I started the year off with a daily drawing challenge, and I really enjoyed it! It helped me explore new topics for my patterns, and draw things I normally wouldn't draw. I made a point of learning new digital drawing techniques, re-learned procreate, tried new workflows and even explored the Photoshop pattern preview tool instead of building my patterns in illustrator (Pattern preview on photoshop is now my all time favourite thing!). I really felt good about my progress in January, and it was definitely something I needed to get the creativity flowing. I have always loved the idea of drawing challenges and art prompts, because they get you to push your personal boundaries and can help expand your range as an artist. That's why I've decided to do another art prompt for the month of March... but this time I'm focusing on colour palettes! I have participated in colour prompts in the past, my favourite is hosted by Colour Collective (previously on twitter, now on Instagram!). What colour collective does is posts a new colour each Saturday, and you create a drawing with each featured colour. Then everyone shares together every Friday! If you're in to art prompts, be sure to check them out - they post a new colour every week, plus it is a great way to interact with other like minded creatives & meet new artists. For my newest art prompt, I've created palettes with 3 colours for each prompt to use as the colour theme. This prompt gives you a new colour theme every 3 days, so you have more time to explore and play around with each palette before starting a new one. Like my previous art prompt, I generated these colour themes randomly with AI - I had no idea what I would get! There are 10 colour palettes in total to explore for March. If you'd like to participate too, I've included the full March Hues Colour Prompt below, full with colour swatches and hex codes! I'm excited to find out where these colours will take me on my newest art prompt Journey! I'll be sharing the artworks I come up with on threads and X using the tag #MarchHuesPrompt - use this tag if you join in!
Enjoy & happy drawing! :)
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I had shared a while back that I was going to start working on my Spoonflower shop, and I'm happy to let you know that it is making great progress! As of today, you can find 40 of my patterns on Spoonflowers wide variety of fabrics, wallpaper, and home goods. It seems that over the years of designing, I've amassed a catalogue of over 240 patterns! Time does fly when you're having fun. :) This does mean I have a lot of work to do to add all my patterns to Spoonflower, and I will be adding them weekly. I'm starting with the seasonal ones for upcoming holidays and special events, as well as my best sellers. But if you have any requests for designs to add to Spoonflower in the mean time, let me know in the comments below! Why I'm Selling on SpoonflowerYou might be wondering why I've decided to choose to sell my art on Spoonflower. While I'm not a sewer (or at all crafty) myself, I've always loved the fabric format and the thought of my art helping someone else's vision come to life. When Zazzle introduced fabric a few years back, I jumped on it, and my Fabric Collection has been a consistent staple in my shop ever since. Fabric is absolutely perfect for pattern designers, so expanding my pattern catalogue to a wider range of customers looking for fabrics was a natural next step for me. Spoonflower has a print on demand platform where artists are able to upload their artwork on fabric, and post their patterns for sale on the Spoonflower marketplace. The thing I like about spoonflower is that there are no contractual obligations for design exclusivity like there might be if you go the art licensing route. I am able to sell my designs on Spoonflower but also keep selling them on my other print on demand shops, which is great. Another thing I like about Spoonflower is that they have contests that are accompanied by art prompts. I love a good art prompt, and have found inspiration to design based on the prompts Spoonflower has shared. I am really enjoying this part of spoonflower, and I love seeing the work that the community comes up with for each prompt! While Spoonflower is mostly known for their fabrics, they also have a great offering of peel & stick wallpaper, as well as home goods such as pillowcases, duvet covers, tablecloths and more, so if you're purchasing fabric or wallpaper you can also purchase home goods to match your project. My designs on SpoonflowerI've added a few of my past best sellers to Spoonflower so far, as well as entered a few designs into Spoonflower contests! Below are a few that are currently available to purchase. If you'd like something in a different colour, let me know and I will add it for you. As we approach a new year, many of us want to start fresh with new goals. For me, this year is about rediscovering my art, and getting back to my roots of drawing every day! Now, I should preface this by saying that during my school years (which admittedly now, is a long time ago!) I drew EVERY DAY. I miss it! Adult life and responsibilities got in the way, and somewhere along the line art took a back seat for me. It's