A letter a day: H is for haunted house


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:


G is for graveyard stage 1 sketch

Stage 2, the basic shapes and colors established in Illustrator:


Print

Stage 3, adding paint in ArtRage:


G is for graveyard stage 3 Artrage

Stage 4, adding texture and other finishing touches in Photoshop:


G is for graveyard stage 4 Photoshop

And finally back into Illustrator to drop it into my alphabet template:


A letter a day: D is for dark night


D-is-for-dark-night-valerie-bean-illustration

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: B is for bones (plus a link to a great art licensing resource)


B-is-for-bones

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-is-for-apparition-valerie-bean-illustration

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!

Z-is-for-zombie-valerie-bean-illustration