Hello everyone, first I want to reach out to all of you and let you know I hope all of you are doing well and this time has not impacted you. The world had changed so much since my last blog post, and it’s partly due to the longer absence of this post. I would normally be writing a post about all my future shows I would be getting ready for. I had one scheduled Saturday April 25th to celebrate Earth Day. Its no surprise that the Covid-19 pandemic has hurt and reshaped a lot of peoples lives. As of right now I have no idea when I will be able to have a show again, and when the shows come back will there be an economy to support us artist? In fact my whole career may shift due to this. With that being said I understand and support all the measures being done to help slow the spread of the virus. Art shows made up an overwhelming majority of my annual income, and with that being gone I have been forced to reevaluate and come up with hopeful other solutions for income.

I am trying to promote and boost online sales. With that I am redoing my Etsy shop and making a Society 6 account as well.
I have made more digital illustrations which are cheaper for people to purchase than an original piece of art.
I also have a big sale on my Shop that has some older last of their kind prints.
I will be trying a out a preorder layout for a new series of prints.
I will be writing and illustrating a couple of self published children’s books. One will be a simple book for very young children, learning and exploring backyard creatures. The other will be will be for reading age kids, of animal themed adventure series. I will hopefully be launching a kickstarter for this in the summer!
I will be making a Skillshare class on how to make a block print! Hoping this will be launched in the next 4ish weeks,

This brings us to my main focus of this post. To practice making a Skillshare class I made one! I have 4 videos for you here, the first video sets ups the print, and how to transfer your image onto the block. The second video guides you through the carving process. The third shows you how to print your block once done carving. Then finally the last fourth video I show you how to go back and paint on top of your prints using watercolor! I hope you enjoy this! and please let me know what you think and any tips, or suggestions for when I make my one for Skillshare.

I hope you all enjoy that video tutorial and please let me know what you think! I have one last thing for you, I have done s few other prints I’d like to share. First off is the Tortoise and the Hare print. I started this print in February, at first I was just thinking about doing a rabbit print with a border. When I was searching for inspiration I came across an illustration of the tortoise and the hare and I really liked that idea. It was really fun tackling a classic fable. The second print I did around the same time of an eastern blue bird. I made this print for my upcoming spring shows. I wanted to explore the border idea. One one side I have prints like the cardinal with a defined border that is decorative, then I have a print like the the oak tree which the border is more interactive with the print. I am not sure which I like more, but with the blue bird I was exploring the interactive “loose” border with the vines running up.

Thank you for reading and stay safe, I will be back a lot sooner this time. I have been updating my shop and I am about to launch a lot of new art, so stay tuned!

Bryan.