MerryDay Goes to School : Make Art That Sells Bootcamp 2015

I'm going to school again! If you have read this blog long enough (at least since 2013) you may remember that I took an online design course, Make Art That Sells in 2013. The course focused on design, illustration and art business. I learned so much from the class and always thinking about it. (You can read my class experiences on the topic of MerryDay Goes to School in this blog) This year, I decided to take the class again, not the full course but the mini one called MATS Assignment Bootcamp. This Bootcamp focuses on monthly assignments in which the students receive brief of an assignment at the beginning of the month and they have the month to complete it. It is different from the full intensive course as we can work at more relaxed paces but with the same energetic atmosphere in the class group :)

Each assignment starts with the mini which is a topic of drawing and sketching to ease us in the main assignment in the following week. This January's mini is 'Edwardian brooches'. This is quite challenging but when I searched for the keyword in Pinterest, all the gorgeous design just took my breath away. I'm not a jewelry wearer, it just looks too luxurious for me but I love looking at each design closely. Like all forms of art, jewelry design are mostly based on nature, organic shapes and geometric forms. It's fun to look at all the details and try to capture them into drawings. I enjoyed sketching these and felt in love with each design I found on Pinterest. Such beautiful shapes and colors! Can't wait to do the assignment next week :D Below are what I have so far. Sorry for the dark images, I'll do better next time :)

And I also have the topic in today's draw everyday project too. Thank you for coming and please come back as I will have many more art projects to share here.

Have a merry day!

Digital work in progress : make art that sells part B camping theme

It's the first of July already. I remember saying it out loud in my previous post that I would try to finish all the Make Art That Sells class' 5 assignments by the end of June. Sadly, I cannot complete it all but I'm happy to say that I can at least manage to finish all the 5 assignments in the sketching stage. That means I now have all ideas sketched and planned out. I only have to use my time wisely to transform all the pencil sketches into final artworks.

I have started working digitally on week 2 assignment of Make Art That Sells class camping theme today. Above are initial sketches. The assignment is to design an illustration piece that suits baby apparel product. The theme is camping. I love the hand-lettering and going to use it as my main piece. Limited color palette of teal, orange and brown was what I thought at first but then I could add more colors up to 8-10 colors. Working on colors and layout is the hardest part but I'm working on it and absolutely enjoying it. I have to remind myself not to spend too much time on it though. Just can't wait to see the final piece myself :)

Vintage typewriter and camera sketches

Sketches for Make Art That Sells part B week 3 : Scrapbook. Keywords for this assignment are vintage camera and typewriter. I enjoyed drawing both items but a bit nervous as there seems to be a lot of gorgeous work out there in this theme. The challenge is how to create a unique design, something fresh, different and truly represents my style. One way to find out is to just keep working. We'll see soon if I can pull this off :)

The hardest part of working on personal project is that you have to struggle through self-doubt and self-criticism everyday. I have to constantly remind myself that art is really a matter of opinion. You cannot satisfy the whole world anyway. The best I can do is to focus on the process, keep working, practicing and ignoring whatever that may discourage me. Easier said than done... but how else can we do? 

So, keep calm and keep working :D

sweet celebration work in progress and I'm setting my goal!

I'm still working on Make Art That Sells part B class assignments. As I mentioned in the previous posts, week 1 assignment is to design a holiday card with candies and ornaments as keywords. Since I'm working on this on my own (the class already ended last year) and there is no deadline, I decided to do a set of design for each week's topic. I have done a couple of illustrations and this one above is the third. The overall design is not yet completely finished. I need to make the pieces look more cohesive.

My goal for this year is to create a new portfolio website containing works done from this MATS class. It's going to be a big step for me as I determine to improve my overall design work, make it more presentable and professional. My work so far has been mainly book deign. I want to expand my career to illustration field now. So, I think I'm going to have to set a specific timeframe for this whole class assignment. There are 5 weeks assignments and I hope... I think I should use stronger word now... I MUST complete all 5 week assignments by the end of June! And then doing the website will be next.

So there I said it! It's quite scary to say it out loud. I'm not even sure I can make it. Although I don't think people will care much if I'm going to make it or not, making it publicly may help pushing me forward.

My problem right now is thinking too much. There always seems to be something that doesn't look right and I just keep changing and moving things around. I have to constantly remind myself not to spend too much time trying to be perfect. It's never going to happen. Finish this and move on!

