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Genna Blackburn

Genna is a licensed artist with work on products like baby clothes, puzzles, diapers, and fabric with companies including Target, Hello Bello, Papyrus, and Little Sleepies. She loves sharing what she knows about making the art that only you can make, finding your unique creative voice, and how to put your work into a beautiful portfolio so you can confidently send it to your dream companies.

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Stop trying to make art that will sell

Signature Style Stories: 5 of 5 (Click here to listen to an audio version of this email). Hi Reader, This is the last email in my Signature Style Stories series (catch up here), and I want to end with what I think is both the simplest and the most radical idea I have to share: Make art you love. That's it. That's the whole strategy. I know that sounds too easy. But hear me out. Do you feel pressure to make art that's on trend? Marketable? When you sit down to create, do you find yourself...

Signature Style Stories: 4 of 5 (Click here to listen to an audio version of this email). Hi Reader, In my last email, I talked about why now is the best time in history to make money from your art. If you missed it, catch up here. Today I want to talk about why you might have a hard time taking advantage of all the opportunities we discussed in our last email. Have you ever made something that you thought was SO good, and you worried you’d never make anything that good again? So then you...

Signature Style Stories: 3 of 5 (Click here to listen to an audio version of this email.) Hi Reader, In my last email, I made the case for why your creative voice matters more than ever. If you missed it, catch up here. Let me take you back to the late '80s and early '90s. I was a kid with Print Shop Deluxe and a dot matrix printer, making greeting cards and happy birthday banners (and thinking I was absolutely incredible). There was no Procreate, no iPads, no Spoonflower, no Etsy, no...

Signature Style Stories: 2 of 5 (Click here to listen to an audio version of this email.) Hi Reader, In my last email, I shared the sentence that broke me out of creative paralysis. If you missed it, catch up here. Today I want to talk about something that comes up a lot right now: AI, and what it means for artists. There's a lot of fear in the conversation. But I actually believe the opposite of what most people are worried about. I think AI is proving, more than ever, just how valuable a...

Signature Style Stories: 1 of 5 (Click here to listen to an audio version of this email.) Hi Reader, Welcome to Signature Style Stories — a series of 5 emails where I get to talk about something that I can often get on quite the soapbox about: signature style. I believe a signature style can be the difference between you making money with your art and hearing nothing but crickets. But more importantly than that, I believe it can be the difference between feeling creatively stifled and...

EDITION NO. 58March 3, 2026 It's The Palette y'all! Your weekly dose of inspiration, tips, and a reminder that you have creative treasures hidden inside you waiting to come out. So let's jump in! INSIDE THIS EDITION: What's Up Genna's Gem Recommended Resource Student Shoutout What to Do Next Calendar Hi friend, On Sunday, I was listening to an Audible Original by Gabrielle Bernstein called 7 Habits of a Super Attractor, and it turned out there was a chapter on creative flow — something I...

EDITION NO. 57February 24, 2026 It's The Palette y'all! Your weekly dose of inspiration, tips, and a reminder that you have creative treasures hidden inside you waiting to come out. So let's jump in! INSIDE THIS EDITION: What's Up Genna's Gem Recommended Resource Student Shoutout What to Do Next Calendar Hi friend, My husband and I took the kids to Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio this past weekend and we had so much fun! (Thank you to my lovely assistant Giulia for suggesting it!) Lots of...

EDITION NO. 56February 17, 2026 It's The Palette y'all! Your weekly dose of inspiration, tips, and a reminder that you have creative treasures hidden inside you waiting to come out. So let's jump in! INSIDE THIS EDITION: What's Up Genna's Gem Recommended Resource Student Shoutout What to Do Next Calendar Hi friend, Yesterday was another great 75 Art live drawing session and I must tell you about it. 😛 The prompt was "mystery" and I didn't know this until I sat down for the live session. I...

EDITION NO. 55February 10, 2026 It's The Palette y'all! Your weekly dose of inspiration, tips, and a reminder that you have creative treasures hidden inside you waiting to come out. So let's jump in! INSIDE THIS EDITION: What's Up Genna's Gem Recommended Resource Student Shoutout What to Do Next Calendar Hi friend, I just finished a live drawing session with 75 Art students and I have to tell you about it. The prompt was "train" and it turned into this! There's a yeti in the top right (thank...

EDITION NO. 54February 3, 2026 It's The Palette y'all! Your weekly dose of inspiration, tips, and a reminder that you have creative treasures hidden inside you waiting to come out. So let's jump in! INSIDE THIS EDITION: What's Up Genna's Gem Recommended Resource Student Shoutout What to Do Next Calendar Hi friend, How was your weekend? Did you have any fun plans? I actually love when the weekend has no plans and we can just go with the flow, and maybe have some time to take it easy. We got a...