My Mentors: Stephanie Fizer Coleman

It was a break through for me when I finally decided to take some art classes.  Other than watching tutorials online I haven't had art since grade school.  The first class I took was Stephanie Fizer Coleman's Inspired Doodles class.    I learned so much about how to use my illustrations to create patterns with Photoshop.  Stephanie opened the world of online learning for me and helped me to be brave enough to try.

Source: etsy.com via Tammy on Pinterest

Stephanie has agreed to be my first ever Guest Blogger.  Here are her answers to my questions:

1. What/who inspires you?

Although it might seem like a silly answer, it seems that these days pretty much anything can spark a bit of inspiration for me. Inspiration tends to strike me most often when my mind is sort of wandering--usually when I'm doing some "mindless" sort of task like washing the dishes or drying my hair, which inevitably leads to me dropping whatever I'm doing and running off to grab my idea journal to scribble some notes/sketches.

In general, I'm inspired by vintage children's illustration, the awesomeness of nature, music and fairytales. I'm an avid reader and usually have 3 or 4 books that I'm reading at any given time. As I’m reading, I'm usually dreaming up the scenes and characters in the story which I'll usually scribble out in my sketchbook at some point.

2. What are some resources you find helpful in your artistic journey?

Again, books. I have always and still do read every book I can get my hands out about art, art history, art techniques, etc. I'm interested in learning about art styles and techniques even when they don’t necessarily mesh with my style. Curiosity  I've found, is the best teacher.

3. How have you learned to express or accept yourself whole heartedly?

It took me several years to really embrace my artistic identity, to be brave enough to say "hey, I'm an artist!" When I really started to put myself and my work "out there" for other people to see and started getting good feedback, selling work, getting freelance jobs, I finally started to feel like "hey, I'm an artist and I'm actually pretty good at this stuff." And with a little bit of success came the ability to be more confident in my work and the good habit of wasting less time comparing myself to other artists.

4. How can someone sign up for your course?

Well right now, through my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/112864566/inspired-doodles-an-self-paced-online I'm in the process of revamping my website so my usual registration page is under construction at the moment. Inspired Doodles will only be available through the end of February 2013. As my freelance schedule has gotten more intense, it's been difficult for me to keep up with teaching classes online so I'm whittling things down a bit in the new year. I am working on some new mini-workshops though, more in the how-to-draw specific things sort of vein. These will be available early next year, delivered via email as week long workshops. I'll be posting more info on those on my blog soon!