(pictured above,Journal cover by Valerie for MATS Bootcamp 2023)
Hello fellow Art-Makers,
Say hello to Valerie Light,who is also doing the Make Art that Sells -Year of Art School with me.Her pieces are full of personality,just like her.
Her interpretations of the assignment have hugely inspired mine.
Read on to find out more about her!
Q-Hey Valerie,I really loved your explorations for the assignment.What drew you to gouache for them?
Gouache feels right to me. I love the way I can layer transparent and opaque paint, and it's just permanent enough to still feel like an informal sketch. I love the process of responding to brush strokes and streaks and blobs that I didn't plan for.
Q-Why do you create art?
I have a busy mind and busy hands. I love experimenting and solving. I love being in my studio all day. It's my favorite state of being.
Q-What’s your favorite piece you have ever made?Tell us about it.Why do you love it?
I love this question, because I'm surprised at my answer! My favorite piece so far wasn't an illustration, but a commissioned art piece from 2020. A custom tarot card painting 4 feet tall and loaded with meaningful detail from floral to filigree to anatomy and mythology. I loved researching it and finding graceful ways to show all the layers of meaning.
Q-Best tip you’d give your fellow classmates and anyone making art in general?
Everything in my art career has been cyclical. Every time I feel like I'm wandering off in a new direction, I realize later it leads me back to somewhere closer to where I wanted to be. Don't stop yourself from exploring. It's always worth it, and your random brief artistic obsession from 5 years ago is going to come in handy soon.
Q-Who or what are you inspired by?Were there any sources of unexpected inspiration for your journal cover?
I have a little collection of sparkly brooches that belonged to my grandmothers and aunts. They're all featured in my composition, and I think of it as a celebration of them.
Q-Would you say your piece is You?
For sure. complex, vibrant, nostalgic, and a tiny bit overwhelming. lol.
Q-If not an artist,what would you be?
I think I would be in science. Maybe archaeology? Biology, ecology, natural sciences fascinate me, and I'm always listening to podcasts on science, medicine, trivia, and history while I work.
Q-What in recent times had a significant impact on the way you approach art-making?
Starting around 20 years ago, I've had a career as a freelance scenic artist. My daily work is usually painting scenery and backdrops for Broadway shows. We're a little niche skill set within a niche union in New York, and up until 2020 all my paid painting work was for theater producers and fabrication shops, and all my artwork stayed in my sketchbooks. I only painted observational sketches on days off or on vacation. Nobody ever saw my art. When Broadway closed for the pandemic and all my work stopped, I started sharing the art I was making at home. First as painted postcards mailed to my loved ones, then, after buying an Ipad and fumbling through learning some Procreate, as illustration contest entries. At first, it was really really scary to share my work publicly on forums, in contests, and on Instagram. But the more I do the easier it gets. In the last 3 years, many online illustration classes and critiques shaped the beginning of my illustration career. I've just finished illustrating my first board book, and I've got a completely different mindset about how I can view art making and audience. I can see I have so much more room to learn and grow!
Q- That’s great to hear Valerie.What practice do you swear by?
My to-do list. When I'm stuck, I write the next 3 things that need to happen, and I get those done and write 3 more. It helps me stay moving and not get overwhelmed by the number of steps ahead of me.
Q-Who are your top 3 favorite artists at the moment(not necessarily illustrators)?
Jillian Tamaki (can do comics, editorial, kidlit, graphic novel. So versatile and vibrant.), Katie Daisy just makes me happy and @creepyfreaky_studio on instagram catches my eye every time.
Q-Do you listen to specific types of music while drawing?
It's all podcasts and storytelling and audio books for me. Really, it's my dream job to paint pictures all day while someone tells me interesting things.
Q-What’s the one thing you don’t like about being an artist?what do you love?I hate invoicing. Everything else is a joy.
Q-Can you show us your process?
My mini surprised me. I don't often share gouache art that wasn't planned ahead or edited digitally later. But people really responded positively to my 2 pages of gouache filigree jewelry and I realized that the wonky bits were part of what was so likable about them (thank you, supportive Facebook groups!)
2 mini paintings, both in gouache, about 9” x 12”. Just observing Lilla’s trinkets and my own.
Thumbnail sketch options, maybe 2 inches tall. I showed them to the feedback group before choosing to enlarge option D.
Line drawing and clipping masks drawn in Procreate.
Here’s where I should have done a small color thumbnail before starting painting. Ah, hindsight.
Two gouache paintings done. Scanned both in and aligned them to the clipping masks I’d made.
Assembled in Procreate, struggling with color options. Finally decided that the green central brooch was the thing causing all of my problems.
This is my 90% done submission. I got feedback to change symmetry at the top of the oval, and I do agree that would be an improvement, but honestly I couldn’t bear to backtrack through all the layers to make the change.
Final gallery submission
I knew I wanted my journal cover to be symmetrical and complex, but to use the rougher brush work from my gouache art, so I worked in Procreate to build an accurate drawing with bilateral symmetry, and I colored in the silhouettes to make a clipping mask. I printed a copy of the line drawing and put it on my light box and painted it over it two times in gouache on hot press Bristol board. First I painted all the jewels and flowers, and on a separate piece of Bristol, I painted all the gold detail and in-between filigree. I did this so I could color correct those two things separately, and also I I didn't have to worry about keeping all the edges clean and crisp. I could scan that in and layer in Procreate, relying on my clipping masks to keep the edges sharp. At this stage, I tried to make everything look 90% complete, and I showed it to my Feedback Group for comments. Getting to 90% and then waiting a few days before submitting an assignment is part of my process, and I'm so glad I did that. Based on feedback and just sitting with it for a while, I changed the colors of the jewels to bring them all closer into the same color family, which I think helped a lot. Added some noise in the cover, and a Multiply layer with light purple transparent shadows helped bring everything together. I'm new to making product mockups and didn't want to use a template, so I experimented with drawing the thickness of the book and cast shadows on the background. Making the background color the same as my 2 minis helped me be sure the pieces would tie in visually in my Instagram feed.
Wow,Valerie this has me seriously impressed.Here’s hoping you start your own newsletter soon enough.
Until then feel free to follow Valerie
Here’s Valerie’s website www.valerielightillustration.com
and instagram- @valerie_light_illustration
These are the courses we’ve been taking
https://makeartthatsells.com/online-courses/
I am so so honored to be featured in your first Art Talk. Thank you for giving me the chance to reflect on my process in your interview questions, and I can't wait to read about other artists' processes in the next ones!