Winter School and Art Snacks
Two things happened this month that have turned January into a month of creative exploration for me, Art Snacks and Winter School.
Two things happened this month that have turned January into a month of creative exploration for me, Art Snacks and Winter School.
Art Snacks!
For Christmas my husband gave me the gift of an Art Snacks subscription. Art Snacks is a box containing new art supplies delivered to my door every month. From Christmas day until the first week of January I waited anxiously for my first box to arrive and when it did I dug into it right away, it contained supplies I'd never actually think to buy and wasn't sure how I'd use them but I sat down with a piece of watercolor paper and using only the supplies that came in the box along with one outside supply, a white gel pen, I created this mystical fish bird thing (below). I had a lot of fun exploring the different mediums and I liked the Golden High Flow Acrylics that came in the box so much that I went out and purchased an entire box of them. Shortly after, itching to use the high flow acrylics again, I created a second piece- Purple flowers which I originally created for Winter School, more to come on that. Since I'll be getting an Art Snacks box every month it looks like this creative exploring thing is going to continue and I certainly welcome that, it's exactly what I need to keep things fresh!
Created using Golden High Flow Acrylics, see and buy it on products in my Redbubble shop!
Winter School
Make it in Design is an online learning resource for Surface Pattern Designers. They have a free online magazine and they host an array of courses for learning, growing and basically, making it in design. The name of their school containing the courses is actually The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design. Anyway, I decided to give them a try with one of their short courses, Winter School. So here I am, I am in the second week of Winter School with several other designers from around the world, some who I've known for a while through Facebook and Instagram and some who I am just getting to know through the class. It's an awesome experience to be able to meet all of these other talented artists and I have to say, that is my favorite part about taking courses like this. I just finished up my first project with Winter School, the topic of the brief was Glam Boho Rock and it was a real challenge for me. I started with the flowers (above) because I wanted to take a mixed media approach but I just didn't feel that this piece accurately fit my interpretation of the brief so I started over and came up with something I am much happier with, it's called Shoot for the Stars and it is what I ended up submitting for the first assignment. I'm looking forward to the release of the next brief, I'm sure it will be a challenge but I hope I wont have such a hard time picking the path I want to take in creating the art for it!
Shoot for the Stars
Curated from Society6: Unicorns
My favorite part of selling my art on print on demand (POD) sites like Redbubble and Society6 is that I get to network with other artists and see some pretty awesome work. I find myself not only wanting to share my work, but also wanting to share the work of these other talented artists.
My favorite part of selling my art on print on demand (POD) sites like Redbubble and Society6 is that I get to network with other artists and see some pretty awesome work. I find myself not only wanting to share my work, but also wanting to share the work of these other talented artists. Lucky for me, artists on Society6 also have the opportunity to be curators, which makes it easy to curate and share the art I like. Here is one of my recent curated collections, The Magical Unicorn. It just so happens that I illustrated two unicorns last month so I included them in this collection. Not all collections I share on my website will feature my work but I hope anyone visiting will be just as happy to see the works of these other talented artists. If you are a fellow Society6 artist and you've got a Unicorn out there on the Society6 website, feel free to add the link to the comment section of this blog post so others can promote it.
Visit the Magical Unicorn :)
Post Holiday Reflections
It's January 3rd and most of my kids have gone back to school. My youngest, Miles goes back tomorrow. For the most part, my house is quiet and in-between his demands for snacks and entertainment I'm managing to get a little done like writing a blog post.
It's January 3rd and most of my kids have gone back to school. My youngest, Miles goes back tomorrow. For the most part, my house is quiet and in-between his demands for snacks and entertainment I'm managing to get a little done like writing a blog post.
I start looking forward to the holidays every year around August. As they approach there's so much excitement and anticipation of gathering, gifts and generally just a really good time. And this year I wasn't disappointed. But now that the holidays are over my Christmas decorations can't be packed away fast enough. I'm done with it all until next year... with the exception of the cookies, i'm not ready to part with those yet.
In addition to everything else I see in the holidays, I also see them as a solid end to the year, a time to reset so that the new year starts off on the right foot and with momentum. So while most people spent their holidays vacationing from work, I think I did more work than ever. I don't mean work for anyone else, I mean work for myself. I spent the holidays deep in practice, looking through my old sketchbooks, making new art, studying trends, networking with other artists, reflecting on my progress, and thinking of the future. I'm glad I took the time I needed over the holidays to get all of that done and tomorrow when I can get back to uninterrupted work, I've got some very exciting things to work on for both myself and my clients. It's going to be a good year and I will be doing my best to live creatively and make as much art as I possibly can so check back frequently for new art and new products available in my online shops.
Anyway, that's all I've got for now. My son is covered in chocolate and just ran out of my office with a tube of gauche after shooting me with a nerf gun.
