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I’m a full-time lettering artist based in Charleston, SC. You can usually find me with a coffee in one hand and Apple Pencil in the other.

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Dawn Nicole Designs | Hand-Lettering & Modern Calligraphy

Apr 19

My latest Procreate goodies just hit the shop! 🤩 Swipe for more 📷.⁣
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You may have noticed I’ve been a little in love with creating in a Scandinavian-inspired Modern Folk Art Style lately. Which, in turn, inspired this new Procreate Stamp Kit.⁣
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You’ll get 75 Modern Folk Art Procreate Stamps that are SO easy to use. Simply stamp and color!⁣
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My hand-drawn stamps will help speed up the process of creating whimsical pieces of Modern Folk Art artwork. ⁣
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I originally created them just to speed up my own workflow but decided to make them available to you as well. 💖⁣
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💌 HAPPY EMAIL CLUB PEEPS: Check your email BEFORE you order! 😉⁣
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The download includes a 20-Page PDF full of style and stamp tips, examples, and a video tutorial.⁣
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Here’s what’s in the PDF:⁣
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✏️ The key elements of the Modern Folk Art Style⁣
✏️ Tips for Using my Modern Folk Art Stamps (Includes Video Tutorial)⁣
✏️ Examples of pieces I’ve created in this style ⁣
✏️ Modern Folk Art Procreate Stamp Quick Reference Sheet⁣
✏️ Floral Stamp Exemplars⁣
✏️ Three Challenge Project Ideas⁣
✏️ Lettering Idea List⁣
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💻 I’ll also be starting a free YouTube series of 32 video tutorials with step-by-step instructions for all of the Floral Stamp Idea Examples from the PDF. They’ll be starting up this week!⁣
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Any questions? Let me know! I’m always happy to help and I can’t wait to see what you create!⁣
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In the meantime, I’ll be over here teaching my 11-year old how to use these. She’s as obsessed with the Procreate App as I am. ⁣
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LEARN LETTERING WITH ME⁣
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🛍 Shop: shop.bydawnnicole.com⁣
💻 Blog: bydawnnicole.com⁣

Apr 13

In the Notes App on my phone, I keep a note titled “Life-Changing Ways of Thinking”. 🤯⁣
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While both of these were being applied to working out at the time I heard them, I think they’re both super applicable to being a lettering artist as well, so I wanted to share them with you.⁣
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1️⃣ You vs. You. ⁣
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I first heard this during a @onepeloton ride with @allymisslove. She was talking about ignoring the riders around you and focusing solely on competing with yourself. ⁣
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Comparing yourself to others is futile because we’re all in different places in our journey. When we learn to shut out the competition and put all our energy into bettering our own skill set, we’re so much better for it.⁣
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Whether it’s your fitness or your art you’re working to improve, “You vs. You” is a less stressful and more freeing way of growing your strengths!⁣
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2️⃣ Stop saying “I didn’t have time” and start saying “I didn’t make it a priority”. ⁣
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I first heard this one on a 2019 episode of the How Men Think Podcast. ⁣
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It was a major lightbulb moment for me. 💡 When you shift your mindset this way, suddenly you find that you do have time for the things you make a priority. ⁣
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It’s also more personal because while we all have the same number of hours in a day, we all have very different commitments, goals, and priorities in life.⁣
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Do you have any life-changing ways of thinking you can share? I’d love to hear them!⁣
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✏️ Artwork Details: I used my “Patchwork Quilt” style for the lettering (free video tutorial on my blog). The added details are a combo of hand-drawn illustrations and stamps/brushes from my Procreate sets.⁣
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LEARN LETTERING WITH ME⁣
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🛍 Shop: shop.bydawnnicole.com⁣
💻 Blog: bydawnnicole.com

