Silly Squid + Cephalopods

My first design entry in a few months after moving from Florida celebrates these fascinating undersea creatures. Cephalopods are the classification that includes the squid, nautilus, octopus and cuttlefish!

Silly Squid
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.

 

Silly Squid + Cephalopods
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.

Aspergillus Fumigatus
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved. 

This week Spoonflower asked designer to create a pattern using microorganisms. This is my artistic interpretation of the fungi that causes an eye infection! Weird, but true!!

Everglades Alligators!

National Parks are the focus of this weeks challenge.

Everglades Alligators ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Designers were asked to create a pattern to represent a national park close to them. I live in south Florida and am closest to the Everglades National Park. I chose to focus on my favorite Everglades creatures... alligators, and of course some birds including egrets and the great blue heron! I finished the pattern by adding some water snakes and tropical greenery like sea grape leaves, water lilies and palm fronds.

Voting for this design contest will open Thursday, July 23rd, 2015, and continue until Thursday July 30th! Vote Here!

While living in Florida over the past 15 years my family and I have encountered alligators from time to time in our own back yard. (I took these photos of alligators on the golf course behind our house from my patio!)

We see large alligators like this one fairly regularly.
I took this photo behind my house on the golf course.

Every once in a while an alligator has to be removed
if he's considered a 'nuisance alligator' and he's over 8' long!

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation
Commission sent out Trapper Nick
to move this guy out to the everglades.

Out for a stroll...

Kitchen Power… Watercolor power tools for Spoonflower!

'kitchen power' ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Let's face it, the only power tools being used in this house are in the kitchen!

Spoonflower's design prompt this week was to create a watercolor power tools design to be previewed at the fat quarter size (21" x 18"). Voting opens on Thursday, May 28, 2015.

Please Vote Here!

Southwest Baby Fabric for Carousel Designs at Spoonflower!

'Native Southwest Baby'
 © 2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Spoonflower teamed up with Carousel Designs for their Southwest Baby Bedding Design Challenge last week! Designers were to create a southwest-inspired fabric design to be used in a baby bedding collection.
I chose to design a sophisticated geometric pattern with a soft palette that could appeal to parents for their baby boys or girls. The hand drawn elements are composed to feel like traditional native american designs on blankets and rugs. I think this pattern would be great for babies, teens or in any grown-up space!

Voting opened last Thursday, March 26, 2015, and continues until this Thursday April 2nd 2015. Vote Here!

Nana's Vintage Kitchen!

This week's design challenge at Spoonflower was to create a 'spoon-themed' design.
I started my research by opening my kitchen drawers and began sketching what I found.

Nana's Vintage Kitchen ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs

Designing my pattern with only spoons seemed a little boring so I incorporated some drawings that I originally did for MATS4A last fall of the cool gadgets that I had inherited from my Nana. (My daughter Hanna especially likes the hand-mixer).

I assembled all of my drawings in photoshop and made an organized collection of the items using only their grey outline. I felt that there were so many shapes that the color palette had to be simple. I chose the smoky blue/green color because it worked well with the grey and really made the white pop. Plus I liked it! I've learned from the MATS (Make Art That Sells) classes that I've taken from Lilla Rogers over the past year and a half that I should be designing something that I would buy!

Voting opens on Thursday, March 12th. Please Vote Here!

'Bitsy and the Unicorn Princess' - Plush pattern design for Spoonflower!

'Bitsy and the Unicorn Princess' (cut + sew toy) ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

The Challenge: Spoonflower asked their design faithful to create a cut-&-sew pattern to make a plush mythical creature toy. The sewing pattern, with instructions, was to fit on a fat quarter of linen-cotton canvas (27" x 18").
My Solution: When I researched Mythical Creatures I found a few options to explore. First was a mermaid, but I had just designed one for the counting challenge. The other natural choice… a unicorn. I researched horses for body shape and drew a few with the profile of a realistic horse but when it came down to it, my original rough sketch looked like more fun.
I did my usual process to complete my illustration:  1. rough sketches in my sketchbook  2. then photographed them with my iPad  3. drew over my sketches to clean them up in the Adobe Ideas App. (this converts them to a vector image)  4. opened the sketches in Photoshop and chose a color palette  5. assembled the icons  6. finally lay out my icons on 27x18" file with a logo and cut lines.

Bitsy 

The Unicorn Princess

Voting opened on  Thursday, February 19th and continues until Thursday morning February 26th. Please Vote Here!

