bright lights

a quick illustration I painted for seed packets I'm making to send to a few friends of my favourite cheery yellow & orange cosmos bright lights + a few photographs of a teeny bouquet & another favourite of mine - dear, sweet Oliver 


She understands now what she, in all her worry, had forgotten. That even as she hesitates and wavers, even as she thinks too much and moves too cautiously, she doesn't always have to get it right. It's okay to look back, even as you move forward. Jennifer E. Smith

magic

how does this magic happen ? how does the simple layered paper collage become the finished luscious mixed media piece ?

trust, faith, courage & desire = magic
that's how it happens - more on the visual step-by-step process here

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, 
you cease for ever to be able to do it. 
J. M. Barrie/Peter Pan 

One of the things on my multi category to-do, want-to-do, must-do list for the remainder of this year is to teach another live collage/mixed media workshop or 2 in the fall - stay tuned if you live nearby + for those of you who don't I'm working on downloadable, work at your own pace, keep forever tutorial e-courses - a few of my favourite things. 1. a lil' collage owl tutorial ($10-15.) complete with patterns, techniques & materials lists 2. a typographic tutorial collage + hand-drawn/painted letters - perfect for posters, cards, scrapbooking/memory keeping or for adding into a mixed media piece - ($10-15) also complete with patterns, techniques & materials lists & 3. an in-depth mixed media art tutorial e-course along with tips, techniques, exercises & materials I'll also tackle the big question raised above the creative block dilemma ... how do you get from there to here, here being a place where you're satisfied with the outcome + lots of reasons that being happy with the outcome is not the only really the goal - uh huh - ($30-40) I can't wait to get these tutorials together, always something buzzing here at the TTD*

+ I believe this next statement with all my heart ...

Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic. Laini Taylor

*TTD teak topped desk - I like it when I make bold, e-course tutorial, semi-committments here on the blog 'cause maybe ...

art + product = licensing

Art to product - my collage art licensed on some fantastic new products & for some amazing companies - Art Hearts (my heart ornament very top left) Demdaco & I'm one of 6 artists in Midwest/CBK's new line called Beautiful Soul - this is the cover of the Beautiful Soul catalogue and all three pieces are mine - woo hoo !! very thrilling & a part of my master plan ;-)

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is 
the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try 
again tomorrow. Mary Anne Radmacher

I love this quote & really relate to it - I LOVE a brand new day for the chance to try again & again 
& again if necessary - it is the secret of my success - I don't give up easily ;-)

Listen here to a great interview with Margo Tantau VP of Creative at Midwest/CBK, the Beautiful Soul collection & she mentions my name (!) + talks about how to make it in this creative business.

weekend words

from my No.1 artist/creative entrepreneur hero & inspiration - Miss Katie Daisy - she just had a baby !

happy summer

this sunshiny design at MagnetWorks in a variety of garden products including large size flags ! + 8 x 10 giclee prints here

The Summer Day 

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear? 
Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean – 
the one who has flung herself out of the grass, 
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, 
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down – 
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. 
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. 
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. 
I don't know exactly what a prayer is. 
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, 
how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, 
how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. 
Tell me, what else should I have done? 
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? 
Tell me, what is it you plan to do 
with your one wild and precious life? 

Mary Oliver

Heading out to the garden any moment now, trimming, clipping, planting, transplanting and getting my hands very dirty. Sundays are the best days, Sundays are the days when I do pretty much whatever strikes my fancy. On of those Sunday fancies is to sit later on in our backyard forest with the dogs (Sam & Winnie) and of course Itsy Bitsy Betty and plan my 2014 SummerTime Bucket list - between 10-20 want to do summertime things. Things like swim in the ocean _ times, have a grilled sausage on a bun with fried onions, have fish n' chips from the Chips Away truck in Wallace Bay ....

It should be a very fun list to compile. What's on your summertime bucket list ?
oh & have a very happy first summertime Sunday ;-)

what's NEW ?

