Make At That Sells: Children's Picture Book Illustration

So, I have finished the children's book illustration part of the Make Art That Sells course that I am taking. I have one assignment to go. I'm doing MATS A which has five illustration components: bolt fabric, home decor, children's books, wall art & the gift market. You can find some links at the bottom of this post for the illustrations I've done for this course.

So, on to the children's book illustration part! We were given a story to illustrate called "The White Cat".  We could illustrate the cover, or an internal page spread. I chose the latter. It was an old story (I'm guessing it was old) and was quirky in the way that older fairy tales usually are. The cat is a princess under a spell, and that prince there is riding a wooden horse (the horse is also under a spell). 

This particular part of the story where the prince was riding a wooden horse and the cat a monkey appealed to my love-for-the-strange. As my kids say "you love weird, don't you Mum?" Yes, poppets, I do :)

My favourite part of the illustration is the cat riding the monkey. Here's the rough pencil drawing for that part..

The next picture is from when I was about halfway through drawing & painting the illustration. I used coloured pencils, and acrylic paint with medium. You can see here my enlarged rough that has been taped together. I like to enlarge my roughs on computer to the size I want to paint the illustration, then print it out in sections and piece it all together. That way I can work as large as I want.

I put variations of colour into the tree & the monkey. And because the story seemed vintage-y to me, I wanted the colours to have a vintage children's book feel to them. I think I was channelling a picture book from my past with this. Not that the illustrations are similar at all, but I remember the feel I used to get when reading that particular book and I think I was trying to capture that.

Detail

I'm really enjoying the MATS class and I only have one more assignment to go! I'm learning a lot, and growing and expanding with each new assignment. I love checking out all of the other students' work in the class galleries, and the tips and advice sprinkled throughout the course. 

If I had the time I'd just sit around doing online courses! 

You can check out my other illustration projects for MATS A here:

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- home decor illustration

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- surface pattern design

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- wall art illustration

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

Jules :)

Make Art That Sells- Wall Art

This illustration for the MATS A course I am taking jumped the queue! The next one in line was the Children's Book component (I'm 3/4 the way through so I will be posting that very soon), but this one is in the running to be reviewed live by Lilla Rogers in a week or so and so I completed it first. It would be so awesome to be chosen for a live review in the class. Even if I don't get chosen I will be super happy for anyone that does and will enjoy watching it. (The live reviews are only visible by class members.)

This piece was for the Wall Art category. I had a colour palette allocated to me, which was pink & blue. I had no fear there, I love all colours so it really wouldn't have mattered what colours I got!

I started by collecting some bits and pieces as this was to be done as a mixed media piece. I found a cool website called The Graphics Fairy where you can download images to use in art as they are copyright free. I also created some bits to use like the little painted circles there, and raided my crafty stash.

I started by doing a collage and then just adding more and more elements. I used paint, stencils, stamping (the bird is a hand made stamp made by me), a variety of papers, and paint pens.

Once I had covered the whole panel I added the words "just be you", and started drawing in the lady. I started by drawing her straight onto the board, but then decided I would have more confidence with drawing her shape if I did it on a large piece of paper first and then transferred it on.

I started drawing and painting in the bunch of flowers too.

Once drawn I positioned the image and could transfer it onto the panel. Much easier!

I then collaged some more elements on top of the painting; little tiles and buttons, those painted circles, and some doilies that were in my studio for another project I'm working on.

I had a lot of fun on this one. I loved using the doilies in the illustration. 

My aim was to create something uplifting that someone would love to hang on their wall.

You can check out the other illustration projects for MATS A here:

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- home decor illustration

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- surface pattern design

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

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

Jules :)

Creative Life Round Up

This post is one of those bits-n-pieces blog posts. Here's me and my girls before a recent outing :)

Did you know it took about 30 photos to get a decent one!? Kids! They get a camera lens in front of them and they go silly.

My girls made me some flowers for Mother's Day this year.. I'm happy they won't be dying any time soon!

Something I'm working on at the moment (one of the many hundreds of things) is a mixed media painting for the MATS online illustration class I'm taking. (Read about my journey so far here.) The first task was that I had to gather some bits and pieces before I started the artwork. 

As it happens, my eldest is currently doing mixed media art in her art enrichment program at school (a program where kids showing talent get to do extra specialised art classes- she's so excited she got to go!). She had a sick day last week and we did mixed media art together in the studio. I have to be careful not to make sick days too much fun! (The iPad is definitely off limits.)

Her work so far. This is a background she made and she wants to draw and paint a portrait of me over the top. 

Now for some creativity in the kitchen. Last week one of the mornings I was up super early making seed balls (my own recipe), banana bread breakfast muffins, peeling a pomegranate, popping out our homemade fruit juice gummy lollies and picking oranges from the backyard. And incase all that makes you feel guilty, that is definitely not a standard morning. I do try to get up earlier usually to squeeze in an extra hour or so tasks before the kids rise, but many days I keep hitting that snooze button until the very last minute!

