Hey First name / friends!

 

Most of the prompts I send you are about what's hot right now. But there's a whole other category of motifs worth having in your portfolio, and those are the evergreen ones.

 

Evergreen motifs don't spike and crash the way trends do. They stay in demand year after year, which means buyers keep coming back looking for them. 

 

Butterflies are a great example of an evergreen motif. I've drawn and painted a TON of them over the years, and they keep getting picked up for licensing again and again. 🦋

This week, your challenge is to draw some butterflies!

 

Here are a few of mine to get your wheels turning. This watercolor illustration is one of my older pieces, and it keeps getting picked up for licensing years later.

And here's a much more recent one. Totally different style, totally different palette, same motif.

 

That's the thing I love about evergreen subjects. You can come back to them again and again as your style shifts, and there's still demand for the new version. My butterflies from years ago and my butterflies from this year look nothing alike, and both of them are valuable designs in my portfolio!

Butterflies are SO fun to make in Procreate because you can turn on the symmetry tool and only draw half the wing. The other half mirrors itself as you go, which means you get perfectly balanced wings and symmetrical details without a bunch of extra work. 

 

I wrote a whole blog post walking through the entire process! 

Evergreen motifs are everywhere, so the thing that makes yours stand out is how you bring your unique style to it.

 

One of my students, Maggie, did exactly that with her recent butterfly collection.

 

She took a classic monarch and pulled it into spooky season with spiderwebs, a Halloween palette, and a checkerboard print mixed in. It's such a smart move because Halloween has gotten huge in recent years, and stores are stocking their spooky shelves earlier and earlier. (I'm talking August at this point!) Which means art directors are shopping for that artwork way ahead of the season. Gorgeous work, Maggie!! 🖤

 

 

Now it's your turn! Have fun with your butterfly prompt this week!

 

To make sure I'm able to see and share your work, use the hashtag #CreateWithCatCoq and tag me @catcoq in the actual photo so I can see what you make! I can't wait to see your take on this prompt! ✨

 

Here are a few of the amazing submissions from our last challenge!

 

Make sure to click on the photos to see each artist on Instagram and give them some love! When we help each other grow, we all rise : )

Have a fabulous week!