2015 Lil' Owl Trio calendar - I'm planning on having at least 4 NEW 2015 calendars available in my Etsy shop by fall :-)


The only real voyage of discovery 
consists not in seeking new landscapes, 
but in having new eyes. 
Marcel Proust


What's new you may ask ? Well I have the following self directed projects lined up with a goal to complete them all by end of August. It's all very exciting & after a wee break I'm rarin' to go !

 4 new calendars (at least 4)
- this NEW 8.5x11 (folded size) lil' collage owl trio wall calendar with lots of dates/space for appts. & such
- a NEW best of my ever popular lil' collage owl calendar in the smaller 6x9 wall size
- an all NEW artwork large size 12x18 botanica calendar (+ perhaps a reprint of 2013's Botanica for 2015)
- a brand NEW illustrated lil' cat calendar 6x9 size - I know !! shut up !! Oliver, my Creative Director is stoked ;-)
+ new shop stuff & a press kit/promo
- a complete revamp & overhaul of my Etsy shop - with NEW products & lots of NEW art !
- a brand NEW Susan Black press kit/promo mailer - snail mail package to send to my top 20 dream customers
- a brand new Susan Black Society 6 shop* - pills, rugs, shower curtains & lots, lots more

* Flora Bowley's new Society 6 shop is amazing !

mindfulness, meditation & memoirs

editorial illustration for an article on Learning to Meditate / our May assignment in Lilla Roger's Assignment Bootcamp

Mindfulness is about training our minds to be more focused, to see with clarity, to have spaciousness for creativity and to feel connected. That compassion to ourselves, to everyone around us - that's what mindfulness is really about ... there is no work balance. We have one life. What's important is that you be awake for it. Janice Marturano - Institute for Mindful Leadership

I'm currently reading 3 memoirs, a chapter of each every bedtime. I'm re-reading Gabrielle Bernstein's - Spirit Junkie, Arianna Huffington's new & fabulous book - Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well Being, Wisdom and Wonder and Piper Kerman's - Orange is the New Black - the memoir that created the popular new NetFlix series (which I'm saving for after the book).

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself. Mikhail Baryshnikov

I've been using the tools of mindfulness & meditation in small ways every single day of my life. Practicing mindfulness & most often tiny 2-5 minute meditation breaks throughout my days (& nights) whenever I feel that feeling - that all too familiar Dread feeling. Now when I feel that feeling, a physical "oh oh" that most often begins in my stomach area ... I immediately stop what I'm doing and I try to become mindful. I breath. I focus on my breath. I sometimes put a drop of peppermint essential oil on the back of my hand and breath deeply of that exhilarating scent - that smell that has out of habit & ritual become kind of heroic to me because it chases away the Dread, nearly every single time. I'm rewiring my brain.

I have learned so, SO much about myself this past year, SO much about my mostly former (thankfully) demons Anxiety & Dread and I have learned these amazing life lessons the hard way. Either from making some seemingly serious mistakes, from stumbling and falling failing and most recently by doing some really hard things - things I really didn't believe I could do. But ... I always knew, I always know that I can try. I'm very good at trying & I do

I always try ... I love that about myself. There (gasp) I used the word LOVE & myself in the same sentence - what is the my world coming to ;-)

The meditation illustration above was meant to be just a sketch for this month's assignment. I did a line drawing first, then was inspired by Lilla's suggestion of painting 50 shades of blue - I thought I'd paint a sketch of my drawing in blues fully intending to create a much more elaborate final assignment in my go-to collage-a-go-go style - paper, paint, ink in my favourite mostly neutral (coffee, cream, black, kraft + 1 colour) palette then lovingly layered ;-) in Photoshop (my new best friend) - it just was not happening the way I wanted it to - the deadline loomed & I submitted my blue  watercolour sketch as my final. You can view the May gallery here

Our greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. William James

lilla rogers week 4

week 4 assignment - palette of pink & yellow, abstract, inspirational typography (at least one word) * flora and square in format

Week 4 of the Fabulous Lilla Rogers e-course Make Art That Sells - I submitted No.1 as my final got a wee hung up on the word "abstract"in our creative brief and felt that that more or less eliminated my typographic solution - no. 2 and No. 3 was fun - but too easy, too trendy and not really being true to "me".

