Tanya Draws Illustration and Design: RB Duvet Covers & Fox Wreath

Well, its Monday again, and its snowing! Sadly not snowing enough for me to not go to work, but its still pretty. Although, I would much rather be sitting here near my fire, drinking tea (chocolate chai tea today, mmmm) and drawing, than having to actually go out in the snow to get to work soon. Since I only have limited time to write today, I'm gonna try and summarize. ;)

Since I was waiting for a lot of things to process through quick create last week, I made it a week of improvement and experimentation. Thanks to suggestions from the zazzlers on the Zazzle forum, I was able to implement a few things onto my blog, and have many more on my to-do list! If you are looking for some things to spruce up your blog, here is the forum post for a bunch of great suggestions.

One of the resources I realized I wasn't using to my advantage was google+... even though I had an account (and it was getting quite a bit of views, despite having no picture, no content, no circles... just a whole lot of nothing!). So I updated that, and linked my blog to it. On my to-do list is adding all my social media links to my blog, and also learning tools to market myself!

I also experimented with different digital styles that I had been itching to try for a long time now! I learned how to create a watercolour painting effect using masks, watercolour textures, and simplistic objects in illustrator. I used this effect to create the leaf shown in my pattern trick post (another thing I learned!), and I can definitely see myself using this in the future for more of my plant and floral designs. I may add a tutorial about this in the future.

My zazzle shop was looking pretty category heavy, so I changed my categories from individual design to subject, with subcategories inside of it. It is much cleaner and easier to navigate now. I also started working on templates, and I am still getting the hang of them. Up until now I have been using zazzle's generic quick create, and then manually creating everything else that I want. I plan on making templates for now on, it will save me a lot of time and keep me from making duplicates!

Today while I was adding one of my new designs to redbubble, I realized something really exciting! Redbubble now has a tile option for their duvet covers!! ITS THE BEST. No more ginormous file sizes, which means no more beachball of doom, woohoo! Its nice that they actually implemented that, and I hope it will be available on more products soon.

As for my zazzle shop, the long awaited quick create items actually were created! I showed you my fox and hearts products, but I also made another version of that.. foxes, laurel & hearts wreath! Thats right.. I had to turn my foxes into a wreath.. cause, you know. Just so cute. Most of the products give the option of personalizing the inside of the wreath with your own initials or custom text. Some of the items feature an old french proverb... "Every Fox Carries His Tail In His Own Way", which to me is a positive message about individuality and independence.

Phew! That was a longer post than I intended... but done just in time to go to work! ;)