Work in progress : candies forest

Work in progress after a week of not working. I had a terrible headache for several days. I realized I'm getting old now, not so young anymore. My body needs good nutrition and regular exercise. Yoga seems to be the best choice but I have neglected it for so long...

Just as I said earlier that this year was going to be the year of being offline. I was not quite so sure that I could be away from Facebook and the internet in general. Now I guess I could make it :D The world seems more peaceful and I could concentrate more on reading and making art.

I think I like myself better :)

This drawing is part of Make Art That Sells part B 2013 homework. It's still in progress and I guess it would be some time before it's all complete. I will write about my design process then :)

MerryDay goes to school is back

MerryDay goes to school is back. If you can remember, I took an e-course called Make Art That Sells last year, both part A and B. I completed part A but couldn't make it for part B due to my work load. Now I have done all my work and been able to carve out time to do homework on my own. The first week's assignment is Holiday Card with Candy and Ornament as keywords. This is what I have so far :)

Blog Parade and the history of MerryDay

Today is Blog Parade day! It's a blog hop project initiated by Linda Tieu. The idea is for us, Make Art That Sells class fellow students, to get together and post on our blogs on the same day. Then we link to each other and kind of parade through all of them.  I get to know more people and you will get to know more wonderful artists too :D

Since, there will be new people coming here, I think it's appropriate to let them and you, my readers, learn more about me and my work. I remember writing the history of my drawings years ago. The post is about my drawing style development.  It was in year 2009 and I ended the post saying that I didn't feel like I found my obvious style yet. Now is 2013, after practicing drawing and learning, I think I have reached what I can call my own style finally. This post is about how I come to be MerryDay today.

My very first collection of MerryDay design.

So, after I wrote the the history of my drawings, I decided to open my Etsy shop a few months later,  in January 2010.  The move is a combination of my cleverness and stupidity. The clever part is that I had thought about opening a shop since 2007 but never got enough confidence to do it. To finally start something even if you were not ready is what I have been grateful for because everything needs a beginning. If I hadn't opened the shop, my art would never have got a chance to be as it is today. The stupid part is that I didn't devote enough time to create new designs and promote them. I sold a few items and decided to put the shop on hold.


MerryDay collection in 2010

But it's always on my mind, I have a feeling that if I really put my heart on it, the shop should work. During the time I spent my time drawing and updating my work process on my facebook page. The page was set up to promote the shop at first but it gains followers by my daily drawings and especially my 365 days I draw project.


This is the 100th drawing of my 365 days I draw project. I have managed to 130 drawings so far. You can look at the whole collection on this flickr set


Having MerryDay Page and doing 365 days I draw are second best things I have done. I got a lot of encouragement from my page followers and I develop ways of thinking and drawing style I really enjoy through 365 days I draw. Then, from that project, I created a new drawing collection, made them into cards and stationery design and opened my etsy shop again.


MerryDay shop reopened in April 2013


My current drawing style. MerryDay Notebook, My Peace. Also available as personalized bookplates

So, this is my MerryDay story. I'm still learning and improving my design and my shop. They say that art style constantly changes as you grow. I don't know how my work will look like next year or years to come but right now I'm enjoying my work and always feeling happy with my order packaging time :D


Thanks for coming. Now that you have learn more about me, you may want to know more and be inspired by new artist?

Just hop over to my friend, Molly blog, won't you? :

Have a merry day!

MerryDay playground journal cover Global Talent Search submission

Here is my journal cover designed for Lilla Rogers studio's Global Talent Search.  I don't usually participate in any design contest that requires a fee to enter. However, as a student of Make Art That Sells class, I was automatically eligible to join in the contest. I didn't expect myself to win from the beginning. This doesn't mean that  I gave up right from the start or I didn't think I was good enough. It's just that, after 5 weeks with Lilla's class reviews, I kind of had a glimpse of what she liked and what she felt so-so and I didn't think my work fell in the first.

