Author: Artist Lee Suzanne Jordan

Artist creating expressive paintings inspired by hope
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Color Secrets: Brightness

Color Secrets: Brightness

There has been a trend lately in app design where white or very light backgrounds are paired with minimal use of color and flat, simplified shapes. Why this shift when sites had been trending darker and darker? Is it the Star Wars reboot? A renewed interest in futurism? Or are we just all tired of looking at gray or black displays? As more and more sites provide lighter sites or options to choose what backgrounds we want, designers and user experience professionals will need to take another look at how people are using devices as part of their daily lives. People don’t use devices in well lit, climate controlled areas. Being able to observe and take into account the key environments where users are will then have an impact on choices about color including brightness, contrast and saturation. My personal ideas about why…

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Five Quick Color Tips For Your Next Project

five quick color tips

Many developers and designers I talk to are very frustrated when it comes time to pick colors for a project. It can be hard to choose the right color or set of colors for a project. I want to share with your five quick tips for using color in your next project so you can make the best user experience possible. (more…)

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How to Find Your Artistic Style

How to find your artistic style

Your world view and how you express it is your style. We edit out so many things subconsciously and make choices on what to and what not to create. What do you choose to create when you can choose? What moves you?   All artists secretly long for an artistic style so different and unique from others they will be unmistakable. When I was in college, having an artistic style was a big source of anxiety. What if my work just looked like everyone else? How would I be different when we were all learning to do the same things?    When you push yourself to experiment and grow every day, you will build your artistic style organically over time. Parents know this anticipation as babies grow. What will their personalities be like? They are revealed slowly, day by day.…

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Draw Better Faster with Pencil Warmups

get better at drawing faster with warmups

Are you frustrated by your skill level? Feel like you’ve hit a wall? Do you feel dissatisfied with what you draw?  Do you want to learn how to do better gradients or other techniques? Warming up with pencil drills can help you! Warm ups with pencils can help you: Become more skilled at drawing (people things whatever) Learn your tools inside and out Build muscle and hand/eye coordination Relax Focus your mind   Check out this video on pencil warm ups (5 min 36 seconds) Practice doesn’t have to take a long time or be boring. Just a couple of minutes before you start drawing “for real” can help you mentally and physically prepare and grow your abilities. I like to start with circular marks to warm up my hand and fingers and reconnect my hand/eye coordination. Make the connection with…

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Create Anywhere You Are

create anywhere you are. How to put together a portable kit to take anywhere

Have you ever gone somewhere and then realized you had nothing with you to draw or paint? Never be without creative supplies again with today’s tips. I’m going to share with you how to be ready to create wherever you are by putting together an artist go bag. I was on vacation at the beach a couple of weeks ago (Yay!). This was a great chance to sketch and create. Luckily I had packed a “go bag” of art supplies. This is a pared down kit of what I have in my studio at home. I like to carry materials that are easy to take with me and don’t make a big mess or require a lot of time to set up. TLDR: For sketching on the go, experiment and find what you like. Start with a pencil, pen, sharpener…

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100 Days In Review

I spent 100 days this spring drawing every day and posting it to instagram. Some were awful, most of them were OK, and a few were awesome. A lot of people I talked to during the project kept telling me they thought the hard part was doing something every day. It wasn’t easy and sometimes I did not do very good work.  The really tough part was posting at all. I was exposing myself as a creative every day. There are amazing creatives posting on instagram every day, sometimes multiple times a day. And there was me. I was surprised to find a lot of support for me even when I thought a post was crappy. Here is a list of good things that happened from the 100 Days project Committing to  posting every day Documenting different problems I ran…

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100 days Woman from Apache Cafe

Woman posting at Apache Cafe in Atlanta, GA

There is a venue in Atlanta called Apache Cafe where on Monday nights there are live models to draw or photograph. This sketch I made using Adobe Sketch and my fingers on an iPad Pro was based off a photo I took there. Adobe Sketch has some interesting effects when you used the watercolor flat brush. It continues to “bleed” into the other parts of the sketch after you lay a stroke down. The more times you go over an area, the more the colors blend and spread.  

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100 days my Mom’s dog May

May with a toy

My mom has a sweet blue heeler dog named May. She has this funny pose she does when chewing on a toy where she uses her left paw to hold the toy down against her right leg and paw. I used Adobe Draw to quickly sketch her for #100daysofdigitalsketch, my personal challenge for the #100days project. I still find it awkward to switch to different brushes and then have to change colors. It would probably be better to set all the brushes to one color before I start. I drew with my finger instead of a stylus this time.

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100 days colorful bunting bird

Colorful bunting bird #100daysofdigitalsketch

Today for #100daysofdigitalsketch I drew a bunting bird. This is a regional bird often seen in North Carolina and Georgia. It is a vibrant bird and a lot of fun to draw. I used a combination of the taper, basic blunt and chisel brushes. I used different opacities and brush sizes to create layered glaze effects while applying colors.

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100 days fire sketch

100 days of digital sketch day 2

It’s day two of my 100 days of digital sketch project. Today I sketched a fire using default tools in Adobe Draw. If you want a detailed breakdown of what I did, I have a description below the image.   I used square shape for large areas of background since currently there is no all over background color tool. I picked the basic flat brush and made it as large as I could, 60px, and chose the dark orange color. I made broad shallow curves to define the two logs on a new layer. I chose a lighter orange and laid down a few curvy triangular marks for key flames. I then picked the taper brush to define points and add more character. I alternated colors and opacity while building out the flames. I mixed in flatter blobs of hot ashy…

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100 days seltzer bottle sketch

100 days sketch #1

Created using the Adobe Draw app on my iPad for the 100 days project. I used mostly brushes 2 and 4 that come default with the app. You can follow my progress on Instagram.     I wish the brush size controls were a bit easier to use. They do not all have the same size ranges. I would also like for larger sizes.  I’m also still adjusting to the line weights of the different brushes. Sometimes they appear larger or smaller than I expect when I start using them. I used an Intuos Bamboo stylus since I was traveling and did not pack a full size stylus.

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Five Tips for Creating Better Color Palettes for the Web

Color palettes using simple and complex colors

I’ve put together five tips for creating better color palettes based on a recent talk I gave to computer science students. Faced with working on their first mobile apps or sites, they had never really been given advice on choosing color palettes. I realized this is one of those gaps in knowledge; part of the missing manual of design experience you build over time as a developer or designer. I hope you find them useful too. (more…)

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What Does That Color Mean?

eight common colors with different meanings

It can be hard sometimes to choose the right color or set of colors for a project. Learning what different colors may mean to your audience and matching the right ones to the goals of your project takes research and careful thought. Different shades, tones and tints of the same color can have a very different impact. Today we will explore the Western meanings of eight common colors. (more…)

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Sketch to Finished Graphics in a Day

case study sketch

I had a problem a lot of designers face. I spend so much time designing other people’s web sites and assorted miscellany that things like the design of my own site tend to fall to the wayside. I had a long weekend ahead of me and a fire in my belly after seeing some of the amazing designs of other people. It was time to take action. It began with a clean up of the overall layout and template of the site, but I was still lacking an awesome hero header for my home page. After some time spent thinking about what I do and what it means, I was ready to start concepting and sketching. The full case study is available in the new case study section of this site. You can see the end result on the home…

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