An Artist with Different Tools Is Still an Artist

A friend of my mother’s once told me that mom had made the statement that Leeré was the only artist in the family and she didn’t know where my artistic talent had come from. Even though I’m the only professional illustrator in the family, my whole family is creative and artistic; everyone just uses a different medium. My sister Lisa, who is 13 months my junior, claimed once that my dad quashed her artistic dreams at an early age when he mistakenly thought a curl of hair she had sculpted on her ceramic rabbit was debris from the firing process and scraped it off. This resulted in a red ribbon at the local fair whereas my Snoopy dog was awarded the coveted blue. Lisa doesn't draw much but if her house is any indication she has an eye for creative and unique interior design. Her palette of choice being wonderful hues of wall and furniture paint, chunky paint brushes, wild fabrics and second hand treasures that she can coax new life out of.

My father is a technical drawer. He can draw up blueprints and technical specs for any kind of part he needs. Besides a pencil and graph paper, his palette includes metal lathes, industrial size band saws and every kind of tool imaginable. He restores antique cars to their vintage glory and makes over half the parts that you can’t find anymore. His projects are pieces of art that easily rival the work of great sculptors.

My mom’s artwork adorns my walls and keeps me warm. It’s the centerpiece of my interior design and that of many of her friends. Mom’s palette is piles of colorful fabrics, needles, scissors and threads. She creates her own patterns or creatively combines colors to make an old design her own. Imagine my excitement this week when I received a new quilt in the mail and discovered her palette this time was my Fairy Princess Fabric Collection from Clothworks. There are two actually, this darling crib size quilt made with the main panel design and another gorgeous scrap quilt that I have sent off to be machine quilted. I can’t wait to send her a new “palette” of Designs by Leeré Scribble Monster Fabric to see what masterpiece she creates next.

To Blog or not to Blog, Perhaps Twitter is the Answer

Every success and every failure in life and business starts with a thought. Facebook prompts us with a “what’s on your mind” box. I casually observe that those who often have a negative or stressful focus in their comment also struggle more in their daily lives – trouble with work, trouble with relationships, etc. Happy thought people, regardless of the stresses, have more successes and more solid relationships. If you’re not actually filling in that box on a Facebook status update you’re still thinking and forming thoughts that will lead your life in one direction or another.

It’s cute when you see a four year old talking to herself out loud. It’s scary when you see an adult doing the same thing. Perhaps that is why we have pets to talk to and blogging, editorial comments, Facebook and Twitter have become so popular. It allows a dialog outside of our head that is a socially acceptable form of talking to yourself. I have no idea who, if anyone, reads this blog so I have to assume I write it to myself, for myself. Who has the time to read the thoughts of others when we are so busy with our own lives? Still it’s a way to feel connected to others in a way that we cannot otherwise do. A way to network and know people who are successful, or not, and the way they think. Perhaps this is why Twitter has become more and more popular – a shortened form of personal connection that doesn’t require you sit down with a cup of tea and read several paragraphs of thought. I don’t know I haven’t learned to Tweet yet. Perhaps it’s time.

I know that success and happiness are only possible with positive energy; I try to keep my thoughts upbeat even in stressful times. It’s not easy; my week was nerve-racking last week. I had to stop and consciously change my thoughts, shortly thereafter I was rewarded with a rare (rare to our lake) visit from nature. A family of Trumpeter Swans stopped by on their journey south.

Just Do It

With the debate on National Health Care Reform getting a media spotlight, there are many mixed messages and complex issues being discussed. I have always had health insurance and I always keep in the forefront of my mind that it is INSURANCE. Thankfully, it’s there if I need it just like my auto insurance and my homeowner’s insurance. But also just as I take care while I’m driving to avoid an accident, I hope not to have to use my health insurance for anything more than the routine, at least not yet. And just like wearing my seatbelt or checking the batteries in my smoke alarm yearly, I exercise.

