How to Explain Your Artistic Process

I know that beginning any new project can be daunting! But after stumbling around for a bit {4 years} and encountering all kinds of projects, I've finally got it nailed down {to a point} so that my clients aren't too overwhelmed by all the back and forth emails that it takes to draw a home! My architectural clients are a bit easier because we've been working together for a while. I know what they like and they know my style etc. Just getting that to translate on Etsy is what I'm working diligently on now! That way folks know my style a bit better and have a better idea of what they will expect. My drawings are actually quite simple. I try to make my watercolors bright... and I love to add the character that makes a house... a home.

almost finished with this client! just a few more details to tweak, like adding the brick texture. i have omitted their address for privacy.

Some clients are very straight forward and their homes can be drawn quickly. Other homes require more detail etc. But, the process is pretty much the same. I've finally taken the time to type this up and add it to my about page! It also helped ME to understand my process and explain it to a prospective client. The biggest help to me was listing out exactly what steps are the most important for me to be efficient, how to prioritize my projects, when and how to communicate with my customers and also how I would package and send the drawings.

When I did my first drawing, I got it all finished and then I almost had a heart attack... Wait... OH NO! I have to ship this!?! How will I do that!?! Do I have anything to put it in so it won't get folded or crushed? I researched online for some good packing materials... and how to make sure drawings make it through the mail flat. I didn't want to roll these because the watercolor paper could get creased.

Check out my little process biography below and feel free to comment or even take what text you might need for your own use. This stuff isn't rocket science. But it can be difficult to begin - I certainly researched a lot of other people process to be able to explain mine. Even when you do this everyday you may not be used to writing it out. I am not the only person doing this job {obviously!}. There are a lot of great artists on Etsy that are extremely busy working away drawing houses, pets and people! All kinds of super talented folks. That is the great part about art. Everyone has a style and can market it. When your prospective client comes across your art, they will love it, appreciate it, or hate it! LOL!

Dita Von Teese said it best - 

"You can be the juiciest peach in the world, and there will still be people who don't like peaches." 

How to have a house or building portrait done!
Email me at rebekahkik@gmail.com. Please include your name, contact email and what size print or package you would like to order. House and building illustration packages I currently offer are: 8”x10” ($125) and 11”x14” ($150).
I also offer note card packages. These packages include 8 (4x6) cards of your illustration as well as an 8”x10” or 11”x14” original drawing. The 8”x10” greeting card package costs $150 and the 11”x14” package is $195.

I will contact you right away to let you know what my workload is like and how soon you can expect that I can begin your portrait. As soon as we are ready to begin, I will follow up with a link to the Rebekah’s Valentine Etsy website to your personal reserved listing. Once you purchase that listing, we can move forward to complete your house portrait!

Please send reference pictures to me at rebekahkik@gmail.com. I recommend sending a picture that is straight on of the whole house, then also including detail shots of the door, windows, house number, or other small details you'd like included. Please note, I only include landscaping directly on the house and minimal trees in the back of the house to keep a subtle framed look. I don’t include people, cars, power lines etc. in my house portraits.

Once I have all the necessary reference photos, I will get to work on your custom house illustration. You can expect an email with a PDF file of your illustration for review within a few days. At that point, You will have a chance to share any thoughts or suggestions. It may take a few days to make your requested changes but we will keep in touch and set solid deadlines. The overall process can take up to three weeks with excellent communication and editing. Keep that in mind if you are giving this as a gift!

Once the illustration & color palette is approved by you, I will watercolor the house on 80lb. bright white Aquarius II paper. My house portraits are drawn and painted completely by hand. These are NOT digital prints. You will receive your original drawing, unframed, and packaged in a clear sleeve within a stiff envelope and mailed to you USPS First-Class Mail.

Still in Transition... Studio Transformation Update!

The upstairs office space is ready for move in! We haven't painted and the weather is no longer conducive to painting... waaayyy too cold. But the other stall is that we are constantly changing the layout... wait did I say we... I mean JOHN keeps changing the layout. The desk we are putting up there is large and isn't sure what he wants. He wanted my desk, then didn't want it upstairs and now he isn't really into sharing the space at all because the desk is so large.

By the way, this is fine with me. He suggested during one of our planning sessions that I claim "purgatory" as my office space. We call it purgatory because it is where everything goes for a little while before we find it a home. I guess it is sort of a parlor space, but it isn't located anywhere that you would receive guests. Which is why it is our purgatory space. It also however has a wall of cupboards! Right now it houses all of my books like a library. I really like it. The dog will have to find a new place though. And so will the treadmill... and the total gym... and the goofy leather chair. And more green paneling... and fuzzy wallpaper. Sigh. I have faith it will come together!

Here is the upstairs disaster... And honestly this BEFORE is almost 2/3 cleaned OUT!

