#I HAD FUN DRAWING AND COLORING MY INTERPRETATION OF MARIA

[izzyatchi]

@koterkot

she's always loved me despite everything..

i love you, ma

[laetro]

Saloni Sinha: Merging Concept, Visual Styling and Experimentation

Senior Experience Designer at Frog Design, Saloni Sinha unravels the unique step-by-step approach she applies to her designing and illustrating process. Starting out with experimentation, she progresses to conceptualising and ends with visual styling to produce what she considers the effects of her designing roots.

Known for illustration, Saloni Sinha is a designer by day; illustrator by night; bassist on weekends and a full time dreamer. Her approach to design is rooted in experimentation, conceptual thinking and visual styling. Saloni’s illustration style is often inspired by exaggerated reality, nature and outer space. As Senior Experience Designer at Frog Design, her works have included visual direction, design language systems, branding and UX flows amongst others. Meanwhile, being a music lover, she often contributes her designs to the indie music scene.

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Q. Could you please elaborate on what your role as Senior Experience Designer at Frog Design involves and related projects you’ve worked on?

Saloni Sinha: My role at Frog Design varies from project to project. I’ve been lucky to find myself involved in different domains like enterprises, B2B or B2C markets. I’ve also had the opportunity to work on visual direction, design language systems, branding, UX flows and involve myself in pursuits of organisation initiatives from time to time.

Q. Which artist’s works do you look up to and what do you adopt from them in your approach?

Saloni: I get inspired by many different artists all the time. Some of my favourites over the last few years are John Jurez, MC Escher and Maria Tuiriana. John’s subjects are always out of this world. His usage of colours and minimal look are some things I try to adopt in my style as well.

Likewise, I’m always in awe of and puzzled by Escher’s genius mind. I am not sure if I’ve adopted any of his approaches but it always mesmerises me. Maria has a dark yet adorable and humorous style, which is always a delight to see. I feel quite inspired by her use of organic and traditional mediums, which is a good reminder for me to turn to transitional media as much as possible.

Q. Having worked on various projects across branding, UI/UX, typeface, posters, etc. how do you adapt to the diversity in their nature and demands?

Saloni: Having gone through the foundations of design and having the opportunity to experiment with different disciplines in my design education has helped me adapt to different domains. Yet I feel that most of the time it’s the willingness and staying curious that helps you adapt.

Q. Could you kindly elaborate on why you choose visual styling, conceptual thinking and experimentation as the roots of your work?

Saloni: l usually start with experimenting, which is sort of an open field to play around and have fun. At this stage, I’m not bothered by the end result. Once you have one or two good concepts, you can start to refine and build something intuitively. Lastly, you decide which sort of visual styling would best suit the concept. Normally, I tend to play around with colours and typography to decide a mood. I don’t believe in a fixed process; I feel you can iterate and keep an open mind.

Q. Which have been the noteworthy clients and projects you’ve worked for and could you highlight some valuable experiences you’ve had in particular?

Saloni: Some of the projects/clients which are special two me are:

Saptan Stories – a 7-week long collaborative arts event hosted by Aardman Animations (UK) in collaboration with British India. I was really happy to be hand-picked among 7 artists from the UK and India. Every artist had to interpret a story written by the masses. It also felt personal in some sense as I had just gone through a break-up and each line coming in felt like what I had experienced, though with a mix of fantasy in it.

Tailor & Circus – I had the opportunity to create a set of design prints for their underwear collection and also to design a sustainable packaging hamper. They’ve been very inclusive about their audience. They are bold in their approach and sustainable, so I feel proud to be associated with their work. I thus got to see my illustration in a different medium, which is always exciting.

Album Cover for Amogh Symphony ‘IV’ – The artwork for their album turned out to have a very different take in terms of the look and feel, unlike conventional metal band covers. The art was conceptualised with the title track ‘Birds’, which emphasised feminine freedom and connection with mother Earth.

l usually start with experimenting… Once you have one or two good concepts, you can start to refine and build something intuitively. Lastly, you decide which sort of visual styling would best suit the concept.

Q. In terms of technicalities like colour scheme, lighting, proportion and the likes how do you describe your style and approach?

Saloni: I usually tend to work towards a minimal style. I spend more time sketching and inking before I start to digitise. In most of my work, I try to keep the use of colors to a minimum of two or three while colouring digitally. In my opinion, two to three colours bring good balance and harmony. I add depth by adding some tints and tones while sometimes playing around with unconventional proportions to bring surprise.

