I'm listening to Catching Fire, the second book of the Hunger Games series (which I've read twice and listened to twice), and I'm at the part where Wiress keeps repeating, "Tick Tock" to the other tributes in the games. I don't know about you, but I love to listen to books while I work.
I found it relaxing to do my drawings in fountain pen and ink and cut out some tissue bits and made watercolor blobs.
I further explored more sketches, this time in pencil.
Here is one of the paintings I created and photos of the steps. I'm so happy I took these photos while I was working! This must have been when I got the paint on my phone case.
The finished piece that I submitted in class most likely isn't that marketable as far as licensing goes, but based on how much joy I got from making it, I think I can afford to spend more time making more art like this.
I recommend checking out Mati Rose McDonough's book, Daring Adventures in Paint, as well as her ecourse of a similar name. I used her technique for creating a background and transferring a sketch to the canvas.
The theme was vintage Christmas ornaments and candy. I love drawing and making Christmas themed pieces, so I had a lot of fun with this.
The theme was camping and campers. I let my imagination wander and when I sat down to work on the mini assignment, I thought of mouses and camping. What would it look like for mice to camp? What would they travel in and sleep in? A tin can or a sardine can? A hammock to take a nap? What would a campfire look like? A votive candle?
I was intimidated to draw characters again, but I found the assignment easy because it was such a fun topic and the ideas came easily. I would love to do more of these sorts of animal illustrations.
When and after I made finished my design, whenever my 2-year-old was near my computer, he'd say, "I want to see the mouse". Maybe I'll make him a special t-shirt or design a mouse softie for him.
For our mini assignment, we drew typewriters and cameras and for the final assignment, we created a sheet of scrapbooking elements. Since I had to work quickly this week, I inked the drawings, scanned them in, and processed them in illustrator. Then, I made the artwork into layers and exported to photoshop to add texture.
We were to create a map of where we live. This was the week I was slapped with a nasty cold, but I got the assignment done. I drew everything with black ink and processed everything in illustrator.
The mini involved working with Ukrainian and Bavarian folk art. I drew some patterns and a girl with a large headdress of flowers. This last week was fun, though I missed the mark on the final assignment as the girl should have been more of a generic nature for party goods. I think the girl would be pretty on another product, though.
I had a much easier time with this girl character, maybe because I kept her simple. I would love to work on the peacock idea and also change the colors I used. I'm going to go back and add texture and change things up and use the art for something else. Perhaps a fabric pattern.
If you're an artist, illustrator, designer, painter, etc. and looking to learn some awesome tips on various markets, plus be among wonderful peers in an active and welcoming facebook group, plus work on super-motivating projects, I can't recommend Lilla's Make Art that Sells course. The best class I've ever taken. Hands down.
I hadn't done much art in perhaps about 5 years since having my little boys. I really needed a jumpstart to get going, get motivated, to just just down and DO something. Lilla's class was exactly what I needed, and the inspiration I felt from the classes is still there, simmering and ready to go.
