Hipster Fox

I had a blast designing a series of hipster animals at work last month. Here's the link to the rest of the animals as Embroidery Designs.

http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=x11348

On the side, I've been working on a personal project with my wife. The goal is to create a theme of art prints to potentially sell on Etsy. Heidi's been so great at giving feedback about what works, what doesn't work and how to make it all go together as a set. This fox design on top was test in Adobe Illustrator to play with textures. Basically it's all grain filters and gradients. I'm liking the results and plan to apply it to the personal project.

It's been fun learning about Etsy and how it can empower creative entrepreneurs. The hardest part for me is being okay with the return rate vs. time invested in creating the art possibly being minimal. It's really about the journey though and learning more about the business side of being an artist. :)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Artist Trading Cards

(From left to right; Splinter, April, Shredder, Michelangelo,Casey Jones, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Krang, Slash, the Rat King and Foot Soldiers).

This was a personal project and labor of love that started about a year ago in an effort to go back to a time when I really enjoyed drawing. I still enjoy it, but something (at the time) felt "lost" and I wanted to go back to that time as a kid, sitting at the dinner table in the evening and not worrying about what a client wanted. Plain and simple; drawing for the fun of it.

I'm finding that there are many benefits to creative side projects. I learned a lot along the way; about art and about myself. I would also like to say a big THANK YOU to my awesome girlfriend, Heidi for her honesty and encouragement. Her thoughts, feedback and just listening to me talk (and blab) about how much I love the Turtles means a lot.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you're Holiday season is a great one.