It's bagpipes & highland dancers here this morning - Happy Canada Day ! from the gang at 29 Black Street here in beautiful seaside nouvelle écosse (New Scotland, Nova Scotia ;-)

lilla rogers week 3

Week 3 of Lilla Roger's Make Art That Sells super-fabulous e-course Children's Book Illustration 

Our task this week (3) to illustrate (in any way we wanted) either the cover or a spread from The Hans Christian Anderson dark fairytale The Snail and the Rose Tree. I submitted No 1 as my final.

I'm happy with the overall composition of No.2, a spread from the story but I just think my skill at rendering the concept sucks (or is certainly not anything earth-shatteringly interesting ... meh ! and No.3 was a composition/thumbnail and painting/collage style I wanted to experiment with. I am super pleased with No.1 as my goal was to try and make my design this week spare, clean and modern looking + the look on his (curmudgeonly) face kills me. The competition (not that it's a competition -wink, wink) or shall I say the level of incredible talent in this class is humbling to say the least. Each Tuesday following our Sunday deadline Lilla chooses 10-15 out nearly 400 to chat about, pieces that stood out to her in good ways. My plate from last week made the review (woo hoo !) which thrilled me beyond words - I don't expect my snail to make the cut this week but it was a tres fun & challenging exercise/project. I'm absolutely loving this course it has set my heart ablaze. Uh Huh !!!

lilla rogers week 1

presentation piece Week 1 - bolt fabric - Lilla Roger's amazing e-course Make Art That Sells

coordinate fabrics Week 1 - bolt fabric - Lilla Roger's amazing e-course Make Art That Sells


People buy your joy !
Lilla Rogers

Such an amazing thing to remember ... to focus on creating my own joy ! not to allow yourself to get carried away with comparison, it's so hard sometimes but bring it back, back to your JOY ... my JOY.

It's an amazing, amazing course with almost 500 classmates from 22 countries and tons of extremely intimidating very talented creative, mostly women (interestingly - there are a couple of guys). I had very high expectations and the course is meeting them and far beyond. Lilla Rogers is herself an artist/illustrator, hand drawn type afficiendo (& back in the day when no one was drawing type by hand) turned artist/illustrators rep. Her agency The Lilla Rogers Studio - she reps 38 artists and they produce much of the hippest, coolest, before the trend artwork for some of the hippest, coolest, most coveted companies - Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Chronicle Books, Land of Nod & on & on. To say that she understands this business would be a HUGE understatement and she knows it from both sides (maybe more). This week it's Home Decor (with a guest from Crate & Barrel) and the motif is ... wait for it  ... ta da ta da Floral (sung by my own personal choir of angels). We're Rockin On ! Me & Oliver & Winnie Dixon here at the teak topped desk, we're havin' a Make Art That Sells Party all week ... and next week too.

Each week is a different them/type of product - Week 1 - bolt fabric, Week 2 - home decor. We have a raucous, wonderfully supportive, huge, chatty Facebook class group where we can upload anything, sketches ideas, get feedback & opinions and we have a class Flickr page where we can upload 1 version of the week's specific final assignment and it must be uploaded by Sunday 5p EST (no late uploads allowed) I love this part. I do love a deadline, I need & crave a firm, tight deadline otherwise I'm drifting around in a sea of maybe's & could be's. If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to ask them in the comments.

Week 1- bolt fabric project's motif suggestion was mushrooms and/or vintage pyrex / retro kitchen cooking.

robins in spring

detail front of a new 5 x5 (folded) self promo greeting card Robins in Spring - Susan Black - see the whole card here

You will never be entirely comfortable. This is the truth behind the champion he is always fighting something. To do otherwise is to settle.

Julien Smith - The Flinch

this & that

Fantastic creative business flow chart by illustration hero of mine Lisa Congdon (+ Nate & Matte too !)

