When It Rains It Pours

I've been absent during the past month, but for good reason. I JUST finished up a freelance job for SOWA Open Market in Boston and am starting to collaborate with a company that works with artwork used for retail. This would include illustrations for storefronts as well as ready-to-hang stretched high end prints like you see in Target or Urban Outfitters. Clients working with this company include some of my favorite stores, so I'm very excited. Details right now are on the down low.

In the meantime, I am working on some personal projects as well as my website and an upcoming mailer (is it mailer time already?). However, my last two big jobs I got were via email submissions through company websites, so don't be shy about contacting Art Directors that way! Just make sure you read the submission policy and follow their rules. Anyway, below are two different possibilities for the back of my May mailer. The front will most likely be my newest painting of my cat hoodie girl in front of the row of houses (see post below). What do you think??

New clients!

I'm finally posting some new work! A lot of news (some I can talk about some I can't), but I've been contacted by two new and exciting clients: Boston's SoWa Open Market for website illustrations and another hush hush client interested in illustration and surface design. I've also set up a summer gallery show in East Boston at Cafe 303 with a good friend of mine.

So much to do!

Take a Hike!

Welcome to Friday! It's snowy and grey, but I'm hoping to get started on a new piece I'm very excited about. In other news, I will be be one of two guest faculty members presenting at the RISD Pre-College Open House. It's March 6th and I'll get to show off all the great work my past students have done.

Tweedle Dear and Tweedle Doll

Just a quick post! This piece was mailed off to Hive Gallery in LA. It's an Alice in Wonderland themed show (man those are popular with the new movie coming out). I chose to do my female interpretation of Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum, hence turning them into Tweedle Dear and Tweedle Doll.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Heart Day. For some, February 14th is a mess of capitalism and cheesy stuff animals, but my boyfriend and I see it as a friendly reminder that we should pick up a nice bottle of wine and forget about work for a while. This morning I painted him the little valentine above. I should explain- my nickname in the relationship is "squirrel". Although it sounds very cute, I actually got the title because I'm a total SPAZ when crossing the street (like a squirrel: right. left. hop to the right some more. freeze. RUN). He became known as "Woodchuck" (depending who you ask that came about for different reasons, although I think neither one of us knows 100% anymore). The apartment is littered with woodchuck drawings, but I don't have a scan. However, I realize that I basically draw him as a big round fuzzball that looks kind of like Totoro, so that will do for the sake of this entry.

BEHOLD:

Surface design is my new friend

Some surface design experiments from this past Fall. I have thought about making one of these into a new notebook/journal, but I'm not sure...

Enormous Tiny Art Show!!!

I don't think I've posted "Toy", right?? Well, it is one of a handful of my paintings in Nahcotta's seventh Enormous Tiny Art Show (Lovingly called ETA7 for short). Check out the event's website and the other fun artists here. Nahcotta is located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the show ends early March.

Mermaids make me think of warmer weather

This Mermaid was a small painting that went off to a gallery show in Florida. Mmmmm...Florida. Probably a weenzy bit warmer than Rhode Island right now. More paper umbrellas and plastic monkeys, too.

After a cozy morning of Kitchen Nightmares (Ramsey!) and a cup of tea, I'm going to work on my mailers now that I know exactly what I want to do. They are going to be a bit bigger, 5"x7" instead of your standard 4"x6". A bit pricier, but I'm not buying as many and have had fellow illustrators recommend the extra room. Another decision is to do two instead of one. Since I've edited my client list down I don't have to break the bank doing multiple mailers. The second one will be the sushi piece I posted a while ago (yum).

The longest Monday of them all....

The last few weeks I've been hiding in my studio avoiding January. Oh January, you are the Monday of the year. It's also a good time for fresh starts, and for me that means reviewing my client list, focusing my portfolio towards my most successful markets, and preparing a new mailer.

I noticed that it looks like some of my newer students have already started following my blog (which of course I promise to update more). Hello! I look forward to meeting you. Start warming up your pencils...

Feliz Navidad

I've been distracted with the holidays and everything else on my list wrapping up (ha, no pun intended!). With George Michael's "Last Christmas" filling my head and The Muppet Christmas Carol screening multiple times, I'm happy to share this sushi-inspired piece before family, friends, and fruitcake take over.

On a side note, I will be participating in a small Art Sale on December 16th at Waterplace Condos in Downtown Providence. The sale starts at 4:00.

Happy Holidays!

New Work.

New work! Always a joy to show new stuff (people like pictures better anyway). The top one is for a great Surface Design continuing education class I'm currently taking. This semester deals with hand painted work and then next semester utilizes using the computer. This means that I'm really trying to focus on designs and textures right now that can't be done on the computer with a simple "repeat" function. Luckily, I have enjoyed discovering many wonderful surface designers out there who make organic designs that don't have a particular repeat or pattern.

The second piece just took me a long time to scan (it was for the Summer RISD faculty show). I'll be showing it next week at West Side Arts Gallery in Providence.