Q. If you could determine one thing about the field of art today, what would it be and why?

Saloni: Art can be more immersive with upcoming technologies. People can experiment and combine different mediums to create enriching experiences.

Q. What particular efforts or ways do you take to understand and achieve what is expected by a client?

Saloni: Understand clients thoroughly, making sure they are involved in each stage of ideation. At the same time, give yourself time to refine your ideas. Ideally, you don’t want to show them the entire process of brainstorming since it may expose them to half-cooked ideas and confuse them. Once you have a few directions for them to choose from, you can funnel your design sooner.

Sometimes it will also depend on what kind of client you get – there might be clients who are particular about something, while some give you more liberty. As an artist, though, you can take that lead in direction while still keeping the brief in mind.

Q. How do you choose subjects and the manner of conceptualising them in your illustrations?

Saloni Sinha: My subjects keep changing from time to time. Earlier, I was heavily inspired by the metal culture and dark fantasy, so I naturally made a lot of punk/spooky drawings. Nowadays, with my growing interest in space and nature, I draw a lot of inspiration from the two and amalgamate them with everyday life and fantasy.

Q. What kind of projects do you dream to do and what draws you to them?

Saloni Sinha: I’d love to work on a project related to sustainability and nature conservation that can make an actual impact on our planet. And, for fun, I’d love to make album covers for some of my favorite bands as I love music.

[biavastarr]

Co-Parents (Chapter One)

Pairing: steve rogers x you (fem!reader)

Warnings: language, mentions of adult activities, mentions of (robot) child endangerment

Word Count: 1,386ish

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the media or characters mentioned in this story.

Author’s Notes: there is no structure or plan or anything yet, but I’ve always loved those shows where they get stuck with a robot baby and for some dumb reason I decided it’d be a good fic. this is definitely going to be messy as it’s my first series but I’ll do my best,, unfortunately with my crazy schedule it’ll be a couple weeks before I update again? the reader in this will be bi, but if you’re not, don’t worry, I think it’ll be easy to skim over. I also do not know anything about developmental biology so please excuse me being dumb.

I don’t really know what’s going on with this whole “co-” theme with my titles, but that’s not going to be a recurring thing. probably. ignore the cheesiness of the summary, I’m gagging.

Summary: College!AU: You, a Pre-Med student with commitment issues, and Steve Rogers, your reckless best friend, are paired together for a project that requires you to co-parent a high-maintenance robot baby. Will your grades - or your hearts - survive this assignment? 

“Dr. Fury, how is a robot baby going to accurately assess our understanding of child development? With all due respect, it’s kind of an outlandish assignment. Also, largely centered on a very specific topic, y’know? This is so focused on just humans, for such a small part of their lives. Wouldn’t it be better if we did, I don’t know, one of those things where we raise butterflies in a tent, or baby chicks in an incubator, or, like, tadpoles, I guess, in a tank?” Lilting your voice up in question at the end, you paused to try and think of more examples. 

You were babbling, you knew, it was embarrassing, but your sense of self-preservation had just allocated all of its resources into trying to talk your Developmental Biology professor out of this absurd assignment that he had just announced, absolutely spoiling what had been an otherwise pleasant fourth week of your junior year.

Natasha leaned back in her seat with a small quirk of her red lips. “You’re only fighting this so hard because you’ve got commitment issues, kroshka. God forbid you have to put up with something for more than a week.”

“Is this really the time to be psychoanalyzing me in front of the whole class?” You glared at her petulantly, trying to ignore Clint’s snickers beside her.

Dr. Fury cleared his throat loudly, his one eye narrowing at you as he spoke. “This is to emphasize the significance of care within the first three months of birth. It will help flesh out your understanding of human biological development as well as the role of nurturing within any species’s growth. Choose your partners wisely; I reserve the right to break up any group I think will be a bad fit. And, as it is the largest project of this semester, it will count towards 30% of your final grade.”

You gaped helplessly, your pen falling from your hand with a soft thump. “Oh my god. I’m gonna die.”

Wanda rolled her eyes from the seat on your other side, nudging you with her elbow good-naturedly. “Maybe this pseudo-kiddo will teach you some responsibility, sestra.”

You straightened your posture, reaching over to play with a lock of her long brown hair. “Heeeeey, Wanda,” you started innocently, “as my super nice and helpful roommate that would make this entire project convenient and fun, do you want to be my partner?”