Lisa has a fantastic feature here with Grace at Design Sponge - about the life and the business of being an illustrator - with loads of great advice // More great info about the business of creativity over at Lisa's blog in her Frequently Asked Questions section // Nate Williams wrote an excellent article on having a career in illustration (with tips & techniques !) I heart N8 // & a great interview with my another of my illustration heros - Matte Stephens

You have to leave the city of your comfort 
and go into the wilderness of your intuition. 
What you’ll discover will be wonderful. 
What you’ll discover is yourself.
Alan Alda

I guess at this point in life (& career) I am mostly calling myself an Illustrator. Actually my full title would be Illustrator/Designer/Artist/Scaredy Cat ... (it's true you know, the scaredy cat part I just hide it really well ;-)

This Sunday here at 29 Black Street we have a blizzard/snow fall warning in effect - we're all tucked in, fires burning, cats a roaming, Doug's been working on the incredible reno of the downstairs bathroom (powder room) which involved taking down a wall and moving the door, sink and then building a new wall where the old door was - tres exciting and gorgeous. I do promise a post devoted just to this amazing bathroom transformation. I've been finishing up my first week's painting assignments from Flora Bowley's amazing Bloom True painting e-course. Wild & crazy, loose & intuitive, big & bold, free & easy, paint smearing mark making, drawing with paint - stamping, etching, scraping, dabbing - I love it !! a year ago, though, I could not have handled such wackiness, such spontaneity & unplannedness - it would've killed me. The concept did not make sense to me, I just didn't get it - at all. But I sure do now ! I'm ready ... I am so ready.

& omg ! I picked my one little word for 2013 finally ... or maybe I should say it picked me 'cause that's kinda how it happened & it's a such a perfect word for me. Hey 2013, Welcome ! happy to meet ya and we sure off to a great start. OLW* post coming up this week and I will reveal my new word in all it's glory (sung by the chorus of angels). Happy Sunday ! xos

* + les fantastic list of "one little words" here

we ♡ books

we ♡ books here at Black Street ! remember this little illustration ? discovered again during the big clean out of last weekend

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. 
They are the destination, and the journey.They are home.

Anna Quindlen - How Reading Changed My Life

I love books, I have since I was a young girl. My parents, especially my mother was/is a crazed reader. I grew up in a house with bookshelves everywehere. Books were to be kept, saved, shelved for a next time - you never knew you might want to read that book again. I was exposed to the library also as a young child. Oh my, I remember the library and the librarian vividly from my childhood a big rectangular room with very high ceilings in our town hall. But most of all I remember the books, at that time and my age they were mostly picture books, with glossy plastic protective sleeves and they had a scent. That wonderful and distinct, slightly musty smell of a library book. It's always smelled like comfort to me. When I was a little older I devoured the animal character chapter books by Thornton W. Burgess. They were small hard covered books, each one a different colour and I remember their spines lined up on my bookcase - of course I was trying to gather and read the whole collection. Later still I thrilled along with Nancy Drew and her gang, on the edge of my comfy chair, biting my nails, heart thudding a little (it's funny how reading those books as an adult they sadly don't carry the same zing). We were always given a bit of money when the (monthly I think) Scholastic book catalogue came out at school. From these catalogue ordered books I was hooked on another mystery series Encyclopedia Brown a young boy and his dog who solved the perplexing puzzles around his neighbourhood and small town. Around that same time I discovered non-fiction and began reading biographies - of Madam Curie, Jacques Cousteau & Christiaan Barnard and for awhile (6th or 7th grade) I was convinced I would have a career in science - an oceanographer perhaps or  maybe I'd become an open heart surgeon. Books were an education, an escape & an assistant of my dreams.

