Week of October 17, 2016: Galaxies and A New Job

Hello my friend, lovely to see you again! I trust that you are reasonably well and that life is at the very least tolerable for you. This past week has been a little harder for me than usual and I expect the next several months to be drastically different than the last year or so. Why? Well, with the Christmas season looming and my sales not being what I need them to be, I decided to take on the extra challenge of a part-time job. There are advantages and disadvantages to this decision and I will talk about that more a little later in the post. As far as my artistic endeavours are concerned, this week I tried something new - I've started painting a series of fall/Hallowe'en silhouette galaxies!

A New Series:

If you've been following me on Instagram or Facebook you will have seen these already, but bear with me and I'll add some more information here. Last week I was challenged to try some Hallowe'en style illustrations, you know, what with it being October and all. I've been hesitant to do anything in this genre because honestly I was having trouble coming up with something unique that fit the theme. I don't do scary or creepy and everything I could think up that was cute just seemed to fall flat. Then I had this idea: I've been wanting to paint nebulas or galaxies in watercolour. I'd seen quite a few of these done in a circle format and thought they were cool. Then I thought, why not make the format a silhouette of a Hallowe'en figure instead, and boom, instant idea!!

So, here's what I've done so far with this idea:

Galaxy Cat. I used a drawing of a black cat and I really wanted the eyes to stand out so
it seemed like the cat was a window into space. As if, when the cat moved, you would see different parts of space.

Witch's Hat. This I felt was a bit more obvious and more of a play on a wizard's hat
which usually has stars and moons on it - this has a whole galaxy!

Galaxy Jack-o-lantern. Usually the eyes and mouth are cut out of a pumpkin to make the
Jack-o-lantern, but here, the whole pumpkin has been cut out to
reveal... space!

These little paintings were a lot of fun to make and I got to use some supplies that I haven't used in a while, like my masking fluid and paints! I have a few more ideas to do this week before I completely quit this theme, but I've really enjoyed making these!

A New Challenge:

Okay, so down to this new job I have. It's actually really cool because I am working at a craft store (craft and art supplies!!!) so there's all the positives of that, plus the extra income which we are in need of this time of year. As well, it will get me out of the house and interacting with people a little more which I admit is one of the downfalls of working from home. The obvious negative is that I will mostly be working when my girls are in school, which is normally when I would be doing my artwork, so naturally there will be less time for that. However, I have wondered if maybe I don't schedule my time as well as I should, and that I might benefit from having a little less freedom to force myself to plan better. Sounds counter-productive doesn't it? I know, but I have read that when you are feeling blocked creatively sometimes it's best to reduce your options, give yourself less to work with, and I've noticed that this really works for me. 

I figured I'd give it a try at the very least. I'm committed to working into January and I will do my best to keep up with my regular sketches and whatnot, but I think it's safe to say that you can expect fewer illustrations in the week for the next several months.

A Production Snag:

This past week one of my goals was to set up a clip art product for sale in my Etsy store. I wanted my first product to be the icons I had made for my MATS B children's apparel assignment which should've just needed some tweaking. Turns out that I had underestimated the amount of work needed to get those icons up to a quality standard of product, plus I hit a snag when I was trying to get them into transparent background png format. So that's what I'll be working on this week as well.

And that's the end of another week for me. I only have a few shifts/week at my new job so far but I admit that training has proven to be harder than I expected. Still, I am determined to meet this challenge with positivity and enthusiasm since I see more benefits than disadvantages in doing it. 

This week I have another challenge in getting my family and house ready for Hallowe'en next week (is it really only next week? wow!) plus my youngest is turning 6 next week and I have another doll I want to make for her! Whew, are you exhausted yet? I think I might be very tired by the end of the week :)

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 :)

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 :)

Week of October 03: Map making, Wild Turkeys, and Abstract Butterflies

Hello! How've you been? Has the week been good to you and yours? For me, this past week has had it's share of ups and downs, nothing too critical, but still... Here in Canada we are celebrating Thanksgiving so there had to be some time spent planning the meal and deciding how we were going to spend our time. This year we had a small celebration planned, with only myself, my hubby and our two girls in attendance - a very intimate gathering! The weather has been a little hectic this week with warmer than normal temperatures. I'm not sure if it was the change in the weather, or some other factor that resulted in my two separate migraines this past week and completely destroying any chance of productive work. Luckily I am not generally prone to migraines, I only seem to get them a few times a year, but they still tend to be a wrench in the gears of my productive day.

I did manage to get a few things moving along. I worked some more on my map, sketched and painting a wild turkey, and started a textural/abstracted butterfly painting!

My Map for MATS B:

Oh this map! I posted what I had completed last week onto a MATS group on Facebook for feedback and got some really good suggestions for improving it. Take a look at it now!

My latest version of the Kitchener-Waterloo map for MATS B. It's coming along!

I think it's coming along nicely. What I want to work on now is some more textural elements in the background and the lettering. Someone suggested that I print out some fonts that I think might work and handletter those to keep the style I've got going on. I found a few tutorials for lettering with text styles that I'd like to try out, they are both from ChrystalElizabeth, one discussing 5 Tips for Brush Lettering, and the other talks abut Three Different Brush Lettering Styles (click the titles to see the posts).

I am not as happy with my progress on this map as I'd like to be. Being ill for two days, plus the extra I needed to put into my family life, put a distinct crimp in my progress. I am very determined to have this completed this week because I have plans for next week that don't involve MATS at all!! I do have one more assignment to finish the course, but I might start that in November.

Wild Turkey Sketch:

We live very near a small forested trail and recently the city put money into naturalizing some of the channel that runs through it. This past year, we've noticed a definite increase in wildlife and wild plants in the area, one of which is a wild turkey that's been seen roaming the neighbourhood. I managed to grab a picture of it on my phone after taking the girls to school one morning and was very excited to sketch and paint it in my sketchbook!

My illustrated wild turkey in pen and watercolour.

It was so much fun to draw and paint! I don't get to sketch many birds and I'd like to do them more often. Hopefully this will be the first of many!!

Watercolour Texture:

Through my Facebook account I frequently get posts from other artist groups or companies, many of whom have free tutorials or information on how to improve your skills. One that I frequently look at is Artists and Illustrators magazine (link goes to their Facebook page), based in the UK. This past week they had a tutorial that inspired me to follow along, it was their Daily Art Challenge: watercolour texture.

My work so far on a textural/abstracted butterfly.

I was in the mood to do something fun and creative and at the time I hadn't had my migraines yet so I knew I had plenty of time to play. This is about as far as I got. I didn't have the recommended japanese tissue paper so I just used what I had available. I don't believe this will take too much more time to complete, but we'll have to wait and see what I have to spare this week. Unfortunately it isn't high on my to-do list and I have to prioritize my time for more critical projects.

Ah the end of another week! I am looking forward to a more productive week and an end to certain projects! It's going to be much cooler here, definitely fall weather, so it's the perfect time to be indoors and working creatively!

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 :)

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 :)