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The Red Owl is in fact my Blue Owl from last year, transformed into a vibrant creature dressed in reds ... though still retaining that slightly bored, slightly grumpy expression I've become quite fond of.

I'd originally planned on just adjusting hues and saturations in Photoshop and leaving it at that, but of course I wasn't quite satisfied with the result, so I ended up dragging it into Corel Painter 12 and doing a huge repainting job with their oil brushes. Glad I did, as I quite like the end result. Took it back into photoshop to fiddle a bit more and add the drop shadow, and here you have it.

I then drew and added the graduation cap, as it just seemed right. The final result is a bright creature, extremely intellectual (as owls are), and slightly cynical (with dollops of humour). But happy. Honest.

If you'd like to peek at the original Blue Owl, it's over at: http://www.floatinglemons.com/2011/02/blue-owl-bee-happy-daisies.html. Cheers!

RED OWL cards and matching gifts are over at:

Red Owl at FLoating Lemons Illustration @ Zazzle, and

RED OWL GRAD graduation cards, invitations and matching goodies is up at:  

Red Owl Grad at Floating Lemons Events @ Zazzle

A little image that came to me while I was watching TV a few evenings ago (I was watching a particularly gory episode of a forensic series, so have absolutely no idea of why cute owls came to mind). I grabbed my little wacom and laptop and scribbled it straight into Corel Painter 12 and had fun with it the rest of the evening.

Once I was done I googled 'owl love' just to make sure that the inspiration hadn't come straight from somebody else's illustration that had stuck in a corner of my visual brain. It's something that happens far too often, so I always have to ensure that I'm not inadvertently 'copying' some else's work that I previously admired. Particularly so in this instance as owls seem to be multiplying in flight on the virtual airwaves; apparently they are a huge trend at the moment.

Once I was as sure as one can be that I wasn't plagiarising, I cleaned it up and uploaded it to my stores. It's a quick little digital sketch, I know, but I'm now quite fond of it. Cuteness seems ingrained in some part of my psyche whether I wish it to be or not.

Cheers!

If you're interested in taking a peek, I'm uploading it at the moment to:

Owl Love at Floating Lemons Illlustration

I decided that it was time to turn my hand once again to a bit of fun digital illustration. This started off as a quick sketch:

Very light and vague, I know. But good enough to start off with. Scanned it into COREL Painter 12 and then handpainted it, first in pastels ... then when that got too frustrating, changed over to oils and finished it off. I took far too long over what was meant to be a simple digital exercise, so I ended up finishing the four free-falling eggs and the grass in photoshop.

If you'd like to take a peek at what I ended up creating with it as far as gifts and cards are concerned, click on the links below and let me know what you think ...

Easter Rabbit Run Party Theme at Floating Lemons Events @Zazzle

and

Easter Rabbit Run at Floating Lemons Illustration @Zazzle

A little doodle of a sweet pair of doves, one pale blue and the other light pink, cuddled in an embrace shaped like a heart. It started out as a pencil sketch in my moleskine that I scanned and then digitally painted in Corel Painter, then played around with in Photoshop to create a pair of separate blue and pink hearts as well:

I've used them to design cards and matching gifts for ...

Weddings: Two Doves One Heart Wedding at Floating Lemons Events;

Baby Showers for twins: Twin Doves Heart at Floating Lemons Events;

and Valentine's Day: (coming soon!)

Cheers!

We're going through huge changes at present. A whole new look, a new store and a new range of products ... Wedding & Party Themes.

The previous (relatively new too) Floating Lemons banner and logo were just a bit too heavy and serious, so I've replaced it with something slightly more cheerful that I feel reflects better the lighter and more whimsical feel of the illustrations. I think this one's a Keeper :)

We've also opened a new Floating Lemons online store at Zazzle : Floating Lemons Events. As I know absolutely nothing about throwing parties, never mind weddings, I've been researching like mad for months and although I'm still very green I think I've learned a bit -- hopefully enough to understand the basics of what is needed for most events, large or small. Any advice, critical or otherwise, is extremely welcome!

I started the ball rolling with one of my old colored pencil drawings as it's a popular one, and cheerful and bright, my Red Poppy:

The first Theme that's JUST been posted at Zazzle is a Wedding theme based on the above drawing, with a teal colour to match it. I've aqua (love the aqua and red combination), apple green and lime green lined up as well, but started off with the teal, creating wedding stationery (I think I have everything covered, from invitations, 'save the date' announcements, 'will you be my ...' cards, menu cards, to ceremony programs and everything in between) and gifts to match as thank you gifts and party favors all with fully customizable text so that names and details can be changed. phew. If I've missed anything out let me know.

I really needed the extra work ... not. But I'm quite enjoying this trip into something new, and love the design process despite the headaches (from banging it against the wall once again) and loss of hair (tearing it out, yes). As I said, advice and comments are very welcome!

The new store can be found at: Floating Lemons Events @Zazzle.

Have a peek and let me know what you think. Cheers!

Rocket red yellow

A few months ago my sister asked me to design a space rocket for the birthday party of a young wannabe-astronaut, an event she was helping out with. So I drew her the above image and apparently it was very well-received by the little spaceboy.

I took another look at it recently and decided to work on it a bit more, so I redid the rocket in 5 different colour combinations before uploading the lot onto just about all the available products at Zazzle. Here they are:

Rocket blue green                                  Rocket blue pink