My manifesto

Last week, I submitted my work for a competition held my Lilla Rogers Studio. The design goal was a visual manifesto of artistic intentions and views. My original idea was to animate some common inanimate but related to art objects, but only one brush was born as a character. It was a lot of fun to develop the lettering, especially of the quote. I will keep my fingers crossed!

Assignment Bootcamp {The January Mini}

First of all, I would like to wish a happy, healthy, safe, productive, and creative year to everyone! 2015 started for me with the ‘Assignment Bootcamp’, with Lilla Rogers Studio. This is my first online course ever. Last year I participated in the Global Talent Search competition held by Lilla Rogers Studio and I really enjoyed the experience. HERE is my post about GTS 2014. Right now I am very excited about ‘Assignment Bootcamp’! During the next six months, we will receive regular assignments, and we will create some great art work, designs, and illustrations for different products. The first Monday of every month starts with a Mini assignment, and on the second Monday, we will receive a bigger assignment to be completed before the end of the month. And the first week is almost over... Now here are some thoughts about my experience.

Mini Assignment. The theme for this week was very unexpected for me – to draw Edwardian Brooches. As it turned out, it is a very challenging task. First, I researched the brooches, including their shapes, lines, and gems. They are gorgeous, detailed, and rich. I tried to sketch them... but honestly, in fact... I DON’T LIKE Edwardian Brooches. I don’t think this is my thing, my style, or any kind of inspiration for me. This is an awful truth.

Finding inspiration. Eh, finally, I decided to concentrate on brooches based on insects and animals. Also, I like DIAMONDS like many girls do)). I reviewed some geometry this week and really enjoyed building different shapes of diamonds. A major inspiration for me was the community of bootcampers! There are around 400 students from all over the world participating in this course. The co-campers are so enthusiastic, creative, and open to experimentation, that looking at their work and posts brought me more inspiration then the gorgeous brooches themselves. I think, the community is the biggest advantage of the online courses.

Sketches. Probably, the real purpose of the first task is not what I am doing. It is so hard for me just to make sketches of the brooches, especially when the final product is unknown. Lilla keeps the name of the product in secret until Monday. I practiced with the diamonds’ shapes and then I created a couple of characters. That was fun. I am thinking to make more characters with varying levels of detail. Also, I worked a bit with watercolors, to test some textures for the future diamonds and shapes. I am very curious how the project will change when the final product will be announced. I am looking forward to Monday (a favourite day of the week, right?).    

P.S. Here there are a couple of images of Edwardian Brooches, if you are not familiar with them.

Global Talent Search

This year I decided to participate in the Global Talent Search (GTS) held by Lilla Rogers Studio. I guess this is the second year that the competition has been running. The winner will receive representation from Lilla Rogers Studio for two years, which means the artist/illustrator will receive many  opportunities for licensing their work with decor, stationary companies, and textile factories.  Of course, it is a dream of many artists! The competition has several rounds. On August 26^th the semi-finalists will be announced. I cross my fingers!
 

Assignment. The theme for the first round was ‘little terrarium’ for the wall art. We could interpret that topic in any way we would like to, to use any materials, and to work in any style we want. At least one word should be written on an illustration. The assignment gave us a lot of freedom, and we were given two weeks for that round – which is great.

I just published my second post  here about terrariums about a month ago. I made them not for the competition but just for my personal project. Honestly, I was a little bit surprised and disappointed by the theme, but I guess terrariums are trendy! But my GTS project turned out absolutely in a different way and I am so happy with the little illustration!

Idea. Terrariums remind me of a small world. They are so whimsical. Or they could be whimsical. I decided that a terrarium is a good place for a fairy tale, especially a fairy tale which happens in the woods. I have chosen the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, or known also as Little Red Cap (yes, that brutal story where a mean wolf swallows a grandma...). I tried my best – I changed the plot: the wolf is charmed by a little girl and changed his mind to swallow a sick grandma and... happy ending! I placed a terrarium on a book to show the connection between the book and a magical world in the terrarium. Also, it solved the problem with the text – I just added two words FAIRY TALES on a book binder. Here is my work:

Process. This time I made my illustration digitally. I made a couple of sketches by hand just to develop the idea. That’s why I completed the illustration pretty fast. 

Submission. The requirement was to submit the work as low as 72 dpi. Honestly, my illustration lost some sharpness, some details and textures. I think it is too low resolution to present a work. I don’t know how other people dealt with that to improve the quality of the image and at the same time to stay within the 72 dpi limit. 

Feedback. I think the competition is really very interesting. I am looking forward Tuesday not just to know my result but to see the work of other artists. It gives a lot of inspiration and also helps me to grow, to compare your work with other awesome artists. It would be so nice to be at least in the second round to have one more assignment to work on.

Lilla Rogers Studio is offering an online course Make Art That Sells (Part A&B). I guess, most of the participants of the GTS are the students of that course. I heard very good feedback about the course but unfortunately this is very costly. 

UPDATE: Nope, I didn't make a cut. Will try next year again.  Here you can enjoy the top 50 and the gallery of all 999 is here. So many wonderful works entered the competition this year!  Congratulations on semi-finalists and good luck everyone! XOXO