I started this drawing in May. I’d been unable to finish until now.
After the weekend of Kirkstall Art Trail (15-16 July), I was full of positivity. I’d seen many different people, as they were welcomed into my home – which I had set up as a makeshift gallery, and they liked my art, they even bought my art (as cards, postcards, books and prints)! I had only got back into drawing last year, after decades focusing on photography, so asides posting on Instagram and showing to my friends, I hadn’t displayed my drawings for the wider public to see and comment upon.
I thought I would try and sell a few cards and prints, thinking ‘you never know, I may sell a couple of postcards’, but I had no clue what drawings to get printed up, going in completely blind. I sold almost all my stock (over 100 items), and this genuinely blew me away. The comments I received from visitors appeared to point towards my Yorkshire scenes where I have used pattern to create the landscapes as being more popular than more the ones without. This feedback and critique has helped me to look at the bare bones of this drawing again and I finished is using pattern.
Thanks to Kirkstall Art Trail for organising the trail, it’s given me a huge confidence boost.
[As an aside, I should also note that my Google search for images of the Yorkshire Countryside, has given me an image of Troutbeck Valley in the Lake District, this will be another one that has crept in over the borders, in my series.]
The greetings cards, postcards and prints I sold during the trail. I got the cards and A4 print made at printed.com (who I highly recommend, great products and they have great customer service), and the postcards printed at moo.com (I have created postcards with moo before, and you can select a quantity and then as many designs as you like – within that quantity – which worked well with the selection I had made). I sold almost all the cards and postcards, and one of the prints, I also had two bug books that I had purchased from the mobile app company ‘FreePrints Photobooks‘, I wasn’t sure that these would sell, but my insect artwork and researched facts about beetles and bugs went down so well, I sold both! I’d like to see where I can get the bug book made more inexpensively so I can reduce the price in future.
