New Product:
My latest product is a card design from an image I drew about a year ago of a line of chickadees on a wire. It is a printable product so it's instantly sent to your email after purchase! If you're interested in purchasing this card click here to be taken directly to the post in my shop.
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| My new Chickadees blank greeting card printable. You can purchase this directly from my Etsy shop :) |
I can think of a dozen places this little image could be used on. I'm considering adding it to a few products in my Society 6 shop as well, mugs, towels, etc. What do you think?
Character Design Course:
I got a pop-up advertisement in my Facebook feed recently. Normally I just glance at them quickly and move on, but I was inspired to click on this one because it seemed to be a possible solution to my MATS B map problem.
Aaron Blaise is a former Disney artist and animator and has a collection of courses for character design and animation. The specific one I thought might help me is his Figure Drawing and Character Design Bundle, you can click here to read more about it.
I've only spent a few days watching the videos and I can tell you that this guy knows what he's talking about! If you want to draw in a more illustrative style (less realistic), I recommend taking a look at his site. He also offers some free information that I found valuable as well, so it's worth taking a look.
Further Character/Figure drawing:
I spent my Friday in the local library looking up some books that might also help me better understand how to draw figures in a less literal and realistic way. There is a specific style I have in mind, but I feel it's very "in" right now and I'd rather develop my own style than follow a trend that may be gone soon.
Anyway, my search led me to one author by the name of Chris Hart. He has written a good hundred books on the topic of drawing figures and the various ways you can go about it. My library had about a dozen of them on the specific features I'm looking for so I grabbed them all!
I also remembered that I own a book by Stephanie Corfee titled "Creative Illustration & Beyond" which is not only beautifully illustrated, it also has some amazing ideas and exercises for figuring out your style.
(note: I make no commission in mentioning the above products or artist/authors.)
Another Challenge:
With all this information at my fingertips, I'm thinking it might be time to do another daily challenge. My last challenge was to get me painting more so that I could improve my skill and understanding of the medium. I loved it! It was definitely a challenge in the work involved and the pre-planning, but I got a lot out of it! You can read more about my last challenge by clicking here. I know that all the reading in the world isn't going to do a thing to my skill-level, it's the doing that does anything, so I'm seriously considering starting another challenge, this one focusing more on drawing people/figures/faces/poses.
I haven't decided on the length for this one, I can't seem to choose between 30 days or 100 days. What do you think? Have you done a challenge to improve your skills in a specific area? Do you think I would benefit more from a 30 day exercise or 100? I'd love to hear about your experience!
A Sock Doll:
Okay, I know this isn't strictly artsy, but I'm very proud of it and I had to share. For my daughter's birthday I thought it might be nice to make her a sock doll. She's turning 9 and isn't really into dolls per se, so I wanted it to be a little more mature, definitely not a baby doll. After searching the web for a few hours (Pinterest and Google really know how to suck time out of a day!) I found this pattern and tutorial that seemed perfect (click here to see it). With just a few adjustments I customized the doll to look more like my daughter. She seems to really love it!
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| My latest sewing creation - a sock doll for my 9 year old daughter! |
I'm not the worlds best sewer (I don't think that's even a real word), far from it, but I do enjoy breaking out the needle and thread every now and then and making something unique for my family.
That's all I have for you this week. Don't forget to leave me a comment on whether I should do a 30 or 100 day challenge!
I hope your week is good to you and yours. Stay safe and have fun :)
If you'd like to see more of my work or keep up with me day-to-day you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave me a message.
Until next time,
Mandy
If you're interested in commissioning me, click here to be taken to my Contact page to send me an email or message me from my social media links above, I'd be happy to answer any questions :)
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