Earthy Spoonflower Design Challenge

I've been working on new surface pattern designs for the East Fork Spoonflower Challenge coming up. I hadn't heard of this company before the challenge. But was inspired by their beautiful collection of pottery. The winning design will accompany the company's earthy home line.

I wanted to keep the fabric design pretty simple so that it compliments the pottery and let it stand out. I did some hand sketching textures to help give it an organic feel. I came up with two styles using their Tequila Sunrise color. One is a tweak from my previous Cross-hatch tree design. And other that is more of a wavy sketchy stripe. Both started out hand drawn in my sketch book, then photographed and converted to vector artwork in Illustrator. Each was rearranged digitally to tighten up the design and help create the repeating pattern.

I ended up posting the Organic Wave version as my submission because it's a new design for me. Voting will begin on April 30 at the Spoonflower Design Challenge.

Spring Refresh

Back on the blog from a little hiatus. Lots has changed and not at the same time. Like many people this time at home has given me more time to focus on my side creative life. And locating and refreshing this blog has been on my list of to-dos for a while. And now is the perfect time to get back at it. Since launching my Etsy store, I've added a Spoonflower shop with a variety of designs for wallpaper and fabric, and now a consolidated Lamb Design Goods website to house all my various product and process info and links. I've been able to create these through baby steps throughout the last three years and longer. There are definitely days I don't feel creative especially now on quarantine. I have moments of feeling super productive and others where I rather just stare at the ceiling. But right now I am taking advantage of my more energetic moments to bust out a few tasks. I'm hoping that refreshing this blog will help me bring all these things together and help me stay inspired. Baby steps are sometimes just what we need to get us where we want to go.

New Adventures: LambDesignGoods

 

 

After years of saying I wanted to, I've opened up an Etsy shop with a focus on digital downloadable designs. LambDesignGoods. Sometimes it takes us a while to get where we want to go ; )

With a few of my own Valentine's designs from recent holidays pretty much ready, it gave me the extra push. So I pulled them together over the last few weeks in time for this year's Valentine's Day. There is a handful of card options to purchase for digital download, but I'm hoping to expand my selection of other ideas and designs in the next few months. Stay tuned for more.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/lambdesigngoods

Drawing a Day (well, almost)

Just wrapped up a year of daily drawings (well frequent drawing, at least). I love that this has started a drawing habit and also has me practicing different drawing techniques more often. The relaxation it provides my scattered brain is immeasurable.

I highly recommend picking up a hobby that makes you happy. Or rediscovering a favorite activity and making a little time to let yourself run with it. Start small. Allow yourself to play and make mistakes. Don't feel like it has to be perfect. I've gotten really good at calling those "mistakes" my "studies" instead. I often come back to the idea days or weeks later and improve upon them. It gives you confidence and satisfaction.

What creative hobby are you itching to let out?

XOXO Valentines

Wanted to post this year's Valentine project before St. Patrick's day rolls around too...

L's latest thing is tic tac toe. And the song X's and O's. So there you have it. Ready made for a take on the tic tac toe Valentines idea.

I took advantage of my paints from my daily drawing challenge to brush out red and orange X's and O's and a red color wash for the game board background. A couple of dotted pen strokes and embellishments for the lettering and separator lines and I had my base for the card. I then scanned and assembled the design in Photoshop. Placed them four up on a page and printed them out double sided.

All that was left was to assemble the bags and sort out Hersey's Kisses and Hugs for the game pieces. That was L's job, which he loved.