Wanda faltered slightly. “Oh, I would, I really would, but when you were trying to talk Dr. Fury out of it, I sorta, um, asked Vision?” She looked at you sadly, and you hid your disappointment because no way were you going to let your fear of this assignment ruin a good thing for her.

“Wanda, I would never fault you for that, my god, are you finally going to ask him out?”

She grinned sheepishly. “Maybe? I kind of want to see how this goes. I bet he’d be so cute with a little baby, though!” You shook your head, smiling, not really seeing how just the thought of her crush with a kid could make her swoon, but let her have her moment. You scanned the rows of the small lecture hall, trying to scope out a potential partner.

Glancing to your side, you weren’t surprised to see Natasha and Clint writing their names down on a paper they’d torn out of your notebook, which, hey, but whatever. Maria Rambeau and Carol Danvers were laughing together and talking to Fury, they’re for sure out, shoot; Brunnhilde? Nope, Thor was sitting down next to her with hearts in his eyes, damn. Pepper Potts? God, I wish, but she was sitting next to Rhodey, another catch. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were writing their names down on a paper together already, too, and Sam groaned loudly, catching your attention as he and Bucky moved to grab a sheet. Shit, you thought, trying to find an odd one out. Scott? No, he’s making his way over to Hope. Loki? No, I’m not even going near that. Is it weird if I ask the TA, you wondered, glancing over at Maria Hill, who was sitting ramrod straight as she graded papers next to Fury.

“Oh my god, please tell me you don’t have a partner!” You twisted your head back to see one very relieved looking Steve Rogers drop into the seat behind you, leaning his whole body over to flash his signature puppy eyes at you.

“Steve,” you started with a small smile, "you know that I love you, and you’re an absolute sweetheart, but you also know that we would be the most chaotic combination in this room and our robot child might not survive the night.” He pouted at this assessment, melting your heart just a little, but you fixed him with a stern glare. You weren’t lying; while you were both at the top of your class, the two of you were notorious for breaking rules (well, Steve was, at the very least, though he considered it more a disputement of personal interpretation), partying (at least you were, but hey, you were young, pretty, and conscious of safe sex practices), and being, overall, irresponsible messes.

“I can be responsible! I bought a helmet for my motorcycle just last week!”

“Steve, you’ve had that bike for a year. The “just” doesn’t really help you.” He moved to protest, but you stared at him again disappointedly. “When was the last time you got into a fight?”

He flushed a bright red, knowing you’ve caught him. “It wasn’t really a fight, more like an uncivilized disagreement, and 'sides, the guy was bein’ a real jerk to a lady!” His Brooklyn accent thickened a bit at the end, and you looked away so he couldn’t see the darker color of your cheeks.

“Steve, I think we both know that we’re a disastrous combination, and besides, do you really want a baby momma who’s working all weekend? I can’t change my schedule and the kid will either be stuck with you or one of our roommates.”

Steve leaned in closer, his head hanging above yours, lips drawing up in a cute smile. “Babe, I am more than happy to be a stay-at-home dad, so long as you’ll have me.”  

You breathed in deeply, nodding through your exhale. “This is so not going to get approved.”

Fury swept over to your aisle, his trench coat swaying behind him. Stamping the paper that listed them as a pair, he nodded shortly at Clint and Natasha, who high-fived smugly after he passed. He paused momentarily at the next desk, Sam and Bucky sending him their most charming smiles, and, after a moment of silent deliberation, he rolled his eye and stamped their paper in approval. You swallowed dryly.

He came to an abrupt stop at your desk, where Steve was sitting up with a hopeful grin. You smiled weakly, and Fury narrowed his gaze in suspicion. “You and Rogers?”

“Yep,” you squeaked out. “Me and Rogers.”

“This robot baby isn’t going to die, are they?”

“We’ll try our best, sir,” Steve piped in.

“You are aware that, for all your brains, both of you are completely reckless and irresponsible dumbasses?”

“That is correct, sir.”

“Am I going to regret stamping this paper?”

“No, sir.”

He drew in a heavy breath, and you sent Steve a nervous glance. I told you so, you mouthed at him. We are literally the worst pair.

