Make Art that Sells Week 5

This was the final week of Make Art that Sells Home Decor. This week was all about designing for wood. I created a few pieces incorporating textures that we created earlier in the week.

I revisited the spoon idea for wood, which would be super awesome for tossing up a fresh salad, don't you think?

Some mixed media textures I created for this week. Learning to layer them in Photoshop was a challenge. Again, the class flies by so quickly all these just seem like jumping off points for many, many more ideas. Which is awesome! 

Part of our homework this week was to create a page with our favorite pieces from each week to create a rounded home decor collection. Ceramic, wood, metal, glass and fabric with my Monarch & Milkweed themes. I had to adjust the colors from my fabric week to fit in more with the collection. That was a challenge for me, keeping a consistent vision from week and week and learning to use the trend board more than going off on my own tangent. 

I ended up redoing and touching up the first three weeks to create a more cohesive collection and honestly by the time I got to week 4 it was easy to see what I needed to change and wasn't working from the earlier weeks thanks to the weekly reviews of each assignment. 

If you've ever thought about taking MATS or Lilla's bootcamp, just go for it. They are priceless and packed full of great insider information that will help you grow by leaps and bounds as an artist. Can't wait to see where my artwork is in a month from now! I'm going to jump into MATS A for the month of March. I'm addicted! 

And because it all springs from the same source, my designs have spilled over into my bead and jewelry business. I thought you might enjoy seeing them.

Make Art That Sells Week 4

It's week 4 of Lilla Roger's Make Art That Sells Home Decor Course. This week is all about designing images for ceramics. This course is life-changing. I can't explain or put it into words all I've learned in the last four weeks. I can tell you I'm not the same artist I was 30 days ago. Each assignment is challenging but things I started out struggling with are no longer struggles: honing a style, creating a cohesive collection, whipping out my Photoshop ninja skills. 

Above is the board I submitted for this week's assignment. I have a garden/farm vibe going with some similar motifs from previous weeks and adding in houses, chickens and plaids. One of the things Lilla says is people buy your joy and create products you would want, so each week that's what I do. What would I want in my home or give as a gift. 

I had so many icons this week and had two color stories going on, so I separated them into two boards.

Make Art That Sells Home Decor: Week 3

How has it only been a week? I can't tell even begin to tell you how much I learned this week. The seismic shift that has happened in how I feel about my artwork and my creative career has seriously been life changing. This week has been nothing short of magical.

This week we are learning about creating designs for glass products. For each assignment I create things I would want to buy - makes the creative process so much easier. That spoon - I need that to happen!

I'm so glad I signed up for this class. I wasn't sure if it was a good fit, I hadn't really thought much about designing for the home market. But everything I've learned so far can be used for any art licensing market.

Did you hear that Lilla is going to teach a Children's Book course this fall? I'm already saving up for that one!

The biggest lesson I've learned this week. 

Make Art That Sells Home Decor - Week 1 & 2

At the beginning of this year I made a promise to myself to work as illustrator and improve my craft. I made a commitment to up my game with my marketing skills to get regular work as an artist illustrating books and products like cards, journals, fabric and who knows what else. It's a great big world out of there for artists who are working to make a living. And more importantly I wanted to marry together my world of beads and art - playing back and forth between the two with similar themes.

I signed up for Lilla Roger's Make Art That Sells Home Decor course a few weeks ago and just jumped in, pushing aside fears and focusing on making art that I love. I have been sneaking in moments early in the morning, painting in my evenings and even a few hours late into the night. I like to start each day with my sketch book and brush pens before heading into the bead studio.

The first week of the class was intimidating. You are taking the class with some amazing professional artists.

But Lilla is part art agent, part art instructor and part art psychologist!

She is so encouraging and knows how to take all those overwhelming feelings and channel it into productive lessons and energy.

There was a huge learning curve for me in the beginning trying to mock up my artwork into home decor items that could be made of metal. (The first one shown above is actually a redo of my assignment that I submitted.) It was a clunky attempt but I'm giving myself time to learn - that's why we take classes, right - to learn not to be experts as soon as we start.

This week was much easier. The painting is my favorite part and I jumped in creating several main images and lots of smaller accents to use in my fabric product mock ups. I wanted to capture the feeling of my summers here in Michigan with Queen Anne's Lace, chicory and monarch butterflies. Some things were happy accidents but that's okay. After a week I am getting the hang of the basics of using Photoshop to transform my illustrations into these fun designs.

After scanning in all my art work and cleaning it up I realized I had enough for two themes with the butterflies for one set and one featuring wildflowers in country chic containers. 

We have three weeks left in the class and then it will be time for the Make Art That Sells Bootcamp and then I am signed up to take Lilla's self-paced MATS A course that focuses on 5 of the top selling art markets. Thankfully time management and learning to work quicker are part of the course! 

February iPhone Wallpapers

I created a new wallpaper for my iPhone and wanted to share it with you. Snuggling, quiet winter nights, chocolate, cozy sweaters and mittens - spring is still months away so we might as well enjoy the good things about February! 

I've been learning some different ways to work and my brain is exploding from taking Lilla Roger's Make Art That Sells Home Decor class. I'll share some of my work from the class soon. The first week was a blast, but quite a learning curve. 

Download the wallpapers here:

iPhone 5

iPhone 6