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!

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!
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.
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:
Because even monsters need friends.
A collection of spooky Halloween eyes:
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.
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!?
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!
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!