Streets of Melbourne
Oh hey there!
Show a raise of hands if you love old Victorian-style buildings.
Yeah me too!
Before I begin this story, let me tell you, this blog post is a year too late to be posted. Better late than never, right?
Ever since I first rode the Melbourne streets, I’ve been soaking up the rustic vibes lined up on the street facades. I didn’t know what to do with this overwhelming beauty at first but knew that I should do something. I dabbled around with this concept for some time, snapping pictures on the phone and trying to draw the buildings in my sketchbooks, but I wasn’t doing any justice to the buildings. So, I just let it go and moved on with life (and other art projects).
One year later, when we all got hit by the first wave of the pandemic, my work hours were reduced drastically. I found myself having a lot of free time lying around and felt like I needed to make the most of it. Then, like from nowhere this idea resurfaced (guess I still had this on the back burner). So I decided to give it a go.
One of the first street illustration I created.
About a year or two before all of this, I have been following the works of the amazing illustration artist named Peter Sheeler and his street illustrations are absolutely stunning. His style is so minimal yet the mood of the streets are so effectively conveyed that it was contagious. I tried to draw his doodles from his Youtube tutorials and had so much fun bringing simple street drawings into lively illustrations. But that was it. Tucked away somewhere in a sketchbook.
Where it all started!
And just like that, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, it all came together. I would draw the Melbourne streets in a style inspired by the artist Peter Sheeler and turn it into a desk calendar! Oh oh, and then I would start a shop on etsy and sell the calendars!! The idea was perfect.
But what on earth did I know about calendar printing and selling products on etsy?
Turns out one cannot go ahead with an idea amd not hit some roadblocks. The project was so overwhelming, I didn’t know where to start. So, I start down one day on my desk, and crunched some numbers. For any calendar, you’ll need 12 pages for 12 months plus one for an intro/facing page. So I’ll have to illustrate 12 of the most beautiful streets of Melbourne and come up with a simple month & dates template and create those pages.
Then like any other creative inspiration, the doubts started to emerge.
But why a desk calendar?
Because the illustrations would be in an unapologetically long format and a desk calendar would be a better option for it.
But how do I draw this? I have never done any Plein-air painting before!
Since we were in such hard lockdowns back-to-back, roaming around the city and snapping pictures was not an option. But thanks to Google Street views, I can view and sketch any and every street I want, at home.
Yeah, but which streets?
Luckily, I had a note on my phone where I jotted down some names of the streets I liked while passing by. Even though there were only a few on this list, a quick research on Google helped me pick and choose some of the most beautiful and lively streets in Melbourne.
Errol Street, North Melbourne
Gurner Street, St. Kilda
Domain Street, South Yarra
Ok cool, but how am I gonna print this and make it into a product?
Turns out there are plenty of options in Melbourne, where you can print anything and everything. I found a good printer (CMYK Colour Online) after some google searches, and they were kind enough to send me some samples of card stocks and desk calendars on which they normally print.
A lot of questions kept popping up and I kept reassuring myself that it’s all gonna be okay. More importantly, I wanted to see if I can stick with this idea and see it through. Curiosity triumphed fear!
Finally, after three months of disciplined work, I came up with 12 street illustrations and the calendar design was ready to hit the press!...
To be honest, I thought setting up a page on Etsy and putting forward a product listing was a piece of cake. But little did I know about the importance of keywords and product listings quantities and newfound emergence on a highly competitive platform. Therefore, my product didn’t fly much.
Final look of the calendar
But I had plenty of content to post on Instagram like never before. Due to my consistent posting, I got a bunch of new followers. Then, surprisingly, a kind-hearted person on Instagram asked me if I could draw a portrait of their house in the same illustrative style as the streets. At first, I was like what’s a house portrait? But now I am like. Sure. Bring it on!
Although this was me going on a tangent, I could see my art business growing substantially!
(PS: My journey on the realm of house portraits is a whole different story, and this blog post is already too long. I would like to show some mercy to you guys and write about that in a future post. Hopefully!)
Close enough?
