Make Art That Sells

ahk! I'm like a nervous 3rd grader the week before school starts (who am i kidding?!- i was nervous/excited EVERY school year). Next week I am starting up Lilla Rogers's Make Art That Sells (Part A) online course. It's a big investment in both time (5 weeks for part A and 5 weeks for part B) and money. It was not an easy decision to sign up for the class- but I'm at a spot with my art where I need some directed assignments and I want to find out the best way to put my art out there for specific markets. The way the course is set up is that each week focuses on a different kind of illustration market (surface design, wall art, children's books, etc.). I've been so fortunate to not have to do much to go after the jobs I've gotten- people have found me. But I also realize that this might not last forever and I don't want to be sitting around, making art, and not knowing how to present it to specific markets. So in I go!

One of my main concerns going in is that I'll come out of this course with 10 strong pieces that don't feel like Katie Vernon. I've been doing loads of sketching/painting/playing this past week to work out my art muscles and try to figure out what that aesthetic is (more on that in another post).

Thankfully the other week I met with Emily Balsley - a fellow illustrator and kindred spirit in Madison who went through MATS A+B and survived. She had an overall great experience with it, met a wonderful online community of artists through it, and has done great things with what she learned. Yay Emily!

Anyhoo- I'm going to be blogging weekly about the course/my process/finished pieces. So stay tuned!

(the ship illustration above is a combination of various illustrations/sketches that I've done over the past 5 years- it was fun/challenging to try to piece them together)