Bye, bye!

Bye, bye sweet blog! It's been a great few years posting over here BUT I'm excited to share that my website is all new and fancy now, and I will be blogging illustration/design related posts over HERE! 

See you soon :-)

Get To Work

I'm really excited to be attending the SCBWI New York Winter Conference in late February, and have additionally signed up for the Illustrator Intensive Day.  This year, there is an assignment for it and because of my schedule I am working on it a bit early to get it done.  During my recent courses I found that I work really well on a strict, structured deadline so that is what I gave myself.  Anyway, just an update here to say I've been hard at work on the assignment, which is to illustrate a scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  

Can't wait to share more!

Make Art That Sells, final reviews!

I have been finished with Make Art That Sells part B for weeks now! Weeks! It was such an intense 5 week session, but in the best way possible.  I found myself more worn out this time and it took me longer to recover after.  We can blame it on age 30 settling on in (hahah).  Really, I think the reason is I understood the process and schedule better since I completed part A, so there was no more the adrenaline rush of the unknown.  Also, I didn't think it was possible to work myself harder than I did in part A but I DID! I worked 150% and it felt great to be that absorbed by something I love so much.

All in all, I can speak highly enough of the class.  Lilla reviews work in her video critiques and because of the large amount of students, she can just select some.  Susan McCabe, an agent on Lilla's team, did a guest review during week 4 and my piece was in her selection.  I was OVER THE MOON. I'm still over the moon.  I had not been chosen before, and I was ok with that.  Of course I wanted to be, but I was able to listen to the critiques and take bits and pieces and apply them to my own work.  

Above is my Week 4 piece completed.  It was an editorial assignment of a map of your town.  My town is New York City but I didn't want to go about it the traditional Empire State Building kinda way.  Instead, I logged caffeine! This piece challenged me more than any other piece.  It is the one I am most proud of accomplishing within the few day deadline, so having it be chosen to discuss made it that more special! 

Week 5 drew from Ukrainian Folk Art inspiration and at first I was like uhh..whhhhaaaaatttt? And then I was all like, OMG I LOVE THIS.  I am still shocked at how inspiring I found this form of art.  We had to complete a paper party good set and I had an absolute blast with it.  I pushed my color choices a lot.  I loved breaking down icons into simple shapes and filling them up with other shapes.  I loved scale and composition play.  I just, well, loved!!! (click to enlarge)

Lilla did choose mine in her video critique.  Her positive words about it were so so so encouraging, and she said she wanted to see more cats! I can happily share that more cats are in progress as I type.  Well not literally as I type, because my hands are busy, but you know what I mean.   I look forward to sharing them soon.  I am also working on a piece for an upcoming conference based on Snow White and I am using Ukrainian folk art as the inspiration for that piece as well. 

I also am so pleased to share that Make Art That Sells is a course about licensing artwork, and upon ending the second session I was approached to license artwork for greeting cards.  I can't wait to share that with you in 2014, when they'll be on shelves!!!!! 

Say Cheese! Week 3 in Make Art That Sells

Hello, hello world. I forgot how intensive this course is!!! And howwwww right about now my brain literally feels like it's at maximum capacity and needs a night (or like 20 nights) off.  Which, in fact, I gave it last night. I wanted to share my week 3 experience because it was different than my usual week because of the way I worked.  Not like a totally different style or anything drastic, but a different approach to the way I create my icons.  This involved drawing digitally, printing on transparencies, taking marker to the transparencies and giving them each more character and a hand drawn feel, scanning them in and turning them to vector.  I had a lot of fun with it. I also hated it and wanted to scrap it halfway through because it was frustrating not being able to fully visualize my result like I usually can (or come close to) BUT I stuck it out and in the end was pleased with the result.

The assignment for the first 2 days was to draw cameras and typewriters.  Then from there the project became developing a page of elements for scrapbooking.  My sister scrapbooks (Hi, Ray!) and she told me I MUST included the word "travel" so I did…and hand written words were also part of the assignment so that worked too.  

I also wanted to play with a color palette I've been wanting to work in, but hadn't ever.  That might be my favorite part about the end product here, the colors! I definitely want to do more in this process and with these colors in the future.

