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

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Welcome to We Love To Illustrate Studio!!!

Hello friends! We are really excited to announce that we have a new name, We Love To Illustrate Studio! This new direction is to promote the group’s love of illustration to the world. We’ll do this by sharing each of the six member’s work as well as group projects such as free downloads and printed group projects, via the internet through social media and/or from our Etsy shop. Our goal is to share our love of illustration more often, so we’ll be creating and posting once a week..more news and illustration from all of us!
A little history about our group, we are all full-time illustrators and designers from across the globe, who came together in 2010 for support, critiques, questions, and a shoulder to lean on. However, unbeknownst to us, so much more has come out of this group. The past four years have been nothing but magical as we shared our work and connected with our readers. We posted our free downloads, had a magazine feature, and received huge support from the blogging community, as well as what’s been going on behind the scenes with each of us. Since we began this group many of us have acquired representation, published books, had work shown in prestigious magazines, created toy and game designs and acquired licensing contracts for designs on various products. That brings us to the reason for our new direction, we would like to give our readers more of a behind the scenes look and share all of our exciting news and projects with you. We’ll still be creating our free downloads, as mentioned above, but it will be limited to the holidays, as well as creating collaborative products that will be sold at our Etsy shop.
We really hope you embrace this new direction with us and continue to be a part of our creative journey, and we wish to ask all of you to help us with the following:
1) update your links to:
www.welovetoillustratestudio.com, 2) follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welovetoillustratestudio, and Twitter: https://twitter.com/welovetoillo.

We look forward to communicating with all of you as we continue this fantastic journey together, celebrating our love of illustration!

All our best to you, 

The We Love to Illustrate Studio team,

Bee, Cally, Jennifer, Julissa, Nina, & Shirley


Bee
To see more of Bee's work, please visit her website.

Cally
To see more of Cally's work, please visit her website.

Jennifer
To see more of Jennifer's work, please visit her website.

Julissa 
To see more of Julissa's work, please visit her website.

Nina
To see more of Nina's work, please visit her website.

Shirley
Highlights Let's Play Hidden Pictures Book 30 Jack-a-Dandy spread
To see more of Shirley's work, please visit her website.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Happy Dad's Month!

Hi everyone! This month we created some DAD inspired art in honor of Father's Day. We also have last years free printable Father's Day cards still available. Click here to go to that post.

Enjoy and Happy Father's Day!

Shirley

 

Nina

 

Julissa

Thursday, May 1, 2014

*FREE* Printable Mothers Day Cards

Hello May! So happy to see you! Since it's now May, you know that Mother's Day is coming up on the 11th, so we have some FREE printable cards to share with you. If your Mom likes animals or flowers (and who doesn't!) you have come to the right place. Just print these out on nice 8.5" x 11" paper, then cut out the card and fold it. 

Thanks for visiting our blog and Happy Mother's Day!

xoxo Nina, Cally, Julissa, Jennifer, Shirley and Bee





Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Springtime Fun!

Happy April everyone, this is the month of Easter fun and crafts.  
We've been making Easter images, hope you enjoy them!

Cally, Bee, Shirley, Julissa, Nina and Jennifer x

Shirley

Nina

Cally

Julissa

Friday, March 14, 2014

Mid-March News

Hello everyone! It's time for some mid-month news. We have a bunch of really cool things happing right now that we'd like to share.  Thank you and Enjoy!

xo
-Bee, Cally, Nina, Shirley, Jennifer and Julissa

Bee has designed two new mug ranges for Ashdene - the 'Hippety Hop' collection and the 'Over The Hedgerow' collection. They are available for purchase now in stores around the world and online. Australian online store 'HouzeThat' has both ranges in stock: http://www.houzethat.com.au/



Julissa has a GIVEAWAY going on over at her blog of a really cute toy that she desighned the packaging for. Giveaway ends on Tuesday, March 18th 11:59 EST. To enter, please go here!

Nina designed these scrapbooking products for Hampton Art, a little while ago. They are available at Walmart and sold under the brand name Ki Memories.


She also entered this recipe for the Glad's 1X3 Illustration Recipe Party going on right now over at They Draw and Cook. For party details, please go here! Submissions must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, March 20th, 2014. 


Cally has a new book out later this month, called Rabbits Don't Lay Eggs! You can order the book here!



Jennifer's book Toe Shoe Mouse came out earlier this year. Learn more about it here!



Saturday, March 1, 2014

Chinese Zodiac - The Year of the Horse, 2014

Welcome March! This month we were inspired to illustrate horses in celebration of the Chinese Year of the Horse. The year of the horse is said to bring health, prosperity and good luck. Feel free to grab your favorite horse (or all) and hang them in your workspace or home for a little extra luck. To learn more about the year of the horse, please go here.

Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments. We appreciate each and everyone of you. Wishing you and your family a prosperous and healthy year!

xo
-Bee, Cally, Nina, Shirley, Jennifer and Julissa

Bee
Cally

Nina

Shirley

Jennifer

Julissa


December banner art by: Jennifer