Graphic Design: My Latest Designs

I’ve been designing graphics for my creative writing using Canva. They’re mostly for the microfiction stories I wrote in response to the vss365 prompt on X. These are some of my latest designs 🙂

Digital Art: Kawaii Alien

I drew this little kawaii alien on Procreate today. I used the YouTube tutorial Create Your Own Creature in Procreate by Art With Flo to guide me, as well as some skills I learned through the Procreate for Beginners series. I’m excited to work through more tutorials and add more skills to my toolkit.

Photography: DSLR + Manual Focus + Manual Mode

I switched to manual focus on my DSLR for the first time yesterday. I actually found it a lot better. I was having a lot of issues with autofocus, and these disappeared when I switched to manual. I also found that I mesh better with full manual mode than with either AV (Aperture Priority) or TV (shutter priority), as I have more control over the settings. Another first for me was using the tungsten lighting setting, which makes your pictures “cooler”. All these shots were taken using the tungsten setting except for the last one, where I wanted warmer colours.

These are the first pictures I’ve taken with my DSLR that I’m actually happy with!

Photography: The Beauty of Wilting Flowers

Lately, I had the pleasure of photographing two wilting bouquets. Flowers age so gracefully. They are eternal art.

These were all taken with my phone (though I am making progress with my DSLR photography – more on that later!)

Photography: Agapanthus Buds

I came across these agapanthus buds on an afternoon where I was feeling rather ill. There was no room in my mind for anything more than nausea and tiredness. Then I saw them. These beautiful buds on the verge of bloom. Their colour – a deep, lustrous purple-blue – filled my soul. The world was painted with joy and inspiration once more.

Though I still didn’t feel steady on my feet, I just had to take out my phone and capture them.

It got me thinking too. If I saw winter for the first time, I would think the world was dead. That nothing would ever bloom again. Then, spring would come. To see what I thought could never again be, to witness the blooming of things I thought were lost…what a feeling of joy that would be.

This felt the same, but in a smaller way. My world had been reduced to the one goal of retiring to my bed, and yet here was nature, with a bouquet of lost things. It was like a gift, and I love nature all the more for it.

Digital Art: Flowers With Feeling

I drew these flowers on Procreate today. I’ve been watching YouTube tutorials and trying to apply the skills I’ve learned. There’s a Procreate for Beginners series that I’ve found really helpful. The tutorials are presented by Procreate, and they teach you how to use its functions by guiding you through an artwork. At the end of the session, you’ve not only learned new skills, but you have a painting to show for it too.

This one is not a tutorial-guided artwork, but I did apply techniques that were taught in the first and second tutorials in the series.

I couldn’t think of a name for this piece. I feel something when I look at it, but I don’t have the words to describe it. It might be the colours, or the subject (I do love flowers!), or the combination. So for now, these are simply flowers with feeling.