Are you tired of my new product posts yet? I know, September is a busy month for awesome releases.
Here are some notecards that I worked on this year for Deseret Book. I received the samples last week and I’m really happy with how they turned out!
Cheerful Expressions Boxed Notes
We’re so excited to be doing Art Weekend SLC again this year! You’ve got a little over a month to sign up for classes, so get on it! This event sells out pretty quickly.
Mike will be teaching:
Photo Workflow
Photoshop 101 Basics
Photoshop Actions
Photoshop Elements
Alma will be teaching:
Illustrator 101 Basics
Illustrator: Creating an Identity
Illustrator: Making a Pattern
Illustrator: Pretty Paper Products
We’ll also be available for private portfolio reviews and direction!
We’re very excited about the other courses available, too. (Basically we just think about things that WE would want to learn and help find instructors who can teach it!!) Here are the other courses:
Calligraphy
Customizing Blogger Blogs
Party Planning 101
Photo 101 Basics
Screenprinting
Sewing: Making Jeans Skinny
Sewing: Camera Straps
Studio Lighting
Tabletop Photography
Watercolors
We love this event. We love hanging out with and meeting new instructors and we love getting to know the students. Please come and make friends with us! In addition to the art weekend classes, we can also get together and hang out Thursday night and Friday evening.
For more info and sign-up, visit nicolesclasses.com!
Tags: Alma's Work
Today I’m excited to share some designs that I’ve done that are available at FranklinCovey! I worked on these back in March, I think, so it’s fun to see them on sale now!
This first one is a redesign of an existing planner, Her Point of View, that features artwork by Karn Knutson. My favorite part of this redesign is that the quote appears in a speech bubble. I was so excited when that design option was chosen because I think it’s so fun!
This next one is a new planner called Botanica. I’ve linked to it below, but there are several versions of this planner (like one page per day, two pages per day, weekly, etc.) so go to the second link if you want to see all FC’s planners and choose a different format of this one! This was a VERY fun planner to work on!! I think it’s elegant, classy, and very feminine.
Below I’m showing just a little glimpse of the general look of the whole planner. It doesn’t look EXACTLY like this because these versions are from an earlier stage in planner development, but I didn’t feel like putting together 12 new spreads manually to show you EXACTLY what the planner looks like now. This is just a general idea.
Stay tuned for more updates this week on fun and exciting designs to hit the market!
Tags: Alma's Work
I’m so excited that several Christmas cards I developed for Petite Lemon Prints went live on Shutterfly today! Working on a designer’s schedule means that you do Christmas designs in a very very non-Christmasy season. I worked on these designs in April, and you’d better believe that I was listening to Christmas music the whole time. How else can you get into the Christmas mood? (I laid off the hot chocolate and candy canes, though.)
Petite Lemon was a DELIGHT to work with. I’m not too proud to admit that if I printed out every email with listed revisions from them, I would probably end up with a stack of at least 25 pages, but as a designer, I have come to REALLY appreciate very specific feedback when it comes to revisions. It actually saves a ton of time. And I really can’t argue with Petite Lemon’s style and taste. Their feedback had an amazing way of taking my design to the next level. They know what they’re doing. (I love you, Paula.)
Without further ado, here are the designs that you can order from Shutterfly!! And I’m serving notice right now that I will take it personally if you (all of you reading this) send me a Christmas card that ISN’T one of these this year.
(And for Mike’s sake, I will clarify here that I am absolutely joking about that last line. But you know that nothing will warm my heart more than seeing my own designs come back to me with your photos this holiday season.)
Okay, so you might see a lot of “The Loveland Family” or similar text on most of these. I promise it’s not narcissistic (but it is fun to see all the photos of these “Lovelands” online and pretend they’re us). What it really is is a lack of imagination. As I designed these with Petite Lemon, I sent in over 30 (maybe even over 40?) different designs, and when you’re powering through design ideas, the last thing you want to do is also try to make up new names every time. So that’s why you’re going to see a lot of Lovelands.
Also, I really enjoyed reading Shutterfly’s product descriptions of my cards, so I’ll also share those here so that I am preserving them for my future posterity.
All Is Bright: Wish loved ones warmth and joy this season in this stylishly elegant Christmas card. The words “All is Bright” sparkle in script lettering next to the northern star on a cheery red background. A favorite photo shines brightly.
Starlight Sky: Illuminate a mantle with this star-filled Christmas card. Four favorite photos shine brightly against a midnight sky with the words “All is Bright.” There’s room for everyone’s names on this starry night.
