Octopus News

130+ Enrollments in my Newest Art Class!

A few weeks ago, I created a new art class on Skillshare. It's a 20 minute step-by-step tutorial called Line Drawing- The Power of Suggestion.  This class takes you from a basic sketch, to artwork with powerful, bold black minimalistic outlines.  The community messaging page allows me to answer any questions you have and respond to your comments, so you have all the support you need along the way.  This is definitely my most favorite class to date, and I couldn't be more grateful for the 130+ students who have enrolled in the class so far!  To celebrate, I plan to host a contest featuring an Amazon gift card for a prize.  To sweeten the deal, I am offering a few free enrollments in case you'd like to join the contest. Cant wait to see you there!!!

Earth Day Inspiration

I hope you had a happy Earth Day yesterday!  I was proud to be able to support our planet by posting this illustration and contributing a donation to the Earth Day Network.  I have about four art apps, each for different effects.  For this project, I used my 53Paper app which gave me an animated, ethereal look that I love.  It's an amazing interface that allows you to create your own custom colors with the color mixer, or pull colors from a photo.  They sell their own stylus made just for the app, but I find that an Apple Pencel or a regular stylus works just fine.  Aside from the background, I used the watercolor brush tool, so it was very simple.  If you are not familiar with 53Paper, this link will give you a bit more insight.  Check it out here on my Instagram.  

Crushing on Gradients

Have you noticed these gorgeous multicolored gradients popping up all over the place? I'm kind of obsessed right now!  This technique has opened up a variety of options for artists and designers.  I have not dipped my toe into the color gradient pool as of yet, but I am working my way that direction. There is a fantastic blog post on Blog.SpoonGraphics that shows some amazing examples of the use of gradients in for a variety of design uses.  Yasmina Creates has a fantastic watercolor painting class on this very subject. Her fun and easy techniques have earned her quite a following and I'm becoming a fan myself. You can check it out here if you are a Skillshare member. If not, the above is a wonderful example of her stunning use of color.