As an artist and a writer, love art and words, and I especially love them together. When I designed my series called Sea Dreams, I wanted not only to evoke the feelings we have about the sea with soft, fresh colours, but also to incorporate words.

I chose to keep the words simple, using only the names for each shell pictured in the watercolour. While the words were simple, choosing a font was not.

Generally, I have an idea in my mind's eye of how I want the whole image to look but often once I create it, I find that I'm not happy with how it turns out. That's when the experimenting begins.

Over the years, I have added a lot of decorative fonts to my font "basket" because I create decorative work. The process of choosing a font and the appropriate colour is one of trial and error. First I type the word, then scroll through my fonts for likely candidates.

Some fonts get rejected as soon as I see them on the artwork. Others are definite maybes. I will make a copy of my word or words, and change the font on the copy so I can compare the two. I continue with this process until I have several possibilities.

Several considerations go into the choice:

• Does it match the tone of the art?
• Does it evoke the emotion I want the viewer to experience, i.e nostalgia, humour, freedom?
• Do the colours work well with the artwork?
• What is most important, the art or the message?
• Will my intended audience instantly understand it without explanation?
• Is it easy to read in any size, and on any product?
• Does it translate well to other products and materials, i.e. ceramic, fabric, fleece

I place each font style on the artwork, size it, work with the colour, and gradually eliminate fonts that don't convey the look and feel that I want for the art. It can take many hours to get just right! But that's all part of the fun fun.

SEE ALL SUMMER BAY STUDIO'S COLLECTIONS HERE.

Recently I was talking with a friend who expressed how unhappy she was in her work situation. I can appreciate that sometimes conditions can be intolerable for a variety of reasons, however, my friend has a habit of rehashing her day as soon as she gets home. She goes over everything that went wrong, all the ways things didn't work out, and recounted whatever anyone said or did that rubbed her the wrong way.

Whoa! If you want to stay miserable, doing this is guaranteed to help you with it. Looking for the negative is an easy, and bad, habit. To change how you habitually think, you have to…change your thoughts.

A good way to begin to do this is to choose to appreciate the good things you already have.

Here is my list of great deals on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca for creatives and artists (even if you just want to be one.)

Simply click the links for the products that interest you and it will take you right there. If you're not already a Prime Member you can sign up for a free 30 day trial for Amazon.ca (Canada) HERE.

Click on any image below to get started. You can check out these items, or browse for others once you're there.

Sign up for Amazon.com (USA) HERE. Click on any image below to get started. You can check out these items, or browse for others once you're there.

Get creative!