What Can We Make Today?
One fine summer day
When the flowers in my garden were all in bloom,
The sun was shining,
Birds were singing,
Cats were sleeping in the yard,
I picked a blossom of a blue
geranium.
In my summer studio,
I carefully placed the flower
On my desk.
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Many times, when trying to come up with a new design idea, I will review my drawing notebooks for ideas. Today, I found a drawing of my dog Lucy in colored pencil that would make a nice poster or other product.
Original scan of my Lucy drawing
After scanning the original drawing at 300dpi and saving the image, I start by making a duplicate layer, leaving the original image intact and hidden. If you make a mistake or change your mind you don’t have to start all over again. The duplicate layer can easily deleted. That way you can experiment with different styles and filters but still have the option of going back to the original design.
Usually, scanned pencil drawings will need to be darkened and enhanced to look good for printing, in my opinion. I often use the automatic color correction and color variations in Adobe Photoshop Elements to darken and enhance the image. To create the oval border, I use the select tool to create an oval around the design then invert the selection and fill it with color. To make the image suitable for a large poster, I increased the image size to 11″ x 16.5″. Save a copy of the image as a png file for uploading. If you are going to be using the image for email or the web, also make a jpg copy.
This is my published image on Zazzle.com
Today, I created a new product line at my Zazzle Store for Customizable Cards. The Lily Scroll Business Card can be customized with your name, title, company name, address, two telephone numbers, email address and slogan. Your website address is printed on the back of the card.
I love my Art instruction books, one of my favorites is Watercolor by Duane R. Light from Walter Foster Publishing, Inc., www.walterfoster.com. I like to work with pen and ink with a Watercolor wash. This design was first drawn on paper and then traced onto transparent vellum. I then inked in the design and applied the watercolor washes over the pen and ink drawing.
This design is also available on other products
I hope you like my designs and my blog. Have a great day!
