Bootcamp time!

And here is the last post about the past February!
Let's talk about my adventure that are going to continue until July: MATS Assignment Bootcamp!

Bootcamp is an extension of the Make Art That Sells course that I did last year (you can see my reviews here and here).
From the Bootcamp I get an assignment per month as a big opportunity to make good pieces thinking about the market and improve the portfolio.
Every month Lilla gives a theme, a market to focus, wisdom words and a lot of inspiration!

The February's theme was Cuckoo clock and the market inspiration iphone cases.
I love the theme. A cuckoo clock  made part of my childhood so my first sketching was based on it.

And then, I fly a little bit around my imagination...

And the final piece submission. I used new colours, very different from my usual palette.
It was very fun!

Next post we will advance to March! Phew! What a month February!
But I did love every week! :)

See you soon!

xx
Malu

My first Greeting Card order!

Hello time travellers!
Let's continue our news from February!

I have exciting news: I had my first Greeting Card order! Yay!
He liked one doodle from my #365doodles project (daily on my Instagram) and order a special greeting card with it.

I got surprise that a doodle could attract the attention this way! I was petrified at the beginning thinking if I should make a more-finished-version before print the card.  But in the end I just add some colour touch and keep it as original. I really like the result!

digital version based on the doodle

Talking about result: Print a card,  prepare to send to a real client was the best experience I had in ages! I can't describe enough how much happy and proud of myself for getting so far and have discovered my path.

home pictures before sending

The other consequence of receiving a doodle order is that I got nervous about my next doodles! But of course, the daily routine makes everything less overthinking. :)

Thank you so much for sharing this moment with me!

I can't wait to print more and more cards! I plan to dedicate full time about this on July!
Stay tune! ;)

See you tomorrow with the last news from February!

xxx
Malu

AB Photography

Hello dear time traveller!
As I said yesterday, this week is about the past. It's all about February!

One of the most fab time I had last month was creating the logo for AB Photography!
Andrea Hunter and Bia Carrato are two very talented photographers that are starting their own photo business. Exciting, right? I know!

Let me share some of my inspiration for this logo.
They asked me something with floral but modern.
For a business like photography, it's important to remember that they use the logo as watermark in photos. So that's what I had!
And here is my thinking during the creation!
My first step was the floral. I want to make a flower that was not exactly the focus point but a very delicate touch. To keep it delicate, I look for very small flowers as inspiration. I realised that only photographers capture the details of the tiny ones, with the macro lens. The flower has a stem, that reminds a tree, giving the little big business meaning.
The second step was the definition of the lettering. It should be strong, because, well, it's a business after all and people need to trust on the service. I decided for some modern typography but with some hand lettering feeling, because, it's all about two people behind the business witch means a very personal work, made for real people.
The colour palette is based on their favourite colours.

I enjoy every minute of this process. The client, the research, the creation. Very good timeI love the result! I'm so happy for being part of this process and make my contribution for their success path! 

If you are curious about their beautiful work go check the site:

www.andreaandbiaphotography.com

and facebook page! 

fb/AB-Photography

And if you live in Canada, please give yourself a photo session with them! It's always good have special portraits at home! 

See you tomorrow with the February update sequence!

xx

Malu

February courses

Take a ride on my time machine: Let's talk about February!
How a month with so few days could be so full in my schedule?
Oh right, I took a lot of classes!

It has been really fun and a little bit overwhelming too. I miss some spare time just for doing what I want. Ok let's face it, I will be complaining about not being inspired, bla bla.
So let me share the results of some courses! :)

101 Faces with Carla Sonheim 
The most inspiring course  I took! The purpose of the course was to draw 101 faces using different materials, in one week. Very intense and for a person overthinking like me, it was a leap of faith about my skills.  I worked with very new materials for me like: pan pastel, charcoal, conte crayon and airbrush acrylic. Every day there were 2 challenges involving different material and technique. Here is my review of this week of pure joy.

Day 1: 2 line-drawing portraits from life using my non-dominant hand. I watched videos to capture the "from life" feeling. It's not the ideal, I know, but well, they are live there. One is the teacher Carla and the other is Sir Paul McCartney from a long interview. (After this interview I got crazy with his new album, listening non-stop!).  The other exercise was to create faces from imagination using watercolor and pencil. I'm new with watercolor and just LOVE IT.

Day 2: This day was my control-freak nightmare. The challenge was do blind contour drawings from photo references but can "cheat" looking a couple of times. The second one was do ink portraits from photo too. I love this. I think the ink gives a very cool touch! (The video above shows how cool it is!)

Day 3: The assignments were do one-liners portraits from a single photo reference and 2 drawings using a black watersoluable crayon. Very cool results! One-liners give a very artistic touch!

Day 4: Do quick scribbly drawings from live models. Again I used the video as reference (this time from Creative Mornings ) And the painting exercise was a very different one for me: create drawings for my imagination using an eraser as my primary tool. I got very impressed with this day results. Much better than I imagine.

Day 5: And for the last day, sketches from a photo reference using colored pencils and stylized drawings using Charcoal and Conté crayon. As a bonus, I did some faces with pan pastel from imagination! Pan Pastel is fantastic! It's crayon but in powder! I love make some cheeks with it in every drawing I made! :)

Now the other February classes:

Principles of Good Design e Illustrator: Illustration with Alma Loveland - Nicole's Classes
I love Alma Loveland classes! She is very good teacher! The classes were very helpful. It's always good to refresh some design theory and improve the technical skills on Illustrator. I always end the classes feeling more confident and valuable shortcuts.
It's embarrassing to admit but I'm not good on doing the homework from her courses. I can't explain. I just... have nothing to show. But I highly recommend! :)

That's it for today! Tomorrow I'll tell other good news from February!
We have a lot of news to catch up this week!

See you tomorrow!

xx
Malu