Color with Me

Hi there. How are you?

August 2nd was National Coloring Book Day. (Yep, it's really a thing.) Adult coloring is very trendy at the moment...Book stores now have whole sections of adult coloring books. It's nostalgic, it's stress relieving, it's colorful. I love this trend!

I Made my Own Coloring Page

After spending much time drawing in my sketchbook over the past few weeks, I realized that the drawings I was making would lend themselves really well to coloring. So I took this one, and turned it into a coloring page.

The Process

I started by scanning this drawing and cleaning it up in Photoshop, and then imported it into Illustrator. (I'm sorry I don't have screen shots of my process to share. I was too excited about what I was doing to document!) After much You-Tubing and trial and error, I was able to turn my drawing into a vector, so that it would be crisp and clear at any size.

Click the photo to join my email list and download this coloring page!

A "Freemium" is born

I read a lot about business and marketing. One thing every marketer will tell you is that you need a mailing list. It is one of the most effective marketing tools around. I have had a mailing list for years now, and have been working to grow it. I used to offer a 10% shop discount to anyone who joined, but that didn't seem to overly effective. I started thinking about offering a "freemium", (think Free + Premium) that I could offer in exchange for an email address. 

Artist Mandy Ford's coloring page

Learning from Others

I came across Mandy Ford's coloring page on Instagram just about a week ago. So cute! She was using it as a freemium for joining her mailing list. Brilliant! Like any good artist, I stole this idea and worked like a dog to get my coloring page ready for it's National Coloring Book Day release to my mailing list. (Thank you much for the inspiration Mandy! Totally enjoy your work.)

Jack's Coloring Page

Matt's Coloring Page

Family Coloring Party

The night before National Coloring Book Day, Matt, Jack and I sat down to make sample pages that I could include in my email to my mailing list. (Though I staged the photos with crayons, they actually used colored pencils to complete these pages.) It was fun to do an "offline" activity all together.

Share your Work

At the bottom of the coloring page, I added my web address and a hashtag. Social sharing is a great and free way to get the word out about you and your work.

When I sent the link out for the coloring page download to my mailing list, I invited them share their completed creations. Here are the pages completed by the Masterson familly, some of our dear friends! It's so nice to have creative, supportive friends. Thank you much for participating Lu, Efrem, Lorena and Brad!

Coloring page by Efrem, age 9

Coloring page by LuElla, age 8

Coloring Page by Brad

Coloring Page by Lorena

Now it's Your Turn

Would you like to color along with me? To get your free coloring page, please join my mailing list. A download link will be sent to you in a confirmation email. And if you do color my page, do snap a photo and email it to me or post to Instagram with the hashtag #drawwithJen. Sharing is caring friends!

Ta-Ta for now. I'll be back with more next week!

You Can Never Have Too Many Throw Pillows!

Hi there. How are you?

I must admit, I have a little love affair with throw pillows. I've got quite a collection and I change them out with the seasons. They give a pop of color and personality to our neutral tan sofas.

Connections are Cool!

About a year ago, I started making my own pillows. I was working at a company here in Carbondale that produces dye-sublimated fabric graphics. I was able to take advantage of their state-of-the-art fabric printer and turn ten of my favorite illustrations into soft ultra-suede printed pillows.

It's a "Family Affair"

This pillow-making adventure is actually a collaborative effort between me and my talented mother, Carla Mullin. She's does all of the sewing of these pillows and I couldn't have pulled this off without her!

Sewn with an envelope style back, each pillow features a different complementary fabric, many of which are vintage. I have fun hitting garage sales and thrift stores in search of vintage fabrics, tablecloths and even sheets.

Sprucing up My Listings

Lately, I've been sprucing up my pillow listings on Etsy. By Photoshopping out the background of the photos entirely, I gave them an even brighter look and more clean look. 

On the suggestion of Etsy guru Danielle Spurge-Swavely, I also optimized my pillow images for  Etsy search and Pinterest, by adding text and making them vertical in orientation.

The Data

I haven't collected any definitive data yet to determine if the listing changes and updates I've made have positively effecting my stats. Anecdotally, it does seem like my optimized listing are getting more action and I'm really happy with the fresh look. Now let's just hope that translates to more sales!

Let's Have a Summer Sale!

I've taken 20% off all of my in-stock pillows. Yahoo! But you have to act fast. The sale price is only good until Monday, July 20th!  My pillows make lovely gifts. Yeah, I know it's July, but I've already started my holiday shopping!

That's it for now friends. Go shop! Ta-Ta!

Is it Time to Quit?

Hi there. How are you? 

It's been almost nine years since I entered my current "Mixed Media Period." It was the summer of 2006, and I spent part of it living in Portland, Oregon. I had a lot of time on my hands and I was itching to make. I brought my watercolors, but never used them. Instead, I started cutting up the Domino magazines I was reading.

Here are some of the first pieces I made:

After that summer, I was hooked. It was a flurry of magazines, glue and Micron pens. And it was all about flowers. All fast, loose and gestural. I loved what I was doing and was making every chance I got.  

Then I made this chair.

It was a one-of piece I did for a friend. The image ended up in a brochure for a local gallery walk. People called the gallery wanting more chairs. So one chair turned in to years of chairs.

Enter the ball point pen.

My technique changed, but my primary subject did not. I still enjoyed illustrating chairs, and people were buying. So, I kept making. 

Then it was birds.

Matt (my husband) is a bird lover and encouraged me to try illustrating his feathered friends. Despite the fact that I didn't particularly care for birds HATED birds, I drew some. People loved them, so I continued. (After drawing birds for 2 years now, I will admit that I have more of an affection for birds than I used to. I think they're pretty darn cute now. I just don't want to touch them.)

There were abstracts too.

Throughout the whole 9-year creative phase, I've always made abstract work and drawn abstractly in my sketchbook.  I've made abstract collages, all about shape and color.

I've made abstract line drawings, all about form and movement. 

9 years is a long time to work without a plan.

I've flitted from one subject to the next, one show/event/fair/project to the next without much forethought. I've delved into wholesale, Etsy, a new website, new products, more art fairs, less art fairs. I never took the time to make a solid plan. There was never time. I wanted to make art, I wanted people to buy it, and I wanted art to be my main gig. I've had some successes, lots of failure, and I've learned a lot. But right now, I'm feeling burnt out and uninspired. I'm not confident about my current work and feel like I'm just going through the motions.

It's time for a break.

I'm not quitting art. I promise! I just need time to regroup, think, and plan. I won't be making any more mixed-media pieces for a time. Instead, I'm going to polish up that new website I started working 6 months ago, continue to blog, and do a lot of thinking. You'll still be able find and purchase my existing work on Etsy, at Dayshift and Bricolage, or directly from me. (If you've been wanting to purchase an original piece from me, now is the time! Get in touch!)

But I will be back. 

When I reemerge from this break, I'll have new, exciting, and most likely, very different work to show you. I promise to keep in touch and share my insight along the way.

Now it's your turn to talk. 

How did you know it was time to quit or take a break? In your work? In your life? In your education? I'd love to hear from you! 

Until next time. Ta-ta.