Modern Joy Bliss: Ring in joy with a modern, playful wreath on a favorite photo. There’s room inside this beautiful Christmas card for personalized greetings and everyone’s names.
Shimmering Stars: Add wintry sparkle with shimmering stars in this shining Christmas card. A favorite photo is complemented by a bright red ribbon of warm wishes with room for everyone’s names.
Shimmering Snowflake Tree: Make the holidays really shine this year with a shimmering snowflake Christmas tree. A favorite photo brightens up this whimsical and fun Christmas card. There’s room for everyone’s names below the Christmas wishes.
Pictures in Red: Sometimes one picture is just not enough. This Christmas card lets you show off six favorite photos and everyone’s names on a cranberry-red background. (ed note: This is also available in other colors like blue and brown, but I’m not linking to them all. Also, my name for this one was the “Super Brag” for obvious reasons.)
Oh Ho Ho: Oh, ho, ho, ho says Santa. Show off two favorite photos next to the jolly man in the red suit. There’s room for your own greetings and everyone’s names in this adorable Christmas card.
Classic Modern Wreath: Hang a modern monogrammed wreath on a favorite photo in this stylish Christmas card. Wish family and friends well with a flourishing “Merry Christmas” and everyone’s names. (ed note: Is it classic or is it modern? Both!)
Candy Cane Frames: Eye candy dandy. Wish everyone a Merry Christmas with a Christmas card that’s oh-so-sweet. Candy-cane frames around three photos are a treat for the eyes. There’s room for everyone’s names on a snowy background.
Modern Chocolate Wreath: A modern classic. A sweet yet modern wreath holds an initial on a rich cocoa background in this Christmas card. Add two favorite photos and the names of everyone in your family.
Hip Holly Berry: Hip hip hooray for holly. Whimsical branches add a festive touch to a favorite photo. Add your family name below a message of peace to this modern Christmas card.
So there you go! Merry Christmas a little early! My Christmas gift to you this year was making your Christmas card shopping that much easier.
(Stay tuned for more posts over the next few days that showcase other exciting stuff I’ve worked on this year. Apparently September is a big month for the release of about half of everything I’ve worked on this year! So I’ll have more suggestions on how you can spend your money over the next week!)
Tags: Alma's Work
I attended BlogHer this year and contributed a piece to the Voices of the Year Gala and Art Auction. That event was my favorite part of BlogHer this time around. Artists were matched up with blog posts and asked to do an artistic interpretation of that blog post that could be auctioned off to benefit recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast. My interpretation of this piece was simply a handy how-to poster on doing your own laundry. If you want it, you can bid on it right now! The bidding starts at $25, which is a steal for the printing and framing of this piece, if I may say so myself. In fact, if I don’t get any bids, you can count on the fact that I’ll be bidding on it myself because there’s no way that you can get the framing and printing at such a low cost!
(Click image to enlarge.)
The framing was actually one of my favorite parts. A company called Fracture did the printing and framing of most of the pieces. They actually printed the piece directly onto the glass, and there’s no frame around it. I found it visually arresting, to say the least.
Tags: Commissioned Portrait Series, Mike's Work
Click the image below to see the gallery:
or you can go to ollibird.com/portraits
So just a note or two about the gallery. We realized that as this portrait series has proven to have legs, it needed its own way to showcase them beyond this blog, so I think it was Alma, (I am giving her credit here), who thought: Why not a museum, with a gallery dedicated to the portraits. SO I said: Yeah, and I can add on as I do new ones, like I can do like archways and other cool elements as the collection grows. I also decided I wanted to have links to the portrait subjects themselves if applicable, so if you click their name card, it may take you to their site or blog. So please enjoy it and comment with any suggestions or ideas you can think of for things I can add in the future. Who knows, you may just be featured in the Ollibird Portrait Gallery, it’s pretty much as good as the Guggenheim.
{Mike}
Tags: Commissioned Portrait Series, Mike's Work
So here are the latest batch of portraits. I really enjoyed working on all these. I will spare you a lot of the details of the approaches to each one and just mention briefly who each portrait is of.
This is Annie. She is the art star behind this Etsy store. I really like her work and personal style. Check her stuff out. She also has a great blog called Ultra Vroom, that I subscribed to before I ever knew she existed, just because I dug her style. Thanks Annie.
This is Nicole. Many of you are familiar with Nicole if you read our blog as she basically handed us a lot of readers from her blog. We thank you for that Nicole, and I hope you enjoy being immortalized by another of your business partners. (this is Alma’s take….it’s tiny but you get the idea)
This is a couple I have never met before named Allen and Shelly. They recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary and this portrait was given to them as a gift. I was told they quite liked it. I found this one the trickiest because they are now 20 years older than what was depicted in the image I worked from, but I tried to ignore that and focus on them as a couple in general. I was also told to include the number 20 somehow, so hopefully you can see how that was done. It was nice to do another portrait of a married couple. Congratulations to Allen and Shelly.
