March Meet the Maker #marchmeetthemaker

First of all, Happy (belated) Easter!! 🐰 🌷 🐥

It is the first day of April, which also means that Easter is on April Fool's Day. 😳  So be careful out there during your Easter egg hunts, there could be some tricksters a foot!

Since it is the first of the month, it also means that the month long March Meet the Maker challenge on Instagram by Joanne Hawker has just come to an end. 😢  It is sad, but I coping by making a blog post about it!

I did this challenge last year on Insta and I loved it so much that I knew I had to do it again this year. I is a great challenge for not only opening up and sharing more with your audience, but for also getting to know more about yourself as a maker.

You can see my #marchmeetthemaker journey on my Instagram page, @riaartworld or you can stay right here because I'm about to go through each of the prompts with you right now! 💖

Day 1: You

This is me in my messy little world of drawing & crochet. Half the time I’m rummaging around for that pencil here & that crochet hook there, but #makersgonnamake & that’s how I roll! 🤗

Day 2: Where

I’m workin’ in my little home studio everyday in San Francisco!🌉  My mascots, Arty Heart and Mr. Orange are proudly presenting the scene. 😉 💗 🍊

Day 3: How you started

To be honest, I’m not really sure how I started!🤔  I’ve always wanted to be a working artist since I was big enough to color!🌈  ✍️Ok, so maybe it didn’t start when I was a baby! 👶 🙈  BUT I’m still making art in some way or another today, tomorrow, always! Just like when I was a little girl ❤️

Day 4: Favorite to make

Even though this always changes, my favorite right now are these little 2” crochet animals. I started making them about 2 yrs ago now & I have gotten into a good groove with them, so I always look forward to making these!💙

Day 5: Photography

This is an important one because without a camera, I would not be able to share all the artsy and crafty things I’m up to. I go back & forth between my camera & my iPhone 😃  📸

Day 6: Workspace

Well let’s face it, there ain’t nothin’ pretty about my workspace! 🙈  It's an absolute disaster but somehow cute & pretty things come from it! My drawing area is the neatest so I can have a clear space to focus, but the rest is on its own! 🤗  ❤️

Day 7: Routine

While my days always vary, they start off the same-A morning business meeting with some very important critters over coffee in my favorite mug to discuss the To-Do list, which dictates the rest of the day!✅ ❤️ 🍊 🐷 🐙

Day: 8 Flatlay

Before this challenge, I did not realize that there was an actual term for this kind of image! Regardless, it’s the perfect excuse to take a super cute pic of all the adorable studio accessories I’m constantly surrounded by. I have so many snoobobs, so it’s nice to see them laid out all pretty instead of strewn about!❤️💛💚💙💜

Day 9: How it's made

For this prompt, I included two videos in order to provide a little behind the scenes for both my drawing and crochet! So follow the link below to see them play.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgHakXClZbn/?taken-by=riaartworld


Day 10: Time to relax

After a long week, I really like to unwind with some wine & some tasty snacks 😋 🍷 🧀  🍰  I still find myself crocheting even when I am relaxing though 😅  I like to have my hands busy I guess! 🤗

Day 11: Branding

I gotta say that my little branding mascots have not changed since 2015! Mr. Orange is my business voice of reason 🍊 💼  & Arty Heart is all about the feels ❤️ ✨ They’ve been doing me proud ever since, so I’m sticking to it!

Day 12: Postage & packaging

So my packaging for my art prints are pretty boring-my critter packaging is waaayy cuter! Little candy cups for my tiny critters & a handmade drawstring bag for my little plushies. Oh and of course, washi tape & stamps for making the shipping extra special for my customers❤️

Day13: Work clothes

Even if I don’t leave my home studio I still like to play dress-up, it’s helps me feel more put together cause I could very easily stay in pjs all day!😅  You can also see how I like to take reference for a lot of my drawings!

Day 14: Dreams & Plans

My dream has always been what I’m doing now: to be able to support myself as an artist/maker-but as my business grows, I have dreams of having more balanced days and plan on working towards managing my time as efficiently as possible🕰 ❤️

Day 15: Boomerang

This is among my fav prompts. The critters and I are sending all of you lovely people some love today! Can you spot them all?😘 🐵 🐷 🐥 🐙 🍊

Boomerangs are best seen on Instagram, so head on over and see it or yourself!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgWu_ooFAaM/?taken-by=riaartworld


Day 16: Helper

“High-five Munkey!” I said to my little helper. 🙊 👋

I’m usually on my own workin’ away in the studio, but I’d like to think of my little helpers as my critters, silently muttering words of encouragement as I create the day away! 

