Domestika

The 10 Best Domestika Projects From July 2021

Discover the top creative processes this month from our Domestika community

Sharing your creative process with professional colleagues, experts, or people you admire is one of the best things about learning. It’s also probably the most rewarding!

At Domestika, we’ve created the ideal space for our community to find out more about the artistic process. In this space, you can ask for help, share advice, talk about your discoveries, and show off your work with pride. As well as sharing and being congratulated on your personal or professional projects, you can also get feedback from experts regarding whatever it is you’re working on.

Projects published by the Domestika community
Projects published by the Domestika community

Just like every other month, many creatives have been keen to show us their work throughout July. Some of them are Domestika teachers and others are students, but they all have in common a desire to improve in the areas they are passionate about. Here we show you 10 projects, the majority of them illustrative, which have received the most likes throughout the month.

Tarot, by Adolfo Serra
Tarot, by Adolfo Serra

1. Tarot, by Adolfo Serra (@adolfoserra)

In this project, illustrator Adolfo Serra confesses that although he isn’t an expert in tarot reading or card dealing, he is fascinated by the power of illustration to tell stories, for example using this magic deck of cars. “The tarot reflects a human need to face uncertainty, to understand the unknown, and to understand oneself and those who surround us. We search for our own reflection in the cards’ illustrations”, he observes.

Serra, who teaches several Domestika courses, delves into the relationship between illustration and magic in his course Acrylic Illustration: Create a Magical Universe, inviting other artists to discover how to illustrate symbols using the major arcana tarot cards.

Watercolor portrait, by Sarah Stokes
Watercolor portrait, by Sarah Stokes

2. Watercolor portrait, by Sarah Stokes (@sarah_stokes)

The British artist is once again one of the most popular creatives in the community, this time with her two watercolor projects that include the portrait of a woman (using Winsor & Newton paints and pens) and an image of her famous birds - two cardinals sitting on branches.

Although Sarah Stokes is a self-taught artist, she has discovered the techniques and secrets that have enabled her to become a famous wildlife watercolorist. You can discover more about her methods in the course Artistic Watercolor Techniques for Illustrating Birds.

Oxen, by Laura McKendry
Oxen, by Laura McKendry


3. Oxen, by Laura McKendry (@laura_mckendry)

Oxen is Laura Mckendry’s personal project, which shows oxen painted using a combination of watercolor, colored ink, emulsion paint, and a colored pencil.
The English artist confesses that from a didactic perspective, she's interested in the mistakes we make during the creative process. “They’re crucial for making discoveries. Avoiding them is a sure-fire way to stifle our creativity, so we must allow them to happen”, she explains. This point is also highlighted in her course: Illustrating Nature: A Creative Exploration.

Three weeks of drawing, Andrew De La Torre
Three weeks of drawing, Andrew De La Torre


4. Course project: Three weeks of drawing, by Andrew De la Torre (@xombie)

This project allows us to look both at the artist’s creative process and a conversation with the teacher. The author of this hyperrealistic portrait is Andrew De la Torre, and he is presenting his work to Diego Catalá. They reflect on some of the things that Andrew learned on the course Realistic Portrait with Graphite Pencil. “I must admit, I didn’t do it in the best of circumstances because I wanted to treat this project as a kind of study, but as every hour passed I felt happier with the result, so I decided to take it more seriously”, reveals Andrew.

You can click on the red title of this project to read Diego’s replies, technical comments, and conclusions.

Advanced Embroidery Techniques: Stitches and Compositions with Volume, by Maria Rubio (@its_mariarubio)
Advanced Embroidery Techniques: Stitches and Compositions with Volume, by Maria Rubio (@its_mariarubio)


5. Course project: Advanced Embroidery Techniques: Stitches and Compositions with Volume by Maria Rubio (@its_mariarubio)

This course from the project Advanced Embroidery Techniques: Stitches and Compositions with Volume is an inspiring example of what you can achieve when you explore ways to create new dimensions and nuances in your embroidery.
Maria inspires us by sharing beautiful details of a creative process that began when she went into lockdown in Ireland. “It seemed like the perfect moment to begin a big embroidery project, as I had a lot of free time on my hands. I felt I wanted to make the most of the time to do something a little more ambitious: embroider the back of a jacket”, she says. In the rest of her story, you can read about the challenges of buying the perfect thread online when you’re not able to touch the material, as well as interesting details such as how it took her 85 hours to embroider the jacket.