Exercise is like eating and sleeping to me. It’s such an essential part of my daily routine that without it I feel completely out of sorts. Part of my current workout is a daily 21 mile bike ride. I do it rain or shine and in all temperatures. The route I ride has a lot of hills and generally takes an hour and a half to ride. I like to get it done early so I can shower, relax and move forward with my work day. I’ve done it so many times that I sometimes forget that you need to mentally prepare for a workout that is that long and constant, once I head out I don’t stop pedaling until I pull back into my driveway. Some days, like today, it is an exercise of mind over matter. I was excited to ride, after two days of bone chilling and soaking rain that I actually wrung out of my socks, the sun was shining, I had new music in my Ipod and was riding with my husband rather than alone. I mistook all these positives as mental preparation when in fact I hadn’t really been ready to ride. The challenges started before I was even out of the driveway when a bunch of water squished out of my seat and got my shorts wet. I immediately discovered that the rumble that sounded like someone had peeled the siding off my house earlier in the day was in fact a road grader generously smoothing all the bumps and potholes that I know so well into a nice smooth, soft, muddy road grade that I wobbled through trying to adjust my wet shorts and click my gears up to riding speed. The first mile of the ride is dangerous with no path or even a shoulder and rural Alaskan drivers are not exactly patient with bike riders so further adjustments had to wait until I was safely on the trail. I started to notice every negative aspect of the ride, my stupid Ipod wasn’t playing my new music, there’s a headwind and my legs felt like lead, my bike, protesting the neglect it has endured all summer was refusing to cooperate with gear changes, the roots across the path, the gravel berms the four-wheelers kick up, the noise of the traffic, the squeak of Scott’s bike, the pounding headache I was getting around mile 6, whine, whine, moan, complain. According to Scott, who times our rides, we did it in the same amount of time as usual but it truly felt like it took three times longer. I tried my best to focus on the gorgeous day, the fall colors, the exhilarating feeling of just being healthy and in shape. Still it is amazing to me how easy it is to let the negatives roll over us, to use them as our excuse not to succeed. The negatives were there the day before with a few changes like the pouring rain and bone chilling cold. The negatives will be there tomorrow too but that won’t stop me from doing it and I most likely won’t even notice them.

Regardless of your stand on healthcare reform, it’s time to get fit and be healthy if you are physically able. Find the workout or sport that works for you and, as Nike’s famous slogan says “Just do it” even when it’s hard - it’s my motto for exercise, work, adventure and life.

Scribble Monster Halloween Fabric Collection

My new Scribble Monsters Halloween Collection of designer quilt fabrics is selling out fast! I received an email from Clothworks yesterday after asking them for some online links and they said you have to move quickly if you’d like to order them as the stores are reporting they are already out of stock.

Perhaps part of the reason is that the current issue of Quilts and More magazine features the kit that Clothworks team of amazing designers and quilters put together. I haven’t had the chance to pick up the magazine yet, I’m excited to see it – and the kit!

Here are some links to some great online retailers that currently still have some in stock:

Aardvark Quilt Shop

Bearpaw Quilting

Corn Wagon Quilt Co.

Thimblecreek

Working out of an Artist’s Block

Artists, no matter how talented, all run into a big block once in awhile. A moment or more in time where you sit in the doldrums and your ability to draw or create completely escapes you. You can be thrilled with a new assignment and excited to get going on it only to find your inner muse is not going to cooperate.

Over the years I have learned to observe my thoughts and the actions that come from them in order to figure out what causes my artist’s blocks and how to quickly move through them. Here’s some of what I’ve learned:

Don’t panic, it will pass. They come and go so I don’t focus my thoughts on the block and I take comfort in the knowledge it’s a temporary thing.

You can’t force it! Deadlines are critical in commercial illustration (and very necessary) but anytime I’ve felt the pressure of time with a close deadline the artwork does not meet my standards or my clients.

Stress kills creative energy. If my thoughts are focused on something I’m worried or anxious about or if I’ve had a disagreement with someone, I can’t work productively on new projects until the stress level comes down.

Intense focus usually makes it worse. Over planning and focusing on a project or new design seems to put up a barrier I can’t get around. Putting my thoughts to work on something else generally removes the roadblock and I can get back to work.

