Sailing in the Direction of My Dreams

I've got some news to share~ I just signed up for an online e-course with the fabulous Lilla Rogers, a renowned illustration agent with clients like Chronicle Books, Anthropologie, and Real Simple Magazine. The course is called Make Art That Sells , and it's all about creating work you are passionate about, work that is filled with energy and spirit, because as Lilla says in her new book, I Just Like to Make Things, "People buy your joy." 

I jumped on this opportunity to learn from a top-notch agent. We'll study the different markets for art and illustration, with weekly assignments and online support. 

Lilla has invited students of the course to create an original illustration to celebrate enrolling in the course. Here's what I made using cut paper, metallic gold ink and gouache~

Sailing in the Direction of My Dreams

I titled the piece Sailing in the Direction of my Dreams because I enrolled in this course to propel myself forward in my art career. I love making greeting cards, and I'm excited to branch out and explore new venues for my art~ licensing,  illustration commissions, and using my designs for surface patterns and product designs (a dream of mine since I attended art school in 1998!) 

Make Art That Sells starts June 3rd. I'll post some of my weekly assignments here.

If you would like to see how I created the illustration, here are some process shots:

Initial sketch

Selecting colors/paper

Painting and cutting 

Assembling and working on layout

Final product!

This image had some unexpected changes~ I left off the text and added a mermaid weather vane~ Fun to feel the creative improvisational flow. :-) This music fueled my day: Suna

Happy Spring!

~Tenaya