I know you’ve heard that having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card, but did you also know the library makes it easy to learn new skills online?

Long ago, Arthur and friends sang the praises of the public library’s print resources. But in 2024, the library is also home to a wide range of digital resources including streaming sites, apps, and ebooks – all of which could help you with your learning project!

Up until now, I’ve done most of my learning for my learning project by watching short painting tutorials posted to social media sites like Instagram and TikTok. These have been really helpful and I’ve gotten to learn from some great artists, but I was curious about what longer form content was out there and decided to check out what Regina Public Library had to offer in terms of online resources.

As always, the library did not disappoint! A quick search of RPL’s digital resource offerings led me to a database called Creativebug. According to the RPL website, library users can use Creativebug to access “thousands of videos from experienced instructors and learn to craft and create your own projects; the only limit is your time and imagination”. Basically, Creativebug is the online arts and crafts school of your dreams: thousands of video lessons taught by professional artists on just about any kind of craft, visual art, and DIY medium you can think of.

RPL + Creativebug login page

From there, you can choose from all kinds of video courses that are categorized by medium, level, video length, etc.

Hey there! I’m just “chicken” to share my latest watercolour painting – chickens! 

Why chickens, you ask? Well, these were painted near the end of March, which marked two important chicken-related occasions: Easter and my dad’s 60th birthday. And while the Easter-chicken connection is obvious (eggs), I’m sure you’re confused about what chickens have to do with my dad and his birthday.

For as long as I can remember, my dad has loved chickens and chicken-related media. He thinks chickens are funny and weird, I guess? When I say chicken-related media, I’m referring to things like the movie Chicken Run, the chicken cannon from the show Royal Canadian Air Farce, and the odd but delightful depiction of chickens in Gary Larson’s the Far Side cartoons. Also the first joke I ever told was a terrible version of “Why did the chicken cross the road?” that made no sense but lives on as a beloved family story to this day. Anyways, I ended up painting these chickens to use as a homemade birthday card for my dad. He liked it!

Learned from @dearannart via Instagram:

A long-awaited update on my watercolour journey!

Since Valentine’s Day, I’ve been working on a few different things. One of these was painting florals for spring and Easter. I’ve also tried to step up photographing my work by propping it up against an easel, rather than hovering above the paper like a spy plane and creating terrible lighting.

The flower I’ve been painting the most has been tulips. I’ve utilized several different online tutorials, which I will share below, alongside my own interpretations. So, now I give you: tulips, three ways (insert drum sting sound effect here):

1. Pink Tulips by @shellycluf_art via Instagram:

My valiant attempt at this painting

2. More pink tulips by @dearannart via Instagram

More pink tulips (Emily’s Version)

3. Mutlicoloured tulips by @manajoypaperco via Instagram

Attempt #1

Attempt #2 – I think I’ve gotten better?

Which do you like best? I lean towards the multicoloured ones, but that’s because I think they’re more visually interesting. It was interesting creating similar works of art following instruction from completely different people.

For those who’ve been keeping up, I started my watercolour learning process as a way to create a bunch of Valentine’s Day cards to send to friends around the country. In total I ended up making and sending about 20 cards! It was a lot of work but I had fun doing it.

Here are some of the ones I made:

Also I painted a bunch of ugly ones that ended up in the garbage.

What to paint next…

A long overdue update on my watercolour learning project!

I’ve continued to make Valentine’s Day cards to mail to friends and family. Progress is going medium. For every card I share, there’s probably like three I have thrown out. Practice makes progress, I guess.

Is tomorrow Valentine’s Day? Yes! Have I mailed a single card? Absolutely not! People will get them when they get them, and I can always blame Canada Post for the delay (note: friends and family: do not read this blog!!!).

Most recently, I’ve been creating cards based on this example from @andrea.nelson.art on Instagram, where you use marker to draw out a heart and squiggly lines and then fill in with watercolours, creating a stained glass effect.

To document my process, I decided to a timelapse video using the mobile app TimeLapse-Free.

Overall, this app isn’t bad for something that’s free. Capturing video is easy for me as someone with little video experience, and the actual time lapse results were great. The app does include paid additions, however, in order to access the full editing experience. It stops recording after 15 seconds worth of time lapse footage, meaning I had to edit together three clips to make this video. It also does not allow you to edit together clips in the app without paying, so you need to export them to a different program to combine clips. Luckily it does allow you to save clips to your phone and I was able to edit them together using iMovie on my computer.

Overall rating: 3/5 stars

Pros:

Free

Available on iOS and Android

Takes good footage

Easy to use

Can export and save clips to other programs

Cons:

Max 15 seconds of footage without paying

Can’t edit in app

Crashes a lot