Penguin Portraits for Spoonflower!

Yay penguins!
The Spoonflower guru's asked their faithful artists to design a penguin-inspired fabric to 'celebrate our feathered friends from the Southern Hemisphere'!

Penguin Portraits! ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved. 

This was a fun one… I did a little research on penguins and then started drawing. I had limited time for this design so I wanted to keep it simple. Sometimes it's hard to come up with a concept for a prompt but this was easy for once, I had a clear vision for this design from the start. Clean shapes that were layered using a limited palette, and of course add texture.
I typically come up with a concept and then draw about about 20 versions of each item in black and white (this gives me design options when I'm assembling my icons). I chose my palette in the photoshop phase using only 4 colors (blue, green, orange, pink) with black and white. I have found that limiting the palette helps to give the pattern a balanced look.
I designed each penguin icon, the fish background pattern, the trees and the patterned fish and opened a new file where I assembled the final pattern! Simple!

Voting starts on Thursday, January 8th and continues until the morning of January 15th, 2015! Please vote!!

Gingerbread Village Toile in Spoonflower top 10!

Thank you for voting!

Spoonflower photo of Gingerbread Village Toile.
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Spoonflower photo of Winter Toile Fat Quarter Bundle!

 Thanks to all for a wonderful and creative year… Happy New Year!!

The Nutcracker for Spoonflower!

Tchaikovsky's most famous ballet was overdue for its own fabric contest so Spoonflower asked it's designers to create a fabric inspired by The Nutcracker for last week's challenge!

A Nutcracker Christmas! © 2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Voting will close on December 30th, 2014. Happy New Year! Vote Here!

Gingerbread Village Toile!

The design theme this week… 'Create a toile de Jouy - style fabric design using a single color on the theme of winter.'
The first part of my research was to look up the definition of Toile de Jouy. These fabrics are described as a 'repeated pattern of a complex pastoral scene', usually printed in red, black or blue.
The concept for this design came from my daughters. They spent an evening with their friends decorating gingerbread houses over Thanksgiving break from university and I used their creations as my inspiration.
I researched and drew sketches of gingerbread houses, trees, deer, etc. When I had my rough sketches I  took a picture of them with my iPad and opened them in the Adobe Ideas app and drew cleaner versions of my sketches in black and white. I opened the PDF in Photoshop where I 'built' my icons in layers and in color. I know there has to be an easier way to do this but I like the hand drawn look that I get from doing it this way.
This design required loads of details in order to give it the traditional Toile feel. Details like the roof tiles, icicles, trees, fences, the deer and their blankets, window details, the bicycle, sleigh and the two fancy ladies, took a lot of extra time. I think I spent about 25+ hours from start to finish on this print!

Gingerbread Village Toile! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved. 

Previews will be sized as quarter yards (21" x 18"). Voting starts today, December 11th, 2014 and continues until December 18th. Please Vote!!

Kittens in mittens

Spoonflower's design this week is cat-themed, again.
I'm more of a dog person myself, but here it is…

Kittens in mittens on ice!  ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. 

'Kittens in Mittens' is the theme provided so I put my kittens in mittens on skates then put them on a pond in a forrest. I don't know, where would you put them?

Voting starts on Thursday, December 4th, 2014. Please Vote!

Ink for Spoonflower and Uppercase Magazine!

'Ink'  ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. 

The challenge for this week… Calligraphy and Ink! 

Spoonflower  partnered with UPPERCASE, magazine for a special Design Challenge. Designers have the chance to be profiled in an upcoming issue of UPPERCASE by creating the winning calligraphy-themed print. Designers had to create a monochromatic pattern using varying shades of black, white or grey. "Go graphic with calligraphic messages and flourishes or be illustrative with pens, inkwells and other tools of the craft."

I raided my ink drawer (yes I have one), and drew as many of the items as I could with as much detail as possible. I drew the line art on my iPad in the Adobe Ideas App (with my finger), and then imported it into Photoshop where I built my 'icons'. Next came the placement of the icons keeping in mind that I would use a 1/2 drop pattern with this layout. When I was pleased with the composition I added ink drops to fill in the open spots (which I scanned in), and last came the ink dot pattern behind the completed design! I mistakenly thought that this assignment might be a bit easier because it was 'monochromatic', but it was pretty challenging!
Voting started on Thursday, November 13, 2014 and continues until Thursday November 20th, 2014. Please Vote!

