Look Behind the Scenes at How I Make Art
My Digital Art Process
Thank you to everyone who has donated to my next film project. It is a sequel to my film YUP. You can help fund this campaign at the link below by donating or sharing:
Part of my work as a performing musician is getting together promotional materials for shows. My next show is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, December 7, 2025, at 3:00 PM, at the French House in Nashville. This is my annual show that I mount at this historic and beloved establishment. As such, I needed to make a promotional flyer for it. (You can watch a time-lapse video of the art being made if you scroll down.)
Here are the preliminary questions I asked myself beforehand:
Should I draw an image to scan or create something digitally?
What is the vibe I want project?
What is my color palette?
From where should I get inspiration?
In this case, I decided to create something digitally. Here are the tools I used:
My iPad
iPad pencil
An app called Procreate
Adobe Photoshop software
With the vibe, I knew that I wanted to make something vibrant and evocative that does not look like anything I have done before.
I chose to go with yellow, black, red, green, and white accents.
My inspiration was a beloved painting by Renaissance Chinese painter Jiang Tiefeng called Emerald Lady.
The Procreate drawing app on iPad gives me the choice to use virtually any kind of drawing utensil and medium. For this project, I decided to go with a paintbrush and oil painting.
Below, you can watch a time-lapse, 26-second video of how I created the flyer image in real time. Each different color is its own layer that I can toggle between at my discretion.
Once I completed making the image in Procreate, I sent a PSD file, with all of its layers intact, over to PhotoShop on my MacBook Pro.
Here is a gallery of some of the different layers:
And here was the completed image:
My objective was never to make a replica of the Emerald Lady but to use it as a point of reference. (I am not a fan of plagiarizing.) My digital painting looks nothing like its inspiration, and I am happy with that.
Once I had moved all the layers to Photoshop, I started work on actually composing the flyer. I decided to crop the original, remove some of the layers, adjust the yellow tone to something more subtle, and change the background color.
Then of course, I had to make decisions about fonts, font sizes, and the placement of information. I must include all the necessary details in a way that is both easily legible and well-composed.
Here then, is the final flyer:
I put a lot of thought and effort into my flyers simply because I enjoy making them. Everyone on social media will be seeing this flyer for at least the next month. I may as well make something original that I am proud of.
Thank you for following along on this behind-the-scenes look.
If you are in Nashville on December 7 and are looking for something to do, you now have the details for my show.
Join us for some fun music among friends.
UPCOMING SHOWS
The French House
Ancestral Tongue
(w/ Special Guest Ellisa Sun)
Nashville, TN
Sunday, December 7
Project Updates
New Music:
Recorded more song demos
Working on my vocals for the songs
New YUP Sequel Film Project:Making more fundraising plans