Intro to the 25 Sweetpeas Art Style Series

Hello there! Welcome to the start of a brand new series! As some of you may or may not know, in 2018 I started taking art to a new level for myself. I have always been a creative, and while I feel like for the most part on my blog it looks like I only really do art on my nails, but thats not true. For as long as I can remember I have done creative artsy things. It just so happened that my passion for nail art turned into a blog and just went places I didn't even really realize. So as that has happened I have also had many times of getting back into other art, be it on paper, canvas, a journal, or now my iPad. In 2019 specifically I decided to dive and invest in my art. Basically I had been designs all graphics and everything for 25 Sweetpeas the hard way, so I decided last year to take it all more seriously and get the right tools to do art digitally.

I liked this because it was one of my first time playing with Animation but this doesn't look very me! Well the quote does but overall not my style.

This led me to the start of so many fun ideas that will come in time so I kind of want to document things of this sort here on my blog. So I am starting a new series called the Art Style Series. My idea/goal for it is to document my art and changes. I was looking back at what I created in 2019 verses what I have been creating this year and have already noticed major changes. In 3 years from now I probably wouldn't even think about it and or have a way to track that since I don't post everything on Instagram, so I thought it would be fun to share here.

I love this piece, its one of my faves from 2019 and it was a stepping store to getting better, and getting me closer to what I love to do now! 

In 2019 I had big plans for what I wanted to do with my new tools, sadly due to unforeseen circumstances  those plans/ideas didn't pan out. Should I have pushed through and done them anyway? Most likely yes, but it was hard and I was also not 100% sure or confident in things. Granted I never will be but time just moved too fast. So 2019 involved me getting stuck in a lot of ruts and unsure of my style. I would do one piece such as the pool one here, and I would get SO stuck. I mean I would do it and LOVE it, but be able to not do anything after it. Plus my hand would hurt, my shoulders/neck would hurt, and it was because of how tense I was while working + trying to make everything perfect. Now I didn't realize this until just recently but even though I would want to do more, I felt like I was drained of ideas, and I had used up all of my creativity. Weird I know!

I don't hate this, I actually like how unplanned it was, at the time I was so stuck in perfect lines that this was NEEDED to get be out of my head. So while it nothing special I definitely am glad I did it!

So I played with other styles, and was just trying to find my style. I've always loved the idea of having a style, and thinking that some day someone would see something and be like yep, thats 25 Sweetpeas, or thats Sarah's. I love going into a store a recognizing some ones art work. :) Always so neat, and yet here I was feeling like I would never get to that. Plus I was having a hard time justifying the time on it when I needed to be creating for 25 Sweetpeas. ( LOVE creating for 25 Sweetpeas, so that was not meant in a snarky/condescending way, I just always put 25 Sweetpeas first because I LOVE what I do).

This was for a fun/random idea that I has and I LOVED the graphic. I genuinely had SO much fun creating it. The overall idea/concept was a flop even I failed to use it super consistently but I still like it and had fun!

Time went on and then holidays started to roll around and I had ideas, concepts of how to merge art + everything 25 Sweetpeas. Enter; 12 Days of Halloween & Nailmas. This allowed me to really mix things and play a little more. Plus I kinda of also participated in Inktober. At this point I feel like I was started to find new things I was enjoying. Then Christmas season around, I needed an escape, and I was beta testing a new version of Procreate and this just jump started things.

I am a sucker for a time lapse and I LOVE this. This was the start of something for me! I have always  used black in my art but I SO badly wanted to not. I was getting tired of the stress of perfectly lined art and just felt it was holding me back, so even though I still did some here It was the start of a looser style.

I started to create things in a different style than I had earlier in the year and I felt some headway being made. This led to some various different styles for Christmas graphics and I was having a lot of fun and making more time without compromising anything else which was great!

This trend led me to the end of the year, so there is a bit of a start to this series. Now I hope to post a new installment each month covering that months art, changes, realizations and just a nice little art chat. I have been listening to more creative podcasts + following more artists on social media and just  being more aware of ups and downs and such + reading about others and I think sharing these sorts of things can encourage others when they are feeling bluh, or just feeling like they are the only ones with these hinderances. Reading and being able to relate to others ups and downs can help, plus give you someone to chat too.

Again this was the Holiday season where things were taking a good turn!

I'm really looking forward to this series and having it too look back on! Hope you will enjoy it with me too! If you have any questions or ideas of what you would like to see for this series or related content let me know! I am always up for new things when it comes to my blog. :) I love this place, its one thing that I do have complete control over and what happens here is up to me and I love that. So I will see you in the first official installment of this series VERY soon! :)