Junebugging Out

Life has been an intense ride lately. At the end of May, an old friend passed away after a disturbingly brief battle with pancreatic cancer. As death will do, it's both made me morose and horrified, and made me determined to live life. While I have absorbed the loss of a friend my age to cancer, he was 38 like me, I've made it a point to tune in, fight the stresses of life while maintaining patience, clarity and a positive outlook. As a single mother who is raising my son while working a freelance career, stress is like one of my daily meals; it just is there all the time.

I have high hopes that my career will grow, that I'll find new projects to devote my time and energy to, and that my creative process will continue to build. I've enjoyed thoroughly the courses I've taken so far this year, they're rigorous and very inspiring, and I've found myself challenged and excited. I suck at business. I rock at my work. I have to learn business, and I've come to terms with the reality that I do suck at pricing my work / marketing myself / sourcing clients. It's a recipe for failure. I certainly do not want to fail. I've been a freelancer since my son was born (2011), and am amazed I've made it this long. So my goal for the rest of 2015 is to continue to build my creative collections, to kick ass in the two courses I have yet to take this year and the freelance work I have, and to continue to spend focused time with my son - not dwelling on whether this client will go elsewhere or that project will wrap up and nothing will be on my plate.

Here is a fabric pattern design and illustration I have for sale in my Spoonflower store:

A New Passion

Whew! The month of April, 2015 was a big one for me - busiest month in recent memory, favorite project yet in Lilla Roger's Bootcamp that I am now halfway through, and changes at every turn. It's been an exhausting few weeks, but an incredible month for growth and inspiration! And I feel a new passion growing - Lettering! I first tried my hand at lettering in one of the MATS-A assignments, which was a children's book cover (shared a couple posts back), but this most recent assignment was a large (20"x30") poster design with lettering and illustration. Honestly? I could have spent twice as much time on it if I'd had the time to spend, and still been enthralled with the process. And as soon as I turned the project in, I was on to a personal lettering project. I think I've re-watched the skillshare courses I discovered 3-4 times each.

One of the most wonderful takeaways from the Skillshare lettering classes was the process of setting up a project - strangely, after 4 years of art school and 20 years of professional work, I had never encountered such a helpful process: the gathering of materials, the association, the many thumbnail sketches - not a rigid process but more of a roadmap. This has really helped me, as my creative process can tend to resemble a whirling dervish / Tasmanian devil mating ritual. As I finalized this poster project, which was a promotional poster for The Global Art Gathering in Brighton, I noticed how much the process impacted the final piece - and while this project was somewhat daunting in that it involves not only the class gallery, but it is actually a live contest with a winner (and a bunch of non-winners), I realized as I clicked "submit" that I don't care. I am overwhelmingly thrilled with my final piece; I printed it as large as I'm able with my home printer, so it's hanging 13"x19" in my workspace and it is gorgeous. It's one of my favorite poster designs yet. And I have my roadmap, which has already proven to help me in my various freelance projects, from a corporate white paper layout and design, to a just-for-fun lettering and illustration that I'll be sharing here soon.

Here, then, is my final poster design:

That Makes Sense...

One of the repeated messages in the Lilla Rogers courses I'm taking is to make things you love; share your joy. The point is to make things you like making, to invite paid work in that same vein. It's so obvious and makes so much sense, but it seems to escape many of us! I had this presented to me as a real-life example when I posted an updated version of one of my favorite pieces from class for sale on Etsy and was contacted by someone who loved it and wanted a customized version for herself. My manifesto brought in some paid work! I love the realization I'm having, because it means that work instantly becomes more fun! I loved making the original manifesto, and guess what? I loved making the commissioned one too! I'm so thankful that I decided to sign up for these courses this year; it's changing my 2015, but it's also changing my perspective on what is possible in life, and how much I can push my creative career and boundaries.

The horizon has gotten bigger and broader. What more could one want from a class?

I'll share below my manifesto from Lilla Rogers' bootcamp: 

if you love it, check it out on Etsy! 

Here's the one I made for the fitness business owner on Etsy:

I hope to make more, they're wonderfully fun and allow a playfulness that I adore.

No, you didn't already do this.

Have you ever found yourself tasked with a project that you feel you've already done? An assignment that you think, 'this is old hat! I can do this'...but then when you start working on it, you feel like a complete greenhorn? Perspective is funny like that - one minute you're an expert, the next, an absolute beginner. I try to keep in mind the work I've done to get to today, so I don't totally lose my footing, but I think there is something wonderful about finding your novice-self even on a project you have the tools to tackle. Why? Well...the learner perspective allows you to learn new lessons. If every project was in the vein of your expertise, where's the fun in that?

