SVS September Contest Entry

This was my entry for the SVS monthly contest with the prompt CLOUD. We had to make sure it had a cloud, a character and told a story. I'm still figuring out where my work is falling between comic and children's book art but I got a kick out of clouds having group therapy!

I’ve been trying to focus more on my storytelling with each illustration that I do. This was also my first time working with ink and a dip pen. I really liked it and it was a great warm-up to Inktober 2022.

This entry also made it to the finals of the critique arena where the instructors choose the top 10-16 images and then people vote for the winner. It has been a goal of mine to make it to the finals so this felt like a big win!

Business News

I’ve been spending a glorious weekend stitching and working on business things. I’ve been making some changes in this space with the goal of making this space my home. There are so many different platforms these days and while it is important to be a part of those to be seen and meet new people I also feel like having a home that can encompass all of the facets of my creativity is important.

So here you can find all the things that I do. Illustration, embroidery and everything in between. And if life goes according to plan I will post here more often.

Right now I am focussing on getting more patterns into my shop because I have a bunch at the 80% done stage and because in todays climate of uncertainty and stress embroidery just feels like the right thing to do.

I have just started a new instagram account for my embroidery so I can be a bit more consistent for followers of that content. It is @lauras_studio_embroidery if you want to follow along.

Here is the newest pattern that just launched. I had a lot of fun making these colorful cats. Stitching there little faces with the messy satin stitch was fun and I think it was effective at giving them all their own personalities.

Chickens on Parade

Chickens on parade!  I seem to have a fascination with all things celebratory right now.

Allow me to share a memory from my grade 6 art class where we did an acrylic painting of a forest. I basically reached a point in the painting where I thought it looked bad, felt icky feelings and gave up on it. I remember seeing it hung up on the walls of the school and just feelings like that’s not finished….. and then I never really attempted an acrylic painting since. 

And let me tell you I went through a bit of a journey with this new painting probably the same journey I was having in grade 6.  This time though I got through the icky awful feelings (it is truly amazing how awful it can feel to be challenging yourself sometimes) and made it to the end.  And it feels great. I feel as though I have made a breakthrough with my work.

Are there subjects and topics that you keep coming back to in your work?