Taking a look back at this month, the main themes were learning software and accepting that I will always be at heart a kid who starts planning her Halloween costume in July. When these two things combined, they resulted in some Halloween-themed illustrations. They’re a departure from my usual style and method of working, but I’ve been enjoying the process and the end results.
New Work This Month
As mentioned above, a lot of my focus was on Halloween and illustration. I’ve recently moved to using Clip Studio after years of barely operating in GIMP, and have resolved that I’m actually going to learn the ins and outs of the software rather than making work for myself because I don’t know how to use the helpful features. It means a lot of stopping to watch tutorials on YouTube right now, along with some good old fashioned trial and error, but I do think I’m learning something new every time I work with the program.
I’ve also ventured into the realm of designing cut files for Silhouette and Cricut, thanks to Clip Studio and vector layers. I hope to expand this into creating more complex paper crafts, but so far I’ve been keeping on theme with some seasonal decor. I’m planning to release the spiderweb and bat garland as free downloads from my site within the next couple of days.
The latest installment of Lockdown Lawn Installation made its debut on September 19th for Neighbour’s day. You can read more about that here.
Works in Progress
To keep exploring the potential of textile art, I’ve set up some “crinkle canvases” that I’m excited to get to work on. Projects above with harder deadlines have taken priority lately, but stay tuned for what these turn into!
Next up in the the Halloween series are Wisp the pumpkin cat, and Gourdie the pumpkin kitten. Wisp is closest to being finished, and unless inspiration for another creature interrupts, will be the next addition to the collection.
Since, unfortunately, it can’t remain spooky season forever, I’ve also been trying to design some less seasonal graphics with products in mind. This one’s still niche because it will only appeal to people involved in tabletop role playing games, but I think it would make neat mugs or stickers. There’ still some work to do on the overall design and the text placement/kerning especially, but at the very least it’s been a good learning experience.
New in the Shop
The Spooky Season collection featuring Ghostie’s Prize Pumpkin and Vlad now includes over 100 products! Check them all out here.
I’m excited to introduce a stickers section in my Etsy shop. These die cut stickers are a durable vinyl that resists water and scratches. So far I have Ghostie available and some Vlads on the way. Holographic All or Nothing in the near future!
(I also designed the cut file for that spiderweb specifically for listing photos and I’m quite pleased with the results.)
Thanks for reading, and I can’t wait to share next month’s new creations with you! Don’t forget to subscribe to receive email notifications about new posts.
Preview/header photo courtesy of Lina Kivaka from Pexels
Liminal Record 