Spoonflower Weekly Contest: Stars & Stripes

I had a lot of fun creating my design for this week's Spoonflower contest so I thought I'd post the sketches!

If you're wondering what the hell kinda fabric would be covered with drawings of David Bowie I'll tell you.

This week Spoonflower challenged it's members to come up with a design using stars and stripes.

I'm sure this theme is meant to conjurer images of red, white and blue, pictures of eagles, flags and Uncle Sam; a design bursting with American patriotism. Of course there's nothing wrong with all that (especially this close to the 4th of July) but I am not in fact American. Being a non American I saw this as an opportunity to step outside the box and inject a little of my own home turf into the stars and stripes. And so I give you.......

STARDUST!!!!!

I won't exactly be making my next party dress out of it but I figured it might make a couple of cool, kitsch cushions!

If you'd like to vote for designs in this week's contest you can do so here

Pimpin' Ain't Easy

Something cool happened to me this week so I thought I'd share it.

If you've been following you'll know that I embarked on a 30 day drawing challenge over Christmas. You may also remember this drawing I did for day 27.
Well I was contacted yesterday by someone from a website called AfroDigital who wanted to use my funny little drawing as a slider image on the website!

Of course I said yes and today Afro-Dari (as I've decided to call him) went live on the web!

Pimpin' ain't easy!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 25 - 30!!!

Hello all!! I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!! If you don't celebrate Christmas I hope u had a lovely weekend ;)

I'm about to post the final drawings from the challenge (it officially ended yesterday). So here we go!

Day 25 was scenery. My apologies for the slightly crumpled nature of this drawing. Biro and water colour tend to have that effect on paper. 

In case you were wondering, this is the view from one of the many glorious windows in my bedroom :)

 I had no trouble at all thinking of something I don't like for day 26.

I would go so far as to say that I despise mosquitoes. I'm constantly irritated by them and I'm yet to discover what role they play in our ecosystem that is so important that they just can't die already!!
I think I should be able to wear shorts around my house without fear of having my legs bitten to shit and then having to spend the rest of the day stinking of aloe vera. I feel it is also my right to go to bed without covering my entire body with repellent only to wake up and find i've been bitten on my eyelid because, silly me, I forgot to smear a big dollop of cream there!! grrrr!!!!

OK, calm is returning.......mosquitoes, u suck. On to better things. Here's a picture of someone I love for day 27.

I think you'd be surprised by how accurate this is! My boyfriend did just point out that he doesn't have quite as impressive a neck beard as this guy seems to have. I did try to explain that the absence of neck means that his beard has mingled with the hair at the back of his head but there's just no pleasing some people!

Anyway, on day 28 I was supposed to be drawing anything I'd like which was a refreshing change. Day 28 was Christmas eve so I decided to draw a Christmas tree!

 Day 29's challenge was to draw somewhere I'd like to go. I'd really like to go to peru to see Machu Picchu (and also pick up some new pyjamas). Here's my shocking attempt at capturing it.

From what I can tell it's really beautiful when I'm not left to draw it.

That brings us to the final day of the drawing challenge, day 30! Here's my congratulatory banner for finishing the challenge :)

To be honest I'm pretty glad to see the back of this drawing challenge business. There's a few things I've discovered in the last month. Firstly it's really hard to draw something good every day, secondly it's a really bad idea to attempt this over Christmas (or any time that's likely to be busy for that matter). And thirdly, Crayola don't make enough varied colouring pens. It's no wonder children draw such God awful pictures!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 17 - 24

Once again I'm waaaaaaaaay behind posting my drawing challenges. Ironically I lost my inspiration shortly after drawing it on day 16 and couldn't think of anything to draw on day 17! Luckily I've been designing some fabric for a curtain in the living room and it just so happened to have leaves on it. So from now on my favourite plant will be a Breadfruit tree!

