Week 14: Day 3–Playing with Color again

Since my Bleh! day, I have had my daughter graduate from 5th grade...I think the only times I graduated were from high school and from college. I can't believe my baby is growing up so much.  Next year I will have one in high school and one in middle school, a teen and a tween.  Boy, the hormones are raging around here. I never know if what I say will make someone laugh or cry. It's always an adventure!

But, back to blogging...the other day I tried an abstract image with the colors. I didn't like the result, so I decided to try again.  It took a few tries, but I finally ended up with any image that I liked.

The Result:

The Process:
I started in Adobe Illustrator and drew a shape of curly squiggles.  I then cropped the image but didn't like it, so I started over.

To try something different I started with the image size and drew squiggles within the box.  Then I cropped the image and used the pathfinder tool to create individual shapes.

I stared with light colored lines, and then used the darker colors as the fill for the shapes.  I tired a couple of different variations:

With this variation I thought, maybe....

So I tried turning it to see if it worked each way....

But I still wasn't quite feeling it.  So I tried more variations, changing the outline and fill colors to see what I could come up with. 

So still not feeling it, I looked back at what I had already done, and guess what, I thought the first was what I was looking for, but it wasn't quite right so I made a few alterations to the outline colors and weights to come up with the final image:

So I darkened the line up, made the lines thinner and made the frame color the same as the outline color, and voila, I have an abstract image using the dark color palette. 

Week 14: Day 2–Color Palette

Today I am created the color palette for the inspiration photo. Wow! I think I need to consider the color palette when I choose the photos....it's a learning experience!  I love this photo but it is quite dark.  I guess this that will be my challenge -- keeping the patterns and designs interesting without looking too dark and without losing detail.

Week 13: Days 2 & 3 - Sketches

This week has been crazy trying to tweak &improve my updated website.  It's not complete yet, but it's almost done.  I'll let you know when we (my sister and I) get it finished.

Even though I haven't posted much this week, I have been doing some sketching.

Sand Dollar Sketches
This is the whole sand dollar...which I later broke.  I had forgotten how fragile they are! This one I love.  I had fun really looking at the sand dollar and noticing small details I have not ever noticed before...like the star in the middle. So cool!

whole sand dollar

The first broken sand dollar I think is horrible.  The shell was on an angle with the interior facing me.  The depth and foreshortening are not accurate.  Part of the problem, I think, is that there is no reference to what's around it.  It was interesting to look inside and see all the little chambers, but again, I had a difficult time showing that in the sketch.

broken sand dollar inside

The second broken sand dollar I liked, then I looked at it again, and don't really like it too much!  The edges are too hard, and the shading is too light.  When I looked at it again just now, I saw a turtle shell and not a sand dollar...oh well!

broken sand dollar

At a different angle, I think that the broken edges don't really come across very well, and there is no depth between the top and bottom of the inside of the sand dollar.

broken sand dollar

Yes, I am my own worst critic.  I know what I have been able to do in the past and it was much better than this.  But....I haven't practiced drawing in years, so I'm not disappointed with what I have done.  

Gesture Drawings

Last night I had to take my nephew to soccer practice.  I took my sketchbook and tried to do some gesture drawings of the kids as they played....the main problem I had with that was that they moved too fast, and it was hard to capture them in action.  Here are a few that rated posting!

KK sitting watching the practice

JD with the ball

little boy playing with the cones

Week 12: It's a Wrap

It's the end of week 12.  Three whole months of blogging (minus a couple of weeks in the middle). With the changes in format, I have found the joy in my creativity without the stress of feeling like I bit off more than I could chew. In addition to getting through the week, I added 3 cards to the collection.  Are you inspired too?

Inspiration Photo

Random Thoughts and Ideations

Color Palette

Color Palette

Patterns - Circular

Circle Patterns

Patterns - Geometric

Geometric Patterns

Freebie Cards

Freebie Cards

Next week: Sketches, Doodles & Art

Week 12, Day 5: Freebie Card

It's back!!  It's freebie card day! And there are 3 different designs.

