Note: Files are for practice purposes only
“I’m just seeking joy, to be honest,” says artist Kelly Knaga who grew up deeply connected to both the land and making art. As a kid she whiled away hours at her grandparents’ soy and cattle farm in Northwestern Indiana, doodling from her perch on a stationary tractor. Knaga now lives outside Chicago where she nurtures a vegetable garden and draws inspiration from the outdoors. Her artwork has never lost its childlike energy. She works in mixed media, creating expressive artworks defined by radiating lines and organic shapes drawn in acrylic, crayon, watercolor, and marker before scanning them and making digital edits, often layering her drawings on top of photographs she snaps during hikes.
“I take one or two meditation walks a day and and I’ll take pictures with my phone,” she says. “I take a lot of photos close up of things that I then create shapes out of.”
We asked Kelly to create three creative exercises based on her artistic practice. Download the file at the link above and follow the directions below. Let your imagination wander as you play and explore, using line and color to create something new and hopefully find a bit of joy in your day, too.
STEP 1/3
Mixed Media: Draw on a photo.
For this exercise, play with adding colorful embellishments on top of Kelly’s photograph. Select the Paintbrush tool (B), then pick a brush from the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes) and draw on top of the image.
To use Kelly’s color palette, select the Eyedropper tool from the toolbar, click on a color, then select a brush and draw. Experiment with brush types, sizes, and color.
To replace Kelly’s photo with your own, select the image, then click the Edit Contents option in the Options Bar. Click on the Kanaga Adobe Field.png and choose Relink from the flyout menu. Locate your image in the Finder and click Place. Use the Direct Selection tool to resize and reposition your image, holding down the Shift key to scale proportionally.
STEP 2/3
Collage art with shapes and masks.
For this exercise Kelly’s provided four watercolor textures. Select one of the texture boxes provided and copy (Ctrl/Cmd + C) and paste (Ctrl/Cmd + V) it onto the blank artboard. Resize as needed.
Use the pencil tool (N) to draw an enclosed shape on top of the texture. Holding down the Shift key, select both objects with the Selection tool.
Mask the object with the texture (Ctrl/Cmd + 7) to create a shape out of it. Move your shapes around the artboard to create a unique collage.
STEP 3/3
Scratch the surface.
Remember when you were a kid and you’d scribble a rainbow of color with your crayons, cover that with a layer of black, and then scratch away at the surface to create a kaleidoscopic drawing? This is the digital version of that. Kelly has created a swirling gradient and covered it in a creamy opaque layer.
Select the Scratchboard layer, then use the Eraser tool (Shift + E) to “scratch” an image into the top layer, revealing the gradient beneath.
To customize the Eraser, double-click the icon in the toolbar and set the options in the Eraser dialog box. Press the left bracket ([) to decrease the size of the Eraser and the right (]) to increase it. Now let your inner kindergartner run wild!
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kelly Knaga (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer that makes paintings,illustrations, animations, textiles, public art, gardens, and more. She is living and working ona beautiful piece of land just outside of Chicago where she designs fun projects for her clients by day while renovating a house and garden on nights and weekends. Knaga’s work is about celebrating the intersection of nature and art, and exploring the complicated human relationships to Mother Nature and the land.
