This is my daughter’s ballet bag that I designed for her when she first started ballet.
At the time I didn’t know how long she or the bag would last with ballet. Twelve is a little late to start and the classes only get more intense as you get older.
I’m proud to say that at 15 she’s still dancing, taking classes and performing.
As for the bag it is still in great shape. And the drawings on it of her 12 year old feet in the five positions are a great reminder of where she started.
We haven’t seen any real snowflakes at our house yet. But I have been in the holiday spirit because I have been working on pictures inspired by the Nutcracker Ballet.
My mini sketches that I paint every morning have been characters from the famous ballet.
I also have been working on a picture book idea about a little ballerina’s first performance. I am using one of the images from that story for my next promotional postcard. Here is a sneak peak.
If you are not already on my mailing list and you want me to send you a postcard let me know. Tell me your address at moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com .
A couple of picture book authors I know, Debbi Ohi and Josh Funk wrote blog posts about how you can support an author besides buying the book. So I was inspired to make my own list of ways you can support me in case you are not in a position to publish my book or to hire me as an illustrator.
Number One: Buy Some Merch.
I have items for sale that are either handmade or print-on-demand from four online retailers.
My Etsy shop has original watercolors and pen and ink drawings on paper. https://www.etsy.com/shop/atlanticmo?ref=l2-shopheader-name
My Society6 shop has quality prints as well as other merchandise such as fun t-shirts, tote bags, mugs and leggings. https://society6.com/atlanticmo
My Spoonflower shop is for my pattern work which is available as fabric, wallpaper or gift wrap. http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/atlanticmoira
OK, the main reason to go to my CafePress shop is for the Breaching Mermaid Shower Curtain. http://www.cafepress.com/atlanticmo
On demand printing requires a couple of more days to receive since they aren’t sitting ready to go in a warehouse so keep that in mind if you are holiday shopping.
Number Two: Share
If you do buy something, please take a photo and share it on social media or send it to me to share. I love to see that stuff out in the world.
I also appreciate it when you share links to my shops, website, blog posts and pictures.
Pinning something to Pinterest from my website or shops is also greatly appreciated.
Number Three: A Kind Word …or Heart or Thumbs Up
I do truly appreciate all of your encouragement whether it is in private or on social media. I mostly talk to myself up here in the art studio and those little bits of encouragement from my friends goes a long way.
Now I will pirouette my way back to the drawing board.
xo
Moira
Last week I took the boogie boards, beach chairs and umbrella out of my car and put them in the garage for winter storage. I even vacuumed the half ton of sand that we progressively brought home from the beach this summer.
Summer is over, for real.
Thankfully, Fall is so dang beautiful here in New England that it distracts us from what we know to be true, Winter is coming.
I had some other good distractions this month.
I had a show of the Mini Sketches at the Dennis Public Library. The show had a good response and even some sales. The show is currently down now but you can check out the Mini Sketches for sale from the show here https://www.etsy.com/shop/atlanticmo?ref=hdr_shop_menu
The other fun thing I did in October was Inktober. I drew 31 ink drawing for all the days of the month. This year I did a sequential story based on a real story I heard about some birds that helped each other out. I made a video so you can see the story unfold. It’s on my YouTube channel here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTF-dscagu8 .
I’ve started a new series of morning sketches. I am randomly choosing different characters from the Nutcracker ballet. I am working on a story about a little ballerina and this will help me work out some ideas and keep my mind on ballet.
If you want to follow along check out my Instagram here, https://instagram.com/atlanticmo/
As per request I have added some dogs to my Society6 shop and I will be adding more as we get closer to the holidays. They have leggings now which I think I might just need a pair. Check those out here, https://society6.com/atlanticmo/prints?show=new
For the next couple of weeks I’ll be working on some stories and portfolio pieces. I will have another postcard going out after Thanksgiving. Email me if you want to be on the mailing list.
moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com
It should be a pretty busy month which hopefully will end with me eating some pumpkin pie.
My ballet dancing daughter, who sometimes acts as my art director needed a new bag to hold her dance gear and she had the great idea for me to make of a pattern with the five positions.
So, once dinner and homework was done I went up in the studio and drew my daughter’s feet.
Since I never took ballet classes, I used the internet to make sure I had the positions correct and in my research I learned the french names for the different positions. So, I added some hand lettered text to the pattern with the french names bellow each foot position. I added a touch of ballet pink and a few transparent butterflies.
As the French say, “Voila”.
I got the pattern done that night and uploaded it to my Society6 shop.
A few days later the package arrived from Society6 and my daughter quickly filled her new bag and headed to dance class.
It’s always a good feeling to have a happy client.
Thank you so much to everyone who has made purchases at my online shops. XOXO
Buying something from one of my shops gives you a chance to cyber shop, shop small and to get a unique item.
This week my Society6 shop is going to have a bunch of good deals each day for the next seven days. I’ll let you know about those through my Instagram account as they come.
Today is the first deal. Through Dec. 14, 2014 midnight PST, I have an artist promo for my shop.
Use the link below to get free shipping* plus $5 off everything in my shop.
http://society6.com/atlanticmo?promo=7P923WR7PF86
*Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Rugs
Don’t forget about my other shops and thanks again,
Moira
society6
Not that long ago I learned how to make a repeat pattern using Photoshop.
I wanted to use pattern for some of my products in my Society6 shop. I love the way some of the other artists at Society6 us pattern on the pillows, duvet covers, shower curtains and tote bags. I’m always up for learning new things so I thought I’d try it out with some images I already had.
Pattern making was so much fun, once I got the hang of it. I just wanted to make everything into a pattern and now I want to learn more techniques other than a basic repeat.
Once I got going I remembered some friends that had made some patterns into fabric at the Spoonflower website. I thought that could be fun and I opened a shop there.
As I was exploring the Spoonflower website I saw that they have a weekly themed contest. As I clicked on the contest page I hoped that this week’s theme would be “Birds”. Ha, ha that would be too easy. It wasn’t “Birds”. It was, “Ballet” and the deadline to enter was that night at midnight.
Thanks to my ballet dancing daughter, I was already planning a ballet design. And It just so happened that earlier that day I had taken pictures of my daughter’s feet in the five basic ballet positions.
My daughter who sometimes acts as my art director needed a new bag for ballet and she had the great idea of a pattern with the five positions.
So, once dinner and homework was done I went up in the studio and drew my daughter’s feet.
I used the internet to make sure I had the positions correct and in my research I learned the french names for the different positions. So, I added some hand lettered text to the pattern with the french names bellow each foot position. I added a touch of ballet pink and a few transparent butterflies.
As the French say, “Voila”.
I got the pattern done in time for that midnight deadline with five minutes to spare.
I didn’t win the contest that week, but I did have one very happy client.