June Spotlight - Tastes Like Love

Hi All! Happy Monday to ya. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I am very excited to start out a new feature on my blog - a monthly sponsor spotlight. Each month I will select one special sponsor of mine to guest post and share more about themselves (why haven't I done this sooner?). I need to start sharing the love. To start off the series I chose the very sweet and talented Lauren from Tastes Like Love. Take it away Lauren...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Shy Scout readers, my name is Lauren & you can usually find me over at Tastes Like Love where I blog about my daily adventures with friends & my darling husband Luke, fancy folk I come across, my custom portraits and illustrations of cute girls, and delightful things. I'm really excited to be guest posting on Shy Scout today as Allison's blog is such a delight! 

I started my blog Tastes Like Love early last year as an experimental motivational tool. I wanted to get myself motivated to draw again after having a couple of months break from design post graduation. I studied Graphic Design & Communications for three years and gave myself a much needed creative hiatus afterwards.  During that time Luke & I moved from Newcastle to the Central Coast, Luke started a new job and I started to reluctantly look for a graphic design job. I didn't feel like I would enjoy working in a graphic design studio with pressure and deadlines, because ultimately I studied design to delve into my creative side and learn the tools I needed to be creative for myself. It was at this time that I started my blog and got drawing. I had a super casual blog the year before but it had been abandoned for some time so I started afresh. 

Although everybody in my design class had a different style, I found my teacher was incredibly discouraging with my style and the direction I wanted my illustrations to go in. And I think this was a huge factor in my lack of confidence with my illustrations. After I started to draw more and share them with my family and friends and received both positive and construction criticism, I found myself enjoying drawing again. I started to share my drawings on my blog when I began my photo booth illustrations, which by far are my favourite designs so far!

The decision to offer my illustration services for custom portraits came when I drew a portrait of my friend Holly. We were being extremely productive at our old work place and drawing cartoons of everyone in the office, and she asked me to draw her a serious one. When I gave it to her she suggested I do them through my blog, and in January this year I added my Custom page. Some of my favourite illustrations I've done have been a couple of the custom portraits commissioned throughout the year. The majority of the custom drawings I've done this year have been bought as presents for friends and family as they make a perfect personalised gift. 

If you'd like a customised illustration for your blog or as a gift, check out my Custom page for more info. Thanks for having me Allison!