Steve shook his head, mouthing nah at you as he flung an arm behind your chair. You tried to stifle the dramatic roll of your eyes at his nonchalance. Oh god, you thought. I’m going to get stuck with fucking Loki, and he’s going to, like, stab the robot because he needs an outlet now that Brunnhilde doesn’t let him stab Thor now, and I’m going to fail this class because my robot baby got shanked, and-

“Alright. Rogers, you’re a father now. Don’t get into any more back-alley fights. I suppose street fights are still game.” You blinked yourself out of your panic-spiral.

“What?”

“Congrats, you two, you’re parents. Ta-da,” Fury deadpanned as he stamped the slip of paper, moving on to the next group. Steve chuckled deeply, squeezing your shoulder as you sat, still frozen in shock.

“Hey, babe, look at us, growin’ up so fast.”

“Yeah,” you breathed out nervously, staring at Steve as he grabbed a pen out his backpack. “Yeah.”

[parttimestorier]

Interview with d Marie Licea

Recently, I had a chance to talk with d Marie Licea, developer of Us Lovely Corpses, about the creative process behind this fascinating “surreal-horror-romance” visual novel. Us Lovely Corpses is a VN I considered reviewing for this blog when I read it, but I struggled to write a review that would be interesting and accessible—explaining the parts that most impressed and resonated with me would mean spoiling it completely. But I encourage anyone who can handle some disturbing content in service of a great story and heartfelt message to try it out. This interview will start with some more general questions, and it includes a warning farther down before any spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses appear.

Question: Did you always plan for the story of Us Lovely Corpses to be a visual novel, or did you consider other mediums as well?

Answer: In its earliest stages, Us Lovely Corpses was actually planned as a comic! I came up with the original idea somewhere around 2014-2015—it was going to be about 10 pages, and would just cover the scene that ended up being the game's finale. Alex and Marisol (who weren't named yet) were very different—they were much younger, Alex wasn't really "a witch," and Marisol was originally a boy!

I sat on the idea a while, and the longer I did so the more I wanted to explore the history of these characters, which made for a longer and more unwieldy comic. Then in 2015, when I started learning about visual novels, it hit me that the concept could work really well in that format, especially when the "exploration" element came in.

Q: Were there any particular visual novels that influenced you?

A: Yes! The reason why I started getting into visual novels specifically in 2015 was that because that was the year We Know The Devil came out!

We Know The Devil totally shifted my viewpoint as to what a visual novel could be—no diss to dating sims, but before WKTD, I, like most people, just saw VNs as dating sims and occasionally something like the When They Cry series.

WKTD totally changed that for me—a short, incredibly contained story that also managed to be about so, so much, in a surreal, horror-inspired atmosphere . . . it really blew me away! Not only was it the game that got me into visual novels, but you can definitely see a lot of its influence on Us Lovely Corpses.

Besides WKTD, there was also Her Tears Were My Light, a fairly minimalist love story that used the "rewind" function in Ren’Py as part of the story. Utilizing mechanics as part of the narrative was a really cool idea to me that also ended up in ULC. (side note: I met and hired Alex Huang to do the music for Us Lovely Corpses because I loved the soundtrack for HTWML so much!)

Finally, I was really into the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) trilogy when I was younger, and the evidence gathering segments were a big part of those games. I originally envisioned the "rose clipping" segments of ULC like those parts, where you'd have to select each rose before cutting it, but sadly that was a little too complex for me at the time, and I eventually decided to go for something more simple in order to complete the game. But that initial idea was a big part of what made me try Us Lovely Corpses as a game, so it ended up still being a big influence in the end!

Q: Besides technical things like those mechanics and the exploration element, do you find that you have a different style of writing in visual novels as opposed to the stories you've done in other formats, like twine and comics?

A: I'm not sure if this is always the case for visual novels, but I find I have to format my writing differently when writing for VNs—specifically, in length of sentences and paragraphs. I've found my writing worked a lot better in Us Lovely Corpses the more I broke everything up into smaller fragments—larger ones or paragraphs didn't work as well, which can be a problem for me because my writing can tend to get a bit wordy!

This has to do a lot with the pacing of visual novels and how the player/reader is a big part of that. Control over pacing is a big part of why visual novels appeal to me, but you also have to think differently to get the best result.

Technical stuff aside, I found that, at least for ULC, my actual writing style remained pretty much the same. I think this has the benefit of making the writing in Us Lovely Corpses seem unique, but has the disadvantage of posing a problem for a certain something I didn't see coming at all: Let’s Players!

