Home Decor {MATS Week 2}

Well, there are two weeks down in this first session of Make Art That Sells with Lilla Rogers. Last week focused on the Home Decor market - a market that I honestly hadn't given much consideration.

On Monday we were given our Mini Assignment - instead of focusing on typical floral imagery such as daisies and tulips, we were to take it a step further and draw "Odd Pods" - seed pods. Who knew it could be such fun?

The shapes are still very organic, but it was the textures and the details that were so interesting. I think I could have sketched pods for days and days. Now I am curious about all flowers - what do their seed pods look like? Some of them I've already noticed, such as Allium, "Helicopters" and Poppy, but I'm going to have to pay attention to the life cycle of the flowers in our garden and do some more sketching studies throughout the season...

The main assignment was applying our seed pod drawings to the design of plates - and in a round format - something I've never had to do!

Side Note - last week, when designing the fabric, I kinda struggled with the teal pattern. After analyzing my process, I realized it was because I hadn't figured out the general composition BEFORE I sat down at the computer. I had literally opened up a white background and started importing my individual mushroom drawings. Then I scaled and rearranged from there. It was quite frustrating because I never felt there was a good balance, and I realized afterwards it was because of my approach. I rarely start digitizing my work without getting at least a rough concept composed in my sketchbook to work from. So I think that is why I was so stuck when putting together my second pattern - though I had all the elements, I still felt pretty rudderless when creating the design.

For the plates, I decided to take what I learned from the previous week and compose the circular designs in my sketchbook first, THEN take them to the computer. That worked MUCH BETTER. By the time I scanned them in, I was very comfortable with the compositions and I was excited to start playing around with color. Here are some of the sneak peeks I posted on Instagram of my pod compositions:

I played around with layering large shapes behind finer details and scaling the pods for a more interesting composition. I also drew my lines with the intention of adding shapes of color to help finish off the pods.

I was inspired by the color palette of this dress in the May 2013 J.Crew catalog:

I decided the green/neon yellow/fuschia color scheme would really pop on some plates. 

Here are the five finished designs integrating pods, a saturated palette and a bit of color blocking. I think they're really dynamic.

And just like the first week, I am constantly amazed by the talent and varying approaches to the assignments by the artists in my class. Everyone is so fabulous!

Have an excellent week!

Back to School {MATS 01}

Today I am so excited to share my newest artistic endeavor - I'm going back to school! 

I've been refocusing my creative efforts over the last year to focus on my first love, illustration. That meant a few things:

• I have been slowing down Fuzzies production. Yes, I still make them, but mostly
  custom orders.
• I haven't been pursuing graphic design opportunities.
• I created a new, illustration-only portfolio website.
• I'm incorporating a LOT more drawing into my daily routine. Daily Doodles, baby!
• I'm marketing myself as an Illustrator first, Designer second.
• Design projects now have a more illustrated feel.
• I am educating myself on the ins and outs of the Illustration industry. 

Last week I began a new online class - taught by Lilla Rogers, a world-renowned illustration agent - Make Art That Sells is a 10-week course giving us "in-depth insight into ten of the most lucrative markets for art, from home décor, gifts and bolt fabric to papergoods, baby apparel and children’s books."

Week 1 focused on the Bolt Fabric market - right up my alley! 

Early in the week we were given a mini assignment to draw mushrooms and vintage pyrex. Here are my mushrooms:

I started out with pen and ink, and fairly realistic interpretations. Then i decided I needed to loosen up a bit and take to the gouache and do some more stylistic mushrooms, focusing on basic shapes and patterns, and using a limited color palette.

Next up, vintage pyrex. I was in heaven doing the research for this one!

Again, first the pen and ink drawings to get a feel for the shapes and designs, then onto the whimsical gouache version. I love those colors!

We were then asked to apply our mushroom and pyrex icons into a retro-kitchen themed fabric design. Here are my two final versions:

The first one basically took my gouache pyrex paintings and laid it out into a repeat pattern. The colors are super bright and the coordinates utilize some of the pyrex designs made into a pattern. Someone in class suggested this would make a good oilcloth design, and I couldn't agree more!

The second incorporated my stylized mushrooms and combined them with some vintage casseroles and kitchen goods - utensils, salt & pepper, bowls and herbs. I chose a palette that was a throwback to the 60's - mint green and bubblegum pink punctuate the muted teal background. 

I am thrilled with how the designs turned out - already I am gaining some solid portfolio pieces, which was one of the goals of taking this course. It was great to get assignments, something I really miss about school, and drawing things that are out of my usual arsenal of subject matter.

And I have to say - what a wonderful group of classmates! Everyone is so supportive, motivating and positive, and I am so excited to meet and get to know these wonderful people! They are EXTREMELY talented, and though it's hard not to be intimidated by their skills, I try to channel it to push me harder, which is exactly what I need to succeed in this industry!

I can already tell this is going to be a long ten weeks, considering last week I was already staying up way too late in order to meet deadlines. But sometimes a little sacrifice is necessary to push me to the next level. 

