LittleLion Studio » heart

Simplicity Is Key

LittleLion — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:56:48 +0000

One concern which constantly permeates my illustrations is usability. Creating images from a blank digital canvas can be liberating and all but if your goal is to reach the microstock audience, you’d better keep your work useful. Unless of course, you are planning on selling your work through art galleries, but that is a totally different ball game…

Sometimes usability can play as the enemy though, since it trims off all sorts of initiative when you find yourself in one of those days with your creative juices flowing all over. The result: tunnel vision.

In an effort to balancing things out, I discovered that "simplicity" does quite alright for me. So here is the outcome of some moderately fun time playing with the notion of flat ripple effects. I hope you like and enjoy using them. :)

Valentine’s Soap Opera

LittleLion — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:30:13 +0000

Valentines is upon us once again and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you a little someone who helped me step into the world of commercial vector art illustration professionally… ladies and gentleman, I give you Gertrude!

Some of LittleLion Studio’s "old followers" might recognize her from times past when I used to believe that my chances of succeeding in microstock and actually make a living out of it were as thin as air, bravely she hung in there adorning my 10 image long portfolio of mostly embarrassing work and helped prove me wrong, licensing herself over and over again to many corners of this world. Since then I became very protective and supportive of her as well in her close-to-obsessive pursuit of prince charm. What a lonely girl she used to be…

But those days are over! As you can attest from the image right above, she is now wearing a tiny crown, symbol of love which has finally come her way (most of us would go for an engagement ring, but that girl surely has personality!). She found her prince and became a little princess herself.

With love floating inside and around her these days and considering she has always been a very creative and crafty doll, I could have no one better than Gertrude to invite to help me bring to you the "2010 Valentine Graphic Set Collection"!

As opposed to most Type A personality Lions, Gertrude is the humblest of creatures, so upon invitation to work on "Valentines" with me, she immediately set to enroll at one of Monica Dengo’s Calligraphy courses because she had some pretty fancy ideas of her own she wished to implement but felt short skilled to accomplish them properly. Well, I don’t know about you but as partial as I may sound, I think she did quite all right thank you very much!

From the very beginning she brought an idea to the table which I simply couldn’t resist: develop our "Valentines Collection" inspired by vintage soap labels. Yes, you read it right: vintage soap labels! Could a vintage chick come up with something more vintage than this? Could I ever say no to a frog-kisser-turned-into-princess? In any case, I loved the results.

Anyway, I apologize for her not showing up to collect compliments herself (Gertrude can be surprisingly shy), nevertheless she asked me to tell you all to reflect on her own life experience and this on the coming Valentine’s Day *not* to do like the song suggests "if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with", "by all means, no", she said! Know yourself, love yourself and eventually the one you love will be the one you’re with!

Available at:

ShutterStock
iStockPhoto
Dreamstime
StockXpert

A Heart And A Bird

LittleLion — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:33:57 +0000

Creating microstock art is, as Mr. Gump would say, "like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re gonna get". Translating this philosophy to the microstock market means that I never know where my designs end up being used. The rule is not having a clue whatsoever to an image’s final destination and even worse, not knowing if their use abides by the license terms they were purchased under. But this can of worms is a better fit for a different post under the "All Business" category.

Back on track, I remember the very first time I bumped into one of my images in commercial use. It was a couple of years ago, just another

boring day when I took the subway and sitting across from me was this gentleman flipping through some newspaper, nothing out of the ordinary, until he raised his arms revealing this huge heart in the back page, causing me an inner “wow” and a grin. It was “Heart”, one of my first images, a solid seller with close to a thousand licenses under its belt.

Sometimes a client or a fan sends me a note, a picture or a link to some product or web site using my images (which I am always thankful for so keep them coming!) but after a while in this market, one eventually starts seeing one’s images around ever so often.

One of the most memorable of such cases took place in late 2008 while browsing online when I came across a web page for the then recently released home fragrance diffuser from Urban Outfitters whose

advertising campaign and packaginghad been fully built on my “Japanese Theater III” graphic set. I still remember the inner wow and these are all mine feeling… I guess it was partly because I have always been a fan of “Anthropologie”, the store, and knowing Urban Outfitters was branch of the first was a bonus.

As usual, things change and sometimes bumping into my stuff on the streets or online is not always a pleasant experience, but that comes with the territory, I guess.

Anyway, I selected a few images for your viewing pleasure. Click on them for an enlarged version. In the meantime, keep sending me information about places, products and projects you found my images on. I very much appreciate it.