{"id":3350,"date":"2017-03-21T10:04:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T17:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greetingcarduniverse.com\/blog\/?p=3350"},"modified":"2025-02-03T15:48:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:48:38","slug":"february-design-challenge-winner-michelle-lanoue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greetingcarduniverse.com\/blog\/february-design-challenge-winner-michelle-lanoue\/","title":{"rendered":"February Design Challenge Winner — Michelle Lanoue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>GCU February Challenge Winner Michelle Lanoue<\/a><\/p>\n

Please list any awards or contests you\u2019ve won outside of GCU. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was thrilled to have my children’s books published a few years ago after going the self-publishing route. But sadly, the publisher, Crafty Canuck, closed shop. \u00a0I am back to self-publishing although I have been putting more energy into my GCU greeting cards as of lately.\u00a0 I am always on the lookout for another publisher.\u00a0You just never know! This is a page from my book, The Dinosaur and Ladybug in Heels Christmas Nativity Story. I have a few more in the series and a few different\u00a0books other than the series. I have also illustrated a few children’s books for other authors.<\/p>\n

Please list the URLs of your 3 favorite cards in your storefront and why they are your favorites.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I think Christmas cards have always been my favorite card to illustrate. I have such wonderful memories of my children and Christmas, plus my own childhood memories of Christmas. So, this card, Peace to all with Santa at the mailbox, is a bit of whimsy, along with realistic. It shows a lot of the style I love to paint with. A lot of color and texture. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Another card which I would pick would be Father’s Day card, boy fishing on beach.\u00a0 This card was inspired by my grandson:) \u00a0I actually get a lot of inspiration from my two grandchildren.\u00a0 They are the ones who inspired me to write the children’s books I have written and illustrated.<\/p>\n

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This card was all about color.\u00a0 This card was sketched in color pencil and then finished on the computer. Again, whimsy with color and a bit of realistic style.<\/p>\n

Please list any of your professional social media sites.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Amazon Author Central<\/a> site shows all the children’s books I have written\u00a0and illustrated.<\/span> I also have a web site<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

What were your inspirations for both of your winning cards? Please walk us through the process of how these cards went from ideas to greeting cards.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Christmas Season’s Greetings card was inspired by the Christmas song Walking in a Winter Wonderland.\u00a0 I was humming the lyrics\u00a0to myself \u00a0and a lot of it came out onto paper.\u00a0 Like I said, Christmas cards are my favorite:) <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>The second card was more about whimsical and cute!\u00a0I was aiming for an\u00a0Easter card without the traditional Easter symbols such as eggs, bunnies, etc.\u00a0I added tulips and a\u00a0white picket fence for a spring like Easter\u00a0feel along\u00a0with the\u00a0mainly green and pink colors.<\/p>\n

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What sparked your interest in art? Did you start as a young child?<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh yes.\u00a0I was drawing from an early age.\u00a0I loved doodling and portraits with pencils and charcoal mostly in the beginning stages of my artwork.\u00a0I progressed to painting with mostly acrylic paints during my teen years. I didn’t paint too much while raising a family but now that my children are all adults I am back to illustrating. I went on to buy a computer art program within the last 4 years and now 99 percent of my work is painted digitally.<\/p>\n

Do you have formal training or are you self-taught?<\/span><\/p>\n

I did\u00a0take a few college courses but did not major in art.\u00a0 A lot of my training was self-taught.<\/p>\n

Is your work done by hand and then scanned or do you work entirely on the computer?<\/span><\/p>\n

As I mentioned before, most of my work is\u00a0now done digitally. I find for the artist without a lot of time, digital is the way to go.\u00a0I will be painting along and discover I don’t like what I have done and it isn’t much of a problem because I can delete it and start fresh.<\/p>\n

Have you ever\/do you currently have a job other than as an artist?<\/span><\/p>\n

I do. I actually work two jobs.\u00a0I work at a local furniture shop as a sales aid coordinator and then as a \u00a0waitress at a local restaurant.\u00a0I always look forward to coming home as to get creative and paint!<\/p>\n

What GCU artist(s) do you admire?<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh gosh, there are so many.\u00a0 I must admit I first fell in love with Carol Kearns<\/a> and Christie Black<\/a>.\u00a0When I first started on GCU I thought to myself that I wanted my cards to look as professional as theirs\u00a0did.<\/p>\n

I was in the midst of learning my\u00a0digital art program and although I am still learning, I have become more comfortable and am\u00a0able to create cards much more proficiently.<\/p>\n

Looking at your storefront, all of your designs incorporate such lovely colors.\u00a0 Can you share how you choose your color palettes?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well thank you for that.\u00a0I guess when I look at a color, I don’t see a flat color.\u00a0To me there are many blended colors in that \u00a0one\u00a0color.\u00a0I think that is where learning to paint with acrylics paid off.\u00a0To make a desired color, I would incorporate many colors to bring life to the painting. I am still looking at different textures and digital paintbrushes to get desired effects with my computer program\u00a0to simulate\u00a0the lovely colors one can get on paper like with acrylic.<\/p>\n

What would we be surprised to learn about you? <\/span><\/p>\n

I am actually quite shy!\u00a0 Once I warm up I am fine:)<\/p>\n

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GCU February Challenge Winner Michelle Lanoue Please list any awards or contests you\u2019ve won outside of GCU. I was thrilled to have my children’s books published a few years ago after going the self-publishing route. But sadly, the publisher, Crafty Canuck, closed shop. \u00a0I am back to self-publishing although I have been putting more energy … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design-challenge"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t