May Newsletter 🌼
Bologna, Editor's Pick Prize, and Upcoming Lives
Happy May!
If you’re new to the Monthly Newsletter, welcome! This newsletter on the first of the month is a space to share and reflect about the previous month.
I’ll share my updates below, but what I really love is hearing what you’ve been up to. So please feel free to share in the comments!
What I have for you this month:
Commissions:
I was honored to draw this wedding map for a friend’s upcoming wedding 🥰 I have some spots open for the summer months if you’re looking for a map, pet portrait, or even a pattern for cool products like tea towels or wallpaper!
Recordings from Live Events
Watch now - Illoguild Live: Recapping the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Watch now - Art Gym: Emotions Workshop
Weekly Artist Newsletters:
In case you missed any posts, here’s what I wrote about last month:
Get an annual subscription for $50 to get 6 drawing workshops and all the things in the Library!
The price increases next month, so subscribe now to lock in this price!
Upcoming Live Events:
Illoguild Live | May 20 - 4 PM EDT / 9 PM GMT / 4AM MYT / 6 AM AEST
(open to all subscribers)
The guild will be sharing about networking and how we make connections with illustrators, publishers, and others in the industry. Basically… it’s all about how we make friends!
If you have any questions about this topic, feel free to post them in the comments or send them via email by replying to this post.
Art Gym: Poses Workshop | Wednesday May 15 at 11 AM EDT / 4 PM GMT / 11 PM MYT
(open to paid subscribers)
Join Adam Ming and me in our fifth Art Gym workout! We have tons of good stuff to share with you about drawing poses. We’ve already thought of some activities, and we can’t wait to sketch with you! If you’re a paid subscriber, use the button below to sign up:
Updates from last month:
Bologna Children’s Book Fair
I’m sure you’ve already heard so much about the fair, so I’ll just share some fun pictures :) Some highlights included popping over to Florence for dinner with all the loveliest illustrators, receiving a signed copy of Tiny Dogs from
, getting two books signed by , meeting Felicita Sala, running the Florence half marathon, and enjoying tons of delicious pastries, coffee, and spritzes!
Top Pick by Porter & Brawn
Porter & Brawn, a trend insight and concept studio, selected their favorite designs amongst all the submissions from a class I’m taking. The top four designs in each category were selected, and they chose my pattern as a top pick for the Boisterous Blooms category!
You can read the article here!
Porter and Brawn wrote this about the top pieces:
“We love being a part of Winter School and it’s always fantastic to see so many different concepts which shows how well each designer has responded with an individual direction based upon a strong understanding of the original brief and crucially their own further research.
Never an easy task, but we have highlighted designs which not only grabbed our attention but also demonstrated commercial viability and perfectly answered the brief.”
Commercial viability! That sounds great! But you know what’s funny about this one being selected? It’s the one I did in the final hour before the deadline. I was rushing and coloring so fast. It’s completely digital, even though I spent tons of time working traditionally for the other 5 submissions. Having my most rushed design selected as a top pick has me thinking:
It doesn’t matter what medium you work in.
Maybe working quickly allows me to be more intuitive and stop me from overworking pieces. How do I do this without the pressure of a deadline?
But I was super pumped to see one of my designs was chosen, so thank you Porter and Brawn!!
Editor’s Pick Prize
This card won the Editor’s Pick Prize for a Minted Design Contest! I originally made this card for my mom’s birthday, and it’s inspired by all the roosters in Key West. I figured why not submit it for the contest, and now it will be available for others to buy! I’ll keep you updated on the timeline and when it’s officially launched on Minted’s website.
Rejection Round-up
Alright, after those two really cool wins, here are all the rejections I also received in April: I lost 3 design contests. Two residencies ghosted me. I was rejected from an art show. I was rejected from a big grant opportunity. My pattern was not selected for a journal cover competition.
When I told my dad about the two wins amongst all the “losses,” he compared it to a batting average in baseball. Hitting the ball 25% of the time is considered pretty good, so hey, I’ll say winning a contest 25% of the time is pretty good too! Out of the 8 competitions/submissions I entered, I won or was selected for 2 of them, which is 25%. I can’t expect my art to be liked by everyone all the time, so it’s important to submit and share my work in a variety of places. I’ve learned that casting a wide net is the way to go.
I made a complete pattern collection!
I made my first full pattern collection, which is pretty exciting! Until this past month, I’ve been creating sets of 3-4 patterns that go together, but thanks to the class I’m in, I was able to put together an entire collection. It was a ton of work to get all of this together, so I’m really happy I get to share it with you. Here it is:
I created this pattern from what began as doodles. I was pressed for time before the deadline, so I used my doodles as the final artwork! Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow and see what happens.
Monthly Pup-date
Both of us are very excited about the warm weather and getting outside to run!
That’s all for this month!
How about your month? How did all your art go? Did you also attend Bologna? Share in the comments!
See you next week for the monthly
question,Katie
PS - Since I was sharing some wins above, how about this one: There are 650 of you here! Isn’t that cool? Thank you for joining me on this journey! And if there’s ever a topic you’d like to hear about, please feel free to send it to me. I’d love to write about it!
P.S. Your pattern collection has me drooling (metaphorically) and the colour palette is absolutely perfect. 😍
Well done on fitting a half marathon into your trip, just casually. 😁
I am jealous of two things: meeting Felicita Sala, and the coffee & pastries. 😋