Coffee with Julie- 1-4-21

2021 arrived and passed and today we are all resuming our daily lives after the holidays. My shop sales came to a screeching halt on December 9th it seems and since this is my first real year of sustained growth and revenue from my online sales I don't have previous history to judge if that is normal.  I think it makes sense that all the online Christmas season shipping had been done and so I took the time to begin working on my new designs for the upcoming year.  

I received my new iPad Pro 12.9" and my first ever Apple Pencil around that same time as my sales slowed down so I stayed very busy learning how to use this amazing new tool.  I downloaded the app Procreate (seems anyone serious about drawing digitally on the iPad chooses that drawing app) and I have been having a blast ever since.  

I'm currently working on my second "Farmhouse Whimsy Coloring Book" and hope to have it published and available on Amazon by the end of the month.  I'm subtitling this one "All Critters Big and Small" so I can include my mice, bunnies and bees in the book too.  This project has me super excited because I LOVE the passive income that I think self publishing on KDP (Amazon) will eventually bring. 

My first book wasn't published until November 1, 2020 and so for those 2 months of 2020 my sales break down as follows:

Farmhouse Whimsy Coloring Book- A Coloring Book to Make You Smile - 62 copies  COLORING BOOK ON AMAZON

2021 Farmhouse Weekly/Monthly Planner- 21 copies  2021 PLANNER ON AMAZON

Little Farmers on the Go- A Traveling Game Book- 13 copies TRAVEL GAME BOOK ON AMAZON

Branding your business is so important and something that I really want to do this year is wrap most of my orders in cute wrapping paper.  Eventually, I will design my own and have that printed for me but in the mean time, I decided that I would use rubber stamps and both brown (the rolls that painters use to tape off windows) and a whole case of white packaging newsprint paper that someone gave me.  The beauty of having all your designs in a farmhouse/country theme is that you can easily upcycle items around your house and it adds to the homemade primitive charm of the farmhouse motif.  

I ordered this "Tim Holtz Collection- Funny Farm" cling stamps and a few colors of ink pads to get started.  We found some wood to glue the stamps too and Wallaaaah! I have cute farm themed wrapping paper with minimal investment.  I can't wait to start wrapping all my 2021 sales with them.

I will be sharing more about this in detail on my next VLOG- YOU HEARD ME CORRECTLY!  I have started my own YouTube Channel where I show off my new artwork or studio tips.  This will be expanding in 2021 and I'm super excited about growing this new social media connection.  Here is the link to my channel so please consider subscribing!  Julie Townsend Studio - YOUTUBE

Coloring Anyone?

 Who likes to use coloring books?

I've decided that I'm going to work on publishing a coloring book that will contain primarily my "Wash Tub" series along with other farm animal related drawings that I have done. I'm kind of excited and nervous about this project but I have over 32 pages designed and now I just need to scan them and make edits to each page. Then I have to work on designing the front and back cover along with the first few inside pages. This is going to keep me pretty busy. I would LOVE to have this book ready to sell on my Etsy Shop by Christmas but we shall see about that.

I think I also want to include small thumbnails of my completed artwork so that there is a coloring suggestion for how the finished page could look. My thoughts here are that while the images are simple enough for children to use, that with proper attention to shading and techniques, these drawings can be enjoyed by adults. Does that make sense?

The BIG learning curve will come to play when I work on getting the book published. I'm going to research the KDP self publishing arm of Amazon. I was listing this week to "Coffee with Ronnie" of Ronnie Walter Biz Coach for Creatives this week and that was one of her topics. It was like she was talking straight to me. I have tons of drawings already so for me it is really a matter of getting them edited and organized. I'm hoping she decides to offer a small Zoom class just to help those interested in see their book published. I've already sent her a message to add me to her list.

Anyone already have experience with publishing a coloring book? I'm sure this will be a blogging topic of mine for quite sometime. I would LOVE to hear your opinions and suggestions.

Coloring Isn't Just for Kids Anymore

I know that the newest rage I hear these days are adult coloring books.  Who would have thought that there would actually be a market for advanced coloring books geared towards adults but I can say that I it completely understand the benefits that they offer.

I have been doing a great deal of sketching myself and often grab these blank cards to draw on it. This practice has lately become an evening activity that I really look forward to.  I find it relaxing spending a few hours just having fun playing with colors and lines.  Getting wild with my watercolors, colored pencils and my new set of Tombow brush pens.  

I have no idea if I will actually sell many of them, but besides it being excellent practice for me as artist, I sure won't have to buy any cards myself for quite sometime. 

3-D card that I made by attaching the poppy flower sketch to the card

A pile of completed cards that I have made in the past few weeks.

A couple more colorful examples