My Dandi Ducks are on Display!
Once again I woke up to exciting news, my Dandi Ducks design has been found and featured on Redbubble. Out of thousands of other amazing artists, they chose me! I can't believe it! Twice in one month.
Shown here as a gallery board.
Once again I woke up to exciting news, my Dandi Ducks design has been found and featured on Redbubble. Out of thousands of other amazing artists, they chose me! I can't believe it! Twice in one month. I am completely honored and very excited because it means they really like the work I am producing.
There's actually a bit of a story behind this design and the other designs in the Dandy Ducks collection. Over the summer my husband decided he wanted ducks so our friend gave him three lady ducks. I wasn't thrilled about the mess the ducks made and neither were our chickens. The ducks were complete divas and took the best spot on the roost. They also demanded two large kiddie pools of fresh water everyday that they constantly slashed in, the coop was always soaked. The ducks also dipped their food in the drinking water, filling it with chunks of food and and mud. My poor chickens who really like fresh clean water were so annoyed. My husband quickly found another home for the ducks where they had a nice big pond without chickens to squawk about their messes, but in the month they were with us, I did love to watch them and was very inspired by their hilarious antics. From this experience my Dandy Ducks collection was born.
If you'd like to purchase a product featuring my Dandi Ducks, visit my Redbubble shop. Be sure to check out the rest of the collection while you're there!
Smug Llama makes the front page!
My Smug Llama design was chosen out of thousands of other designs submitted by artists around the world to be featured on Redbubble's front page.
I woke up this morning to an email from Redbubble informing me that my artwork has been found and featured!!!
Buy it now on Redbubble, available on a variety of products.
My Smug Llama design was chosen out of thousands of other designs submitted by artists around the world to be featured on Redbubble's front page. To be featured on Redbubble means my work is on the front page and visible to everyone visiting the Redbubble website. The result of my last front page feature, Bees and Flowers was lots of sales, sales that are still rolling in and that was almost a month ago. Now with my Smug Llama design being featured I have two pieces of artwork steadily selling and I couldn't be more grateful.
Creating art is a full time endeavor for me, I work on it around the clock and it is a very important part of who I am so to think that people like it enough to buy it in various available formats is incredibly satisfying and encouraging.
This is where I'm at
I haven't published a blog post since August 5th, but I promise, I've been thinking about it. That sort of counts doesn't it? :) In all honesty I've had a lot going on around here.
I haven't published a blog post since August 5th, but I promise, I've been thinking about it. That sort of counts doesn't it? :) In all honesty I've had a lot going on around here. The good thing however is that I've still managed to find the time I needed to produce new works of art on an almost daily basis and I have been sharing them with the world, just not on my website. So as I work to update my very neglected website, I wanted to let everyone know where I am the most active right now.
I try to post at least 3 times a day on Instagram when I have an active project going on (which is almost daily). If you follow me on Instagram, in addition to my finished work, you'll also be able to see my process as I post progress as I work. My Instagram user name is @jmhurd
By the way, I am currently participating in a fun 12 days of Christmas portfolio project on Instagram so if you follow along you'll see a cheerful new Christmas themed illustration every other day until Christmas.
Redbubble
I only started actively using Redbubble about a month ago. A few days before Thanksgiving one of my designs landed on their front page and I've been getting consistent sales ever since so currently I am devoting the majority of my marketing towards my Redbubble shop. What I really love about Redbubble is that I sell my designs as stickers. This is perfect for the little characters I've been coming up with. My most popular design so far has been Let them Bee, I've sold over 100 stickers alone of my little honey bee in the last two weeks.
Society6
Society6 is a lot like Redbubble but they offer a few different products like metal travel mugs, shower curtains and comforters so I upload what I can to their site and hope that maybe someone will order something with my design on it and so far a few people have.
Spoonflower
Spoonflower is not only a massive online fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap shop, but it's also a community for surface pattern designers. I upload new work and approve it for sale monthly. When I get the sewing bug I order fabric featuring my own designs and as an artist I think that being able to make a throw pillow with my own design is just the coolest thing ever. Anyway, you can find a lot of my work in my Spoonflower shop, ready to purchase and use for your next big sewing project.
In the backyard with my chickens
Raven, a little bantam I hatched out in August.
Not exactly an art site but if I'm not working or hanging out with my family, I'm most likely in the back yard spending time with my chickens. Being around them makes me happy and I get a lot of creative inspiration from them. Anyone who knows me personally might find this a little shocking because up until a few years ago I was a major germaphobe and was never really into chickens or any kind of farm animal for that matter, but this summer we moved into a house that came with chickens, then we hatched out a few more in August and now I'm in love. I don't know what it is about these birds... they are just a lot of fun.
