Of Life and Dreams - MATS Boot Camp February

Of Life and Dreams © Diana Ting Delosh
Mixed media: Ink, Pencil, Digital
 Mock Journal or Book Cover

It's been awhile since I blogged, either I had nothing to blog about or something but no time to do it. At any rate, here I am. Not promising that I'll be blogging on any regular basis but hopefully more often then not. At the end of 2018 I signed up for a bunch of thing and one of them included Lilla Roger's MATS Boot Camp 2019. This is my second go round with Bootcamp. The first time was in 2014, during the months of Feb, March, May. June and July. If you're wondering, yes, you can read about my experiences in this blog's archive. I signed up this time because I felt like I wanted some assignments that would stretch me. A peek at other markets out there aside from children's book publishing. Similar to why I did it last time. Except this time around I'm at a different place with my art and I thought it might be a good time to revisit the course.

Lilla teaches by giving us a mini assignment before she gives us the brief for the main assignment. This way we get to explore a subject without being limited by the scope of the final product/project. This time around the mini was to do florals and use a specific media. My group was assigned lily of the valley and colored pencils. I hunted around my studio and found an unopened box of Derwent Inktense 12. These are colored pencils that are meant for you to wash over with water. Honestly wasn't sure about the pencils until I threw the water on it - Then I really liked working with them.

Here's one of my minis, Bunny Amongst the Lily of the Valley
© Diana Ting Delosh
Derwent Inktense Color Pencil Sketch 

February's Brief:  Journal Cover with some hand lettering as that's very trendy right now. I loved the idea of doing florals but had a hang up about type on a journal. I never buy journals with type as I always felt like they were telling me what to put in my journal. But I really wanted to do some Hand Lettering. Plus that was part of the brief. I decided to think of it more as a book cover to get over my mental block.

Of Life and Dreams © Diana Ting Delosh
Rough Pencil Sketch layout of journal / book cover. 

Here finally is my finished mock book, ahem, journal cover in the MATS BootCamp February Gallery amongst all the other lovely designs. Click on the thumbnails to see them bigger.

I had a lot of fun drawing florals for this assignment. There will be more florals in my future.

For more samples of my art check out my web portfolio at dianadelosh.com
Follow me on Twitter @dtdelosh

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards
Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

MATS - JULY - Beverage, Personal Art

I confess I couldn't wait for the assignment -maybe than we could share like usual. But the assignment was Personal Beverage Art.  And we were asked to continue not sharing so we could arrive at our personal art pieces without undue influence from fellow mates. No sharing until the July Gallery went live on July 22, 2014. Hint hint I'm on page 2.

BUT what is personal art to me? I have used the term Personal art/illo/project to refer to uncomissioned work. Self-started art created with the end purpose of submitting to editors/art directors or pumping up my portfolio or making into product/content for my POD shops. Nothing wrong with all that but was that really personal??? Yes personal  as there is only my self-imposed deadline but not really personal as I'm still hoping someone other than moi likes it.  In it's purest form I believe it should mean - art that I do just for me. Could be experimental - something I might hang up on my wall or not. Something I rarely do - but now I have this assignment... And Now for something Totally Different!

ICE CREAM SODA © 2014 Diana Ting Delosh
watercolor

Look Mom no lines! Yup - decided to be bold and daring - no sketch -no ink line - just start painting fast and furiously. Originally I had intended to do ink on an overlay and than combine with the painting in photoshop But I decided I liked it as is. Do you? I really wanted to ask my Camp mates their opinion.

I decided on ice  cream soda because it was 90º and it had the most color potential of all my 7 beverage warm -up art. And also because Ice cream sodas remind me of my mom.  See previous post, MATS - July Warm up - Beverages to see my 7 warm-ups for his assignment.

MATS -May Boot Camp Gallery

Come one come all the May Make Art That Sells, Boot Camp Gallery is  now Open for  your viewing pleasure.  Take a gander at all the wonderful editorial illustrations on Meditation. Can you find mine in the midst of 7 pages of gorgeousness? Hint, hint, mine is on page 2, dianadelosh.  To visit the Gallery Click HERE. Enjoy!

To read more about  my Meditation Illustration process please read my previous blog post.

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.