Are you a mixed media artist transitioning into using Procreate for creating your art? Are you into scrapbooking or art journaling? When you hear the term mixed media, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Collage? Textural abstract pieces? The addition of ephemera and found elements? Crazy, experimental techniques? Borders and stamps?

Mixed media can indeed be all these things, but fundamentally, it's simply an expansive term that encompasses any work made with more than a single media. In this class, Ephemera to Make Brushes for Mixed Media Art in Procreate, I tried to let go of perfectionism and work intuitively in creating a page much like I do with my traditional tools and materials in my art journals. We’ll gather inspiration and explore basic brush making and mixed media techniques (digitally), that will encourage you to be freer with your artwork. We will create a fun and expressive art journal page with custom brushes that can mimic the real media, all of which I will teach you how to make. I give you a bunch to begin with so you can alter these to your liking. These brushes include background pattern fills, color changing brushes, continuous border brushes, stamp brushes, and more. I will also provide some mixed media backgrounds to play with!

This class is suitable for learners early on in their practice and experienced digital artists alike. Some Procreate experience is recommended, as I don't cover all the basics here. I encourage you use your intuition and begin by working with no initial plan. We will create usable brushes with our sights set on adjustments to make these brushes super fun. I hope that using the Procreate program for your art journaling or daily art practice will bring a new-found freedom to your way of creating art.

In this class I’ll walk you through:

use of the clone brush for blending areas
adaptation of elements of ephemera to create re-usable stamp brushes
info and instructions on creating fun border brushes
fully seamless background brush creation
tips for creating compositions for a varied and appealing look using brushes
my workflow for use of layers and other great features like snapping and blend modes

If you’re an aspiring pattern designer with a basic knowledge of Procreate, you’ll be able to go through all the steps. This class will also benefit anyone who wishes to introduce a daily art practice into their busy lives.

The key concepts I will include:

review of my brush creations, alterations, and adjustments
a look at Procreate brushes and their various idiosyncrasies
approaches you can take in your creative work

This is an ideal class for you, even if you are not sure what you will use the techniques for, whether it be for illustrating, art journalling, bullet journaling, creating scrapbooking paper, greeting cards, gifts, or whatever! Learning new Procreate workflows is always desirable. I guarantee you will create something really appealing, and it’s so much fun, once you get the hang of it!

Intro to Prepare Procreate Ephemera Brushes for Mixed Media

This short intro will give you an overview of the class.

Lesson 1: Inspiration and Examples

In this lesson, I will show you many of the sources I use for finding usable ephemera. We review a few artworks so I can show you some of the strategies I have used. I give you plenty of ideas for finding usable ephemera.

Lesson 2: Sourcing Files for Creating Ephemera Brushes

In this lesson, I will break down the complete process of creating your own custom brushes. I show you everything from creating the source file, to importing it into Procreate, and finally, adjusting settings. Knowing how to adjust brushes is very important in Procreate.

Lesson 3: Preparing Swatches for Brush Making

In this lesson, I will explain the settings and sizing of the brushes. I will show you some of the key techniques I use and explain every step of the way. By the end of the lesson, you will have the beginnings of a lovely layout with plenty of interest, and you will know how to use most of the brushes in the accompanying download.

Lesson 4: Advanced Brushes and Borders

This is the lesson in which I teach you about creating a seamless tile to be used for the creation of a continuous border. We create a couple of borders and then I show you methods to add color to them.

Lesson 5: Creating a Frame from Found Ephemera

In this lesson, I take a found (bookplate) frame and show you my method for cleaning it up, making repairs, adjusting the levels and finally using it to create a brush. You will learn fundamental skills for recycling old found ephemera.

Lesson 6: More Ideas for Our Composition

At this stage, we pull our layout together, and I will add the small details that make it work, including photos. I try to use as many of the different brushes and ephemera we created and made many other small adjustments. I again review the use of the selection tools. We take a quick look at color fills and color adjustments and talk about layering and other factors. This will show you just how versatile and fun this technique can be, and how valuable experimentation is in developing your journal art page.

Lesson 7: Finishing the Composition

For this final lesson, I show you a myriad of ideas for finishing your layout. I try to touch on all the possibilities to open your mind. It’s all about experimentation, which is the best way to figure it out.

Lesson 8: Conclusion, Mockup and Next Steps

We will conclude everything in this lesson. I show you a couple of quick mock-ups with the art and we end with a chat about next steps.

Concepts covered:

Concepts covered include but are not limited to Procreate pattern design, creating ephemera brushes, creating borders and border brushes, Procreate repeat patterns for brushes, layering, transparency, blending modes, Procreate brush stamps, Procreate canvas settings, Procreate snapping and guides, using the clone brush, Procreate floral brush creation, creating original brush stamps in Procreate, the Brush Studio in Procreate, adjusting Procreate brushes, sizing of documents and brushes, using the streamline setting in the brush studio, compositions with brush stamps, adding texture brush stamps, procreate brushes for adding interest, workflow best practices, painting best practice, Procreate composites, techniques with paints and blending, and much more.

You will get the bonus of…

1 hour and 20 minutes of direction from an instructor who has been in graphic design business and education for over 40 years
knowledge of multiple ways to solve each design challenge
an outline with links to further research
a list of helpful online sites to further your education into surface pattern design

Nancy Lanier

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