August update.

Why, hello there friends!

I hope that wherever you may be that the sunshine is warm on your face and that you are within walking distance to some swimming location. It's been a fantastic and busy summer so far for me. I have a been working on a few things that have been keeping me hopping. First, I'm JUST about ready to start working on my sister's screen printed save the date cards for her wedding next summer. It'll be my first time screening on paper. Experts in the field of printing have said that I should find the process a piece of cake after printing on wiggly tea towel fabric and I'm banking on their words. Got the screens, got the paper, ink comes tomorrow and I'm on my way!

 I don't want to ruin the surprise of the reveal in the mail, but here's a little corner of a mock up I did of it.

I also just completed a promotion with Three in a Box. It was a Christmas in August theme. I will post the full finished promo in a bit but here's a little corner of that as well.

I also noticed at the local coffee shop that the CIBC Run for the Cure has started using my painted running shoe art in their campaign for this year.

This is the first shoe that I painted for them and my favourite. Painting on a shoe was a difficult task but something that I'll never forget!

Last but certainly not least, I will be manning a Claire Manning table at this year's Bloorcourt Arts and Crafts Street Fair here in Toronto. The big party is in a week and a half on Saturday August 18th right on Bloor Street between Dufferin Street and Christie Street.

I will have my tea towels for sale, as well as my greeting cards. I will also have a small run of silk screened posters and a few of my hand embroidered throw pillows. And with that reminder to myself, I must get back to work. Stay cool, cats.

 

 

 

A little more from ICON7, and a little from the home front.

Another week has slipped away. Although I am more than back to normal home life I am still savouring my time away in Providence at ICON7. I am going to continue sharing bits from the event until there is just nothing left to share, but I'm going to do it along side home life too. 

I'm going to start with a little conference talk, more specifically the ICON7 Rhode Show, which I was fortunate enough to be a part of. The concept of the show is pretty simple. Display your beautiful work for the illustration world to see, and sell a little (if you want). Though there were a few Rhode Island sales tax heart attacks for this Canadian girl, I was able to sell my tea towels as well as show my portfolio. Thank goodness for that, because they sold like hot cakes! I never posted the new designs, did I? Well, here they are!

 You might say it made me a bit happy that everyone liked my work so much.

Photo courtesy of Angie Alonza

All of the folks that came around to check out my stuff and have a quick chat with me were lovely. I particularly enjoyed speaking with recent grads and looking at their work. They are a refreshing bunch. I can't believe it's been eight years since I graduated. Seeing them reminded me that I can't just sit on the couch and watch Master Chef (though I love it). Doors must be knocked and art must be made! I also had a few personal super stars pick up an absorbent Claire Manning original. One of the first people to drop by was Susie Ghahremani of Boy Girl Party fame. Yeah, that's her website on the list of things that I love. What do you do when a total inspiration buys a piece of my work? I was a total nerd, and way too excited to see her and Julia Rothman, who was browsing the show with her. I've really got to work on acting cool. One day I hope that I can license my art as successfully as they have. My major moment of the night was when a woman came by and asked if I could set aside 3 sets of my tea towels while she went and got her cheque book. No prob, I thought. Well, "cha-ching!" is what I really thought, but when she came back and I read the name on her cheque I realized it was Lynda Weinman.

As in THIS Lynda.

She even looks like the logo a bit! Upon this discovery I threw all three sets of towels in the air and lost the ability to count and organize. It took me fifteen minutes to take the cheque and get the towels in her bag. I believe that Ronaldo taught himself After Effects with the tutorials at lynda.com. She is a legend. I was also visited by Dan Santat and Adam Rex, amazing children's book illustrators and authors. I am embarrassed to admit that I had not heard of them before the conference, but I am now a super fan of both of their work. 


Another important visitor to my set up was Amy from Craftland, an absolutely amazing craft/art/awesomeness store and gallery space owned by the one and only Jen Corace. Amy suggested that I drop by the store and consider submitting a vendor proposal because she thought my towels would fit well in amongst the rest of the awesomeness. So, on my final day in Providence, and my only free day to explore the city I found Craftland.

