Dynamic Auto Painter

I'm not one for specialty software for creating art. I use CS6 Illustrator, the master program that allows me to design vector patterns with mathematical precision. And I use Photoshop for a few subtle effects, but mostly for formatting raster files.

It's highly unlikely that I'll ever learn to paint, though. So, I was intrigued from the start with Dynamic Auto Painter for $99 - on sale for $50. After thinking about it 6 months, I bought it.

Gosh, it's fun! There are a lot of painting styles to choose from and countless custom options for tweaking the process. But I just like to pick a style, click play, sit there and watch it paint whatever image I've opened!  Be assured this is not like Photoshop filter.

For $50, I got more than my money's worth. Only time will tell if it will be useful to me professionally. (Click on my images to enlarge them.)

Here is a photo of the lake I see from my back door:

Here's what it looks like after I used the Van Gogh Starry style:

Here's a closeup. I started with a high res image and ended up with fantastic detail:

Fab Florals - Vector Repeats

Last time I showed the softer side of my florals.

Here is now a bolder assortment.

Vintage Dress Patterns

My Mom was a seamstress who sewed all my clothes until I was a teenager, and then I started sewing them myself.

Shopping for dress patterns and fabric, then, is practically in my DNA. Combine that with my love of designs, and for turning vintage images into vector, and VIOLA! You have what you see below.

Old Vintage Fashion Plates

For recreation, I design all kinds of things just for fun, knowing they likely will never be a product.

I recently came across some fashion plates from the early 1900's that were fairly high res, AND in the public domain, I downloaded several dozens of them. (You never know when they might figure into a design project.)

But, they also fed right into my ongoing search to find things to apply my repeating patterns to. So, I opened a fashion plate in Photoshop, extracted the black outline, copy and pasted it into Ai, and used Live Trace on it. Live Trace almost always needs quite a bit of cleanup to get rid of its distinctive weirdness, and this time was no exception.

But when I was done, I filled in all the negative spaces, and viola! 

Here are two samples of the 5 I did, showing the before and after.

Just For Fun

I did another vectorizing of an old ad today, inserting my own designs in the dress, hat and butterflies. Today was all about designing for recreational purposes only. And it WAS fun!

I had planned on creating some snappy text, but since I've been spending a lot of time recently giving myself pep-talks, this seemed appropriate.

Quilt Labels - Baby's First Birthday and Quilt Washing Instructions

Modern Yardage has just added my two newest quilt labels to their line up.

I've done them in several different colorways. 

Order as few or many as you like at $1.00 each.

Digital Scrapbook Paper

I've got SO many design collections, many of which go to Modern Yardage.

But, they're also perfect for scrapbook papers, and Etsy is the perfect place to sell them in digital format. Once the listing is posted, Etsy does all the work.

There's some overhead on my end, of course, formatting it all for the listings, but now that I have a process in place, I should be able to work my way through my collections.

Pantone 18-1438 Marsala - Color of the Year 2015

Pantone 18-1438 was announced a little while ago, and when it was, designers quickly begin looking for ways to use it, for color palettes in which it works well.

Marsala is a fun one, defies being pigeon-holed. It's neutral enough for home decor and muted enough not to clash with most skin colors.

I like it as shown here with Pantone 14-5714, a color that Pantone included in its 2015 forecast.

Oh, and as you see, I've vectorized another advertisement, this time an old Palmolive soap ad.

The Four Seasons - A Set of Four Ready to Frame Prints Coming Soon

I'll continue to add vintage-effects cars to a collection before I launch my new Etsy store.

But I'm taking a break from the cars  with a series of children, starting with the four seasons and some sweet little girls.

I would again like to thank Dustin of RetroSupplyCo. at Creative Market for his brilliant Photoshop expertise. He makes me look like a genius.

Here's Winter:

Making Vintage Even More Vintage

I continue to create my car prints, and will until I have enough to open a new Etsy store.

Each one is so much fun to do, and something to look forward to doing when my real work is done.

This Volkswagen beetle is super cute!

More Vintage Effects - Advertisements

With all the great inspiration I get from the nicely priced downloads at Creative Market, I just can't stop creating images using them!

This ad I created so encompasses all my true loves: old advertisements, vector, vintage effects in Photoshop and ... self-promotion!

Is it sad or commendable that I spend part of my weekends playing with this kinda thing?

Terrarium Art at Lilla Rogers

Alas, I didn't place in the top 50 in the contest. I'm astonished, though, at the amazing artwork that the entrants submitted. Such beauty and talent!

See all of them here. 

Here's mine:

My Lookbook is Published

My wonderful regular clients have kept me quite busy for the last several weeks. Once I had a couple of "free" days, I finished my lookbook, which I had been working on for a couple of months.

See it here.

I also got a few cool florals done, and revamped my website. I've been mad about coral and gray lately!

Case in point: 

Multi-purpose Floral

Gotta keep 'em coming. Large scale, small, ditzy, contemporary, classic, mod, flower power, elegant ... you name it.

Florals are the most sought after patterns.

Here's the one I did today. I'm still working out the colors.

Colorization - Paying the Bills Part 3

My good pal, Charles of Helmar Brewing, creates some fantastical ephemera baseball cards that look like they could be the real thing. But, no, he's an artist who's found a niche that appeals to baseball collectors.

I've had the great fortune to help him on a good many projects, including the colorization of old black and white photos. Believe me when I tell you, there are no shortcuts to this.

Of course, the better the photo to start with, the better the finished results.

Here's a before and after of  Honus Wagner who played mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates between 1897 and 1917.

Yep, I'm still doing lots of designing for my fabrics collections at Modern Yardage, but fill up every minute with whatever I can to have an income as a graphic designer.

Hedgerow in Four Colorways

Here it is in Autumn.

Look for it at Modern Yardage soon!

LOVE!

Working as a Freelance Graphic Designer

I am blessed to have had several months of fairly steady work in my graphic design field. I've got some fantastic clients who call on me time and again, and for whom I do some really good work.

I miss making patterns when I am doing hourly or commissioned work, but I love paying rent more!


Since I don't have any new patterns to post here, I've looked through my library and found these old calling card - based images that have always been a favorite. They're part of a set of four.
They are available to purchase via tracymillerdesigns.com

Rugs

Sometimes I spend a whole day formatting my patterns into rectangles, sometimes with a border. Viola! A rug or doormat.

I've sold several, so I keep creating!

Christmas Patterns

I've been lucky enough in the last couple of weeks to have graphic design jobs, even if they're other than creating surface art. I'm not waiting tables, so I count my blessings.

I don't have anything new that I can post, but this timeless Holiday collection is just right this week before Christmas to put me in the mood.