      And here are the AFTER shots. All of the cupboards are empty as well. The fan is in the window because of the amount of bleach we had to spray to get the cupboards sanitized after finding mouse nesting materials and their "evidence" at the bottom of the cupboards... YUK.

 

The carpet is a weird felt like material. Almost like it was a padding. But we aren't ready to tear it up yet. Financially and project wise, just doing the floors in this house will be a massive undertaking. And they ALL need done. Then there are the walls... Don't get me started on those yet. You can see they lovely green paneling... Yeah. You know where I'm going! I need stock in bonding primer for the amount I need to buy.

Hopefully I can make a dent in moving things upstairs next weekend... John is making a trip out to Colorado to empty our storage space!! Where are we going to put our things?? I have NO idea... Stay tuned for the remodeling progress!!

Oh and here is a cute picture of Xan... He will be 16 months this week!!

Getting it Sorted Part II & Menu Planned!

Waking up at 5am requires my first cup of coffee to be really hot. Every other cup for some reason I can do warm... but the first cup... go figure.

Office Organization Redux

So, the office organization thing... stalled a bit. The help that I was getting had some troubles and I didn't get finished. sigh. However! This Saturday everyone has recommitted their assistance and hoping that we can get everything in order. I've also hired a "nanny"/ baby-sitter to come into our home and help me two days a week. I will let you know how that increases all of the organization and work load on the architectural end of my life... well, that is the plan anyway!

For another delay, we discovered a large nest of a former rodent tenant. YIK YUK YAK!!! So that needed taking care of for good. Oddly, we have cleaned up a lot of mouse crap and nesty materials but only one time. It makes me a bit nervous. Kind of on edge. Do we have mice? Did they move out after the year that there was no food in the house? We aren't sure what to think.

Anywho, we are moving forward with the cleaning up and painting on Saturday! I also took some advice from my friend Jenifer and posted a bunch of my Christmas jewelry on Ebay... happy to report... it is SELLING!! Woo Hoo!! Thanks J!! I am going to be putting a bunch of other things on Ebay now as well with the success I've been having.

Menu Planning

I also wanted to share a really cool menu organizing idea with all of you. I am trying it out right now with a lot of success. I ran across it on Pinterest (duh) and forgot to pin it!!! Who does that?? So I apologize for not giving credit to the original thought maker of this menu plan. I'm a bit naive with a few things in life so forgive me if this is common place for all of you but a stroke of genius to me!

First, I don't want my menu plan to be complicated... If you look at some past menu plans I've tried to work with a grocery list and had to write up the pantry items and keep track of things on hand etc... to sum up NOT WORKING. I need simple. Beyond simple actually... I need zero. So, this meal plan is by type of meal as opposed to what the meal actually is!! Get it??

For example... Your week of dinner could be broken out like this:

Monday - Soup and Sandwiches
Tuesday - Casserole/ one dish meal
Wednesday - Stir Fry
Thursday - International (Mexican, Italian, Middle Eastern... etc.)
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Leftovers!! or our one night to eat out/ order in...
Sunday - Brinner ( Breakfast for dinner!) because we love brunch.

Whew! That seriously made this week tolerable. Instead of thinking what to do... I have a "heading" for the day to work from. My little brain can think... "WHAT kind of soup and sandwich will I make tonight..." I grab my iPad and go to my Pinterest board now labeled with the above headings... and pick out something yummy!! WOO HOO!!

To spice things up next month I might shift some things around as I get comfortable and make Friday International food... Sunday is soup and sandwich... bla bla bla you get what I mean. I'm doing my menu by month because again... I need SIMPLE. But if you have the need or want for flexibility you can happily change this menu and do this by the week. My husband and I are both creatures of habit and do not mind the routine. And this keeps me from having to worry about the grocery shopping as well. Ever been grocery shopping with a 15 month old? It isn't too bad... but, you have a time limit. (insert smile here)

Other headings could be:
Vegetarian, Tapas, Noodles, Something with Cheese, Crockpot, Grilled, Burgers, Salad, Poultry, Seafood, etc.

You could also label by cuisine type, region, or :

Italian, French, Irish, Chinese, Greek, Lebanese, Tex-Mex, etc.

You get me right?? I'm still trying to get my little templates attached so bear with me... But I've included one here!! Maybe you can print it out. I hope you can print it out if you'd like. If not, email me... and I will email it to you if you'd like. I've started this one with November. But the one I email to you, you can write in the week or month for your own organization!

And let me give you a little more love here... So when I say it is Pizza night... That could be flatbread, bagel, calzone, tortilla, cauliflower crust, crustless, Chicago style... the sky is the limit... SEE... 

brilliant.

Well. at least I thought so. ;) I hope you will too. I am putting together a vegetarian Thanksgiving and Christmas menu at the moment. I've been experimenting with different dishes to see if I like them. I will share soon so if you are thinking of some veggie options off the traditional route! 

