Category Archives: Online Shop

Seaing is Believing

This week the Spoonflower design challenge is to use watercolors (or digital watercolor brushes) to create a whimsical surface patterns inspired by fantasy creature motifs. I know that the Seahorse is a real creature, but to me they have always seemed magical.

I used both digital watercolor brushes and hand-painted watercolor for this design. You can see the digital brush layers on some of the Sand Dollars. The Seahorses are all hand-painted.

Voting begins today. This challenge sponsored by Skillshare. The top winners will take home Spoonflower credit and a Skillshare Premium subscription to start learning everything from how to create a surface design using motifs to “The Basics of Photoshop”, “Hand Lettering” and so much more! And, for the first time ever, all submissions into May’s design challenges are automatically entered to win the grand prize full of design goodies worth over $1000!

Here is a closer look.

I drew some dots, and circles and spots, and used them to suggest air bubbles, sand and pebbles. The watercolor was applied using a clipping mask. Here is a short video that shows how it is done. I know some of this may be too complicated, for those of you that do not use Photoshop, but the basic principal is easy to understand. It is just like cut and paste from the olden days!

I started by deciding on a palette, sunset hues.

Sunset palette

I am working on a companion piece as well. This will be on a smaller scale than you see here. This collection will lend itself to quilting or children’s clothing projects. I will also do this using different colors for the background.

Sand Dollars. Digital surface design. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Thanks so much for taking the time to vote, I can’t make top ten without you!

LYA Side Swap

Val van der Poel.

I received this wonderful watercolor from my good friend Val in BC Canada. Val works in many mediums, and she is consistently learning and growing her skills in new areas. She works in paper quilling, watercolors, acrylics, oils, pen & ink, charcoal, mixed media and, recently, fabric art.

Not only that, she teaches too! I can always count on Val to give a sincere evaluation of my work. Be sure to visit her site and treat yourself to her fabulous work!

On the back of the card:

This is what I feel about art;
“Art is a Gift. Whether you make it, give it or receive it, I hope you will cherish it!”

Wonderful thought. And yes, I do cherish your card! Hugs and best wishes to you as well Val. Thanks so much for sharing your work with me. Your mountains are inspiring, and your pines and poppies are perfect! Love this view!

Pouring and Postcards

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Pour #1, acrylic on 4 x 4 gallery wrapped canvas. 2017 Sheila Delgado

Previews of the pours I worked on today. Planned on doing only two in blue, but had enough paint to try a third. In this first pour, I did get some interesting cells. Microscopic, but they do look good in person.

Fingers crossed they survive the drying time. I used thicker paint this time, mixed with water and a few sprays of silicone (WD-40). I did not want huge cells, but I am guessing I could have made them larger by using more silicone. Perhaps the paint needs to be thinned more as well.

The experimenting is fun. I pour the paint from individual containers, and the “dirty pour” technique creates larger cells. I may try that next time. I used my heat gun to bring out the cells. Maybe could have done that longer. So many variables.

Pour #2, acrylic on 4 x 4 gallery wrapped canvas. 2017 Sheila Delgado

None of these from today resemble Angels. Still interesting, and I think I can make them work, with a slight change in focus. I will share them again after they have dried, and let you know what I come up with.

Pour #3, acrylic on 4 x 4 gallery wrapped canvas. 2017 Sheila Delgado

LYA SIDE SWAPS

With Butter and Syrup, Nan Johnson.

Doesn’t this card from Nan Johnson make your mouth water?! Nan’s work is amazing. She does fantastic, detailed “home” portraits, beautiful landscapes, and wonderful pet portraits.

Art – Food for the Soul!

I think so as well, and I very much enjoyed the visual feast on Nan’s site. Thanks so much Nan for sharing your art with me, so glad you participated in LYA this year! You are right, it is a fun swap!

Gems, Kat van Rooyen, CZT.

My good friend Kat surprised me with her Gems. I received her card as an official LYA postcard. Didn’t think I would get another as a side swap. This LYA has been full of surprises! Kat is a Certified Zentangle Teacher. She tells me these look better in person, but I think they look pretty real on the card. Lots of depth in the colors! Thanks Kat for surprising me with your colorful, wonderful art!

I just love that the LYA art swap is still going strong!

Birds and Flowers. Mixed media digital surface design. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Voting continues in the Spoonflower design challenge. Wanna help me make the top ten? You can only vote once, but you can share the link with friends.

Read more about how this design was created, in yesterday’s post. Thanks for taking the time to vote!

Happy JOYFUL weekend to you!

Just Daffy About A New Fabric Design

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Fancy Free. 4 x 6 watercolor on paper postcard. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”

A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young

A set of quick postcards. Needed to paint. And use up some of that yellow still in the bowl. Thought it would be done for, but there is still enough for another painting or two. (Thanks Christine for the postcard paper!)

Breezy. 4 x 6 watercolor on paper postcard. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Over A Barrel, digital surface design. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Thanks to everyone who voted for my design! I ended up in the top third! #102 of 354, with 79 votes. To get into the top ten I would have needed 165 votes. That figure is different for each challenge. You can see the winners here. It received many “favorites” from other designers, I was glad for that.

This weeks design challenge theme is “Birds and Blooms”. There are even MORE entries than last week. Spoonflower holds these challenges as part of their “overarching goal: to inspire you, our design community and continue to challenge you to keep creating and growing.”

I neglected to include the prize scale, and a few of you were curious. This is how it works:

One popularly voted grand-prize winner will receive $200 in Spoonflower credit. The 2nd place winner will receive $100 in Spoondollars. The 3rd place winner will receive $50 in Spoondollars. The rest of the top 10 winners will receive $20 in Spoonflower credit. The top 25 popularly voted designs (provided the designers are already verified sellers) will be automatically made available for sale in the Marketplace where they will receive 10% commission on every sale — no $5.00 swatch required! In addition to cash prizes, the top 10 will receive additional exposure in our email newsletters, professional photography of their printed designs, and social media mentions.

Spoonflower has recently changed this. Before, only the number one design received a cash prize.

In reading the challenge instructions, I found out I goofed. I thought I had read this was a watercolor design. OOPS! Oh well. All of the May themes are to be watercolor, I just got a head start. (Some of the designers made the same mistake.) But no worries. Watercolor is not against the rules. All is well.

Indigo swatches

I started my design by painting indigo swatches. You can see a few of them here. I added drops of water to the drying paint to create blooms for texture. In some of the swatches I used a clean, damp brush to lift some of the pigment in a swirl pattern.

In watercolor, a “bloom” happens when wetter paint is placed in dryer paint. The liquid forces the original pigment out, creating irregular shaped splotches.

In Photoshop, I “pasted” these swatches to the flower shapes by creating a clipping mask. My first round, I had just indigo and white flowers. I added a soft blue, a color sample taken from the watercolor. I decided I needed a pop of color, and added orange centers to some of the blooms. Finally I added a lighter shade of that orange to a few of the larger flowers. While I liked the design with all blues and white, the minute I added the warmth it felt finished.

Wanna help me win? I have already received some favorites. Always a nice feeling when fellow designers give you a thumbs up. You have five days to vote. As always, you can only vote once, but you can share the link with friends.