From my sketchbook: Let's Eat Cake!

How it is Friday already?! Time's been flying by lately and I've been busying myself with lots of projects. I designed, printed and photographed three new cards this week and thought I'd share a little peek at my design process.



My designs always start out as simple sketches. Sometimes I'll sketch an idea over and over again, but this time I lucked out after only a couple iterations. I knew I wanted this design to turn into a papercut, so I had to think of positive and negative space quite a bit.



I rough-traced it onto tracing paper, then taped it onto my cardstock and got to cutting with my xacto.



I then scanned the papercut into photoshop to clean up some of the edges and resize to fit on the card. I used my Wacom tablet to hand-write the text straight into Photoshop. After that it's just a matter of separating the two colors, printing out into a transparency, and then exposing it to light on a coated screen. Then I screen print each color onto the cardstock, fold it up, and the card is done!



Let's Eat Cake! is now listed in my shop and my Etsy shop.

So long, February.

Just like that, the first two months of 2014 are in the bag! I don't know about you, but time has been flying by as I've been busying myself with a bunch of projects. First off, I'm setting myself up to do freelance contract work in landscape architecture, so contracts, tax requirements, and technology needs have been on the brain lately. I'm also getting ready for Craftcation in April! I'm designing new business cards for the site and I'll be implementing a little blog re-design here once I get those things finalized. Additionally, I'm almost done with my new shop website. Wow, talk about spinning plates!



In between all of this business behind-the-scenes work I just had to do some drawing. Here's a little sneak peak at a new print I've been working on. As usual, it started with inked sketches in my sketchbook, then onto tracing paper, then scanned into Illustrator so I could assemble the repeat, and then printed tests at different sizes to determine the scale. I can't wait to show you the finished product in a couple weeks!

Have a creative weekend! 

From my sketchbook: Holiday Card

All of my design work starts with sketches. I often sketch and idea multiple times to work out design elements and refine proportions. Here's a little glimpse at the preliminary design work for this year's holiday card.


I ended up drawing the background landscape and stars by hand, but I made a papercut of the Mini to place into the scene. I just love how papercut edges look, and having to work within the constraints of something I could cut in a nice challenge and lends a little more interest to the design.


All of this (and a little more behind the scenes work) combined to create this!

These and my other cards are available in my Etsy shop.

Evolution of a design.

Things have been a little quiet around here lately as I've been busy readying my shops for the holiday season. Can you believe we're already one week into November? I've created a new holiday card design for each of my Etsy shops, and I wanted to share the design evolution with you - from pencil sketch, to papercut, to screen printed design. My first sketch of this design is dated from last November! Sometimes you just need to sit with an idea for a while before you can really work it out and get it right. :) Here are some views into my sketchbook.

After I had my papercut, I scanned, resized, and exposed a silkscreen with the design. I printed it in a two-color process (deep red and forest green) onto cardstock. Here are my finished pieces.


Printed on French Paper Speckletone in Kraft and Natural white. Both are available in my Vitamodern Etsy shop.

I really like their retro, earthy vibe. I'm also getting really into working out my designs with papercuts. At first I was intimidated by the complex needles of the pine, but I couldn't resist trying to cut it out of paper. I'm glad I decided to go for it.

From my sketchbook.

Looking through my old sketchbooks and reliving some of my travels.

A notable pigeon in Assisi, Italy

Water scene at the Portland Japanese Garden

Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany. The tiny hill town where I lived for 3 months in college.

My favorite design tools.

I'd like to share some of my design methods with you and list a few of my favorite tools that I use when I'm creating designs for screen printing (from low-tech to high-tech)

1. Moleskine Sketchbook. This sketchbook is small and portable so it's easy to take everywhere. I carry one of these in my purse so I can jot down ideas and make little sketches whenever inspiration hits. I also keep various other sketchbooks around the house for sketching while I'm watching tv or just relaxing.
2. Tracing paper. When I'm refining a design from my sketchbook, I use lot's of different layers of trace to experiment with different outline and fill options. Also, since my designs will eventually be transferred to a screen for printing, I use the trace layers to decide where each different color will go on the design. 
3. Micron Pens. Maybe it's because my experience with drawing and sketching started in drafting class, but I love sketching and drawing with (somewhat) technical pens like Microns. Some of my other favorites are Staetdler, Sign Pens, and Faber-Castel Pitt Artist pens in Sepia. I almost never sketch with pencil. 
4. Adobe Creative Suite Programs. I use Illustrator when I'm creating designs directly into the computer and also for design layouts and fabric repeats. I scan my hardline sketches into Photoshop and clean them up there (deleting stray lines, increasing contrast, filling areas) before I move them to Illustrator.
5. Wacom Bamboo tablet. When I'm drawing straight into the computer, I use this Bamboo tablet and the pressure-sensitive pen. It's not exactly like drawing on paper, but it's pretty close! I also use the tablet when I'm image editing in Photoshop. It's much easier to navigate tools and erase with the Bamboo pen tool than my MacBook Pro's trackpad. There are lots of different tablet models out there at many different price points.

Those are the tools I use the most when I'm designing. I hope you've enjoyed reading about my process. What are your favorites? Do you keep a sketchbook?

From my sketchbook.

Growing up, I was never really that interested in drawing. Sure, I enjoyed painting, had a streak when I was about 8 when I obsessively created watercolor sunsets, and I liked coloring. But drawing? Eh, not my favorite. It wasn't until my sophomore year at UC Davis in my first landscape architecture courses that I was REQUIRED to keep a sketchbook. Our lecturer would take us out on campus and we would sketch various things, mostly trees, shrubs, and outdoor spaces. At the time I felt like I had no idea what I was doing (because I didn't) and I felt a lot of pressure to have a "good" sketch when it came to sharing with the rest of the class. Over ten years and tons of drawings later the most important thing I've learned about sketching is not to care so much! Really, the loose quality of a sketch is really what gives it its charm.

While I may not be sketching trees and shrubs as much (unless I'm at my day job), I keep sketchbooks to record new screen print design ideas, work out product specs, or just take notes about things. I have a small Moleskine with me at all times and have larger sketchbook that I use at home. I'm always interested to see artists' working sketches to get an idea of their creative process so I've decided to start a regular post here sharing some views of my sketchbook. They may be from this morning, from years ago during my Italian travels, or my early days in college. Here are a couple recent ones.

 

Do these look familiar? They're the working sketches for this years' holiday cards in my Etsy shops!