Then, why did I still enter? This is because I viewed it as an extra assignment to accomplish (Lilla actually said this to prevent us from getting too tensed with the competition). It's challenging to work on a piece that has a real client, in this case Lilla herself and Paperchase. It would be great if I could get to the next round and if I couldn't, I still had this good piece for my portfolio :)

In this first round, we were assigned to work on a journal cover in the theme of 'playground'.  I started it by sketching things that related to the theme, swing tire, jungle gym, sand box, horse on spring etc. I'd like to add my merry characters in it too and then a whimsical idea of combining the playground theme with tea time bakery just popped in my head. Why tea time bakery?, I'm not sure, maybe because I associated fun in playground with kids and kids like dessert and sweet candies. I always like combining unrelated things together and transform it into new aspect. Just as I did with the tea cup and kettle as the see-saw in playground :)

Then, I tried to think more of bakery/playground theme. So came the candies swing, the strawberry Pocky jungle gym, the donut swing and berries tart sandbox. I really enjoyed working on each elements. I have to admit though that although I said I didn't care if I would win or not, I think when you work very hard, you just can't help hoping. However, at the back of my mind, I still thought that this would not be what Lilla would fancy.

Lilla always emphasized that good artwork had to read well in small size, meaning if you reduce the work into stamp size, the work should still be catching and attractive. This means you need to have strong contrast, great characters and compositions and stunning colors. I tried doing that but just as I said in the previous post, people really see things differently. I thought my journal popped up when reduced small but maybe it's not in other people's view? I don't know. It's really a matter of point of view.

Anyway, I didn't get through to the next round and I'm ok with it. This piece may not be the best ( I think there's still something that can be improved) but it is good enough and the most important thing is that I really enjoyed doing it and really happy to receive good feedbacks when I shared it in the class group. Besides, I already have a ton of ideas to make stationery items based on this design for my MerryDay shop. It's not a waste of time at all :)

So, this post is officially the end of Make Art That Sells class part A. I'm moving on to another e-course posts. This one is more relaxing and more play. The class is Painted Pages workshop.

You think I'm crazy girl addicted to taking e-courses? Yes, I think I am :) I have just realized recently that while I am learning new things from the classes, I'm also exploring my inner self spiritually too. I'm not sure if I will be able to express myself properly but I think it's an interesting and exciting topic to blog about. Let's see what I will have for the next posts.

Thanks for joining in my creative journey. It will never end and I hope you enjoy it along the way :)

Have a merry day :D

MerryDay Goes to School : what I think about Make Art That Sells Class (part 2)

Continuing from the previous post about what I think about Make Art That Sells Class, the big question I got from the beginning of the class is :

Do I think the class worth the money?

I have always had positive thoughts for e-classes both before and after class. My rule in life is that you have to accept the result of your own decisions. If the result is good, you are right and lucky. If it's not, it's not worth the time to fuss about what already passed. Learn the lessons and move on, that's what I always tell myself. Like I said in the previous post : Life is getting shorter :)

So, I already thought the class worth the money right from the beginning. Then while the class was progressing I was more confirmed. There are two majors points for this confirmation :

• The class REALLY brought me to focus on my dream path. 
Sometimes you know what your dream is but you just don't know exactly how you will reach your dream. I feel that this class sets practical guidelines for me. Each week we had a specific topic and we started the week with 'mini-exercise' on Monday, which was to draw/paint/experiment anything relating to the topic. Then we set out to do the week's assignment on Wednesday and the deadline for the work would be on Sunday.

One of my friends said that anyone could tell you to draw a lot and set your own guidelines but I think it's not just that. I agree that I can come up with my own commitment to draw everyday and to complete an artwork a week but the hardest part is 'to do it successfully'. This commitment needs to be in an inspiring environment. This leads to my other major point, the student group.

• Being among those who have the same passion really helps you grow in creative journey.
Being a freelancer, I have always worked by myself. My best friend to consult about design or technical issues was the internet and going through creative blocks or depression alone was not really fun. So, I'm so glad to find that fellow students in this class are so generous and supportive. We went through 5 weeks of tough assignments, anxiety and creative blocks together so it's like there's a bond among us, which I think it's hard to find in this virtual world.  Even when the class ended, we are still connecting, sharing and growing into some other sub-topic groups. I realized that this kind of connection is something I have been looking for and now I find it and it becomes one of the reason why I think this class, which brings us together, worth the money :)

There's also one important point for those who are considering taking the next session of this class : we didn't get one-on-one feedback from Lilla in this class. Due to the large amount of students in the class, each week Lilla would pick only15-20 art pieces to review. This is a major point discussed among those who were in class and those who were not. Some of the students are still a bit upset with not getting personal feedbacks and some who are interested in taking the class are hesitating.

