Commissions

I am still busy beavering away at creating wonderful creatures for a lovely commission which made me think that maybe I should share a few other commissions I have done…So…
This one was commissioned by a friend of a friend to celebrate her sisters first book

It was quite scary but very exciting to do as the background is actually based on the cover of the book. The mouse at the typewriter is the lady writing her book.

I had so much doing this one! My brief was to create a Christmasy painting and a few cards of the family drawn as their nicknames.

The lovely lady loved it so much that she wanted a load more cards printed so she could send them out to all her friends and family.
This still tickles me pink when I look at it! 🙂

What comes after Christmas? Valentines! Squeee!

My brief was to ‘cartoonise’ this couple, I had some photographes to go from and this is the result! I really love this as it is so cute and colourful! 😀

It is so exciting and slightly scary creating other peoples ideas and bringing them to life. I love it! 😀

100 Day Goal – 1st May

This is going to be my third time doing the 100 Day Goal by Julia Bickerstaff. I love doing it as it really helps me focus and stops me panicking, flapping, feeling overwhelmed and getting disappointed in myself. You set yourself a main goal and then spend the 100 days learning about and working on micro-actions to reach your goal. Sometimes the goal and/or micro-actions will change on the way…But that is OK…It’s keeping the dream. Working on it as much as you can. Keeping the focus.
There is an awesome  Facebook group for the 100 Day Goal where everyone is so lovely, helpful and supportive that it inspires you to keep going and also makes you feel okay if you feel like you are getting behind or failing in your goals.

The first time I did it, my goal was to sell enough Christmas cards to pay for the new ones I was illustrating to be printed. At times I thought I was never going to get there but I stuck it out and actually made my goal happen. Plus I did a commissioned Christmas card design aswell 🙂

Second time, my goals were a bit vague I guess but made sense to me. I have so many plans of what I want to make it really helps having it all written down. My main goal was to start getting the things I want to move my artwork forward, making it into a finished product; wooden boxes to paint on, frames fr my paintings and to start a selection of any occasion cards. Near the end of the 100 days I really thought I wasn’t getting anywhere until I sat down and looked though all my notes and scribbles and I realised I was reaching my goal. I was right where I had (kinda) planned to be 🙂

This time round will be a carry on from my last goal…having the finished products like my paintings available in mounts and/or frames, my little characters painted onto trinket and jewellery boxes, more occasional cards. I am very excited! 😀 So much so I already have a rough idea of my goal for my fourth time round! Squeeeeeeeee! 😀

 

Meanwhile, while I have been busy hatching plans these little guys seem to be having all the funs! Really?! *sigh* 😉

 

 

Busy Little Doodler

Remember my last post about doing #marchmeetthemaker ? So yeah…think I managed about half of the posts on instagram…Well done to those that managed the whole month!!

I have been pretty busy though, I have a huge on-going commission that I am working on and loving every minute of it! I don’t really want to say more at the moment so Shhh…and apart from failing to do all of #marchmeetthemaker, here is a little update of what else I have been up too…
I have started on some new cards that can be used for any occassion. These are A5 in size and adorable…

This little card is currently waiting to be photographed and then listed for my Etsy store. Though if you are too impatient to wait for me to do that then you just drop me a message as it is available to purchase.

These three little cuties are waiting to be scanned and printed as cards.

New doodles in my sketch book!
I really love these, I am thinking of maybe doing them as cards and framing the originals to sell aswell. The unicorn one, especially as that would look awesome in a nursery room, don’t you think?

Oh and look my three little characters are still causing mischief…I have no idea what they are up too here!! *sigh*

 

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Marchmeetthemaker

I am attempting #marchmeetthemaker this month, I tried last year and think I managed most…some…of the month.
It’s an instagram challenge to help tell your business story thoughout the month of March with the help of a handy planner of themes to post each day.
It is so much fun seeing other crafters stories and I have a lot of studio envy from seeing crafters workspaces yesterday.
Here my posts so far, I will come back to this here through the month and lets see how well I do! Squeeeeeeeeeeeee! 😀

Day 1 was all about yourself – Here is me! I’m Lianne and by day I am a Librarian and by night, I am a pj wearing, unicorn obsessed, doodler. I love painting cute and whimsical creatures and dream of one day doing this full time.

