This project for author, Erin Casey, is for promotional stickers for her book series, The Purple Door District. (Check her work out HERE if you are into getting lost in some fantasy stories.) Erin saw a piece that I did for Inktober in 2020 and thought is would translate perfectly into the logo for the Crystal Corvid, a fictional apothecary shop in her book series.
Below is the process starting from the original Inktober sketch to the finished image that will be printed as a sticker and used to promote the 3rd book in the series.
The original Inktober drawing in a series that I drew digitally based on Celtic Goddesses. This particular drawing was based on The Morrigan, a Celtic Triple Goddess and chooser of the slain. She is known to shape shift into a crow.
Based off the original image, we changed the pose of the bird slightly, made the beak a bit more 'raven' than 'crow', and added the 'third eye'.(Note: Adding a third eye to an animal and having it remain 'realistic' is a bit trickier than one may think.)
Once Erin approved of the changes, we moved on to adding the details. This lead to shifting the tilt of the head to accommodate the wand in the beak and make the third eye slightly more visible. At this point I also added the purple to the image.
After seeing the image with just the purple added, it was agreed upon that there should be a bit of accent with the green in the lavender and the wand (for balance)
Adding in the type and creating this final image for the purpose of printing 3-4 inch round stickers to distribute as promotional materials.
This was an incredibly fun and education project. I look forward to more projects like this in the future.
This is a passion project of mine many years in the making and still evolving. If you have taken a look around my website, you may have picked up that otters are a bit of a thing here. Micaela is a character that I am finally finding the skill to bring to life. She is a strong and courageous Little Otter that is out to experience life and has had some set backs and heart breaks. To her credit, she has worked very hard to repair her broken heart and live life to the fullest. Just because your heart get's broken, doesn't mean you can't put it back together.......broken, but still good.
This drawing started out as an exercise to learn how to use Procreate and had evolved into full blown utilitarian art. (Utilitarian art is things that are useful in everyday life and are fun to look at and bring a smile to your face.) This is not the end of the line for Micaela, she still has many adventures left and we are excited to bring them to life and share them when the time is right.
Original digital line art based on a steampunk otter figurine. This started out as practice and has become the inspiration for a slowly unfolding story. She also now has a series of friends.
Added color and definition to the line art creating more depth to this character.
Added a simple background, again with the intention of learning how Procreate works better.
Ultimately, I was not happy with the original background and changed it to this, This change of background was partially for making printing on fabric easier.
This is the final product, a handmade messenger bag with the original digital artwork printed on fabric and then sewn into the bag. I have completely sold out of the first run of this bag and will be restocking as soon as possible.
This was an early photography project of mine. I was looking for a way to shed a little light in the world and spread a bit of inspiration and turn that into something tangible for a holiday vendor event at Mile Hi Church. I was also looking for something fun to do with some of the photos that I have taken over the years. That was how these desktop inspirational cards were born. They are printed on standard business cards, 2-sided for a total of 12 different moments of inspiration, and they all come with a small stone stand to hold the card of the day. My original intention was to revisit this idea and create more cards to add to the mix, but time and interest have just not been there. (Oh, and I made the stone stands as well with a handful of landscape stones, a tile saw and some stone sealer to bring out the beauty of the stones.)
This photo was one of my first attempts at photographing the Milky Way. It was taken at Grand Mesa Lakes in Colorado.
I have always found the changing of the Aspens to be a magical time of year and macro photography is a great way to see things a little differently.
A mystical morning in Rocky Mountain National Park. The fog had not yet cleared on this side of the valley.
Yep, more otters. Getting to photograph this raft of free-range sea otters was a personal moment of joy. It seemed only right that this card was all about gratitude.
My first trip to the Grand Canyon and this was the first glimpse when we arrived. (And I almost left my camera in the car!)
Probably the luckiest photo I have ever taken. This was a secondary launch deck of a Chinese rocket re-entering the atmosphere. Very mush a right place at the right time!
Grounded with stone stands, I hope that these little moments of inspiration have made many smiles.
Commission me to help! Send me a message and let me know what your vision is and we can work together to bring your project to life.