This is Mari, whom I also have never met, (are you getting the picture I am not just doing portraits of friends?) Well, Mari is now a friend after all the correspondence we took part in, as I did this portrait for her upcoming featured seller interview that will be on the front page of etsy.com next week. Which I think is kinda huge, and exciting. Here is her store link. I also commissioned work from her, as she made me a custom Moleskine-style herringbone iPad case and a matching perfectly minimalist herringbone iPad bags, so that like Alma, I can have an excuse to have my iPad with me at all times, and yes, that now means I am the proud owner of a man purse, or murse if you like. Anywyay, she did an amazing job. Thanks again Mari!
…and last but certainly not least, a portrait of my dear Alma, who is currently in NYC at BlogHer. We decided to make a promotional card to get the word out about our little idea here. We talked it over and realized it would be funny to illustrate the idea for those potentially interested by having the person handing you the card, have their portrait on the card itself. The card says something about these portraits being great for “about me” sections instead of a photo, or also as a engagement announcement picture, or just as a gift in general. Here’s hoping she meets Julia Roberts there or something.
{Mike}
Tags: Jimmy Stewart, Mike's Work
Alma and I have been mega busy preparing a TOP SECRET new online portfolio to showcase my portraits. This next batch has 5, count them 5 new portraits, which represents a lot of work, Unfortunately I can’t debut them just yet, but in the mean time, here is a full body portrait of my man, that I just completed:
It is the second in the series and chronicles my insatiable love and admiration for my hero, James Maitland Stewart. In this one I depicted an elderly Jimmy, a grandfather everyone wished they could have had.
I hope you enjoy it.
Tags: Commissioned Portrait Series, Mike's Work
So, since working on Katie and Dave’s portrait a couple months ago, I have had the opportunity to work with some great subjects on a variety of portraits. I am telling you, I love this work. It is exactly what I have been wanting to do for years and I am excited for this to continue. I think I enjoy this even more than my life long goal of being an animator, if you can believe that. I am just crazy about the portrait as a genre in art. I think portraits can say more than any other type of work.
Here are the portraits I’ve done so far. And if you make it to the end of the post, you’ll also be able to see a process video, where I recorded my screen while creating a digital portrait.
Here’s Katie and Dave, who you may have already seen. Katie and Dave included this portrait in their wedding announcements for a unique approach. The response to this was very positive.
This is Abbie Breedt, who is one of Alma’s clients. Her sites will be launching soon, so expect to see a little more of her work soon.
The above portrait is of Megan, who is rather classically pretty. It was up to me what direction to go with this portrait, and it was suggested that Megan sort of resembled an ancient Greek look, and I agreed—either that or a Western European, Madame X kinda vibe, so I kept all that in mind when I styled the background and overall feel.
This portrait is of Jon and Dan Heder, yes THAT Jon Heder. They submitted a photo with this composition, and I loved the concept and the fun nature of the work. It was interesting to focus on the differences and similarities between these identical twin brothers as I worked on this portrait.
This last portrait is of Sarah, who is the wife of Dan Heder and whose great hair made the portrait even more fun. For a different approach, I decided to record my screen during this portrait to give you as much insight as possible into the process of digitally painting. I deviated from my standard process a little in doing this, since all of the portraits I do are done by pencil first, and then digitally painted or colored. But so that you could see the whole thing come together, I drew this one digitally (using my Wacom tablet) from start to finish.
As I said, I really love doing this work. If you are interested in having a digital portrait done for yourself or as a gift for someone you know, send me an email at mike {at} ollibird [dot] com. My prices generally range from about $400 to $650 (lower for one person, higher for two, for example) but I can give you a quote on your specific project if you describe it to me. You may be interested to know that I release all rights to you to use this artwork both personally and commercially. I provide you with a web-ready version and a high-res print-ready version, and I can also ship prints of your portrait to you. (I don’t charge big prices for the prints—just enough to cover the cost of the print and shipping, and a little extra for my time in packaging everything up and sending it off to you.)
And in the meantime, keep checking our blog for updates on the next batch of portraits I’m working on.
Tags: Alma's Work
I’m excited to be teaching at EVO this week! I’ll be teaching a whirlwind Photoshop Elements class, but the principles I’m teaching should apply to any image editing program that you’re using. Hope to see some familiar faces in my class!