As for me, I thought the class would have limited seats and it surprised me a bit that they kept promoting the course even when there were already a lot of students. I didn't expect to have personal feedbacks from Lilla though. I may think differently from others. I just think that getting feedbacks from one person doesn't really help you grow much, especially if that person doesn't have the same taste with you. Even if she or he has the same taste or same style, it's likely that you will become attached to that person and the attempt to please her or him will have a chance to ruin your own style.

I said this from my personal experience. I admired some teachers in my college time and it took me some years of struggling to realize that I was all wrong. The best way to improve your works is to listen to your own like and dislike plus feedbacks from other people, a lot of people, not just one person. Art is a matter of taste. You cannot satisfy the whole world as people really think and see things differently.

That's why I say that being in the student group with different points of view is really worthwhile :)

I think this is all my thought about Make Art That Sells class. In all, taking this class is one of my best decisions and I'm looking forward to learn more in part B which will start this October :)

There's one more thing relating to this course. I participated in Lilla's Global Search Talent. I didn't get in the next round but maybe you still will be interested to see my design?

I will write about it soon. Thanks for coming. Hope this post is helpful for someone.
Have a merry day :D

MerryDay Goes to School : worries, distractions and what I think about Make Art That Sells Class

Life always has unforeseen interruptions. Last week I was very excited with my carefully laid-out plan for my future business. This week I spend all of my time at hospital taking care of my parents who get sick at the same time. It scares me a bit. It's inevitable fact that old age comes with sickness. My parents are quite old right now and I am already in thirty-something. A woman who decides to go back to the very first stage of building up her new career path, which will take years to accomplish. Life's getting shorter everyday and I wonder if I can make it happen at the end...

But that's only one of million things in life that I'm worried about. I'm glad that I have aged and learned enough to know you should not add worries to worries.

I have just read Noreen's post of Winston Churchill - 6 Things to Do. The very first is "Focus on what you are doing right now." and someone commented on this post with "80% of what we worry about doesn't come true."---Two statements that I need to focus :)

So, enough with my worries and distractions, I'm coming back to focus on my illustration and design work skill now.

Above is a compilation of all my assignment done in Make Art That Sells class (Click to see the larger image here). Things haven't changes in term of design and style but I think there's a lot of improvement in details and background, which I used to consider as my drawback. I generally drew my subject in kind of stand alone format---no background and not a lot of details and sometimes didn't even have a story. So doing more details and building stories and backgrounds is what I intended to improve from the very first week of the class.

This comes to my main topic for this post : what do I think about Make Art That Sells class?  It's the question I have been asked often. To answer it properly, let me start with the question of "What did I expect from this class?" first.

Before starting this class, I expected that :

• I would learn more about art business in general.

• I would learn about how to use my art in different products.

• I would get to know more people (and get people know more about me).

• I would improve my skill in illustration and design (doing more details, backgrounds and stories)

Then when the class finished, I found that :

• I think I learn more of art business, not in specific details but I have a glimpse of what art business is like and how I can learn more about it.

• I definitely learn more about how to use my art in different products and markets. Lilla had planed this course neatly by categorizing each week into different markets and she did wonderful job in giving us details of how each market worked, how to get your work into that kind of market (although this requires personal talent and hard work too) and there were tons of beautiful art samples to keep us excited and inspired.

• I'm not sure if fellow students know more about me but I certainly get to know more people and being with those who are also in creative journey really helps me focus and stay on my track. I have to say that the class student group is the best supportive art community and I am glad I'm a part of it :)

• I think my skill in design and illustration has been improved, not technically but in term of thinking and implementing more details which is exactly what I want to improve.

This post is getting long now. I think I'm going to break it into 2 posts. The next post will be about the big question "do I think this class worth the money?"

Thanks for coming. Have a merry day :)

MerryDay Goes to School : Gift (pouch design)

Two more posts plus an extra one about Make Art That Sells Class. I wish I could be more disciplined in both writing and reading other lovely blogs. But here I am trying as best I can...

Make Art That Sells class's last week is about Gift. Everyone in the class has his or her own favorite topic they had expected to learn more. Most of them including me said it's children book week we eagerly waited. It was a fun and challenging week but after class ended, I found that the Gift week is related to what I have always wanted to do most.