 

 

Day 2 Favourite thing to make 😊
I think it has to be these guys…Sprouty, Mouse and Kitty. They kinda appeared for #inktober with their pumpkin antics and just hung around and became my life in the form of doodles. I love them

 

Day 3 was workspace 😊 My little lounge is my workspace, I tend to sit on the floor doodling eventually trapping myself with everything into a small space

 

 

 

 

Day 4 Tools 😊 this little pot holds my pencils, pens and brushes (when they are not spread all over my floor which most are 😉 )

Sprouty Mouse and Kitty

So…I told you last time about my three favourite little characters I doodled through Inktober and how they got quite a little following. I fell in love with them so much, I can’t stop doodling them and they have actually become part of my life! Sprouty, Mouse and Kitty the cat. They join in in all my adventures and have their own adventures!

They found a magical land through this door and when I went to Venice for a long weekend, they came too!

They have their own weekends and get up to much mischief!

And this is them becoming a birthday card!

I am also working on some other ideas for cards and little paintings in frames. These are two little doodles in my sketchbook.

New year, New plans *EXCITE*

Crikey! I haven’t been here since June! Sorry! I hope to much more frequent this year but I haven’t been idle, I have been so busy doodling in that time.
2016 was my first year at actually making my doodles into a little business, I have learnt a lot in that time, I also had quite few commissions! Squeeeeeeee!

I spent most of summer creating new Christmas cards, I ended up with 8 new designs and they were a big hit! I have to say myself, they were the best I have done so far and sold really well. I really loved packaging them for everyone and all my pops to the post office to send them on their way.

Then came Inktober; where you do an ink drawing a day throughout October. I have been joining in on that for a couple of years and it is an awesome motivator. This year I concentrated on three little characters; a girl – Sprouty, a mouse – Mouse and Kitty the Cat and their little halloweenie, pumpkin activities. It was such fun to do and the three little characters gained quite a following!

Since then I have been re-thinking on how to make my work more wantable, more sellable. My cards sell well so why don’t I do other occasion cards! Yay! I have done three so far.

I am currently working on another couple of commissions. I really love getting comissions and creating other people’s ideas.

Other new plans are to start creating little paintings in frames where parts of  the painting carries on onto the frame, if there are flowers or stars or something like that they go on the frame as well. I also want to paint little characters onto wooden boxes which can be used for treasures, jewellery, pencil cases. All different sizes and shapes of boxes.
I am very excited for this new year and my new plans and will keep you updated on my progress.

Me

All through my twenties I painted like a crazy little doodler. I painted in Gouache, mastering the art of it. I painted beautiful ladies, mermaids and fairies. They took me forever to do. My style was similar to manga and comic books. But then, as it does, life took over and I stopped painting for…I guess…almost ten years. It broke my heart to not paint but I lost my confidence, I lost my ability to paint. I lost myself. Well, that is how it felt. Every so often I would pick up a pencil or paint brush and I would fail to do what I used to do. I had changed, my focus was different. My lifestye was different. It hurt to keep trying.

My OH convinced me to ty a different style, maybe try watercolours…I had never used them before so had no idea how to paint with them. One day my best friend gave me some descriptions of some cute little characters that she wanted drawing and all of a sudden my head exploded with images and ideas. I hadn’t felt this for so long it felt amazing! I doodled, I painted, I got to grips with watercolours and Ta Da! A whole new world of cuteness appeared in my sketchbook. I couldn’t stop and still can’t. I feel whole, again but with a new style and new way of painting.

I taught myself to use watercolours, I created all of the cuteness and whimsy and then…confidence created this…

My beautiful mermaid, finally I feel like I am bridging the gap between how I used to paint and how I paint now and it feels GOOD! 😀

Hatchlings

This is little chap is all finished and now ready and waiting for a new home along with my other little creatures on my Etsy store. Isn’t he just a little cutie 🙂

DRAGONS!

While I have been busy getting all caught up in the dullness of reality, this little dude of a dragon has been patiently waiting for me to sit down with him and begin! He is such a good dragon 🙂

Meet Marvin…

Marvin doesn’t like the rain and has been hiding under his daisy…