March Meet the Maker

This month there are a lot of artists and makers participating in a monthly challenge to 'Meet the Maker' by sharing different aspects about themselves and their work. It's really fun and I'm learning so much about my lovely online friends!

I've been crazy busy trying to wrap up a lot of work and projects before Baby arrives, so I'm picking just a handful of prompts to post about, but here they are so far. 

1. You 

I'm an Aussie Artist, Illustrator and Social Media Coach living in Colorado. I'm addicted to watercolors, fashion illustration, and bright colors. Things you may not know about me...I used to drive tanks for a living, I've owned more motorcycles than cars, and I only started drawing when I was 31. I'm also really passionate about teaching other creatives how to use social media and online marketing and branding to their advantage.
You can read more about me here.

2. Favorite to Make 

My favorite thing to make? Fashion and lifestyle illustrations with watercolor, ink and mixed media! Leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite thing to make is!

3. Workspace

I'm lucky enough that in our new-ish house my husband and I each get our own workspace rather than having to share like we have in the past. Mine is all color and light, and his space is filled with black leather chairs, dark wood, concrete planters, and black screen-printed art and posters. Even though I have my own studio I still end up working on the kitchen table quite often because the back of our house looks over the foothills of the rocky mountains in Colorado and I love to take breaks and just look out at the sky, the mountains, people fishing in our little lake, and the sunsets have been magical lately!

4. Tools 

Most often I use watercolors, Tombow markers (affiliate link to the specific ones I like best) and liquid ink, gouache, and acrylic paints. What tools of the trade do you use? 

7. How It's Made

I love posting time-lapse videos of my art so people can see how I put it all together. I also love seeing other people's processes, sketchbooks, and works in progress! Here's one of my recent illustrations from start to finish.

9. Work In Progress

Here's a little video of my sketching some repeating patterns in my Sketchbook Project. You can see the finished book here. 

A post shared by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on Feb 1, 2017 at 7:16am PST

10. Recommend a Maker

I'm recommending my lovely online friend Anika from @AisforAnika. She makes the most wonderful hand-drawn (and now digital) patterns and artwork. 

A post shared by Anika Starmer: Patternthusiast (@aisforanika) on Mar 4, 2017 at 8:41pm PST

11. Post / Mail

I am a BIG fan of both sending and receiving mail. With most of our family and friends living overseas we send quite a bit of it. And I love sending mail so much that I was a scriptist for Punkpost (but am on break now until after the Baby arrives). 

12. Brand Image 

Here's a visual representation of the @BrownPaperBunny brand. Pinks, teals, and golds with lots of watercolor, ink, and a good dose of peonies. I wanted my brand colors to be 'rainbow' but my designer husband made me pair the colors back a little. ;)

13. Photography

As well as painting and illustration I count photography as one of my creative passions. My husband and I love to travel and I've been fortunate enough to go all over the world for both business and fun. You can join my travel adventures over at @SweetDivergence if you're interested. This photo was from a trip we took up to Aspen in the fall two years ago. 

14. Creative Friends

I count myself super lucky to have found so many creative friends 'in real life' as well as many more online. I cherish them all dearly.

If you'd like to participate, you can jump in at any time, and here is the list of daily prompts. 

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BrownPaperBunny Studio Tour

Recently my little art studio was featured by UPPERCASE Magazine – only my all time favorite magazine! I'm pretty excited about it all, so I thought I would share the write up so you can have a little peek inside my work space. 

The text is a bit too small to read, so here it is, along with some extra photos of my studio:

"I'm an Australian artist, living in Colorado, and I'm trying to bring color to the world, one bright painting at a time. I mostly work in watercolor, although I've recently fallen in love with acrylics and am experimenting with working digitally as well. 

I only started painting a few years ago, after making a New Year's Resolution that I would take an evening art class. As soon as I picked up a paint brush I was hooked! When we move to America I enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts, majoring in Illustration, but with all the preliminary classes involving endless hours of charcoal still life drawing it quickly became a chore and I decided to do my own thing – gravitating to bright colors, and whimsical topics. I most love to paint fashion illustration, conversational patterns and bold abstracts. 

I'm lucky enough to have a pretty little room to myself in our house, with a view of the Rocky Mountains. I've lined the walls of my studio with colorful art, which inspires me every day. I'm also a serious bookwork, and although my collection is only a couple of years old (we couldn't bring all of our books when we moved countries) it's growing rapidly! Of course my UPPERCASE collection gets pride of place on the shelf in my studio."

Leave me a comment below and let me know where you do most of your creative work – kitchen table? Living room floor? Break room at work? Or do you have your own little space carved out?