Day 17: Customers & Feedback

My top selling critters are taking a moment to scroll through some reviews. They are congratulating each other & saying thank you to you because it’s customer and feedback day! They are happy to report that Ria Art World has all the stars for cuteness🌟

You read some wonderful feedback more clearly at my Etsy shop, so don't be shy, see what everyone is saying!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RiaArtWorld?ref=shop_sugg#reviews

Day 18: Inspiration

There are so many things that bring me inspiration! I’m certainly not someone who can work in a stark white pristine environment, I like to have all my cute clutter around me for inspiration. 🤗 ❤️

Day 19: Can't live without

Soooo let’s be real here, I CANNOT live without coffee!!☕️ 🙈 My day consists of me constantly juggling...well juggling everything! There are many hats you have to wear throughout the day while trying to manage your own business and coffee is my sweet elixir of life! What can you not live without?    

Day 20: Tools & materials

I seriously have no self control when it comes to arts and crafts supplies-this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg here😅I just went with a primary color theme❤️ 💛 💙  I also included a few pineapples🍍 can you find all of them?

Day 21: Stories- a day in the life

This prompt was all about utilizing the story feature on Instagram and since they only last 24 hours, I don't have any videos to share! I wish I could say my days are super magical, but they’re actually pretty low key😁

I start with gym time, then I evaluate my to-do lists and get to it! The things on my list vary depending on the deadline, it could be drawing, crochet or both.

Day 22: Sketchbook & lists

I have my agenda here, it’s kinda like my own version of a bullet journal 🤔 I could never have my calendar on my phone, I like paper 😍  I mainly use it to stay on top of my To-Do’s and I use the right side to make myself write creatively about anything (unless it’s a calendar page😁 ) I’m almost out of pages, so I’m transitioning to the flower notebook that you can see below. You can also see my sketchbook❤️

Day 23: Hands at work

In this video, you can see me prepping for Wondercon! Wondercon was taking place over the weekend at the March Meet the Maker challenge was happening, so I thought it would be an appropriate video, so any customers could see their prints getting cut!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgrWatKgkrp/?taken-by=riaartworld

Day 24: Achievements

I hit 4,000 followers on Instagram over Wondercon weekend, which I would say is an accomplishment even if it wasn’t a prompt for #marchmeetthemaker especially since around this time last year, I was at about 1,000😳 

Thank you so much for being a part of my artsy & crafty world💕 let’s keep making the internet a better place✨🌎

Day 25: Being a maker means...

For now, I feel it means that I’m always learning and growing-it certainly is never a static career path!

Day 26: Books, blogs and podcasts

This is Margo and this is Finn, and together they have a very special book to share with you on #marchmeetthemaker day of books, blogs and podcasts❤️ This is their story that I illustrated for the lovely Kelly Franco and  have been meaning to share for forever now! The book is officially out and ready for you to take home. 🏠

https://www.amazon.com/Oh-Pawsibilities-Kelly-Franco/dp/0997506113/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1522728506&sr=1-2

Day 27: Recommend a maker

I just adore Tanya Lee, the creator behind @thecrochetjar and her tiny crochet creations! These are her watermelons!😍 ❤️ 🍉  I always look forward to her posts, so if you have not taken a look at her gallery, get over there and follow her for some serious cuteness!❤️💛💚💙💜

Link to her Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheCrochetJar?ref=shop_sugg

Day 28: Organized

I am obsessed with peg boards! 💖  They are the perfect organization tool in the studio, one day I hope to have a whole wall that is a peg board for all of my goodies. 😍

Day 29: Community

For this prompt, I did a throw back to the book party for the 1st picture book I illustrated professionally❤️ (that’s me, all the way up on the front holding the book!😳 )I feel it’s appropriate for ‘community’ day on #marchmeetthemaker as this was when I 1st quit my day job and realized that life in the studio is pretty solitary, so a community that appreciates what you do but also understands what it means to be a Maker is absolutely key to feeling a sense of belonging.😊 💕

Day 30: Top tip/advice

I’ve said it before so I’ll say it again! Keep going! No matter what, stick with it! Even if it can feel like you’re the turtle in a race against rabbits, you will make it if you keep going! 🐰 🐢 🏆

Day 31: Creative Friends

I’m not the biggest socializer as I like to be tucked away in some corner crocheting or drawing, so I really cherish the friendships I have & creative friends are the best! So for the last day of the challenge, I chose to share a boomerang of my table mate at Wondercon, Joie Foster (@heyjoieart) & we go back to grad school days.❤️ She is one of the most lovely & talented peoples I know! So send her some love 💓  💌

Boomerang:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg_6I8vAq3o/?taken-by=riaartworld

Joie's Website:

https://www.joiefoster.com/about-joie/


It was quite a month! I learned quite a lot about myself along the way too-like how much I really love emojis! 😅

If you went along on the adventure yourself, I'm glad we could be part of the experience together and I'll catch ya on Instagram!