This week I've found myself learning a great deal as I tackle a fast-turnaround on a book cover illustration. The story is an old one, but my take on it is new, different and a bit silly. Seeking my joy, finding my humor, allowing for failure on my creative journey.

New adventure in hand-lettering...

 Dancing Billy sketches...

A little workspace snapshot:

Adding color...

And below is the first mock-up! I'll follow up at the end of the week with my completed book cover.

Time and the Creative Process

Sometimes when you're learning a lesson, it will knock and knock and then finally you'll open the door and see it standing there. This lesson for me has been the realization that time spent doing what you love is a gift to yourself, and a gift that gives back. I began scratching at the surface of this lesson when I was working on the series of children's books I did with a friend (seen here), because I began to feel this tug at myself - when I would hurry through an illustration, I wanted MORE. I wanted to go back and spend more time with each drawing. Now, when I review the three books, I see that with each one, I allowed myself more time on each illustration and it shows. I experienced this same tug when I began taking Lilla Roger's bootcamp. I wanted to spend more time with each piece. I realized in a true lightbulb moment that the majority of my work over the years has been production-based. When you work in production, even creative production, there is someone pushing you to produce as much as possible, as quickly as possible. That doesn't mean they want sloppy work, but it does mean they want a FAST turnaround. As I allow myself to re-connect with the creative me, the girl who went to Art School back in the 1990's, I am rediscovering my processes, my creativity, my thoughtfulness and my joy. And truly, this is not something to be rushed. I am not a slow worker by any means, but working at a production-pace on passionate projects simply doesn't work.

I now can recognize that the survivalist in me has done well to adapt to a production-paced work in order to keep paying my bills, taking care of my responsibilities, and making ends meet as a solo parent who survives on an unpredictable freelance workload - but that at the same time, the next step in my career is very clearly to give myself time to create, develop and refine my creative processes.

Bootcamp February Gallery Now Live

As you may know, I'm taking an illustration bootcamp from Lilla Rogers. It's been incredible, and I'm happy to share our February Class Gallery! Our assignment was a scenic painting on a slice of wood. The varied interpretations are wondrful, and the talent among my classmates is so impressive. Hope you enjoy perusing all the work!

The Lusciousness of Paint...OR...The Wisdom of a 4-year-old

When I first started Art School back in 19-what-was-it...(1994 to be precise) I was certain I was a PAINTER. I started making art with pencil, pen and ink as a young teen and progressed into oil paints, spending many many nights awake until 3 and 4 am working with the colors and layering paint, loving the lusciousness and beauty that was so pure in the wet pigment. Fast-forward to 2015, and I have not painted in years! I work almost entirely digitally now, and while I love it, I found myself staring down an assignment for my class with trepidation: we were told to create a scenic painting on a round-ish piece of wood.

Say what??

I had to actually buy brushes - that is how long it's been. So off I went to Michael's and found a piece of wood that had beautiful bark around the border, and seemed it would fit the piece I was planning to make. I bought a "practice" piece of wood, too. When I got them home, my son (4) was immediately interested. He wanted the big piece of wood, but we compromised and I gave him the practice piece, and busted out some paint. He was off and running, painting all different colors on the wood and enjoying himself thoroughly. As I watched him, and realized I had a pit in my stomach worrying about whether I could achieve a submission-worthy painting on my piece of wood, I realized I was losing access to the wonder of creation by allowing the worry to win. I set the worry on the shelf, got my paints out, and I am *so glad* I did. Now I've got several more paintings in mind, and I've realized that cutting painting (or any analog art creation) out of the process in exchange for expediency really cheats ME, and it cheats the process. I've now got a plan to do a line of Kitchen Little original paintings. Veggies in pigment!

That said, I am sharing my final piece with you. Here's to children, knocking down our hangups one day at a time...

Painting on Wood!

I'm in my second month of an online illustration course that is really bringing some fun and color into my studio, and inspiring new and exciting work! I'll share a few of the pieces below; we first worked with circular scenic designs, and were then told the assignment - to paint the piece onto wood. This is the first painting I'm diving into after many years of ink / pencil and digital work. And painting was truly my first love. As every creative project will do, this is giving me so many ideas for a new round of Kitchen Littles...wonder what will sprout??

First Post!

Welcome to One Little Print Blog! After some careful and also reckless consideration, I've come to the conclusion that it's a great time to begin a blog focusing on my work and my site, One Little Print Shop. I have been working on projects for Lilla Rogers bootcamp, as well as many new prints for One Little Print Shop. I'm also working on rebuilding an artist friend's website, and that experience has brought so many revelations and discoveries by me of my friend's artwork and her process in making it. This is a longtime friend of two+ decades, and to rediscover her through her art process has been way cool. On that note, welcome to my new blog, and here's to many more creations, revelations and discoveries!

Here is my newest Kitchen Little print: the Painted Pepper