I started this piece with great enthusiasm, but it was soon replaced by dismay.
It was to be a great new adventure. But after this start, could it be? Only time will tell.
Here’s what happened. I saw an ad on Instagram for an online painting class aimed at putting one’s artwork on print-on-demand products. Since a friend and I had been talking about that for a long time but had never gotten anywhere with it, and because the price was quite reasonable, I decided to give it a try.
Artist Suzanne Allard taught the class, and it was wonderful! She paints gorgeous, loose florals in the most luscious colors. Initially I wasn’t attracted to the florals so much, but after watching her, I was inspired to give it a go. Soon, I was all in, buying paints, a reference book, paper for acrylic painting, and who knows what else? I was really engaged.
I waited until I’d watched the whole four hours of video before I began my own painting. My original plan had had nothing to do with creating a new piece, much less a new piece in a style so different from my own. But, as I said, I was all in.
I’m an animal artist through and through. Show me a landscape painting and I’ll ask “Where’s the squirrel?” So, when I contemplated painting my own floral, I knew there needed to be an animal in it. What came next was the sketch of my goofball cat, Nikki. So far, so good.
But then it came time to paint. I figured I’d start with the cat, as flowers and leaves would overlap his face here and there. The problem was how to paint him in a loose style that would go with the florals. Although I didn't think loose was in me, but I knew I had to give it a try.
This is as far as I got—obviously nowhere near finished. But I thought I needed to go on and begin the flowers next. If I were to continue with Nikki, the danger was that I’d do my usual tight style, and that would cause me a bigger problem than what I was already looking at: there was no way to do tight painting of a bunch of flowers. At least, not for me.
So I proceeded to the type of background Suzanne painted then followed her lead in sketching in the outlines of several flowers.
At this point, I was ready to give up. So, I turned to something else.
I decided to take Suzanne’s guidance to create a product on Redbubble. Surely, I could find a piece of artwork that I already had and work with that. This was my choice:
Suzanne’s instructions were easy to follow. I found her discussion of high-resolution images and how to correct them especially helpful, and I already had a scanner, though nothing fancy, and Photoshop, though only Photoshop Elements—which is quite adequate. Before I knew it, I had ordered a clock, a tote bag, and a zipper pouch with my cat Zeke on them. I can’t wait to receive them and see how they turned out.
The outcome of this artistic side trip is yet to be determined. And though I feel discouraged at the moment, things may well turn out fine.
P.S. Here’s the link to Suzanne’s website in case you’re interested to see her art. https://www.suzanneallard.com/
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