Global Talent Search 2014 Competition!

Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search  2014

I've officially thrown my art into the ring - Hoping to be 1 of the 50 semi-finalists in Lilla Rogers' 2014 Global Talent Search Compettiton.  There are 999 entries in the 1st round. so - if my math is correct, that means if you're selected as a semifinalist that means you're amongst the top 5% of really amazing illustrators. Needless to say the competition is fierce!

The brief for round 1: create a piece of wall art - theme of mini-terrariums. Piece Must include type - may be hand lettered. Any medium allowed. Art Size : 7 x 9". Presentation size: 8 x 10". We all received our brief on August 4th and the deadline was August 18th, 12 noon EST about 2 weeks to create wonderfullness.

I am so glad that the brief for the first round was something that I have an affinity for. Loved the idea of mini- terrariums and plant images that this brief conjured up. The only bugaboo was the type /lettering part. Not the act of hand lettering mind you but deciding what the word or words will be. Found this part the most vexing.

Sorry but I can't show my piece publicly until the GTS 2014 Gallery opens show casing all 999 illustrations. Which will be I assume before the 50 shortlisted artists will be announced on Tuesday Aug 26th. That's in a week! OR Perhaps it'll go public on the 26th -not really sure as the GTS crew have their work cut out for them posting all 999 illos in the gallery.  EEEEEE!!!! Very excited! I've got all my digits crossed.

MATS - May Editorial Meditation

Not Meditating © Diana Ting Delosh 5/22/14
ink, watercolor, Photoshop

The May assignment for Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells (MATS) Boot Camp was to create an editorial illustration for an article, How to meditate: A Primer For People Who Don't Like to Meditate by Grace Suh. Hence why my meditating lady has one eye sneaking a peek. She's just a wee bit distracted by her  thoughts. 

I was really excited about doing an editorial illustration in my own style. The MATS way: begin by non-threatening doodling. Continue doodling until you're nice and loose and ready to tackle anything. In doodling you find your own way to do the assignment. (My Face warm up sketches are in the previous post.) Read the article and sketch your concept. Very Zen.

40 - Not Meditating Sketch © Diana Ting Delosh 5/12/14
Ball point pen

This assignment felt like it was on familiar ground. My first out of college illustration assignment was an editorial illustration. I had landed it by happy accident as at the time I had one of those dreadful just out of school, everything and the kitchen sink portfolios. You would have thought after that bit of luck that I would've focused my portfolio on editorial art. But NO. I veered towards kid publishing and greeting cards. Partly because editorial illustration seemed to favor very graphic conceptual art and my assignment seemed to be an anomaly. Fast forward to the present:  Lilla showed samples of editorial illustrations that were not created in that ultra clean graphic style and made me realize that there was a place for my art in that market. In fact that's what's so great about MATS every assignment to date has shown me a different market and how I can apply my art/style to it. Pretty happy with my finished illo and added it to my Editorial portfolio.  Now just need to create more editorial illustration samples as I'm really excited about this potential market.

40 refers to my personal challenge, 365 Drawings 2014.

MATS - May - Faces

Make Art That Sells, MATS BootCamp is back from April break... and on the 1st monday of May, we got our mini assignment - FACES! This is a biggie - being able to illustrate people in your own fashion is important as it opens up more markets for your art.

36 - Doll Doodles © Diana Ting Delosh 5/7/14

Lilla suggests we  doodle from dolls as they have already been simplified/stylized and like photos they don't move. I'm not having an easy time doodling doll heads. I'm one of those people that find dolls a wee bit creepy.  In fact there are a whole slew of sketches that I'm not showing because they are really, really bad. No idea what the actual assignment will be yet. I suspect since Lilla mainly showed us Adult Doll images that it will be an assignment involving adults. Guessing not kids books.

37 - Three Dolly Girls Sketches © Diana Ting Delosh 5/8/14

Looked around for more Doll images and came across these friendly cloth dolls. Find these don't have the creep factor and I'm able to loosen up and enjoy the process.

38 - More Dolls Sketches © Diana Ting Delosh 5/8/14

Think I'm "getting this warm-up"  - Finally!  I'm starting to see how sketching dolls can lead to your own style of drawing people. Yup! Happy with it.

39 - dolls/Kids sketches © Diana Ting Delosh 5/8/14

Now I do draw people but I prefer drawing animals. As can be seen by my website, dianadelosh.com: 57 illustrations in the Animal portfolio while my People portfolio only has 16. Granted I could probably cull some of the animal illos  but the People portfolio could use some beefing up. So here's to doing loads more people illos and snagging more illustration commissions.

In case you were wondering, the  MAY MATS Assignment is to do an Editorial Illustration. It's actually already done as the deadline is May 25th but I will blog about the illustration process in the next post.

Numbers: 36 -39 refers to my personal challenge, 365 Drawings 2014. 

MATS - March Jelée Joy!

The March assignment for Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells (MATS) Boot Camp was to create a gelatin mold inspired bolt fabric design. We did not have to know how to do repeats although that would be a bonus. (Whew - as I don't know how to do repeats. Although I intend to learn how.) We were to focus on the icons. She also introduced us to a  nougat inspired color palette: muddy pinks, creams, pistachio green, mint, citron, etc.

