Better than Bubble Wrap?

As promised this is part two of my Pinterest Challenge entry. Sadly perhaps for you, I've decided that explaining how to make bubble wrap art is boring so really we're skipping right along to show you another piece I made a year or two back for my cousin. Let's just say, you cut out a piece of bubble wrap, tape it to some cardboard, paint and stamp. Easy.

So what's better than bubble wrap? Q-Tips of course.

When I'm mixing colors I rarely get the color I intended but I try to make it work. I learned this technique circa 1995 in fifth grade to paint an orange that I still have on my bulletin board. Fascinating, I know ;o) Here's another Q-Tip painting I did in college.

What do you think? Bubble wrap or Q-Tips?

Try Try Again

Hey look! I made a pattern that doesn't require squinting! I found instructions for pattern-ing it up in Photoshop as opposed to my last attempt when I tried to do it by hand. It wasn't pretty.

I get dork-ily excited when I figure out how to do something on my own. I know this is a little busy and there's definitely more to come as I keep teaching myself, but yaaaay.

Week 13: The Moral of the Story

It seems we've come to the part of the show/semester where I get to talk about what I learned. Not to get all mushy about it, but being forced to blog for class was probably the best thing that's ever happened to this blog. It not only forced me to practice my writing, but also to stretch my design skills. 

The above illustration is a good example. I took an old ink drawing from forever ago and digitally colored and manipulated it in Photoshop, something I've never done before for some reason. Before this semester, I was sort of in a lull on the creative/doodling front, but this has forced me to make time and to WANT to make time to create new things. 

I've really remembered how much I love drawing and designing. I've been flattered by friends, co-workers and classmates who have commented in person, on Facebook and here. 

So the moral of the story is that I'm going to keep it up even if it's challenging to find time. As was the case in the beginning of the semester, I'm still not really sure where I go from here with these weird doodles... I'm not quittin' my day job as they say. But, maybe someday :o)

Thanks and stay tuned!

What's The Swirl?

This design is roughly three or four years old. I found the .jpg on my hard drive and I have no clue where the original is (Mom's house?) I should find it and get a better scan. I'm thinking about re-scanning all my designs soon so that I can make them available online to buy as prints on RedBubble or CafePress or something. As much as I'd like to make originals for everyone who asks me (mainly family members named Andrew), I think this may be a better alternative for my current... uh, somewhat busy schedule... if you can call baking and laying around with the Snarky Beagle 'busy.'