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What is jacquard?
Recently I began my journey with jacquard tapestries. I do a lot of surface design, meaning my artwork is put onto different items (plain products are boring!). And jacquard tapestry products are the latest iteration of the surface design selection at A Cup of Cloudy. But jacquard is a little different. Designs aren’t printed ON, they’re woven IN. These art products are so unique that I thought the topic deserved its own explanation article. So let’s talk about what jacquard fabric is, where it came from, and how I got involved in it. WHAT IS JACQUARD? Jacquard is a type of fabric. There are many items labeled wrongly as jacquard…
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3 reasons you still don’t have a creative voice
BE HEARD Finding your creative voice. Adding your touch. Building a visual brand. Having an art style. Whatever you want to call it, you know what it means to look at an artist’s work and they just have it. The thing that makes the painting look like their painting. If you’ve been struggling to get to that point with your own artwork, there could be a few reasons why. Here’s the top three. 1. Not developing observational skills Observing the world around you is a skill. It’s a skill that will advance your art style by leaps and bounds because it will help you see your art more clearly. The…
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Attract attention (on social media) with this tip
GAIN AND KEEP A SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING It can be easy for you to gain — and most importantly KEEP — the attention of anyone who lands on your profile. How does this work? Simple. In this post we’ll talk about art style: what an art style is, how it attracts attention, and what you can do to grow a larger social media following. WHAT AN ART STYLE IS An art style is how your art looks — it’s the vibe or aesthetic. An art style is created by choices you consistently make in your artwork. Line and shape, color palette, subject matter, composition, and texture all play a role. These…
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What is a skills gap in art?
GOING THE DISTANCE IN ART Ever heard of a “skills gap?” A skills gap is the distance between the art you actually make and your taste in art. It’s mostly psychological, and can be the reason why artists are stereotyped as being the harshest critics of their own work. When you loooove hyperrealism and want to make artwork that looks ultra detailed, but you can only manage to draw basic outlines of a person and a few wrinkles around their eyes, you may be disappointed with your work. It doesn’t look how you want it to. Not because you don’t have the vision, the taste, the style — but because…
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Art style and what it can do for your creative business
I talk a lot about art style because I think it’s the most important thing for an artist who wants to sell their art. Creating my art style meant honing in on qualities I loved in my paintings, and when I perfected my style, I fell in love with art all over again. What is an art style? Your style is made of choices you make consistently in your artwork. Line and shape, color palette, subject matter, composition, and texture all play a role. If you paint with thick outlines consistently in your work, that’s part of your style. If you never use the color gray, that’s part of your…
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My creative process and how to find your own routine
THE CREATIVE PROCESS One of the most special parts of being an artist is your creative process. It’s like the ingredient that makes the meal extra yummy, so the chef keeps it a secret. Your process can be personal, intimate, or something that just feels good to do while making. Maybe you haven’t figured your recipe out yet. That’s okay. A lot of people overcomplicate the beginning of the creative process — “it has to be warm and rainy when I wake up at the crack of dawn, I have to clean my entire studio, and then I can sit down to paint. If I wake up a minute late,…