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post! I am hoping to do a weekly recap of my experience, so I will be back.

Hooray for school!

Ready to Snuggle {Fuzzy Blankets}

Over last six months, a lot of babies have been born all around us. So exciting! And now that I have finally perfected my Fuzzy Blankets (Ni-Ni's), I have been making them for the adorable newborns.

Meet Brixo, Joli and Lanodi! I found some really great black and white striped knit fabric to use for the fronts of the blankets - the neutral palette allows me to have fun with bright, colorful binding, stars and features.

Even though my Fuzzy production has slowed dramatically because I'm focusing on my Illustration career, I am still enjoying making these custom plush!

Until next time,

Desktop Calendar {June 2013}

Hello, and happy almost-Summer!

Here in Wisconsin, the trees are at their greenest, the flowers are blooming, and the bees are buzzing. I've had bees and honey on my brain between my daily doodle on Instagram and this month's desktop calendar.

I've been playing around with layering blocks of color with linework, inspired by one of my favorite mid-century illustrators, Roger Duvoisin. Also, in this composition, I painted the honeycomb hexagons and scanned them in, creating some nice texture in the background.

To download the June calendar, you can click on the above image and save it to your computer, or you can also find it here. Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Have a great week!

New Morning Nursery {Invitation}

Today I am so happy to share a small community project I got to participate in. 

There is a wonderful school in our neighborhood called New Morning Nursery that has a big fundraising silent auction every Spring. This year, the money raised would go to building and furnishing a new room at the school. 

After meeting with the PTO President who was in charge of organizing the event, I presented her with two sketches:

The first showed the iconic castle-like school up on the hill, with children carrying supplies up towards the building.

The second sketches were variations upon the same theme: a couple kids shouting the tagline out of their megaphones.

We decided to go with sketch #1 for the front of the invitation postcard, but incorporating the megaphone kids on the back side.

Here's the final sketch, utilizing red as the accent color.

What a fun project! I also contributed an auction item, which I will talk about in a later post.

Have a wonderful week! Can you believe June is just around the corner?

Home Ec {The Quilt}

Say what?!? Another Home Ec project? Heck yeah! I finally checked another one off the list. And this one was the Mother of all Projects - The Quilt!

A little backstory : You may or may not know that our house as been undergoing a huge renovation since last December. This huge project has forced me to look at our house with a critical eye and start cracking on some of the decor. 

We got new windows installed, which meant out with the old dark wood frames and in with fresh, new white windows! It's like every room has started over with a clean slate, a new canvas, ready to be decorated. For our bedroom we decided it was probably time to get a new, adult bed - meaning no more sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Once we had the new bed frame in place, along with the new windows, the old duvet was looking really sad. Since the bed was lifted off the floor, I was finally able to notice how saggy and uneven the comforter had been. I realized this was the sign I needed to finally start making our new quilt.

Yes, I decided to tackle a Queen-sized quilt for my first quilting project. And to add to the already daunting task, I decided to do it when our house was under construction. A.K.A., Dust City! Not to mention we have very small rooms in our 85+ year-old house - it would be next to impossible to lay out such a large quilt. 

So I decided to take an entire weekend off, travel to my parents' house, where they have a much larger space - perfect for piecing a queen-sized quilt - AND they could keep Stella busy while mommy sewed.

1) The fabric, all ready to be cut. 2) Cut squares.

I was really excited about the color scheme - sky blue, white, black, light pink, caramel and charcoal grey. I got started right away Friday night, cutting up all the pieces. This was definitely a true test of my measuring/squaring skillz.

1) Cut triangles - so pretty! 2) A close-up of all the pinned triangles.

It was lots of repetition, but sometimes it's kinda nice doing monotonous work - it's almost meditative.

It was all going pretty smoothly until it came time to lay it all out. Wow, a queen sized quilt is huge, when you take in the over hang! Even in my parents' very large Great Room, it barely fit. And the pets and Stella LOVED laying on it. Ugh!

1) Chloe preferred laying ON the pieces - I wasn't such a fan. 2) The quilt top all sewed up!

By the end of the weekend, I had finished machine-sewing the quilt top, and pinned it to the batting and the backing. I carefully folded it up and brought it home to be basted.

Photo taken by my mom from the loft (©2013 Paper Seedlings)

I had planned on hand-quilting it, which meant I had to hand baste it. THAT was a huge pain. The basting took me about 6 hours alone. The hand-quilting was fun, but super tedious. Stephen got a kick out of watching me with a huge heap of quilt sitting on my lap as I worked on small sections at a time. At least I was warm!

The hand-quilting ended up taking about 3 weeks, doing one row per night.

After binding it with the charcoal grey, it was finally finished! And I love it. Our room is so dreamy now.

Don't mind the unfinished painted wall in the above photo - that's the next project - painting the room a light grey.

Thanks for following along the process! Now hopefully I'll be able to finish Stella's quilt that I started last year with the Block of the Month club - and a Twin sized quilt doesn't seem nearly as bad, right?

Desktop Calendar {May 2013}

Hello and Happy May!