Week 4 is more than halfway done, so I'll be back to post about that soon!

Join The Bunny Scouts!

Click image to enlarge!!

Week 2 of Make Art That Sells was all about baby apparel and the theme of our assignment was camping.  We had to make a pattern and if you wanted, some mock up baby apparel items. I make patterns almost every day as part of my day-job as a children's accessory designer, but I do not usually use my personal style in them because I work primarily with licensed characters.  It was really fun to try one in my own technique.  I spent a lot of time on the individual icons. A loooottttt of time.  That was my biggest take-away from part A of the class, that the more effort and detail I put into those during the mini assignments, the better my finish would come together and flow.  

Due to my schedule this week, I had to finish my project by Friday in order to guarantee I would be able to make the deadline.  I'm very happy this is the only week that timing will be tight for me, because cutting 2 days off was HARD! But, that being said, I had a really great time with it and made a narrative in my head that allowed the individual icons to unite.  My sister and brother-in-law recently welcomed a baby boy and while making the mock ups I had him in mind! I would love to see him wearing any of these. 

Here's a little video of my process from sketch to finish:

And now onto week 3! 

Back to School, Week 1!

I worked on a really exciting freelance project a few weeks ago that had to do with the holiday season, so I was in the perfect mind-set for week 1 of Make Art That Sells.  We spent the first few days focusing on ornaments and candy. I found myself leaning more towards the ornaments.  I snacked on plenty of candy along the way though!! Haha!  The full assignment was to create 2 holiday cards.  I learned in part A of the class that the more I work during the mini assignment realllllllly  ends up helping me for the final assignment.  So that's what I did. I worked. And worked and worked and worked. And in the end I create this, which I am so happy with! This is the card I ended up submitting in the class flickr group. Check out my Instavideo of this piece from sketch to finish HERE! 

My second card will be used for social media purposes, and I loved the idea of playing with the term tweet.  I think I want to go back into it and play with the definition in the eyes, maybe make the thicker and adjust the color, add some lashes, etc.  But for now, here's my finish:

Ready-set-go! Week 2! 

Back to School!

It's back to school for me! It's actually 5 days in, but I am SO excited to see where Part B of Make Art That Sells leads! 

Illustration Friday: Onomatopoeia

For this week's Illustration Friday I had to take to the dictionary. Onomatopoeia is super fun to say, but honestly I had no clue what it was.  I was VERY happy to see an example of it within it's definition to be CUCKOO.  This is the cover illustration from my work in progress Charlie Bird and The Cuckoo Clock.  Turns out I love a good onomatopoeia! 

Illustration Friday: Totem

A totem of rescue monkeys! 
This illustration was printed as a decal for my nephew's nursery.
Check it out on the wall, along with a few of the other decals:

ABC Circus Style

During the last course I took (which resumes on Oct 7 and I CAN'T WAIT) I had set up a very strict schedule for myself that involved waking up hours before I normally would.  I needed to make sure I could dedicate chunks of consecutive time every day.  Since I work full-time (and part-time) the early mornings are my only free time.  After a few days of getting into the swing of that schedule, it became fairly easy. I would definitely get tired by the time night came, and EXHAUSTED by the end of the week, but it felt really good to know I was working so hard and putting in the hours towards my goals.  

A lot of the artists who didn't make the next round of Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search started ABC projects, and I wanted to join.  After a few weeks of just talking about wanting to do it, I finally realized the only way I actually would is to go ahead and go back on my schedule.  So starting this past Monday I did!  I'm almost done with "C is for clown" and am debating on doing "U is for unicyle" or "R is for ringmaster" next.  I'm hoping to complete both of those before class begins and if I stick to this schedule I should be able to. Yay! 

L is for Lion

I've officially started a circus themed ABC series! You'll notice a similar lion in the post below.  This is his cousin.  One fights fires and one is in the circus.  ;-) 

More to come soon on this project! 

Illustration Friday- Rescue

"Rescue" is this week's Illustration Friday topic.  It just happens to fit in perfectly with the nursery art series I just completed.  Happy Friday! 

