Hitching a Ride on a Hummerfly

Here's the latest little illustration that I've been working on. Ages ago I had this sketch of cute creature that was a hybrid of a hummingbird and a butterfly. Wouldn't it be amazing if these were real? Anyway, I've been wanting to bring him to completion now and then, and so finally last week I started working on him, or maybe her...I'm actually not sure anymore. I've been craving to paint something fun, patterned, and whimsical and what better time than the present.

First, I traced the general features of the initial sketch on to my paper. Then, I made some adjustments to it, using hummingbird, butterfly, and birds of paradise references.

And then came my favourite part - the inking. I just love inking so much. I'll need to do some black and white line and silhouette based pieces soon, I think.

inks

Then, it was time to get to work on the colour. I've been wanting to do a pink/red/green piece for a while, so it was exciting to finally go for it. Though, I've gotta admit, I was quite weary of it coming out looking too "Christmasy". So, I decided to print out my ink on a piece of draft paper and quickly map out the colours.

colour study

Feeling more confinement I started layering down the colour on the good paper.

base colours

And then some shading to create a little volume was in order.

shading

Then it was time for the background. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at first - to be more painterly or more pattern influenced. In the end patterns won and many, many circles began to appear.

background pt. 1

Finally, to finish off, I filled in those circles with even more circles and did some light shadowing around the Hummefly and some random "ink blossoms" as I call them around the rest of the background.

And there we have it!

Finished piece. Look at those lazy butterflies trying to hitch a ride.

Size: 6 x 10"
Media: Waterproof coloured inks + watercolour + gouache + microns


I kind of like to think of this as a "sister" illustration to the Carpe Diem Carpe Noctem firebirds painting I did last summer. They both have an elongated format, bird imagery, and patterned backgrounds. =)

Also, drawing the little Hummerlfy made me think of the song "Oranges on Appletrees" by A-Ha.

"Oranges on apple trees
Birds that mate with bumblebees
One big happy family
Endless possibilities"

Haha, just saying. Anyway, enough rambling. Good night and/or good morning!

Freebie Friday --- Green Dream

Yes, more textile resource week:)

Today I'm contrasting last week's theme by putting up some green patterned textile textures. Enjoy!

Again, feel free to use these resources for personal or professional projects but please:

Do not claim the original resource images as your own
Do not redistribute commercially. Don't sell, share the link.
Do no use as a base to create your own stock.

And, please share anything you've made with these resources with me. I'd love to have a look! =)

*In quick other news - I'm almost done a new little illustration. Lots of process documentation for that one. Stay tuned=)

Happy Friday!

Freebie Friday - Red Pattern Textile Textures

So, textile resource sharing continues!

This week I have a set of red fabric patterns available:

 

You can also grab the whole set from a zip folder on my {deviantart page}

Again, feel free to use these resources for personal or professional projects but please:

Do not claim the original resource images as your own
Do not redistribute commercially. Don't sell, share the link.
Do no use as a base to create your own stock.

And, I'd love it if you shared anything you've made with these resources with me. I'd love to have a look! =)

Cheers!

Freebie Friday - Vintage Inspired Textile Textures

Happy Friday!

Recently I had this idea to share some resources which could be useful for people who work with a digital collage type illustration style. I've started going through scraps of fabric that have collected in my house throughout the years. This week I've ironed and scanned a whole bunch of them. And now I want to make them available for use for my fellow artists!
So I'm initiating "Freebie Friday" - and henceforth on Fridays, whenever I make a new set of textiles I'll post them on this blog where you'll be able to grab them and hopefully enjoy them.

This week I've made a Vintage Inspired textile set of 6 patterned pieces. Each image is roughly 8.5 x 11", 300 dpi.

You can also grab the whole set from a zip folder on my {deviantart page}

Feel free to use these resources for personal or professional projects but please:

Do not claim the original resource images as your own
Do not redistribute commercially. Don't sell, share the link.
Do no use as a base to create your own stock.

And, I'd love it if you shared anything you've made with these resources with me. I'd love to have a look! =)

Cheers!

Business Cards Comparison - Moo vs. Vistaprint

Hi there!
This morning I found a package by my doorstep. Seems some business-cards I ordered had arrived. A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with my father about different print services and he became curious to try the Vistaprint printing. I was quite skeptical about it, so my generous parent offered to sponsor a run of my business-cards for experiments sake.

So, they came today. I opened the box and lo and behold - there were 250 cards that left me quite underwhelmed. "Vistaprint.ca - make an impression" Sorry, I wasn't impressed, and I don't think I'd be making an impressive impression with the business cards you sent me. :(

We ordered Pro Business Cards with a Glossy finish. I checked all print recommendations and templates on their site and made sure everything was uploaded properly when I ordered them, so I hoped the results would be better than they came. (Apologies for oddly lit photos. It was an early and rainy morning, and the set up was quite impromptu)
(please click on the pictures for the full-sized image)

Vistaprint card

Here's the back of my card. I just realized that it's upside down, but that doesn't really matter.
To compare, below is the image of the pattern I used for this card's back side. Red and white, not this borderline orage color that Vistaprint decided I wanted. Also, only one side turned out to be glossy, the information side, which wasn't apparent when I was placing the order.

Also, let me compare the vista print with the set of cards that I got printed from Moo.com

Moo card

So much better! When I got my Moo business-card package back in November I had no complaints at all! I was very happy!
Now for a side by side card comparison:

Moo card on top, Vistaprint on the bottom

As you can see, the card from Moo is of the right colour and the line-work is thicker and crisper.
Let's have an even closer look:

Vistaprint

The line quality is rather pixelated. When I look at the card it looks sad.

The line quality here is very nice, smooth and crisp. When I look at the card I think it looks fantastic. I would be confident in handing out this card.

Also, let's have a close look at the other side:

Vistaprint

This is a close up of the logo on the information side of my card. What's up with that halo of pixels floating around the lines? Sure, you'd have to look very close to see it, but I'm a perfectionist so I had to point it out. Oddly enough the red colour (which is the same shade of red as on the backside pattern) came out fine on this front side.

Moo

Pretty crisp and clean.

For the record, I'm not hating on Vistaprint, I just personally wouldn't order from them again. I wish I was happier with them because I love getting a good, frugal deal. However, I guess it just goes to show - sometimes you get what you pay for.

For 250 cards from Vistaprint I paid around $35. (with shipping)
*If one is on a tighter budget, needing lots of cards and is considering using Vistaprint - some precautions I would take to get the best quality from their service would be: to print a black and white graphic image on the backside and use a graphic with thicker line-work if you can. I think with that approach it would be more likely that the cards would come out slicker looking.

For 50 cards from Moo I paid about $25. (with shipping) For 200 cards from Moo it would be a minimum of $70.00. 
*Pricy, but they do have discounts and promotions happening every now and then. I would recommend signing up for their newsletter. And I did love Moo's quality - they even send business-card holders with the purchase. Another cool thing about Moo, is that you can have as many different back side images as you want!
**P.S If you decide to order from Moo.com, here's a link, that will give you 10% off your first order: http://www.moo.com/share/kcs97f

To sum up, I wouldn't personally recommend Vistaprint, sorry! But if you follow my (hypothetical) tip, I think you might be able to get a better value for your buck from them.

Anyway, let's look instead at my Moo printed cards:

(my phone number has been edited out for internet privacy's sake)

I recently ordered some postcards Moo as well, so hopefully they'll be beautifully printed as well. Fingers crossed! =)