Wondercon 2018!

It's that time of year again! Next week on Thursday, I will be headed down south to go and set up for Wondercon at the Anaheim Convention Center.

I will be sharing a table with one of my long time pals and Wondercon partner in crime, Joie Foster. She is a comic artist and makes some of the most adorable comics about My Little Ponies and my personal favorite, Sailor Corgi!

You can check out her website here if you're interested:

https://www.joiefoster.com/about-joie/


Ok, ok, soooo the details!

I will be in Artist Alley, table B-43

The convention opens on Friday, March 23rd at 11:30am and goes until 7pm. The convention center opens up at 10am and goes until 7pm on Saturday, but I just read that the tickets for Saturday are already sold out! 😳 

Don't despair though! There is still Sunday and the show opens at 10am and goes until 5pm. If you have a weekend pass already, then awesome! I hope to see you there, I love getting to actually meet people in real life!

Now for what will debut! *Drum roll please**

Every year, I like to try and create one or two new fan art pieces that I like to debut at Wondercon, since it is typically the first show of the new year before all the rest.

In January, I try and sketch up a few ideas or look at what characters seem to be pretty popular at the time. This year I settled on Pusheen!

I did a Pusheen and Sloth drawing a year or two ago now and it has been well-accepted, so I wanted to make one more to add to my collection.

Now, I cannot take full credit for my newest Pusheen addition, it was more of a situation where I had been seeing the idea all over the place and thought it was so freaking adorable that I had to to my own adaption!

All over the internet, I keep seeing Pusheen as Pokemon, all kinds of Pokemon! I have no idea who thought that Pusheen should be morphed into a Pokemon, but it's just about the most adorable thing ever.

I really wanted to do my four favorite OG Pokemon, but Pusheen is so cute on (his/her?) own, and I didn't want to simply just draw Pusheen as a Pokemon like I had been seeing, plus I like to put my own spin on things when contributing to the fan art world.

The only thing that could make this idea cuter, is if Pusheen was cosplaying as Pokemon, which is perfect for ComicCon conventions since cosplay is celebrated at these events. It is only natural that Pusheen would join in on the cosplay fun! 😸 

So I got out my ipad and started sketching away:

Initial Sketch

Clean-up Sketch

I really wanted to still see Pusheen's adorable little kitty face and the Pokemon's faces too. Once I was happy with the sketches, I transferred them onto illustration board and painted them with watercolor and added some pencil work.

I then scanned them and worked on the color digitally in Photoshop.

I'm definitely squeeing over the end result and am excited to have it join my fan art portfolio so other cosplayers can squee with me. 😊 💓

I was enjoying the whole dressing up as Pokemon theme so much, that I decided to draw Pikachu at Thor. I'm not too sure why I decided this now (I may have been watching a super hero movie on tv that day), but I managed to finish it in one day and just went with it! 

I did this one in my more traditional technique of pencil and digital color in Photoshop.

In the end, I'll have one more Pokemon themed fan art piece. 💛

The last piece that I will have to add to my fan art collection is a very special one that I fear may end up just being a vanity piece for me-oh well, I had fun with it (technique practice right?).

I was watching my younger brother play the new Zelda game on Nintendo switch a lot at the beginning of the year and it got me thinking about how much I love the Zelda games. In particular, I'll always be partial to The Ocarina of Time on 64, but I have always loved Zelda and played the game constantly on my gameboy growing up.

Anyway, all this nostalgia aside, it got me feeling all inspired and I wanted to draw Link and Zelda, but I wanted to draw them in a slightly more mature style than what I usually tend to gravitate towards.

I started out with a really rough sketch on my tablet (while I was on my brother's couch watching him game).

I continued to try and tighten up the sketch, their eyes look to funny to me here. 😹

You can see how I just keep drawing on top of all of my layers until 

I get the anatomy or line that I am happy with. 

End result and their eyes are better here! 😆

This part took the longest-oh and by this stage I had moved from my brother's couch and was working on the drawing in my studio! It's all still digital though, I wanted to see if I could make an illustration that was purely digital but still look like it was done traditionally.

So yea, this part took the longest, but it's also the part I enjoy the most because 

I can just zone out and get lost in the shading process and all the little details.

Coloring stage!

Ta-Da! The final look! 

