Children's Decorative Plates and Dinnerware

Just wanted to share my two finished boards from the MATS home decor assignment.  I decided to make two boards since there were two styles that emerged from my explorations. We started out looking at antique Staffordshire pottery and that lead me pearlware dishes for children that had the most delightful floral motifs and lettering.

I may revisit these and offer them as wall art later on, I could totally see these in a kids room. That cheetah though, he needs a story! I'm going to use him a series of illustrations with my cat that I shared yesterday. Should be fun. Our next assignment is children's books. so he will cross over.

And that's the bonus from taking Make Art That Sells - you start off with the inspiration from the assignment but that leads to many more ideas and avenues to explore.

Make Art That Sells Progress

Working on my next Make Art That Sells course. I'm enrolled in the self-paced MATS A which covers fabric, home decor, children's books, wall art and the gift market. I finished the fabric assignment, I'll share that soon. But first I wanted to show these plates that I'm working on inspired by Staffordshire pottery. I liked the kookiness of the pastoral outfits and the silly and aloof cat figurines, so in my brain a mashup was needed. 

I decided to work on some portfolio pieces that would fit in with my children's illustration and made plates with kids in mind.

These are in progress, I'm still tweaking and thinking. I also need two more designs for a set of four plates. I had a few others started by they weren't exactly in the same style and ended up going in different directions like this adorable monkey below that I transformed into a little pirate.

I imagine a little tropical island with all these creatures. Do you remember the island on Bed Knobs and Broomsticks? I don't know why that stuck with me as kid but a place like that popped into my head while making these.

Not sure if this guy goes with the set. But I certainly love him! I definitely giggled out loud a few times painting these over the weekend. 

Winter Blues - Sledding Illustration

Spent my weekend sketching and painting. It's a winter wonderland here in Michigan and that means I'm hibernating. I'm a fan of the snow but not the cold. So I like to look at it from the warmth of my cozy home or live vicariously through my art. 

A little nostalgia for these two kids running errands for the family. Can you imagine a time when kids went to the local grocery for their mom, all by themselves? I grew up in a tiny town and we often went to the corner store to get a treat. Penny candy was the bomb - our poor teeth! We'd find a quarter and thought we were rich. 

I can remember my elementary teacher telling us about inflation when I was in third grade and a candy bar was a quarter. She asked if we would buy a candy bar if it was 50 cents and we all balked, a dollar - no way. But hey, inflation. Okay, that's enough of traveling down memory lane today. It's making me feel old!

This gouache painting is quite the multi-tasker, I'm entering it for two Instragram challenges this week - #12monthsofpaint - their theme this month is blue and Katie Creatie's #wedrawtheyear. Her theme is sledding for this week. My goal for this month is to add more kids and families to my portfolio, so yeah goals!