Illustration Friday: unbalanced

Life is about finding a balance. My submission for Illustration Friday's "unbalanced " theme is a stationary card and postcard set called Home Life.

2009 copyright Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: Magnify

A postcard and stationary card for Illustration Friday's "Magnify" theme. I'm a little behind this week and will be around to catch up with everyone soon. I have included a picture of my little friend Tar who came to visit me. He loves to sit on my deck and he also enjoys a little snack.
copyright 2009 Valerie Walsh

FSF

I love to do all kinds of jobs. I never feel like a job is to small, tall or to commercial. In fact I enjoy commercial jobs very much, it is a nice diversion from Houscapes and paintings and they are usually done pretty quickly. Hopefully a client chooses you because your work appeals and they feel it will fit their groove. I work well with deadlines and that is a big plus because there are a lot more talented artists out there than me but if you can't work on a deadline, meet the client's parameters and play well with others you probably won't get hired for this kind of job.

Plus there are always printing deadlines, publication deadlines etc. I decided when I was a struggling artist pup that I would do all kinds of jobs in the art world . I would forego a social life and live a frugal existence so that I could make art no matter what. Most people will invite you out only so many times before they tire of hearing "I have a deadline" or "I have to work". This client "Fred Segal Fun Style" are real easy to work with, it is 2 women who own and run the business. Annually we do about 10-15,000 postcards and 30,000 stickers that go out on every package. FSF will give me a call, they want the logo, clothes and fun colour incorporated into the picture. What more could a girl ask for? Well...they don't allow dogs in the building and Rat has to wait in the car!

An interesting tidbit about this job, if you notice the illo with the surfboard, Mickey Mouse is on one of the shirts. In my career as an artist never before could you paint this character without fear of being sued. But in
recent years Disney has been allowing people to license their characters. FSF licensed Mickey,Minnie and Donald Duck and have been screenprinting them on shirts with sparkles. For the 1st time I was legally allowed to paint this image! My life is now complete...