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Mucha inspired illustrations

Natalie — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:31:41 +0000

So, while I’m in a blogging mood I should show you a few things I’ve been doing. Yes, I have been around but I just haven’t been inspired to blog. It seems like everything has been blogged about a million times already, and the only use for me blogging those things is to increase my google ranking… which I’m soooo not interested in any more.

I went back to my Mucha book after talking about his works with a friend. First I tried to do a straight out copy of “Dusk” because I just love the lines in her hair and the draping of the sheet.

It didn’t turn out too well, but all wasn’t lost. I gained an even huger respect for his drawing ability – does that even make sense?! Who can draw draping like that? I mean, really!

I have always been fascinated with puppetry and started doodling the marionette girl dangling from the hands of a scary woman I clipped out of a magazine. Then I thought about it a bit more and decided that another little child needed to be controlling her. Oh, creepy childhood themes….! (This is available as a t-shirt and a print.)

My friend Sonya’s birthday came up and I really wanted to draw her as a sailor girl after seeing her in a cute sailor-esque kind of outfit. She said she really liked it! I hope she did :)

Free Vector Shapes – Florence Shapes

Natalie — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:11:42 +0000

I have been fiddling around with different shapes and making them in to scatter and pattern brushes, and I thought I’d post these here for you all to play with to! When you open the Illustrator file, be sure to check out the brushes palette for some bonuses!

Download CS3 .ai file – Vector Florence Shapes

Download .svg file – Vector Florence Shapes

It’s probably obvious, but I named these for Florence Broadhurst, queen of ornament and my role model!

Monday Illustration

Natalie — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:49:30 +0000

Actually I did this on Friday, but that’s between you and I.

I’m feeling rather dizzy from working with resin! I have a respirator with a filter for dust particles, but it doesn’t work for resin fumes when it’s still liquid. I’m counting down the days until I can fiddle faddle full time with my craft odyssey stuff!

One of my friends works in a cafe, and she showed her boss a few of my paintings and now he wants a few to put on the walls! Super exciting! I was always told that there was never any money in being an artist, but after working full time as a graphic designer… I’ve realised I’m not here to make money, I’m here to be kind to my soul and do things that fulfill me.

So who knows what’s in my future? I definitely want to dabble in jewellery, but I have the deepest desire to design for textiles. I read the blogs of a few textile designers, and I admire them so much. Not only are they accomplished artists, but they also have the drive and the desire to bring their dreams into reality and to nourish their souls by being true to themselves and their visions.

This illustration is dedicated to them.

Free Vector Shapes – Peacocks

Natalie — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:26:32 +0000

I saw a peacock in a vintage piece of fabric and copied it. I think they’re rather magical animals!

Download CS3 .ai file – Vector Peacock & Ornaments

Download .svg file – Vector Peacock & Ornaments

Weaving Flourishes – An Illustrator Tutorial

Natalie — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:20:41 +0000

I’ve had my first request for a tutorial! It never occurred to me that people weren’t aware of how to get elements “weaving” in and out of other elements (like text) in Illustrator. So click through and check out my first tutorial on “Weaving Flourishes”.
1. Pop in some text. I’ve used Fontin Smallcaps in this instance, a wonderful free font by Jos Buivenga.

2. Outline your text.

3. Bring in some flourishes – here’s some I prepared earlier! Ensure all of the strokes and brushes on your flourishes are expanded.
4. Place the flourishes over your outlined text. Try to position them so that they will weave in and out of the letters – take your time with this.

5. Select the flourishes placed over your text and the text and hit Shift+Ctrl+F9 to bring up your Pathfinder palette.

6. Hit the Divide button .

7. Using the Direct Selection tool (keyboard shortcut: A) choose the parts of your text that you want to bring in front of the curls in the flourishes. Once you have selected an object, hit I for the Eyedropper tool and select the colour of the text that you want to sit over the flourish.

8. Continue doing this – use your own judgement in terms of what elements should be behind or in front of others.

9. Using the Direct Selection tool still, select the objects that make up each letter (holding down shift to make multiple selections). To group these objects back into the “letter”, go to your Pathfinder palette again and hit the Merge button .
10. Continue merging all adjacent blocks of the same shape and colour together.

11. Hit Ctrl+0 and marvel at what you’ve done!

Free vectors – Flowers

Natalie — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:30:00 +0000

This post marks the first of my free vector shapes posts, and today I’m offering a cute flower shape in positive and negative. I saw this flower in a piece of fabric and thought it’d be nice to turn into a vector shape for future use.

Bittbox.com has been offering fabulous FREE vector resources for ages, and I thought I’d give something back after having so many sites (like bittbox.com) help me out when I need a random vector and I only have half an hour!

Stay tuned for more free vector based shapes and brushes on a weekly basis!