I was concerned a jack o’lantern by itself might make for a boring illustration, but is this guy boring? I don’t think so!
A letter a day: J is for jack o’ lantern
Category: art
A letter a day: H is for haunted house
I did this one in the same sequence as yesterday’s piece for the letter G: laid in the basic colors and shapes in Illustrator, painted in ArtRage, add finishing touches in Photoshop, then dropped the final illustration back into my template in Illustrator.
A letter a day: G is for graveyard
It was kind of interesting to watch this one develop, so I thought I’d post the stages it went through:
Stage 1, the pencil sketch:
Stage 2, the basic shapes and colors established in Illustrator:
Stage 3, adding paint in ArtRage:
Stage 4, adding texture and other finishing touches in Photoshop:
And finally back into Illustrator to drop it into my alphabet template:
A letter a day: F is for Frankenstein’s feline friend
Because even monsters need friends.
A letter a day: E is for eyes
A collection of spooky Halloween eyes:
A letter a day: D is for dark night
I love how my smiling, spooky tree turned out, thanks in large part to this –> tree bark tutorial on deviantart:
Here’s another great art licensing resource: it’s not free but it’s a steal at just $2.99. It’s Kate Harper’s 20 Steps to Art Licensing, and it’s another one of my favorite resources. It’s a no-nonsense, straight to the point guide for breaking into art licensing. She literally lays out what you need to do in 20 concise steps. You really can’t go wrong for $2.99. Kate also has a great blog with a list of companies that license art here.
A letter a day: C is for cat
A letter a day: B is for bones (plus a link to a great art licensing resource)
Every day, I’m convinced I can’t, and every day, I do it.
I promised I would start sharing some of my favorite resources for art licensing, and here’s the first one: How to Create a Sell Sheet for Artists eGuide by Natalie Timmons. It’s free, it’s concise, it’s detailed, and it is incredibly useful; it’s the best guide I’ve found for creating sell sheets for your art licensing collections. And did I mention it’s FREE!?
A letter a day: A is for apparition
On to the 2nd alphabet: Halloween and “A is for apparition.” I have to confess, every day I’m mildly panicked at the prospect of actually coming up with a piece that I’m proud to share, and yet, so far, I’ve managed to pull it off every day for the last 27 days. Maybe I can really do this.
When I started this daily challenge, it was just to challenge myself to make something every day and post it for the world (or at least my family) to see. I quickly realized it would be a great way to develop collections of art for licensing, and of course, holidays are huge in the world of art licensing. The monster alphabet was a great place to start; I feel like it was something of a warm-up, proof to myself that I could stick with a daily art-making plan, and I’m pretty excited to be starting on this Halloween collection.
As I go along, I’m going to write more about what I’m learning about art licensing; I’ve found some really great resources, and I’m going to start sharing those, as well as chronicling my journey toward building a licensing portfolio and becoming a licensed artist. Stayed tuned!
A letter a day: Z is for zombie
BRAINS!!! It was more challenging than I expected to make a zombie that was more comical than creepy; the first one I did really just looked liked a dead guy. Not cool. Anyway… I like this funny-looking zombie a lot and I have to say I’m quite proud of myself for doing the entire alphabet and not missing a single day.
Tomorrow, the Halloween theme begins with A for apparition!
