Hi First name / friends!

 

One of the best ways to increase your sales as an artist is to make sure that you're staying on top of upcoming trends. We've been talking a lot about trend tracking recently and have had #CreateWithCatCoq challenges following color trends like the Pantone color of the year and popular motifs like monstera plants. 

 

Different colors and motifs will go in and out of style, but there is a certain type of trend that you can always count on year after year – seasonal trends. 

 

Every year during certain seasons and holidays, artwork sales increase for the style of art that is in line with that season. For example, tropical motifs sell well in the summertime, and winter patterns sell well around the holidays. Planning to have some artwork in my portfolio to account for certain holidays and seasons is a key part of my strategy as a professional artist. 

For this week's #CreateWithCatCoq challenge we're going to play with seasonal trends. This challenge is inspired by the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday!

This week I'd love for you to create a design using Valentine's colors and motifs. Here are some examples of Valentine's Day pieces in my portfolio. These sell especially well on greeting cards this time of year! 

 

Since greeting cards are big sellers this time of year, I would recommend creating a seamless pattern for your Valentine's Day design. Patterns are so versatile and can work on a wide range of relevant products like cards and wrapping paper. 

If you're working with hand-drawn illustrations, check out my class, Modern Patterns from Sketch to Screen, to learn how to turn your hand-done work into a seamless pattern in Photoshop.

If Procreate is your jam, you can learn how to create a seamless pattern on your iPad in my class, Seamless Patterns in Procreate! 

 

I'm joining Mable Tan and two other artists for an open discussion about all things print on demand! You're invited to join our Print-on-Demand Masterclass on Thursday, Feb 10 at 4:00 pm EST. This is going to be such a fun and informative session, and I hope to see you there!

 

My Spain 2022 Retreat co-host and good friend, Logan Elliott, is giving away some free creative business coaching! He is offering five slots for 1-hour sessions (worth $300 each). These are exclusive to you on my email list only. Enter to win by filling out the 5 min survey here. He is also giving ALL survey participants some business feedback via email too!