I ultimately finish it in Photoshop and I'm looking forward to seeing how people respond to it...err..if they respond to it! 😅

Of course, new fan art aside, I will definitely have my little critter friends there for those of you who are into the crafty side of Ria Art World. 💖

I really hope to see you there!💕

Procreate Drawings

In the New Year, I have been rewarded with the apple pencil, which of course means that I went straight to the app store and proceeded to download Procreate for the ipad pro.

So, I thought I would share a little review while Procreate is gaining popularity and maybe it will help you with some decision making as well.


This is one of the first doodles I made in Procreate as a way to get used to drawing on the tablet and using all the tools.

I was eating a macaroon (bottom left) that was reminding me of a little succulent. I'm sure he is supposed to be a monster or something, but I just went with the cactus idea.

All I did was put the cookie on a bright white surface and take a picture with the tablet's camera app.

From there, I brought the picture into the Procreate app and was able to play with the levels in order to make sure that the white in the background was a pure white (ffffff are the letters to get pure white in Photoshop).

Then, I just started drawing! In very much the same manner as I would have if my sketchbook had been on my lap instead of my tablet.

👫  User Friendliness:

If you are well acquainted with Photoshop, then I would say that there really is not too steep of a learning curve when it comes to getting the hang of Procreate.

If you are not good friends with Photoshop, don't despair! I still feel that Procreate is user friendly enough that if you truly want to create some art in Procreate, you will succeed! It may take a bit more practice and exploring to get comfortable, but when you have a blank page in front of you and tons of different brush styles to play with, I think the exploration is a big part of the fun.

👍 Pros:

1. The brushes! The brushes, oh my sweet goodness the brushes!! 

I have never enjoyed drawing from scratch with the brushes in Photoshop. Even with a Cintiq, I have always felt that shape of the brush head was always a hindrance for me. 

I know you can have the pen pressure option 'on' in Photoshop and adjust the size, opacity, etc. but no matter what, my drawings always came out looking like they are cold and just drawn on the computer. Which is fine, don't get me wrong, but for my style, I love for my drawings to still have that hand-touched, warm feeling to them.

In Procreate, with the apple pencil, I finally feel like I have that warm technique within a digital platform; which means, I save time since I do not have to scan a drawing into Photoshop.

The pencil makes drawing on a tablet with all the brushes feel very intuitive. I don't see a huge difference between my drawings that were scanned and colored in Photoshop versus the drawing I made entirely in Procreate.

This Pikachu was drawn with my regular graphite pencil and colored with watercolor. I scanned the drawing into Photoshop to complete the background and the snow effect.

I made this little Shy Guy drawing in Procreate entirely. I started with a sketch using the 6B pencil and then I did the color using the watercolor brush. The background was made with a brush called 'Bokeh Lights.'

Now as far as I'm concerned, the similarities between the two are pretty darn close. The big difference here (which is another Pros) is the convenience factor.

2. There are two parts to just how convenient Procreate is:

A. ctlr + Z

Ok, ok, there is no actual ctrl + Z, but there is a back button, which is lovely for experimenting and those pesky mistakes.

Even though my pencil and watercolors are quite forgiving when I mess something up, nothing can replace the convenience of just tapping a button and having the boo boo go away off into cyber space.

B. Travel Buddy

I have already been on a few trips this year to visit family and in the past, I have always agonized over which sketchbook to bring, which pencil case and will I attempt to bring some paints? Will the paints explode in my bag? And what if I need Photoshop?!

This time, the only thing I brought was my tablet and trusty Procreate. I had more room to over-pack other things. (Cause let's face it, I need that extra pair of sandals in Oregon during winter!😅 )

I also drew more while I was on my trip too. I did not have all of the variables I usually drag out when I draw, granted they are not many items, but still, it was nice just have my two items to pull out and start sketching.

An added bonus is having easy access to the digital conveniences I am used to using in Photoshop as well. And hey, since we're still on the convenience factor, I was able to draw in the dark!

I took a road trip with my brother and kept on sketching in the car when the sun went down. I was also able to continue sketching while I hung out with my mom on the couch and she watched her romcoms. (Ok, I watched them too...a little, ok, a lot.)

3. Layers

Ok, let's talk about one of the greatest pros, which is the layers. Layers is a feature that I have always adored in Photoshop, I could not create many of my illustrations without being able to have my colors on separate layers.

Wanna try something out on top of your nice drawing? No problem, just grab yourself a new layer and go to town! What have you got to loose, they're free!

This is just a small part though. You also have the option of choosing a property for your layer like you would in Photoshop. So you can have a multiply layer, a normal layer, etc.

