Week of October 24, 2016: Final Galaxy paintings and a Clipart product!

Hello my friend, and Happy Hallowe'en!!

This past week has been just nuts for me and mine, what with preparing for Hallowe'en, finishing my galaxy series paintings, and my new job! But we made it to the other side without too many casualties so I call that a win. I have a few accomplishments to show you from this week, I made up 3 more galaxy paintings in the Fall/Hallowe'en theme, and I finished setting up my first clipart product and it is now available in my Etsy store!!

Galaxy Paintings:

I finished three more galaxy/nebula paintings which completes the series I think. For each one I tried to push myself and the image just a little more to see where this style could go. Quite a number of the six images received more attention than I expected, the maple leaf especially, so I might have to see about getting them up as products on Etsy. In fact I've already got a buyer for three of the originals (Yay!!)!

A galaxy bat. I really liked the idea of a night creature encompassing the night sky in its body. So cool.

A galaxy maple leaf. This goes more along with the fall theme and I wanted to give this image a more 3D element by adding a shadow. The galaxy/nebula also has a few extra elements. This was a very popular image in my Facebook group!

A galaxy crow. I tried to make this a scary looking crow but that's a bit difficult when you're working in silhouette, and the galaxy/nebula I chose is much larger than previous ones, with a lot more colour. There's so much more going on in this image than in the previous ones.

New Clipart Product on Etsy:

As promised I now have my first clipart product available in my Etsy store! These are the images that you will download instantly upon purchase. Click this link for more details.

Baby elephants clipart set available now in my Etsy store!

While you're in my store feel free to take a look at the few products I have available right now, but also please favourite my shop and share the love!

Coming Up:

This week I have a new challenge: I signed up for a 6 week online course through Newcastle University in Australia titled "Drawing Nature, Science and Culture: Natural History Illustration 101" and it starts this week. I'm very excited to take this course as it will be my first introduction to science illustration. I've done plenty of scientific drawings in my Biology courses but they were for lab purposes, I'm curious to see how different these will be from my experience. And of course I will be sharing what I do with you here and through my social media channels.

I think that's everything I have to share this week. I hope your Hallowe'en is safe and full of fun and laughter!

Until next time,

Mandy

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'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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Week of October 10, 2016: A map, a dog, some fall elements, and new art supplies!

Hello again! I don't know about where you are, but the weather here is downright weird. This past weekend we had every conceivable form of weather aside from snow! Frost first thing in the morning, but mid-afternoon temperatures were in the 20's. It was great for getting some much needed yard work done, right up until the rain hit and hasn't stopped yet. When I bring the girls home from school today (in their rain gear) we'll likely be eating popsicles due to the hot afternoon walk. Not what I expect from October, but we all have to adapt don't we?

How was this past week for you? Any excitement? Did you manage to finally check that one item that's been driving you batty off your to-do list? I have! I finally completed my map for MATS B (pause for cheers and applause)!! I also painted a quick sketch of one my Aunt's chihuahua's, a fall items sketch, and tested out my new pearlescent watercolour palette and sepia Sakura pens!

Map of Kitchener-Waterloo:

My completed map for MATS B

I am so relieved with how this map turned out. If you've been following my posts you'll know just how much I struggled with this assignment. It isn't anything like what I expected it to look like though. I do find it very charming, but I had hoped to create something in a more traditional style. I'm hoping to come back to it at some point to see if I can make it the way I had expected to in the first place, now that it's done I have a better idea of what I could try. One thing Lilla Rogers keeps telling us is to try something new, to break out of our rutts and experiment and I feel I most definitely did that with this project, and for that I am very proud of myself!

Little Chihuahua sketch:

Little Bella, a watercolour and ink sketch.

This is taken from a photo my Mom took of one of three of my Aunt's chihuahua's. She is such a sweet little thing, though she is very protective of her "mom"! When I did the sketch my aim was to keep it loose and light, in part to give the impression of all the energy this little bundle of love has! I think it came across very well. I would like to try to sketch up her brother and sister as well. They will each bring their own challenges because one is completely black with short fur, and the other is tan with long, feathery fur!

Some fall elements:

Fall elements collected during a nature walk.

Last weekend, my husband took the girls out for a nature walk out by the University. They took a bag with them to collect their "treasures" (I have abut twenty horse chestnuts lined up on my hutch right now). I thought it would be fun to go through their collection and sketch up a little spread of elements. I really like the way the covered chestnut and the pinecones turned out here.

New Art Supplies:

A quick fall sketch to test out my new pearlesecnt watercolour palette and sepia Sakura pens.

I had an opportunity this week to purchase some new pens and paints and thought I'd try out this set of pearlescent watercolours! The picture doesn't do the painting justice, the metallic sparkle comes through very well with these paints, though the colours are a bit muted. I love the colours in this set, they perfectly match the more "natural" tones I generally move towards. And the Sakura pens!! I've been wanting to try some sepia pens for inking for a little while now, but what's awesome with this set is that it also comes with a brush-tipped pen!! I'm looking forward to playing with both more in the future. One thing I especially want to try with the pearlescent paints is painting on darker coloured card stock! I've been watching a few videos on Youtube and the results are incredible!