In other news, Craftland in downtown Providence has sold two of my paintings as well as a bunch of prints and journals. It's a great feeling to get that check in the mail every month! Thanks to Craftland and the gang.

Princess Sticker Book for Galison/Mudpuppy.

I was pleasantly surprised the other day to see that Galison/Mudpuppy has my Princess Sticker book listed online at their site. This was a project I worked on January 2009 for their Fall line- it's full of quirky princesses, royal pets (you know animals always think they rule the house), dragons, castles, plus lots of accessories including tiaras, flowers, and shooting stars. I had a great experience making it and I'm so excited to see it in person. You can see the full listing on Galison's website.

New Prints on Society6.com

The truth is that I don't carry as many prints as I use to (sorry, sorry...I know). While a few are on etsy, I am happy to say that two more are available through Society6, an online community that now allows artists to sell high quality art prints through a professional third party. It's a real steal; a nice 17"x21" art print with trim is only about $32.00. Feel free to follow the link above and take a peek. All you have to do is scroll down until the two images show up and click on the orange "buy" icon.

Oh, and on another note: I will have a piece up in Soho this month! It is for a charity event and I'll be posting more information later.

Ed2010: "Digital Age"

This was a piece for Ed2010.com about editors transitioning into the digital age and abandoning the ways of print. Ironically, the topic also effects myself along with the entire illustration field as more magazines and publications are tying to move content online (for some it is a modern choice while for others a financial move). As I was working on this, I couldn't help but chuckle because my illustration students had recently worked on a very "businessy" illustration for an editorial assignment. You know, suits and ties...people in offices....it's hard to think of something not obvious and still very much artistically "you" when working with some of these topics. It was my turn! In the end I was very happy to have my editor out of the office and still very much in my world. I will say if there is one difference doing online illustration, it's that the images are usually TINY, although this one ended up looking good (and clear) in its small format. Love the color, and those are my cowboy boots.

Updates for Fall

Hello, hello. I'm happy to say that I am plugging away on new work and opportunities. Here is what is happening...

* Three shows coming up in Rhode Island, Florida, and New Hampshire. Details on those dates as they get closer.

* Another job for Ed2010 that will be posted soon. I'm rather happy with how it's coming out- I think it has mailer potential.

* The Fall RISD sale is October 10th and I'm working on small 5"x7" originals to sell. They are very quick and fun, and I usually get to experiment with some new things. You can see one below that turned out cute.

* My website is updated!

* Star Trek waffles rock. They are egos with a flat middle where illustrations are printed in edible ink. Currently I am eating Earth and Kirk, but I'm waiting for Spock one of these mornings. C'mon, Spock waffle!

Illustrator meeting

I. Have. So. Much. To. Do.

Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit...but I am busy. My mailers are in and I'm pouring over my client list to edit and update- so far I've weeded out several people that I realize I'm just wasting mailers (and stamps) on. I actually will try to be more heavy on the publishing side this round. However, not for picture books, just more juvenile covers for young adults and novelty items. I FINALLY got Dreamweaver back, which means that my poor website can be updated with a bunch of new work that has only appeared on my blog.

Oh, and did I mention I start teaching college again on Monday?

In other exciting news, I am meeting tonight with some local illustrators to have a drink, talk shop, and share some war stories. One is Allison Cole, who is an illustrator, Art Director at Providence Monthly, and also runs the awesome online store Bang Bang You're Thread that has everything from her illustrated stationary and comics to handmade bags and wallets. Along for the ride is also Jyll Ethier-Mullen who runs the West Side Arts Gallery in Providence. We hope to join forces, combine our illustrative power, and...eh, you get the point.

Allison Cole

Jyll Ethier-Mullen

Craftland

These paintings will be available at Craftland in Providence, RI. Going to be away until next week (my mom is in town and I'm looking forward to it!).

OTAD update

Self-Portrait, originally uploaded by lauren minco.

One Thing a Day (OTAD) is working well. I'm moving on to revamping my website and creating some new paintings that will go up as portfolio pieces ( they will also be for sale in Providence at Craftland).

Above is an image from...ooooh, 2004? It was my sophomore year final for my first oil painting class. A little different from my current work, isn't t?

New Mailers

Here they are! I'm switching up things a bit this time around, but nothing crazy. The text in front does not have the huge LAUREN MINCO like before- just going with the email and website (both have my name, do I really need the large one? Probably not). I also have them not centered, and so far I think it looks a little more streamlined than before. The back is full color this time, and I really like my suitcase guy as a spot illustration (he was part of larger painting). I think these images are a nice balance, and whether I'm sending something to a teen publication or a more adult market, I should have something for everyone.

Look Ma, No Paint!

I finished my new mailers last night and sent them off to be printed. 

Meanwhile, I forgot to post this final I had to do for a Continuing Education Adobe Illustrator class I took. No Live Trace here! Mostly the pen tool and basic shapes. We had to recreate a vintage crate label.