The Top 10 Domestika Projects in October 2021

Check out the most liked projects by Domestika’s creative community over the past month

Whether you’re looking for feedback or putting your artistic projects out there to inspire others, sharing your work is an important part of the creative process—it’s how we build up a community in which we can learn and grow as creatives.

A great space for you to share your creative journey with your peers and professionals alike, using Domestika’s Projects platform, you can upload your artistic projects detailing every step of the way, from the initial idea, through your draft stages, and onto the final project.

This past October, Domestika’s creative community was busy crafting and showcasing their works across all kinds of disciplines (illustration, painting, photography, and more) with incredible results.

From fantastic photomontages to striking entries from our 31 Days, 31 Drawings challenge, keep reading to see the ten most liked projects from last month.

Ravens, by Laura McKendry (@laura_mckendry)

London-based artist, illustrator, and educator Laura McKendry draws inspiration from her rural upbringing and the natural world for her illustrations—like this collection of ravens, drawn using wet charcoal, quink, and various tools.

Laura mostly uses watercolor, inks, and colored pencils for her drawings that have featured everywhere from books to homeware to fine art prints. She’s always experimental with her style and encourages people to play around with their work, to open themselves up to the unexpected.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Laura’s style, how she works, and where she finds her inspiration, you can check out her Domestika courses: Illustrating Nature: A Creative Exploration and Creative Watercolor Sketching for Beginners.

Personal Italian Colour, by Teresa Freitas (@teresacfreitas)

Full-time photographer Teresa Freitas has always been fascinated by color and light and the ways in which they transform a space. As she sought to find her voice and put her own stamp on her photographs, she developed her signature color style that pairs pastels and vibrant tones in the same photo, as you can see in this personal project from a trip to Italy:

Instantly recognizable as Teresa’s work, in the selection of pictures shot during a trip to Venice and Burano (edited using Adobe Lightroom) she showcases colors through the people, buildings, and life on the islands.

Teresa will also soon be launching her first Domestika course exploring color and composition in photography, sharing her tips for using color and editing techniques to develop your own harmonious but distinctive style. Check out more of her work on her Domestika profile.

Just out of Reach - Step by Step painting, by Carne Griffiths (@carnegriff)

In this project, fine artist and illustrator Carne Griffiths details his creative process for his intricate painting, Just out of Reach, that he created for an exhibition in Singapore.

Through a series of photographs, he breaks down each step of the painting, from his initial sketch to the finished piece and the various stages along the way. For example, adding layers using ink and tea and crafting finer details with a fountain pen and ink.

If you want to learn more from Carne and how he experiments with traditional mediums, keep an eye out for his upcoming Domestika course, Experimental Portrait Techniques. In the meantime, you can see more of his work on his Domestika profile.

31Days31Drawings2021, by Patricio Betteo (@patriciobetteo)

An entry from our daily illustration challenge through October, 31 Days, 31 Drawings, professional illustrator and Domestika teacher Patricio Betteo’s month of illustrations showcase his playful comic book style and signature characters. For example, this entry for Day 5 set to the theme Superhero:

Over the years, Patricio’s characters have been published in books, magazines, comic strips, graphic novels, and video games.

He teaches his digital illustration techniques and the stages for character development in his Domestika courses: Brushes and Pixels: Introduction to Digital Painting in Photoshop and Illustrated Characters Factory.

My project in Character Design: Illustrate an Expressive Creature course, by Alessandro Petruzzelli (@alesmandro)

This course project by children’s book illustrator Alessandro Petruzzelli demonstrates the skills he learned in the Domestika course, Character Design: Illustrate an Expressive Creature.

Taught by art director and visual development artist Sam Nassour, the course covers the process for developing expressive creatures in Photoshop and exploring techniques to help bring your imagination to life.

Taking the red squirrel as his inspiration, Alessandro used the techniques he explored about character design and lighting to create this final illustration.

Residence in Tuscany, by Carles Marsal (@carlesmarsal)

Carles Marsal is a graphic designer and visual artist who creates photorealistic environments to make his visions a reality. Using his own technique based on principles of Matte Painting, from a draft sketch he incorporates photos and uses brushes to create realistic scenes.

Just as for this Residence in Tuscany project, he uses these skills to create his own scenes with great detail that can be used in publishing, advertising, film, video games, and more.

You can learn to create your own scenes by checking out Carles’ Domestika course, Matte Painting: Creating Photorealistic Worlds. Carles also teaches two other courses: Secrets of Photomontage and Creative Retouching, and Introduction to Adobe Photoshop.

Tristeza, by Rony Hernandes (@ronyhernandes)

In his Domestika course, Artistic Portrait Photography: Exploring Body Language, Brazilian photographer, model, and creative director Rony Hernandes explores natural light and body language to create photo essays based on emotion.

In this final project from his course, Rony explores the feeling of sadness—capturing the listlessness, which grows, and eventually overflows. To do this, he photographs his models (Loic and Emira) in motion, enhancing the impact of their body language with composition and lighting techniques.

You can take a look at the full photo essay by clicking on the red title, or find out how to create your own artistic photo essays by signing up for his course.

Paseos interiores, by Ivan Rodriguez Garcia (@ivanrod)

A compilation of surreal and introspective works by freelance designer and digital graphic artist Ivan Rodriguez Garcia, Paseos interiores (‘Indoor Walks’) is a project that delves below the surface of our minds to the emotions and feelings that lie beneath.

A believer that our emotional states filter through to what we do, both subtly and in more obvious ways, Ivan notes common links between the five pieces (to see the full compilation, click on the red title).

Themes and ideas that stand out for him are the loneliness and fear we hide in the back of our mind (Paseo por la superficie, “Walk on the surface”); the moments of reflection where we understand the immensity of the world around us and the small part we play in it (El rincón de pensar, “The thinking corner”); and introspection as we allow ourselves to look within and unlock our creative sides (Las puertas, “The doors”).

My project in Cinematic Digital Illustration with Photoshop, by Anissa Woudenberg (@anissawwart)

Anissa Woudenberg is a Communications and Multimedia Design student at Hogeschool Utrecht in The Netherlands whose passionate about illustration and visual design.

In this final course project from Cinematic Digital Illustration with Photoshop, she demonstrates what she learned, sharing the various stages of her creative process.

Taught by English artist Izzy Burton (@izzyburtonart), the course teaches the tools and skills necessary to turn a photographic reference into a captivating conceptual artwork using Photoshop.

31 Days 31 Drawings 2021, by Tina Ritter (@mimbelbi)

Another entry from our 31 Days, 31 Drawings challenge, German artist Tina Ritter draws for fun.

Although she used to focus on abstract styles and acrylic paints were her medium of choice, in her Domestika profile, Tina explains that after taking a ten-year hiatus from drawing between 2010 and 2020, last summer she picked up watercolors and hasn’t been able to put her brush down since.

Her main focuses these days are female portraits and animals, as you can see from her beautiful collection of watercolor paintings she created for the challenge, like this for the theme Kimono (Day 24). Check out the full collection of Tina’s illustration challenge entries by clicking on the red title.

A big congratulations to all of the creatives and thank you for sharing your projects!

Remember that you can also share your own works and that as part of the Domestika community you can benefit from inspiration from all kinds of creatives, check out personal and final course projects, discover the latest trends from the creative world, and lots more.

If you're not sure how to publish your projects on Domestika, take a look at our easy upload guide where we explain how to do it with tips to make sure you get the most out of the platform.

Tell us what you think about the community's ten favorite projects through October and if you have more to share, let us know in the comments below!

You may also like:

- How to Publish Your Projects on Domestika
- Discover the Domestika Certificates Included in All Courses
- Discover Your Creative Type
- Artistic Portrait Photography: Exploring Body Language, a course by Rony Hernandes
- Illustrating Nature: A Creative Exploration, a course by Laura McKendry