Fall/Halloween Promo

We opted to do a Halloween theme for our fall group postcard mailer. My contribution is below.

Trick or Treat!

Here is my piece for our Halloween mailer. I love how we get to use a different , darker palette than the usual bright colors for children's work. -Jannie

boo!

This is my piece for our group postcard. It's the first junk a doodles piece I had to do away from the studio so that was a challenge. I had to sit with my grandmother one day so I loaded up my tote bag with paint and junk and took it with me. I wish I had kept my sketch but I ended up using the paper to paint and glue on so it went in the trash :(

Halloween mailer

We just sent out a new promo postcard, and the theme this time was Halloween. Here's my illustration along with my sketch. The sketch is a quick one, made in Photoshop, and the final illustration is painted with acrylic paints. I wish that owl was my pet, he looks so soft.

Sketching away a creative block

Getting over creative blocks is something you have to get good at when you're in school or working and a deadline looms. Art classes were a place for me to learn to just going ahead even if I didn't feel inspired. I discovered that things sometimes look crummy for the first few hours because your mind is still in that left brain judgmental mode. When you're running around in the world trying to get things done it can become hard to turn it off. But if you keep working things can suddenly improve as you get lost in the process. By getting lost I mean the creative right brain kicks in and you stop trying to do something perfect and just enjoy sketching or painting.

This is a page from my sketchbook with the sketch for our current Halloween promotion. Earlier today I didn't feel inspired and couldn't come up with any clever ideas while thinking about it. So I just started doodling and the sketch evolved and now I quite like it. I was procrastinating about doing this, but once I got into it I didn't feel like stopping so I added a little sketch for one of the other blogs I post on, "Picture bookies", with the theme "asleep". And finally a little elf that may show up around Christmas!

Creative blocks

Here's a few tips that may help you out of those creative blocks:

1. Look at art you admire (look at books, visit websites you like, read interviews etc.)
2. Take the day off and go to an exhibition or just for a walk in the nature (maybe you can take a camera with you)
3. Try something new (experiment with different mediums and don't care about the results - just have fun)
4. Look at your old sketchbooks and see how your work has improved
5. Read a book about creativity