****UMMMMM this just in. Apparently this week's topic is "Lush" and i'm losing my mind hahaha.  Sorry if you clicked this from Illustration Friday's site.  I was in England for the last 48 hours so let's blame this on a jet lagged brain.  

Fire Fighting Jungle Animals

Tristan and I are expecting our first nephew! He is due mid September and we're so so so excited to meet him.  His parents, Devin & Logan, asked me to design decals for his nursery  I've never created decals or decorated an entire nursery before, so this was exciting and new for me.  I learned a lot about my process along the way, especially how I can prepare files for the future, name photoshop layers, and what sizes to work in.  For example, here's a little tip for my illustrator pals: If you're creating coordinating artwork, don't set some files to be RGB and some to be CMYK. You'll regret that later!!! ;-) 

The theme they were looking for was fire fighting jungle animals.  I ended up making 4 coordinating scenes, 3 badges, and little trucks to be used as a border.  I also love to slip in personal details.  You'll see below the truck number is 527, and that is because the parents-to-be were married on 5.27!  The files went off to the printer yesterday, so when the room is all set up I will share photos. But until then, here is one of my favs! (click to enlarge) 

So...onward!

This morning I read through the list of Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search Top 50.  If I told you I'm not bummed to not have made this much anticipated list I'd be a big giant liar. What I can tell you that rejection is an important part of this process, and sometimes it stings more than others.  Luckily for me, moments like this remind me just how much I want to reach my creative goals and how hard I plan on working to do so.  

A lot of my classmates are working on personal ABC projects before the next section of the class starts.  I think the creative, encouraging environment that the Make Art That Sells forum has turned into is a perfect place to keep growing and testing out new things.  Even though I have a lot going on in the next few weeks I'm going to join them.

The top 50 Lilla chose out of the 1500 entries are stunning. Some truly amazing pieces, and it's really cool to see a lot of my classmates in there!!! Congrats to all who made it.  Check them out here: http://lillarogers.com/global-talent-search-semi-finalists-announced-did-you-make-the-top-50/ 

Anyway, I felt true joy while creating my entry for this contest,  and at the end of the day that is most important.  So…onward!

Yee Haw! My Global Talent Search Submission

So time and time again I fall in love with illustrations I see with a full color focal point and a tonal background.  It's unclear to me why I never tried it before…until now! I'm really proud of this piece. I think it really answers the assignment of having a vintage playground inspired journal cover that says the word "playground".  This is not my usual color palette, and I think it was good to try something new, but still within my style.  I have a few pieces in the works right now for a very special nursery art commission which I'll be sharing soon, and want to definitely take what I learned here and try there.

This piece is my submission for Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search.  Lilla is my dream illustration agent, and if you win the competition you get represented by her for 2 years.  Holy WOW. Anyway, being able to compete and feel proud of myself is definitely great, so either way I am glad to have participated.  It also turns out, my weeks of waking up for the course I just took has kept me really disciplined and dedicated.  I'm just going to keep working on this schedule while I have pending projects, because well, it's working!

Below are some images of progress along the way.  I doodled very loosely, then drew a vector version, then digitally collaged. The font is my handwriting scanned in and turned into vector elements. 

Also check out my friend Jenipher's work! We both took the course together and it's been a lot fun and really encouraging to have a friend to email back and forth with about the course and our projects! 

Week 5!

Week 5- WEEK 5? When did that happen? Wow, this chunk o' time F-L-E-W by! Week 5's assignment focused on hyper lush collections, and making a pouch design.  I had trouble focusing my collections down in the beginning. Eventually after scrapping an almost complete version, I decided on beach. I have zillions of beach charms left over from my wedding seat placers, and decided to go with that. 

Here's my finished pouch design, complete with a watermelon pedicure.  Again, like some of the other assignments, this isn't children-targeted which is something new and exciting for me! That's probably the best part of having taken the class, I really started to explore new territory.  Also meeting lots of creative folks was a huge perk.  Reading the class feed on Facebook literally became my hobby over the past month!

Now the Make Art That Sells class has a break until October, but in the meanwhile I'm participating in Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search and finishing some very special nursery art for my nephew-to-be, so I'll be keeping busy!

