Illustrator Tricks 2: Electric Boogaloo

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Victoria

If at first you don’t blind them with your designs …

This week, another round of practice with repeating patterns in Illustrator.  It seems like it can be a bit fussy, but the biggest challenge at the moment is getting color combinations that aren’t completely eye-blinding, like this one is:

A rather eye-blinding red on deep pinkish repeating background

A rather eye-blinding red on deep pinkish repeating background

This one is slightly better:

A kind of green and grey houndstooth-ish background

A kind of green and grey houndstooth-ish background … not so eyeblinding, is it?

Finally, this one seems to be nicely subtle and suitable for backgrounds:

light grey 4-armed things on a lighter grey background

A nice subtle wallpaper or background

I got started on one that’s made of vines, but like the trees, that one takes a bit longer.

Click on the images for larger versions. These are all, like last week’s, released for anyone to use, totally free.  Enjoy them if you find a use for them.

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A little Thursday doodle

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Victoria

Doodle the kraken!

Today’s art is a quick sketch I did of a squidkraken:

Just a little cartoon doodle of a squid

Just a little cartoon doodle of a squid

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Stupid Tricks With Illustrator

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Victoria

Baby got a new TOY

About six months ago, RedBubble‘s weekly newsletter included a link to a tutorial about making repeating patterns in Illustrator.  It sounded interesting, so I kept it in my inbox to look at “someday”.   Last week, I found myself doodling tetris shapes and thought that perhaps they might make an interesting repeating background.

Today, I dug the link back up and gave it a whirl using a semi-random image from my favorite free/royalty-free clip art site.  Even before I got my first repeating pattern done, I had picked up two awesome tricks with Illustrator: ctrl-f instead of ctrl-v to make the copy appear exactly on top of the original; locking objects so they can’t accidentally get moved or deleted or anything (ctrl-2 with it selected).

Eventually, I’ll make some ones I really like lots and aren’t so simplistic and put them up on the POD sites.  In the meantime, I’m sharing these ones with everyone, for free.  Just click on the image to get to the full size.  Enjoy and sorry about the, er, eyeblinding. ;)

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Baaaaaaaaaby pineapple!

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Victoria

IDDINIT IT ADORABLES?

This week’s million-dollar idea: set up a website in the style of Cute Overload or baaaaabyanimals, but with baby plants.

Would that not be so awesome?

And I’m just giving this idea away!  (Ignore that it’s because I have neither time nor resources to do it.  You might have the time and resources!  Go for it!)

Here’s a starter image … this baaaaaaaby pineapple!

Baby pineapple! Taken in a botanical garden near Monrovia, CA.

Baby pineapple! Taken in a botanical garden near Monrovia, CA.

Or you could just get it on stuff and things at Zazzle (even on stamps!) or RedBubble.

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Fuschia

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Victoria

Let’s just pretend it’s spring, ok?

A couple weeks ago, the daffodils started coming up.  Monday, it snowed.  Fortunately, the snow melted within the day, so I have hopes that it didn’t impact the flowers too much.  I’d like to get some nice photographs this year.

In the meantime, here’s one from later in the year and the other side of the country, of a flower that gave rise to a color name: fuschia.

I took this photo on a trip to Seattle.

I took this photo on a trip to Seattle.

This one is available as cards and prints on RedBubble and as a wide variety of things (including stamps!) on Zazzle.

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A tax season thank-you giveaway

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Victoria

Seeing a forest for the trees

With tax time coming up, I sat down and tallied up all the checks I got from CafePress and Zazzle in 2012.  Then, since I had the numbers handy, I compared them to the amounts from 2011, and then the amounts so far for 2013.

I made substantially more in 2012, even with my costs going up.  Well, huh.

I’m on track already to do better this year, too.  Well, huh.

All I can say is … Thank you for your support!

I don’t have any control over sales on CafePress or Zazzle (one downside to using POD), but I’d like to give back to you all somehow, so I’m going to run a giveaway instead.

To the first four people who comment on this post, I’ll send you one of: a sticker of one of my trees (this one or this one from RedBubble, chosen randomly) OR a postcard with trees sketched on them (on the back, in the writing area).  

When you comment, let me know if you want a postcard or a sticker, but don’t include your mailing address (this is the Internet! don’t share that publicly!) … I’ll email you at the address you comment with to get the address.

Once again … thank you all for your support of Ninth Circle and of me.

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