Creativity breeds creativity. Generally creative people have a drive to be creative. It’s in my blood to be imaginative so by having many hobbies and starting a personal project or working on one that is underway will often kick start the flow of artistic energy.

Touch base with your soul. Finding an activity that reaches deep inside to make me consciously aware of my soul and therefore the source of my talent is important. Meditation, nature walks, gardening, reading, or listening to music are a few suggestions I use.

Use your talent often. I find the longer I go without actually using my talent the farther away it tends to retreat. Getting in touch with it regularly makes it easier to find when I really need it!

Don’t give up too soon. Sometimes I just need some warm up sketches, generally if I get lost in the artwork and just let my pencil flow I’ll surprise myself. When that happens I try not to stop it, one time I stayed up until well past midnight and drew 38 sketches, one after the other, but threw the first three or four away.

Picking a Color Palette

We took the float plane out over the weekend and flew up to the Knik and Colony Glaciers in the mountains southeast of us. Even on a gray and cloudy day the color of the ice in a Glacier is one of the most spectacular in nature. The first time I saw the bright blue icebergs floating in the lake below a Glacier, I thought someone had put a sculpture up and went overboard on the color. It’s like Mother Nature got out a blue highlighter pen when she went to work on coloring her masterpiece.
Picking a color palette for your work is one of the most important steps in creating a collection for commercial application. Your color has to fit the product, the artwork, the theme and in many cases meet whatever current color trends are out there. Because you are licensing the work the same image might go into many different product applications that require a completely different palette. Even a timeless illustration might become dated with the wrong color palette over time and be overlooked by the art directors. Because I keep a catalog of images that were created over years and years I find that sometimes it’s important to update color palettes and many times I am asked to update the color on a specific collection at the request of the manufacturer. I can generally do that quickly if I have created the design digitally and saved my work in layers. I can also add to the same collection with the same palette if I have saved it in my Photoshop Color Swatches folder using the name of the collection as the name of the palette. With millions of colors to choose from, picking the right palette can sometimes be overwhelming – it might be easier to just take a page from Nature’s notebook and get to work with those highlighters.

Staying Home for Vacation

This is a vacation week for my husband and we decided what better place to vacation than right in our own home. We decided to give the new Staycation fad a try and so far I love it. I am making it a working week so I don't get behind on deadlines but as long as I don't feel a lot of pressure I find it very relaxing.




As you can see, it's a rainy week in Alaska but still very beautiful. I am zipping through a new novel and playing with some creative outlets including my husband's camera and macro lens. I love the macro lens not because it produces an award winning photograph but because it show the detail you can't see with the naked eye.

Designing for Your Client’s Needs

Every one of my manufactures has different design requirements because of course they all have different products. If I did not design the original specifically for a particular client then changes will have to be made in order for the client to successfully use the design. This is the main reason I prefer to design digitally and I save all my original files in layers. Even on complicated designs it makes it much easier and quicker to give the client what they need.

Currently I am working on a new fabric collection for Clothworks. They have picked the America the Beautiful collection to work with but have asked for design changes – In the first picture you can see one of the original design that will need to be changed in order for it to work for their project.

The original design was a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper so the first changes that have to be made are the dimensions. For fabric the layout needs to be 11x12 or 22x24. On this particular design they wanted it laid out 11x12. That one inch doesn’t seem like much but from a design standpoint it can change the whole look and feel of the layout. So the first step was to crop the design without losing the important elements which took some creative cut and paste. Second, because this is for a fabric, the design has to be repeatable as fabric comes in a big long roll and not just the 12 inches of your design. That basically means you cannot have any hard dark lines on the edge of the design. If you look at the original, being that it was a piece of paper I designed it with artistic elements that were cut off on the edge. It is a design feature that works great for paper but would not have worked at all for the repeat. I basically had to redo the swishy elements so that I could maintain the feel of the overall design but now they would be able to repeat them without having a hard line every 12 inches. The last step was to create colorways for the design. Colorways are basically the same design in different colors. The colors are all from the Collection palette so that all fabrics in the line will go together and can be used together like in a quilt. Below you can see the final submission (although the client may still request more changes or colorways) that will be sent to them to chose from.

