Vera Neumann is best known for her iconic scarves, which became very popular in the 60s. However, Vera started her career by making housewares. Vera was encouraged to create art as a child. Her father would give her fifty cents to fill out a sketchbook. Although she was thrilled to have a job right out of school, she was shocked to discover that she was expected to copy other designers' work. Vera quit immediately because it was against everything she believed. After starting her freelance career designing children's fabrics and murals, she met George Neumann, her future husband. George Neumann's family was involved in textile design and was impressed by Vera's ambitions. He was instrumental in her success. They started modestly in a small New York apartment with a small silkscreen business. Their first product was linen placemats at that time!
During World War II she struggled to find linen, but she discovered that she could purchase parachute silk from her local army supply shop. As part of silk-screening Vera's paintings onto scarves, the well-known Vera logo was created. The scarves were a huge success and Vera's international kitchen table business grew to $100 million by the 1970s.
Vera is highly respected as a talented designer and as an expert in art licensing. Her designs were so popular that her designs were sold in over 20,000 stores all over the world by 1972. Vera was undoubtedly the first lifestyle brand. Her work is licensed today and was recently used in Anthropologie.
Neumann's portfolio isn't the only reason it's so large. Neumann consciously wanted her work mass-market friendly. Her famous quote was "I don't believe that only the wealthy deserve good design." This helped her to be commercially successful and made her brand easily identifiable. She didn't stick to one style. She tried many different looks and varied subject matter. She was comfortable identifying herself as an artist, designer, or businesswoman.
I tried to make this course as encouraging as possible to try new things, experiment, and embrace the idea of "process". Design development is an essential part of the process. This step can be easy to overlook, but it can make all the difference in whether your design is successful or not. You can start to develop your ideas in the design development stage. This will help you create a style that is long-lasting.
I hope you will see my workflow and understand how I plan scarves and other accessories. Are you ready to create artwork and paintings that are licensed regularly or will be best-sellers in your shops? If you can produce the artwork outlined in this class, it's possible. It is important to develop a style! It worked for me. No matter what purpose you have for your artwork, this course is relevant. Let's get to it, so that you can use your knowledge in your art practice.
Intro To Vera Neumann Inspired Design Using Adobe Photoshop Brushes
This brief introduction will give you a general overview of the class, and I will tell you why Vera Neumann has been such a great inspiration to me.
Lesson 1 - Vera Neumann Through History
This overview lesson will give you a look at Vera Neumann's work throughout the years, and also tell you about her prolific career. This will give you background and context about our project. In the next lessons, I will describe what we will do.
Lesson 2 - Inspiration and Planning
Vera will inspire us again, and I'll begin the process for planning the composition of the artwork. I will show you some sketches from my art journal/sketchbook and explain what I want.
Lesson 3 - Finalizing the Sketch & Color Schemes
This lesson will focus on finishing touches to our pencil sketch. I will also introduce Color.Adobe.com, which can be used to create a few usable color schemes. We will load these swatches into Photoshop using the Adobe Color Themes extension.
Lesson 4: Starting Initial Motif Outlines
This lesson will focus on brush settings that mimic the texture of natural media markers and brushes. I will continue to share all the wisdom I have. We will also continue to discuss the planning process.
Lesson 5 - Color Fills and Building up the Design
The use of the different brushes I will show you is the easiest way to build a composition. We will be looking at the brush controls, and I will refer to my art journal piece to show you what I am emulating.
Lesson 6 - Composition and Design Strategies
We will complete the design in this lesson. I will discuss the use of layers to keep things organized and share many insights along this journey.
Lesson 7 - Merging Layers and Finishing Touches
This lesson will combine all layers and finish enhancing and perfecting our final leaves and flowers. There are many techniques that can be used to blend everything together.
Lesson 8 - Border and Final Adjustments to Mockup
We will be experimenting with border design. I will share with you some practical ideas. We will also explore layer blending modes. We will try placing our finished art on mockups at the end of this lesson. This is the fun part!
Lesson 9 - Wrap up, Wisdom, and Next Steps
This video wraps up my tutorial on how to make a Vera Neuman scarf. We hope you enjoyed the class! Please post your finished art here and leave comments in our discussion area.
Concepts covered
These concepts include, but are not limited, hand-painted scarves and consumer licensed art. They also cover the history of Vera Neumann and Alexander Calder.
You will receive the bonus of...
- Around an hour and ten minutes of instruction from an instructor who has been in graphic design and education for more than 40 years
- Multiple ways to solve every design problem
- Handouts explaining key concepts
- Here's a list of useful online resources to help you further your education
