Jessica Backup

I’m kind of blown away myself, I mean – videos two weeks in a row!! But I’m actually really hyped about making videos at the moment so I guess it makes sense. SO MUCH FUN. This one is about creative blocks!! And how to get out of them. ENJOY.

Aight, time for another video! I know, it was months since I filmed last time, but I got a new camera and I feel super excited about filming more again SO YEAH. Anyway, this time we’re watching me paint! More specifically I’m painting my contribution to the new weekly challenge called DoodleTube! It started last week and is already an amazing community over on Twitter, and I’m so happy that it exists! CHECK OUT DOODLETUBE HERE.  It got me thinking about how important creative communities are though, and that’s what I talk a little bit about in this video. And also how salt didn’t work on my black watercolour. Life is such a struggle. ANYWAY. CHECK IT OUT woop.

So, the theme for Monthly Makers this month is “Clothes”, and Elsa is hosting the challenge. I mean, “Clothes” isn’t the easiest theme for someone who currently just wants to paint and create abstract art, but I actually managed to do it. Just like everyone else I’ve been so obsessed with Game of Thrones. And I’ve looooooooved Daenerys’ current outfit. (You can see crappy pics of it here.) I love the chain across and the shoulders and the pleated skirt. So nice. SO I decided I was going to interpret it! And I made some abstract lines and like cool chain patterns and had SO MUCH FUN.  It might not be the most interesting creation I’ve made ever, but I really like the lines! And the triangles represent her cool triangly shoulders and stuff. The dots are just there because they look like stars! (Also I have a new camera + lens and the bokeh looks so nice now!?!?!?)  I’ve used a page out of an unused photo album with black pa...

I’ve been working on this for quite some time, and I’ve been meaning to do it for even longer! I’ve made a new shop! I’ve been selling through Society6 for a little more than a year, and it wasn’t until I properly ordered something for myself that I realised that I wanted to “move”. I had previously only ordered a phone case, which I have loved even though a part of the plastic broke the second day. And then a few months later I ordered a few prints , and when the tube got home my heart sank. It said “SOCIETY6” literally all over it, and when opening it they had included several stickers to promote themselves. It was undoubtedly so that this package was something that Society6 sent (which – to be fair – it was) and the only way to even learn who actually MADE the art you had to check the packing slip, where the title and my name was written next to the products. Not that big of a deal to most, I guess, but it didn...

I’ve started painting! I went to a painting activity with Alicia and a few others a couple of weeks ago, where we painted outside (which was wonderful, by the way). Painting things from life (or pictures) involves too much anxiety for me, so I just experimented with patterns and shapes.  Here’s the result! I really like it! Alicia said it had some kind of Tove Jansson-vibe to it which might be the best compliment I’ve ever gotten. Anyway, I’ve been completely obsessed with painting since then, and the only reason I haven’t created like a million paintings is that I’ve been very sick! 🙁  The first few paintings I created went along the same lines as the first one, and I really loved it. The last one is even made with our old watercolour crayons which was pretty difficult.  And then I started using salt to create cool textures! And then I inverted the process, painting more outside the shapes I wanted, for Monthly Makers this month, and I really l...

Ok so this past month has basically been me a) being sick b) painting. Because I’ve become obsessed with painting with watercolours! It’s SO MUCH FUN and calming and a lot more relaxing for the eyes than digitally creating. Anyway, it feels like ~a new era~, which is fitting since the theme for this months Monthly Makers is “Something I’ve never tried before”. I think this might be one of my favourite themes we’ve ever had! Such a fun concept! (Ironically the picture above isn’t really made with classic watercolours but watercolour crayons we’ve had all my life but anyway.)  At first I was just going to make the whole concept of abstract watercolours as my creation for this month, but I felt like I would EXPLODE if I weren’t allowed to tell anyone about it until today, so I just threw that out the window and decided I’d come up with something else for Monthly Makers this month.   Consequently I spent some time trying to co...

Adobe have issued a contest! They’ve recently digitized Edvard Munch’s actual brushes (!!!) so that anyone can use them to paint in Photoshop and Sketch! So cool.  So they’re challenging people to paint something using these brushes, and I’ve made something for it! I actually started by checking out the other creations that were uploaded under the tag on Behance, which wasn’t a very good idea as I instantly got insecure about what to create myself. But I gathered some courage and decided I wouldn’t be affected by all the Scream-like images that others had created and make it in my own way! I thought I’d talk you through the process today!  So I thought we’d start with looking at the finished result! Here it is! I’ve used the brushes to create the stars and some structures, and the main Scream-like thing about this is the general composition. Here’s what I’ve written in my submission on Behance: I decided I wanted to...