The Tale of The Snail and The Rose Tree

Honestly, I'm too tired to blog about this LOL.  I have been putting 120% into the Make Art That Sells Course and loving it. However, if I told you my brain wasn't fried applesauce I'd be lying.  Can you even fry applesauce? I dunno.

Last week's assignment was to illustrate either the cover or a spread from a Hans Christina Andersen story, The Sane and the Roes Tree. The tale was grim, actually it was more than grim.  It was flat out depressing. BUTTTT, If I was illustrating it, I really would work to put a happy spin, hence my happy snail. 

The cover I submitted is below.  I actually have some changes I want to make now, but will do so after the course is over! 

Now, onto week 4! 

Back To School- Week 2!

When I saw that the second week of Make Art That Sells was going to involve "odd pods" I almost fell over as succulents are most definitely odd AND are among my favorite things in the world.  Early in 2013 I decided I was going to collage one succulent a month and then at the end of the year I'd have enough to make a garden. Yeah…well I made NONE untillllll this week! The class is formatted so that on Mondays & Tuesdays we are working on developing art that will be flushed out in the assignment given on Wednesdays.  

I let myself experiment here. The assignment was to design a plate collection (2-4 coordinating pieces) and I've never designed plates before so this was something new for me. I really enjoyed the whole round format thing that comes with plates.  I knew I didn't want it to look traditional and I knew I wanted a funkier approach that utilizes my collage technique in a slightly different way.  I worked for hours and am so happy with the results.  It helped that Tristan and I have 2 windowsills dedicated to succulents in our apartment, so reference was never far away.  

Probably the coolest thing for me so far about the course is that I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.  I was on a phone call for about an hour during the week, and throughout the call doodled this leaf like design.  As soon as I was done with my call I plopped it on the scanner and used It as part of my collage. You can see it here, on the dessert plate that is part of my collection: 

Here is the final grouping I made in the end.  I got so into it that I had to see it on a bowl and mug as well.  The submission requirements were only one plate though, so the watering can option was posted to the classes Flickr group.

So so so so looking forward to week 3! 

Back to School!

Last week began Lilla Rogers' e-course, Make Art That Sells. The first week focused on studying mushrooms and pyrex and then turning the illustrations into bolt fabric designs. I had so much fun with it, and I hope it shows in my work. A challenge I had was limiting my colors. I am an every-color-under-the-sun kinda gal, but a recent portfolio critique suggested I limit myself more and with the number of color restrictions of fabric in mind, I took it to heart. 

Another challenge I had was not filling up an Etsy cart with zillions of vintage pyrex dishes. They're so pretty and researching them made me want to collect, but due to apartment living I refrained. ;-)

The course has been truly amazing so far. The talent in the class is unreal. Scrolling through the Flickr group or the Facebook group images literally looks like I'm at a gallery. I can't wait to see how the rest of the class unfolds.

An interesting twist for me has been that I haven't aimed my designs at children. Up until pretty much last week, I have worked 99.9% in children's markets. I dream of illustrating children's books and I work as a children's accessory designer, so this isn't really a surprise I guess. I just never thought about my illustrations on adult, lifestyle product, but the past week and a half has really opened my mind up to it. I have full intention on making a pot holder or 20 (haha) with my week 1 illustrations that would go in a grown-ups kitchen, not a play-sized one! I definitely definitely definitely plan on exploring this territory more.

On a personal note, I'm extremely proud of myself for setting the alarm clock and rising with the sun every week day since this course has begun. My husband sets the coffee timer (I love him) and I put on my bumpin' playlist and get to it without hesitation. I do work full-time and I have a side job as well, so mornings are really when I can dedicate a few uninterrupted hours to this course and I'm taking full advantage. I'm not going to lie and say I don't get tired. I do. At times, flat out exhausted. But, I plan on sticking to it and putting my hours in to achieve my best work possible. AND the best part about it is that I love it. Hey, maybe I'm destined to become a morning person?!?!?!

& those are my week one thoughts!  I am uploading all of my pieces to a Flickr Set, so feel free to follow my progress here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/icedgrandesoylatte/sets

Illustration Friday- Sweet

Nursery Rhymes are pretty sweet! Posted for Illustration Friday.