How to use this Page

I've just discovered Corel Painter and am thoroughly enjoying everything it has to offer. This blue owl started off as a teeny marker pen doodle in my moleskine ideas book, and was scanned in and dropped into Painter where I had a sinful amount of fun painting him over, playing with their oil brushes and palette. Couldn't do it without my Wacom Bamboo pen and tablet -- I spent a whole day immersed in a non-messy oil painting experience. Can't wait to get my hands 'dirty' again. I have further plans for my Blue Owl, he will be 'graduating' soon and wearing the proper attire for it.

Here's an older drawing (Bee Happy Daisies) that I reworked in photoshop (pre-Painter discovery) and uploaded to Zazzle. I cut the bees and flowers out and played with the design in various configurations on the different products that they have to offer ... I love the customization option on Zazzle that allows for this. So it's slightly different depending on which product it's on up at the store, but this is the original illustration:

Cheers!

Blue Owl cards and matching gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

Bee Happy Daisies cards and matching gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

I've been updating some of my old drawings and adding them to Zazzle bit by bit ... takes time to get everything redone and onto new products. Here are my Daisy and Rose drawings, originally done in coloured pencil -- simple ones that I have had some fun with on photoshop, adding contrast, filters and shadows.

Received Today's Best Awards for envelope designs based on both the (updated) drawings, over at Zazzle:

Daisy cards & matching gifts, and Rose cards & matching gifts can be found at Floating Lemons at Zazzle.

Still on the doodles, here's a little Robin I drew with marker pens, and then worked on in photoshop.

I'm still catching up on tons of back-logged work. Also trying to redesign my Floating Lemons identity and banners etc ... it's about time I think, but it's not an easy job to tackle especially as I'm feeling slightly uninspired at the moment. I'll get there eventually.

We're experiencing a 'false spring' here in Provence and the sun streaming in gets a bit distracting and I've been giving into it, taking daily walks with the dogs. It will freeze over again far too soon I know as February is pretty much the coldest month, so I'm taking advantage of the wonderful weather while I can.

I received a Today's Best Award from zazzle for the Valentine's Card with the little robin on it, which was quite lovely and made my day (12th January):

If you would like to see the rest of the Little Robin cards and matching gifts, just click this link as they're up over at Floating lemons at Zazzle. Cheers!

Used watercolour pencils for these, in attempt to play with the unfamiliar looser feel of brush and paint, while still managing to control finer details with the far more familiar pencils. I did several base washes for the background texture and used pencil on the final layers for the bitsy bits. Discovered that the quality of the watercolour paper makes a HUGE and wonderful difference too. Learning as I go along.

As for the macarons, I found them in a new stall at our Friday morning market. Such lovely vibrant colours. Had to buy them! Especially as they were obviously home-made and thus wobbly, wonky, slightly squished with bits falling off ... thus quite perfect as far as I was concerned.

My problem once I've finished any drawing is the design part of the whole process. As I have no formal training whatsoever, I find it truly difficult to figure out how to present my drawings so that they look appealing on the products posted for sale at the online stores. It's tough and sometimes takes far too long as I fiddle around with ideas. I normally end up uploading two designs: one of the drawing exactly as it is against a white background, boring but safe; and two, with whatever background I end up with -- here's what I did with these macarons:

Not quite sure how well that works as I've been looking at it far too long and thus have lost all sense of judgement. Just plain lost all sense, really. Wish I could take some courses in basic design. Am exhausted now as I've been working pretty much non-stop for weeks. My nose has drawn blood from the grind-stone. I've a drawing in progress (faithful pencils again) that I shall complete slowly, but I may go back to doodling for a bit to give my fuzzy brain cell a chance to re-energise. Cheers.

5 Macarons and 5 Macarons stripes gifts and cards at Floating Lemons at Zazzle.

Took time off from my drawing to play around with one of my old marker pen doodles and turn it into a last-minute Christmas design. Cleaned it up in Photoshop and placed it in my Zazzle store and managed to get a Today's Best Award for one of the envelope designs!

Cheers!

Curly Candy Cane cards and gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

I've been dabbling rather than drawing recently. One of the results being the above cake, sketched out in marker pens, to which I added little bats for Halloween. Also did a couple of other cakes at the same time and I'll clean them up and add them at a later date.