been a while since I last took on a drawing challenge — 2021, to be exact. I had participated in an art prompt that piqued my interests - a cat themed drawing prompt for February of that year! It was hosted by a fellow artist on instagram, and we had a little community of artists that would all post their cat art together on a particular day. I loved the community aspect of it, especially since the beginning of 2021 was still COVID time. The artist community is so supportive, and a fun cat themed art prompt was the perfect thing to brighten up my entire month. Then prior to that, in 2019, I had participated in my biggest daily drawing challenge - I had planned on completing a new pattern every day! There were no subject prompts, just make a pattern, anything, every day. This was ambitious for me, but I got to day 68/100! The challenge was derailed by my vacation overseas, but during that time of daily drawing and pattern making, I drew new subjects, experimented with different pattern styles, and explored different colour palettes. So many of my popular patterns were a direct result of the growth I experienced during this prompt! There's something about the randomness of art prompts. They're an invitation to explore and take yourself out of your comfort zone. The possibilities are endless, and the unpredictability of each day leads to artistic growth. It is a chance to try new styles, draw stuff you haven't drawn before, and push your creativity to new heights! They say it takes 2 months of doing something daily for it to become a habit. I want drawing to become habitual for me again in 2024. Any drawing is good drawing, and the more you do it, the more you improve! To help with the randomness of my prompts, I asked ChatGPT to give me some random prompts for me to follow each day of January, because its 2023 and AI is a thing! Its been a divisive topic of 2023 to say the least, but using it as a tool to generate random ideas is pretty neat! :) I invite you to join me on this art prompt journey, to follow along as I share each new piece, and perhaps to take on the challenge yourself. I've included a prompt list that I'll be following if you want to follow along too. Or, generate your own random AI art prompt and see what direction it takes you. :)
If you follow along, share your art on pinterest, instagram, threads or that weird place known now as X (twitter I still love you) using the tag #2024dailydraw Whether you're dusting off your brushes or booting up your tablet, let's draw our way to a year of artistic growth. Happy New Year & Happy Drawing! :)
Exciting Updates and Fresh Creations in My Art Shops!
Hello, art lovers and dear customers! It's that time again when I get to share all the exciting developments happening in my creative world. It's been a while since I have updated this blog, but I've been busy behind the scenes, making sure your shopping experience is even more delightful. This year has had its unique set of challenges so far, but with it comes a few upgrades to the platforms I sell my art on - some of which you may have noticed already! So, let's dive right into the updates and new additions to my art shops. 1. Zazzle Shop: A Fresh Look and New Designs I'm thrilled to announce that I'm giving my Zazzle shop a makeover. I've been hard at work making back-end improvements to enhance your shopping experience. Zazzle has a new tool that I've been pretty excited about, where we can add our own product images and mockups. These are fantastic because it allows me to share a more detailed image showcasing what the product looks like in real life. Rather than just seeing a flat picture on a white background, you'll see what a duvet cover looks like laid out on a bed, what the body pillow looks like in true size on a couch, what to expect from a custom designed mug... and so much more. I've been going through my new and best selling products, so you'll start to see my own product photos appearing throughout my product collections. I'm also giving my shop a little bit of a navigation overhaul! I've been working on making sure that every pattern and design in my shop has its own design collection. You are able to easily shop by design - making it even better to explore and purchase your favourite products and designs. As ever, all of my products are customizable, and if my design is not available on a certain product you want, I have made it possible for you to transfer my design to any product of your choice. Other than collections, my categories need a bit of work - I'll be sorting out my thousands of products and this side of the navigation will be more clearly usable soon too! :) But that's not all; I'm also adding brand-new designs to the mix. Keep an eye out for fresh creations, as well as some classic designs making a comeback. Zazzle has always been the biggest time investment out of all of my shops, but this is only because of the unique way we can design our products to have custom elements. I'm a bit backlogged with older designs because of it - but I want to take my time designing these so that they look beautiful on Zazzle. If you would like to stay up to date on my newest creations, check out my Pinterest account, where I post my new products daily.
