Learning New Things and Re-inventing

You are never too old to learn...

Over the year I have been doing a lot of soul searching about my artwork and business. I love doodling and creating my mandalas, but I definitely have gotten in a rut as far as producing products with my artwork. Being a one woman show, I have done so much repetitious production that I forgot the joy of drawing and creating. I needed to reconnect with my inner artist... the voice that called me to start this adventure in the first place.

In December I found a wonderful three part online course given by Rachael Taylor and Beth Nichols on surface and pattern design. Pattern design has always intrigued me and I have wanted for a while now to explore ways to use my art as repeats for fabric, stationery etc. The first part of the e-course was about learning how to be creative again, sketching and inspiration, which I so desperately needed. I was excited for the first time in a long time. The second part of the course was more technical on how to take your designs and sketches and get them into the computer to manipulate. I learned so much and created some cool repeats. I also learned about trends in the marketplace both here and all over the world. The third part of the e-course starts at the end of the month and is geared towards monetizing and marketing my work. I can't wait. Below is an example of a collection I created for one of the exercises. You can find more on my website and Flickr account. I am working on finding my own signature style that stands out from the crowd using my mandalas and doodles.

Time to Reinvent Myself a Little...

While I was getting all excited about my new course, I began looking at my own identity and branding that I have been using. I decided it was time for a little facelift to freshen up what I had. I wanted the logo to look more fun and whimsical like my work, while still keeping a familiar look. After I liked what I came up with I began recreating all of the banners for Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, this Blog etc. to coordinate. By far the most exciting part of this transformation is completely redoing my website. I had used iWeb before, which no longer works on my new Mac. This time, with the help of my son to get it started, I created a fun, clean website I am proud of in Adobe Muse. It links to everything, my online social accounts, online shops and is a portfolio of all of my work, from doodles to graphic design. I'm very excited! It still needs some tweaking but I hope to launch it any day now.