Occasionally Thoughtful

Design Challenge Winner Carol Kearns

Which of your cards are your favorites and why?

My favourite cards change all the time but in the kiddies categories I can get very attached to some of the characters I design.

One in particular is My Cupcake Princess. She is one of my most popular kids cards and I took time out from designing cards earlier this year and wrote a children’s picture book based on her.

I called her and the book, Marcy Pam.

Also this year I wrote a Christmas picture book based on my Christmas storybook card, and called it I’ve an Idea.

Both these books are in rhyme.

And finally The Snowbies I’ve written a third picture book this year based on these characters too, but not in rhyme.

So at the moment, because of all the work I’ve put in adding additional characters and illustrating these books, I’ve grown very attached to these three cards.

I’m currently looking for an agent and publisher. Will keep you posted on how that works out. 🙂

What was your inspiration for your winning card? Please walk us through the process of how this card went from an idea to a greeting card.

When the September design challenge was posted I was working on Christmas card ideas. One of these was Santa juggling presents. I replaced the presents with sleigh bells and it seemed to work. Santa looked a bit lonely, so for extra fun I added Rudolph on a sleigh ringing a bell. I wanted to tie in a verse to suit the card and it was about a week after I had the artwork finished, when the old saying about ‘Juggling too many balls in the air’ came to mind. As Christmas can be a stressful time for a lot of people (including Santa) I thought, switch balls for bells and see how that goes. That’s usually the way a lot of designs come about. They can start out one way and go in a different direction entirely. Every month I plan to enter the design challenge and never get around to it. First time lucky!!

What sparked your interest in art? Did you start as a young child?

I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil. I can’t imagine what it would be like not been able to draw. It’s just a natural part of me, like walking and talking.

Do you have formal training or are you self-taught?

I’m self-taught. A few weeks before I was due to attend the College of Art, Dublin, I gave up my place to work in a gallery and design house in London.

Is your work done by hand and then scanned or do you work entirely on the computer?

Most of my work is sketched, drawn and scanned on to my computer, then painted in Photoshop. Sometimes I paint a background in watercolour or mixed media and scan that in too. I’ve a folder on my Mac of watercolour backgrounds that I’ve painted over time, and I dip into them when needed.

Have you ever/do you currently have a job other than as an artist?

I’ve really always worked at art. From working in London, to restoring old books, working as an animator and teaching animation. Art in one form or other has always been my job. Though I did work as a nanny in New Jersey for a very, very, very short time when I was around 23.

What GCU artist(s) do you admire?

Gosh, there’s so many GCU artists I admire, too many to mention here. There is just so many art styles to choose from.

I do love Molly Harrison, Diane Duda, Christie Black, Teri Nelson Kuster, Annie Lang and of course Doreen Erhardt and Corrie Kuipers.

What is the story behind your storefront name, Wilbi designs?

A few years ago my mum passed away. She was a huge supporter of my art. I decided to name my store after her and my dad, (who, I’m happy to say is alive and kicking at 86). My mums name was Bridget, but we affectionately called her Bibi. My dad’s name is William. So putting the two names together Will, an Bi, became Wilbi. My mum would have loved GCU and my store.

We understand you’re a coffee lover.  Where is your favorite coffee shop and why?

I don’t have a favourite coffee shop. As I’m still single, and work from home, it can be very quiet in my apartment all day, so I like to work outside for a few hours.

I try to vary it from day to day as I do spend so much time in each one. When I’m not in the coffee shops I fill two flasks of coffee at home, and keep refilling them all day long. I’m addicted.

What would we be surprised to learn about you?

Something surprising about me?  Oh, nothing really. I did live in a hotel for a year in Australia. That was 5 years ago, and no, I’m not rich. It’s a long story – maybe for another time.  🙂

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Madden Art

Please list the URLs of your 3 favorite cards in your storefront and why they are your favorites.

My choice of favorite cards tends to be a bit, shall we say, elastic, being influenced by mood and season and who knows what else.  These are my current choices.

