Summer is Coming, Upcoming Pin Project

Now that the weather is warming up, I have been focused on creating new print projects full of color and fun! I recently did a small letterpress card in magenta/purple ink, and I have been working on a new pin design featuring colorful popcycles for my Etsy shop! 

Sketching ideas, playing around in Illustrator to finalize the vector illustration for the pin design!

Sketching ideas, playing around in Illustrator to finalize the vector illustration for the pin design!

Small and sweet, perfect size for a little note to brighten up a friends day!

Small and sweet, perfect size for a little note to brighten up a friends day!

Drawing Food is Fun!

Lately I have been sketching and drawing all sorts of food. From sketching some tasty donuts and coffee to illustrating a gooey-cheesy slice of deep dish, I have been exploring the creative side of my foodie habits. Here is a few illustrations I ended up using for food related event invitations for students at JMLS. Food is one of my favorite subjects to draw, if you need a special food related illustration let me know, I would love to do it!

food-illustrations-jmls-events

2017 Calendar Design

It is time to find a new calendar for 2017! I love finding a new, unique calendar to hang up in the office and at home.  I have designed this year at-a-glance calendar that features flowers and adorable foxes. This will be available on my Spoonflower shop soon, where you can make it into a tea towel or a unique wall hanging.

I took this sketch of a fox and a few floral elements and transformed them in Illustrator into this calendar design. The fabric design version that is going into my Spoonflower shop doesn't have the floral repeating pattern in the background.

Ready for School?

As summer draws to an end, and fall is right around the corner I felt inspired to draw a corgi getting ready to go back to school. This was a really fun illustration to do, I started in my sketchbook with a pencil,  and then finished coloring it in Photoshop and cropped the original drawing down to this layout.

Women in Science Illustration of Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton is a computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. She was a part of a team that developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program at NASA. Her contributions were an integral part of the successful moon landing, and I bet you have never heard of her. I was inspired to do this illustration of Margaret after listening to this segment on Science Friday about her and the all female team of coders working on the Apollo 11 mission. I started off by doing a rough sketch using a blue pencil, and finished it on my Surface Pro using the Bamboo App and finally Photoshop to add in a few finishing touches.

Learn more about Margaret and other women in science who deserve to have their stories told.

So Kawaii Pets!

“ka·waii

1. the quality of being cute, or items that are cute. Origin: Japanese”

I designed this Kawaii Pets surface pattern design for a recent Spoonflower design prompt. Japanese anime and Kawaii culture came into my life once I started watching Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro and after a trip to Japan that really ignited a love for all things Kawaii. From toys to stationery, this style makes me smile and fills my work space and home with a fun, positive energy.

Hummingbird Study

This weekend I was inspired to study hummingbirds. With their bold, beautiful colors, and spirited personalities, they seem to embody spring for me right now. I wanted to draw them and capture the spirit of movement without loosing too much detail.  Sketching them with quick lines and spring, pretty colors seemed appropriate. I drew these three birds on my Surface Pro using the pen in the Bamboo app. It was really nice to get the lines just right using my reference photos of right there in app. I also really liked the intuitive, transparency of the marker setting to add just the right amount of color to finish up the sketch. I can see myself continuing this study working in watercolor, and working in Illustrator to create a surface pattern design for my Spoonflower shop.

Here's to studying something new, and stretching our creative muscles.

Spring is Coming!

“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.”
— Ruth Stout

I was just on a flight, flipping through the new Better Homes & Gardens magazine and noticed all the springtime products and garden goodies! This year we are finally able to have a small garden on our balcony and I can't wait to get it started. Feeling inspired I whipped out my notebook and started sketching. This floral sketch looked really nice when I later traced it in Illustrator, so I made a little note card. It will no doubt remind me spring is coming, even if it is still cold outside.

Here's to a plentiful spring ahead!

Thinking about Valentines

I love Valentine's cards. Cute, witty, little cards you give to your loved ones. This year I used the Bamboo app to draw a few, then I did one by hand and finished it in Photoshop. It was cool to see how true to my hand writing the Surface Pro 4's pen tool showed up in the first three. The one I did by hand (the llama) and colored in Photoshop looks pretty similar. These are ready to print and mail!