HI Everyone!

Happy New Year! I want to share examples (below) to inspire you—how mixed-media backgrounds can be used with your digital illustrations in Procreate to create a painterly effect.

In "Dive Into the Unknown," in addition to using a mixed-media background, I also harvested flowers from a photo of an artwork, in the same way I harvest flowers from a photo in this class. The flowers in this piece and in "Bliss Bath" are the same flowers—the colors are different because I changed their hue and saturation in Procreate. I explain how to do this in class.

"Dive Into the Unknown," Digital Art

"Bliss Bath," Digital Art

My original canvas is the last photo below, "Lush." It's a mixed-media artwork I photographed. I made it in a similar way to how I made the art in this class (Video 6, Creating Backgrounds 3)—it's just on a wood canvas. I photographed this artwork and used parts of it for my backgrounds in the digital artworks, "Dive Into the Unknown" and in "Bliss Bath."

The piece, "Moon Goddess," is a digital artwork (the Before picture), which I made with a mixed-media background and drew the figure on another layer in Procreate. I then printed and adhered the digital art to a wood panel and added even more fabric and paint to it (the After picture).

The possibilities are really endless. What I love most is you don't have to have any art experience to create a really cool mixed-media background. You just need to have a little trust and a desire for a little adventure (a dive into the unknown!). You can add simple illustrations to these backgrounds.

For those of you looking for guidance on creating fun and easy illustrations, check out my "Elevating the Doodle" class. Videos 2, 3 and 4 are enough to get you started and can easily be applied to drawing in Procreate, if you prefer digital art.

Also, I really encourage you to share your work. In this way you inspire others to explore their creativity too. It's all about inspiring each other :). And please, ask questions! I have over twenty years of experience making mixed-media and digital art. I started in Photoshop when it first came out (dinosaur age, LOL) and I bought an iPad forever ago too. I'm thrilled with what is possible with the iPad Pro. While I still use Photoshop a lot, Procreate makes making selections a breeze. it has been hugely rewarding to share what I know with students.

Thank you for taking my classes! I'm working on a travel inspired class for you (Procreate) right now. To stay up on my offerings, follow me on Instagram.

I hope this new year brings you so much joy and creativity!

Warmly,

Alma

www.almadelamelenacox.com

"Moon Goddess" (Before); digital art

"Moon Goddess" (After); mixed-media on wood panel

"Lush"; mixed-media on wood (To purchase this artwork, visit my website)

Alma De la Melena Cox

Mixed-Media & Digital Artist

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