The first 2 are based on color scheme and patterns I have been creating this week.  The final card is a special request for my girl.  KK wanted me to change the colors around a bit....so you may want to get your sunglasses out!

Card 1 – Download Link

Card 2 – Download Link

KK's Card – Download Link

So which one do you like best?

Week 5: It's A Wrap

A Bit of Reflection

This is the end of the 5th week in my creative journey.  I can't believe it's already been over a month! Before I started this challenge, I was worried about it being too difficult and hard. And although there are days where I do struggle to find the time to devote to it, I look forward to doing it.

One of the hardest parts of this challenge has been putting my work on the web and sharing it.  I don't know who looks at it, or what they think of it. Before I started on this journey, D and I talked about what my expectations were for the blog. Would I be willing to do take this journey if no one ever looked at my blog, or commented on it.  Was I taking this journey for me and my personal growth or was I trying to get support from adoring fans or somehow make money from it?  How am I going to stay focused on the journey and not all the hoopla (so far there is none, so I don't have to worry!)?

This is a journey for myself, a focus in my life and on myself.  I am willing to share my journey, and hope that I can somehow inspire others.  But, it is hard not to get caught up in the numbers, to see growth and more followers and not get overly exited.  It's also easy to get overwhelmed with now having followers  and feeling the pressure to get something great out every day.  My original challenge was to get something posted everyday – good bad or ugly.  I have problems with bad and ugly posts, the ones that I either don't have the time to develop, or they don't go the look like what I imagined in my head. Those are usually the days I don't post, 'cuz, once it's out there, it's out there! After all, who wants to portray themselves out there in bad or ugly way?  It's something I will work on...it's part of my journey and if I am willing to it, I need to share it all!

Week 5 Recap  

Day 1:  Inspiration – Signs, Words & Typography

Day 2:  It's A Little Sketchy

Day 3:  Fun with Fonts

Day 4:  More Fun with Fonts

Day 5: Type Design, Part 1 & Part 2

Day 6: Freebie Friday, Part 1 & Part 2

Week 4, Day 7: It's A Wrap

This has been a crazy week!  It's been like a roller coaster ride for me.  I've had to finish up several freelance projects, start and finish a few other projects, send out proposals, sick kids, sick me, unscheduled doctors appointments, schedule doctors appointments and, of course, my creative journey.  I did manage to finish all my challenges this week although I didn't get to make my tap-tap model.  A project for another day!

Day 1 - Inspiration Sunday:  My week started off with photo inspiration from my friend Jess.  She is a nurse and goes with a group, HaitiMedicalMission.org, to Haiti every year to perform surgeries free of charge for the Haitian people. I believe she's been going for about 4-5 years, but the group has been going for about 10 years.  When looking at Jess's photo's from her trip, I was inspired by the bright and crazy images of the tap-taps.

Day 2 - It's a Little Sketchy Monday












Day 3 - Creative Tuesday, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Day 4 & 5 - Colorful Wednesday and Graphic Thursday

Day 6 - Freebie Friday

Next week: Adventures in Typography

Week 4, Day 3: Creative Tuesday - Building Models, Part 1

Good day! When I googled Tap-taps I found some photos of a collection of miniature vehicles.  It looked like a souvenir collection from the different places this person had visited.  There were all kinds of vehicles, but the one that caught my eye was a toy tap-tap. This inspired me to create my own tap-tap.

My routine has developed that I work on my creative journey at night.  This is mostly since I have had a lot of freelance work, and honestly, as much as I love doing the blog, I have to do my paying work first.  Working at night usually gives me uninterrupted time, unless I still have work. After my daughter is in bed, I get to play...if I waited for my son to go to bed, I'd never get any sleep! I also like working at night because it gives me time during the day to stew over what I want to do for my projects.

As I went through the day, I thought of the things I could use for my tap-tap, how I could put it together and how I would decorate it.  To limit myself, I decided that I would use only what I could find at home.  No going out to buy paints, stickers or even a model. Recycling, or is it repurposing.....

Tonight, I had to finish up a freelance job, so I am still in the gathering stage for my tap-tap and figuring out how will I express myself.  Can't wait to see what develops!