right?!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Canva Gal

I finally got the Canva Pro account a week or two ago and I’m loving it!

Who knew being able to export a PNG with a transparent background could lead to the possibility of creating this little fella here?

Isn’t he a cutie?! All made with their free stock media too…

And I like the fact that you can choose which page to export too. Oh and the curved text feature.

Which allows me to create this lil lady here…

And there’s even a way to share copies of files without changing the ‘Master’ copy. That part is genius.

If you’re not great with the technical elements to design then Canva is a great place to start- they have free option too, just less flexibility with the free option.

I’ve been playing with fonts too and uploading them into Canva. I wish there was some way of categorising or sorting them once you’ve uploaded them, that would be helpful. Like, having different branding sections of the upload page, but oh well. You can’t have everything!

Not quite at the sell your font level yet…but this is a vast improvement from my first one a few posts ago, right?!

The kerning is a little off. Kerning. I love that word, it means the spacing between the letters (I think!).

My First Font! (It’s quite bad!!)

Isn’t it funny how you start with one idea or purpose in mind and then end up with something totally different! Like, you start down one path and end up going in a completely different direction.

I’ve been looking at a lot of things to do with digital downloads and design software lately, getting to grips with design tools and elements and trying to figure out vectors for drawing and designing (I have NO graphic design experience or qualifications whatsoever by the way).

And then one day, after watching so many design videos on Youtube, I found a few videos about making your own fonts and I was hooked.

There are a few options as to how to make your own font, I should add I’m only looking at free ones or maybe pay a few pounds for an app. I’m not looking to spend thousands on professional design software!

There are apps such as ifontmaker or there’s Calligraphr. Which is what I used.

You sign up for a free account (or you can buy a paid one which gives you more characters to choose from – the free version only gives you 75 characters which isn’t very much, so if you wanted to make fonts to sell, then you would have to create a few more characters than 75).

Then you download a template, import the template into an app such as Procreate, which is what I used, write your letters or characters, export as a PNG and reupload it back to Calligraphr, mess around a bit with spacing and letter height and then create your font.

Once you download your font from Calligraphr, you can add it to your design software, I uploaded mine to my Canva account and I wrote the page below in Canva.

Now, this might sound like a lot of back and forth, it certainly looks it when I come to write all this out, but believe me it’s not. The whole process was quick and easy and a lot of fun.

But I now realise how terrible my handwriting is!! :O

Proving I had NO IDEA what to write when making this!!

And the pictures are my hand drawings from Procreate too. I can’t believe how the last month has been WHOOSH of technical stuff.

I dont know where this saying comes from but I feel it’s appropriate for me right now:

‘I didn’t know what I didn’t know!’

Want to have a go at creating your own font? Head over to Calligraphr it’s really easy.

You could create a birthday card or type a letter for someone if you wanted. Maybe even make an e-book with it. Or even sell it if it was any good.

RedBubble Shop

After playing around with digital ‘art’ making in the last week or so (which is why there has been so little crafting going on!), I decided to open a RedBubble shop and see what happens.

Now, I am no graphic designer by any stretch, but once I got started I found I couldn’t stop!

I’m still figuring out sizing of images etc. and I’ll probably play around with images and uploads of what’s already there, but it’s early days and I can only improve in time 🙂

The first collection called Monochrome just jumped out of my head…now I’m thinking a NEON one next! Maybe even an 80’s inspired something…I’m not sure, I like the idea of a green leaves collection too. It’s just an explosion of creativity here right now 🙂

Have a look and see what you think x

WoollyOrbit2000.redbubble.com

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MONOCHROME!!

Free Colouring In Page – HAPPY EASTER

I’m on a roll now – more wonky digital ‘art’!!

Still learning how to draw digitally so again, these are only rough, first tries..

I managed to make the egg by warping a circle – I felt quite clever doing that!!! (the squiggles at the bottom are meant to be coral in case you can’t tell).

And an ‘S’? Because S is for Sarah that’s why!

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And here are the files if you want to have a pop at them:

Happy EasterDownload

Colour in SDownload

[As always these are available free to download and print off for personal use, but not for commercial purposes!]

Digital Dreams

Last year, I didn’t use my tablet much as I was unable to join wi-fi for much of it 😦 So, I didn’t use my tablet much at all.

But now that we have a new internet provider I’m loving having the ability to use my tablet again…and one app in particular – Procreate.

In case you don’t know what it is, it’s an app for design and drawing that lots of artists use to create digital artwork on. Now, I am the world’s worst artist but I do love to have a mess around.

I figured out how to work a lot of the selection tools by watching this video here…

I also figured out how to export to my computer and print off…I drew an A4 colouring page, which was terrible, but it worked!!

It’s very wonky lol! I’m still getting the hang of which brushes to use and how much pressure to put on the pencil and moving my hand around the page…but for a first go, it could be worse!

Here is the PDF download if you’re desperate to have a go…I won’t judge you if you don’t!

Colouring_Page_1Download

I definitely want to do a LOT more digital “artwork” in the future…watch this space because I have ideas for things…

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I’ve also been messing around with Canva, which I love as I find Photoshop so incredibly difficult to wrap my head around. [I’m the one looking for Insert photo when you have to Place Embedded :O]

I deleted all my old designs in Canva from years ago and had a play around…a sample e-book cover looked pretty good if I do say so myself.

I’ve created business cards in Canva in the past before I had Photoshop, it’s a really easy and obvious platform to use and there is a free account option if you just want to have a play.

Technology has advanced so much in the last 2 or 3 decades or so, there is absolutely NO reason for it still to be difficult to use!