Repeats And Colorways

LittleLion — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:31:53 +0000

A few days ago on "Mosaic Forest" and "The Stationery Position" posts I briefly touched two especially important topics for seamless pattern design which I would like discuss a little further, if I may: repeats and colorways.

One of the limitations imposed on microstock clients while deciding upon which seamless pattern to pick, is the absence of a "zoomed out" view big enough so the client can truly visualize how the pattern will repeat while still keeping some of the pattern’s details in view. In this regard, it is important to keep two things in mind: any additional geometrical shapes a pattern may reveal when repeated and how organically it will expand.

For an example of the first case, please refer to "Lollypop", the very first pattern of the "Leaves 20 Seamless Pattern Set" enlarged view and compare it to how it is displayed at StockXpert, for instance. Just by looking at the image offered by StockXpert, the uninitiated might miss how the circles will actually unfold once the pattern gets applied.

As for the second issue, I hope my print "Trip to the Amazon Rainforest" will suffice as an example of an organically balanced seamless patterns (as organic as a mathematically accurate repetition can get, that is!).

First, a word about the pattern name. More than once have I been called attention to the fact that there are no giraffes in the Amazon Forest, that they are present in wilds of Africa only. To what I respond by asking where your imagination has gone to these days, people?? :) The print is about a giraffe who travels to the Amazon Rainforest!! Isn’t that "obvious"?? :) :)

Back on point, picking a colorway for an element rich pattern can get really tricky, really fast, especially if one is restricted to CMYK colors (for printing). This is the main reason why I try to provide several different colorways of my designs. The image below gives us a taste of how so incredibly different can the same pattern look just by changing its colorway.

The purpose of this text though is not to scare you away from experimenting with colors, quite the opposite! You can investigate the matter further starting with Color Theory on Wikipedia or engage in Adobe’s Kuler Community for access to thousands of themed colorways or even dig deeper on your favorite vector editing application (Adobe Illustrator has great tools just for that). Regardless of your approach, you can always count on me for several different starting points for you colors explorations.

Valentine’s Soap Opera

LittleLion — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:30:13 +0000

Valentines is upon us once again and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you a little someone who helped me step into the world of commercial vector art illustration professionally… ladies and gentleman, I give you Gertrude!

Some of LittleLion Studio’s "old followers" might recognize her from times past when I used to believe that my chances of succeeding in microstock and actually make a living out of it were as thin as air, bravely she hung in there adorning my 10 image long portfolio of mostly embarrassing work and helped prove me wrong, licensing herself over and over again to many corners of this world. Since then I became very protective and supportive of her as well in her close-to-obsessive pursuit of prince charm. What a lonely girl she used to be…

But those days are over! As you can attest from the image right above, she is now wearing a tiny crown, symbol of love which has finally come her way (most of us would go for an engagement ring, but that girl surely has personality!). She found her prince and became a little princess herself.

With love floating inside and around her these days and considering she has always been a very creative and crafty doll, I could have no one better than Gertrude to invite to help me bring to you the "2010 Valentine Graphic Set Collection"!

As opposed to most Type A personality Lions, Gertrude is the humblest of creatures, so upon invitation to work on "Valentines" with me, she immediately set to enroll at one of Monica Dengo’s Calligraphy courses because she had some pretty fancy ideas of her own she wished to implement but felt short skilled to accomplish them properly. Well, I don’t know about you but as partial as I may sound, I think she did quite all right thank you very much!

From the very beginning she brought an idea to the table which I simply couldn’t resist: develop our "Valentines Collection" inspired by vintage soap labels. Yes, you read it right: vintage soap labels! Could a vintage chick come up with something more vintage than this? Could I ever say no to a frog-kisser-turned-into-princess? In any case, I loved the results.

Anyway, I apologize for her not showing up to collect compliments herself (Gertrude can be surprisingly shy), nevertheless she asked me to tell you all to reflect on her own life experience and this on the coming Valentine’s Day *not* to do like the song suggests "if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with", "by all means, no", she said! Know yourself, love yourself and eventually the one you love will be the one you’re with!

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Repeats And Colorways

Valentine’s Soap Opera