"Cute Characters" for Tigerprint!

I decided to enter the Tigerprint competition for "cute character." I never have much luck at all in these competitions, but this one appealed to me. I mean if I call my stuff shamelessly cute, if not this contest, then what?! Anyway, if nothing else, I have a couple new birthday card ideas for the portfolio, so nothing wasted! Which one do you prefer?

Global Talent Search 2014

I really can't believe that it has been an entire year since the first Global Talent Search. It's funny, I really had no intention of entering last year because I knew I didn't have a chance, but when I heard the subject matter, "vintage playground," I couldn't resist. Besides, being a first time MATS student, the entry fee was waived, so I figured, why not? I put a ton of time into it… not saying that that necessarily showed, but I was one of the fortunate ones that made it through that first round. 

It was a great journey and I learned a lot about what it means to put yourself out there, which in the world of art, is a scary but necessary step to any level of success. When the opportunity came around again, it was one of those things that was hard to resist. I knew I would miss being part of it all, regardless of the outcome. Unfortunately for me, the timing was terrible. The brief was to come out the day after I was on a family vacation and I would be left with 24 hours to do it once I was home. I decided to just go for it in the hopes that I could come up with something anyway.

The brief itself, little terrariums, wasn't exactly in my wheelhouse. I like to do stuff with characters and this seemed more suited to those who work more with botanicals and flowers. Plus she mentioned paint. ugh. Plus she categorized it as "wall art." ugh. I knew I was in trouble. 

With limited time, I tried to stick to what I'm most comfortable with (vector) and tried to make it more of a little environment (a.k.a. world) and of course, meant for kids. I decided to include a waterfall and castle, as opposed to filling it with various plants and flowers. Not that I don't love plants and flowers, but there are soooo many people that do that better than me. I like the palette I ended up with, but I still question why the heck I made the little people green. I mean what kind of martian pea pod did they escape from?! Or are they just from the Emerald City? who knows?!?!?! These are the things that you don't have time to consider when you're doing a project from start to finish in one day. I'd show you my sketches, but they are even crappier than usual and I'd be too embarassed!

Anyway, even though I didn't make the first cut like last year, I am glad I played along and entered! There is always something to be learned. I'm happy with my piece, but I would have loved to develop it further, especially in terms of rendering, textures, real paint, etc.Best of luck to the final 50, many of which I know from MATS courses! Amazing pieces one and all and enjoy the journey!

happy happy alphabet R!

I was happy that I got assigned the letter R in our ongoing group alphabet project over at happy happy, because, that's right…I got to do a bunny (rabbit…) Kinda made up for the sulkiness that was the letter "I", ha. Don't ask me why I thought of a rickshaw and I seriously have no idea if they are used in Rampur, but it sounded kinda exotic, so, with no further research, I went for it! Of course, someone has to be a passenger, so I thought a snooty, uppity raccoon lady was the perfect answer. Rico reminds me of some character that Indiana Jones might bump into on the streets right before some boulder starts chasing him down. Be sure to check out the rest of the alphabet here!

MATS Bootcamp final assignment…have a cuppa

July marked the last assignment for Lilla Roger's #makeartthatsells bootcamp. This particular brief was a bit of a departure from the ones prior. We were to make some art that we would like to hang on our own wall or give to a friend, that had to do with a favorite beverage. I'm not one to give or hang my own work, so this one left me stumped for a while. Eventually, I settled on doing a lettering mishmash…more is more, right?!? I can only hope, haha. It came down to crushed ice or coffee, so I settled for my morning must-have, since I didn't think I could do a whole lot with ice. I started by brainstorming a list of as many different coffee related phrases as I could think of. It became pretty long list and surprisingly, I ended up using them all. I decided to use "have a cup of awesome" as the focal point of the lettering part, and went from there, fitting each phrase around each other, like putting together a puzzle. As you can see from my sketchbook, it's a pretty ugly process as I just kept erasing, fitting, adjusting, etc. until I got it to a point where I traced it over. 

As you can see, at one point, I considered having a guy drinking from the mug.

My original plan also included having these two little cameos of my coffee dude on both sides of the cup at the bottom. The best laid plans don't always work out…not only didn't they fill the space quite right, it was just adding too much madness. I couldn't axe them entirely, so I kept the bright eyed one and slapped it on the mug. This left me with some space to try and pretty it up, so I researched what a coffee plant looks like, and added those super simplified branches. I doubt anyone would recognize what they represent, but they soften it up overall. Color-wise, I was originally going with a brown background, with multiple colored bright lettering, but it was way too crazy. I started toning it down and accidentally made the background a soft aqua, and I really liked it, so I kept going with it.

Make SURE you check out the gallery for tons of amazing pieces!!

don't let this one pass you by...

There are a lot of stupid "national" days, but this is most definitely not one of them. Two words… I'M IN. 

have happy 4th!

have a happy 4th of July! Hope you enjoy food, family and fireworks!

The Little Mermaid

Over at the Happy Happy Art Collective, we have been doing monthly group projects and June's topic was 80's movie posters! Fun idea but sooo many possibilities. I decided to stick with what I like to do best…something kid related and I am also a huge Disney fan, so I debated between Toy Story and the Little mermaid and the latter won! To mix things up, I decided I wanted to attempt to use gouache. Inspired by fellow happy happy art pal Lauren Minco, I gave it a shot, only to have even more new found respect for the craft! It's hard!! Finding the right ratio of water to paint was challenging, at least for me. I did separate elements, because I knew there was no way I had the ability to do it all as one painting, especially when I planned on adding the lettering on top. I did the lettering  my usual way… penciled out, then redrawn in illustrator. I'm glad I gave it a shot, but clearly, I have a long way to go with this paint stuff! 

Be sure to check out the other great movie posters over at happy happy!

I did a lot of different versions of Ariel that varied in terms of how old she appeared.
This was a younger looking version.

I didn't end up using the blue water background… too busy.