the moon from my attic: cats

Monday, December 24, 2012

Art that Makes You Smile - Artist Sharon Fernleaf

Humor in art can be very helpful. It makes people feel better. And for this holiday season I thought that we all need a big smile to enter a new year in a positive state of mind. Today I have the great pleasure of presenting Sharon Fernleaf, one of my favorite smile-generating artists!

© Sharon Fernleaf

The Moon From My Attic: Please introduce yourself - I'm Sharon Fernleaf, an artist and greeting card designer. I enjoy your blog and I'm really happy to share my work here. I live in Phoenix with my two cat companions, Rumitilda and Leonis, who are the inspiration for most of the cat humor and the quiet animal vignettes that make up most of my card designs.

TMFMA: What brought you to art in the first place? Finger painting in school and those giant sets of crayons you had when you were a kid. I spent a lot of time at the library looking at big art books and reading biographies of artists. I loved Mad magazine and comic books. I doodled all the time.

TMFMA: What's exciting about your creative work? I love creating cards that make people smile or laugh and it gives me an outlet for an off the wall sense of humor. The best part is giving people something that they want to share because it made them smile or laugh. Laughter is such a great thing. Very healing.

© Sharon Fernleaf

TMFMA: What's your favorite medium or tool/s you create with? I love to draw. I have a lot of sketchbooks full of drawings and doodles for cards and paintings. And I love Photoshop. I used to paint more—most recently folk art or little canvases and wood panels of daily life with animals. They were a lot of fun and led to greeting cards. I set up shops on Greeting Card Universe, Zazzle, and Cafepress with those images. I was very focused on scratchboard for awhile. I loved the idea of bringing light out of darkness.

TMFMA: Who or what has inspired you in your art? Everything. I especially love the work of artists who express a lot of emotion in very simple art. Some of my favorite art is in children's books, cards, and comic books - like Lynda Barry, whose work can be so funny and heartbreaking at the same time, Sandra Boynton, Tomie de Paola, Charles Schultz, George Herriman. I was very inspired by three books: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis when I was a kid -- the idea of a secret world behind the scenes made me feel like anything was possible; When Elephants Weep about the emotional lives of animals; and The Secret Life of Plants, both of which opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at animals and the planet.

© Sharon Fernleaf

TMFMA: How long have you been doing art licensing? Since January of this year (2012). I'm represented by Kimberly Montgomery of Montage Licensing. She took a chance on me - I'm very new to this. I was interested in working with an agent because I think it's important to recognize what your strengths are and what you need help with and being a cheerleader for my own work doesn't come naturally! I'd rather just design, but of course you can't. You have to promote yourself, so I also work on getting better at it.

TMFMA: What advice would you give other artists that are considering the art licensing field? Like I said, I'm very new to this myself, but I know what has helped me - there are a lot of wonderful licensing blogs out there, yours included, and books by people happy to share information. My work was at Surtex for the first time this year (very exciting!) and at one point, I was studying so many blogs and books about what you need to know that I felt overwhelmed. My advice is to be patient with yourself while you're learning so you still enjoy what you're doing. You'll make better art.

Find out more about Sharon's art here:

sfernleafdesigns.com

greetingcarduniverse.com

zazzle.com/Fernleaf_Designs

cafepress.com/blessingart

© Sharon Fernleaf

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Style, Theme and Technique in Art Licensing - Artist Kat McDonough

Phew! It's been over two months since I've been balancing some work while also entertaining several distant family guests. I am a little exhausted but happy to be getting back to my art projects and my first one this week is to introduce my next artist, Kat McDonough.

"I consider myself a work-in-progress. I've pursued a career in children's illustration for many years now, along with creating fine art and commissioned pet portraits." As much as she enjoyed making the art, she wasn't having the level of success she desired, nor did she feel passionate about her work, Kat says. Then she adds, "recently, I decided to take a good hard look at my career goals and my art. I actually began to ask myself if I should continue to pursue a career in art at all."

Artist Kat McDonough

Two serendipitous things occurred as she sent that question into the universe, to use her phrase. First, she joined a wonderful critique group of talented artists. And second, she received the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield as a gift. Kat says, "my critique group gave encouragement and guidance while I experimented with new materials and danced outside my comfort zone. The War of Art cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had about my professional approach to being a full time artist. It's a stop-messing-around, get down to business and listen to the right voice in your head type of book. These two influences recharged my art making and clarified my goals for the future."

© Kat McDonough

Style and Theme - She considers her art to be humorous, playful and sometimes making a statement in a subtle or humorous way. She uses pit bulls as her subjects in a lot of paintings. "They are America's misunderstood dog. And they are beautiful creatures to paint," Kat says. She thinks she loves painting cats and dogs so much because she loves the research.

Technique - "To liven up my work, I tried different mediums and tools. I've had great success with painting knives and acrylics using an impasto technique. Being a rookie with the knives, I had to let go of trying to achieve the perfect line or mark. Now I love the quirky marks they make. They immediately energized my paintings."

A teacher once mentioned to her that he had to find the right medium for his personality. Kat adds, "I should have taken heed earlier. Finally, I'm no longer fighting for control over the paint and it falling short of my expectations. Now I make art that is more me than any I had ever created before. I feel it has a broader appeal as well - exactly the kind of art I've always wanted to make." Her main technique is to paint, paint and repaint. "It's no wonder I never mastered watercolors," she says. "Acrylics allow me to paint until I feel it's right. I do very little planning.

I choose a limited palette and make a simple drawing on the canvas. Once I start, the triangle of palette, canvas and me becomes my sacred space. I can't make a mistake. I refuse to doubt I'll get to the right place in the end. It must be what Jazz musicians feel like as they play. I get a rhythm going and I let my intuition decide when to stop."

But besides the dog, the kid, and the alarm, what gets Kat up in the morning? "My cats! They've become more stylized than my dogs and fit into all of my favorite themes: Americana, beach and folk art. Once I included them in a series of family portraits, they all got names and started telling me their stories. They're dying to be introduced to world."

As for inspiration, furry faces are the focus of her work but her main inspiration is always character and narrative. "I relish a good story," Kat mentions. "I fall in love with intriguing characters. That is the type of artwork that inspires me, whether on a gallery wall, in a picture book or on a tote bag. It's what I hope my artwork conveys."

Now that her style has completely changed, she is painting, painting, and painting. Once she has a larger body of work, she'll approach those companies with whom her style would be a good fit. "For now, I have some items for sale on Cafepress and am investigating other places to sell prints and cards. I'm learning so much from great resources like your blog, Alex, and the generous contributors to the Art of Licensing group," Kat says. "It's a learning curve not unlike children's illustration. Patience, persistence and practice go a long way when you have a long way to go. I'm quite a happy traveler, though, with lovely companions."