Lilla Rogers' MATS Class Part B: WEEK 2

Woo! A little behind on the posting! Truly, last semester during the MATS class I had NO TIME to breathe, let along blog, but this time I am trying to talk about the class as it happens, rather than just making one post afterwards where I desperately try to remember everything.

So yes! Here was my piece for Week 2: Baby Apparel. I think everyone in this class has one week in the schedule where they kinda feel like it may be an assignment that throws them through a loop- maybe they are even a little concerned about bombing it. I wouldn't say I was worried about utterly failing at Baby Apparel, but I was curious to see how I would do. Even though my work seems to be very child-friendly, the market can have a very fine line when it comes to determining what's "cute" versus "cute but a little weird". Or "edgy". People love to use that word , so let's throw that one in. With kids' stuff, it's ok to be "edgy". "Edgy" can be fun and age appropriate. But babies...usually you don't push it for that group. My challenge was to have my homework look like "mine" without going too far in that "edgy" world (ok, we're shelving that word now. It's had plenty of stage time during this post).

In Part A, I was not able to make the optional coordinating patterns for my bolt fabric piece, but this time I wanted to make sure I had everything: the main art, the extra patterns, the placement graphic... After I was done uploading it to the class Flickr page, I just kinda sat in my chair and looked at it. I mean, I REALLY looked at it. For like a good 20 minutes. Part of this was because I was letting the adrenaline leave my body after coming waaaaay too close to the submission deadline. However, another part of it was, well...I had pleasantly surprised myself. I liked it. It was strange looking at it, because in a way I was meeting another artist for the first time, and that artist was just a different facet of myself. It was very rewarding to see it all come together and realize that I could do this age group without loosing the essence of my characters or artistic "flavor" as I like to say. Furthermore, I was proud that I accomplished making the animals the stars of the show.

I actually need to post about the most recent assignment: scrapbooking! We just turned that assignment in this past weekend- I'll get it up here later this week. :)