In my Easter update I mentioned that April had, up to then, been a slow month. Indeed it had as I managed just a dozen paintings.
In contrast, however, May has been a much busier month as I worked on a few bird paintings, a rockpooling project, and product designs for my Zazzle store.
Watercolours
In the past two months I painted 25 birds, twelve completed in April and 13 in May. In the April group are a set of three that were requested. The subject, specifically, was left to me so I chose a set that I felt would look together – Hornbills:
The birds painted in May were, mostly, repeat subjects to replace ones painted in the past.
And a sample of news bird paintings:
Rockpooling project
The paintings made for this project, in support of Scilly Rockpool Safaris, are illustrations of the species found in the rockpools on the Scilly Isles. My daughter, her husband and, principally, my grandchildren (especially Orkney who can be seen doing his stuff on their website homepage), operate the safaris which is aimed at educating visitors to the islands about wildlife. I have visited once (for their beach wedding) and was amazed at how much wildlife exists on the small isles.
So far I have painted over 40 illustrations and have another 10 or so to do this month.
The Sea Hare (at the head of this post) is one of the sea slug species that have been completed. The examples are shown below.
In addition to these illustrations, a few of which were made a year ago, I have prepared some colouring pages for the visitors to take home.
Product design
I now have 325 products on sale via my Zazzle store, Alan Skyrme Design Studio, with about 20 new products added per week. I had mentally set a target but wasn’t sure if it was achievable. Practical experience helped so I now do 3 per day rather than more, or fewer, to instil some discipline.
There is always a temptation to do more but I need the discipline to ensure I can plan ahead without disrupting my workflow.
The Zazzle Store is divided into Collections. I have 11 collections at this time, though will expand to a maximum of 15 over time. The collections are:
- Ceramic Tiles
- Paper plates, napkins and party stuff
- Ceramic coffee/tea/soup mugs
- Wall art
- T-shirts
- Home Products (throw pillows etc)
- Practical Products (tote bags etc)
- Home and Office (mouse-pads, stationery etc)
- Vegan/vegetarian inspired products
- Seasonal gifts, calendars and cards
- Bird, animal and nature inspired products
The products can be regarded as a bit expensive in comparison to other outlets BUT, they are all customisable so buyers can use my designs to create other products, or add narrative to personalise products, AND Zazzle often provides store-wide discounts – some of which are very good, so well worth visiting regularly to check for bargains.
Thanks for following. Feel free to buy my products!!!
Skyrme Gallery 