In today’s edition, I’ll be talking about art projects that I’m working on or that I recently finished, some experiments, and goals for the future and what I hope to work on next. It’s been mainly lot of digital pieces and a larger project, cause I’ve been hopping around a lot. I hope you enjoy!

So I’ve been doing mainly painting and digital art recently. Between graduating college, starting my career, and studying for a scary exam, I haven’t had a lot of time, but I’ve still gotten a surprising amount done! Starting off, here are some finished pieces!

“Celestial Balance” was a piece I designed for a Yoga Mat Design competition. All of the white space was designed to be unprinted to allow the cork of the mat to shine through. I wanted to create a piece that was less heavy than some of my other designs, so I went with something that felt like a mix between line art, celestial maps, and a kinetic sculpture. I wanted a center piece that would focus one’s attention with a calm color that would stand out against the cork, so I drew and shaded a simple snake. Over all, I am very happy with this piece, even though it didn’t win.

This piece was my first actual project in Adobe Photoshop. I have dabbled before but this was the first time I actually made something I’m proud of. It is a piece I made for my partner based on some images depicting cities, space, and celestial patterns. Photoshop is definitely something I have to continue working with, but I fell like I learned a lot from this project and am very pleased with the outcome.

As you can see, I’m continuing the Photoshop trend with this next one. This is a piece I made very recently for a blanket design competition and the verdict isn’t in yet, but I’m very proud of this piece. It’s supposed to be a calmer, more chill vibe than what I typically create, so that was a bit different for me. I do love drawing mushrooms though, so it was still fun to make and I love the enchanted forest feeling it created.

This is the main project I’m still working on, I drew the concept before I left college (sometime in early May) and then I’ve been working on it on and off ever since. It’s almost done, I think I just need to paint the edged and maybe touch up a couple places. I’ve really enjoyed making this piece, it’s been a nice art break whenever I needed one. I’m hoping to finish it this week, so that’s exciting.

This is a light box I made as a graduation gift for my college roommate. It’s an artistic rendition of a photo taken of us at a formal that I really liked. It was created by cutting and layering paper in front of a small string of lights. I’ve done a few of these before, but they’re typically a paper cutting exercise that never gets fully assembled. This was the first one that was actually finished, and it was super exciting to see it coming together. I’m hoping to do more of these in the future and to get better at using X-Acto knives.

I’ve recently been doing mainly competition pieces but I’m hoping to go back to just creating. Since I’ve graduated college, I won’t be able to go my school’s art fair anymore, so I’m hoping to start going to more professional ones, so I need to start making physical pieces and reusable designs. I’m thinking about making smaller pieces like original and print cards and adding more coaster designs. I make a lot of originals but they take a very long time, so I’m hoping to create more versatile designs, and to generally preserve scans of my pieces more often. I’m just hoping to create in a more sustainable and stable manner.

That being said, I still really enjoy doing commissions and I’m hoping to take on a range of projects to expand my horizons. I love working with clients and helping their vision come to life, and it’s always cool to see what they’re interested in and why. So if you’re interested in creating a piece with me, feel free to reach out!

Well, that’s the end of my second newsletter! I hope you enjoyed this look at what I’ve been working on and what I’m hoping to do next. You can look forward to more art and new designs in the next edition, as well as a new timelapse on my YouTube which is hopefully coming soon!

Thank you so much for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!