A Place for Everything. Yes, Everything.

I feel ahead most days when I've got breakfast cooked before Xan gets up... 2/3s of a french press in my belly... and some kind of organizational plan going. That's where I trip up a bit. I'm always getting some sort of organization GOING. It is the keeping up with that trips me up. That red flag means that it's not the right organization tool. I'm thinking... guessing... still sorting out. I am a place maker!! An urban designer... I sort out all kinds of messed up street circulation, bizarre building configurations and even the wacky transit route or two. Why can't my office come together?? Well, John and I need an office space together. Something creative for us to work on our projects both paying and hobby.

Today, it was organizing a little thing my computer desktop so that I remember to log my hours when I work on a project. AND that I needed a daily task list. Where do I put that?? I don't want a post it stuck to my screen. I live in a world that is 80% analog and 20% digital. In fact, I create the digital image most of the time just to draw over it!! Ah, well. Right now my desk is such a disaster. I thought about photographing it for you, but then embarrassment set in and I started straightening before I was going to take the photo... Then I thought maybe the embarrassment MIGHT get me motivated! LOL... What an odd gal. So here is the photo. Please... don't judge too harshly. Afterall, this is a work in progress. John and I have big plans for the weekend cleaning and office/ craft space creation!!

Office of Shame

Yes, room is in desperate state after 3 days of charettes and meetings. With no crafting love here.

On the boards... A new pattern book and some little houses.

"Filing" system... or at least filing of some kind. Repurposed certainly. System is definitely stretching it.

Printer is organized! Sort of. Don't pay any attention to the mess on the floor....

John bought me this for my art supplies!! They are happily organized :)

So, the office is a disaster with only paper, some drawing filing and office supplies with a place. I also need some desperate help in the kitchen, bath and Xan's toys. Recycling is taking over the garage... as I can never remember every other week it goes out when?? And soda cans are worth $$ here!! So I need a clever way to pack that in the kitchen or mud room or something. There are dog things and kid things and Rebekah things and John things... everywhere! I've been Pinterest stalking some ideas... But I am on a budget and need something SIMPLE!!

The only thing is... I'm not a fan of labeled cloth lined grassy baskets. Everyone likes clear plastic containers and wicker. I don't like either in my office. I do like drawers. And thankfully our new space has cupboards and drawers. I don't mind boxes of holiday things in the basement or maybe in the bathroom... But office. Nope. Baskets get me in TROUBLE. So do some boxes for that matter. They always start out nice and organized... papers in this one, art stuff in that one... Then there is a day that I need to clean quickly and move things for a project and all of a sudden the box of "invoices/ receipts only" becomes a paper box of everything! I will share a photo of the new space on Sunday when it is completely cleaned out... You wouldn't believe the crazy right now. YIKES! My grandparents weren't hoarders... but they were... well... maybe I'm in denial?? They certainly kept EVERYTHING!! LOL!!

Maybe I'm asking for the world here... is it possible to have "things" that aren't perfect and have organization??  Or maybe I need an assistant?!

A note on "things". John and I both have a couple boxes of moments and memories. What to do with them?? They are good memories from travels etc. I'm not a scrappy scrapbooker... yet? However, I do like this idea for travel/ place journals that I pictured below. So that would be one box down! And it could fit nicely on a bookshelf in several little volumes - Rome, London, Athens, Winchester... . I have a lot of bookshelves. I like bookshelves. I actually like binders a lot. I could have a binder for everything. Only I'd like them to match! I need to order about 100 white 2" binders... That could work. But, as we know... not everything fits in an 8.5 x 11 binder. Which is most of my stuff... bummer. I guess I need to learn to live with containers of stuff. Wow... I can ramble. I'm glad you all can handle me.

Sometimes I wonder... why did I keep this stuff? Other times I think... WOW that was a great memory

I briefly mentioned that John and I were moving the office to a new location in the house. Upstairs! The house used to have a kitchen upstairs when my grandparents first moved into the house the lower floor was his doctor's office. So the upstairs was an apartment. My cousin Mike has been over the past two days helping me get my grandparents things in their right place so that John and I even have a place for our things. Christmas pile... paper pile... storage... donation... trash... etc. It has been a HUGE task that looks like someone ransacked the house. However, my grandparents weren't organizers but they sure were collectors! I have 2 boxes of christmas paper plates. uh huh. I'm not kidding. 3 grocery bags of sunglasses. 2 shoe boxes of exclusively Christmas jewelry - mostly pins.

Well, it's scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday to be put into shape! Mom, sis and even John is taking the weekend off to get it all set! Probably not painted yet as the weather has turned extremely cold here... But cleaned and organized. Can't wait to share the photos!