Well, there goes another week! My plans this week are pretty simple, I am going to set up my first clip-art product for my Etsy store, I would like to sketch another one of my Aunt's adorable dogs, and I want to try sketching some ghouls and goblins - I haven't decided if they will be playful or creepy, maybe I'll try one of each!

I hope you have a great week, be happy, and stay safe my friend!

Until next time,

Mandy

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'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 :)

My Experience with MATS B: Scrapbook page

Hi! So how was last week for you? Was it as hot where you are as it was here? It was so hot, thankfully we have air conditioning otherwise I wouldn't have gotten anything done! These past few days we got quite a bit of rain as well, which is good because it was sorely needed. My husband and I also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this weekend! It always amazes me how much time can go by and still feel like only a few days or even years. I am very lucky to have him in my life, he's very supportive of what I do and where I'm trying to go, and he's incredible with the girls!

In work news, I finally completed my scrapbook page for MATS B!! I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have this finished! And not just because it's done, I am also very proud of how it turned out. I think it's my best work for the course to date :)

My Scrapbook page for MATS B

The assignment was to create a scrapbook page of elements in a 12x12 format for a cruise theme. Since Lilla prefers to go the vintage look (and really, who can argue with that? I LOVE vintage) and I enjoy sea life, I decided to combine the two. I also really wanted to include some cute characters and gave my marine creatures some personality and cute faces. I think I managed to stay out of the childish/baby look with a more sophisticated palette of colours, but I do see that it's obviously meant to attract more women than men. I also managed to include some of the lettering that I've been working on this week, since it followed the theme I was working on, and I think the typography matches the feel of the icons and finished piece very nicely.

What was amusing to me was that when I finally got to sit and start putting the elements together, it seemed like it took no time at all. The final piece almost seemed to make itself. That was a very nice feeling too! When you make the elements separately like I did, it can be difficult to know what the final will look like and there's a fear that all your hard work just won't mesh and you'll have to start over, so it going together so smoothly was amazing!

I'm planning on offering it as a downloadable digital scrapbook page on my Etsy shop, what do you think? Is this something you'd use? Since it will be a .png file you could also use the elements to make up cards and whatnot.

Well, that's about it for this week. The girls are enjoying their last week of day camp for the summer so I'm hoping to put some good effort in before it's done. I am going to be taking some time away from my family later in the week to visit family north of here for a few days. It will be nice to get away from being a mom for a little while and recharge the batteries so-to-speak.

I hope this 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 on the Contact Me button at the top to send an email, I'd be happy to answer any questions :)

First week of August and Promo offer!

Hello! Can you believe it's August already? I feel like I've been keeping up momentum and moving forward, so I'm not too upset with how quickly the summer is moving so far. I had a bit of a hiccup this week as far as working was concerned as I came down with a terrible cough. I've gotta say that drawing/painting while coughing is not my recommended way of working so I more-or-less spent the week recovering and spending the little energy I had with my girls.

I do have one announcement to make however, my shop at Society 6 is having a promotion this week only! From today until August 07 receive Free Worldwide Shipping on EVERYTHING + 10% Off All Wall Art in my shop! That includes NEW metal prints, framed prints, canvas prints, tapestries and clocks. Click this link to take advantage of this limited time offer!

A small sample of products available in my shop right now.

For the rest of this week's post I thought I'd include some eye-candy, just a few more examples of drawings/paintings that I've done in the past six months or so. 

I've always been fascinated by bonsai trees. I tried to grow one myself once, with disastrous results. I think this one in ink will do better.

A tulip from my garden and brush lettering, all done in watercolour.

I am a Foody at heart and I love to cook and bake so drawing food and foodstuffs feels natural to me. This slice of lasagna was done in coloured pencil.

I do enjoy painting natural things like flowers. This purple iris was done in watercolour.

Today is a stat holiday so everyone's home enjoying a nice break and each other's company. The girls are at camp for the rest of the week, and I'm feeling a lot better (with a very minor lingering cough), so I'm planning on tackling some more of my to do list for MATS. 

I hope you have a safe and happy first week of August! 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 on the Contact Me button at the top to send an email, I'd be happy to answer any questions :)

My Experience with MATS B: Baby/Children's Apparel

Hello again! How was your week? Mine was busy and exciting, prompting this week to also be busy and exciting! I know that the title of this post is MATS B: Baby/Children's Apparel which is the second assignment in the MATS B course and is a natural continuation of my last post (click here to read that if you missed it) and I will get to that, but first I can't wait to tell you what happened.

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 :)

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).

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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Interested in commissioning me for work? Click on the Contact Me button at the top or connect with me via my social media channels, I'm happy to answer any questions :)