The program I started with when I first began learning digital design and how to work with vectors was Inkscape. I started there because it was free and there were so many tutorials around the web that I was able to teach myself how to use it pretty easily. I would suggest first familiarizing yourself with the program and learning the basics. Here's a tutorial introduction to Inkscape on Youtube that gives you the basics of how to use it. This guy has a whole series of helpful, easy to follow videos that I would recommend watching as you are learning. I would recommend watching at least the first 10 tutorials. It can seem like this is just boring stuff at first, but it really is going to be your bread and butter and make things easier in the long run. Once you feel comfortable with the program and know how to do a lot of basic things, then you can move on to specific tutorials explaining how to make more specific or complex things. If you use Pinterest, I have created a board with a lot of Inkscape tutorials and I'll continue to add more complex tutorials to this board in the future as well, so be sure to follow the board if you don't want to miss anything. I'll also create a section on my "Learn" page with a lot of Inkscape tutorials for easy reference. Please let me know in the comments what specific things you are wanting to learn and if there are other programs you are interested in using as well. I'll do my best to compile some resources for you to help you along your journey.
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Good news! I've compiled a list of my favorite places to get freebies. They are all legitimate sites where the designers have authorized the freebies. They also provide premium content if there's anything you're looking for, but no purchase is necessary to get the freebies. You can view the list by clicking the image above. In addition, I've put together a freebie pack just for you so that you can try out some of my resources. You can get it by clicking here. If you subscribe to my email list, I've also got a special birthday treat for you. $10 to spend on digital products in my Etsy shop. If you've already subscribed, there's nothing you need to do. If you aren't a subscriber yet, click on "GET IN TOUCH" and you can subscribe from there. Thank you for supporting me along my journey! I hope I can bring a lot of value to you not only through the products I create, but also through my website as I continue to add useful content to help you learn and grow. Believe it or not, a few years ago I didn't even know what a vector was. Shocked / surprised monkey photo by Jamie Haughton on Unsplash. I know! It's hard to believe that in just a few years I've gone from not knowing that vector format even existed to creating my own vector graphics from scratch. So if you are starting from scratch and you feel like you know absolutely nothing yet, that's okay!
I've been there, but look how far I've come since then. And you can learn too! Whether you want to learn how to use other people's resources to design your own greeting cards, wall art, cut files, social media images, or whether you want to design your own resources from scratch, you can learn. You don't have to pay for an expensive course or buy expensive programs to do it either. While it does help to have some natural talent, there's also a lot you can learn. I don't think everyone will be good at everything, but I do think everyone can do something. I'm going to be adding a lot of content to my website that should be helpful to you along your journey. So I'll tell you a little about my background and how I got into the world of design. Growing up, my sister and her best friend were both really talented at art and I looked up to them a lot. I never felt like I was quite as good, but I always wanted to be. I enjoyed art, so I kept at it. I took art as an elective at every opportunity. I was good with color and composition, but drawing and making things look realistic was never my strong suit. My AP art teacher in high school told me I should think about becoming a graphic designer. I thought it sounded amazing, but I didn't really have anyone else in my life encouraging me to to pursue a career in the art / design world. I was encouraged to pursue a career that offered more stability, so I did. I changed my major about 5 times, spent 5 years in college, and left with a degree in elementary education. By the time I graduated, I pretty much already knew it wasn't a good fit for me. I ended up working a few different jobs over the next couple of years and eventually went back to school for nursing. So I spent 5 more semesters of school and then worked as a nurse in a patient care setting. I enjoyed it in a lot of ways but it was also super stressful in others. So after that I ended up taking a position at a law firm where I could still use my nursing knowledge without the stress of working directly with patients. It was actually a great fit for me, but upon the arrival of my first child I stopped working and became a stay at home mom. It was always my "dream job," but the reality of it was much different than I had imagined. I loved being home with my son, but I didn't realize how hard it would be as an introvert to always be "on" while caring for my children. I needed time to recharge my batteries, and I also just needed to feel like I was accomplishing something outside of my role as a wife and mom. So I created my an Etsy shop, Handcrafted with Joy. A couple of years after that, I saw an ad for Creative Market come up on Facebook. It was advertising a handwritten font. It was the first handwritten style font I had ever seen, and I was intrigued. From there, I pretty much fell in love with fonts and discovered a whole new world of design resources. At some point, my sister told me about vectors and again I discovered a whole new world. I became addicted to buying design resources and started to teach myself how to work with them to create pretty things with them. I started working with Inkscape because it was free, and I pretty much taught myself how to use it by watching Youtube videos. Anytime I wasn't sure how to do something, I'd just google it and watch a video. I've used other programs since then, but Inkscape is a great one to start with and I still use it a good bit. I soon created a second Etsy shop, Digital Joy Studio, to sell cards, stickers, and printable items utilizing those resources. (That one's looking a little sad at the moment, I'm in the process of revamping it). But a couple of years down the road, I decided to start making my own design resources as well. So that's what brought me here, to create Meraki Reverie Studio. This has been in the works for a while, but due to other responsibilities, it's been slower going than I would have liked. The pandemic has slowed me down even more, but I'm trucking along a little bit at a time. I want to not only provide you with high quality design resources, but also help you figure out all the different ways you can use them. I'd like to know more about what you guys are looking for, both in terms of what type of design resources you want to see more of, and also what you want to learn how to do. What's something you want to learn? What type of tutorials would be helpful for you? Leave me a comment and I'll try to compile some resources that would be helpful for you. |
AuthorHi, I'm Margaret. I'm an artist, crafter, designer, and lover of all things unique or beautiful. Archives
July 2023
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