'A Retro Christmas' gift wrap design in the Top 10 at Spoonflower!

©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. Photo from Spoonflower on Flicker.

My 'A Retro Christmas' gift wrap design made the top 10 at Spoonflower !!

Thanks to all of my friends, fellow MATSies and family for the votes!!!

A Retro Christmas!

Ornament Gift Wrap for Spoonflower!

A Retro Christmas! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

I love this theme because Christmas ornaments come in so many shapes, styles and traditions. I chose to illustrate some of my favorites from the ornaments that my family and I have collected over the years!

I started by just drawing as many ornament shapes as possible on my iPad with the Adobe Ideas App. (I love this app, I can take my iPad anywhere and draw without being tethered to my desk.) The next step was to add the details... I drew stars and dots and swirls and spots and hooks and pine branches a hundred different ways. All of the illustrations are just outlines and in black only until I open the PDF in Photoshop. When I get to this stage I make decisions on how many colors (in this case 5 + b&w), and come up with a strategy on the overall look. I decided to make the ornaments white because I wanted the details to be the focus and limited my colors to unify the shapes. Tried to keep it simple!

Voting starts on Thursday, November 6th, 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!

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!

Retro Tables + Chairs for Spoonflower!

This week Spoonflower asked their faithful designers to create a design that features tables and chairs.

Retro Tables + Chairs! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Design. All Rights Reserved.

For this prompt I didn't even have to think…I am just drawn to mid-century modern chairs.

I researched photo's of chairs from that era and sketched about 25 different styles before narrowing the field to the final five. The color palette was chosen next... olive, smokey blue and white. When designing fabric, I like the color story to be as important as the images. The olive color really reminds me of a sofa and the appliances my parents had when I was a kid, and the blue was chosen to bring this retro design into today. The white allows you to see the unique shapes of the chairs and to unify their look. If I had put patterns on all of the chairs, it would have looked too busy.
The next step was to arrange the elements into a pleasing pattern and add a pop of color with the tulip flowers in a vase. Finally the dot pattern was added to give some texture to the piece.

Voting starts on Thursday, September 25rd, 2014. Please Vote!

Creepy Kitty! Halloween Damask for Spoonflower!

Creepy Kitty! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

The Spoonflower design challenge this week didn't start off well. The assignment was to 'come up with damask-inspired prints that incorporate illustrations of cats.' I couldn't think of why they chose 'cats'. Not particularly a cat fan. I procrastinated. My procrastination grew into a trip to Target where they were putting out the Halloween decorations and it inspired me to take that direction with my design.

Creepy Kitty!
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.

I got home and drew damask-like swirls, spots and dots, and bats, pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and of course cats! Imported the drawings from my iPad into Photoshop and built my design shape by shape.  It is sized as a fat quarter and placed it into a 1/2 drop repeat.

Voting starts on Thursday, September 18th, 2014. Please Vote!

Marching Band for Spoonflower!

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

The design contest this week at Spoonflower… celebrating marching bands!

I started this design as I normally would, with research on the internet and Pinterest. The most interesting bits that I found were vintage ads for band uniform catalogues. I took note of the details on the vintage uniforms and decided to incorporate them into my design. I wanted to use certain instruments associated with a marching band and drew them and my marchers in my usual loose fashion on my iPad.

Next, I opened the Adobe Ideas file in Photoshop and chose my color palette. Most of the band images online were using the same theme of red and black uniforms, so I chose a palette that was a little different. The blue and yellow worked well together and the green was a natural for the background.

©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.

I wanted the colors of the marchers to reflect a real marching band, so diversity was important. I built the characters in Photoshop and then placed each one in proper marching position on a new 4.5x10.5" file, the idea is to set up for a 1/2 brick layout. I added my green in the background and a dot texture for interest. Finally adding the notes to help with the overall pattern design!

Preview on the 1/2 brick pattern is a quarter yards (21" x 18"). Voting starts on Thursday, September 11th, 2014. Please Vote!

Getting Buggy for Spoonflower!

'Buggy' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.

Last week Spoonflower got Buggy!
Just a simple design last week… I took the week off to take our eldest to college in Boston and this is what I came up with on the road. Beatles, ladybugs and roaches inked with a spot of watercolor! All done on my iPad using the Waterlogue and Adobe Ideas Apps!!

Now available as fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap at Spoonflower.com!

'Buggy' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.