In the Land of Hearts

I want to wish you all a very healthy and successful new year. I'm already in the Land of Hearts for Valentine's Day as I leave Christmas in the past. Different from most of my art, the heart above is a combination of watercolor and digital mediums. I still have a passion for hand drawn art as I personally feel digital art can never capture the "heart" of the human touch to paper or canvas. BUT.... there are such wonderful possibilities with digital art that it's fun to expand on new art horizons. And I can get so many variations on one concept! I'm actually making myself crazy and spending way too much time on the computer. I love to stand when I draw, and sitting for a long time staring at my computer screen makes my eyes dry and my butt sore!! It's addicting for sure, and once I'm on Zazzle, there's no stopping me. I have to admit, the technical part of making products like tagging, descriptions, etc. are not my idea of a good time, but someone's got to do it! And then there's the Spring cleaning of my online stores. Whether virtual or real, it's my least favorite thing to do. But in the end, it's always so well worth it!

Holiday Cards

I never thought I would be involved in the greeting card industry. It just sort of evolved and I went down the path willingly. Instead of reading up on it I just dove in, and then started to find my way around. Just like everything else in the creative world, it's harder than it looks, and not only does it take talent, but it also takes some smarts in the worlds of marketing and promotion. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight and promote some of my fellow Card Gnome artists. This is one of the sites I have the privilege of having a store on, and I find the powers that be who run it to be extremely accessible and supportive and the fellow artists equally so.

Christmas is one of those holidays that's never short on cards, and while there are so many, I thought I would showcase a few of my favorite ones here.


Sugar n' Spice's White Christmas Tree

A beautiful card with the surprise of a pink background!

Shining Star Works

This card conjures up my vivid memories of East coast winters. Love it!

Salon of Art

One of my fellow artist friends in the biz, Doreen Erhardt always has a fresh and different
way of looking at the world of greeting cards. This card certainly gives us a new perspective
of the concept "from our house to yours."

Please stop by and check out my picks so far and enjoy their stores.

I was inspired of thoughts of elves and snowmen this year and how they must have a secret wonderful friendship. Every winter, we breathe life into these characters that embody the holiday season.

 My "Elf & Snowman's Surprise for Santa" card can be found on my Card Gnome store.

The Getty Woman

 

Leaving the Getty this past Sunday, the most amazing woman floated through the pavilion. Dressed a la Coco Chanel from the fifties and straight from the pages of Vogue, she stood at least 6'5" in heels with a black elegant dress with a dropped hemline in back. No jewelry was needed as she crowned the dress with a hat that must have needed its own seat in the car. A rich black hat rimmed in white the size of which I've never seen on a mere mortal's head. I was spellbound, as well as everyone else. The man whose hand was wrapped around her arm was barely noticeable. She was the ultimate arm candy, surely a model right off the Paris runways. Who was this man with this beautiful creature? Body guard? Father? Man with a Ferrari and oodles of money? It didn't matter. He had his showpiece, and what a showpiece she was!
This was a quick five minute sketch with pencil on, of all things, computer print paper. It was done completely from my memory the moment I got home. I will translate this to a painted piece in the near future.

The Cleaner the Better

After viewing umpteen pieces of art and designs for greeting cards, I decided to write about design and layout. I have over 20 years experience in the advertising world as an art director, so I have a lot of experience in this field. I can't possibly give a course, or solve everyone's design woes, but there are just a few basic concepts that may help. First off, make sure your art or photograph is professional looking. I'm not talking perfection here, but at least make an attempt at creativity and make sure your jpeg/png is of the highest quality and standards that meet the criteria to the site you're uploading to.
I equate designing an ad/card/art/photograph to dressing. The more you load onto your outfit, the worse you'll look. Imagine you're in a polka dot dress; you add a bright colorful flowered shawl, huge garish earrings and work your way down to adorning your wrists with loud bangles and ending with patterned stockings and obnoxious shoes. No one is sure where to look, and nothing stands out. It's all just a visual assault. Yes, there are those that will say you look great, and I see those compliments all the time attached to the worst art out there.
Now you've changed.... and you're now wearing a beautiful dress, flattering to your figure with the most beautiful necklace to set it off. The dress is not patterned and the necklace enhances your gorgeous hair and face. You walk into a room where you are now a breath of fresh air and not a visual assault.
Keep it simple. Pick something to be the showpiece. Don't be afraid of a little breathing room, a place for the eye to rest. Don't divide your page in half. Don't make things equal in size. Something needs to take center stage. The visual should be clear and convey the message. It should be pleasing to the eye.
Text should be readable. No more than 3 different styles of type. Learn about kerning and leading. 
It's the small nuances that make or break how the text looks. It should hang together, not look like it's floating apart. It should work with the art, not against it. And make sure your card visual makes sense to what the card is about. If it feels forced, it is! I've come to learn that it really isn't about drawing perfectly, it's about CONCEPT/IDEAS. It's that way in music, art, writing, etc. Concept first, execution next.
My first love is drawing, but I ended up as an art director because I didn't want to be a starving fine artist. But I have to say that the experience I've garnered has been invaluable in understanding many creative businesses and how it takes more than just being artistic to sell. And that's really the bottom line; you're selling your product and you have to be as attractive as possible to the consumer.

Card Gnome Blog Feature

Featured on Card Gnome Blog

I've had the honor recently to be accepted to a new greeting card site called Card Gnome. Card Gnome sells cards from independent artists who have gone through the process of a portfolio review. A bold move on their part, but I do notice on their site cards of higher quality. It's a true pleasure to view their assortment and the way they display the cards enhances the overall appeal of the site and each individual card.
I was recently highlighted in their blog. They are a supportive company with a kind and helpful staff. I can't say enough good things about them, and not to mention, they are also a Green company concerned with the well being of our beautiful planet. If you have a moment, please pay them a visit. You will not be disappointed!

Something Refreshing

Has it been this long this my last post? I sometimes forget to blog with everything else that needs attention.
After years of promotion and having so much art on the net, I was just offered to join with a company on their merchant's program as well as their wholesale one. They do all the promotion, which is great, and they are wonderful to deal with. They found me trolling through Zazzle. I'm also now on a new card site where you have to submit a portfolio for review in order to be accepted. The nice thing about that is that the work on the site as a whole is of higher quality. I think the one thing I come to realize is that because of Photoshop and programs like that, and digital cameras, people feel they can just jump onto one of these free sites, open a store, and viola! They'll have success. The unfortunate thing, is that there is just so much bad art out there now, including photographs. It's really not all that simple, and great concepts play a huge role, especially when selling to the public. The art world now seems to echo reality tv where there's a lot of it, but you don't necessarily want to look at it.
So come and pop by my new card store on Card Gnome. It's a new company with a lot of potential and one that seems to care about the quality on their site. Kind of like a well produced tv show. Something worth watching.

My Card Store on Card Gnome