Apr 1

Out of Office. Not physically, just mentally. 😜⁣
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Spring Break is next week though, so I’ll be out of office soon! We’re road tripping down to Florida for a few days.⁣
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I don’t think of a trip as a “real” vacation unless there’s a white sand beach, turquoise ocean, and Piña Coladas. 🏝🧉⁣
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✏️ Artwork Details: This is an update of a lettering piece I did a few years back. The tropical illustrations were done using stamps from my Tropical Vibes Procreate Brush Kit.⁣
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LEARN LETTERING WITH ME⁣
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🛍 Shop: shop.bydawnnicole.com⁣
💻 Blog: bydawnnicole.com⁣
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#procreatelettering #DNDlettering #procreateartist #handlettering #handlettered #ipadlettering #outofoffice #springbreak

Mar 17

Top O’ the Mornin’ to You! ☘️🌈☀️⁣
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While I’ve always known that part of my family’s ancestry includes Ireland, I didn’t know how much until I did genetic testing via Ancestry.com and 23 and Me a few years ago.⁣
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My ethnicity report shows I’m roughly 50% British/Scottish/Irish, 18% German, 25% Ashkenazi Jewish, and 2% Polish. The rest is “broadly European”.⁣
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Shortly before we moved from Germany back to the U.S., we took my dream trip to Kerry, Ireland. Swipe to see a few pics and videos. I’d love to go back again someday! 🙌🏻⁣
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 💚

Mar 16

Fun. As an adult, we often get so caught up in the “adulting” side of life that we forget what it feels like to have fun. Add a pandemic in the mix, and you start to feel like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day”.⁣
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I’ve been trying to seek out intentional ways to do things I enjoy into my daily life, even when I’m not really feeling it. (In the military life, we jokingly refer to this as “forced fun”. 😜)⁣
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For me, this has meant reading a ton of books and lettering, of course.⁣
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But when I’m not feeling creative/motivated enough to create something from scratch (which is often lately), I’ve been working on re-creating older lettering pieces. ⁣
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This “Don’t Forget to Have Fun” lettering, I originally did 4 years ago. It was literally just the lettering. Yesterday, I sat down and decided to redo it, giving the lettering a refresh and adding modern folk art style florals and illustrations. ⁣
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⬅️ Swipe for process video and to see the very first version of the lettering from 2017. ⁣
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Practice makes progress, ya’ll! It can take YEARS to see major changes in your style and skills. Keep at it!⁣
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✏️ LEARN LETTERING WITH ME⁣
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🛍 Shop: shop.bydawnnicole.com⁣
💻 Blog: bydawnnicole.com⁣

Mar 15

Happy Monday! 💕⁣
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I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with combining my lettering and illustration style with the basic elements of folk art designs. ⁣
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I love the whimsical, imperfect style that you often see in folk art pieces. It creates a charming storybook feel that I gravitate toward in a big way and I’m working on some bigger lettering pieces in this style.⁣
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While the flat illustrations are fairly simple to create, it can be quite time-consuming to add in all the little details. Playing around with style elements and colors are a big part of my refinement process.⁣
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Note: This is the design I ultimately came up with for the May for the monthly Birth Flower Drop Cap Series I’ve been on the blog this year. The calendar Freebies and the Procreate Tutorial for this design will be coming your way mid-April. ⁣
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The April Birth Flower Drop Cap tutorial will be up this Thursday and the calendars are already on the blog.⁣
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⬅️Swipe for the original sketch and process video. The letter “M” is one from my Chloe Style Lettering Workbook. I mainly used brushes and stamps from two Procreate Sets in my shop: The Creativity Kit and The Floral Lettering Kit.⁣
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✏️ LEARN LETTERING WITH ME⁣
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🛍 Shop: shop.bydawnnicole.com⁣
💻 Blog: bydawnnicole.com⁣

Mar 9

✏️ NEW in the Lettering Shop!⁣
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Level-up your lettering with my latest set of Texture Brushes for Procreate. ⁣
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I created them from real textures like burlap, concrete, aged wood, velvet and more! They’re designed to easily give your lettering and illustrations a ton of added character.⁣
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⬅️Swipe for a preview and then pop over to the shop to see more example photos. ⁣
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Happy lettering!⁣
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🛍 Shop: shop.bydawnnicole.com⁣
💻 Blog: bydawnnicole.com⁣
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#procreatelettering #DNDlettering #procreateartist #handlettering #handlettered #ipadlettering

Mar 3

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