I needed a win

I won a thing last week. Sort of. Well, I’m a finalist for a thing.

I entered an art contest a month-ish ago through the South Street District on a whim. I submitted some work and found out I was chosen as a paid finalist to create a banner celebrating South Street, a Philly landmark lined with vintage shops and restaurants. According to the committee 615 people entered and they are choosing 15-20 artists and I was chosen as a finalist. I have had some arty disappointments lately, mostly sending out work and hearing crickets or no thanks. So it was nice to get a little boost of recognition. I will keep you posted on the process, I should know in early April how everything pans out. Thanks for following along!

In the mean time I wanted to share some artwork I’ve been making and loving lately. Di Ujdi is one of my favorite Skillshare teachers, and I loooooved this class called Let’s Play with Flowers. We started by sketching in a sketchbook, then filling in a grid with our illustrations, and then brought them into illustrator to clean them up. Finally, I added some textures in photoshop. It was delightful. Here are a couple things I made, and techniques I can now apply to my South Street banner.

Flower sketches:

Grid Layout:

Final Illustration:

Gahhhh it was so much fun.

Here’s one more I made, this time I wanted to make a poster with parakeets and Australian flowers.

Here are some sketches:

The grid layout:

The final illustration:

Do you see how this was just the most perfect class to take before designing a banner?! I can’t wait to show you my goofy ideas and let you know if they pick me.

In the mean time here are some Things Worth Sharing:

• I picked up the latest Thursday Murder Club book from the library and can’t wait to revisit my favorite characters.

• We tried this magnatile + ironing board hack and had a family nerf target battle.

• Weaverbirds blow my mind.

• Martha Rich merch at the Philly art museum. And a little video about her work.

• Helen C Stark’s 25 Things to do in Spring

• Bircher Muesli seems up my alley.

• Filling Elliott’s easter basket with new socks, nerf darts, peanut butter cinnamon roll m&ms (which sounds gross to me but the kids rave), mechanical pencils. Maybe a marbling kit for us to work on together.

Ok, that’s it. Thank you for being here! It means the world to me!!!!! And big thanks to all the folks that bought t-shirts last week! You rule. Send me pics!

My Shop: phillycornerstore.bigcartel.com

I wrote a book!

E-mail: halestormenator@gmail.com

Instagram: haleyharmondraws

Portfolio: haleyharmon.com

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