Our mega list of favorite Skillshare classes!

favorite online art classes via besotted

We recently found out that we are ‘teachers to watch’ on Skillshare, a huge honor considering how many wonderful teachers and the volume of classes there are available at Skillshare. We know how overwhelming it can be so we have created a list of some of our very favorite Skillshare classes broken down into accessible categories! It’s amazing the talent that has pooled together in the Skillshare community, you truly get to learn from individuals that are at the top of their game in their industry, many are also blessed with the ability to easily translate their knowledge into consumable bites. I don’t think I would be this far in my drawing endeavors without having taken some of these classes that really gave me many ‘light bulb’ moments!
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Five for Friday

sketch cleaned with lettering Rx via besotted

I actually forgot to post my Five for Friday, because I had a four year old field trip hangover, or something like that. It was my daughter’s first big field trip and although it was  a total blast, my mind obviously turned to mush and forgot I had a blog, it happens. So I am here on Saturday giving you a Five for Friday, because that’s how I’ll have to roll for another 14 years, k?

I. I have to mention we are doing a giveaway for Lettering Rx, it was created to quickly clean and digitize you lettering but we have found it works equally well on line drawings (just make sure your lines are black and not too thin). This is my attempt at an Ellsworth/Michelle type botanical. I am actually pretty happy with the results! I used a 4b Derwent sketching pencil, the 4b being Michelle’s preference. The tip is nice and soft.

II. Have you read any good books lately? I used to only read biographies, but once Michelle and I started writing our book, I have fallen head over heels with reading books that have a magical element. The upside is most of them are for a younger reader so I can consume them pretty quickly. I just finished the ‘The Secret Horses of Briar Manor’, where a little girl during World War II sees flying horses in the mirrors, or does she?  The pick this week for my daughter is one of my favorite children’s illustrators who has also penned this book. It’s called ‘Colette’s Lost Pet’ featuring a giant parakeet named after Marie Antoinette? Totally in.

III. I made a goal to improve my skin this year, one of the ways that I am doing that is exercising. I found this instructor on line, and although visually it’s pretty much the antithesis of my aesthetic Cassey’s incredible positive energy keeps me coming back for more. I love that I can choose to do exercises in very small time increments and often times will convince myself to do just one 8 minute workout and end up doing much more. My face has a glow and bonus my arms are getting some definition.

IV. I received a Le Labo lip balm for Christmas and I think it just may be my favorite lip balm of all time (and I am seriously a lip balm fanatic). It’s not greasy, almost creamy, doesn’t taste like anything and gives the perfect amount of sheen. The packaging is pretty good looking too.

V. It’s still freezing in the Pacific Northwest, I am so happy that Michelle got me this blanket. My daughter has dubbed it the ‘Yeti blanket’. It’s so warm and cozy (very luxe). The other day my daughter had pulled it off the sofa in a rush and I came back to the livingroom to find my Frenchie laying on it on her back with her paws in the air and what could only be described as a delirious smile, seriously. It also is perfect if you want to add a little texture to your interior design.

How a pro calligrapher cleans + digitizes her lettering

Bespoke Strokes for Lettering Rx

I got a vey kind email this morning to let me know this post which I launched yesterday came up empty. Nope, I was not going extreme minimalism I think I had my first major blog blooper, my apologies!  We wanted to let you know that our friend the very kind and talented Chantelle Hoffman of Bespoke Strokes is generously hosting a giveaway of our beloved Lettering Rx on her Instagram feed, which she uses as a professional calligrapher to clean her lettering and get it ready for vectorization or digitized to share on social media (like this graphic which started out as a very quick Iphone snap and we were able to clean, remove background and place on a colored background in about 2 minutes!). Chantelle has been a professional calligrapher for 20 years and can claim clients such as Tiffany’s, Hermes, Louis Vuitton amongst others. This my friends is such an incredible endorsement for us that someone of this caliber and experience would trust our product to save her ‘endless hours of time’ as she’s said. If you have been wanting to take your lettering and illustration business to the next level, than Lettering Rx needs to be in your digital tool box. It is a Photoshop based product, but we pinky promise that if you can click a button you would be able to use our product.

Please visit Bespoke Strokes Instagram for more information on how to enter to win, all the links below!

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Bespoke Strokes Instagram

Bespoke Strokes Studio

Lettering Rx

Lettering Rx video

Free download Martin Luther King Jr. quote

Rare bird specimen iv MLK font

We love how Lisa of Post Calligraphy utilized our Rare Bird Font Foundry Specimen IV to create this powerful quote. Lisa did the hand for this font and it has a bevy of alternates, how charming is the crown above the ‘i’?  We have waxed poetic about this font before it really is an excellent addition to any designer’s font collection, it can go from clean + casual sans to charming and quirky in a wink. For those of you that freak out when they don’t have anything to post for Instagram we include a weekly download in our Rare Bird Font Foundry newsletter, they are perfect when you are having a little social media melt down, also from experience we know how well received quotes are on a feed (just a little Insta marketing tip).

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Rare Bird Font Foundry

Specimen IV

Test Specimen IV here

Rare Bird Font Foundry Instagram

Rare Bird Font Foundry weekly download

Post Calligraphy

Free Chocolate Wrapper Download!

rbf-joyeux-noel-image-on-white-1080

We are mere days away from Christmas day and we know that some of you (ourselves included) are scrambling for some last minute gifts and stocking stuffers, so the ever brilliant Michelle whipped these up for our Rare Bird Font Foundry mailing list (we do a free Instagram graphic every week!).  Michelle used our Specimen I font for the ‘joyveux noel’ in Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls hand and the tiny stars are from our Specimen IV font which is filled to the brim with charming illustrations. Sign-up for the list and we will send it off to you. we hope this little wrapper makes its way under your tree and in your stockings, enjoy friends!

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Rare Bird Font Foundry

Specimen I

Specimen IV

Rare Bird Mailing List