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.
Tiger bark placed At 222 of 424 entries with 54 votes! Just shy of the top 50%. Woo Whoo! Thank you, thank you!😀