SoulStrike first look

As mentioned in a previous blog, I've been working on a series of pencil drawings.  Known collectively as SoulStrike, these images are designed with apparel in mind, in particular bowling shirts, t-shirts and tank tops.  They could also be used on accessories such as bags, wallets and hair accessories.  The poster featured here is drawn with Faber-Castell coloured pencils and watercolour pencils (not wet) on A3 cartridge and shows the more feminine side of SoulStrike, with roses, lotus and the central theme of bowling around the SoulStrike logo.  Images from this collection will also be available collectively as tattoo flash art, however I'm still working on getting reliable scanned images from pencil drawings to produce good quality prints.  The photo here was just taken with my iPod, hence the blur and lighting being poor, but the colours have come up very similar to the original.

And here is this week's submission for Illustration Friday.  The topic is "Golden."  I was pleased with the way my autumn leaves turned out on last week's entry, that I decided to focus on them with this one.  And, of course, there has to always be butterflies or roses in my work, hence the psuedo-monarchs dancing with the falling leaves.

Next week's blog should include a start on the first brief of the Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search, as it hits the emails of the participants on 5th August.  Can't wait to see what it is!

Emma

An Exciting Challenge

Since starting to discover the world of surface design and illustration, there has been one name which has been prevalent in my research: Lilla Rogers.  A respected artist in her own right, Lilla's firm represents illustrators and surface pattern designers from all over the world, helping to make the connections between companies and freelancers.  A teacher in the past, Lilla is still obviously interested in helping people to develop their own style and make it lucrative, through her e-courses "Make Art that Sells."  I hope to start these courses myself next year, along with the supporting Boot Camp e-course to help with portfolio building and responding to briefs.

The reason for mention Lilla Rogers, is because I've signed up to be part of this years Global Talent Search, run by her licencing studio.  The prizes are incredible, and include many challenging and lucrative opportunities (not least of which is an all-expenses paid trip to the UK to participate in something so cool they can't even say what it is yet!).  Not that I'm expecting to be up there in the standings, however the experience of participating, with several hundred other people, in this competition, responding to briefs and potentially having work shown to some big time art buyers is pretty exciting.  Follow the link above to check out more details, and to even enter yourself!  Entries close at the end of this month.

Here is this week's entry for Illustration Friday.  The theme is "Repeat."  The image represents the repeating seasons.  As you can tell, still having issues with pencil drawing scanning.  Will need to work on it, as I think I may want to use pencil for my entries to the talent search.  Will need to do some more research!

Emma

Illustration Fridays

Thanks to the direction from a friend and amazing artist, I've started creating work in response to themes suggested on Illustration Friday.  I didn't get to uploading last week's entry, Fragile, despite the extra time that was inadvertently given!  However (if the website lets me EDIT: Well, I did manage to get it uploaded, right at the moment the theme changed!!!  This weeks' theme is "Repeat") I hope to have the following image "Invisible" uploaded shortly.  I'm finding the challenge of trying to match my style to the theme really interesting, and a big help in defining what Liliflora Pretty should be, how it should be recognisable.

Despite the online silence, I've been working hard on coloured pencil works.  As you can see from above, I still need to master the art of scanning a coloured pencil drawing (any tips would be welcome!) so they look as close to the original as possible.  Once I can do this, I'll upload my new collection, Soul Strike.  Based on Kustom Kulture and intended for bowling shirts (some of which I'm hoping to make myself and have for sale on Etsy).  I'm thinking it may even lead me back to an old love, chainmaille, completed in anodised titanium or niobium jump rings to match the vibrant colours of the collection.  Stay Tuned!

Emma

Add some colour!

It's Spoonflower Weekly Contest time again.  This time, I've entered a design in the floral colour-in wallpaper competition.  An amazing theme which has thrown up so many different ideas, as you can see from Spoonflowers' Weekly Contest page.  Head on over for a look and to vote for your favourites.

My design draws heavily on an art nouveau influence, featuring lillies (a hangover from a previous competition), irises and stylised roses.  I've printed out a smaller version of this to colour for myself and will add it to my Facebook page later in the week.

The next competition I'm working on is the very exciting Fabric8: Cosmic Voyage competition.  The winning designer gets the chance to design a fabric collection for Robert Kaufman, $1000 advance against royalties from the sale of the collection and a Wacom tablet!

My design is in the final stages of being developed.  I've learned a new digital painting technique to paint the background, and it will feature steampunk inspired designs coloured to suit a child's room.  Can't wait to share it!
There will be 100 semifinalists chosen by the sponsors and will be open for voting June 12th.  If I make it in, you'll know about it!

Take care,
Emma

Hand-Lettered Lovelies

My Etsy shop is now open!  While the about page and a few other parts need to be completed, there are already a few products listed for sale.  These consist of Giclee prints of quotes from Disney movies and Jewel's Lullaby album.

Disney Princess (and queen and waitress/ frog) Quotes

Frozen has been phenominally successful for Disney, inspiring hundreds of versions of the songs, especially Queen Elsa's breaking- free song Let It Go.  Couple the inspiration of this song, with the fact that you can't look anywhere, online or otherwise, without seeing hand-lettering in one form or another, and it's not such a stretch that I started my hand-lettering journey with this quote!

It was so hard to pick a quote from The Princess and the Frog.  There are so many great lines for all the main characters, it's one of Disney's funniest movies.  Eventually I settled on this one because I could incorporate the images of the frog and bug to put some life into the quote.

Again, it was hard to pick a quote from Tangled, between all the great lines and song lyrics.  I settled on this line from the song Rapunzel sings to tap into her magic.  It represents both the curse that lead to Gothel stealing her from her parents, and ultimately the salvation of the man she loved, bringing her back to them.  Hmm, deep.

Jewel Lullaby Lyric Quotes

We were given Jewel's Lullaby Album even before our baby dragon was born, and it's been a consistent part of bedtime rituals for the nearly 2 years of his life. Full of lovely songs, both traditional and some written by the artist, it may not always lull the boy to sleep, but it makes for some relaxing background music!  These hand-lettered quotes are lyrics from the songs written by Jewel including "Raven," "Sweet Dreams" and "Circle Song."

Click the Etsy badge below to go to my shop and see photo's (I'll admit, they need to be better photo's!) of these prints framed to show their actual size and appearance. Coming up soon, my first fabric collection Damask Botanical will be available for sale. The collection has already been uploaded to my Spoonflower shop (click below to go see it!), but I'm waiting on samples to check the quality before making it available for sale. There will be some great projects here on the blog so you can see the designs in action!
Thanks for visiting!
Emma

Introducing Mr Whale

Mr Whale's Day is the first public fabric design from Liliflora Pretty and is an entry into this week's Spoonflower weekly contest.  Head along to vote for it (and as many other designs as you like)HERE!

There will also be an entry into next week's contest, which has a Lily theme for Easter!  Will share as soon as the contest starts.

Emma

The journey to discover...