Work hard or work smart?


Original black and white drawing of a naive reindeer on the make, it can be used as wall or Christmas tree decoration

Today I made this reindeer,  I was craving a painting of eyes and some critter and as often times I could not resist a little paper cutting.

This is partially inspired by a Polish tradition in where they hang up paper cut outs on the walls, from a string.
When I made my first wall paper cut I found it hard to hang it from the string so I added a cute paper tag at the end of the string, that’s what the birdie on the left is for.

The brown sideways eyes are of my “Enana amarilla” (yellow dwarf) she’s my only framed drawing and I use her glass for a paper-cutting board!

I hope soon to get my hands on one of those awesome self-healing mats.

Which brings me back to what I was thinking right when I finished making this:

How to make this practical or marketable?
As much as I wish I could throw myself completely into my every whim I have to make a living first.

So in terms of marketing and trends I  thought of Christmas tree ornaments that I would like to have myself,  adding 2 strings or ribbons, instead of one to tie the reindeer from a bow would look much nicer.
That’s why now there are a birdie and heart in the photo below, one for the end of each string..

I also began wondering how many of these I would need  and want and how much I could pay to get a bunch of them, (or similar items) and I’m thinking it may be wiser to print giclées and adapt them as an ornament because making each individually would send the price through the roof. At least for me.

Black and white original drawing of a whimsical reindeer with paper cut out details set over a red background. It has two small ink drawings of a bird and a heart to glue to the ends of the strings to hang the reindeer with

I want to make these and others in every possible color. But first I have to find out how and where to print them and how much that costs,
Sometimes I really wish I had someone to help me out with advice on this matter. This morning I was thinking I should only sell prints at my shop! Then it would be more affordable and I would pretty much always be stocked!
If you’ve been through this I would really appreciate your input :)


2 responses to “Work hard or work smart?”

  1. This is so great! I know what you mean about needing advice about certain things. Unfortunately I know nothing about prints of this matter and have been looking for information myself.

    I love your design here though & I agree it would look great for Xmas!

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