2. TeePublic Debut: Discover My Designs
In addition to Zazzle, I'm excited to share that I've expanded my presence to TeePublic! Now, you can find a selection of my designs over there. TeePublic offers a diverse range of products, so be sure to explore and see what's available. As an artist running a print on demand business on 3rd party platforms, it's always been important for me to diversify. I don't have control over the products that these websites choose to sell or discontinue, but if I'm listing at a bunch of places, you're sure to find my design on what you're looking for. :) View my TeePublic Storefront here.
3. Pinterest Page Revamp: Let's Connect!
The world of Pinterest is a treasure trove of inspiration and creativity, and I've recently relaunched my Pinterest page. I invite you to follow me on Pinterest, where you can find a curated collection of my work, design inspiration, and more. As I sell on multiple platforms, I wanted a place where I can showcase my unique range of custom products all in one spot. I've sorted my Pinterest by my most product categories, so you can shop my products across all stores! I'll be sharing my newest created products here first, whenever I create them. So if you want to see what I'm creating as I create it, this is the place to be! Follow my Pinterest to see the latest & greatest!
4. New Designs Galore: Winter-Themed Dobermans and Woodland Owls Pattern
I've been busy crafting new designs that will soon be available in all my shops. This season, I've added two new designs. First, I've conjured up a winter wonderland featuring elegant Dobermans wearing adorable winter scarves. Who doesn't love a dog in an outfit? :) It's the perfect way to embrace the season's chill with style. Additionally, I've recreated one of my classic illustrations in a warm and inviting brown woodland owl pattern. These designs will be the perfect addition to your collection. I can't express how much I appreciate your support and enthusiasm for my art. Your feedback and love for my creations inspire me to keep pushing my artistic boundaries. I hope these updates bring a smile to your face and spark your creative spirit. Thank you for being a part of my artistic journey. Stay tuned for more exciting updates, and as always, your feedback and comments are greatly valued. Wishing you a world of creativity and inspiration, Tanya Draws 2010 - 2019 has been a whirlwind of a decade - in both my personal life and with my Tanya Draws shop! In this decade I have graduated college, switched careers, started freelancing, stopped freelancing, started drawing patterns, started my print on demand shops, grown my shops and my pattern portfolio, moved out, went on my first flights, first trips, got engaged, launched my website.... it has definitely been quite the time! Now those are the highlights, it wasn't always good and I had a fair bit of challenges and possibly experienced the lowest points of my life this decade, most of which I am happy to leave behind. People say that the high school years are rough - but man, for me my 20s were, at times, the worst! They truly had me beat in ways that I would have never imagined. At the same time though, I think its easy to fall into the trap of looking at the short term and feeling like you aren't progressing. So to make sure I don't fall into that trap, it helps for me to look at how far I've come from my lows & take a look at the positive things that have happened and achievements over the years! For me, this decade has been a lot about experimentation and about finding my style. I taught myself pattern making and launched my print on demand shops in 2015, and have been running wild with them ever since, learning new techniques, drawing new stuff, using new textures and designing all sorts of products. So, here's a round up of my major milestones (so far) with my Tanya Draws Shop! The Patterns Since I began experimenting with patterns in 2014, I have covered a wide range of subjects... from animals, to inanimate objects, to florals and cacti, to geometric shapes and colours. Through all this, I definitely have some favourites and some that I did for experiments sake, that I'd rather never post for sale. I did an art challenge early 2018, where you had to draw a pattern a day. I think that is something I would like to try again this year because it really expanded my horizons, and got me searching for new themes and styles to try. My portfolio has grown, and many of these patterns are now available at my shops! To date, I have over 163 designs available to buy at my shops! It's hard to imagine that I created that many things, but I did! Visit my Society6 shop to see my complete pattern and design collection. Perhaps in 2020, I can try to reach a milestone of 200 designs for sale? :) The Shop & SalesWhen I started my shop in 2015, I thought it would be a neat little hobby that would keep me motivated to draw. Never