Meanwhile, I've been concentrating on updating past drawings and designs at my Zazzle store, adding them to new products such as their stationery line (letterheads, matching envelopes and address labels, I truly enjoy creating matching sets!), and on cleaning and sorting out my home, preparing it for the coming months of winter work. Getting rid of the clutter and oh my, there's a ton of that.

I've also spent the last couple of days experimenting with watercolour, with truly embarassing results. More on that in the next post as I'm trying to salvage my one attempt by whipping my watercolour pencils out. If it doesn't turn out too tragic I may share it here ... we shall see!

I did receive a Today's Best Award from Zazzle for the Orange Striped bats Cake Avery Binder design:

Cheers!

Orange Striped bats Cake cards and matching gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle.

The whale was requested by a friend as a fun drawing, so is not meant to be an accurate representation! I went through hundreds of photos on the internet of Humpback Whales (as whales are momentarily unavailable in my area to pose for pics), sketched a whole load of them for practice, and then put them aside and drew one of my own.

This was drawn between guests and summer socializing, which is why it has taken this long -- I'm refusing to pressure myself as far as work is concerned at the moment as there just isn't enough time in which to do everything. Am enjoying the final long days of warmth with good friends, and I know I'll eventually catch up on it all once the weather turns cold and I morph into a work-obsessed hermit once more :)

I did manage, however, to begin a series of Silly Numbers and Letters which I am posting slowly, as and when I get them done. Drew them out in marker pens, scanned them, cleaned them up, then fiddled around a bit on photoshop. Here's Silly Number One for you in pink (I have both the Numbers & Letters in red, blue, pink, orange, lavender, lime green, chocolate and white. Yes I tend to go overboard at times, what can I say?) and the Silly Number 1 chocolate Invitation Envelope for which I received a Today's Best Award on Zazzle :) Cheers ...

Whale cards, stationery & matching gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

Silly Numbers 1 cards, stationery & matching gifts at Floating Lemons Typography at Zazzle

I'm a wee bit stuck at the moment ... for the first time ever I have three drawings on the go, and am not too happy about any of them. So I'm posting this one -- a quick sketch that I completed last week. Of the three that I'm working on right now, one will probably take me weeks to finish as it's far more complicated than I'd expected (which seems to be the case with far too many of my choices), another is just too simple a doodle and I may trash it, and the last one ... well, it's plain boring. You may or may not see them here if I ever do complete them, we shall see.

I've been enjoying the spring days, walks with the dogs and, today, a visit to the nursery to buy plants (including two hanging strawberries, yum). Soon I'll have my veggie garden started up as well. Am planning to sketch as everything flourishes (assuming that something will!) and share my gardening pleasures -- successes, failures, the works. Apart from my art there's just nothing as satisfying as getting one's hands dirty with, er, dirt. Cheers.

PS: The letterhead design for Flower in Green won a Today's Best Award at Zazzle AND Top Ten Letterhead views :)

Flower in Green cards & gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

It's been gorgeous spring weather the last few days, perfect for drawing luscious strawberries while the sun streams in through the windows. Work has been slow .. I keep taking time off to wander around in the garden, pottering about with plants, or just taking pleasure in being outdoors.

I don't normally post photos here, but thought I'd show off a couple of my front garden for a change:

If anyone has any idea of what the tree full of pink blossoms is please let me know ...

On a final happy note, I received a Today's Best Award for the following letterhead from zazzle! Cheers :)

Strawberries Falling cards & gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

Today's post is a bit of a stroll into the past, as the bow tie above was a request based on a blue bow tie I had drawn a couple of years back, redrawn in lemon yellow.

I'm a Featured Seller Interview up at the Zazzle blog this week, which is wonderful and hugely motivating. Perfect timing, as I'm in the midst of sorting out my stores, and going through a much needed clean-up that will take me quite a while as I have to sort out tags, new products and redesigns on just about everything. 

Here's one of my older text designs that I've now reproduced in different colours and on some of the new products:

 

 
Still a bit stuck on the ideas front so I'm hoping this clean-up will help kick-start the inspiration motor. Fingers crossed. Cheers!