This is another installment in the Lucrative Wall Art series, compiled to help you produce consumer art that is in demand. In this instructional video, I will show you a few more strategies to help you continue developing your personal style. In this class, Rex Ray Inspired Design Using Illustrator and Photoshop, I will give you plenty of ideas to improve your originality. We will focus specifically on the distinctive and original style of Rex Ray. I will show you plenty of examples of his work and break it down into digestible chunks. Developing a personal style is important, so I give you all my insider tips on that subject.

In the mass market of wall art, adapting your style to the latest trends is essential to staying relevant and on-trend with your work. I recommend you watch the Lucrative Trends classes in conjunction with taking this class. I explain the importance of being in the know about the creative developments in the retail world, as this directly affects consumer choice of products, colors and styles. My classes help you identify the trends in modern new visual art work and will help you adapt your style to what is on demand. You are shown the skillset of research and development so you can do this for yourself, moving forward. This class teaches a specific style, emulating the work of Rex Ray and Claire B. Cotts. These artists consistently use texture to add interest to their art, and we will be inspired to create work which does the same.

If you are an artist who would love to transition from service oriented graphic design and selling only through your POD sites, your personal retail store, your e-commerce site, galleries and art and craft shows, this is the class for you. Learn how to produce the type of work licensing agents are looking for. Give them the type of art they need so you can start profiting from the sale of your art being sold on a mass scale.

My hope is that after seeing my workflow and explanations, you can better grasp how to plan the art pieces you will be creating for creating collections of mass-appeal large wall art.

Are you prepared to create artwork and paintings that will be licensed consistently? That’s completely viable once you’re able to predict, research, and then produce a collection as outlined in this class. Developing a style is key! It has worked for me, so why not you?

The key concepts I will include:

Approaches you can take in your creative work moving forward
Discussion of workflow techniques to sustain mass production
Trade secrets and an inside look at the industry
Creation of textures to use in our composition
Blending Modes in Photoshop

This is a relevant course for you to take no matter what your purpose for the artwork you create. Let’s dig in, so you can be benefitting from your knowledge now in your art practice!

Intro to Layered Brushes and Motifs for Pattern Making in Illustrator

This short intro will give you an overview of the class and I will explain why Rex Ray has been such an inspiration to me.

Lesson 1: Prepping Textures for Layered Collage Fills

In this instructional overview lesson, I will show you how I am inspired to create layered motifs. I will show you some of Rex Ray's work and explain what we are trying to achieve.

Lesson 2: Prepping Textures for Collage Fills

Here we will take a close look at some examples by Rex Ray and Claire B.Cotts and we will use Photoshop brushes to create some textures. I will talk about brush settings that help us emulate the textural look of their work, and will continue to share any other wisdom I can muster up!

Lesson 3: Gathering Additional Collage

In this lesson, we will look at three different methods for collecting usable textures for your layered collage artwork. I will show you plenty of examples of my own natural media work.

Lesson 4: Creating Vector Shapes for Masks

Within this lesson, we will look at simple motif ideas drawn in the classic Rex Ray style and I will explain quick methods I use. We will also talk about the planning process.

Lesson 5: Setting Up the Photoshop Document

Building the composition is easy with the use of the techniques I will show you using group layers with masks.

Lesson 6: Composition and Design Strategies

In this lesson, we will talk about the layer and group masks and I will explain the difference between raster and vector masks, and the limitations of both. You will see me import several different shapes and paste in textures. We slowly start to create our composition.

Lesson 7: Brush Settings to Add Variety

Here we will experiment with brushes to create texture layers. I will give you a quick look at Corel Painter Natural Media Brushes and explain why I still use it despite using Photoshop as my main raster-based program. I will explain how to deal with reaching the Photoshop saving limit of 2 gb.

Lesson 8: Layer Adjustments and Color Schemes

Here we will experiment more with the color by using layer adjustments and more work with color themes from color.adobe.com. I will explain how to ensure an adjustment affects only the layer we want it to.

Lesson 9: Final Touches and Originality

In this lesson, we will look at a few examples to help you start thinking of methods to be original. I will also show you how to roughen edges and I will show you how to add much more texture.

Lesson 10 Wrap Up, Wisdom and Next Steps

This video is the conclusion and wrap up of my instructional tutorial on how to produce a layered and textural Rex Ray inspired wall art design. Hope you enjoyed the class!

Concepts covered:

Concepts covered include but are not limited to wall art and canvas consumer wall art, trend hunting, trend spotting, influence and inspiration of other artists, Rex Ray, Claire.B.Cotts, color trends, style trends, home décor wall art styles, the importance of color in home décor, mockups, marketing your art, creating shapes in Illustrator, creating motifs in Illustrator, Illustrator blob brush and eraser tool, Photoshop layers, Photoshop texture, Photoshop layer masks and vector masks, using natural media for collage, using an action to add a textural edge, quick masks, Corel Painter, Photoshop blending modes, large commercial paintings, mass market art, mass market appeal, fulfilling home décor market, marketing for your art business.

You will get the bonus of…

an hour and 14 minutes of direction from an instructor who has been in the graphic design business and certified education for over 40 years
knowledge of multiple ways to solve each design challenge
handouts explaining key concepts
a list of helpful online sites to further your education into creating on-demand wall art

Lenka Monson

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