by Daniel Wiseman
Whether you’re going back to school and/or anxiously awaiting for the fall festivities later on in the year–we have some exciting art activities that’d be fun to partake in while you go through the coolest time of the year! Here are 4 ideas for fall art projects to do in Ignite Studio this year.
Fall Photography
Photography is always a great art hobby to get into. And fall is the perfect time to take amazing photos of your subjects either with falling leaves, bright colors, moody clouds or all of the above.
Taking photos is an art that anyone can get into, you don’t need the most expensive camera or need to be an expert to produce some amazing art. You can learn most of the fundamentals of photography with just your smartphone. Here are some tutorials to improve your photo-taking skills and help you get started:
- Adobe: How to use natural light to enhance your photography
- Adobe: Smartphone Photography
- Ignite Studio: Studio Lighting for Photography and Videography
The Inktober Challenge
Inktober is a fantastic online art campaign where artists challenges themselves to create pieces entirely in digital or traditional ink everyday in October. The challenge started in 2009 by comics and children’s book illustrator/ concept artist Jake Parker. The goal of the campaign is to develop positive habits in art and to improve in ink skills. Since 2009 it’s been a massive art campaign all over social media!
You can learn more about and join Inktober here. Get inking and share your work with fellow artists online!
Digital Painting
Artwork by Loish
Digital Painting is a fun way of painting, sketching, and drawing using a computer or tablet. One of the most popular programs to do digital painting with is Adobe Photoshop–which is available for free in our Digital Media Labs, along with Wacom Intuos drawing tablet!
Of course, you don’t have to be an expert in photoshop to do digital painting, but if you’re new to the software, Adobe has free courses on their YouTube Channel and their site to help you get started with the basics!
Once you’re confident in photoshop, check out these digital painting specific tutorials from these digital artists:
- How to Learn Digital Painting (Beginners)
- SinixDesigns
- How to Paint Stylized Skin Skin EASY
- ChrissaBug
- Digital Painting Process Explained
- SamDoesArts
Cricut Mug Press Designing
Hot drinks are a staple of the fall season, and what better way to enjoy your hot tea, cocoa or pumpkin spiced coffee than creating your own custom designed mug using the Cricut Mug Press!
Exporting your design is simple enough. If you’re creating a custom design all you’ll need to make sure of is that your design is in a CMYK colorspace. This is an important step to ensuring the colors come out how you expect them to. You should also make sure your design fits within the constraints of an 8.5 x 11 standard sheet of paper. If you aren’t familiar with any design programs like Photoshop or Illustrator, you can create a design in the much easier Cricut Design Space.
You can even use small mug templates to help you see how your design is going to turn out! Once you’re done, export it as a jpeg and begin the process of printing then pressing your design to a mug!
If pressing custom illustrations and designs to mugs sounds cool to you, check out the mug press next time you visit Ignite and take a look at the tutorial we created on how to use it here!
We hope you enjoy a creative fall and discover exciting new art mediums throughout the season! Happy Making!