But wait, it keeps going! So let's say you would like to send your drawing back to
Photoshop for whatever reason. Well typically in the past, this would be a problem because the app would export the image as a .jpg type file, which as we know, means no more layers.

Well, *drum roll please* you now have the option of exporting your drawing as several different file types, including a .psd file! This means, you get to keep your layers once you open it up in Photoshop.

For these Yoshi, the drawing was done on one layer and the watercolor effect was done on a separate layer. I put the drawing layer on 'multiply' so it would be transparent and show the watercolor underneath the drawing.

Of course, you can have tons of fun just drawing on one layer. You can make your original layer any color you want, so it can even feel like you are drawing on toned paper.

👎 Cons:

1. No type tool

For me, especially in the children's book industry, the type tool is a must. 

While there are fabulous calligraphy brushes that can make your own handwriting look as amazing as a font, it just doesn't do it for me. 

I would probably just do all of my roughs for a picture book dummy in Procreate if I had a text tool. Luckily, I can export a Photoshop file and add the fonts into the sketches on my desktop.

Also, all of my funning with punning cannot be brought to completion in Procreate!

2. Resolution/Size Tool

So far, the size tool has been the most frustrating for me. You have the option of having a 'magnetic' or 'freehand' size tool and both have been frustrating for different reasons.

It seems as if if the correlation between this tool and the pencil needs to be stronger because half of the time I just want to move something a little bit and the size tool blows everything out of proportion or distorts the image in the opposite direction of where I want it to go.

Luckily you can go back, but one thing that you cannot control is how the resolution of the drawing is affected after you are done finally getting the size tool to do what you want it to do.

No matter what dpi I have chosen for my file, whenever I resize a part of my sketch, it always ends up looking blurry, like it has terrible resolution all of a sudden!

The best advice I can give to get around this, is to do all of your resizing in the sketch phase of things. If you wait until you finish your beautiful illustration to resize one part, it will end up looking a bit fuzzy.

I suppose this happens in Photoshop to some degree as well, but it appears more noticeable in Procreate.

Another cookie experiment ⛅

There are so many more little pros and cons here and there, but I wanted to cover the big ones, at least the big ones for me anyway! 

All in all, I would recommend the pencil and procreate to illustrators, especially if you do work digitally (either partially or fully). The convenience factor of having an app that actually functions pretty closely to Photoshop is a big enough reason to sell me on it alone.

It's so nice have a digital platform to sketch on that feels like my sketchbook. No having to haul around a laptop and attach a Wacom tablet/Cintiq to it. I can sketch in bed, on the bus, at the beach...you get it!

Of course, nothing can replace my sketchbook entirely, and I'm sure many artists feel the same, but I can continue working on things for clients anywhere, which is a luxury.

Raisin a Toast to 2018!

Happy New Year all! 

So I completely disappeared! * Pats a sad blog on the back and mutters, "I'm sorry blog, I'm back now. I won't disappoint you again." **

Phew! It's a new year and thank goodness for that! I don't know about the rest of you, but for me, 2017 was a tough year. However, I'm optimistic about the here and now. Plus I hope to share some fun things to bring a smile to your face along with some more crochet patterns (yay!), inspirational tips and tricks (double yay!) and some behind the scenes info on creative process and managing your small business.

Of course, if you would like a daily dose of Ria Art World, check out the links to the right→

I post just about everyday to most of my social media platforms, so you can come by and say hi! 👋

To ease on in here, I would like to do a little recap of some of the highlights from 2017! The end of the year right before the holidays always becomes super hectic with Etsy orders and holiday shows. I love it, but I also need a serious vacay by the time Christmas rolls around!😅

Here were my best nine post from 2017! All crochet babies! 🙈

It's certainly interesting to see which pictures were the most popular among my instagram followers!

---

I must say that for me, my highlight posts have been my punny posts. Mondays are always hard, so I wanted to make a point to post something that would inspire a little chuckle or at the very least, a smile!

I started doing Monday Punday, of course, not all of them are true puns, but they are cute little jokes to say the least. I hear little jokes all the time and have heard certain puns for so long, that I wanted to start providing my own interpretations of them- in Ria Art World form!

It has been so much fun and has even inspired some of my own little puns!

Let's get caught up:

Halloween is so much fun, I love fall and all the decorations, so I'm certainly partial to the little jokes I came up with for October 2017.

Punny November 2017:

Of course, I cannot resist a good Turkey joke in time for Thanksgiving.

And of course, cyber Monday! 

A Punnier December 2017:

Chilly days and late nights of holiday orders were makin' me feel just like this!↓

It wouldn't be a festive holiday without these cuties though! 🎄

It does not end here! In 2018, I will hope to continue to bring the smiles! 😀