Portfolio Re-DO!

Ugh. Sometimes when inspiration hits, I jump for joy! Other times, I want to go hide under a table in the fetal position. This is one such occasion. Last week I attended a free webinar hosted by Mark Mitchell with special guest, Wendy Martin.

The webinar was all about using the program, Adobe Illustrator for children's illustration. Now, most people would be super-excited to attend just such a webinar. FREE! Right? I have to admit I was a bit reluctant. You see, I've been a graphic designer for 13 years and have been using the Adobe suite for a bit longer than that. I work all day on a computer. I do vector art on the computer. The last thing I wanted to do was sit down to the computer at night to draw.

For work, I did things like this:

Fun, right? A cute little t-shirt design here, infographics there. Seriously though, I was more excited to sit down to the drafting table and draw with REAL pens and pencils, and paint with watercolor and acrylics. For me, this was so cathartic and relaxing. Going back to the computer was not even in my thoughts.

However, after a mere 5 minutes of this webinar by Wendy (a highly talented artist - check out her website!), I realized my mistake. I've been frustrated with color, and correcting mistakes, things you can't really control in traditional mediums. While I am not ditching the traditional by any means (I actually start there), I realized that my talents do lie in Illustrator. It's just what I'm good at doing!

Here is a before and after shot of an illustration of my lovely little narwhals:

You can probably tell which is which. This was my first attempt at "vectoring" my original art. What do you think? Not bad for one day, eh? Obviously, there is more that I can do, but for right now, I'm working night and day on transforming my portfolio. I hope this works!

On the path...