Tuesday, July 8, 2014

So excited to share a first of a few projects for Highlights!, and my wish for you in July...

Hi Everyone,
It is a joy for me to share this piece for Highlights with all of you..thank you to Bernadette Szost, my agent at the time, and to the wonderful folks at Highlights, who are a pleasure to work with! This one's titled "Wrap it Up".


July also marks the last assignment for the Lilla Rogers Bootcamp online course that I joined in May. I wanted to share these two pieces I created for Nautical Themed Wall Art that we just wrapped up in June.
In January, I started Lilla's Make Art That Sells course, and for each assignment I've discovered that I tend to have lots of ideas and concepts swimming around in my noggin', and sometimes I just "go for it" and start making. That has been very liberating for me, as I've always been kind of a control-freak about my design and illustration work. This past year, along with my personal sketch-challenge, I've tried to really loosen up. I've really enjoyed using many different mediums to create the pieces..and being able to just really pool from the tools from which we've been given to create our own artwork. The courses have been incredible..it's like riding a roller coaster of emotions, reaching the depths of no confidence in one's work "what am I even doing?", to the highs of wonderful comments from your peers, and the feeling that you've managed to create a piece that makes you feel good.

This has so far been a year of exploration and discovery for me and I am enjoying every minute of it. I'm wishing all of you a fresh new month of exploration and freedom to create art that makes you happy! Have a super July everyone!
~ Shirley

7 comments:

  1. Shirley,
    Your night/stars/swimming in the stars illo above immediately reminded me of the poem "Escape at Bedtime" by Robert Louis Stevenson. The last lines are "... But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes, And the stars going round in my head." I love this poem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nicole, many thanks for sharing this! What an honor it is to hear that my image reminded you of Mr. Stevenson's fabulous poem. Wow, such images it conjures up!

      Delete
  2. The nautical art is just my style! And it's fun to challenge ourselves in new areas! Enjoy your week! Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Diane! It really was fun..you too..have a wonderful week!
      Shirley

      Delete
  3. We just went whale watching in Massachusetts--love this! And those businesses sell whale items...just fyi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Char! Wow, lucky you..I've never been whale watching before. I'll need to try that sometime and it'll be fun to create further nautical pieces..thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  4. Are you selling this illustrations? I love so much the second one!

    ReplyDelete

December banner art by: Jennifer