MATS Home Decor Weeks 1 + 2

When I heard about the newest Make Art That Sells course about designing a home decor collection- i had to sign up. I'm two weeks in and I'm trilled that I did! It's making my brain work in different ways- rather than just creating the illustrations- i get to think about specific products that could be made with my art on it! Week one focused on metal with birds- here's what I came up with:

This one came together so fluidly- birds+triangles+bird sounds+a few flowers all with a fairly limited color palette. Week 2 was fabric with flowers week. I knew I wanted to push myself and show MORE! I started here:

I was feeling happy about this one- light and airy, very neutral. But then I got a push from Lilla to consider varying the density of my patterns. I realized I had illustrated a lot of stem-y botanicals and didn't have much counterpoint to the airy/neutral side. So we went to this:

Getting better...I like how the lettering in the dark grey tea towel relates to week one. But I was still hating on my table lamps and rick rack. So here is where I landed next:

Since there are quite a few different bits and pieces in this- my goal was that you could pick any 3 and they would relate in some way. I love how the hanging lamp turned out- very neutral but dense. Probably the most fun thing was thinking about trims and pom poms and MEGA pom poms! But this version was a bit too busy- like there were one or two too many elements. So i tweaked and nudged till i got this:

and now i'll step fully away. (at least for a few hours) ;)

MATS Week 4 - Wall Art

I am in disbelief that four weeks have already gone by. Last week was wall art- I challenged myself to stay away from my typical process of paint/scan/photoshop collage/edit/add detail. I wanted to do it all by hand. I found last week fun, invigorating, agonizing, and difficult. For some reason- even though this was supposed to be our "free and easy" week- I really struggled. We each had a color scheme based on our bday (mine was blue/green), we needed it to be square, abstract, include some floral imagery, and a word or phrase. We were also encouraged to use collage elements. To me this felt like more "restrictions" than the previous week's "illustrate Tortoise & Hare, use hand-lettering" assignment. But I can see how many people found the wall art more enjoyable.

I'll show you what I ended up with- and then the steps that got me there...

There are many layers of gesso on this bad-boy- but I actually really like how it turned out. Although it feels different than my other work- it still has aspects of it that resonate with the other pieces. One of the hardest things for me was choosing a word. I didn't want to go super-inspirational and I didn't want to go too obscure. "Forage" fell perfectly in the middle between "Discover" and "Paidia & Ludus" (hub's suggestion). 

I started three canvases at once- all covered in a patchwork of green/blue inky squares. Here are parts of the two that did not make the cut:

There are elements in each that I like- but I'm so pleased with the minimal imagery and maximal texture I was able to get in my finished piece. I'm currently in the home stretch of week 5- can't wait to show you how this Make Art That Sells part A ends up!

Also- if you haven't seen my website update (full of new work)- check it out HERE!

Gold teeth

So I am usually not one to try and follow trends, but can I help it if I am loving the gold/white/black yumminess that's going on in the design world?! I've added these two new 5x7 symbolic teeth prints to my Katie Vernon etsy shop. One's kinda roundy and one's kinda not as roundy. Each have one gold-leafed tooth. They remind me of my bestie Mary- who proudly rocked a silver tooth from age 2 to 7! They also remind me of this...

...which is kinda great. 

can't decide

Just can't decide if I like these collections of plants better as black/white or pink/blue. I mean...pink AND blue!

even more botanicals

more botanicals

A few more botanicals from the show- but don't worry...there's even more to come! I love the graphic quality of these- also I didn't use specific references...sometimes it's fun to make up/reinterpret plants. Guess which one I call the "chicken paw."

NEW illustrations!

bronte! (so sad)
signs of the beard

frank dreams of mountains
bearded acorns!

Basically I have been focusing on simple lines and loads of texture. My canvases have been mostly strange wood items that I find at Goodwill (cheap AND interesting). Most of these will probably make it onto my "real" website soon (cross your fingers).

graphic-y things

This is a tray that I made for my sister from an old baking sheet. It has a layer of resin on it. The red side is a fun surprise for the bottom. Also here are a few logo options that I developed for SolarPowerRocks.com. I might win an ipod nano for these babies!

Thank yous

This was a thank-you card that I made for some friends who got married in Chicago. They wanted something that had to do with the city. Since they are a younger couple I created a more whimsical, simple skyline for them.

Whale Face

acrylic/gouache/colored pencil on board

I really enjoy this piece. It is simple, has a lot of breathing room, but also has an almost disturbing feel to it.