Tuxedo Cat on a Blanket Next to Sunny Window – Tuxedo Cat Birthday Card

The original painting for this one is casein on board; I caught a photo of Belle in one of her favorite spots as the afternoon sun created shadows on the wall, and used that as reference for the painting.  So, a favorite photo of a totally awesome cat became a favorite painting, which became a favorite card.

Happy Birthday Black Cat with Feathers Mr. P Card

This is one of my very first cards on Greeting Card Universe, and was inspired by Poussifri’s tendency to talk to me (okay, fine, meow at me).  I always liked the design, and loved having Mr. P. on it, but became less than thrilled with the digital painting of him, so I painted a new one (Wacom + Rebelle app) and replaced it (same design, new painting).  That’s when this card became one of my faves.

Cat with Teddy Bear Sleeping Under Christmas Tree  Card

The kitty sleeping on Santa Bear’s lap part is pastel on paper, scanned in; the rest are elements I bought or constructed digitally.  Putting this one together was sort of like doing a puzzle, both challenging and fun.

What was your inspiration for your winning card? Please walk us through the process of how this card went from an idea to a greeting card.

When I first read the theme for the challenge, “in your new home” immediately became “in your new haunt” for me.  I knew I needed a spooky setting, a house, and a ghost, and found a house on a public domain site, but still wasn’t sure how it would all go together.  So I started painting the background and erasing the windows in the house so that I could get light in them.  Somewhere along here, I knew what the ghost should say, and that’s when I realized I needed two proper looking ghosts from a bygone era.  At this point, I had the basic design, but getting the background right and placing the house and ghosts really took some time – lots of working and reworking to get the scene to feel right.  And then I realized that the inside verse should be a poem pulling the whole thing together:  new home, moving in, and ghostly haunts – three or four drafts later, voila!

What sparked your interest in art? Did you start as a young child?

Art became an integral part of my life at a fairly young age.  I was friends with a girl living a few doors down, and she and I would draw together.  The biggest influence, though, was my mother’s appreciation of art, and the encouragement and support she offered.

Do you have formal training or are you self-taught?

For sketching, drawing, and pastels, I’m largely self-taught.  Painting, and the use of color, really opened up for me when I took painting and design classes at Laguna Gloria in Austin (Austin Museum of Art was there at the time, but later moved), and Austin Community College.

Is your work done by hand and then scanned or do you work entirely on the computer?

I have done work by hand and then photographed or scanned them, and I also do some entirely on the computer.  Or, like the Cat and Teddy Bear card, sometimes a mixture of both.

What GCU artist(s) do you admire?

I love Mary Sparrow Smith and her wonderful Westies, especially her White Shadows sympathy card.  Rachel McNaughton’s watercolors are amazing.  Bill Martin creates abstracts with a superb use of color and brush strokes.  Ramelle Richardson has breathtaking Chinese New Year designs.  There are so many more!  GCU is incredibly lucky to have the array of talent it does on this site.

What is your favorite holiday and why?

Christmas is my favorite holiday.  It has all the cozy trappings and bright, pretty lights; Christmas carols and cards; trees and ornaments; and memories of Christmases past, like visiting the Tower of the Americas each Christmas Eve for a number of years in childhood.

What makes you a self-proclaimed crazy cat lady?

Well, I have it on good authority (husband, siblings, …) that I am a little crazy, and I am a cat lady (never met a cat I didn’t like, though I have met one or two who weren’t so fond of me).  Then there’s the barista who made a point of speaking to me when she needed a home for a cat she’d found and couldn’t adopt, as she was already one pet over the allowed number in her apartment.  Or the cashier at a grocery store who said she wanted to come back as one of my cats, because they were so spoiled.

What would we be surprised to learn about you?

Well, I was once called “the LUST lady.”  I was working at the Northwest Regional Office of the Washington State Department of Ecology in the Toxics Cleanup Program’s Leaking Underground Storage Tank unit 😉

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Christie Black’s Creations from the Heart

Please add any awards or contests you’ve won outside of GCU.

