In the previous days of the Share the Work challenge, I’ve been diving deep trying to think about what my Birthstone Goddesses mean to me and to the people who might collect them. Day 3’s goal was to finally turn all of my musings into a cohesive visual!
Is My Art Worth Selling?
But first, Emily gives you some tips for evaluating whether or not you’re ready to sell your work in the first place. The biggest sticking points here were did I actually enjoy creating the work? Could I sit alone with it in a room and be comfortable with it? I think the intention of these questions is to gauge your excitement and confidence for your work because if you have these things for the art you create, it will come across in your energy as a seller.
I did have some minor revelations here that I actually do not like half of my work from the main set, with the exception of Lady of November, Lady of March, Lady of February, Lady of May, Lady of June, and Lady of September. I usually do not hang my own art in the house because it triggers my constant inner critic, but Lady of November is the first painting of my own that I chose to hang up!
Most of these pieces were also not necessarily enjoyable to create, either. The tedious transfer process and inking really hurt my hands after the hours put in and watercolor terrifies me with its threat of ruining hours of inking each time.
To me, this indicates that my decision to change media to something more loose for the last phase of the series is a good move! I don’t think the original paintings are unsellable, but they are harder for me to connect to as the artist because of the flaws I see in their anatomy, unrefined concepts, etc. My gals come as a set that I do not intend to redo, however, so I will have to learn to love them all!
Visualizing My Brand
Before now, I had already decided while building the website for this body of work that I would have a warm neutral theme with a teal accent, which you can see in action on the website dedicated to this series. I had also created a logo halfway through development. Despite having these basics sorted out, I’ve never done something as intentional as create a brand mood board.
Beware, because creating a brand mood board was really addictive and fun to do! It helped me make more purposeful connections between the feel of vintage art with my modern new age aesthetic. My Birthstone Goddesses were especially tricky to plan around because their color palettes are all over the place to match their respective birthstones and birth flowers!
A neutral scheme with a bright accent and clean font with decorative headers seems to be a good choice so that my detailed colorful art could shine brightest.
But I’ve also been staring at this board WAY too long, so let me know if you think my mood board just looks like color vomit!
Resources
- UX Collective – A handy article breaking down the basics of the parts of a brand mood board, what info to include, etc.
- Canva’s Brand Board Advice – A useful article on building a brand, plus templates you can use with Canva’s free cloud-based design functionality.
- My Brand Mood Board Template – I decided to make my own template in Photoshop. Feel free to use this template for your own mood boards! No credit required, but I won’t turn down a thanks via pay what you want on Gumroad, tipping me via my ko-fi, or pitching in to my Patreon.