We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Melendez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

About 4-5 years ago, my husband gave me a stylus to use on my laptop since he loves giving me techy gifts and seeing what I do with them. At the time I was just playing around and I stumbled across a few drawing apps and fell in love with all of the creative effects. Once I started posting on Instagram and meeting other digital artists I switched to an iPad and using Procreate. Since this is such a popular program, there are so many videos and other resources to learn from online. Everything I know came from either one of these videos or just taking the time to play with the app on my own time.

I think everyone learns at their own pace and if you want to really master a topic or skill then you need to work at that pace and enjoy the journey. I know I am still learning! I literally took Thanksgiving week to sit down and learn new skills and I didn’t even do any artwork or work on my shops. I think making time to learn is critical. I don’t think there is a way to speed up the process.

The most critical skill for any artist includes making the time to practice and to just play and have fun. It might sound cliche, but if you make the time for your craft you will see improvement. I am not the same artist I was 5 years ago and I know I won’t be the same artist 5 years from now. From a more practical perspective, for any visual artist who is interested in digital art I say look for inspiration everywhere you can. Instagram, Pinterest, even magazines or just looking at package design can provide inspiration. There is a wealth of knowledge online for learning digital art programs.

Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am still a very new artist on the scene, but I have always been an artistic person and enjoyed drawing and painting since I was very young. Once I felt I had a solid mastery of my digital art skills I thought it might be time to show all of my creations to the world! It has always been a dream of mine to design paper goods, stationary, home decor, etc. and when I realized how easy it was to work with a Print on Demand service, I realized the dream was closer to reality than I first thought! Most of my artwork features food and flowers, but I love finding a challenge in new subjects and I am dipping my toe in the world of surface pattern design. I love the puzzle aspect of creating these designs.

What sets my art apart from others is that I really take my time to think through my designs and look at them from a potential customers point of view. I think some artists just crank out work because they think they need to ‘feed the algorithm’ and I would rather make sure I am completely happy with my designs before I send them out into the world. Of course, I do feel like this may set me back since I can’t update my shops as often as others might, but when I do post a new work, I really want my customers to know that they are made with so much love and attention and I am ecstatic to see how my art is used in your home and your life.

Stylistically, what sets me apart from other artists is my use of bold colors and clean lines with vintage effects. I have been playing with some more painterly brushes and charcoal-type effects which have been a lot of fun. I love adding grunge and vintage effects to my art which really gives a fun twist to the sharp lines of the base image. I like to create series of artworks around a theme so I can fully explore the subject before moving on to the next one. I have a vintage cocktail series I am doing for fun right now. My style is all over the place because I keep learning and playing, but that is the effect I keep coming back to.

I’m really proud of myself for what I have accomplished in a short period of time. I can only commit so much time to my art and business because of family commitments so when I feel frustrated that I am not progressing or I have the dreaded Imposter Syndrome, I look at everything around me that I have done and focus on the future.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first started my business, I really wanted to just do spooky art. I absolutely love anything with a creepy edge to it and things like classic movie monsters, dark academia, etc. When I started I had a shop full of ‘fun creepies’ and I thought that was the ticket —there was no way I could fail.

However, about 2-3 months in, all of my shop visitors were dropping off and then when I reached out to local shop owners about carrying my work there was just crickets. My social media was fluctuating up and down as followers came and left too. As time went on I was also starting to feel trapped in a very tiny niche and I started to miss drawing other subjects. It was around this time I came across the quote ‘Kill Your Darlings’; This saying is more for creative writers, but it means you may love something you created, but if it is not doing anything for you or your work it might be time to let it go. I think it applies to visual art too. As an artist, I want to progress both technically and I want to grow my business.

About 4 months into the business I did a complete branding change and started opening myself up to new subjects and I am much happier now than I was before.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

There is so much you can do. Number one is buy from your favorite small businesses/creatives and number two is when you love something, you need to tell EVERYONE how much you love that creative. Support the hell out of their social media, like, share, comment, tell everyone where you got that cool thing—word of mouth is essential. Someone in a small town in Germany bought one of my designs on a t-shirt and then a month later I had a bunch of orders for the same design from the same town. That means the world to me!

Shopping from big box stores can be so easy when we are busy, but I think there are ways to sneak some artist support in too. I see a lot of larger chains—Target comes to mind—that offer products with the artists name right on the label. I see a lot of it with wrapping paper as we get closer to the holidays. If you love that design, google that artist and let them know. Buy some of their work directly.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://sarahmelendez-art.square.site/
• Instagram: @sarahmelendez_art
• Other: http://ko-fi.com/sarahmelendezart