These seed balls I made up was from frustration of never having the ingredients for particular bliss ball recipes. This one is totally customisable to what I have in the pantry, and is nut free so school safe. And yummy :) I just have to be careful not to snack on them all day.

I hope you enjoyed that round up. I'll be back soon with more fun stuff for you.

Jules :)

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 :)

Bits n Pieces ~ What I'm Working on ~ Ramblings

Hello!

Just thought I'd check in and do a bit of a round up if you will of what's happening in my illustration/ art/ creative world.

Yesterday saw me get a bit overwhelmed with all that I have to do (the Mr has been away for work a lot and I am on a healing diet which requires lots of cooking; add that to just looking after kids, housework, illustration work, a market coming up, plus all the other things I want to do...)

We can't do it all, can we? I have around 7000  photos on my computer that I haven't done anything with. And when I get in these states of overwhelm I think about ALL the stuff I want to get done. The weeding, gardening, the mending pile... Why!? Why do I think of it all at the same time!? And why if I take a break (such as going out for coffee with friends) then my mental state comes out of that overwhelm? I think in reality it's more about my state of mind than the circumstances, so I'm trying to be aware of this and be more in control of my mental state. Sometimes when we hit overwhelm it may mean we just need to mix things up and do something different or take a break. Who else gets overwhelmed like me?

My couch upstairs, a.k.a. the messy craft shrine 

Something that does make me feel good though, is just picking up a project and making some progress with it. Then all the happiness of creating comes back and I feel motivation to create again regardless of the fact I have like a zillion unfinished projects lying all over the house :) It doesn't really matter, does it, in the big scheme of things? 

I have nearly finished that small rug hooking project, so that's a win!

Something I did finish recently is this modern acrylic painting. It's on a small 8x8" canvas and I am loving the contrast and colour palette in this original painting. I listed it in the shop here.

I also got around to listing this one too. It's a small acrylic painting on a handmade plaster panel. I really do love the texture of painted plaster. Also now in the shop.

I'm also working on the third component of the MATS A illustration course I am taking. It's the Children's Book Illustration component and I'm very happy to get started. I will post about my second round soon. But for now I am playing around with some cat character designs. Very fun.

In the home decorating arena I am researching and gathering inspiration on what on earth to do with our stairs. (Pinterest is a godsend!) We have lived in this house for 6+ years and our stairs are unfinished. They are the first thing you see when you open our front door! They are on our list of things to complete for our latest ongoing home project. The Mr and I are constantly arguing about what to do for the stairs. (!) I'm thinking a runner but every time I go to research runners the only good ones I find are all from shops overseas. Waaaahh! Talk about first world problems. But if someone knows of where I can find a moderny-boho-colourful rug runner here in Oz I'd be very grateful. But in the meantime I will shed tears again over not having Anthropologie here in Australia. Yes, totally first world problems. I am aware.

Maybe I should paint the stairs...!?

This week I am working on some illustrations for a children's dictionary, and also finalising my next two tutorials which are coming up soon. Easter themed!

But today is a public holiday so I will float around the house, maybe create a bit here and there, eat, cook, drink numerous cups of tea, and watch the kids play in the sun. Getting prepped and reenergised for another busy week ahead...

See you soon.

Jules :)

Make Art That Sells: Illustration Project 1

Hello :)

So, I dove in and decided to enrol in an illustration Make Art That Sells e- course. I chose MATS A, which has five components: creating illustrations for bolt fabric, home decor, children's books, wall art & the gift market.

Illustration projects require much tea :)

I have completed the first project, which was bolt fabric: designing a pattern that could be used on fabric, with a couple of coordinates.

The theme was Pasta & Pyrex.

I think that pushing myself to create something I wouldn't normally create is a good thing. The last thing on my mind was drawing pasta and pyrex bowls. But I learned about the pasta shapes, by studying their twists and shadows; and the style of the bowls were fun to look at and let that retro style sink in then try to create my own retro design elements.

Preliminary sketches & art on my desk

I have found the course immensely helpful so far. There is always something more to learn, skills can always be improved on. I intend to work at my craft (illustrating) to make it better & better, and this class is perfect for that. I get so excited about learning, whether it's some sort of craft technique, or a tip on how to work more productively. And the MATS class is sprinkled throughout with some life tips that help us be better illustrators & artists.

There is so much jam packed into the class, such as galleries of past work, reviews on students work, interviews and industry insider tips. I find the content varies so much and that keeps me motivated as it feels fresh when you're always focussing on something new.

My finished illustration for the bolt fabric assignment

Next up is home decor which I am mega excited about and we are illustrating some images that could be used on ceramic plates, using Staffordshire Pottery as inspiration. Here is a study/ sketch I have done to start this component. I am now working on the roughs and then I will dive into creating the final illustrations. Stay tuned!

Make Art That Sells Illustration Course- home decor illustration

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 :)