Whales!

'Baby Beluga's Birthday'
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

This week in the  Spoonflower design contest… whales!  
The restricted palette this week helped to determine the direction of this assignment. The colors felt like a baby palette, so I kept that in mind when I drew my whales. 

restricted color palette

I researched the subject matter and looked for references and then drew a ton of whales and other sea creatures. I had in mind that my whales would be white (baby Beluga, Moby Dick, etc.) and I would use the blue to be the background. The tan color was to give detail in the pattern background (the seaweed/coral shapes), and I wanted to use the dusty pink color as a pop element (the octopus and starfish). I chose to eliminate the bright pink because it didn't go with the feeling of the other colors provided.

I drew elements in my sketchbook and on my iPad in the Adobe Ideas App, and opened the images in Photoshop. I colored and arranged the elements into a pattern of whales. Added the octopus characters, then the wave shapes, anchors, seaweed and the starfish. Finally, I added the party hats and birthday cake. 

All designs submitted had to use this restricted palette (21" x 18"). Voting starts on Thursday, April 3rd, 2014, and continues until Thursday, April 10th, 2014. Please Vote!