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