did I imagine that it would become as big as it has become, and that I would be actually using it as an actual source of income. (Yes, I know, the point of things for sale is to make money, but I didn't think that would actually happen!) I tried many different print on demand shops to list my artwork at, and after years of trying all the different ones I've finally settled down with my 3 favourites - Society6, RedBubble, and Zazzle. These websites are where my illustrated patterns flourish the most, and where I've been able to garner the most popularity. To date, I've made over 4500 sales at my shops combined! I still find this astonishing, and am blown away that this many individuals out there are enjoying things that I have designed. I get so excited whenever I see my products going to different areas of the world... my products are now residing in more states and countries that I could visit in my lifetime. I've seen my stuff go to customers in Australia, almost every different state in the USA (even Alaska!), all across Europe, and places that I never expected to see sales in - Hong Kong, Japan, Bahrain, New Zealand... and yes, I also see my fellow Canadians placing orders, which feeds my dream of randomly seeing one of my designs out in the wild some day! XD My best selling products to date are Comforters on Society6, Business cards on Zazzle and Stickers at Redbubble! A wide range of products for sure, and no one design is the most popular across all shops. My 3 best selling products of 2019 have been my pineapple comforter from Society6, my pink and gold pineapple comforter from Society6, and my customizable iridescent geometric business cards from Zazzle: RedBubble was not in the running for me this year, Society6 and Zazzle made up at least 80% of this years sales. But I'm hoping to focus more on my RedBubble shop in 2020, because I really believe in the quality of their products, love the platform for designing, and think they have a great product lineup. The Website, Blog & Social MediaSoooo this has been a bit of a pain point for me, as I am bad with schedules, a notorious procrastinator, and tend to lean towards posting new art rather than focus on the marketing for said art. Despite this, I've managed to maintain my instagram and twitter account quite well I think, but I'm hoping to maybe get into creating some time lapse art videos this year to add to it. You may have noticed a little youtube icon on the bottom of my website, it is currently a blank slate but is something I'm hoping to get in to this year!
When I started my shops in 2015, I had a blogspot blog. There, I occasionally posted some things, new art, artist tips etc. and generally used it as a website. Well, it wasn't that great of a website, and I am not that diligent of a blogger, so for me it made no sense to have something that was mainly a blog doubling as a website. In 2019, I finally decided enough was enough, and made myself the website you see today! It has a blog, it has a gallery (updating slowly but surely!), links to shop all my stuff, spots for me to feature my newest designs... it is my ideal "hub" for everything Tanya Draws! It took me so long to finally get to this point but I'm so happy I'm here, and think its a great, fresh way to start off this new decade. Tip: My shops now have their own dedicated shops page, where you can click through to shop my Zazzle, RedBubble & Society6 print on demand shops. I even list active promotions and coupon codes there, so check it out (Shop in the top right nav bar, click here to see the shops page!) every once in a while! So there you have it, some of my major accomplishments of my shop so far! I'd just like to give a shoutout to all of the customers, followers, and fellow artist friends who have supported me through this journey. Of course, I could not have gotten this far without your support. Seriously, it blows my mind that I'm able to draw what I love, and that you guys enjoy it too, and that you love it enough to actually buy my artwork!! Did I mention how surreal it is to me that I actually earn an income from drawing things?? So, THANK YOU! I look forward to creating new stuff for you all in 2020, and to see what excitement the next decade brings! <3 |
About MeHi! I'm Tanya, an illustrator and graphic designer from Ontario, Canada. You can find my illustrations and patterns on a wide variety of websites, such as Zazzle, Redbubble & Society6. Aside from designing, I have a love of cats, reading & video games! If you want to see what I'm creating lately, check out my twitter & Pinterest pages below. Categories
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@Tanya_Draws on instagram
Tanyadraws on BlueskyI post a lot of shop and art updates here daily! I also talk about my hobbies & gaming progress on top of designs, my recent sales, new product updates and more.
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