At this point in my life I read for most of the same reasons. I continue to love non-fiction. I love to learn about nature or science or the mind. I devour books that would be classified as self-help, books about why we worry, about our imaginations, creativity or a favourite study topic of mine - anxiety. I love to experience the thrills of mountain climbing, wilderness hiking or solo sailing in the wild southern seas all while safe, snug & tucked into my nest of down & flannel in the chocolate brown bedroom. And I love fiction, especially at bedtime (almost my only reading time). I try to pull myself away from the TTD* by 8:30pm which is hard these days as I have such wonderfully fun & challenging work projects that I love to be working on. You could call me a workaholic or you could call me someone extremely passionate about what I do. The fact that love, passion & salary live happily in the same sentence in my life is something I am eternally grateful for ... but by 8:30 each evening I'm often kind of wound up, head spinning, too much going on in my mind.

For that reason I especially love reading fiction at night because it calms me, opening the pages to my bookmarked spot is like taking a little tranquilizer or a big slug of something hard, it shoos the monkey mind away as begin to read and drift gradually into the lives, the dramas and cares of other people in other places. I swear this reading habit of mine is one of the most important habits/rituals I have in keeping my sanity. Reading is a gift I give myself. I love books. I love reading & I love the library.

I'm currently reading Bill Gaston's The World - it's wonderful, quirky & perfect. A book I picked up on the new book shelf at the library Thursday, I'd never hear of Bill or this book. A lovely fluke.

In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. 

Anna Quindlen - How Reading Changed My 


 I can't mention books or reading without mentioning the FaceBook for book lovers. Goodreads.com it's a fantastic community, a place to keep track of all the books you've read & want to read and I try to bully all most of my friends into friending me there rather than over at FB. I asked someone the other day what they meant by FB (that's how outta touch I am with FB) but GR - please friend me there ;-)

and yes, that's Oliver on the stack of books he's wearing his office duds.

* TTD my beautiful big teak topped desk home of creative empire building headquarters

CE* ramblings

Haven No.2 - 9x12 collage drawing - paper & ink 400gm hot press watercolour paper - Susan Black

I'm getting ready for a BIG, lots o' new things, etsy shop update - around the end of  September.

I'm currently working on a brand new calendars for 2013 - a new Lil' Owl Calendar, a type collage calendar & a larger size (Cavallini-ish) botanical collage calendar. I hope to have all three available in the shop by the end of October, in lots of time for Christmas shopping. I'm thinking of opening a separate Big Cartel shop to sell only my originals & am considering selling those originals matted & framed - a little more in shipping costs but so much simpler for the buyer especially if the item is a gift.

I have 2 exciting licensing projects that I'll finally be able to tell/show you about plus let you know where you can purchase these new products with Susan Black (of 29 Black Street) designs - oh Boy !!

I am struggling trying to learn both Photoshop & Illustrator both programs essential for my Surface Design aspirations as well as my my future growth as an artist/illustrator Thankfully I've just signed up for Adobe's Creative Cloud (current Adobe customer's got a special 29.95 per month rate for the first year) giving me unlimited access to all current Adobe programs, updates & tutorials. Here's hoping that I can finally get those two essential programs under my belt.

Workshops coming up - a mixed media (paint, paper, ink) workshop here in Pugwash at the ChatterBox Café Sunday Sept 30th at 1pm. Next up I'm part of Deanne Fitzpatrick's 3 day workshop Big Lessons on a Small Canvas running from Oct 10th-12th. I'll be talking about & exploring the many ways to approach design And finally Andrea R. & I are hosting a type collage workshop at her fantastic Halifax shop Inkwell Modern Handmade - Sunday Oct, 21 - 1pm

So lots o' stuff  happenin' here at the teak topped desk

CE* Creative Empire

collaboration

1. final mixed media banner illustration 2. final line art


There is no challenge more challenging
than the challenge to improve yourself. 

Michael F. Staley

Remember back a few weeks ago when I posted about the thrillingly, breathlessly, challenging & tres exciting illustration project that I was working on. A custom banner illustration for new friend & fellow designer, artist, crafty gal Sarah Hart. We met through gmail. Sarah bought a print of mine at most excellent Halifax stockist Inkwell Modern & emailed me to tell me she loved my work, told me about herself, her skills & wondered if might consider a barter or trade. Having a web site designed has been top of my mind for ages now so ... hooray ! we organized a trade.