Clay portrait: model of a life-sized face, by Efraïm Rodríguez.
Clay portrait: model of a life-sized face, by Efraïm Rodríguez.



6. My course project: Clay Portrait: Model a Full-Scale Face, by Efraïm Rodríguez (@efraim_rodriguez)

The sculptor Efraïm Rodríguez shares moments from his creative process, from selecting and editing photos, to building a simple structure, as well as covering how to build larger forms, and the different details involved.

Here you can also see some of the questions he refers to in his course Clay Portrait: Model a Full-Scale Face where he demonstrates each step of how to create a life-size clay portrait, from choosing the model to the final touches.

Painting nature with acrylic: from sketchbook to canvas, by Maru Godas.
Painting nature with acrylic: from sketchbook to canvas, by Maru Godas.



7. My course project: Painting Nature with Acrylic: From Sketchbook to Canvas, by Maru Godas (@marugodas)

Maru Godas illustrates and paints in notebooks, makes books, and holds workshops. In fact, she has two Domestika courses, Pictorial Sketchbook with Gouache and Painting Nature with Acrylic: From Sketchbook to Canvas. This project shows her final work from the latter course.

My Invisible Friends, by Luis San Vicente
My Invisible Friends, by Luis San Vicente


8. My Invisible Friends, by Luis San Vicente (@luissanvicente)

In this project, the graphic designer Luis San Vicente, who specializes in both digital and traditional illustration, introduces us to his imaginary friends in day-to-day situations and shows us how they were born. He explains that the sketches are based on photos, meaning that to a certain extent, his illustrations can be thought of as intervened photos.

He also explains how he worked on the backgrounds using Painter and Photoshop, and that his characters are also created in Photoshop using vectors and digital paint brushes. If you want to find out more about his method as well as view this project, you can sign up to his course Children's Illustration for Posters.

Commissioned portraits by Yasmini
Commissioned portraits by Yasmini


9. Commissioned portraits, by Yasmin Islas Domínguez (@yasmini)

Yasmini is a Mexican animator and illustrator who shares with us a series of commissioned works in Kawaii-style. On her profile, Yasmini reveals how she loves to use pastel colors, but also makes sure she experiments with contrast and techniques so that her work does not become monotonous.
Regarding her training, Yasmini studied digital animation at the SAE Institute Mexico and character design at Berlin’s Pictoplasma Academy. She specializes in character design and 3D modeling on Blender, and she has collaborated with several Mexican animation studios including Flaminguettes, Memoma and Pictoline. Find out what Kawaii style is here and how to draw it.

Basic Principles of Drawing People from Imagination course, by Tom Fox.
Basic Principles of Drawing People from Imagination course, by Tom Fox.


10. My project in Basic Principles of Drawing People from Imagination course, by Tom Fox (@tomfoxdraws)

Tom reveals the final project from his course Basic Principles of Drawing People from Imagination. If you look carefully, you can appreciate the different stages from the first thumbnails to the final result.

The expert reminds us why it is important for illustrators to follow a methodical process. Finally, Tom invites artists to stay connected so they can talk about the foundations of projects like these, as well as the importance of taking your time when drawing.

Congratulations to everyone and thank you for sharing your projects! Remember that you too can share your projects here.

Want to see more? In the Domestika community you can enjoy other personal work, final course projects, and news from our teachers.

If you want to learn how to publish your project on Domestika, we explain how here, along with giving you advice that will help you get the most out of this creative meeting place.

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