My MerryDay on etsy is focusing on stationery design and illustration items which can be produced at home by myself as I want to start it small first. But I have always imagined it in my head that, in the future, I would have a range of various kind of products--coffee mugs, tote bags,  pouches... anything in gift shops.  This class helps direct me to focus on what to do to reach that goal :)

We had done pattern, plate design, children's book, wall art and in this Gift week, we got to do a pouch.  As usual, we started with a mini exercise first : to gather things you love to collect.

Most students had large collections of various kinds of things, buttons, miniature dolls, stones, stamps etc. As for me, I don't collect anything seriously except children's picture books which I have started collecting recently. I have also just moved from my parent's big house to live with my husband in a small apartment. So, I had really limited collection here.







The reason Lilla wanted us to collect things as much as possible was that we had to do a hyper-lush pouch for the main assignment.  I heard the word hyper-lush for the first time but it didn't take me long to picture how the pouch would be with such style as Lilla had tons of examples to show us.  If you wonder what exactly is the 'hyper-lush' style, you can get a general idea from these google images.

Basically, the style involves around vivid colors, a lot of large and small flowers or photo objects overlapped or crammed in. This was quite a challenge for me as I usually work in simple graphic style and when there's too much going on I tend to lose my grip on overall design. Lilla said we didn't need to do the hyper-lush, she just showed us the current trend in fashion which could be done in gift product line too. I was quite sure that I couldn't do it but it never hurt to try :) So I started by sketching things from my little collection.



I tried doing photo collage and failed so I went back to something I was more familiar with, digital illustration. I still want to have a look of the hyper-lush with my own illustration style and here is my initial pencil sketch of the pouch.


I found that it was much easier to do the digital work when I had the pencil sketch. The sketch was quite complete and I could imagine how it would turn out so I didn't have problem to visualize it into this digital form.



Before I started this drawing, the idea of this color palette, mint, magenta and taupe, suddenly came to me when I saw a mini-cooper car in cute mint color drove pass me one day and I thought 'oh, I'm going to have a mint pouch!' and magenta and taupe sort of come along after that. You have to love the moment when inspiring things happen while you are doing something else :)

Above is the hyper-lush pouch in my style. I tried imagining this design in various kind of products and it's very exciting to see that there are so many possibilities from only one theme, one design!

So, this is the end of the Make Art That Sells class part A. I'm going to join in part B this October. I still feel the energy and inspirations going on in me and I think I have more focus on my goal too. I will wrap it up about how I feel and what I have learned from this class in the next post.

Thanks for coming and have a merry day :D

MerryDay Goes to School week 4 : wall art assignment

So, Make Art That Sells class has already ended but the energy of the students in the class is still going. We are talking about how far we have developed in just only 5 weeks. But to complete my record of this class experience, I need to talk about week 4 and week 5 homework first :)

For week 4, we learned about wall art market. As usual, Lilla introduced us to beautiful wall art in the market. She emphasized that as this kind of art would be hung in someone's place for a very long time, the piece would have to be charming and refreshing enough so that you wouldn't get bored too easily. It should be something that you can find new things or feel refreshed whenever you look at it. Colors are key and we started this week assignment with a lovely mini exercise : to find items based on colors of our astrological signs.  My sign is cancer and pink and yellow are my favorite. I was so glad to have this duo as they are colors that I always relate to my MerryDay. Happy and merry colors :D



In each week, Lilla always encouraged us to go beyond our familiar boundary. To try new things, new techniques, look at things with fresh eyes. If I normally work digitally, this is a chance to try traditional medium and I did. :)



The main assignment is to create a collage-style wall art for a shop like Anthropologie.com or UrbanOutfitters.com. The piece should have floral elements, either as a focal point or just tiny details. I haven't done collage and complete canvas painting since college time, felt a little nervous at first but decided to dive in anyway. Knowing that acrylic paint could be painted over, I felt more at ease and actually painted white over the first layout that I didn't like and started all over again :P



Then it came the part of collage, gluing things on surface. This was very difficult as I was so used to hitting delete or command +Z  buttons. I really just didn't know what and where I should put on the piece. I ended up pasting only a few scraps of wrapping paper and cutting shapes from coffee filter paper. I really liked the subtle texture and color of this filter paper (the light brown flower pod shapes below) although it absorbed too much ink and you couldn't draw a lot of details on it but it's really a nice touch :)



I really liked the details on the big flower pod but when I tried hanging it up on the wall, it just lost it own charm. The details got lost and there's nothing popping up to you when viewed from afar.



