Sketchbook - 1.

I've pondered ways to share my artwork and ideas I'm working on, and thought: what better way than to just share my sketchbook every now and then?  This will hopefully be the first of many sketchbook visits, and I hope it will help me to tweak and hone whatever I'm currently working on.

In the fall, I created my own hand-illustrated Christmas gift tags and have lately (when I've had the time), been trying to find other practical ways to sell my artwork.  Not that everyone doesn't want a painting of a ginger lumberjack for their wall...but really, most people actually don't.

Marketing is something I've realized I'm horrible at, so my artwork kind of needs to market it'self to some extent.  The first avenue I've been exploring is wedding paraphernalia, this pencil and watercolor illustration would be (on a card?) for a bride to officially ask friends to be her bridesmaids.

I actually didn't paint on my original sketch of this, but made a print of the pencil drawing and painted from there.  This way, I'm free to customize the hair, skin and dress/flower colors to suit for different people.  I've also started on two more drawings with different style dresses than this, so my customer can have a choice in dress style too.

Hopefully I'll get around to trying my hand at actual wedding invitations, though that seems a bit intimidating for some reason. Huh. If I knew how to type a shrug, I would.