Make It In Design Summer School - Lesson 3

So this is our final assignment for the Make It In Design Summer School. I have really enjoyed the creative briefs, playing with materials and experimenting during this time of stretching out of my comfort zone. Our inspiration this week was jewels. 

Uh, hello bead world colliding with my illustrating world - my dream come true! If you are new to my blog, I make my living making beads, so this assignment had my attention. 

During the sketching phase I came up with a very formal floral and gem design, and I will paint it up during the weekend but for the assignment I wanted to stay in the playful and slightly abstract vein that I had explored with the last challenge. With school supply season in full swing I picked up some Sharpie markers in fashionable colors last week and played with them with oil pastels and then lots of doctoring in Photoshop. It was fun to just to let go and I think I came up with a quirky design that would work well for the tween market. 

I must explore this more and come up with an entire collection of bead inspired designs, because that just brings me all sorts of joy!

And thanks to my shop at Society 6 for the cute mock-ups of the design on various products. 

Jewel Skirt Set by Humblebeads

And then I whipped up a mock-up of the pattern to see what it would look like as a skirt and paired it up with some cute items from Hanna Anderson and Old Navy. It was fun to see the design come together as an outfit. I could totally see my little nieces rocking this skirt.

With each online course I grow a little more and learn all sorts of new tricks. I'm feeling more confident in the world of pattern design. I've gone from a complete beginner to 'dang I've got a lot of learn' - you know that point when you realize how complex and interesting the design world is and you are just scratching the surface with your pencil? Yeah that's where I'm at now.

Some things I've learned this summer:

1. I love creating patterns and designs, more than I thought I would and I see that as the sweet spot where my beadmaking and illustration skills come together.  

2. I've been asking myself the wrong question as an artist for way too long. What is the wrong question? 

Am I good enough? 

Good enough for what? 

Good enough to make it as an artist, to find success, to make money creating art? I will always have room to grow but all of us are worthy because we have a voice and something to share that is always good enough.  

The real question I should have been asking all along is: 

"What do I love to make?" 

And now I need to stop questioning and just get to the business of making and sharing. 

3. Now I need to explore the trends and class assignments in depth and find more of a marriage between the class projects and my style/brand as an artist. I really went out of the box and explored different media and styles over the summer now I need to focus on creating a brand and look to move forward and grow as an illustrator.