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October 2017

Beginner, Illustration, Tutorials, Watercolor

I’ve been breaking out my watercolors a bit more lately and have found myself painting a lot of autumn and winter themed illustrations. I thought I’d change things up a bit this week and share my method for painting an autumn watercolor branch. This is one of the first illustrations I learned how to paint and I love that there’s no pressure to get anything perfect. Add as many leaves, branches and organic curves as you’d like – there really is endless creative freedom here. We’ll go through the wet on dry technique, mix up custom pan set watercolors and talk about a few tips for painting leaves. This is the first Every-Tuesday watercolor painting tutorial – let me know if you’d like to see more in the future!

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Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies, Hand Lettering

It’s the last Thursday in October, which means it’s time for your free November 2017 desktop wallpapers! This month, I decided to jump on the iPad to create a fall themed illustration/doodle explosion wallpaper 🙂 November is hand lettered with my own custom Procreate brush (all illustrations were created with that same texture brush) and the dates are set in my newest font, Skinny Jeans (caps style). The final illustration was exported out of Procreate as a psd, where it was slightly edited (subtle watercolor background texture added) and then combined and resized with the dates.

The download includes the November 2017 desktop wallpapers in two common resolutions: 1280x1024px and 1920x1080px, with and without dates. I’ve left the year off of the ‘no-dates’ versions, so you can use it for any November in the future, too!

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Beginner, Photoshop, Textures, Tutorials

A couple weeks ago, I shared 3 tricks for creating unique grit textures. This week, I’m sharing how to create a gritty photoshop texture brush using a texture we created! This texture brush can be used for borders, backgrounds, illustrations and more (tutorial on those coming soon!). In the video, I share my scan settings and how I edit the texture before ever creating a brush with it. Once the texture is optimized, I share some of my favorite Photoshop texture brush settings. These are settings that you can easily implement into future texture brushes, too. This tutorial is perfect for beginners, so if you’re just getting started with Photoshop, be sure to read on to see it all!

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Fonts, Hand Lettering, Tutorials, Typography

My newest font, Skinny Jeans, just went live this week! I’ve been making a point to share process info for the fonts I make (here’s Espresso Roast), so that’s what this week is all about 🙂 Skinny Jeans is a font trio that includes the main script style, a caps style that pairs perfectly and a symbols font to add extra personality to layouts. The hand drawn + illustrated symbols also come as a vector file to make things quicker for those who work in Illustrator. This font is by far the most in depth of all I’ve created; it contains 30+ ligatures, alternates and extra features. In the video below, you’ll see what raw materials I used to initially hand letter the font, then the steps I took to make it a fully functioning font. Read on to see everything!

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Beginner, Crafts, Textures, Tutorials

Grit textures are one of the quickest ways to add a handmade feel to digital art. By adding a little texture to edges, borders, blocks of color or even shadows, simulated depth and an organic feel are created. What’s even better is that it only takes a little effort to create and apply them. In this week’s tutorial, I’m sharing 3 of my favorite simple tricks for creating unique grit textures. In the coming weeks, I’ll also be sharing how to digitize and apply them to artwork. Let’s kick this off by breaking out some ink and experimenting!

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Beginner, Freebies, Hand Lettering, Tutorials, Typography

In my online course, Lettering Layouts, we talk about how to pair different styles of lettering and creates beautiful, impactful messages with them. Sometimes it can be tough just coming up with some different lettering ideas, though! To make things a little easier, this week I’m sharing 10 super easy hand lettering enhancements anyone can do. We’ll slowly increase in complexity as we go along, but you’ll see quickly how easy they are to apply. I’ve also included a free pdf of everything we covered below 😉 All you need is a pen and/or pencil and some paper, so let’s get lettering!

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