Growing up, we had a husky mix as the family pet. My dad Pete rescued her from a drunk old farmer, who was shooting at the mama and her young pups. Babe ran across a field and onto the dirt road. He almost ran her over. She was shaking, scared. He brought her home that day.
Tug of War, Babe and Pete.
We had just moved into a new house. After waiting all summer for it to be finished. New town, new school. Junior high. Nothing but dirt in the back yard, and beyond that a field and ditch. I learned to drive a stick shift on the road you can see in the distance. But that was several years later.
Babe on her chair, that she is not supposed to be on.
Pete found a dog house that had been tossed out. He fixed it up to look like our house. Little by little we got grass, then the fence. Soon she had her own dog run. She was a happy dog, and she loved us as much as we loved her.
That was the inspiration for my Spoonflower Design Challenge entry. Barkitecture. I had a request for a pink version. I thought red might be popular as well. Voting is open now, until November 1st. There are 627 entries.
My Dad Joke wall hanging placed at 147 out of 292, with 48 votes. That puts it at just over the 50% mark. 50.3. Woo Whoo! I’m so grateful, really. To everyone that takes the time to vote. Thank you. Many of you really liked this one. It even received an awesome comment from a designer I really admire. I was stoked. Thank you, Tina! I am going to turn this into a repeating pattern.
The poor dog, in life the firmest friend. The first to welcome, foremost to defend. Lord Byron, poet of Epitaph to a Dog
If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals. Albert Einstein
I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source. Doris Day
What do you call a fish that wears a bowtie? Sofishticated.
I like this as a wall hanging, but I don’t think it works as a tea towel. Weird I know. I think for the tea towel, maybe it should be crowded with fish, more and placed closer together.
My first idea was to make it look like a block print. I could see it in my head. But I just could not get it to work digitally. Maybe if I had used thicker lines, and marks on the fish. And made them look less perfect. I tried a technique to make them look as if some of the ink did not transfer, but it just didn’t work. I also felt the white was just too plain. Below are two samples.
Unexpected placed at 238 out of 486 entries with 44 votes. That is 48.9 %. The top design had 230 votes. The #63 design had 106 votes. The site displays the top 63 designs, the rest are listed below on the page.
Thanks so much for taking the time to vote. I really do appreciate it. 😊 You can see the top designs here. Scroll down a bit.
Have a super day! 😊
Why did the fish get bad grades? Because it was below sea level.
Did you hear about the lobster that got a job at pizza hut? He works at the crust station.
What is the difference between a fish and a piano? You can’t tuna piano.
I started with the original painting as inspiration. Problems with Photoshop used up several days of my design time. A revamp was quicker than creating from scratch. What you see here, is all that is left from the original. I noticed several mistakes in the yellow blooms, so I eliminated them. I added digital outlines using the pen tool, for nice crisp edges.
I cleaned up the white blooms. The blue background was visible and made them look a bit dirty. The grey is the template that Spoonflower provides. The darkest, inner rectangle is all that will be visible when the design is printed.
I added color blocks and considered using them for the final piece. But they were too flat, and I thought a pattern in the background would be too much. I placed the plaid to find the right scale.
I decided to paint paper with three colors. Yellow, blue, and green. I scanned them in to get the texture and uneven color tones. The variations are less obvious, than in the original painting. But I think it “warms” the design, by having a hand made, imperfect quality.
The design brief really called for wacky, or strange. They showed a tennis ball cut in half to reveal a lemon interior. This may not be wacky, but it will be unexpected to some.
I am really starting to feel comfortable using the pen tool in Photoshop. I never thought I would say that. There were only three connections I had to smooth out. Just slightly. I am so stoked about that. And so grateful. Whew! 🤓
Voting is now open, until October 18th. Voting is easier on a computer or larger screen like a tablet. If you are using your phone, you need to scroll slowly, it can only load so many images at a time and you may miss seeing images without knowing it. There are only 484 entries, roughly a third of the usual.
Your votes help give me the chance to win cash prizes. Money I can use towards printing samples of my designs, which is a requirement to making them available for sale in my shop.
1st place winner will receive a $200 Spoonflower credit.
2nd place winner will receive a $100 Spoonflower credit.
3rd place winner will receive a $50 Spoonflower credit.
Remaining top 10 designs will receive a $20 Spoonflower credit.
The top 50 popularly-voted designs from each theme will be automatically made available for sale in the Spoonflower Marketplace, no $5 swatch required.
