Thinking Spring

Spring is my very favorite time of year. And even though there's still a foot of snow on the ground where I am, it's so great to know it starts tomorrow!

I just added this sweet springtime clip art set to my Etsy shop. You can find it here.

New Shop!

This week I took a leap & opened a little clip art shop on Etsy! So far I have exactly one item for sale -- this Easter set -- but I look forward to adding more in the next few weeks.

You can find me here.

For anyone who is thinking of joining Etsy, I have to say that they make it really easy to get started, and the community is so nice & helpful. And if you already have a shop, let me know!

Trends Workshop

Over the past few weeks, I took a terrific online course: Design Garden's 2015 Trends Workshop. It's an intense class that teaches you how to incorporate current and upcoming trends into your illustration and graphics. This is the second Design Garden class that I've taken. Last year I did the Foundation Vector Hand-Drawn Graphics class, which was also outstanding!

The Trends Workshop was four weeks long, and we created a new piece of work each week (I took the "live" version of the class, but it is also offered now as a self-paced course).

I absolutely loved learning about upcoming trends, how to do background research and work with inspiration boards, and how to combine trends to make them my own.

Here are a couple of examples of pieces I created during the course:

This is my clip art set inspired by the "Chic Modernist" and "Mosaic" trends. I wanted to create images that are quiet & (a little bit) elegant, but still in my style.

And for something a little different, here's what I came up with using the "Cartoon" and "Pop Art" trends. 

As you can see, the class really helped me to experiment & to bring out different sides of my art personality. :) 

Most importantly, the Trends Workshop taught me a totally new way to approach my projects — my head is spinning with new ideas! I loved it & can't recommend it enough!

GTS - Round 2!

The gallery for the next round of the Global Talent Search is up!

This time the assignment was to create an animal character to be used on a young child's t-shirt.

When I was working on mine, I played around with all kinds of animals & lots of different vibes, but in the end I took to heart the advice in the brief to create a t-shirt that I'd like to give to a favorite child. And so, I tried to create the kind of simple, sweet design that I would have chosen for my little nature-loving girl!

You can see all 50 entries — and have a chance to vote for your favorites — here. 

It's so fun to see what everyone came up with. I'm really honored to be among them!

Happy News to Share!

I recently entered Lilla Rogers's Global Talent Search competition, and this week I received the happy news that I made the first round cut!

I felt a little shy about entering the competition (so much that I didn't even tell my family until a few days before the deadline!) But I knew that if I didn't participate, I'd really wish that I had. And I'm so glad I did! I'm grateful for the encouragement, and just thrilled to have a chance to participate in the second round.

The first assignment was to create a terrarium-themed illustration suitable for wall art. Here's mine:

You can see the 50 semi-finalists here, and a gallery of all 999 entries here.

Now back to working on the next assignment!

Assignment Bootcamp: March

This month's bootcamp assignment was to create a fabric design inspired by jelly molds. I wanted to try doing something loose & doodle-y, and this is what I came up with. Food prepared by mice & meerkats? Why not? Yum!

Assignment Bootcamp

I'm taking part in Lilla Rogers's online Assignment Bootcamp, and I wanted to share my first project. For February, we had to design a cuckoo clock-themed cell phone cover.

The bootcamp is a great way to build your portfolio with monthly assignments (and deadlines!), and to be part of a nice community of other illustrators & designers. It's so fun to see all the different interpretations of the theme.

Can't wait to see what's in store for next month!