Spoonflower Weekly Contest: Stars & Stripes

I had a lot of fun creating my design for this week's Spoonflower contest so I thought I'd post the sketches!

If you're wondering what the hell kinda fabric would be covered with drawings of David Bowie I'll tell you.

This week Spoonflower challenged it's members to come up with a design using stars and stripes.

I'm sure this theme is meant to conjurer images of red, white and blue, pictures of eagles, flags and Uncle Sam; a design bursting with American patriotism. Of course there's nothing wrong with all that (especially this close to the 4th of July) but I am not in fact American. Being a non American I saw this as an opportunity to step outside the box and inject a little of my own home turf into the stars and stripes. And so I give you.......

STARDUST!!!!!

I won't exactly be making my next party dress out of it but I figured it might make a couple of cool, kitsch cushions!

If you'd like to vote for designs in this week's contest you can do so here

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 12 & 13

OK, back to the drawing challenge!

Yesterday was day 12 and my most recent accomplishment. Now I wasn't sure just how major an accomplishment this was supposed to be. See there's big mile stones like graduating from uni, starting a new job, getting engaged (not quite there yet) etc. which are all great things but none of them are that recent. Then there's things like completing a difficult level on Rollercoaster Tycoon or killing that last really annoying pig on Angry Birds! These things, although not that useful in the big scheme of things are really awesome day to day victories which I feel are often overlooked.

I wouldn't say I went quite so far as to celebrate the death of any pigs yesterday (my iphone ran out of battery) but I did get paid :)

I think we can all agree that keeping myself clothed and staving off hunger for at least another month is something that's deserving of acknowledgement!

Today's Challenge is to draw a comic strip so that's exactly what I've done!

I wanted to give you an incite into my daily life so I decided to draw a conversation between my boyfriend and I. The first one that sprung to mind is illustrated (badly) below.

  

Yes that is a blank thought bubble coming from my boyfriend's head. It occasionally gets filled with thoughts of food, aeroplanes and gymnastics but for the most part it looks like that. 

Anyway, I was gonna make a proper comic of this but I felt we'd already covered my inability to shut up on day 11. This is why I took out a second piece of paper and created this equally crappy comic!

My boyfriend laughed when he saw this. Apparently it was funny enough to take his attention away from video games momentarily but not funny enough (or thought provoking enough) to encourage him to move his damn clothes from the basket!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 4-7

Ok I am waaaaaay behind on posting my drawing challenge pics! Last time I posted I was supposed to be drawing my favourite place and after some thought I realised that my bed was the only real option.

Btw those pants were not on the bed this morning.......they were on the floor.......they are still there now.

Day 5 I was supposed to be drawing my best friend which was hard because I have many very good friends (and I'm an eternal diplomat, very important for keeping said friends). I did finally manage to pick a best friend. A friend whose presence I would truly be lost without!

Oh internet, what would I do without u?!

Some of you may recognise my favourite book character from day 5 as the Enormous Crocodile from Roald Dahl's 'The Enormous Crocodile.'

'The Enormous Crocodile grinned, showing hundreds of sharp white teeth.

“I’m going to fill my hungry empty tummy with something yummy yummy yummy yummy!” Great stuff!!

I had to give drawing number 7 some thought but then I realised that while there are many good even great words. None are quite as amazing as.............

You may in fact need a microscope to read those speech bubbles but really all u need to know is that yes is good!

And now I'm going to watch TV coz my internet keeps spazzing out and it's starting to piss me off (pardon my French, sometimes it's necessary).

We'll resume from drawing 8 tomorrow!

Ok, I'm 3 days in to my drawing challenge and already I'm behind with my posts. I started drawing myself but failed miserably!! I made my features too big and my face too small and then I got bored so I kinda bailed and gave myself a Lisa Simpson hairdo. I swear I can do better look!

Anyway, in the end I decided to try a kinda semi-continuous line drawing without looking at the paper and that's when I created the masterpiece on the right!

Overall I wouldn't say I'd had the most successful start but perseverance is the name of the game!

The most difficult thing about day 2 was having to figure out what my favourite animal is. In the end I settled on an elephant :)

Today I got stuck again, this time thinking of a favourite food. I went with pasta in the end but I can't say I'm all that proud of my drawing. Turns out it's not that easy to draw something good EVERY day.

Tomorrow I have to draw my favourite place so hopefully I'll find the time between now and then to come up with something good.....or at least better.

Wish me luck!

If I Gave You Diamonds and Birds

I did lots of colouring today and made quite a bit of progress :) Please see below for visual confirmation of said progress.

I did make a start on the actual scarf itself but I'm not quite ready to reveal that just yet ;)
Watch this space.............

Diamonds are a Bird's Best Friend

I finally had some spare time this weekend so I decided to spend at least some of it drawing (the rest of my time, in case you're wondering was spent at the beach) ;)

Anyway, I'm hoping these drawings will become part of a new scarf I'm designing. Now I know this is not the first time I've attempted to seduce you with talk of new scarf designs. And no, those designs never quite came to fruition, and for that deception I am truly sorry. But this time it's different! 

I'm preparing for a showcase next month (details to follow later) to display my scarves. So with this is mind it only seems right that I should include at least one new addition to my collection.

I'll have to update sooner rather than later since I don't have much time to prepare so keep your eyes peeled!! 

Butterfly Fish

Fuelled only by the sound of Jamiroquai and a bag of Ruffles I sat down to create a partner for the turtles I posted last week. Check it out......

This is still pretty far from completion so keep a look out for updates!

Slowly getting there

I managed to get a little more of it done last night before i fell asleep. It's getting there slowly. I have some other work to get done today so i might not have a chance to get back to it for a while but i will defo post when i do!

Heliconia

I started drawing a heliconia this afternoon. It appears to be coming along quite nicely but sadly i don't have the concentration required to finish it tonight.
I'll probably pick it back up again tomorrow and post my progress. ta ta for now!

Bequia

I returned from Bequia on monday feeling quite inspired! :) i took a whole heap of photos which i hope will make useful reference material some day soon. I haven't had a chance to get a lot of sketching done what with work deadlines and other commitments but fingers crossed i'll have some time over the weekend to doodle.
in the meantime, take a gander at these!

Typography

I've been thinking of designing some more scarves recently so i've started doing some sketching and looking around for inspiration. I found a book lying around the house yesterday called 'knots and how to tie them' and figured it'd be a good chance to try something new with typography.

Click here to see some of my scarves!

Winter Leaves

Work - Week 2

Since for copyright reasons i can't post photos of the designs themselves i've decided to post some of the sketches of this week's exploits. Enjoy!

Me on a rock :)