thankyouverymuch

When I sold my very first piece on Etsy (my little painting of downtown LA), I wanted to include a Thank You card with my shipment. I only got as far as opening a new tab in Safari when I said to myself, "Self, you are an artist. Can't you make a thank you card?" I have made holiday cards in the past, so I responded, "Self, you bet your ass I can."

I sat down that night with my watercolor pad and gouache set and dove in. Obviously I wanted to do hand lettering, because that's how I roll. I painted, got lost in the work, grabbed a photo and added a sketch, stepped back and... it was crap. CRAP! Jason, My Biggest Fan (M.B.F.), told me it was lovely (such an obedient, well-trained man) but I wanted to do something better. Fortunately, I salvaged the sketch part so it wasn't a total loss. (Notice how I deliberately cropped out the CRAP part of the painting. No, you will never see it. Maybe M.B.F. will use that part as a bookmark or something).

I set back at it. The gouache flowed through me like the fade-aways flow through Kobe. Usually I do hand lettering with whatever pen is conveniently near my hand, so the addition of bristles, water, and pigment gave me a slew of new issues.  Nevertheless it was fun, and I was happy with the outcome.  Next came the easy party: scan, layout, print. Then I thought to myself, "Self, maybe others out there would want to use this design, too. It's just so darn pretty!" So up it went to my new Etsy site, so you too can enjoy the simple, yet whimsical, design. And such a steal, too!

See the listing for the cards here.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon!