This week our contest is built around fabric designs created using water colors and digitized using a minimal amount of software manipulation. As you look through the entries (there are 70), some of the designs were clearly created using paint and others…. well, it's hard to tell. As you vote, it's probably worth keeping in mind the theme and letting your sense of fidelity to theme — as well as the beauty of the patterns — guide your choices of favorites. But the most important thing, as always, is to have fun and find inspiration.
The participants are:
- aliens2 by renaanne
- arizona-ed by
linda_d_braun - Beginnings by
karenharveycox - Birdbrain
Patchwork Print by susanfaye - Birdies by
pooky - blooming by
jiah - Blue White by
azurite - card__orange_flower_dahlia-ed
by yarrow4 - cestlaviv_anemone
by c'est_la_viv - Chrysanthemum
by callen - circulation by
nadja_p - Delft Inspired
by kdl - Dreaming of
Africa by not-enough-time - e. HIBISCUS by
edyta - estamparia090
by jaydece - EXPLOSION by
musterartig - Fishes in
Aquatic by taradonnelly - Flower for
Spoonflower by captiveinflorida - forest fox by
mytinystar - fotolia_3312946
by aquinavortex - FROM MY
ORIGINAL PAINTING ON RAW SILK by floorartetc - Fruits de
Provence by snowflower - fun_animals by
afincho - Hawaiian
Hibiscus Watercolor by leilehua - Ice Pop Abstract
Collage by andy - Indian Summer
by jellybeanquilter - Iris Watercolor
by heartaday - kimbers's shape
glyph-ed-ed by kimbers - landscapesposteralt36-4
by charlieread - Magnolia_card
by tolepantr - Martinis by
giftinspired - Meet Me In St.
Louie, Lewie by whimzwhirled - moms_print-ed
by designsbysam - mushroom and
flower cluster by jordan_elise - New York
Natives by sammyk - Painted Birds
by daynagedney - pears and
blossoms by trebligrachel - Pietersite
stone by missemor - rainbow 3 by
rabble - rainbowcolors_copy
by jeallen - rainbow_skulls
by witchylana - red fellows by
narthex - Sea Sprites by
13blackcatsdesigns - Secret Bee by
jsj78jsj - Sleepy Collie
by blueberryblonde - slon_krokodyl_ryba
by a_m - small dress up
boys by scrummy - Small Stuffed
Elephant by mandollyn - Spoonflower-apageaday11-26_27-09_016
by indigonightowl - spoonflower22-ed
by aurelieart - spot_check by
idlejo - Spring Park by
gurgleturtle - spring-fairy by
vina - spring1-ed by
storyline - squirrels by
sandras - strawberriesandgrapes
by littlebear - sunflowerwatercolor
by twobloom - Sweetness by vo
- The Mad Hatter
by creedancelovesyou - Trailing
Flowers by illusio - Tulips and Iris
by evamarion - Unnatural
Habitats by ceanirminger - VintageVeggies
by patters - Water Lily –
Watercolor by diversepixel - Watercolor
Floral by jadegordon - WATERCOLOR
PATCH by pjay - watercolorflowerscoroflot
by erinmichelle - watercolor_fabric
by emilyclaire - work_3785343_2_flat_550x550_075_f
by wutz4tea - Yellow Pedals
by helenklebesadel
I am a little frustrated that people are entering designs into these contests that don’t meet the entry requirements… This “Watercolor” contest has photos that have been manipulated by Photoshop and digital graphics. The last contest “Gardens” hada TON of entries that didn’t have anything that made you think “Hmm, that’s a garden theme”…
I LOVE these contests, but when I go to vote, I have to flip past so many that aren’t the theme, it gets a little annoying…
Heather, I’m with you. As someone who worked really hard to meet the criteria and come up with something I am highly frustrated that a good portion of the designs don’t follow the guidelines. Some of these you can’t even tell if the person entering actually created the base image. Flipping thru extraneous designs is frustrating.
I feel the real followers of SF might care about voting for designs that follow the guidelines but the Twitter folks who come to vote for their friend don’t.
Many kudos to those who created original designs.
I share your frustration completely. I also try my best to follow the contest rules. It’s disappointing to see so many others that haven’t, especially when the guidelines are so explicit in saying, “fabric designs created using water colors and digitized using a minimal amount of software manipulation.” If a better weeding-out process before the voting opens can’t occur, than I can only hope that the public is mindful of what the exact design challenge was.
And yes, bravo to those who embraced the challenge and watercolored their hearts out! Good luck!
I also agree that paging through dozens of designs that don’t meet the criteria is frustrating. Also frustrating is seeing designs that appear to have been done from clipart, or other public domain art. I know there is a lot of this available, and think it’s fine if someone wants to make a fabric for their own use from it; but, PLEASE, don’t enter it in the contests. It’s even worse when it finishes in the top ten, which has happened at least a couple of times. I guess these designers don’t feel any guilt about the fact that they are CHEATING! Since they no longer show the order in which all the entries finished, only the top ten are benefiting from the additional exposure of their designs.
I realize that the designers have to be on the honor system, as I’m sure the Spoonflower folks just don’t have time to check out all the designs that might be based on another artist’s work, which includes clip art. Perhaps Spoonflower should institute an abuse reporting system where someone could report a design that uses someone else’s art by referencing the source that the art came from; such as a Dover Publications book. Spoonflower could then remove that design from the contest and ban the designer from entering future contests.
I have used clipart… But I always manipulate the design so that it becomes my own. I DO NOT, however, enter those manipulated clipart designs into contests. I think that if I win a contest, I want it to be ALL MINE… Not someone else who had the original idea.
(‘Cute Elephant’ and ‘Elephant Rush’ are my only clipart designs used as of today)
I don’t have a problem with clipart, as long as it is part of the public domain or you have purchased it, but this particular contest called for watercolor. Maybe some of the designs just look more manipulated than they are if you look at a larger image? Some of them clearly are heavily altered in Photoshop.
It was NOT easy to correct my gouache (opaque watercolor, which the good folks at SF okayed for the contest) for a perfect repeat in Photoshop. I also have no problem with that–I’m sure other watercolorists needed to retouch the edges of their pattern so it repeats nicely while keeping the bulk of the print as a handpainted watercolor.
I agree with you Tara… I think that those who “filled” a digital image with watercolor, while the design is cute, didn’t actually follow the requirements… Also, those who took digital images or photographs and used the “watercolor effect” in a software program to make the image look ‘watercolor-y’ didn’t follow the requirements either.
I’d also like to be sent a message, if I’ve entered a contest, with how many votes I got even if I didn’t win. That way I know if my designs are liked by the community… : )