Week of September 26, 2016

Hello my friend, I am happy to see that you made it through another week! It is officially October - where did September go? I don't know about you but I think I could've used at least a few more days before the month ended. This last week of September was more difficult for me than usual. I spent a lot of time struggling with fears and anxiety, a common issue among creatives, or so I've been told. I touched up my logo, was asked to make a logo for another small business, worked on some sketching, and made a huge dent in my map for MATS B! I also did some work enlarging my creative community and learning to grow my business.

Updated logo:

I'd been looking at my logo lately and I realized that I couldn't handle how poorly the image looked from a distance. Even up close the lettering was difficult to read and the pattern of the wreaths were overly distracting. I still adored the colouring and the watercolour background effect, but I needed to make the wreaths fall into the background more and find a way to darken up the letters and make them more visible. Here's the result:

My new logo. I've updated all my social media and stores to this design.

I think this works so much better! Shortly after I posted this on my Facebook page, I got a request from a small business owner to put together her logo too. She makes small (and sometimes large) crocheted dolls and figures and sells them. She already had an avatar that she wanted to stand front and centre, and she wanted her business name in a circle around it in beautiful lettering. This is what I made for her:

Logo I designed for a small hand crochet figure business.

I created the entire thing in Illustrator. She had given me the image of the girl, but I had to draw it out to vectorize and colour it. She also requested that I make an effort to seasonalize it with a Santa hat and bunny ears so that's my next job. So much fun!!

Sketching:

It was a frustrating week for me. Fear and anxiety kept nagging at me and draining my creative energies so I made an effort to keep things fun and light by doing a little sketching to take my mind off things.

Pencil sketch of hair. I can get very zen going into detail like this.

Cute little forest creatures. I had an idea for an illustration that I may still go forward with but I needed some critters first.

I do love to sketch and it frequently takes a backseat with my eagerness to move to the finished piece. Exploring ideas and training the hand and brain are really a lot of fun and frequently quite relaxing, but there's also the guilt of doing something I enjoy instead of something more serious (another typical creative personality trait).

MATS B Map:

With all of the frustration of the week I am quite proud of myself for moving forward with my map! I had a long talk with myself and came to the realization that fear was what was stopping me from moving forward. I've always loved looking at illustrated maps and have been very impressed at what others in my class have been creating, and I had a fear of screwing it up. This was also well outside my comfort zone! I tend to like to illustrate real things, things I can see and touch, in a realistic way. While you can do a map that way, that wasn't what the brief wanted. It specifically said that the map was not to be exact or precise, but a representation of the feel of the location. To me, this meant a much looser style and I struggled with trying to understand how to get my little corner of the world onto paper in this way. 

After my long talk I decided to go ahead with some quick pen sketches of ideas I had had months ago and just see how it went together. This was going to be my first digital piece (because for the life of me I couldn't get it going traditionally). Here's where I left it last week:

My work in progress of a map of Kitchener-Waterloo. 

There's still a fair bit of work to do on it, but I was impressed with how it's looking so far. Enough to keep me working on it this week and get it done!!

Fear and Business Growth:

I've been steadily growing my creative community for the past several weeks by joining several  Facebook groups and following a few more creative business newsletters. At first this was an awesome source of information and support for me, but it didn't take long to be overwhelming. It's wonderful to see all these amazing people and their incredible artwork, and to realize that there are people out there that can help you fulfill your dream of a creative business and creative life, to answer your questions and to help guide you where you want to go. But in a short time I found myself having to quickly skim through images as opposed to reading them thoroughly and commenting to support others. I was finding myself comparing my skill level to others and not measuring up. It can be very difficult, especially at my stage of juggling family priorities with a dream that was late in coming, to not get lost in the ocean of options and lose sight of what I want to do and where I want to go.

So, this week I am going back to limiting my time online (especially Facebook), I still want to be giving support to others and contribute to my community but I will be more selective about how I do that. I am returning to my use of a daily schedule to help me juggle my competing priorities, and I will write out my goal so I can stay on track. I also need to keep in mind how much I've accomplished in the last year. There's always this pressure to be further ahead, to be successful and skilled now regardless of how new you are to the business and I need to remember that I am moving forward every day, that each thing I do is another step up the mountain to achieve my dream.

