Make Art That Sells- Illustration Project 2

So, I have finished the next illustration for the Make Art That Sells online course that I signed up for. We were to design & illustrate some plates for the Home Decor component of the course using Staffordshire Pottery as our inspiration. I'm doing MATS A, which has five components: creating illustrations for bolt fabric, home decor, children's books, wall art & the gift market.

You can check out the first illustration I did for the Bolt Fabric component here. I also have a lot of thoughts regarding the course in the first post, which all still ring true for me. I'm finding it invaluable.

Painting one of the illustrations

I am learning so much with each component and trying to push my art skills further and further with each part of the course. Always, always more to learn and improve.

So, we had to research Staffordshire Pottery, and I was really excited to discover these ceramics. I love their naive quirky style, and I was especially taken by the leopard and lion pieces.

I can see why Lilla Rogers chose Stafforshire Pottery as inspiration for the project. They are just so inspiring. Well, to me anyway! How adorable are they!? You need quite a few pretty pennies to actually own some Staffordshire Pottery though.

I love the look on this leopard's face (image credit)

This reminds me of the dog we had when I was a child. Love all the flowing 'fur' (image credit)

I really dig the naive quality of this piece (image credit)

Some of my sketches, studies, roughs and paintings

My lion plate evolved. I sort of forgot that I needed to put a border on him so I ended up shrinking him in photoshop on the plate and painting a border separately and combining the two digitally. What would we do without technology? I love photoshop!

I used photoshop to overlay my illustrations onto a blank plate that I painted up myself, which you can see in the above photo. I then made another layer in photoshop where I made highlights to overlay on top to give the plate it's characteristic shine. 

I also wanted that opulent gilded look so made a layer where I added in some gold highlights.

The leopard plate

The lion plate

My finished submitted file for the Home Decor component

So I'm all done with this part of the course! Next up is the Children's Book Illustration market. We are to illustrate a page spread or a cover for a fairy tale called "The White Cat". As always, I'm very much looking forward to getting started with it!

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- surface pattern design

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- wall art illustration

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- children's picture book illustration

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- gift market assignment (coming soon)

Jules :)