It was as cute on the outside as on the inside and I loved it.

I have since applied and am awaiting a reply!

Craftland was the highlight of that day. I was pretty hung over from the conference closing party which didn't help. That wasn't the main reason I was a little bummed with Providence. It was the number of bums in Providence that bummed me out. The town seemed empty except for clumps of drifter type folks hanging out everywhere. I assume that in the school year with everyone around it's not as odd. I felt, firstly, that I likely looked like I belonged in their crowd, and secondly, a little unsafe, even in broad daylight. Every street was pretty much void of people. I ran into a particularly vocal homeless woman down one of these streets. She was yelling at a homeless dude that was walking away from her. She got louder the further he got from her. I stopped to look in a window just so I could listen to her insane rant. It was amazing. So much so that the first thing I drew in my sketchbook when I got back to the T Dot was her rant, just so that I could get it in writing. I didn't get a good look at the scene because I didn't want to draw attention to me so I replaced the homeless folks with cats, of course. 

I put my sketchbook on my studio floor to take a few pictures and, like clockwork, my super model cat came around for the photo shoot.

I just went with it. Work it, Ramona!

That homeless woman really was crazy, eh?

A very happy fourth of July to all you fantastic Americans out there!

Gone so long.

Yes, yes, I know. We have to stop meeting this way, right? 

One of these days I will finally learn how to blog whist maintaining a busy schedule.... or will I? That's for me and you BOTH to find out.

Anyway, here we are. 2012. Yes, it's a new year. In the past I have made big announcements around this time, shouting from the rooftops that "THIS IS MY YEAR!!". Well, not this year. You may have noticed from my numerous rashes, near fatal infection, loss of two Grandparents, not to mention the serious lack of published illustration work, that 2011 was not the most amazing of years for me. It actually made past years that I have whined about look like parades. Nope, no big declarations for 2012. I will work hard and expect results, but I'm not going to define anything. I'll be like a slightly oriented feather on a breeze. 

As hard as 2012 was on me, I managed to leave the year behind on a fairly good note. I am happy to say that I am actually in a day job that I enjoy and can be creative in. For the first time in a while I am proud of of what I do from nine until five. You'd think that if you were truly creative all day that you would just want to flop on the couch when you get home and rest, but I've found that it actually juices me up to keep going and work on my own stuff. This led me to produce my first four greeting card designs that are not Christmas related and two tea towel designs. Thanks to the classes I took in October, though I worked hard on production, I actually feel like I MADE something. And to top it all off, I actually SOLD stuff! Yeah, I'm not talking like in the past where I when I said selling stuff I actually meant selling a few to my friends and family. I mean a good 20 or more strangers walked home from a craft sale with a piece of my work. Yes, not enough to make a living just yet, but a really fabulous boost to keep making and designing. I was happy, and I was thrilled to make others happy. Since I'm decidedly not sharing any new plans, I will share photos of the past month and where I've been. 

This is a shot of my card production line. Literally, fishing line. Strung across my studio room. Ronaldo was less than thrilled at the clutter, but praised my problem solving anyhow.

 This is my little gocco that could. HUNDREDS of cards have been printed with it. Alas, this may be my final print run with it. I am leaning towards going traditional screen print for my next cards.

 This is a finished embroidered pillow. I really wanted to make tonnes and sell them with my cards and tea towels. Unfortunately, it ends up that I'm human and can't embroider at the speed of light. I finished two. Oh well.

 This is my table at the first of three craft shows I did before the holidays. This is the Hippo craft show. Of the three, this was my most successful. These are the towels!

 I loved making these so much that I'm planning on two more to round off the food groups, plus a set aimed at bridal shower season.

 This is an assortment of the cards I sold. Some you may recognize from Christmases passed.

 TOWELS!

 

Then, it was Christmas. I celebrated it.

 Here's a shot of Ramona getting some cheek lovin'. Just 'cause. Happy New Year!

Workin' it in the rain.

Copyright Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

This, my friends, has been the prettiest part of the whole weekend. The May flowers are certainly here and beautiful. Unfortunately, the April showers have not taken the hint and scrammed. Today was ugly. I decided to go for a walk with Ronaldo anyway. I am happy I did because after years of admiring The Workroom and the fabulous Make Something blog, I finally went in to the store. 

