Staying Creative During “Stay At Home”

Now that we are in week 5 of “stay-at-home” guidelines, many of you may find that you have extra time on your hands. 

My intention with this blog post is to inspire you with new creative ideas and inspiration that may help shift your attention from the news to something fun!  

Here’s some of the activities I’ve been doing to keep myself engaged these past few weeks:

Coloring

I bought Johanna Basford’s latest coloring book, How To Draw Inky Wonderlands in December last year but did not find time to enjoy it until now!  Though this book actually teaches how to draw your own inky wonderland, I’ve just been enjoying using it as a coloring book.  Even if you don’t have this particular book, you might have another coloring book hidden away in your closet that you can pull out. Alternatively there are also many free coloring sheets available online that you can find and download.

One Hour Design Challenge

Pattern Observer has been running a series of one hour design challenges. Their second design challenge aims to explore loose drawing techniques.  I particularly liked the contour drawing technique which involves drawing in a continuous line, never lifting up your pen. This technique is a great way to uncover interesting patterns, textures and motifs.  When you give up control over the outcome, it can be very freeing and fun! Here’s my contour drawing:

Creating Digital Tie-Dye Patterns in Photoshop

I love hand-dyeing fabrics creating tie-dye patterns in the traditional way:  soaking the fabric in water, twisting/clamping the fabric with elastics bands or binder clips and then dipping the fabric in 2 different dye baths.  Untwisting and opening the fabric to reveal a beautiful tie-dye pattern. When I discovered that I could create a similar pattern digitally in Photoshop, I was truly intrigued!  In this 36 minute Skillshare class, How to Create a Digital Tie Dye Pattern in Photoshop, Diane Pascual provides templates, free Photoshop brushes and walks you through how to create a digital tie dye pattern.  I entered this pattern in the Spoonflower Tie Dye Challenge.

(Learn more about my new shop in this post, Custom Fabrics: DivineNY is Open on Spoonflower!)

If you are interested in trying Skillshare, you can try 2 months of Skillshare Premium for free! Simply sign up HERE.