Illustration Friday: "Wings"

My art tools this week were black Sharpie pen and low-bleed paper.  I used Photoshop to clean things up a little and add/change the color.  I confess that I've been following my own advice, as illustrated above, WAY too much lately!

This art is available as an art print, pillow, t-shirt and more in my shop here.

First Impressions of Online Selling

Hi everyone!  I'm still a newbie to online sales but I want to take a minute to do two things in this post.  

First, I'd like to thank all the people who have been following me, supporting, sharing and promoting my work, visiting this blog.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Thank you as well to my family and other customers who have bought products featuring my art.  

"A Little Crooked" iPhone case / Society6

Secondly, I want to give a little report about my first few months as an online seller.  As of now, I have a shop at Society6 and one design in the marketplace at CafePress.  I'm happy to report that so far the products have been delivered successfully and that my customers are happy with them!  I ordered prints from Society6 myself as a test and thought the quality was very good.  One of my biggest worries about selling designs through vendors online was that after people would order something with my art on it that the item would look bad or be of bad quality.  So far that has not happened!  I have not earned enough yet to be paid by CafePress but payments from Society6 have had no problems.

"Kisses from Fannie Finn" iPhone case / Society6

My sales have been slower than I'd hoped but I really had no idea what to expect when I started so I was very happy to make any sales at all! Things have been picking up a little;  I've signed up on Pinterest, Wanelo and WeHeartIt as well as starting a Tumblr blog to increase my exposure. I started an art page on Facebook as well.  Please visit me on any or all! It's too early for me to get a feel for whether any of those sites are working for me vs. how much time they will take to maintain, but for now I'll let them play out for a while and see what happens.

"Holiday Curls" t-shirt / Society6

Through another artist I did discover one of my images had been stolen, was being used on an iPhone case and was being sold from an online shop.  The product was taken out of the shop after I contacted the seller so that incident had a satisfactory ending.  I will be searching and keeping my eyes open for the next time.  I appreciate that an online friend noticed my work and reported it to me;  I send emails now to others when I recognize the artist and suspect an image theft.

"Sometimes Angry Mug" / CafePress

The products in the photos I've posted here look good, don't they?  I'm excited to continue selling online.  It really feels great to find out that someone has chosen something because it has my art on it and has spent money to buy it.  It inspires me to keep creating!  Thanks again for supporting my work and for the visits and support of this blog as well. Cheers!

Illustration Friday: "Ocean"

This week gave me a chance to draw from Greek mythology, which I love to do!  Here's Poseidon, Greek god of the sea, riding on a charging hippocamp.  The original drawing was pen and ink on smooth paper.  I was experimenting with different line weights to create different tones without using crosshatching.  Then I colorized it and added the background in Photoshop.

"Poseidon" is available as an art print and more in my shop here.

Green Shoe

One of my new ACEOs, or as I like to call them, my "tinies".  The shoe is from my imagination.  I wish it were real!  Ink and watercolor.

Illustration Friday: "Glow"

For this illustration my idea was to show a little something...without really showing anything!  It's done in pen and ink and is small, ACEO size 2.5" x 3.5".  I've been thinking a lot about ACEOs lately and I'm very interested in doing a collection of them to sell.  This is the first time I've drawn directly on a trimmed card-sized paper.  Usually I've drawn on a larger size and cut it down.  This worked just as well I think but I might feel differently when I try one right to the edges with color!

Illustration Friday: "Snow"

Illustration Friday: "Explore"

There's no need to rough it in order to explore!

I love Valentino's haute couture.  Click here to see the dress I chose to draw.  I used Pentel brush pen and watercolor on Arches watercolor paper.