Folk Art Learning

Continuing my learning, as I shared in Folk Art for Nature and Folk Art Square posts for my Skillshare class from Liz Kohler Brown: Folk Illustrations with ProCreate, I find that the design yesterday is still not quite what I’m  thinking of, so I thought perhaps something like this would work.

Because, if I like the design, I want to upload them to print-on-demand projects, I choose a large canvas, 20 inches square. That means I have only ten layers to create the design. It’s not easy, then, to play around with ideas, like creating backgrounds shapes behind each stamp, like the moth at left.

I wanted to keep the insect layers separate from the blog layers for organizing and coloring, but I had to make those choices as I worked due to the layer limitations of ProCreate at the larger canvas size.

Perhaps you know of a solution that I don’t ????

Here’s how I worked my first try at it– notice the layers. I created each blob background and chose a color to match the insects, then merged those two layers together, eventually merging all the  stamp layers together [top layer, multiplied– to include the texture effects in the bottom layer].

Then I could add the additional green blobs and organize them. I merged them together [layer 9 in the image– note: it really does help to name the layers, but…]. With alpha lock, I could then “paint” my ginkgo leaf brush over just those green blobs to add more detail and interest to the little insect habitats 🙂

In layer 5 in the image, I created a circle and filled outwards to create a border, using a very light olive green. Using alpha lock on that layer and a slightly darker color, I “painted” the same leaf brush over that outer border. I erased a small part that overlapped the top left “blob.”

I rather like the result; what do you think?

Now that the “stamp blobs” are ready, I could do a little experimentation, although, again, the layer limitation poses a problem; I just kept merging the new “green blogs” as I arranged them. Using the “select” menu helped with reorganizing when necessary.

I’d love to create this as a repeating pattern, but repeating patterns in ProCreate are so difficult– getting things in the exact space and place just does not work for me, so I’ll need to try the Affinity Designer app for repeated patterns.

Here’s the result — I again used the ginkgo leaf brush on the green blob layer:

What’s great about this particular design is that words can be added, like this one I created as I prepare to participate, along with so many others around the US and internationally, in the National Writing Project and National Park Service #writeout this October, 2019. I added all the words that reflects the project’s goals and hopes–

Well, I think I’ve finished up with this Folk Art course, but it is just the beginning of my Folk Art journey, which I blog about here, tagged Folk Art.

I look forward to seeing all the ideas in the projects that continue to be added here; [my project]I thank Liz for her clear and organized way of leading us step by step through a learning process to understand how to create folk art.