Welcome!

Thank you for joining us in making art! This workshop is aimed at developing content that is ready to be seen by potential buyers. Whether you have a large or small portfolio, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you come with a willingness to do your best and have fun with it.

Each month, I provide a topic, ideas, inspiration boards and helpful tips along the way. You….. you will be letting your creative juices flow and create artwork submissions you want the whole world to see.

Suggested Approach

There is one month to get your submissions ready (on most workshops). That’s a tight timeframe, so it is important to hit the ground running! As a manager for years, I know the biggest cause of delays in projects is not getting started on time. Seriously, I am not the only one who knows this…. Mark Twain wrote “The secret of getting ahead is getting started“.

I suggest the following approach to getting ready for this workshop:

• Buy a notebook and a sketchbook (or pull one out of your art stash and dedicate it to this workshop for the next month).
• Set up a work area where you will work on these assignments.
• Block out time to work on this project each week.

The above three steps are very important. If you make this part of your routine, you will get it done. This is a new program. If you don’t already have a routine of making art daily or of participating in courses and self improvement, this will take a bit of effort to work into your life. Do it now.

• Decide which markets you want to target with your submission(s). Some target market options are outlined in the workshop instructions. We will take multiple submissions, so there is no need to limit yourself to a single market.
• Day 1: Read through the class materials and browse the inspiration boards
• Days 1-3: Create your own inspiration board(s)
• Days 1-3: Brainstorm ideas in your notebook
• Days 1-3: Sketch concepts in your sketchbook
• Days 3-7: Pick at least one of your ideas and finish it! This means getting one concept from idea to finished in the first week. I recommend doing this because it pushes you to get started. Even if it is not your best piece, you have three more weeks to rework anything that wasn’t perfect and to create new art.
• Weeks 2 & 3: Each Sunday, select which pieces you will work on during the week and set time aside to do so during the week. Then.. do it!
• Week 4: I recommend getting the bulk of the artwork done during the first three weeks and then spending week 4 doing any computer work that till needs to be done. We all know how technology can be a black hole….. So, make sure you leave enough time to tweak things at the end, add a little something special that you forgot, think about arrangements, and so on.

Alright, now that I gave you my two cents on how you can dive into this workshop, if you have your own way of doing things, do that! These are just suggestions, and we all have a different way of working.

A Word About Resolution

Please make sure you work is saved in high resolution (vector or at least 300 dpi). Also, please back up your work.

All submissions to the studio will be in low resolution (72 dpi .jpg files).

All files should be named as follows: <Last Name>-<First Name>-<Artwork Name>-YYMMM