In April I was approached by the creator/editor of the online artist magazine MAEZA to contribute some of my work to their May issue with the theme of either Savannah or Purple. I decided to create two new pieces, one for each theme (click here to see that issue and my resulting work). It was an honour to be included in the project and to be a part of something with so many other talented and skilled artists! It's a sweet art magazine with a relatively small following at the moment but the issue went off successfully and I even got a few new followers out of the deal :)
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| Issue 11 with some of my artwork included! Click on the link above to see the entire issue. |
Anyway, last week I got a message from the creator/editor requesting another contribution to their upcoming August issue!! I am beyond honoured to say the least! The theme this month is superstition and I've been busy collecting inspiration and designing a piece that I will be painting traditionally in watercolour - I'm even including some hand lettering :) I'm so excited!!
Okay, now that I've gotten that out I think I can get back to business. Thank you for being patient, on to MATS B: Baby/Children's Apparel!
If you haven't seen my previous posts on Make Art That Sells, you can click here to read about MATS A and click here to read about the first assignment in MATS B: Paper.
As I said in my last post MATS B subjects include paper, baby/children's apparel & decor, scrapbooking, editorial, and party paper. Basically, for baby/children's apparel the assignment is to create a textile design suitable for baby/children's clothing. After having a few of these assignments under my belt I felt that I understood what was required. Basically I needed to create a bunch of icons that follow the theme. I was also to create three co-ordinate patterns to have a collection to submit to potential companies for licensing (which is really the whole point of the entire course collection).
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| My submission for Baby/Children's Apparel. The theme was good luck charms, but I wasn't feeling it so I branched out a bit. |
I had never done anything like this before. There was a lot to learn about colour, pattern, repeats, trends, the list goes on and on, but I really enjoyed it! Maybe it's because it wasn't that long ago I was buying this type of clothing for my girls that I was so motivated to do a good job on this project. I spent a lot of time on the finishes and final arrangement with input from other MATS students (many with way more experience than I had), as well as my sister who runs a successful business creating children's apparel and has her finger on the pulse of what parents are looking for.
It took me more than a month to finish this one, but I really wanted something good enough to actually make fabric from. I'm still thinking about putting it up on Spoonflower for sale. This project ignited an interest in textile design for me. I love how you can take some images you've created and have them put on fabric for people to wear! I think it's at least as cool, if not cooler, than having your art up on a wall in someone's house!
Since this assignment I have watched a lot of videos on how to do textile design professionally and I've learned a lot. I don't think I'll ever be a full time Textile Designer, but I will definitely dip my toe in now and again :)
That's all I have to say for this week's post. There might be a deviation from the MATS series next week because I'm currently working on my submission for the third installment: Scrapbooking and with the MAEZA deadline looming I'm not sure I will have it finished before next Monday. I've still got lots to share with you though so stay tuned for next weeks post!
Until next time,
Mandy
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