What I created this month // April 2025

April is over, which means...

Long time patrons know that I can never let this time of year pass without posting this ridiculous meme! Now that the month is over, here's an overview of everything I created in April✨

This month's tutorial was on different rendering styles! In this video, I used 4 different rendering approaches on the same sketch. The idea is to show you how you can adjust your rendering style based on how much time you have, how much detail you want to use, and a bunch of other factors! It's all about versatility and flexibility. Watch the full video here!

Since it's my latest tutorial, it will be available on the $5 spark tier for another month! After that, it goes to the backlog, along with 50 other tutorials. Join the spark tier if you want to grab it for $5! And if you want to access the massive backlog of over 50 tutorials, just upgrade to the $10 flame tier 🔥

This month's challenge was on studying colorful lighting! This was truly a tough challenge, because there were a lot of things to keep in mind: colors, volumes, midtones, values... so much! I definitely struggled with this one, but ended up having a lot of fun in the end! Here's what I created:

For next month's challenge, we'll be drawing underwater poses! A perfect challenge for practicing gesture and anatomy, and also highly compatible with the MerMay challenge🧜‍♀️ If you're not yet a flame member, be sure to upgrade your tier to access the challenge - all information will be posted tomorrow on the 1st!

As always, flame members also got access to the process videos (part one, part two, and part three) and a resource video with tips and advice. This is a 25 minute long video in which I discuss my process, common mistakes, and run through the artwork that you guys posted in the discord! If you want to draw studies like this in the future, you might find it helpful. Watch it here!

April was all about landscapes for me! Maybe because this is the month in which I planned my vacation, and I've been looking at pictures and videos of epic scottish landscapes for weeks. But it's also because I have a lot of improving to do in this area! As a character artist, I sometimes find it so hard to translate my favorite techniques into something that works well for landscapes. It's especially hard for me to capture the sense of scale - so it was definitely good for me to put in some practice!

These studies ended up sparking an idea for a painting, so I jumped right in and created it! I tried to capture the feeling I've had on many of my hikes, and just in life in general. Would you hike this trail?

I also shared the full process of my mountain trail painting! I figured it was a good opportunity to share my process for landscapes, and also how I've been using texture and smudge tools lately in order to build my volumes. I broke it down into three parts: find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here! Each video has information in the description about my process and which creative choices I made at each stage.

This month's Q&A session for flame members was all about pausing and re-assessing! This is so important for your art: taking a break and figuring out which problems need to be solved. But it's also important for your career and life path. Sometimes it's scary to change course, but it's all part of the process! I really enjoyed this session - watch the full video here!

I need your help! We're going to be bringing back weekly questions, and I'd love to hear which topics you'd like to discuss on the server with your fellow patrons. Do you want to share art? Talk about art struggles? Discuss your biggest inspirations? I'd love to get your perspective! Head on over to the server and check out the #server-news channel - you'll find the thread where you can share your ideas! I'd love to hear your thoughts! 🖤

Friendly reminder: all paying members have access to the discord server! If you’re not sure how to join the discord, just follow the steps outlined here.

Thanks for your support this month! I hope you'll hang around for another month of videos, challenges, and inspiration ✨

Thank you so much for supporting me in creating this month's content and art! I just sent out a DM with the links to this month's content. Check out your inbox!

Thank you for being a part of this Patreon! If you're interested in getting access to all of the above plus content from previous months, upgrade your tier here!

If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to share them with me through a direct message or e-mail to loishh@gmail.com. Any and all feedback is welcome!