I am going to talk about something that seems a bit taboo in the art/crafting world.
By the time the customer see's something whether it be a card, a print, a bookmark, a painting; really anything, the item has probably either been done before but has not worked or it has been changed and reworked to be made what it is.
I know for my store
LoveUPaperly I make a lot of cards that don' t work, put images together that I thought would look awesome but don't, use too much ink, not enough ink, the words look too light, etc...
I have considered myself an artist since I was about 18, but after opening LoveUPaperly I have finally realized that making these mistakes and experimenting is not wasting supplies (I always thought it was)! Instead the process of making things that don't seem to work or I don't like is pushing me to make images and words that do work!
Now I am going to take this one step further and actually show you some cards and prints I have tried that in my head looked awesome, but on paper I thought failed. I am also going to go over the reasons why I didn't like them.
Separately, I liked the idea of this print. I liked the UR AWESOME, the dog image in red, and the frog image in pink. My first problem was that I didn't leave enough space for an E, oops! The second part I didn't think was working were the two animal images together. They weren't cohesive. I felt that instead of allowing your eye to move across the print each separate image was it's own entity.
This card I don't think was working at all! I was on an inspirational kick and that weekend was watching a lot of Harry Potter! I tried to do the elf, Dobby, that only wanted to be free. I don't think anything was working! the colors, the ink....major fail on this one!
About these cards. I LOVE my chicken stamp. I really, really do! However, in my chicken frenzy I started to make tons of cards that said Chicken Love. I think the images themselves work and the words work with the images, but the whole concept seems a bit out there!
This is the final image I am going to show you. I am still thinking through this. I want to offer custom stamps from pictures on LoveUPaperly but I was trying to make examples and thought using Meridyth and myself would be great. I love the picture in real like that I used but the dark colored stamp with the light letters is not working, and as a stamp the image itself is just o.k.
So there you have it!
I don't know how other artists/shop owners work, but for me it is a process of creating/discarding/tweaking/and creating.
I hope you found this enlightening!
Until tomorrow,
Love,
Jess
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