I hope you take some time to look around Ruxique's store, She has some very unique items to make your special day one of a kind.
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* 40% of the net photo card, greeting card and note card sale price will be deducted when the coupon code HOLIDAYCARD4 is applied at checkout. For most products, the net sale price is the price of the product (excluding shipping and taxes). Offer is valid from November 2, 2009 at 12:01am PT through November 12, 2009 at 11:59pm PT. This promotional offer may not combine with any other Zazzle promotional or discount offers. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.
I plan on picking up my paint brushes again soon, just lately when I look at the paper nothing comes out. It happens though and I never force out a painting just for the sake of posting something new.
*10.31% of the net sale price will be deducted when the coupon code TRICKORTREAT is applied at checkout. For most products, the net sale price is the price of the product (excluding shipping and taxes). For Zazzle Custom Stamps, the net sale price is the difference between the price of the Zazzle Custom Stamps (excluding shipping and taxes) and the face value of the postage. Offer is valid from October 19, 2009 at 12:01am PT through October 31, 2009 at 11:59pm PT. This promotional offer may not combine with any other Zazzle promotional or discount offers.
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Arc de Triomphe Triptych Print |
Latest design on Pen and Ink and 13 Black Cats Designs too!
I began fooling around with brushes and swirls in Illustrator yesterday to see if anything would come of it. I began to randomly draw swirls and they started to take the shape of a butterfly wing and so a butterfly was born.
After getting one side of the wing finished I had to expand the brush strokes so I could reflect it to the other side. I drew the body using circles and ovals and tied it together with a solid wing behind the swirls.
Originally I was going to do a monarch type butterfly in orange but when I opened it in photoshop it just wasn't working. I accidentally fell upon a teal color when randomly clicking around the color box. (Art is so precise isn't it?) Once the teal color was chosen I thought I would set it against a dark brown so I made a background, added the noise filter and then crosshatched it to give it a bit of a vintage look. The butterfly was still a bit too bright so I change it's opacity to Color Burn, merged it with the brown background and gave it a bit of a glow.
Since this design started to develop a vintage feel to it I made a background like an old newspaper. First I started with a cream background and burned the edges, added a slight bit of noise and applied a monotone color of brown to age it. I typed some random letters to fill the page and changed the opacity to overlay and then 50%. merged it down and there you have it, old newspaper! The full line can be found on Pen And Ink and a variation of it can be found on 13 Black Cats Designs.
From Pen And Ink:
While I was sitting alone waiting for my NY Roll of tuna, apples and mayo and an Eel Roll I began to read the menu board behind the man making my sushi. The creative names they have given the various specials began to spark an idea in my head. Hanging behind the tables on elaborate wallpaper were brightly colored advertisments for various things which I could not read and next to them on a table sat a Maneki Neko smiling back at me. Well, they seemed to mash themselves in my brain and the above design happened. While I am aware that the title I chose for this design was based on a Chinese movie and not Japanese, I thought it an appropriate name. I imagined this guy hiding behind the fake palm tree in the corner, stalking any sushi left unattended.
This was a fun design to do, totally unplanned and drawn fully in Illustrator. It took me a little while to form the cat's face but things fell into place without much difficulty. Crounching Tiger, Hidden Kitty is available now on Zazzle. It even makes an appearance on Zazzle's brand new Avery binders.
I have put Jadore Paris on a bit of a hold because I am working on a side project to be unveiled soon. I hope to add more photos and artwork within the next week. If I can only get the staff to work a little harder but they are always busy taking naps in the sunshine coming through the window so I am on my own for now. I can assure you that I will keep everyone posted here when my new project is unveiled so stayed tuned.