Letting go of 2015 … happy new Year!

There's a little program on Facebook that does a review of your last year. Here's what I got … I love the random selection of images that came up. I think they very well represent my year 2015.

New Year pirates (originally done for kid's fashion) and a notebook design from Bootcamp.

Easter hares and my first editor's pick in a Minted comp, the "Lady of the Orchard".

 My "Rooftop Garden" pattern (Fabric 8 Contest semifinalist). Another win on Minted, the "Willow Twins".

One of my Inktober drawings. My bestselling print on Minted, the "Cloud Symphony" from Donegal.

A snapshot in November. And 2 sketchy advent angels.

2015 has been a good year.

I had a nice mix of commissions, graphic design as well as illustration/ surface design, which kept me quite busy throughout the year.

Did MATS Bootcamp and MATS B (again) in winter and spring. I complained a lot about not having enough time for the courses … but still … after MATS B I felt like walking through a door, or up to the next level. I guess I only realized a bit afterwards how much I'd learnt.

Had my first intern in spring, an interesting experience. I must get back into teaching soon!

Let go of a few aspirations that didn't feel right anymore. Maybe this was the reason why some other doors opened up quite unexpectedly?
Found out that taking part in competitions can be quite fun and isn't always a waste of time – if you win :-)

Did my first month-long drawing challenge with Inktober. Had a lot of fun with it and often surprised myself with the subjects/themes I came up with. But it took up way more time than I expected, and I often yearned to "do something more" with my sketches, which then would take up even more time.
So … no "Art Daily" for me in 2016. But I can well imagine to do 1 or 2 monthly drawing/painting challenges per year.

To round up the year, I sold a good number of art prints via Minted in the holiday season. Such a great feeling! Thank you all!

In general my work got more painterly, more free flowing, less cluttered. Which I love! I feel way more confident about my work and my direction than at the beginning of this year.
When it comes to favourite subjects I love painting/illustrating anything with animals. I am a confessing romantic. And my Minted success rekindled my love for landscape painting as well.
I too realized that I now can switch quite effortlessly from illustration to graphic design to surface design and back again. With tasks as varied as coming up with a communication/advertising concept for a local health centre to designing patterns for kid's fabric this is a great gift for me! It opens up so many possibilities :-)

Ok, 2015, and now … there you go …
I'll raise the anchor of my little pirate ship and go looking for new adventures in 2016! Happy New Year everybody!