Hey First name / friends!

 

It's Thanksgiving week for my friends in the U.S. and we are officially heading into the holiday season! I'll be spending Thanksgiving eating my favorite spicy larb gai and mango sticky rice here in Thailand, but I'm still feeling all the festive vibes. 🤗

 

 

Wherever you are in the world, I hope you are having a great start to your holiday season. I'm so thankful for this incredible community of artists. You all inspire me every day with your creativity and passion!

 

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought it would be fun to do a hand-lettering challenge! Create a hand-lettered piece either about something you're grateful for or with a general Thanksgiving theme. 

 

 

Bonus tip: This is a great way to tie a bunch of fall motifs together into a more holiday-focused collection. Words like ‘gather’, ‘harvest’, and ‘thankful’ or quotes about fall and gratitude can all bring a collection together!

 

Hand-lettering is always a win to add to your portfolio. Potential licensees love to see it because lettered artwork tends to sell really well!

 

So this challenge is about more than just expressing yourself. It's also a strategic move to help you build a strong portfolio!

 

Want to learn more about hand lettering? Check out this blog post about how to create hand-lettered illustrations in Procreate step by step!

 

Here's how I added lettering like this in one of my autumn collections!

And I've also seen lots of my students use this strategy to create amazing fall collections, too!

Here's an example from my student, Karina! I love how she took her squirrel hero illustration and repurposed it into a playful pattern. Karina also used her signature neutral palette for this collection which just makes it undeniable “her!” (One of my favorite little details in her collection are the squirrels popping their heads & tails out of the pumpkins. 😅 It's super cute & adds so much character to this collection!! )

 

I'd highly recommend checking out more of Karina's art on Instagram here to see how she keeps things cohesive using color. Fabulous job!!

Here are a few of the submissions from last week's coffee & tea challenge! Make sure to check out these artists and give them some love!

 

If you want to be featured in this newsletter and on my Instagram stories, make sure to use the hashtag #CreateWithCatCoq on Instagram and tag @catcoq in the actual photo you post so I can find your work! 

Have a fabulous week!