I don't know if the challenges are getting harder or if I'm getting lazier but something about the subjects after day 15 has me stumped.
Having said that, day 18 was probably the easiest so far! Here's my doodle,

It would have been a lot easier to come up with something to draw for 19 after Christmas considering I should have at least one new thing by then. The newest thing I could think to draw was an earring (from my birthday.........in August........)


Day 20 was something orange so naturally I had to rep the B to the L to the O to the double G, E, R. Don't worry my boyfriend has already taken the trouble to point out that I'm "not even slightly cool." You should know that he makes this observation whilst reading science fiction on his own in a dark corner.

It took me a minute to come up with something I wanted on day 21! Originally I was gonna draw an elaborate house with a big pool and lots of outdoor living space but that hurt my brain so I went with something more straight forward (and attainable). 

I feel like I maybe should have drawn me with my family and friends in a heart-warming embrace on day 22 but.......instead I drew a Game Boy!

I almost reached the absolute pinnacle of laziness on day 22 when I went to draw something I need. I was going to draw oxygen so that I didn't have to draw anything at all. Deciding this was damaging to the spirit of the challenge I drew a hoody!

 
Yes people you heard me right. I'm in Barbados and I need a hoody.

The Muppets finally came to the island after being released just about everywhere else in November so Piggy and Kermit were my couple of choice on day 23.

My piggy looks a little bit stoned! Oh well!

I still have 4 more days to post before I'll be completely up to date but I have to go and decorate some cakes I made last night. Got a bit of a cocktail party happening this evening and I seem to have found myself in charge of the food :-s

I'll try and post the rest a bit later or failing that tomorrow. Toodles for now!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 14 - 16

I'm still beavering away with this drawing challenge! As the title would suggest I'm gonna show you days 14 to yesterday (day 16).

Day 14's challenge was to draw my favourite fairytale. This is a fairly abstract representation of the fairytale I chose (but then it's also a pretty abstract fairytale). I would encourage you to comment if u know where this sentence comes from :)

I don't generally have the patience required for drawing great portraits so I decided to take a different approach to the challenge on day 15. Here is a portrait of my family according to the Chinese Zodiac.

If you're wondering who's who I'm not gonna tell u! But you're welcome to guess ;)
I'll even help by telling u which members of my family are pictured here. Me, my Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister and Granny.

Moving on. Yesterday's challenge was tricky. I had to draw inspiration. This concept had me confused because I'm pretty accustomed to drawing from inspiration but I wasn't entirely sure how to go about drawing inspiration itself. In the end I figured that colour was my only constant source of inspiration and went with that!

Today's drawing is my favourite plant but since I haven't figured out exactly what that is yet I'm gonna close this post to go think about it. I'll leave u instead with a picture of the Christmas cookies my clever boyfriend made!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 12 & 13

OK, back to the drawing challenge!

Yesterday was day 12 and my most recent accomplishment. Now I wasn't sure just how major an accomplishment this was supposed to be. See there's big mile stones like graduating from uni, starting a new job, getting engaged (not quite there yet) etc. which are all great things but none of them are that recent. Then there's things like completing a difficult level on Rollercoaster Tycoon or killing that last really annoying pig on Angry Birds! These things, although not that useful in the big scheme of things are really awesome day to day victories which I feel are often overlooked.

I wouldn't say I went quite so far as to celebrate the death of any pigs yesterday (my iphone ran out of battery) but I did get paid :)

I think we can all agree that keeping myself clothed and staving off hunger for at least another month is something that's deserving of acknowledgement!

Today's Challenge is to draw a comic strip so that's exactly what I've done!

I wanted to give you an incite into my daily life so I decided to draw a conversation between my boyfriend and I. The first one that sprung to mind is illustrated (badly) below.

  

Yes that is a blank thought bubble coming from my boyfriend's head. It occasionally gets filled with thoughts of food, aeroplanes and gymnastics but for the most part it looks like that. 

Anyway, I was gonna make a proper comic of this but I felt we'd already covered my inability to shut up on day 11. This is why I took out a second piece of paper and created this equally crappy comic!