So, as mush as I loved what I did on the flower pod, I decided to cover it with bright yellow paint. The solid yellow shapes helped, I think, make the overall image look better. Now it had a strong focal point and here is my final painting.


To be honest, I don't think this painting suits Anthropologie or UrbanOutfitters. I believe they want to see something with more exciting elements. Something with strong visual contrast? But I do think this is for my own MerryDay shop and the fact that I tried to do something I was not comfortable with at first makes me proud. After all, in this class, the process of working and learning along the way is much more important than the end results. :)



I had so much fun painting acrylic that I did another design. This time, it looked more like me and MerryDay.  I did the rough sketch above and then painted the final on watercolor paper below. I think I love this design better and began to think of incorporating acrylic painting with digital drawing and maybe a bit of collage. There are so many things to learn and the idea makes me excited and eager to experiment. Who knows It can be a great step that leads me to even more unique style of mine :D




You have to love this inspiring moment. I haven't reached my goal yet but it feels like it when I know which way I will go :)

Thanks for coming. I will talk about week 5 assignment and my thoughts after class very soon.

Have a merry day!

MATS week 5 sneak peek

A bit busy this week and it's the final week of Make Art That Sells class. I'm going to post about my week 4 and week 5 assignments here next week. And the cute things in picture above are sneak peek of what I'm working on right now ;)

Thanks for coming and have a merry day :D

MerryDay Goes to School Week 3 assignment : children's book illustration

So we have come to week 3 of Make Art That Sells class already! There are 5 weeks altogether and everybody began to say how much they would miss this class after the school ended and already talked about doing our own weekly assignments after that which I would definitely be in! :D The class weekly schedule (mini exercise on Monday, main assignment on Wednesday and deadline by Sunday) is really effective and it would be a good strategy to succeed whatever we dream of if we can make it into a habit :)

In week 3 we focused on the most anticipating turn-out-to-be-so-tough subject, children's book illustration. I love beautiful books and have been collecting children's picture books for some years already. I actually have a facebook page sharing lovely books I collect. So this topic really excited me.

The lesson began with introduction to children's book market. The main focus was on characters realization. A picture book wouldn't be attractive to readers if it lacked charming characters. Here came the mini exercise on Monday. I had expected to have some kind of animal-drawing practice but never thought of drawing snails. It really surprised me (and other students). But snails we drew and a lot!



It's interesting that all the snails we drew were in cuteness direction. We actually had a hint of what would be the main assignment with Monday's other mini exercise, to do hand lettering of 'The Snail and the Rose Tree'. Still, I was a bit stunned when I read the story of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snail and the Rose Tree. The main assignment was to design and illustrate a book cover or inside spread of the story.

I was stunned as the story was quite gloomy and seemed too philosophical to understand at my first read. It took me a deep breath then rereading to actually grab the sense of the whole story. The whole cuteness of snail was changed into grumpy and moody one. Luckily, we were allowed to do whatever we interpreted. So I focused on the rose tree's happiness instead.



I said this turned out to be so tough as I had never illustrated a complete illustration with settings, characters, background details before. I got stuck with the tree sketch and just didn't know how to go from there. At the time, other students already started sharing their works in progress and they really intimidated me. I spent a night agitated with my single sketch but luckily I woke up the next morning with fresh energy and was able to continue on my own work :D

I remember once I talked with my friend who had already been a children's book illustrator that I would want to practice drawing more of background details. So I took this opportunity to draw as much as details as I could. Click on the first image above to see the details on flickr.

This assignment is very challenging for me as although I did a lot of book covers, I never did inside spread of children's book before. It's very hard to tell the story and draw little details. I think you can tell how proud I am when I can finally complete it :)



What I have learned from this week's assignment :

• Don't compare your work with other's. This is a general rule in artists' lives. We know we shouldn't but sometimes we just can't help ourselves comparing. Just admit to yourself that it's natural and go on with your work.