A few people have made videos of their playthroughs of Us Lovely Corpses, which is incredibly exciting, but when I watch them, I can't help but feel bad for them because they always read everything out loud . . . which means, with my somewhat wordy style, they have to do a LOT of talking!

I haven't actually gotten complaints about this or anything, but I still hope people who make videos of their playthroughs of ULC keep some water nearby!

Note: the next part of the interview contains spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses, as well as discussion of mental illness.

Q: As the story progresses, it becomes explicitly clear that the “monster” is Marisol’s bipolar disorder. Did you ever think about leaving the metaphor more ambiguous, and if so, what made you decide to be so direct instead?

A: I'd say if the "monster" was one specific thing, it would her Ocular Rosaceae, as it's the one specific thing that gives a physical form to Marisol's thoughts and unhealthy behaviors. But even that, in a way, is not taking into account her bipolar disorder and depression, her jealousy towards Alex, her self-loathing and introversion . . . "the monster" is all of those things, because at its core, the monster is mental illness. And mental illness is never just one thing, but many things and factors interacting at once to create something much bigger than a single diagnosis.

All that said, it's not incorrect to say that Marisol's bipolar disorder is the monster; it's just more accurate to say it’s part of Marisol's monster. Back when ULC was still a comic, I wasn't going to talk about specific diagnoses, but as the story grew I realized I wanted to talk more explicitly about mental illness. I don't exactly remember where the idea came about, but early on in the writing process I got that idea in my head of Alex finding that fake corpse and finding that doctor's diagnosis. In retrospect, it was a really, really weird scene, especially as it comes right off the heels of realizing what you thought was a dead body was just a weird joke, but I do like what it represents—in the middle of this surreal trip into a house filled with talking flowers, the story suddenly halts as you soak in this very blunt reminder that, magic aside, this is a world that is representative of the real world. Marisol may have a magical disease and be best friends with a witch, but she's a very real girl, so to speak.

So that harsh reminder is part of why I wanted to be so direct. I guess the other part would be that I just wanted to make no bones about it. Some things you want to leave up to interpretation, and some things you don't. From the very, very beginning the story was always about mental illness, so it just felt right to me to be upfront about it.

Q: One thing I noticed that I thought showed a lot of attention to detail in ULC was that in one of the rooms you explore there are two famous paintings that both have connections to suicide (Millais’s Ophelia and van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows). Are there any other little symbolic details like that you added to the story that some readers might have missed?

A: Ah, I'm glad you caught that! If I had stuck with the more Ace Attorney style of gameplay I would have liked to put more small details like that in. As it stands, the big example is probably pretty obvious—Alex's notes about each rose are fairly close to the standard "flower language" of different rose colors in real life. The fact that yellow roses can mean "jealousy" or "friendship" depending on what source you use actually ended up working very well with the story.

The last names of Alex and Marisol are probably pretty obvious: de Rosa ("of the Rose") and Flores ("Flowers"). Something that's probably less apparent is Marisol, a name that originally comes from a contraction of "Maria de La Soledad" ("Our Lady Of Solitude"), one of the titles given to the Virgin Mary.

Q: Was the flower language the reason you used roses rather than any other flower, or were there other inspirations for that as well?

A: There were a number of reasons! One being that Revolutionary Girl Utena was a big influence on my style and particularly on several parts of the game. There's also the whole dichotomy with roses/thorns. And there's also the simple fact that I have fun drawing roses!

Q: For my last question, are you working on any other visual novels right now?

A: I am as a matter of fact! I'm working on a visual novel set in Japan about some high school kids who explore a strange house. It's still in fairly early stages, but I think if I give it my all I will actually have a demo ready in time for Halloween, which would be great!

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing that demo—even more so after learning about all of the serious thought d Marie Licea puts into the details and themes of her work. If you’re as excited as I am about updates on her upcoming projects, you can follow her on itch.io or twitter, and considering supporting her patreon. Thanks for reading!

[goope-jp-tenmei]

Learning New Things with Skillshare

I’m a big proponent of lifelong learning and always trying out new skills and hobbies. Learning new things and skills is such a great way to keep your mind fresh, and I find that you can often apply lessons learned from new disciplines to other things in your life. Plus, picking up a new hobby can be a fantastic way to spark creativity and inspiration. And even if you’re not looking for a new hobby, it’s a good idea to continue honing your skills – you’re always bound to pick up a new technique or learn something new. I’ve been feeling a bit uninspired lately, so I decided to take a few classes on Skillshare focused on a couple of my favorite hobbies, calligraphy and photography, along with something that was totally new for me – watercolor painting! Skillshare is offering Oh So Beautiful Paper readers two FREE months of premium membership, so it’s the perfect time to try something new! It’s usually $15 a month, but if you click here you’ll get two free months with unlimited access to stream their online classes.

