Valentine art

  

February is the month of love.  

So it seems fitting to make these illustrations Valentine related. 

Enjoy xoxo

Going back to the beginning....

Like many, January is the time to reflect on the past year and plan new business goals for the coming year.  In order to do that we spend the days after Christmas cleaning and organizing the studio. As we were collecting our ornament sketches and gathering our many sketchbooks we realized we have so many wonderful holiday ideas that might not translate well as ornaments, but could possibly work in other areas.  

So one of our goals for 2016 is to make more art.  Paul channeled his old illustration skills and spent a few days creating some small mixed media pieces using a limited color palette and these are the results: 

He had a blast getting back to this form of expression. Can't wait to see what comes next!

Happy New Year!  -- Lianne

Heading back to the drawing board...

I don’t know how many of you knew this tidbit, but I was working as an illustrator for 10 years prior to collaborating with Lianne and starting our wonderful joint venture called Swirly Designs.

A big chunk my work was working with magazines on editorial illustrations. What I really enjoyed about working as an illustrator was collaborating with the art directors and working together. Every project was so different it was exciting to research and learn about unfamiliar topics.  

Jumping ahead 20+ years later… I have been getting the urge lately to revisit my illustration roots again. To what extent still not sure yet. My true joy and focus right now is with Swirly, but I love creating and designs with my hands. Here is a sampling of some of my earlier work.

The top tow editorial illustrations were created early 2000 when I did everything by hand. When you made a mistake or a bad color choice you had to start all over again.  I used a Rapidograph technical pen for the line work, adding a base painting of watercolor then added rich color and shading with colored pencils.  The two small images are digital. It made sense to embrace the digital age and start taking my illustrations onto the computer.

The process of working with the art director from copy to sketches to mock-up cover layouts to color to printed piece. Trade magazine cover The Pet Aisle June 2004

This is another digital editorial piece I created back in the day.

So when I heard about this MATS (Making Art That Sells) Bootcamp online course that artist rep Lilla Rogers was offering, I could not miss this opportunity to help me get back in the game. I've never taken an online course before, so I had my concerns. Would I have the time to really focus on the class assignments? Would my rusty computer skills work against me? The course runs for 6 months (Feb-July) and so far I’m very happy to say it’s been a fantastic, rejuvenating, eye opening experience for me and it’s only been one month. 

The course works something like this: The first Monday of the month you get a “mini” assignment and then the following Monday you get your “big” assignment, which you have two weeks to complete and then post to a gallery where everyone can view it. Week three, Lilla shares a surprise tip or advice. You  also get access to a private Facebook group where you can share and connect with your classmates. I really had to force myself to stay away from the group until I had all my ideas /concepts/finish pieces ready so I would not be influenced or swayed by the talented pool of work already growing in the group.

The mini assignment was to research/sketch cuckoo clocks. Not knowing the big assignment yet, you are able to just have fun and play and experiment with your style. As soon as I started sketching my cuckoo clocks they took a holiday theme...hmm how did that happen!

The "big" assignment was now to take your cuckoo clock sketches and incorporate them onto a cell phone case. I was a little torn about the direction I wanted to go in. Do I treat it like another Swirly and create it and sculpt it out of clay? Or do I revisit my illustration roots that I haven’t worked on, in about 8+ years? Reminding myself ....this should be fun..fun..fun! And plus Lianne seeing me start to stress over this, helped me put things into perspective and realize why I’m doing this again.

Once I settled on a style, I decided to create a Merry Time Cuckoo Clock. Going back to working on the computer again actually is not that different than working in clay for me. I found out very quickly that if you don’t have good sketches of your ideas, with color break downs, you end up wasting a lot of time working in circles and getting very frustrated. So I had to step back, figure out  my direction, then I started to enjoy the process again... even though it was taking me longer. Every time Lianne would check in on me she would roll her eyes and bite her tongue about how I do everything on the computer the wrong way and should really use the more keyboard shortcuts!      