Courtesy of BlogTO.com

 The Workroom is located freakishly close to my house at 1340 Queen Street West. It is brimming with beautiful fabric, wonderful books, and offer a wide variety of sewing classes at all levels. They have a free monthly "stitch-n-bitch" that I will attend when I have my new embroidery project underway. And, in the case today, they put on some amazing craft and hand work sales called Trunk Shows. I was lucky enough to run across the Spring Trunk Show.

Copyright Claire Manning

 

 

 

 

 

The place was packed and it had a great creative vibe. It was just what I needed to get in the mood to do my own work. I made some purchases on the show side, but was completely mesmerized with the colour coordinated wall of fabric.

Copyright Claire Manning

 I ended up falling in love with a floral laminated cotton. I bought the last of it and am planning on making myself a work tote. 

Copyright Claire Manning

As usual, my little super model had to get into the shot. I think she outdid herself- what's more beautiful? Ramona or the fabric? Seriously. 

Information on all the neat things The Workroom has to offer just head to their website, www.theworkroom.ca. If you live in Toronto I would recommend a drop in for sure. 
  

The life of a painting.

I spent this weekend working on a new piece to be submitted to a gallery show call for entry. Yesterday at 5 was the deadline. I realized at 3 that I was not going to make it. Big bummer. At the end of the day it's my fault for leaving it so long, but all is not lost. I really loved what I created. I took pictures along to journey from concept to final and wanted to share my process.

So, first is the concept. The theme of the show is hybrids. I started working on rough concepts a couple of weeks ago.



Usually I start by writing my ideas down and drawing super duper rough sketches. This is how I narrow down to one idea. At this point in this particular case I had to set everything aside to work on another project.



I came back to this painting a week after my first sketches and did another round of roughs. These ones are based around the best idea I had from the first round. I wrote down my palette colour ideas as well.



One last final sketch. This one is pretty much exactly as I want the final painting look. I'll usually write down where I want to see each of my palette colours so I can be as efficient with my paint as possible.




Next step is to transfer my idea to the final canvas. In this case it's a stained wooden panel. Here I used a pastel pencil to sketch it out but usually a pencil is my tool of choice.



Paint time! I try to lay down the large blocks of colour first.



My first painting teacher in college said to us once that if you're going to paint, then use paint. It's not the time to scrimp. So I went out and bought some new paint! My talent takes me far but the paint itself is so important!



From that point it's hard to describe. I don't start from the top and move my way down. I'm all over the place! Wherever my mood strikes me. It's hard to say how long this will take me. This particular situation took me the better part of a weekend.




I also started using this awesome water dish that my Mom gave me years ago and it was promptly put in a dusty corner of my book case. It's got grooves to lay your brushes down without crushing the tips and a ridged section to help remove paint better. I LOVE it! Thanks, Mom!



So, though I didn't get it done in time for the deadline I did finish it today, and my furry intern totally approved.



It turned out as I hoped it would. It's been a while since I've painted so it was good to get back into it in the least. I'm already working on my next one!

Goodbye, Miss Sherlock.

Hope you are having a humping hump day. I know am! I started my corporate work day super early today and because of that I'm now sitting on a GO bus that's homeward bound. I am off to make a special delivery tonight. It actually ties into another item on my list of things to do in order to go freelance 24-7. It's actually a simple concept, but at 8 pm when you have dinner dishes to do and a load of laundry to fold and you've been up since 6 it's not easy to get motivated to do it.

Email people.

That's it. Email art directors, other illustrators, friends, family, and in the case of today, general inquiries. Someone who saw a show I put up at a Starbucks a few years ago emailed me out of the blue and asked if I still had one of the paintings and if it were for sale. Old self would read the email and tell myself I would respond later and then totally forget. New self emailed her right back, and now one of my paintings has a new home!


This is one of my favourites. Lesson learned: you never know what will come of an email.

Now here's a shot of Ramona, who helped me wrap the painting for delivery. So cute.


Keep on humping!