We’re 10 days into the #SFDesignADay SpoonChallenge! Today’s design prompt is brought to you by Sharon Turner (aka Scrummy), an avid Spoonflower Marketplace contributor with a knack for Steampunk designs.
Sharon: I think of steampunk as a mash up of mechanical Victorian fantasy and grungy science fiction. Visually, the aesthetic is really cool and all about the details. (Check out some steampunk inspiration on Pinterest!) My favourite things to draw are animals and architecture so I combined the two and created some tower ‘stripes’ with birds!
My design started with an ink drawing which I scanned at high dpi and vectorised in Adobe® Illustrator®. I changed up some of the details and elements using my Wacom. Once I had the repeat in transparency, I coloured this digitally in Adobe Photoshop®. That’s the bit I love to do the best! Colours can make or break a design.
Pro tip: When doing a design with lots of detail, don’t get lost in it. Back off, zoom out. It has to look good from a distance and as a repeat! Negative (empty) space is just as important as all those twiddly bits you spend all that time perfecting. And if it’s a super busy pattern, consider reducing the number of colours. I love colour and love to use a lot of it, but it can be distracting sometimes in an ornate pattern.
Scrummy’s Steampunk Towers design printed on Faux Suede. Shop this design now in Scrummy’s shop!
Inspired? We want to see what you create! Be sure to tag your designs influenced by today’s SpoonChallenge technique with #SFDesignADay on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
thanks ever so Tina 🙂
thanks Ceri!
thanks Amy! Have fun!
Wonderful post! I always love your illustrations!
Your signature style is fantastic Sharon. You really have this mastered!
Great post, Sharon! Yes–those birds are fab! This is waaaaaay out of my comfort zone, but looking forward to the challenge!
thanks Virginia!
Cool post! Love those birds!