how to Archives - Page 19 of 31

Beginner, Illustrator, Textures, Tutorials

Create Watercolor Texture Brushes in Adobe Illustrator

Happy Tuesday! I’m not gonna lie, this week’s tutorial is one of my favorites. Essentially, we’re combining the watercolor photoshop brush tutorial from a few weeks ago with last week’s ribbon tutorial. And we’re doing it all in Illustrator and keeping things simple and easy 😉 We’ll start by taking some watercolor textures on transparent backgrounds (like these, these or these), and then directly convert them into watercolor texture brushes in Illustrator. You’ll be able to transform the textures into any shape using the brush tool to create beautiful results. Create them once, then save them out for infinite future uses, too! Read on to see how!

February 21, 2017

13 Comments

Beginner, Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create a Simple Ribbon Brush in Adobe Illustrator

If you’re just diving into Illustrator, this week’s tutorial is perfect for beginners! We’ll go over some very basic, but powerful tools that you can use in different ways well into the future. In this tutorial, we create a simple ribbon brush together (from scratch) using Adobe Illustrator. We’ll talk about different brush settings, customizing your ribbon before and afterwards, and even how to save it for future use. Everything you need to get started is below!

February 14, 2017

4 Comments

Fonts, Hand Lettering, Tutorials, Typography

Intro to Font Making: Font Features

When I first got into font making, hearing “customized (or coded) font features” made me question if I really knew what they were. I went digging away and an entire new world of font customization opened up in front of me. I knew OTFs were better than TTFs, but I had no idea how powerful OTFs really could be. If you’re unfamiliar with terms like stylistic and contextual alternates or discretionary and standard ligatures, we’re talking about em all this week!

February 7, 2017

6 Comments

Color, Hand Lettering, iPad Lettering, Textures, Tutorials

How to Recolor Textures in Procreate

I realized the other day that I did some short mini vids on Instagram wayyyy back on how to recolor textures in Procreate, but never a tutorial here. Introducing textures into your Procreate work can create some pretty stunning, unique results. Using textures myself led me to offer the procreate watercolor kit and metallic kit, which I still use constantly. The silvers and golds from the metallic kit look stunning, but you can change their colors to anything you’d like! Colors like rose gold and blue glitter are a cinch to make, and in this week’s video, I share how!

January 31, 2017

0 Comments

Color, Photoshop, Textures, Tutorials

How to Create a Watercolor Photoshop Brush

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted a watercolor tutorial! If you’ve been here for some time, you know we can’t have that 😉 This week I want to share how to create a custom watercolor photoshop brush! Having a watercolor photoshop brush in your brush library is super handy for two reasons: #1 you don’t have to file > place large textures or search for them on your computer, and #2 it keeps file sizes smaller. These are really quick to create and can be huge time savers. See the full tutorial below!

January 24, 2017

3 Comments

Fonts, Freebies, Hand Lettering, Resources, Roundups, Typography

Freebie: Font Making Resources List

If you love lettering and are ready to take things up a notch, converting your lettering into a font is a great next step! Not only will you experience typing with YOUR letters for the first time (nothing like it!), you can also sell your font(s) for some extra side hustle cash. But where do you begin? There are different types of software, plugins, automators..the whole process can seem overwhelming. I know it was for me, which is why I put together this clickable font making resources list with the exact software and tools I use to create and sell hand lettered fonts. You can grab it below and also read more about the process. If you’re looking for a full step-by-step course on how to create *and* sell hand lettered fonts, be sure to visit my course here!

January 19, 2017

15 Comments

Illustrator, iPad Lettering, Tutorials, vector

iPad Lettering: Using Vectors with Procreate

One of the questions I’m asked most often about iPad lettering is how to use vectors with Procreate. The very short answer is: you can’t. But! There *are* some workarounds you can use if you’d like to either integrate your vectors within Procreate or vectorize your Procreate artwork later on. Everything you need to know about why that is and how to adjust is below!

January 17, 2017

6 Comments

Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create a Flat iMac Icon in Adobe Illustrator

Happy Tuesday! I’ve had a few requests to create flat-style illustrations, so this week we’re creating a flat iMac icon in Adobe Illustrator! If you’ve ever been unsure of how to get started with vector icons, or you’d like to practice your shape-based illustration skills, this tutorial is perfect for beginners. We’ll be utilizing the rounded rectangle, rectangle and ellipse shapes the most and keep things super simple throughout. Read on for the full tutorial and all of the color builds mentioned in the video!

January 10, 2017

5 Comments

Courses, Hand Lettering, Personal

hitting your design and lettering goals in 2017

Hitting your Design + Lettering Goals in 2017

2016 was a really intense work year for both Spence and I. I sat in front of my computer more than I didn’t, but it led to a lot of self growth which I’m immensely thankful for. While I hope (and plan!) to pull myself away from my desk more this year, I wanted to share the ways I hit my design + lettering goals in 2016 and steps I’ll take in 2017. I hope this can be a motivator if you’re just digging into lettering or graphic design, but you aren’t quite sure where to begin.

January 5, 2017

28 Comments

Holiday, Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create Geometric Snowflakes in Adobe Illustrator

Happy New Year! To celebrate, I thought we could create some wintery geometric snowflakes in Adobe Illustrator this week! We’re definitely starting to feel the chill of winter here in Georgia. The main reason for my move from upstate NY to Georgia in my early twenties was specifically to avoid the harsh winters. I’ll take being too warm over being too cold any day. Regardless, snowflakes *do* make being that cold worth it. If you saw this tutorial awhile back, we’re applying similar techniques, but creating something completely different with them 🙂 Read on to see it all!

January 3, 2017

8 Comments

Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create a Resolutions List in Adobe Illustrator

Hope you had a wonderful holiday! Since we’re just about to welcome the new year, this week I thought it would be fun to make a custom resolutions list in Adobe Illustrator! We’ll create it in a printable style, so you can reuse it every year, too. Grab your free holiday vector pack and create your own below!

December 27, 2016

1 Comment

Hand Lettering, iPad Lettering, Textures, Tutorials, Typography

iPad Lettering: Using Multiple Procreate Textures

Since Procreate’s latest update is less than a month old, it’s time for a new iPad lettering tutorial! If you checked out my iPad Lettering class from a couple versions earlier, you saw how fun it is to work with Procreate textures. One texture works wonderfully, but things can get a little trickier when you want to get other textures involved. In this week’s tutorial, I’m sharing one quick trick that makes introducing other textures super simple. In this tutorial, we’ll use a foil and watercolor texture, plus add a little holiday flair for good measure 🙂 Read on to see how!

December 20, 2016

7 Comments

Courses

Messy Watercolors in Procreate

Gouache Botanicals in Procreate

Learn Font Making

View All Courses