The Character of a Caricature

I really should list “people watching” as one of my favorite activities. I love to quietly observe human nature in motion. I have discovered that without a doubt the personality of those I observe end up in my drawings. I call it the character of a caricature and you can see it on the faces of both my people and my animal illustrations. I have to believe that writers use this method as well.

You can observe a wide range of personalities in almost any public setting but my favorite spots are the airport and my local WalMart. The more obnoxious and outrageous the personality the more fun it is to watch them. I suggest that if you are ever in a position where a frustrating and intolerable human has crossed your path, (this is often the case for many of my friends that are flight attendants or those that work in retail) the experience can be tolerable if not altogether completely enjoyable if you change the way you think about it. Instantly the obnoxious, self-important, pompass ass sitting next to me for four hours on an airplane or the overweight diva stuffed into her leopard skin stretch pants that just cut in front of me in line becomes no more bothersome than a fly, a future celebrity in a Designs by Leeré collection. Sometimes it’s just a healthier way to look at a situation that would otherwise likely cause you stress and possibly even ruin your day.

Try it next time you’ve had it with that not so pleasant person that has crossed your path uninvited – create a caricature of the character, even if only in your mind.

Where to Buy?

Without exception the email question I get most often is “where can I buy your stuff”? I guess it’s not really easy to figure out from my website that I don’t actually sell any products myself. As a commercial illustrator I create images that will go on many manufacturers’ products in all different industries. I have a hard time keeping up on who is selling what when, let alone who they are selling to. Manufactures sell to retailers who then sell to the general public. More and more manufacturers try to sell to the big box retailers like Target or WalMart or a chain of stores within a particular industry – like Michael’s for Crafts, or Petsmart for animal products.

So generally I can’t even tell people where to buy a product with a Designs by Leeré logo and I advise them to check with my manufacturers as sometimes they will list their retail stores. Most of my manufacturers are listed on the “Licensing Partners” page on my website. I also suggest watching this blog as I will update it with product release announcements if I know about them.

I do have a very few retailers that I work with directly and one of them is Colorful Images. They have a set of Designs by Leeré Birthday note cards with the Ooh La La Collection on them. You can buy direct at http://www.colorfulimages.com/475762.html Also available are address labels that can be found at http://www.colorfulimages.com/Y1633.html

I just received a big box of new fabric samples, I will see if I can get some information from my Fabric manufacturer where those new fabrics will be available for you to purchase!

A very busy June

Okay I'm seriously not doing well with the whole blog post thing. My attempt to go back to a weekly blog should have been easy and doable but here I am four weeks behind schedule. I have been swamped with work which I view as optimistic for the economy. As I have stated before, commercial illustrators work about 12 to 18 months in adavnce of the product release so if the work I am being asked to do now is any indication the manufacturers believe things are picking up in the next year.

June was a busy and exciting month for me, besides work we were quite busy here at the house in Alaska. We excavated, leveled, raked, top soiled and hydro-seeded a new 12,000 sq ft lawn that is just starting to green up now. We put our Super Cub airplane on floats so it now sits at our dock tempting me to leave work and go flying whenever my husband Scott is home. We made a trip to Utah for meetings and I also made a whirlwind trip to Washington State to help my daughter move out of her college apartment. After we got all of her stuff into storage we sent her off to Ghana, Africa where she is volunteering at an orphanage for the next four weeks.

We are looking forward to the holiday weekend here in Alaska even though it won't get dark enough to really enjoy any fireworks. Have a fun and safe weekend and HOPEFULLY I can get back to that weekly blog next week!

A One Day Adventure

My love of nature is apparent in many of my illustrations – especially those early ones with the silly moose, birds and bears. I jump at any chance to venture out and experience Mother Earth especially in her unspoiled, natural state. The state of Alaska provides miles and miles of such landscape and owning a bush plane gives us opportunities galore when it comes to planning our adventures. Because my husband Scott and I both had to work over the holiday weekend we had to plan carefully for maximum benefit as we only had one day and wanted to make the most of it.

