Category: fonts

alphabet, fonts, t-shirt design, thoughts behind the work

Working with Quotes WOMEN

Michele B. Naquaiya

I just ran across these lovely star brushes and wanted to practice using them. This inspirational quote is attributed to a few people but most seem to think it came from 1st lady Eleanor Roosevelt. I’m happy with that. It is certainly true.
There are so many quotes to play with, this is only one of many to come. I wanted to put a graphic in here so I did a quick line art of a woman’s face. It was hard to find a place to make her work in the composition. It’s funny how when you begin designing something with the background, the whole piece takes on a “painting” feel. This can be good and bad too because it’s just one more design element to consider. Painting elements take away from graphic elements. It seems like it should be an either or choice to make. That’s why I ended up putting here translucent face on top of text and she ends up being small.
Here’s a thought–if you look at the bottom 2/3rd of this artwork it is a square …and the words have an opposite meaning of what the quote is. It would be “women rarely make history”. Ha. Pretty funny. I think these colors work. check it out on tee public.

alphabet, fantasy illustration, fonts, Illustrations, simple photoshop, whimsy

Original Nymph

Michele B. Naquaiya

Sometimes I see things that aren’t there. When I check and look again, they are gone. I see little creatures in the forest. Here is a little androgynous imp that I found in the cool forest. I have been playing with painting with light and this is a first attempt to use some overlay filters with different opacities. fun. The fonts are JellyBelly for nymph and StrokeDimension for the word original. In both fonts, I have used an additional 2 colors.
If you want to check it out, here’s a link on FineArtAmerica.

alphabet, endangered animals, fantasy illustration, fonts, whimsy

Exotic frog plays with his alphabet blocks

Michele B. Naquaiya

Herein lies an exotic south american frog who is colorful and has a sense of humor. He was asked by a famous news publication what his thoughts were on his inevitable extinction. Here’s what he said, “Don’t bother me I am busy playing with my alphabet jack in the box game. Worry about your own extinction.” Find him here on stuff. btw font is Pop Up Fontio

animals, fonts, greeting cards, Illustrations, Pen and Ink Drawing, t-shirt design, whimsy

Feline Diva with orchid tattoos

Michele B. Naquaiya

This lovely kitty is very confident in herself. She is sporting huge tattoos of various orchids all over her body. In a more real world, the tattoos would be smaller and molded to her body shape. I have tattoo brushes and I want to do another version with them and it would be a fun piece to experiment with them. Since I have drawn in scratchboard for 30 years, I think the style would be like a walk down memory lane for me.
She’s different on all levels too because she is basically a blue girl. I did some remodeling on the sketch by fine tuning the edges. Since it was drawn as a pen and ink and then scanned, it needed to have the background removed so it could be a png file so it could be used printed over many different colors. I took advantage of this necessity to add a few more details since I was at it. I think it would be adorable on childrens’ clothing.
The font is a brush font and I thought it would look like a fun companion to the drawing. I did another illustration like this kitty a while ago and I want to redo it with scratchboard/tattoo brushes. I need to find her on my hard drive. Locating art on the hard drive is the hardest thing for me. I have promised to reform my ways to a better filing system. When I switched from a mac to pc, that’s when all the trouble began as that’s when I abandoned using bridge. onward. Here’s the little blue cat on teepublic.

fonts, Illustrations, Pen and Ink Drawing, t-shirt design, whimsy

Tell me something I don’t know

Michele B. Naquaiya

I have had this sketch in my portfolio for a long time. It’s india ink on paper with a caligraphy nib. I love the immediacy of it and I have used it before on greeting cards. I bought a font a while ago called Modernissimo. I love this font but could not find a use for it until today. When I saw the sketch, I remembered the font and put them together. So much of making things is like doing puzzles. You are always trying to fit things together the best way.
I thought about adding color but I think it will work on it’s own. The elements are strong and black and white is simple and strong. Here’s the link to see it on TeePublic.