After working into the wee hours (I think I was up til 3:30am) here is my finished piece that was submitted:

Lilla's tip in this round was about using color. She challenged us to try incorporate a particular color palette into our illustration. To my surprise my illustration palette was very close to hers. (great minds think alike!) So I decided to challenge myself again and work on a second version playing with color. I like the yellow version, but ultimately I decided that  blue would be more marketable for this assignment.

 Go check out mine and see 350+ other artists who participated in this Cuckoo Clock Cell phone assignment at Lilla Rogers website here. 

Thanks for letting me share and taking you on my creative journey.

~ Paul 

Road trip to the Eric Carle Museum

Over the weekend we took the kids on a little road trip to the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA. Being both artists, we have been very eager to visit this museum since it opened but felt we wanted to make sure the kids were at an age where they would appreciate it and would enjoy the experience... plus handle the long 2 hour drive.

Even better, we found out this month that our little guy was learning all about Eric Carle in school. He was even creating his own "Eric Carle" artwork in school and thought this was perfect real life education for him. So we packed up the car and made the trip.

Any one who has kids, we're sure you are very familiar with his work, especially his 1969 classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This is a staple in our kids bedtime reading routine.

This very modern and simplistic museum was a pleasant treat.




We hit the museum on a very quiet Saturday morning which was perfect for letting the kids explore and roam without the crowds of people. The very spacious 40,000 square foot building houses three Galleries that are dedicated to exhibitions of picture book art.

One gallery is dedicated to Eric Carle's work and the two other galleries are changing exhibitions of artwork. No photography is allowed in the galleries but you can snap away everywhere else.

A favorite spot that the kids enjoyed immediately is the big Caterpillar sculpture that doubled as a bookcase. The kids had fun running around it and through it and finally sitting inside just long enough for us to snap a few pictures.


Besides the galleries, there is a library, a cafe, a store and an art studio for the kids to create and explore.


We all enjoyed the art studio where you can create fun projects with all sorts of materials. This neat magnetic board has magnets made from branch pieces and painted in fun colors.


Color coded jars lined up on a shelf like a rainbow.

There were many tables for the kids to create and make their own masterpieces.

This was a neat experience to share with the whole family and spark your inner creativity.
We left there inspired and ready to go back to the studio and play.


We are off on another adventure to explore and learn something new.

Have you been to the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA? Share your thoughts on your visit!

Have a good week.

Fall is here and we are all sick!! Plus Paul's seminar review

Ahh, Fall. The weather is getting cooler the leaves are starting to turn. Apple and pumpkin picking season is in full swing and here at the Swirly studio we are all sick!!! That is the main reason for the delay on the blog. We want to and really try to update this weekly, but some weeks are harder than others.

Besides all being sick, we did still manage to keep busy. Paul finished two illustration projects and we are in the thick of production with our ornaments. We are just about finished choosing the pieces we will have in our new baby and holiday 2008 collection. More on that when we get closer to our release date (Nov 1st).

Paul here: On our last post we mention that I would be attending a workshop by Carol Eldridge Designs on Art Licensing. Check out Carol's website she gave a great detailed descriptions with photos of the days event. I would highly recommend attending one of Carol's future seminars if you have any interest at all about marketing or licensing your artwork. She has been around for a while and knows her stuff. She was honest and was very open to answer any and all questions (even my crazy ones!). She had many informative stories and lots of samples to see. Plus she served a wonderful lunch and gave us all a booklet of her presentation, which I was very grateful since I am horrible about taking good notes.

Seminars are a great way to get yourself back on track again and motivate yourself. We have been tossing the idea around for years of how we should take our swirly designs and put them on products and now I think we have the know how do just that. Thanks Carol!!

How quick they grow

I know all of us here in Boston are trying to beat the heat! Boy is it hot here. While trying to stay cool, we've been planning our son Gryffin's 3rd birthday party, slated for this Thursday 6-12...his actual birthday. It's a dinosaur theme this year. We've posted our invite that we made, which showcases Paul's illustration. You can see more of Paul's work here.

It's been such an adventure watching the little guy grow, it's really amazing. Everyday is different and we learn something new.


Stay Cool,
Lianne