My boyfriend laughed when he saw this. Apparently it was funny enough to take his attention away from video games momentarily but not funny enough (or thought provoking enough) to encourage him to move his damn clothes from the basket!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 8-11

I'm back with day 8 leading on from yesterday's post. I had to draw my favourite animated character which, like many of these daily challenges was difficult to choose. But I did!!

If you don't know who this is you're really missing out on a good thing. Click this, watch and enjoy!

Although I watch and enjoy a LOT of animated comedy I decided to go in a different direction with the answer to challenge 9 (drawing my favourite TV show). At first I thought this show was stupid but then I found myself getting sucked in. Can you guess what it is?

Did you get it? I'll give you a clue, It's anatomy and it's grey! get it, get it?!

On day 10 I had to draw my favourite candy and I didn't know if that extended to chocolate but I didn't care, I drew it anyway :)

Yesterday I was faced with the challenge of drawing a turning point in my life! I thought of a few but they were all too hard to visualise (or rather I was too lazy to visualise them) or too cheesy (I try to avoid cheese wherever possible unless it's going on pasta).
I finally came up with this,


I chose to draw the day I learned to talk because it wasn't only a significant turning point in my life but in so many other lives too! Since this day I have spoken a great deal (not always a whole lot of sense). I tirelessly continue to rant about petty, insignificant topics and annoy people with childish taunts and sarcasm, often sharing my opinion where it's not wanted. Carrying on and on until my audience yells at me to desist or tunes me out completely. Yes, learning to talk was brilliant!   

That bring us to today's effort which is a drawing of my most recent accomplishment (at least it will be when I eventually get around to drawing it).

So I'm gonna go get on with it! Be back soon........

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 4-7

Ok I am waaaaaay behind on posting my drawing challenge pics! Last time I posted I was supposed to be drawing my favourite place and after some thought I realised that my bed was the only real option.

Btw those pants were not on the bed this morning.......they were on the floor.......they are still there now.

Day 5 I was supposed to be drawing my best friend which was hard because I have many very good friends (and I'm an eternal diplomat, very important for keeping said friends). I did finally manage to pick a best friend. A friend whose presence I would truly be lost without!

Oh internet, what would I do without u?!

Some of you may recognise my favourite book character from day 5 as the Enormous Crocodile from Roald Dahl's 'The Enormous Crocodile.'

'The Enormous Crocodile grinned, showing hundreds of sharp white teeth.

“I’m going to fill my hungry empty tummy with something yummy yummy yummy yummy!” Great stuff!!

I had to give drawing number 7 some thought but then I realised that while there are many good even great words. None are quite as amazing as.............

You may in fact need a microscope to read those speech bubbles but really all u need to know is that yes is good!

And now I'm going to watch TV coz my internet keeps spazzing out and it's starting to piss me off (pardon my French, sometimes it's necessary).

We'll resume from drawing 8 tomorrow!

Ok, I'm 3 days in to my drawing challenge and already I'm behind with my posts. I started drawing myself but failed miserably!! I made my features too big and my face too small and then I got bored so I kinda bailed and gave myself a Lisa Simpson hairdo. I swear I can do better look!

Anyway, in the end I decided to try a kinda semi-continuous line drawing without looking at the paper and that's when I created the masterpiece on the right!

Overall I wouldn't say I'd had the most successful start but perseverance is the name of the game!

The most difficult thing about day 2 was having to figure out what my favourite animal is. In the end I settled on an elephant :)

Today I got stuck again, this time thinking of a favourite food. I went with pasta in the end but I can't say I'm all that proud of my drawing. Turns out it's not that easy to draw something good EVERY day.

Tomorrow I have to draw my favourite place so hopefully I'll find the time between now and then to come up with something good.....or at least better.

Wish me luck!