I really hadn’t entered many contests, but when I was in 7th grade, I won 2nd Place in a contest held by the city with my drawing of a historic building on our Main Street.

In 2001, my design was chosen in a logo contest for a program the city was doing.

I had many of my designs chosen as “Today’s Best Awards” on Zazzle.

Please add the URLs of your favorite cards in your storefront.

My three favorites for now are very recent cards.  I think they represent what I like to do as an artist.  Be silly, draw animals, inspire and motivate.

Please list any of your professional social media sites:

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Instagram

What was your inspiration for your winning card?  Please walk us through the process of how this card went from an idea to a greeting card.

My inspiration was that as a native Texan there is so much I love about Texas.  The word cloud pattern seen in the background covers the many things you will discover in Texas.  I have stacks and stacks of papers with my sketches on them and I just knew I had some longhorns and armadillos somewhere. I found the two that I liked and gave them sad faces, placed them in a patch of bluebonnets (because us Texans are known for stopping along the highways to snap a picture of ourselves in the bluebonnets!) and added the rustic TX flag in the background.  The inside of the card features some TX slang and the mention of friendship as this is the Friendship State!

You’ve taken 1st and 2nd place in prior GCU’s Design Challenges, what advice would you give to other artists who are hesitant to enter?

I say give it a go, you might be inspired to create something that is out of your element.  For someone who has a hard time coming up with ideas, this will give you some guidance.  Or,  like in my case, I was able to use ideas I already had but give them a purpose.

Clearly you are an animal lover, do you have pets and if so tell us about them and how they inspire your work?

 You would be right!  I have enjoyed pets for as long as I can remember … dogs, cats, birds, fish, ferrets, gerbils, hamster and guinea pig.  Today we have Tigger, our yellow tabby cat;  our Cocker Spaniel ,Sassie; our mouse, Mitzi and some fish.  I call Tigger my art buddy as he was usually sharing my chair as I worked on my drawings.  He can be found in a lot of my work.  Now at nearly 18 years old, his health is slowly deteriorating. A few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure if he would make it through the weekend so I quickly drew a fond memory of him as he lay on my desk beside me … that’s him in the card above with the waffle because he would attack you for a waffle!  The town I live in has the hippo as a mascot, so you will find lots of hippos in my works as well.

What sparked your interest in art? Did you start as a young child?

I always enjoyed being creative and was usually found writing and illustrating my own stories.  I had a grandmother that adored my drawings and was my inspiration to keep at it.  My husband has happily taken over that role.  I am rarely seen without paper and pencil; drawing is my happy addiction!

Do you have formal training or are you self-taught?

 Self-taught, I only took one year of art in high school.

Is your work done by hand and then scanned or do you work entirely on the computer?

 All of my older work was drawn and colored by hand and scanned.  These days, with my Wacom, I tend to scan in my sketches and do a lot of my coloring on the computer, but I enjoy both.

Have you ever/do you currently have a job other than as an artist?

I have a degree in electrical engineering (what was I thinking?) and I worked for Motorola for 10 years.  Chronic pain issues made it difficult to work a regular job, so after I had my first child I became a  stay-at-home mom.  When the internet came about, it opened the door for me to make money with my art.

What GCU artist(s) do you admire?

I really like Gerda Steiner, but I admire anyone who draws animals, or does mixed media and whimsical works!

What would we be surprised to learn about you?

Well, I live in a house full of dyslexics! It is kind of a topsy-turvy world.  Even though there are many struggles, I think the best thing about it is the creativity that flows through our family.   We’ll be working on book apps to produce the stories I have written and illustrated and the games my son has ideas for.  We do woodworking to produce my whimsical characters and mixed media art which we sell on Etsy and local fairs. My older daughter is really becoming a wonderful artist and my youngest daughter draws and has desires to go into the culinary arts. Art has proved to be a much needed outlet for all of us!

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