Hi Guys,
Welcome to my first blog post. If you have found this website you are most likely a creative explorer of sorts. You are welcome. I am Priscilla. Lover of colour, wife, mama, teacher, surface pattern designer and fashion illustrator. Sharing my love of all things creative. My relationship with art has always been a constant presence in my life , most of the time expressing itself in sketch journaling and fashion illustrations when time and life allowed. My mediums of choice were watercolor, acrylic painting and fashion illustration with copic markers. About 6 years ago while walking through Makola market in Ghana on holidays surrounded by beautiful wax print fabrics, I decided to try my hand at surface pattern design. To begin to create my own fabrics. Up until that point , I was only vaguely aware of surface pattern design as a career path but I knew it was calling me. So I set out to discover how I could do it alongside a full time job teaching and juggling family life. I decided to figure out how to make it work for my life and my schedule and that journey has been the most exciting ride of my life.
I discovered pretty early in the game that I was going to have to transition from traditional to incorporating digital art into my skill set and so I began on the usual route. Looking into desktop computers, photoshop, illustrator, the whole creative suite which my husband, (a graphic designer) was very conversant in and happy to help with. However, this quickly frustrated me as I couldn’t use a mouse and a keyboard the way I intuitively used my hands with pen and paper.
Then one day, I came across an article about a new product. An ipad pro and apple pencil. It was similar to using a Wacom tablet but I could see on the screen what I was drawing and I could create art in a myriad of mediums digitally like a mobile art studio. I was fortunate enough to know someone that owned one who graciously lent it to me to test out and specifically to test out the new art app procreate that I had been researching and I was immediately hooked. The ease of creating was seriously mind blowing. Working in layers, being able to use mediums like acrylics and watercolour and textures at the tap of a button. It really was a dream. Being able to draw intuitively with the apple pencil the way I would draw on paper, was breathtaking. I immediately knew this was the tool I needed to bridge the gap from traditional to digital art. And so began the journey.
Next on my journey was finding out how to use this tool to learn surface pattern design and after much searching, I discovered a platform called Skillshare which was one of the few places at the time that had courses on illustration and surface pattern design on the ipad. I learned so much from teachers like Liz Kohler brown that really helped kickstart my surface pattern journey and now in a full circle moment, I am using my degree in teaching to teach other creatives on the platform. So if you are at a point in your creative journey, wondering if its too late to “be an artist” or learn a new skill, I want to encourage you because its never too late. The world needs what you bring to the table. You CAN do it! It’s never too late. I’m always encouraged that one of my design icons, Vera Wang, began her fashion design business at 40.
Well, that’s all from me today. I’m setting myself a goal this year to write a blog , to help those coming along this path navigate what has worked and what hasn’t for me to make the road a little smoother. Expect to hear about creative tips, digital art and illustration, reviews on books and apps that have helped me along the way with a dash of humor and real talk. So, here is where I’ll sign off on my first blog post but I’ll chat again soon. Have a great day, people.
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