Month: January 2021

Illustrations, scratchboard drawing, simple photoshop, t-shirt design

Playing with the moon outside her gate

Michele B. Naquaiya

I guess you could call this a composite drawing and the category would be surrealist art. That’s ok with me. It is a composite because the Hopi girl with firecrackers is an old scratchboard from years ago.

I masked her and her firecrackers out from the black textured background and got the idea for the gates from a snapshot I took from the tv in an old black and white basil rathbone film of Shirlock Holmes. I loved the moodiness of the view of the foggy atmosphere and the far away landscape in the film.

So I started putting pieces together in photoshop 2018… I just wanted to basically create a mood with the art. It went through a lot of changes. I had an idea in my head of a piece of art where the subject was coming out of the background frame. This turned out differently., Don’t ask me how I ended up with this but that a learning curve for you.
As usual, the problem with this kind of art is that it’s really hard to put into a specific category for commercial use. So when I go to fill out tags for it, the category that came the closest was I’m guessing is surrealistic. Who would buy this and how would they search for it in their tags? I would buy it since I like it but what do I know. I’m prejudice.
Nonetheless, it was fun and fairly quick and turned out completely different than I thought. I’m perfectly ok with that since I would not even do it if it wasn’t fun. Here’s the link if you want to check it out…..

cars and trucks, Odd Little Stories

SGOTUS acronym for second gentleman of the U.S.

Michele B. Naquaiya

Second gentleman of the United States. His name is Doug Emhoff and of course he is married to the first female vice president of the United States. So he’s a first second or a second first, depending on how you think of it. I thought the whole thing is kind of funny. The acronym is really awkward and I had to look at it a few times to make sure I was spelling it correctly.

This is a watercolor of a little town in the southwest and I like the old car on the street. I’m
not making any kind of statement here except that there is always a first for everything and in the U.S. there are small towns as well as big cities. I wonder if making Washington D.C. the 51st state will happen. That would be another first. Of course, the U.S. could come crashing down and that would be an ending and also another first. Hope it all goes well for him anyway. He seems a little shy, unlike his wife.

here’s the link to see it on stuff http://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/19027596-sgotus-americas-1st-spouse-of-1st-woman-vice-pres

fantasy illustration, Illustrations, simple photoshop, t-shirt design, thoughts behind the work

Love and hot cocoa t shirt designing

Michele B. Naquaiya

More line art and experimenting with a few coloring details and playing with fonts. I drew this in photoshop and used a quick method of coloring under the line art. This is not the professional way to do it but…I redrew this so many times, I just wanted to finish it. For a comic book the professional way is to make the flats first and then color, and then render.

I know this art is pretty flat and there is no light source and no rendering, but…. I wanted something quick to try out a few shades of separate colors to see how they would stand out on their own on various fabrics. I am happy with the four shades of green and the four shades of blue in the fairy’s wings. They do give the art a little depth. I think the shades could have been a little stronger with each step though. It did load well and you can see a distinction in the colors on all kinds of fabrics. I put a lot of thought into placing a heart above her head to show what she is dreaming about–love. I had one more heart but decided that one was better than two–less is more. The cocoa cup color repeats in her dress. I’m hoping the cup starts to resemble a magic globe that she is dreaming into.

I’ve been studying the art of the tshirt for a while now. Aside from the obvious there is a lot to this medium. I am happy today as I had a lightbulb moment last night, looking at some of my favorite t-shirt artists and making mental notes on their thought processes.

I’m hoping to do this again and to see if I can build up a little speed. Another note is that the text and image can’t have much space between them because when it’s printed as a sticker, the parts should always be connected. I did color animation cells al long time ago and we had similar issues. fun.

Here’s a link to see the product

Uncategorized

More Valentines in Spanish and some in English

Michele B. Naquaiya

I love designing and drawing for Valentine day. I am really enjoying my progress in learning Spanish. I think you don’t really know something until you use it. So here are some of the new drawings I’ve been doing on the Cintique 24. enjoy.

If you live near me and want to|
purchase a card, you can find them
at Art Connection in Laguna Mall in
Ajijc. gracias