Just poppin' in to present the May Desktop Calendar - sorry it's a bit late, but this gal has been bus-y!

This month I asked Stella for an idea. She thought a swinging unicorn would be nice - with rainbows, of course! 

To download the May calendar, you can click on the above image and save it to your computer, or you can also find it here. Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back next week with some new projects.

Cheers!

School Newsletter {Process}

Hello!

Today I'm going to share a fun community project I got the opportunity to illustrate. 

A few months ago, my friend and fellow designer, Jinger, approached me with the challenge of beautifying the shared newsletter of two of Madison's public schools. Her daughter, who is Stella's age, currently attends one of the schools, and, being a visual person, she noticed the newsletter was looking a little bland. Since Stella will be going to Kindergarten at one of the said schools next year, she thought perhaps I would be interested in freshening up the newsletter.

Of course I would! I'm always up for a little beautification project! Jinger had a couple fun ideas incorporating the two schools' mascots - a falcon and a raccoon. I came up with some sketches based on her thoughts:

We decided to try combining some of the elements, focusing on the framed mascots holding a banner: 

Thinking the composition was a little busy, we simplified it a bit:

Nice! Now it was time to add some color. There weren't any official school colors as far as we could tell, so my first attempt was a little more subdued. I wanted it to appeal to both boys and girls.

But it just didn't feel right. I tried again, this time letting go of any restraints and focusing on fun:

Yes! SO much better. Jinger liked this one as well, so this was the header that was presented to the school. 

It was a hit! And after chatting with some parents about the new look, it seems like it may inspire some new initiatives to help integrate more art into school correspondence. This is a cause I will definitely support! 

Until next time,

Sketchbook Project 2012 {Part 2}

Hello!

I'm back today with the follow-up post to Friday's Sketchbook Project 2012 {Part 1}. Thank you all for your kind comments on Part 1! The project was such a labor of love, it is great to see such a positive response. :-)

We left off after introducing the characters and the setting. Next up, the elephants!

The elephants depleted their peanut supply, and got a whiff of peanut butter from a factory over yonder.

They made their way over to the factory and broke in through the window.

Once the elephants made their way inside, the workers ran for their lives!

The PBJ workers ran to the PBCM factory and stole a large vat of peanut butter.

The PBCM workers chased down the PBJ workers and tried to reason with them.

They had an idea. If they worked together, they may be able to fix the issue.
They quickly returned to the PBJ factory.

There they found the elephants very full of peanut butter and tuckered out. "Come with us!", they called.

The workers brought the elephants to the field of green.

"Look! Plenty of peanut plants!"

Yum!

Peanut Butter - back cover.

Well, that's it! Even though the story isn't perfect, this project was a great challenge. It is one of my dreams to one day illustrate a book, and this was a good opportunity to think of the book as a whole, break down the ideas, conceptualize the spreads and create interesting compositions that keep the reader engaged. 

Speaking of keeping the reader engaged, here is a photo of Stella reading my sketchbook:

My heart melted.

Thanks for reading along!

Sketchbook Project 2012 {Part 1}

Last summer, I decided to sign up for The Sketchbook Project. It is an international project where participants are sent a blank sketchbook to fill based on a chosen theme. The completed sketchbook is then sent back to be cataloged in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library. The collection is also part of a traveling exhibition which allows people from all over to view the sketchbooks. How cool is that?

When I signed up, there were many themes to choose. I ended up going with Chronicle, because I thought it would be fun to turn the sketchbook into a sort of story book.

Storyboarding the idea.

I also really wanted my Sketchbook to be a collaborative effort between myself, Stephen and Stella. During a long road trip back from Pennsylvania, we brainstormed the theme. 

Stella wanted to incorporate dogs, cats, bunnies, fishies and mustaches (!!!). All of the animals loved peanut butter and made different types of sandwiches with it - peanut butter/jelly and peanut butter/chocolate/marshmallow sandwiches.

Starting with the grey gouache.

Stephen suggested having two factories that focused on producing the two types of sandwiches. We also thought that the story needed a little conflict. What if there was a herd of elephants that depleted their peanut supply on their land and needed to seek out another source? Hmm...

Adding yellow.

Adding green.

The story definitely has some holes, but I had a lot of fun with composing the spreads, choosing the color scheme and creating the characters. Plus, my whole family got to participate in the making of my Sketchbook! You can't get any better than that.

There are 32 pages to the Sketchbook, but I'll only post the first half today. I don't want to totally inundate you with photos. And please don't read TOO much into my captions - I am not a writer! There is a reason my book had no words...

Front Cover : Peanut Butter by emily balsley

Smokestacks.

There was a field of green, two sandwich factories and an elephant habitat.

The field of green. The plants in the foreground are actually peanut plants.

Detail of the Peanut Butter-Chocolate-Marshmallow Sandwich factory.

Here we are, inside the PBCM factory, watching the workers at the assembly line.

Detail of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich factory.

Viewing the mustachioed workers at the PBJ assembly line.

That's it for now! I'll be back with a post on Monday that will depict the ensuing drama. Ooh!

Have a great weekend,