Christmas Cards of 2014

I was pretty unprepared for Christmas card orders this year. I managed to have 8 different designs done relatively early (October) but then I did a terrible, terrible job at predicting how much paper and envelopes to order. I began selling sets of 8 cards for $25, and was immediately struggling to keep up with the orders. Next year by the end of October I would like to be more prepared, so I can stock my etsy shop and sell to more than just my family and friends.

Here is my face after cutting and folding the first 75 cards. 

DIY Gift Wrap

I walked into my storage room yesterday and saw a pile of crumpled up kraft paper from Eric's Amazon delivery. First I thought, what the hell Eric, clean your shit up. Then I realized he must have known how much I could do with kraft paper, and was purposely saving it for me to do crafts. WHAT A GREAT BOYFRIEND.

I have a leftover pile of paint from Dream Beam, in beautiful pastel colours. After taping the piece of kraft paper to the wall I just went at it, using tons of acrylic paint and water. The colours dripped down the paper and mixed together so beautifully.

The end result is so wonderful! I really didn't have the money for nice wrapping paper, and once again my lack of funds forced me to come up with a creative solution.

I'm going to try and do this every year, it hardly took any time to paint (30 min) and the gifts look extra fancy and personal.

I can also reuse these pieces in my digital work, and for Society6.

Yay crafts!

The Great and Wonderful Illustrator Gift Guide

1. ANNUAL EDITION OF "ARTIST'S & GRAPHIC DESIGNER'S MARKET

Full of valuable information like art director names, addresses, tips to run your business, email addresses...

2. A NEW SET OF BRUSHES FROM KYLE T. WEBSTER

Kyle's brushes are FANTASTIC and reasonably priced. The very best that I have been able to find.

3. ART & FEAR

A terrific book for every artist, not just for those starting out. A more in depth description here. 

FRIENDLY PORTRAITS

A friend of a friend has is organizing an art show and told me I should submit my work. I was initially way too nervous, but eventually got around to working on it.

I wanted to make abstract portraits of a few of my friends, where their eyes and hair are really precise, and the rest is kind of a blob, because i figured you could still recognize the person from their eyes and hair.

What I ended up working on wasn't really what I had initially imagined, but I'm happy with how they turned out anyway.

I have one more I will be working on and then I will submit them!

I enjoyed making them a lot, and with the holidays coming up I was trying to add items to my Etsy shop that would make good gifts. I think "custom magical portraits" would make a nice gift!