Design Spotlight: Ramelle Richardson

I have sold several of these, as well as “Welcome Home Airman”, a variation in the same series.

When I first joined GCU in January of this year, I didn’t think I had much original art to share. So most of the cards I first made for my card-store “Eloquence” were from photos I had taken of flowers at our local park and around my home state of Washington. I was especially in love with hydrangeas.

I also became obsessed with photographing our little neighborhood squirrel. I made several cards featuring “Mr. Snoofles” who I lured to our backyard with peanut butter sandwiches.

In addition to turning Mr. Snoofles (and his many incarnations) into cards, I made several designs using art I had found in the public domain, mostly the paintings of William Bouguereau and Carl Bloch. I had fun changing the art of these old masters, adding digital elements and adapting them into cards, thus creating a new work of art.

But I really preferred to use my own original art. The problem was that most of the paintings I had made in my earlier “artsy” years were long gone . . . sold or given away. Then I remembered a painting I had made of an eagle flying home against the backdrop of a sunset ablaze with the colors of the American flag. I had stashed it in a closet and had forgotten about it. I photographed it and then made some digital adjustments to emphasize the hint of a flag and a field of stars within the sunset. I then created a series for GCU welcoming home a serviceman or woman. I also have used this same image for a Veterans Day series.

So that’s the story on the Welcome Home/Flying Eagle card.

I have plans to make more cards using my own art, but I am very busy writing a novel as well as being “Nana” to my three grandkids. Perhaps in 2012, I ‘ll get out my paint box and make something new for GCU.