30 Day Drawing Challenge!

My Christmas craft experiment is taking a touch longer to dry than I had anticipated so I won't be posting anything about that today. I did say I would post something today (even though I'm almost certain that no one will be reading it over the weekend) so I have prepared something else to share with you.


I found this idea via this website (credit where credit's due). It is a 30 day drawing challenge which I plan to make a start on tomorrow! Please join me if you'd like!

In case u can't be bothered to click on the links, here is your list of things to draw over the next 30 days!

Will be back tomorrow with my first drawing!! Good luck to anyone else who decides to give this a shot! Feel free to share!

More Gems & Birds

I've run out of song lyrics to alter for use as titles (I'm sure there are more but I'm too lazy to think of any). Anyway, back to the point, I finished my scarf!! I am SUPER proud of myself for the level of efficiency I've displayed this week *big grin.* Not only have I completed a scarf design in 4 days but I have also managed to get all my freelance work done! Yey me :-D

I'd like to retain some mystery for a little while but I can't bring myself to leave you with nothing to look at so here's a sneak preview!  

Thanks for reading!

If I Gave You Diamonds and Birds

I did lots of colouring today and made quite a bit of progress :) Please see below for visual confirmation of said progress.

I did make a start on the actual scarf itself but I'm not quite ready to reveal that just yet ;)
Watch this space.............

Diamonds are a Bird's Best Friend

I finally had some spare time this weekend so I decided to spend at least some of it drawing (the rest of my time, in case you're wondering was spent at the beach) ;)

Anyway, I'm hoping these drawings will become part of a new scarf I'm designing. Now I know this is not the first time I've attempted to seduce you with talk of new scarf designs. And no, those designs never quite came to fruition, and for that deception I am truly sorry. But this time it's different! 

I'm preparing for a showcase next month (details to follow later) to display my scarves. So with this is mind it only seems right that I should include at least one new addition to my collection.

I'll have to update sooner rather than later since I don't have much time to prepare so keep your eyes peeled!! 

What to do, what to do??

I'm having a bit of a melt-down this week. It's not necessarily a bad thing (my life isn't falling apart you'll be pleased to know). I've just had a bit of a sensory overload. I'm really excited about this next set of designs and typically my enthusiasm has lead to confusion.........

Basically I've been trying to figure out which direction to take said designs. I started out the same way I usually would; research and drawing followed by more research. Then drawing. But somehow I managed to get lost.

See the problem isn't a lack of material to work from or even a lack of ideas. The problem is a complete lack of focus! All the images I've pulled for inspiration are gorgeous and I just can't seem to narrow it down! I can't pick a style or a mood or even a colour palette. To be honest I always have trouble picking a colour palette. Actually that's a lie. I don't have any problems picking a colour palette. The trouble is sticking to it! I love colours and I'd rather not exclude any of them from my designs!

Luckily I know my weaknesses all too well and have decided on a plan of action to combat them! A mood board!

If you're accustomed to creating mood boards you might be thinking that this one isn't actually all that helpful. You're right. It isn't really. While I was compiling it I realised that my indecisiveness might actually be a good thing! I might be able to find a way to merge all these things together into one super, awe inspiring design which all other designs will cower at the feet of. Either that or I'll create some kind of abstract floral monster that will have an eye-melting effect on whoever should gaze upon it. Either way, it won't be boring!

Wish me luck :)

The last of the butterflies

I had every intention of updating on Thursday but things got a little hectic after the whole recolouring the wrong image fiasco. I did manage to get it all done though so here's a sample of it.

I imagine you're almost as sick of looking at these blasted butterflies as I am (if you've been following my progess that is, otherwise hello and welcome)! In any case I won't be posting any more for a while as I move on to other things. Things such as the meeting I have tomorrow to discuss a new project!

To be honest I wasn't even going to mention that in case it doesn't go well and I'm forced to write an embarrassing follow-up post about how much I suck. In fact all now I'm wondering if I should delete it and save myself while I still can!!

.................But I won't............wish me luck!!