Under the Sea 1-2-3... Counting for Spoonflower!

Happy New Year!
The first design post of the new year is all about celebrating Mathematics!

Under the Sea 1-2-3! ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.

I toyed with trying to use my daughter's calculus homework as a base for a typographical solution to this week's challenge, but then I started drawing. Picture books for counting came to mind and I decided to change gears and go with an under the sea theme.

I drew tons of sea creatures and numbers in my sketchbook and took pictures of them with my iPad. I opened the pictures in the Adobe Ideas app on my iPad and drew better versions of my illustrations to import into photoshop (where I assembled my icons in color.)

My favorite part of this process is adding simple details to each and every icon. The textures, shapes and colors bring each character to life and give them a personality! The last step is the hardest part for me… the repeat. Putting my artwork into a technical repeat is my nemesis and I vow to master it in 2015!

Voting started on Wednesday, December 31st and continues until January 8th, 2015! Please Vote!

2015 Goals…
With one design now completed for 2015 I'm hoping to continue with at least 3 designs per month using the Spoonflower prompts as well as Lilla Rogers Assignment Bootcamp projects. I'm setting goals to finish my website and submit my art to some new companies to build my business. Let's just see what happens, the worst they can say is no. Wish me luck!
Happy New Year!

'Nautical' wall art for Lilla Rogers Bootcamp!

'help sometimes'  ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

June with Lilla Rogers MATS Bootcamp was all about the Nautical theme. This was my entry.
I've posted before about MATS Bootcamp -  a portfolio building group for illustrators and designers looking to push their style into different directions. The category was 'wall art' but something like this would be great for cards, journal covers and maybe even a theme for a children's book as well!

Lilla Rogers Assignment Bootcamp

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!