• Be persistent. I thought the tree sketch would never work but deep in my mind I felt that it could. So I persisted. I realized after that that it's just a matter of adding and tweaking things around. You just have to have some endurance working extra hours :)



I think my moody snail and the overall spread could have been developed more if I had more time. But for now, it's good enough and I'm really happy about it :)

That's the end of my week 3. This week, week 4, is about Wall Art. We get to do abstract art which I have never done before. Excited already! :D

Thank you for coming. I hope my class progress could inspire you in some ways. Have a merry day :)

MerryDay Goes to School : Week 2 assignment homedecor plate design

I intended to post my initial sketches for Make Art That Sells class' week 2 assignment first then write another full post for the final artwork. But I just got so involved with all the process that I decided to give it all my energy and blog about it later, which is now :).

I think I could say that last week's exercise is something like an eye opener to me. I did a lot of things I never pushed myself to do in the past. It's a lot of hard work and I felt so exhausted but relieved when I finally finished it.

In week 2 we learned about home decor. Lilla showed us lots of beautiful products and talked about why they were successful in the market. There were many items I never saw before and the idea of my artwork might have a chance to be produced just like those lovely items really excited me. I know though that that possibility depends on various factors, which some I cannot control like timing, competition, people's taste, the market etc. But I do believe in what Lilla always says in the class that you have to work hard, draw, draw and draw, keep improving your skill. I know from my past experience that it's the only thing that works.

For week 2 homework, we had to do plate design for home decor. We started with mini exercise of flower sketching. A simple and general subject we tend to draw first when have a pencil in our hands. This time we really looked into details and studied tiny lines, shapes and colors. I did several pages in pencil. This is one of them.



Then to follow Lilla's instruction of using different medium and go beyond our comfort zone, I tried  to push myself doing sketches in wet paint like acrylic here.



I was not really comfortable with this paint at first. It was so hard for me to mix colors and have different shades other than the ones that already in the tubes. That's why you can see only red blue green here. I posted this photo in the class' facebook group and got a lot of encouragement to keep trying. So I did. This time I added water color paint.

I had no idea about painting techniques and decided not to care about that and just went with the flow. With computer turned off, no internet connection, no facebook, I really focused on my sketches and became more at ease and actually enjoyed my sketching :D



I did pages of water color and some of Copic markers. What attracted me most was the blue plant group in picture above (the left side). I really liked its colors and shapes and started to visualize in my head what my plate would look like.

Since I'm not so good at painting traditional medium, I went back to my comfort zone, digital drawing. I drew in Illustrator but made it different than usual by adding some effects to make it look like hand drawn and painted. In picture above, the left design is my first version (you can look at the details by clicking at the photo). You can see that each flower (and plant) stays so close to each other and the group looks uncomfortable sitting on left side of the plate. So I spread them out, gave each flower some air and worked with different border. The idea was to make it lighter and more airy.



Then I added some story with my little bunny admiring flower. I really loved the blue plant and it took some time to adjust the bunny's color to go with the blue. The bunny was supposed to be a bit sneaky while not too lost in the crowd of flowers, a very difficult part.



Final adding,  the bird and the dragonfly and a bit of decorating on border (See the first image).



The final artwork is not really what I expect at first. I thought I would do something in more graphic style and maybe more modern? The overall look of this final design is more traditional to me, with everything in border. No quirky elements as I wanted to do. But I love it anyway. I feel it has gone through a lot of well-thought steps that I pushed myself to do. I would have gone with the first cluttered design with no bunny, bird and dragonfly as I began to get tired after long hours of drawing. But the facebook group really pushed me forward. The students there were so full of energy and did a lot of wonderful designs. I looked at my work and thought that it could be improved more so I added more hours of working and it turned out to be what I'm so proud of here :)

What I have learned from this class so far :

• Hand drawn and painted in sketching is a very important step.  You will get a better sense of lines and colors than doing it digitally.

• Work on details a lot. tiny lines and shapes really add charm on final artwork :)

• Try to add some story, animals, settings, moods etc. Think about it as picture book.

• Don't give up just because you are tired. If still have time, take some rest, do something else, come back with fresh eyes, new ideas may come :)

That's it! Week 2 has ended and I'm starting week 3 now with the topic of children's book. Most exciting! :D

Thanks for coming. It's a long post but I hope you enjoy my process and have a merry day!