A Sweet New Collection
Available for purchase on Spoonflower
It's about a week into August and I'm not sure where the summer went but that's ok. I'm kind of glad summer is almost over because it means things will start to slow down! In June my family and I started our moved back to North Carolina so for those who are wondering, yes, I am finally back in Southern Pines. I am thrilled to be home again and thankful that my schedule is finally back to normal.
Despite being super busy with the move and getting settled in, I've still managed to produce a good amount of artwork much of which I've turned into adorable patterns. As a result, I've got a lot of new designs available for purchase in my Spoonflower shop and more on the way.
My sales on Spoonflower have finally started picking up. I'm finally making enough to pay for my swatches which is awesome, it means I'm finally getting somewhere with this.
In my opinion, my latest collection, Sweet Piggies, is the best design I've done this summer. I'm extremely impressed with the quality of fabric swatches I received from Spoonflower, the colors are vibrant and the line quality is crisp. As with every design, these sweet piggies and their snacks started as a simple black and white doodle.
My Pig is Always Flying
Carving a flying pig
See it on Spoonflower
The phrase "When pigs fly" is an idiom similar to "when hell freezes over". It's a funny but rather pessimistic phrase, however it's one of my favorites. To me the flying pig is a symbol that represents the opposite, it is a symbol of the possibilities that are born from the imagination. Pigs aren't supposed to fly, but here they are, I made them fly. With a little creativity we can make anything we imagine come to life in some shape or form, even if it's just on paper. That's the beauty in being able to create. So whatever your pig is, give it a set of wings and let it fly.
I carved this sweet flying pig on a 5x7 block of linoleum. Once it was done I digitized it and turned it into a pattern that will be available in two different colors by the end of June as a fabric, wallpaper or wrapping paper on Spoonflower.
The version of my flying pig pictured above with a blueish background is available as an art print, pillow, cell phone case and more in my Society6 shop. If you are interested in an actual linocut print, shoot me an email and I will put you on my waiting list. I will produce a limited number of flying pig prints once I get settled in to my new home in July and hopefully lots of other prints too. More to follow on my move in another post :)
Intro to Stamp Making
For anyone who's been following along over the past few weeks I've been exploring print making with hand carved stamps and lino-cuts for making patterns and other works of art. Today I'm mostly going to touch on stamp making. Stamp making on rubber is pretty simple, lino-cutting is a little more complicated only because linoleum can be pretty tough to carve. There are several different mediums that can be used besides rubber and linoleum but so far I've only explored those two. I'm finding that the linoleum is great for working on a print that's going to have a lot of detail, it also requires a bit more work to get a good print to include print making inks. Rubber is good for stamping and a simple ink pad is all that's needed to make a mark. I like to create rubber stamps if I need something quick and simple for a pattern I am working on.
My daughter Mia making a print with her very first hand-carved stamp
To get started I recommend using rubber first. You'll need some scrap paper, a pencil, a sharpie, a rubber speedy cut block and a Speedball linoleum cutter. These items can be purchased via the links on Amazon (free shipping with Prime) or you can stop by your local Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately Michael's doesn't carry block cutting supplies. Once you have your supplies in hand spend some time researching your ideas and drawing thumbnails. Start with something simple and remember that you'll need to put your design on your rubber in reverse, especially text, otherwise you'll end up with a backwards mess. The nice thing about the rubber and linoleum is that it takes well to pencil so sketch your design out first in pencil and then go over it with a sharpie if needed. When you are ready to carve, start with the V cutter, moving it carefully away from your body. The U tools are useful for carving out larger areas but with the Speedball tools I find the larger V tool gets the job done. When you are done carving just ink, stamp and repeat. It's that easy.
When I'm done with my stamps I usually bring the imprints I make with them into Adobe Illustrator and create patterns, that's just one of many ways to use hand-made stamps.
If you need a little more direction, here's a quick CreativeBug video on stamp making, you can sign up for a free trial if you don't already have an account with them. There are also plenty of good tutorials on YouTube and a few good books. A good and really pretty starter book is Making an Impression: Designing & Creating Artful Stamps, by Geninne Zlatkis.
Good luck and please let me know how it goes by leaving a comment! Be sure to sign up for my newsletter for upcoming posts and tutorials.
Dinosaurs
This week Spoonflower's weekly design prompt was floral dinosaurs. The creative aproach I took to this project was my new favorite way of making art, lino-cutting. I'm pretty happy with how these cute dinosaurs came out. I envision the final product being used as nursery decor or for a little boys room. Head over to Instagram and be sure to like the image I posted of this pattern to help my chances at getting featured by Spoonflower.
Imprints made from my lino-cuts
Creativity at work... a beautiful mess
Like this pattern? It'll be available as a fabric, wallpaper or wrapping paper in a few weeks.