We decided to go clam digging Alaska bush pilot style. After a coffee stop at the local Starbucks in Anchorage we loaded up the Super Cub and were off just after 7 AM. Clam digging is best one hour before low tide or two hours after and we were racing to hit the one hour prior time. Our goal was across Cook Inlet, past the big dinosaur-like oil rigs sitting just offshore and south of Mt Redoubt, the belching volcano that has recently come back to life to cover the glaciers and ice fields in gray ash and fill the rivers with silt. “Bush” flying means that you rarely have a runway at your destination. Our big tundra tires and Scott’s experience (he is an airline pilot and has tens of thousands of hours in airplanes) leave me free to enjoy the whole thing and not fret about anything. Today we were landing on the wet sand of the tide flat that had been covered by tons of ocean water just 20 minutes earlier. We slip on our hip waders and rubber gloves and then it’s time to dig clams! Razor clams leave a little dimple in the sand above where they are buried so locating the spot to dig is easy. Digging, grabbing and catching them isn’t quite so simple. But working as a team we harvested 40 clams in about an hour and could have easily got more if we weren’t so cold and wet! Looking forward to the warmth of our airplane, we brushed off the sand, loaded up and used the ocean floor once again as our airstrip, beating the tide by several hours.

Flying the Super Cub is like taking a walk with a toddler, you don’t get there quickly but you notice so much more as you plod along slow and low. On the way back we deviated slightly from our route down, flying more over land and spotting the wildlife just barely below us. The swans are nesting this time of the year and every little pond and puddle has one perched high on a mound while their mate swims around close by, standing out bright white against the green and gray landscape. Anything white is easy to spot, like the bald eagles sitting sentry in the trees over the rivers and the old crash site of a US Air Force voodoo jet scattered across the tundra. You have to look closer for the moose and bear but they are out there too. We saw over 75 moose, many mothers with their new calves and a few bulls with their seasonal sprouting of antlers about half way to full size and still in velvet. The most exciting is always the bears. We saw three glorious, enormous brown (aka grizzly) bears, one a sow with her spring cub who was already the size of a full grown black bear. When mama stood upright on her hind legs to check us out she looked like a building on the edge of the river. She was massive and gigantic and absolutely gorgeous and I watched her silhouette for a long time as we thankfully flew away. We had lunch on a river sandbar, landing on a rocky little strip of land that was barely wider than the outside width of our tires. We sat in the sun discussing our next outdoor adventure, perhaps a fishing trip to the river banks we were seated on. Our day ended with the chore of cleaning clams, shaking sand out of everything and washing salt water mud off our airplane - but after a day like that who cares!

My Super Cool Girlfriends

I grew up plowing piles of dirt around with a Tonka truck right alongside the imaginary trips my Barbie dolls took to the shopping mall and I enjoyed woodshop as much as Home Ec. So it’s not all that surprising that my tomboy attributes have stuck with me into adulthood. Given a choice I’d pick a boy’s trip over a girl’s trip any day. On my last boys trip we flew to Europe, drank beer, watched World Cup ski racing and stayed up all night for three days. On my last girl’s trip there were giggles and gossip and shopping and talk of potty training toddlers. I suppose it was fun in its own way but I’m not one to giggle or gossip or shop and my kids are all grown up – I just don’t fit in as well. There was coffee though so that actually went a long way towards redeeming the experience in my mind.

I still play with power tools, drive a truck, work on my car, snowblow my own driveway, fix what needs to be fixed and prefer vodka over wine. With all of that said I suppose it would be easy to start identifying myself as an estrogen lacking, non-feminine girl and to convince myself I can’t stand the insufferable company of other women. Reality though, is that my best friends are women and they are compassionate and warm, intuitive and intelligent. They are teachers, lawyers, mothers, business owners, doctors, nurses, artists and pilots. I’m so happy that I’ve finally discovered the benefit of girlfriends, even those that totally fit every blond joke I’ve ever heard. There are a few of my girlfriends that put my self-perceived tough guy persona to shame and make me look bubble headed, shallow, superficial, petty and one-dimensional. They are soldiers. They look as beautiful in combat boots and fatigues as they do in heels and dresses, they are smart and gorgeous and talented. They fly Blackhawk Helicopters and C-130 Transport airplanes and have been deployed to America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq where they live in the heat and the sand and a very male dominated atmosphere. They put their life on the line for me and for our country and whether you believe in the reason for our wars or not is irrelevant, they have a job to do and they do it well. Thank you Suzy and Kelly and Lacey for what you do and who you are – I can’t wait to do a girl’s trip and raise my glass of wine to you. On this Memorial Day remember all those who have served and are serving, stay safe, don’t drink and drive, and please wear your seatbelt.