Well, that's it for this week. If you have any questions about anything I've written today please comment below or contact me via my social media sites and I will be happy to answer them! I hope you have a great week and that you and yours are happy and safe.

Until next week!

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 :)

Week of September 19, 2016 & My Experience with MyMATSPrep (Children's Book Illustration)

Hi again! I can't believe September is almost over already! Summer is done (boo!) and Fall has arrived (yay!). There's a lot about Fall that I enjoy, particularly cuddling up under a warm blanket with a good book and a hot tea :)

Work this past week was a little side-tracked. Lilla Rogers from MakeArtThatSells.com has been promoting her newest class for Children's Book Illustration and this week was offering 5 days of free Matsprep assignments. I think you know me well enough by now to realize that I couldn't possibly turn this down, so I signed up, took a deep breath, tried to let everything go, and let myself go to do my best. I did manage to find some time to work on improving my negative painting skills with a tulip exercise, plus, I followed a design tutorial from Designcuts.com and also created a kids party invitation in Illustrator!

MyMATSPrep:

These assignments are always a challenge and I couldn't wait to dig in! Check it out :)

Day 1: Lilla showed us an old photograph of a young girl she named Minette and asked us to make a character around her. The first page is a study of a style that I would like to adopt, the second is my Minette and who I think she is :)

Day 2: We were asked to look out of our bedroom window and draw what we saw. My bedroom faces the backyard. I think I managed to capture it pretty well :)

Day 3: Because it's a children's book we were asked to redraw our window image but this time flip what we saw, make small things big/big things small, take into account a child's imagination and sense of play.

Day 4: Time to introduce perspective and a sense of distance to the scene.

Day 5: Take our final scene and include little Minette in whatever manner you would expect her to be in it.

I really had a blast making this final image! It was so much fun to put together something that I had thought about for a long time. Because I have two girls, I've often imagined what the yard could look like to a young mind! Plus, I had the chance to draw in a way I've always wanted to, and research and develop a character!


Negative Painting:

I have a passion for negative painting. I love looking at what artist's have created and the complexity of the image is completely different than when you strictly paint in the positive! I've been wanting to practice this style for quite some time now. Several months ago I snagged myself a copy of Roland Roycraft's book "Fill Your Watercolors with Light and Color". I adored looking through the book and was so pleased that it had exercises I could follow, one of which was this beautiful tulips painting:

My negative tulips painting following Roland Roycraft

Children's Party Invitation:

I adore lettering and typography, almost as much as painting, and I never seem to get enough chances to play with them. So when I saw that Designcuts had a tutorial on creating a cute little children's party invitation (with a few freebie graphics!), I knew I had to take the time to try it out! It also gave me the opportunity to flex my Adobe Illustrator muscles. I found a nice card mockup to customize and display it in too :)

My version of Designcuts Children's Party Invitation

So that was my week. It was pretty exhilarating actually! Almost everything I did seemed to be on point, even though none of it was following my intention for the week. I haven't completely figured this week out yet. October is a very busy month at the Wiklund house what with Thanksgiving, Hallowe'en, and a birthday, but I'm sure that's true at your house as well. 

Stay warm, stay safe, hug your family and I hope to talk to you again next week!

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 have any questions or comments feel free to leave me a message.

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 :)

Week of September 12, 2016

Hello again, I'm so happy you're here reading this today! How was your week? Mine was more hectic than I like, and less productive than I'd hoped for. It was my oldest's birthday this past weekend so planning and whatnot did take some of my time (yes I overthink and it gets very distracting!!). I don't have too much to tell you this week. I only managed to add one new product to my Etsy shop, but I also signed up for a character design course that I want to tell you more about, and I'm thinking it might be time for another challenge!

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.

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!

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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Week of September 5, 2016

It's been a very busy couple of weeks in the Wiklund house! We managed to squeeze in a camping trip (our only one for this summer sadly), I fell on a metal fire pit, my husband got a mild case of poison ivy, we suffered a 48 hour flu, and then it was a quick scurry to get the girls ready for school! They are both very excited and very happy in their respective new classes, which as a mother is quite a relief :)

This past week I spent some time creating some products for sale in my Etsy shop! I'm currently focusing on digital products which to me seem like an amazing deal because not only do you get original artwork, you can print it again and again (because you get the file!), you get to choose the quality of the print job based on where you print and what you print it on, and you get it instantly after purchase! Considering the cost, I think it's an amazing deal and I'm so impressed at how many illustrators and designers do this!