In the end both my new web site & Sarah's illustration are collaborations. When the time arrived for Sarah to tell me what she was looking for from me - les Creative Brief - I must say I don't think I've ever received anything more thorough, crystal clear + inspiring - the tres rare, grand trifecta of any Creative Brief. Excellent art direction ! (and let me tell ya I've been art directed by many). She provided lots of notes & ideas, suggested colour palettes, & best of all a whole roster of reference & inspiration images of other art/illustrations that she loved all and I just happened to love also - the project became instantly thrilling & super challenging because of course I wanted to stun both she & myself with it's final glorious outcome.

The final line art (above) actually came super quickly - a direct result I'm sure of her amazing creative direction & clear communication. At this point in the project I was still breathing easy. It's when I began the actual conversion to colour, painting & collage that I began to slightly panic - just so many options to consider & because I create these images by hand, not digitally, it's not so easy to change something. I started with 2 small colour studies to try & get the hang of what the ratio of painting to collage would be. Sarah, continuing on the her path of most excellent client & seemed thrilled, cheering me on at every step & stage - another dream customer trait - uh huh !

In the end I'm happy with how it all turned out. I'm sure Sarah will tweak, change & alter many aspects of it digitally. I was able to give her something she couldn't create herself knowing full well she will use my final art as a stepping off point for her own creation. When she's finished with our illustration I suspect it will look different than what I've shown you here & I'm sure it will be much better & stronger, I can't wait to see what she does with it.

I think that's what a good collaboration must be - having little or no attachment with the final outcome. Having been a graphic designer for many years helps tremendously with that lack of attachment because in the end - it's her illustration - I've creating it for her, not for me. But ... the process - that's the part that was for me. The very best thing about this project - why it thrilled me from the get go - is not only is it another great portfolio piece but it's pointed me down a slightly new & sparkly, colourful, whimsical, nature inspired road that has me full of fantastic new ideas ... it's been a dream project.

I did the illustration large & in three sections giving me lost more size & room for detail. The left illustration, the right & the center typographic diamond then assembled them digitally.

can

get noticed ! an ad I created for April to run on the sidebar of fav maker's blog Elise Joy Blaha

design brief

size of ad - 170 x 100 pixels
communicate - what I do (in as few words as possible)
objective - get noticed ! (hopefully ;-)

Pretty much finished my illustration project, just a few kind of picky improvements I'd like to make, wee tweaks & extras. Then onto a big juicy jewellery design project & creating the extra pages for my relaunch of les blog redesign. tres exciting.

The word around here these days is most definitely can

Yes you can ! (Oliver) Yes I Can ! Yes we can, can !
ps. MS ! Oui ! Oliver is the most excellent partner in this Creative Empire building

the high bar

a sneak peek ... a tiny corner of my current custom banner illustration project -sigh


There is no challenge more challenging
than the challenge to improve yourself.

Michael F. Staley

I hope to finish it today - the big deal, anxiety producing collage/painting, hold-my-breath project. It's a 3 part illustration - created extra big to allow me room for lots of detail. It will be scanned in 3 pieces and digitally assembled. So ... why all the holding of my breath ? Well ... when I finished the line drawing for this project awhile back (which does also include a large & prominent hand drawn/typography section) I felt instantly a bit swoony at it's potential - I felt in my creative heart that if done right this piece could/would be a much coveted & beautiful new big feather in my portfolio cap ... a shiny jewel in that darn CE* crown.Plus it's for someone else - that always ups the angst quotient - wanting with all my heart & soul to have her squeal with delight at it's completion, maybe a little jumping up & down while clapping enthusiastically ;-) I know I set that bar pretty darn high - too high often but I know that this high bar of mine is what pushes me forward, always & makes me better & better + I really do love the challenge of pushing myself.

Les messy desk mid afternoon yesterday (below) - Mr. Mr. Oliver gets extremely pissed when my desk gets this full & cluttered 'cause there's no place for him to sit. I do try to keep my printer covered and free of debris & oh thanks so much (not) for the heated pillow topped, maybe catnip scented printer cover. He's already sourcing materials & calculating the cost per unit figure - he's sure North American (+ England of course) sales will be Rockin', he's an entrepreneur cat.

