The Beginning of Creatively Maree

In terms of posting on social media I have been posting under different names for a while. From SchoolGyrlArtGeek on DeviantArt to PandArtMaree in the summer of 2014 on Instagram. It wasn’t until October 22, 2015 where I changed my art accounts to Creatively Maree and November 6, 2015 I had made the Facebook Profile for the new name. Around that time I would normally post Prismacolor drawings, Copic marker drawings, and gouache paintings. (my favorite being my Melanie Martinez gouache painting). I spent a good 2 years losing focus in my art because of how demeaning professors I had were. I lost a lot of my passion until a little after 2014. Ngl Porter Robinson’s Worlds album really inspired me to create again and I did a lot of gouache and watercolor paintings inspired by those songs.

In December of 2017 I got a Wacom Intuos tablet to do digital art in Photoshop and in March of 2018 I started a RedBubble because I didn’t have the knowledge of how to make or get merchandise produced. It was also an easy and great way to make a little bit of money through someone else. And then… August of 2018 happened. I found Voltron. 

Making Voltron fanart really pushed me to draw way more than I ever did. The community was chaotic but I felt happy for once. In November of 2018 I created my Etsy account and called it Pastel Magick Studio at first but eventually changed it over to Creatively Maree August 7, 2019. I made resin Voltron Keychains and stickers and I would also go to make some wood burned handmade items as well. 

Around January of 2019 I would start using the mobile version of Procreate and around the end of March, beginning of April I got an iPad for my birthday. Not going to lie, having the iPad with Procreate really helped me improve my art because it was always right there and I didn’t have to hook up a tablet to a laptop. It could fit in my backpack and come with me. 

June 2019 I started working on charm designs although I only released 2 of the designs that were listed on my shop September 6, 2019. The Tasty Treats Charms both Keith and Lance were being made by Zap Creatives. My favorite manufacturer for charms. They are based in the UK and make really nice quality charms. Although they are limited in what they do with charms, they are starting to get more options to choose from. Around this time I also dabbled into making a Votlron fan comic with a mermaid AU (that I am sorry I never continued). Also in July I created my first art print. A Holographic 8 x 10 Keith BOM print was listed in my shop July 15, 2019.

My style changed a lot from 2019 to 2020. I tried more of a pin up art style, being inspired by Elias Chatzoudis, an artist who worked on a lot of covers for DC, Marvel and other comics as well as his own original character works. My style juggled between that and a more stylized version of studio Mir Voltron style. 

In August of 2020 I would add more sticker designs to my shop because I was given a Cricut to use from my boyfriend's mom. I also added more prints of different sizes to my shop for variety. This is during the pandemic and I went from working from home to not having a job. I wanted to use my stimulus and unemployment to invest into making product and creating a space to be more efficient. I was also in the process of moving to another state so I would spend a lot of weekends during the summer in PA building furniture and making my studio. 

2021 is when I started the new batch of charm and pin designs. Once settled into a new studio space I used that marketing degree to use and started to develop a design style and post schedule system for myself. I always found it hard to keep up with posting as well as designing and drawing and improving all at the same time so around July and August of 2021 I started organizing my uploading system to be more ADHD friendly for me. From having an Illustrator template to place photos to organizing my google drive in a way where I can have organized easy access to the cover photo, photo, and word doc file with written bios for each platform. I would also use an old iPhone XR as my art phone so I can separate my personal life from my business. It was this Inktober that I actually finished all 31 art pieces because I had a strict and more in depth scheduling system. 

Having the studio space really helped me produce more things in the office like stickers, bookmarks and prints while also having another space in the corner to stream art and games. However I was missing New York so I decided to make a big decision and move out of my moms house and into an apartment with my best friend and boyfriend. 

Coming up to more recent times, February of 2022 you will start to see more and more of the characters I have been developing for a story I have been writing for a while now. You can meet these characters right here on my site under Acrine. They will have more photos and development under their profiles the more the story progresses but it will be able to be read under the same tab. I am so excited to share this story with everyone and show the world of Acrine. 

Thank you all who have supported me throughout these past 8 years or so. I truly appreciate everything and all of the bonds that I have made over the years. I hope for more growth and fun things to create in the upcoming years. Just don’t forget to be creatively you because you can do so much when you can express yourself freely.

~Creatively Maree