Make Art That Sells - Week 2

Hello all and happy Tuesday! Last week in the Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells course was all about Home Decor. The topic . . . Succulents. We were to create a series of 1-4 plates (square or round) that could be presented to an art director in the Home Decor market. Companies that look for this kind of work are Crate and Barrel, Land of Nod, Anthropologie, West Elm . . . you get the idea.

I decided to challenge myself a little bit on this assignment. If you have seen my work, I have a more refined and detailed style. One of my goals as an artist is to expand my style and be able to do a more "messy" look . . . less refined, not as many clean lines, more sketchy. This has seriously been a struggle for me and I am envious of those who can do it naturally. For example, my watercolors are very tight and clean and I would love to be able to sit down and just throw some paint down to create a flower without all the details but have more brush strokes. However, my OCD takes over and a mental block comes up full force and my end product is nothing like what my intentions were going into it.

So, I started thinking, why do I put so much pressure on myself to create like someone else? Why spend so much time trying to "create my style" when I already have a style? It hit me like a ton of bricks . . . I'm not messy! I like things clean and detailed and it comes through in my artwork. My version of "messy" will always come out clean because that is how my brain works!

With these thoughts flooding through my head, I started my assignment for Lilla. Starting out with some sketches in pencil and then going over them with black pen.

Then I started drawing just with pen on some marker paper. I did this because there is a certain finality while working with pen . . . no erasing!

When I finished these sketches, I scanned them into Illustrator and created vector art with them. Then I just sat back and let the creativity flow. This is the result . . . . the Courtney version of "messy."