Skillshare offers more than 16,000 classes on topics such as calligraphy and hand lettering, illustration, watercolor painting, and photography – even marketing and creative writing! – all taught by masters of their crafts. One of my favorite things about Skillshare (other than all the amazing class topics, of course) is that you can watch the classes anywhere, anytime: watch them on your laptop, on your phone through the Skillshare app, or download them to your phone or tablet to watch later without an internet connection.

Here are the classes that I took:

Fun & Loose Watercolor Florals, Leaves, & Butterflies

I grew up in an artistic home. We had an art room instead of a traditional playroom, and my mom signed me up for lots of art classes and summer camps as a kid. But I’ve never taken a watercolor class! My painting style as an adult has always trended towards modern abstract painting, and I’ve felt intimidated by the idea of trying to paint something with a lot of detail. I also have a deep love of flowers, so when I saw Fun & Loose Watercolor Florals, Leaves, & Butterflies with Yasmina Creates, I thought it would be the perfect way to combine my love of flowers with my more abstract painting style. This class was so much fun! I loved the way Yasmina taught me to break each flower down into its basic shape and loosely interpret that shape in the painting, instead of worrying about representing a flower exactly as it appears in a photograph. Yasmina also shares some fantastic tips and techniques in the class, like how to put different amounts of pressure on the brush to create different leaf shapes and sizes and when to new colors to wet paint as a way of adding dimension to the painting. The paintings in the two photos at the top of the post are what I created after taking this class!

Pen and Ink Calligraphy: The Art of the Envelope

With two young daughters and a slew of nieces and nephews, I’m always sending cards in the mail: birthday cards, holiday cards, feel better soon cards, etc. My envelope addressing game definitely needs some work, so I signed up for The Art of the Envelope with Bryn Chernoff of Paperfinger. This class is great for just about anyone, from an aspiring professional calligrapher to a bride or groom hoping to address the envelopes for their own wedding invitations. Young kids almost never receive mail, so you can just imagine their surprise when a fancy envelope with their name on it shows up in the mailbox! Bryn also teaches a fantastic Introduction to Modern Script Calligraphy class with foundational instruction on calligraphy tools and creating beautiful letterforms. If you prefer brush lettering over pointed pen calligraphy, I also highly recommend this Waterbrush Lettering Essentials class.

Photography and Visual Storytelling

Photography is one of those skills where I always feel like I have more to learn, no matter how many times I pick up a camera. Visual storytelling is such a large part of what I do online, from photographing our cocktail recipes to sharing images on Instagram, and there’s always room for improvement. I took a couple of photography classes with a focus on food photography, but I think there’s plenty of lessons to take away from these classes whether you’re a stationer looking to take better styled product photos or an artist looking to share a behind the scenes peek of your space.

Food Photography: Shooting in 5 Styles

Lifestyle Photography: Visual Storytelling

Both of these classes focus on food photography, but the lessons are applicable to any type of lifestyle photography. In Food Photography: Shooting in 5 Styles, food photographer Leela Cyd talked about shooting the same subject (milk and cookies!) in five different styles: light and airy, dark and moody, bright and crisp, in progress, and lifestyle (aka with a person in the photo). She provided a bunch of really helpful tips on camera settings without getting too technical, and I loved her advice of drawing an image storyboard of each shot that I want to get BEFORE the photo shoot. In Lifestyle Photography: Visual Storytelling we get to see Marte Maria Forsberg’s process from start to finish: shopping at a local market to purchase ingredients and props for a photo shoot, working with a model, and styling the meal that serves as the focal point of the session. Marte Maria’s lessons taught me to think about each type of image that I want to get out of a photo shoot – similar to Leela’s storyboarding process – and a totally different way to use light to enhance my images.

Don’t forget! Skillshare is offering Oh So Beautiful Paper readers two FREE months of unlimited access to stream their more than 16,000 online classes. Click here to get started!

Top two photos by Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper. This post is sponsored by Skillshare. All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!

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