2015 Farm Friends Tea Towel Calendar

'2015 farm friends calendar' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/3637960
It's time for the annual Tea Towel Calendar design at Spoonflower!

This year I decided to use some of my favorite animal illustrations, most of which haven't been used in other designs this year. A few have been used in my 'Farm Fresh' fabric but most of my farm friends are new to the market!

I drew all of these characters in black and white with Adobe Ideas on my iPad and then opened them up in Photoshop where I assembled and colored the parts of each icon. I also used my old Quark Express to layout the calendar dates. I have inDesign with my Adobe cc but still haven't learned how to use it yet (embarrassing but I am also just learning illustrator).

The Calendar is larger than the usual Spoonflower entries to fit on a fat quarter-yard of their Linen-Cotton Canvas fabric (27" x 18"), the preview had to be oriented horizontally to fit 4 calendars per yard.

Voting starts Thursday, October 30th, 2014. Please Vote!

Calaveras for Spoonflower!

Calaveras for Spoonflower!  ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

This week at Spoonflower…
Designers were asked to design a pattern celebrating Day of the Dead and All Souls Day with traditional sugar skulls, called calaveras. This is my design! Voting started on Thursday, October 23rd, 2014, Please Vote!

Cuckoo for Spoonflower!

Cuckoo for Spoonflower! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

The Spoonflower Design Challenge this week is featuring clocks or timepieces.
I did a bit of recycling on this one. I designed this cuckoo clock for my Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells e-class in the Spring of this year and thought it would be fun to use it for this assignment.

In order to make the illustration work better with a fabric pattern, I added a few other elements. Starting with a new clock tower with grand doors, a spattering of stars, a tipsy moon and a wandering bear just for fun. Last, a textured element to the 'wallpaper' behind the clocks. :)

Voting starts on Thursday, October 16th, 2014. Please Vote!

A sun shower for Spoonflower!

Umbrellas are the theme this week!

'A Sun Shower For Spoonflower' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.  All Rights Reserved.

Rainy day blues? Designers were asked to create a design depicting umbrellas…

Voting starts on Thursday, October 9th, 2014. Please Vote!

Ballet Bears for Spoonflower!

The theme for the Spoonflower design challenge this week was ballet!

Ballet Bears! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. 

This was so fun to do. I knew I wanted to draw bears for this challenge because nothing is more perfect than fancy bears wearing tutus and pointe shoes.
I started the design by drawing bears in about 15 different sizes and dance positions, then narrowed them down to the two seen above. Next, sketched dance outfits and accessories like tiaras, crowns and magic wands and assembled them in photoshop. I placed the characters into my ribbon-like design to complete the repeat pattern! :)
Voting starts on Thursday, October 2nd, 2014. Please Vote!