And speaking of cats - pop over to Dani's blog and say hello to her sweet new brood of puppies.

*CE - creative empire

good enough

la new 29 Black Street logo ?!? almost there I think & definately a new business card logo

"good enough"

2 words you'll never ever hear a perfectionist utter because in our world - there is no such thing.

tweak, tweak, fix, ponder, scan*, ponder some more, oh boy a new idea, tweak, tweak, tweak, ponder, ponder, oh boy another new idea, scan ... oh, oh my time's up. Les Deadline has arrived. I am learning as part of my role of actually really & truly being my own boss that occasionally I have to come down hard on myself. I have to tell myself Susan, it is good enough ! (like a knife through my heart) You can always make changes down the road (said slowly & well enunciated). Relax, take a breath, you've reached the finish line- it's over (this particular challenge anyway but get ready 'cause there's a brand new challenge/game just up ahead).

I'm re-branding, revamping & finally, finally having a web site due to launch some time very soon (April 1 our goal). I'm doing a trade with sweet Halifax designer gal Sarah Hart (I'm illustrating her banner the big, thrilling & tres challenging project I've been holding my breath over). She keeps emailing me ... do you have your logo ready Susan ?? gently always as is her way. It's coming ! I've replied way too many times ... this week, promise. Well the jigs up. I had to be my own boss. Time's up girlfriend. it is Good Enough !! I sent her things last night. Many, many things. I think this is one of my faves however. Bottom version with the cat, is cute, but likely won't make the final cut. Your thoughts ?? keep 'em coming please, we love to hear them!

Check back later today when I'll post les gamut of thumbnails & sketches, la process & alternate potential winners in this logo re-branding competition. I'm off now to the post office for one of my casual/part-time shifts there oh boy - parcel/packages input my first lil' job ;-)

* one of my secrets/tips - scan, scan, scan - scan as you go every stage of an illustration. That way you can never really screw up because you're always able to go back to an earlier step.


les 29 Black Street logo avec les chat le Noire - big, fat, black velvet Bleetito

pinkest

another card design for American Greetings submitted ages ago see it here on their site

The creative brief sent to me was to come up with a birthday card for her, based on my best selling (dontcha know) print available always ;-) in my etsy shop. I came up with text + design.

American greetings: Please make it very pink !
Moi: (chuckling to myself) oh my ... I'll see what I can do

But (sad face) the design has changed quite considerable in their final version. C'est la Vie in Designer Land - this kinda stuff happens. I'm sure that they know their market and for some reason decided that pinkest wasn't the way to go. Of course I like the pinkest one best - natch :-)

on being certain

back in the shop - 10 x 12 giclee print - let it go - Susan Black

A bird in hand is a certainty.
But a bird in the bush may sing.

Bret Harte

I've been thinking a lot about the concept of letting go, if you consider what would be the opposite of letting go you might say & feel that it is ... clinging to, holding tight, being certain of. I've realized that a crucial part of actually being able to let go is to recognize that you are clinging, holding & being certain in the first place. Like any addiction you must acknowledge the relationship before you will ever be able to say goodbye to it. So much of what we hold close, what we've decided, becomes such second nature to us. We become so absorbed in our busy day to day we perhaps forget to check in to re-examine and question those things we have been clutching so tightly. The beliefs & feelings we've become sure of - the person we think we know for certain - that we've become.

The courage to grow demands the courage to let go

Danny Meyer

I've just recently past the point of being frightened of letting go & I must say it's quite lovely here on the other side. Of course you don't know you're even headed for the other side until you reach it and you can look back at the distance you've covered. Hindsight really is it, after all. For so many years I clung to the person I'd made myself out to be, me & my extra thick, somewhat impenetrable, shell of certainty and to be honest, here on the other side, the only thing I know for sure is that I'm not sure about anything.

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable ...
we must be content to creep along the ground and will never soar

John Henry Newman