First, I want to thank Studio Versie on Youtube who gave a free Skillshare trial of a month that made it possible for me to take a few classes on the platform. I can also give a free month to someone right now if you don’t have one. You can leave me a message on the Instagram post showing the illustration I am talking about in this blog.
For now, I watched a few classes about illustration, stamps, punch needle, plant care and yarn dyeing. I’m a curious person. Here are some nice classes to watch :
- How to Create a Punch Needle Project in a Swoosh by Jenni Ahlberg
- Create a Hand-Carved Stamp From Scratch: Tools and Best Practices by Melissa Lee
- Rubber Stamping: Simple Steps to Create Handmade Prints by Gintare Budvytyte
- A Beginner’s Guide to Mindful Macramé: From Plant Hangers to Wall Art by Ewa Szczepaniak
Now to the real subject of the post! I also tried a class by the illustrator Stephanie Fizer Coleman called Develop Your Digital Art Style: Draw One Illustration Six Ways. I didn’t try all the styles that she proposed, I actually kinda mixed them by trying some stuff that she was proposing.
Red Hood – Bold line and offset color
Bold Line and Offset Color
This one is the closest to my usual style. I mostly use flat colors with bold lines when I color my work, but I don’t usually do offset. Instead, I do flat light and shadow. I also cheated a bit because I didn’t offset everything, because I don’t like it when there are too many of them.
For my bold line, I actually use my own vector brushes that I recently made for Affinity Designer. I was a bit tired of trying to obtain exactly what I wanted with other people’s brushes. I’m very happy to finally have my very own brush kit.
Red Hood – Bold Texture
Bold Texture
I know some people may find it’s not so bold on the texture, but since my usual style is more minimalist, I kinda find that I was bold on the texture. I’m working with Affinity Designer to illustrate and for this one I use a mix of the Designer Persona Brushes and Pixel Persona Brushes. However, I mainly use the basic Chalk Vector Brushes of the application.
RedHood – Watercolor Texture and Ink
Watercolor Texture and Ink
For this one, some people will probably find it doesn’t look much like real watercolor. It was always one of the mediums I had the most difficulty to master when I was an art student. I love the result of this medium on other people’s art, but I’m mostly frustrated when I work with it. I use it like a texture layer that I put in overlay mode to achieve some nice effect.
I use a mix of differents brushes in the Designer Persona and the Pixel Persona on Affinity Designer:
- Watercolor Brush from Affinity Designer (came with the application);
- My personnel set of brushes;
- Master Watercolor brushes from Nathan Brown (available for Affinity, Procreate, Photoshop)
- Texturizer Pro from Frankentoon (available for Affinity)
Resources
- Stephanie Fizer Coleman has nice contents on her website about illustration and becoming an illustrator. She also has a newsletter and a community for illustrators.
- Studio Versie has really nice free content for beginners on how to learn Punch Needle.
- For Punch Needle, you can also watch on youtube: The Oxford Company and Ribbon Candy Hooking.
Disclaimer: I didn’t receive any money for my blog post. I’m only talking about content that I received for free without the obligation to make a review or that I paid for.