The Painted Apron

I thought it would be fun to create a journal page for November

As I was collecting ideas for November things to add to it

I visualized a calendar grid in the center of the page

with trees full of Autumn leaves around the border…

Wait! I have painted a woodsy scene

for Fearless Friday several years ago

A Walk Through the Woods

Then I realized I had a lot of Fall art,

that I had drawn for Doodlewash and Inktober art challenges,

that would be perfect for a calendar journal page

Indian corn, a turkey, and lots more

Pumpkin Pickup

Fall Bounty

I decided to see what I could create digitally,

using PicMonkey, my go to photo editing website

It was a fun and different kind of art project!

The process is a little labor intensive

so I went ahead and made you a printable if you aren’t interested in the tutorial

You can download a free printable here

Digital art is a whole new field to explore and discover

I have several friends that love to use Procreate app

and make art on their iPads

The drawing and painting below was done on an iPad

You can see a roundup of different digital art styles here

I will show you the steps I took

in case you want to try something similar with PicMonkey

or other creative sites

1. From file, by the monkey face upper left, select create new, blank canvas, and put in dimensions 4000 x 3000 pixels upper right
2. Now you have a blank canvas. Go to the graphics menu, 3rd icon down on far left vertical menu. Chose a basic graphic. The rectangle with rounded corners is a good one because you can change the shape easily to fit your space
3. Click on change colors in the far left vertical menu and then you will be able to select the inside color and the border color

4. Add a line choosing a line from the graphics menu on the left and edit the line to the length and thickness you want

5. Click on the line layer, far right and click on the 3 vertical buttons to open the options menu

6. Click on duplicate layer

7. Continue to duplicate the line until you have the required number {4}

8. Add another line, and turn it 90 degrees forming a vertical line and adjust the length

9. Duplicate this line until you have the required number {6}

10. Now, to protect your grid, you can lock the layers together to prevent them from moving as you continue to build your page. In the layer palette on the far right vertical edge of page you will see a lock icon in the bottom right hand corner of each layer. Click on the locks to close for each layer of the grid, beginning with locking the basic graphic, then continuing locking each line

11. Add numbers to each square with the text tool.

12. Now add the art work. I wanted my A Walk Through the Woods painting to be the background so once the calendar was done I clicked on add image, menu top left and selected add image from my computer

13. Click on the menu dots on the image in the layer palette on the far right and open the menu. Click on move layer to back

Now the painting becomes the background behind the calendar

14. I clicked on add image in menu upper left and selected this turkey art from my computer

Then I reduced it in size so it would fit on the Thanksgiving Day calendar square. To resize it, move it on the screen so part of it is not on the calendar grid, because the calendar grid is locked so you can’t edit anything that is sitting directly on it. Once it’s resized you can freely move it around on the page.

15. Click on the white area surrounding the calendar graphic to select it. Now you can change the background from white to whatever color you want

16. Now I added more art work to fill in the space around the calendar

Reduce the size and move it into place

The football is from PicMonkey’s graphics library. I opened the graphics tab and entered football into the search box to find it

I continued to add art around the calendar and then added a white rectangular graphic for the title

17. I added November with the text tool

I wanted more of the background color to show on the left side so I reduced the size of the watercolor tree painting

I am happy to share my November calendar page with you!

You can download a free printable here

NOTE: PicMonkey offers several plans to choose from, and you can be billed monthly or annually. I do have the Pro plan, so I have access to everything, where some of the lesser plans reduce access to some tools. I believe they offer a free trial that you can try before signing up.

Try your hand at digital art and

Be Fearless!

I will be joining these fabulous parties and blogs:

 Sundays on Silverado  Love Your Creativity 

 What’s for Dinner Between Naps on the Porch 

All About Home/ Common Ground Follow the Yellow Brick Home

 Tasty Tuesday   Oh My Heartsie Girl  Turn About Tuesday 

 Full Plate Thursday  Centerpiece Wednesday  Creative Crafts

Creatively Crafty Thursday Favorite Things   

Friday with Friends