Ushering In A New Era Of Napkin Art Studio...

Over the last couple of years, the studio has transitioning into a more focused studio space. It's been a challenge, because I have so many artistic interests. I want to do everything, but it is not possible. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day in which to create, and as it has been said to me numerous times, 'you can't give only 10% here and there and expect 100% results.' It's too bad that math doesn't work out.

When I started Napkin Art, it was really a catch-all for everything creative I wanted to do. Now, I've separated out the fine art and graphic design portions into two separate entities. So far, it seems to be working out ok.

Life will often get in the way of trying to be successful and artistically satisfied, which poses its own challenges. I've worked hard not to let distractions distract me too much. I'm doing my best to keep some focus on what Napkin Art is really about, and lately, I've made a challenge to design and produce at least one new project every week. It may sound like a piece of cake, but like I said, there are only so many hours in the day.

One of the latest weekly quickie projects is this custom poster for Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" single. I'm a sucker for classic gig poster designs from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as trade publication advertisements from that era. I combined the best of both worlds for this custom poster, and love how it turned out. The poster measures 12 x 18 inches, and printed on French Parcel Wrap Kraft-tone paper for that vintage poster look (my favorite paper company!) I've started designing a few other posters like this to entertain myself, mostly, but to also keep the spirit of these classic poster designs alive. Not many folks (that I'm aware of) design and screen print posters like this, so preserving the style and process of printing these types of posters is important to me. There are a lot of great new school poster artists working these days, but my heart belongs to the classics.

You might find some of these short-run posters available in the Etsy shop soon, or even at an arts festival sometime in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled. Hopefully, all these quickie projects pile up enough to get them into a brick-n-mortar establishment down the road. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to next week's quickie project, whatever it may be.