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! 

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!

Back to School- Week 4!

What's collaged and red and orange all over? My dreamcatcher piece. 

For the 4th week of Make Art That Sells the project was "wall art" and the color palette was dictated by each astrological sign.  I'm a gemini, and was assigned red & orange. We were also encouraged to paint and collage (yay!!!) and work abstractly.  I really really struggled with the abstract thing, but my brain took a turn when I realized that dreams are abstract and that maybe I could play on that. Also, I'm a sucker for a vintage doily and have an amazing collection.  The doily in this piece was made by my friend Taylor's great grandmother! When the assignment colors were given, I immediately started knotting friendship bracelets in my palette. I'm pleased to say they made it into the final piece, they're some of the dangling bits at the base!! The piece also had to be square and include a word, and my husband came up with Imagine. I played with a variety of fonts for this as well as handwriting trials, but in the end the nature of the piece really lent to collaging the word.  The floral touch is from a handkerchief that belonged to my grandmother! When I was making my wedding bouquet I acquired a lot of my grandmother's supplies and it's fun to now use them in my art.  Gives it an extra personal and vintage touch.

After I finished, I was still stuck on the fact that I was so opposed to abstraction.  Without going all art school on ya, let's just say it's actually never been an easy category for me to dive into.  I tried an exercise where I chopped up my final piece and rearranged pieces.  The result is….ABSTRACT! And best of all, I actually like it! It has my dream handwriting because I actually did this exercise right before I added "Imagine" in and took "dream" out. 

Overall, this assignment was probably the one where I think my personal art experienced the most growth.  I almost always do art with a specific consumer in mind, so doing art for me that would leave the page of a sketch book was a treat.  

I can NOT believe we are on to the last week.  I have loved the last five weeks so much.  I haven't been this tired in ages, but in the best kind of way possible.  Also my husband, friends and fam have been so supportive which is amazing.  Hoping I can keep up this momentum during the break before part B, which begins in October! 

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

Make Art That Sells

I'm so excited to share that I'm officially signed up for Lilla Roger's E-course, Make Art That Sells.  I'm a huge fan of the artists she represents and really look forward to learning from her. Plus I'm a nerd and I love a good assignment! The class officially starts in June. I ordered her book the other day, and I'm hoping it arrives in time for my flight this weekend! 

Learn more about this class HERE and let me know if you've signed up too!