Make Art That Sells - Week 1: Bolt Fabric

Wow, wow, wow! What an amazing first week of Lilla Roger's class, Make Art That Sells! This is my first time taking an online course, and I wondered if it would have the feel of those old college days, and the answer is YES! ......and so much more. The organization of the online class environment is excellent, and this community of artists taking the class is so supportive. There's so much sharing of information and resources. It's also quite motivating to see everyone posting up incredible work. I'll have to admit, I've had moments of feeling very intimated since many of the artists have been working in this market for years. Lilla has been tuned in to all our class facebook postings, and told us, "Yes, it's totally normal to get overwhelmed, but isn't that better than being underwhelmed?" That's so true! She understands our artistic natures so well. She 'gets' us.

mini-exercise

On our first day we received a mini-exercise to sketch mushrooms and Pyrex casserole dishes. I had pages of pencil and pen drawings in my sketchbook, but then I wanted to try something different as Lilla encourages us to work in new media. I've been saving these colored pencil shavings on a piece of watercolor paper for months. I knew I wanted to do something with them, and here was my opportunity to play.

Week 1 - Bolt Fabric Assignment

Then, on Wednesday we received our main assignment to design a pattern with a vintage kitchen theme. We could also include some coordinating fabric patterns. We were shown so many unique inspiring styles throughout the week that I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go. I ended up going back to my portfolio to ground myself in my own work. This gave me a strong urge to bring characters into it, and the bunnies were born. I found a color palette on Design Seeds, (adjusted it a bit), used some of my own painted textures, and then brought in the colored pencil shavings from the exercise. I had a blast creating this!