Here's my design: Jelée Joy.
© Diana Ting Delosh

My Gelatin Bolt Fabric design, Gelée Joy is in the MATS March Boot Camp Gallery - it's on page 3. Feast your eyes on 8 pages of delicious art from my super talented Boot Camp mates.

I enjoyed this assignment and I believe it shows in the final art. The gelatin theme made me think happy thoughts: bright jewel colors, jiggly desserts, sweet and tart all at once. I like drawing food at least desserts. I wasn't sure about the nougat colors as I couldn't get the bright gem like tones out of my head. Decided to keep my jellies as brights and use the nougat tones in the background.

Here's my process from doodles to finish:
1 - On the first monday in March Lilla sent us our Warm-up theme: Gelatin molds. BUT the end purpose wasn't revealed until the following week. I did several doodle pages in preparation. Here's one.

A few warm up doodles
© Diana Ting Delosh

2 - Sketch - Ink - Watercolor! Began in earnest. decided to only paint the gelées and to leave the supporting cast of fruits, leaves and flowers as line art. Scan all in and arrange with Photoshop.

Jelée Joy WIP
© Diana Ting Delosh

3 - Continue layering and arranging and tweaking in Photoshop. UNTIL... DRUM ROLL PLEASE... (bouce back up to the top)  Ta Dah -  Gelée Joy!

I will be making this into a print and other items on my Society6.com/dianadelosh  store - first. But not before I tweak some more.

MATS - Cuckoo for Cell Phone Cover

Drum roll please and now for the reveal. Ta Dah! Here's my final Cuckoo cell phone cover design that I submitted to the MATS February Boot Camp Gallery.  You can view mine and my amazing class mates designs on the CLASS GALLERY. Please take a gander.

Cuckoo Cell Phone Cover Mock-up
Ink watercolor Photoshop
© Diana Ting Delosh

So what are my take aways from the class so far other than I have so much to learn and I should let loose more? Specifically:

JAZZ UP MY PRESENTATION:

To begin with I need a logo. I have an old logo from my ancient graphic design days that I have been using on my invoices etc. It looked fine on my invoices but when I put it on my mock-up page it looked so-o-o heavy & dated.  Did not match the breezy fun vibe I was aiming for. Even changing the colors to a current trendy palette did not help. As you can see I used my bird "ICON" as my logo. Will probably keep it as part of my logo but I need to work on the type. 

LOOSEN UP:

I think for March I'll doodle with my inking pens or markers from the beginning. This way I can just use it as an icon and not have to re-ink. Saves time and keeps the freshness of the original doodle.

There is no specific right way to design a cuckoo inspired cell phone cover but there are many interesting ways to do it.

To paraphrase Lilla Rogers: They Buy Your Joy!

You can view my warm-up doodles for this assignment on this previous post: MATS/February: Kookoo for Cuckoo Clocks 

Yup it's an actual cell phone cover/skin in my Online stores:
zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*  - Spring Cuckoo Clock Bird i-phone cover
society6.com/dianadelosh  - Spring Cuckoo Clock Bird i-phone skin

MATS February: Kookoo for cuckoo clocks & Drawings 23 - 28

What have I been up to lately? I signed up for Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells Boot Camp. What attracted me to this e-course was Lilla's attitude and the "doability" factor. The course is structured as 1 assignment a month, starting in February, with April off and ending in July. 5 assignments designed to help build a more commercial illustration portfolio. Sounds like just what I need.

First day of class, Feb 3 the warm-up: Cuckoo Clocks. A prompt? But I don't know what the end use will be? Find it unsettling to not know what the end game is. We are told to just have fun. So I doodle away. I even make a horrific mess with dip pens and a bottle of ink.  Discover I'm not in love with Cuckoo clocks. I like the leaves, the bird, the pine cones, the rustic, folksey vibe but not the clock.

Feb 10th - The Assignment: design a cellphone cover. OK- Now I have my end use. More doodling - this time trying to think of how it will look on a cell phone cover.  BTW the assignment needs to be handed in by Feb 23, 3pm EST time - IF I want to be part of the MATS February Boot Camp Class Gallery.

#23 - Cuckoos - 2/3/14
© Diana Ting Delosh 

#24 - Our Cuckoo - 2/4/14
© Diana Ting Delosh

#25 - everything but the Cuckoo - 2/5/14
© Diana Ting Delosh

#26 - Squirrel Cuckoo - 2/10/14
© Diana Ting Delosh

#27 - Sunflower Cuckoo - 2/10/14
© Diana Ting Delosh

#28 - Bird Flower Cuckoo - 2/10/14
© Diana Ting Delosh

Having fun with this class, doodling Cuckoo clock cell phone cover ideas. Some of these doodles won't end up on my phone cover BUT I see lots of things I want to explore further. Lilla told us to think of icons. I'm not used to thinking this way. Also not used to doing a product mock up. Have lots to ponder and learn.

So did I finish? YES - and I'll show you in my next MATS post along with the link to the Bootcamp Gallery this Tuesday 2/25! I'm really excited about viewing all my class mates work on the gallery. Can't wait until it goes public.

And whats with the numbers? # 23 -28 refer to my personal drawing challenge of 365 drawings in 2014. Yup I'm falling behind. I admit it. But I think I'll continue to keep tabs for the hell of it. Who knows the year is young and I might just catch up still. On the other hand - theres' a lot of drawing I'm not counting because I'm not able to show them as I do them. So do I feel bad that I'm not current? Nah.