Currently I have four products available, but I'm hoping to make many more. Right now I have 3 cards and one print. My plan is to also include my MATS B scrapbook page as a digital file, I just have to figure out how I want to offer it. I'm open to new ideas so if there's something you had hoped would be available but isn't, feel free to send me a message and I'll see what I can do :)

These are images of what's currently available:

The download is of the card only in 4x6 and 5x7 formats, no envelope. Click here to read more.

Download the files to print in 4x6 or 5x7 format. High quality image. Click here to read the details.

Same as the first two, click here to read more about what is offered.

This picture is only to show what could be done with the print of my red stag. Click here for details.

I'm still working on my map for MATS B, but I've decided that where I'm going wrong with it is that it needs people. Figures in both the adult and child sizes (though that may still change). So I'm doing some research on how I would like to represent people in illustration. I've found a few amazing books at the library that I will be studying, as well as Frannerd (she's just an awesome illustrator!) and my previous attempts at illustrating people, which I will likely show as I go along. I have a few examples of my own images that I quite enjoyed and would like to see if I can push them a little further.

Well, I guess that's it for this week. I have a lot going on between learning and setting up product this week so I hope to have a good report for you next week!

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 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 :)

Second week of August

Hello, hello! How is August treating you so far? The last few days here have been very nice, not too hot during the day and just a touch of chill at night. I have a few things to report to you this week, an updated logo and website, my second published illustration, and I applied for a job!!

New Logo!

I've been wanting to make my own logo for some time now. I finally have the skills, the only thing holding me back was all the options available to me. And I've noticed that when it comes to my own projects, deadlines are flexible. I've discovered that a flexible deadline does not make for a very creative output. It turns out, for me at least, that a deadline helps to narrow down the options taking it from "oh, wouldn't it be amazing if I did that?!" to "yes, that would be awesome, but it would take more time than I have, and I'm not 100% sure how to do it right now, so instead let's do this which is also awesome and something I know I can do!". Okay, I realize the second sentence is what I should be thinking anyway but somehow it doesn't work that way, at least not at this stage in my development. I'm hoping that with more hard deadlines I will create a habit of thinking and then meet my own deadlines in the same way.

So what finally prompted me to create a logo? I decided to look for work and I felt that my social media would look more professional with a cohesive look and consistent logo. I also wanted to showcase my skills a little more. If you've been keeping up with me on Facebook or Instagram you will have already seen it, albeit in a small format, so here it is:

MWiklund Studio: Illustration & Design, logo

I really like how it turned out. I love the colours, the watercolour effect background, the illustrated wreath pattern and the hand lettered feel of the text. The only negative I have about it is that it's not the easiest read. Because the background is mid-tone light, it's actually quite difficult to make the lettering stand out without being harsh. I'm happy with this first attempt for now. I'm sure I will come up with a redesign in the future, but for now this works for me.

Lucky 13

You might recall from a previous post (which you can read here) that I was working on an illustration for MAEZA magazines 13th issue. Well that issue is finally out and you can see my work, and the work of many other amazingly talented artists, in all its published glory here. Also, here's the final piece - I'm considering offering it as a print on my Etsy shop, what do you think of that?

My submitted piece for MAEZA issue 13.

Website Updates

I've also done some work on my webpage. I've added a page for my shop information, added an illustration or two, and linked to this blog. I also did some work on my About me page. Click here to take a look. I'd love some feedback on it if you have the time!

My website.

Printable Cat Card

And finally, I want to mention that I have my very first product up on my Etsy shop! It's a printable card with all the design/illustration elements from my Staffordshire-inspired plate assignment for MATS A. I'd love it if you'd take a look and maybe favourite my shop, click here to see it. If you have any thoughts on this card or on any you'd like to see made available, please send me a message, I'd love to hear from you!

My Staffordshire-inspired cat card printable, available in my Etsy shop!

That's it for this week! The girls are home with me this week so work will take a bit of a backseat again. I did manage to get all my icons cut out for my scrapbooking assignment for MATS B, so I'd really like to push through and get that done this week (is this deja vu? I swear I've heard this before!). I also want to get back into my hand lettering practice, I really do miss it.

I hope you have a safe and happy second 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 :)

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 :)