Mother to a Portly Pooch

I hope all the Mothers out there had a fabulous Mother’s Day! Of course in my opinion every day is Mother’s Day. I had a very enjoyable day. We made our bi-annual, 3000 mile move from our winter home in Utah to our summer home in Alaska last week, which also put a distance of several thousand miles between me and my children. There was a time in life when several thousand miles between two, fighting, screaming, demanding toddlers and mom would have been the PERFECT way to spend a day dedicated to mom, but my children are both young adults now and off to college and I miss them. Now my main “mom” duties involve a golden retriever/yellow lab mix rescue dog on a diet. He’s been rescued for many years now having just celebrated his 4th birthday but I still refer to him as a “rescue dog” perhaps to make excuses for some of his neurotic behaviors that certainly didn’t come from being the spoiled, pampered thing he is now. In preparation for our big move Denali made a visit to the vet for a teeth cleaning, shots, Heartworm medicine, and a health certificate. It was on this visit that I discovered he had packed on a few pounds over the winter. Twelve to be exact. I started paying for the weight gain right away when I had to buy two boxes of Heartworm medicine because the first one only covers up to 100 pounds. Convincing Denali that he shouldn’t be snacking between meals and that the spoonful of canned, wet food in his dinner was a thing of the past is not going smoothly. It’s become a daily routine of letting his breakfast nuggets sit untouched for several hours into the afternoon before finally, convinced starvation is only hours away, he will eat the minuscule amount of dry dog food in the bowl. I thought that maybe his move to Alaska in a kennel that has a lot less space for seven hours might prove to him that weight loss should be a high priority, but a dog lives in the moment and at least for him that harrowing experience is in the past. I say at least for him because the red-faced, Delta Airlines ramp workers who had to carry his kennel out to me are probably still in chiropractic care. Denali spends his days in Alaska mostly on the deck overlooking the lake and talking once in awhile to an imagined moose or large creature in the wooded area on our property. He loves his walks twice a day but he is also happy to lounge on the couch and dream of great adventure. Sometimes he comes in and digs a mangled treasure out of his toy box attempting to lure me away from work to play with him. A small reminder that as mothers the most important thing we can do is keep our babies safe and healthy and give them time out of our busy days. I think we will go play for a bit now.

What's Your Name?

Last week Stampavie, my stamp manufacturer in France, published its newsletter and included an artist interview with me. You can see the whole interview at: http://www.stampavie.com/stampavie_creations/2009_05_Stampavie_Creations.pdf

I was asked for three fun facts about myself not related to my work and I happened to mention my name. My name is pronounced Lee-ray but has the unusual spelling Leeré. Rarely does anyone get it right the first time they attempt to pronounce it and I’ve wondered my whole life about its origin. My parents told me that it came from a Disney movie in the early 60’s that they had seen. My mother worked at the drive-in theater while she went to college, so when I asked what the name of the movie was, she had seen so many that she had no idea. She seemed to remember it being a space movie but all my searches for a name came up empty. But then, after Stampavie’s newsletter and interview went out I got an email last week from Jean Fitch in Jacksonville, Oregon. She had read the interview and knew the exact movie my parent’s had seen. In 1962, two years before I was born, Disney released a movie called “Moon Pilot” with a female lead named Lyrae, pronounced Lee-ray. My parent’s chose to go with a French spelling to match my mother’s name which is Armiéne – pronounced Ar-mane. I am happy to have such a unique name. Leeré fits me well and now a 45 year old personal mystery has been solved! Thanks Jean!