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One of the best parts of working with Dame Darcy, other than the fact that she's a super sweety pie and an amazing cook, is that I get to enjoy the lovelies she offers on her Etsy shop before they have to be shipped off to their new lucky owners. It's like having a constantly revolving art show in my home.
Thanks again to everyone who voted for my Ghostly Paisley design at Spoonflower. And to show you lovely blog readers just how thankful I am, here's the giveaway I promised. Simply leave a comment below to enter. Next Saturday, October 3rd, I will close the comments and pick a name out of a hat. The winner will get to choose a fat quarter of their choice of any of my fabric designs.
A comment of any sort will enter you into the contest, but I'd love to hear of any fabric designs that you particularly love, so feel free to let me know of any fabric designers out there I should keep an eye on. As I'm sure many of you know, we fabric lovers can never get enough...
Well, that's one way to get around...
This is one third of my submission to this year's Siren Nation Festival. (The other two thirds are old illustrations, so I won't bore you with the gory details.) The theme this year is journey, and I knew immediately that I had to complete this drawing that has been knocking around in my head for the past few years.
I first thought of this drawing when I saw a blob of water on the floor of Kieran's bathroom (back when it was just his bathroom—not ours—about four years ago) that was shaped like a girl with her hair stretched out above her. Well, vaguely shaped. Alright, maybe it was just shaped like a water blob, but there's just no accounting for inspiration or her many sources.
I'm actually not sure yet what the date is of the opening of this group show, but I do know that it's next week, possibly Thursday or Friday, and it will take place at the Olympic Mills at SW 2rd & Washington here in Portland.
I'd also like to take a moment to thank all of my wonderful blog readers who voted for my fabric design at Spoonflower. My Ghostly Paisley won the competition, and to celebrate, I will be hosting a fabric-related giveaway here on my blog. Tune in tomorrow for details.
They ran away with one another. Scandalous!
And they turned into a new fabric design. Shocking!
Well, at least they're happy.
My little ghostlies are also pretty happy and are certainly appreciative of all your votes. If you haven't voted yet, check out the wonderful Halloween fabrics at the Spoonflower blog and pick your favorites.
Here's the Ghostly Paisley design all nicely printed by Spoonflower. It's currently in a fabric design competition there, and my ghosts can certainly use all the votes they can get. They have a pesky way of haunting you if you don't do what they say. I'll see what I can do to get them to stay in line, but in the meantime, it's best just to participate in the Spoonflower voting process.
Since it's dreadfully boring to blog the same thing twice in a row, I'd like to share some works in progress I progressed on today:
This is a redrawn version of an illustration I made years ago. It's for a project I promised you blog readers I'd have finished years ago. It was the only thing holding me back from finishing that project, and, by gum, I'm gonna do it. I'm so determined, in fact, that I'm turning the single project into two projects. How delightful!
I only promised to finish this one nine months ago, so no fair laying on any guilt for these lovely braids. I haven't even hit the one year mark!
This project doesn't involve any procrastination at all. In fact, I only learned about it today. Instead, it involves a spoon and flowers. Could it by any chance have something to do with the first topic of this post? As is usual with my work, only time will tell.
Phew! This was a tough one! Had to learn a bit about making more complex repeating patterns, and now I think I'll make a tutorial so other folks don't have to figure out quite so much. I'll even include the one bit that saved me from a heart attack right at the end. ("What do you mean, the tiles don't line up?? I have to redraw all those pesky little paisleys again? Gasp gasp!" followed by mechanical pencils flying across the room.)
In the end, I think it was worth the effort, and I learned some really valuable information for the next complex pattern I decide to make.
These little ghosties are my submission to Spoonflower's Halloween fabric design contest. It's not the most blatantly Halloweeny design, but I think I like it better that way. Much as I love the pumpkins and pointy hats of the season, I can't get enough of those decorations that are just subtle enough to leave up all year round. (Like my little black kitty, Lydia!)
I think some of them look like Anna Paquin, but I might just be watching too much True Blood.
This pattern is available on fabric in my Etsy shop.
