Category: thoughts behind the work

fantasy illustration, fonts, Illustrations, kids, Odd Little Stories, simple photoshop, thoughts behind the work

Pumpkin House Home Sweet Home

Michele B. Naquaiya

pumpkin-house-HSH-web-th

A sweet fairy has a new home.  She dances for joy at the warm light coming from her big pumpkin abode.  Her dress is in tatters and her hair is a mess, but she now has her very own pumpkin.  You can continue to make more chapters to this story.  This is a happy ending for this little gal.  It is a watercolor I did some time ago and it has been forgotten until now.

I used a font called Worstveld Sling…this is the italic version.  I love the simplicity.  It
is very legible and all I did was add an additional stroke.  I laid it on the bottom half of the painting but it was getting lost in some places.  So I made a new transparent layer and tinted some areas with the soft yellow to eliminate the visual clutter.  This took a little time to finish the touch ups on this piece because the edge was kind of raggedy.  I smoothed it over a little with a soft brush of orange to tie the pieces together.  I erased the white background around the border because I wanted the transparency to reveal the cool jagged edge of the painting which I think is very appealing.  I did not want it on a white border.  When  you print on textile, it is very preferable to use the PNG format, so that way you can also put it on different colors of fabrics.

I would like to see this art on a baby’s outfit.  I think that could work.  I am happy with this as I think it’s a good fit of text and subject.  I think this could easily become a story.  Of course, now that I look back it is somewhat autobiographical.  Did you know there are fairies living under logs and in abandoned bird nests?

Here it is on a onesie

alphabet, fantasy illustration, fonts, thoughts behind the work

Going big with small art

Michele B. Naquaiya

kiss-my-command-web-th

This is a small scratchboard that I drew a long time ago as a commission for someone’s wedding anniversary.  It seemed funny and goofy at the time.   I’m using it as an exercise here in working with the text.  I put it against a big black frame and used the new font I just purchased called Nauticus Script Bold.  It just seemed to fit the subject.  I think this works and I’m getting encouraged again.  So maybe I won’t quit exploring text.

I love the way the spaces seem to work together.  It is intriguing.  The words are a pun on “your wish is my command”.  My eye keeps going back and forth between the very even spacial treatment in my command to the wider spacing in your kiss.  I did not adjust the kerning.  I need to think about this more.

The very big image is a new bold try for me.  Here it is on a product.

 

 

alphabet, dogs, horses, cats, fonts, Illustrations, kids, simple photoshop, step by step, how to, thoughts behind the work

You’re On a Roll

Michele B. Naquaiya

youre-on-a-roll-web

When it comes to humor, everybody has an opinion.  The world revolves around people putting opinions of  other people’s creative work into a niche.  Critics enjoy this because they can sit outside and look at it and not be threatened as they are only observers and not the creators.   The truth is, corny or not, people laugh at puns and somebody always will–so let’s move on.  What’s the fuss about all this?

Well, this was an idea I had and was reluctant to proceed because it is a classic “pun” or “play on words”.    My thought was to put a baby in the hot dog bun and draw that.  I got cold feet.  So I did this instead.  Call me a coward but I’m trying to put fonts and images together as a self-motivated interest and I’m trying to stay true to my goal.  That’s my newest M O, so for the sake of being a little more traditional and not wanting to offend anybody, here’s the newest drawing.
I sketched the hot dog in the bun with a ball point pen and scanned it in greyscale. Then opened it in photoshop and painted it in with a few semi-transparent shades of various colors, making a layer for each major item: hot dog, bun, and of course the text.  Did the same for the little dog.  For me, drawing simply like this in photoshop is super easy and very rewarding.  When it was completed, I saved it as a psd file and then removed the background and saved it as a png. Then I combined all the artwork layers.  I am sure this is not the preferred method, but I just plow ahead and do whatever works.  When I grow up, I want to be able to use AI and know what I’m doing.  After years of PSD, I just keep trying and keep learning.  I hope to learn one new thing every day.

When I studied graphic design in college, I drew in AI all the time and was never intimidated. I remembered putting images on to a thumb drive and then bringing them to a professional printer and staring in awe and these gorgeous glossy huge prints spit out my artwork.  I was in love.  Now after all these years, the program is scaring me.  But Adobe is  making improvements that certainly make it more intuitive.  I will continue to plow ahead in the hopes my memory comes back and I can learn new things.

The wonderful font is Hansel  Texture and I think it’s great.  I will be using it more I hope but this is the first time.  I am keeping all these images super simple and super big.  I like seeing them big on t-shirts and I like seeing them on kids’ onesies too.  That’s where I’m at and wow, how fun would it be to see this on adult onesies, if there were such a thing.

Here’s the art on some stuff.

animals, flora and fauna, Illustrations, Odd Little Stories, thoughts behind the work

I love the Forest with deer

Michele B. Naquaiya

deer-LUV-forest-web

I’ve seen lots of deer in the forest because I lived in the northwest for a long time.  How can you describe them except to say they are very sweet and can win you over.  Although I remember many mornings shaking a string of empty soda cans at them to make as much noise as I could to chase them away from my flowers and plants.  They always won and grabbed some nibbles before they fled.

Or when driving down a main street, a mom with her twins would come out of the woods suddenly and very slowly cross the street.  They understood traffic and I swear they knew stop signs. The only really dangerous  part is when they would try to cross a main highway from the woods to get to the cool riverbank.  All  you could do is slow down and pray they make it.

check out my online store to see this little guy on various products

animals, dogs, horses, cats, fantasy illustration, Illustrations, simple photoshop, thoughts behind the work

Dude…2 cats in a love conversation

Michele B. Naquaiya

Dude-web

A Big cat and little cat are having a love conversation. The big cat has camouflage artwork on his body and the little cat is making big body language. Who is talking to who? Who loves who?   It could go either way, so have fun with this.
Since I seem to be in my retro mood for the past few weeks, this was a small sketch in one of my many sketchbooks.  I always refer to my sketchbooks, whether the sketches are good or not.  The important thing is that you get the information down. Usually, the first sketch is the best one because that carries the message across in the strongest and most immediate way.  You can always tweet the drawing a little bit and get it to fit into what you want now.  This drawing was a little different because I kept it very raw and did not polish it up at all.

I scanned it and made sure I put it on a large white background leaving a lot of space to make room for a big text area.  I just made a mask and gave it a transparent background and then painted the cats some and with the direct selection tool, filled areas with different shades of black, greys and whites. I know there are artifacts all over the place but I am moving ahead and will repair the image later.  I hope this does not bother people too much.

this is how it looks on products: Dude-web