The art, crafts and garden of Julia Morrill. You can see the many products made by Julia at http://www.zazzle.com/julia_art*
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Designing with My Sister's Drawing
The art work that I'm designing with today is a detail view from one of my sister Tami's vibrant and exciting drawings and paintings.
by julia_art
I thought it would be fun to start designing a bath collection with it.
by julia_art
This wasn't even the whole drawing. It's going to be a lot of fun to work with although I haven't been able to convince her of the full potential of the image.
I'd love to be working with her but she just wasn't interested. Perhaps if these sell well it will prove my point.
by julia_art
by julia_art
A lot of these products can be used for other things but I tried to imagine kind of a spa afternoon and really taking time to relax and enjoy yourself.
by julia_art
Monday, January 30, 2017
Obsessed with Painting my Garden, designing drawer pulls with it
by julia_art
Yes, I'm still a bit obsessed with sunflowers. Here are a couple of drawer pulls that I put them on.
by julia_art
Artist's Studio Ceramic Knob
by julia_art
Painted backgrounds like this one are often used for my floral paintings. This detail view just celebrates the color and texture that makes them fun.
by julia_art
I'm sure you'll remember this design from last fall when we collected leaves from the garden and applied paint to them to use as stamps on this painted background. It was a fun activity for all involved and a great memory. Now it's a drawer pull perfect for redecorating your cabin.
Designing Clothes for Babies and Toddlers
by baby_art
I grow a lot of roses here and some of them have been in the family for over 60 years so of course that leads to drawings, watercolors and paintings. Today they decorate this cute little toddlers dress.
by dalahorse
I've loved Dala Horses since I was a baby so it was probably no surprise that I would grow up to make and design them myself. I've gone full circle in designing baby outfits with my own horses on them now.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Drawer Pulls and What Makes Them Exciting
Farmhouse Sunflower Ceramic pull/knob Ceramic Knob
by julia_art
As an artist that often paints furniture I'm excited that I can now design handles to match them.
Designing for Media
Urban Charge Hub
by julia_art
It feels good to be designing chargers for phones and other devices. Most of these were done from paintings and will charge several things at once as well as looking great in any setting. They're a fun and useful way to decorate your home or workspace.
Tank Top Fun With All Over Prints
Becca's Flowers Tank Top All-Over Print Tank Top
by julia_art
This Blue Flowered Painting was done by my sister Becca and looks great on this tank top. don't you think so?
Blue Lily Tank Top All-Over Print Tank Top
by julia_art
The fun twist in this design is that the painting was actually pink before I ran it though adobe photoshop and made it into this.
Dancing Rainbow Tank Top All-Over Print Tank Top
by julia_art
The inspiration for this design was kind of a nice surprise. I had painted the inside cover of a chest and just happened to photograph it. It didn't look like much then but when tiled and adjusted for size it really pops.
Sunflower Designs from the Garden
Sunflower Dress
by julia_art
The design on this dress is from a drawing that I did quite a long time ago. Our city lot is certified wildlife habitat and each year we grow several varieties of sunflowers for all of the birds and animal that call this place home.
Each year I draw, photograph and paint a few to add to my design portfolio.
This time I inverted one of them and made the center just a bit larger to add a nice contour to the pattern.
The sunflowers inspire me and feed them. It's a win,win situation for everyone and everything here.
i'm happy to report that sunflower merchandise also sells well and helps keep it all going.
Designing Earrings
As you can see I'm still having a lot of fun with that little garden painting and I continue to experiment with different background colors until I find one that I really like.
Working like this Is so much easier and faster than physically re-painting the background on the actual painting so I find it to be another tool as important as tubes of paint or paintbrushes and may inspire me to go back to the canvas and start again.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Latest Product Designs from Paintings and Drawings
Hi There,
Growing Girl Pacifier
by baby_art
I thought I'd show you some of the things I've been making instead of just telling you about them.
Growing Girl Pacifier
by baby_art
You may recognize the painting on this from last years garden. Wouldn't it be fun to see the baby with this at the farmer's market? I'm designing a line of other matching products like a shopping bag to put everything in while you're out along with a bib and a burp cloth to take along for lunch time.
That day that I decided to bring a few salad things up to the house in my teacup and saucer has turned into a lot of fun over the last couple of years.
What I like best about this drawing is that it fits nicely on a lot of the the oval and rectangular products...and it's just plain cute!
I'm not sure just what I'll design with it yet but I do know I'll have fun doing it. I would encourage any of you with images that you'd like to see each day to try Zazzle for yourselves. We all need "stuff" in our lives, why not make things that we really enjoy having and using?
Heading Back to the Paints
Still no clear idea in mind but enjoying the process painting with a variety of tools, mainly my hands and knives and of course picking up a brush once in a while.
I've spent most of my time designing products with some new Dala Horse drawings on them.
When I'm painting I really have to fight the urge to use so much blue. It's both habit and instinct for me to grab it first. I've gone as far as closing my eyes when selecting colors just to counter it.
Right now it's about building a richly textured and colored surface and seeing what develops from there.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Designing with the Iris Painting
This time I've got to say that I can't decide which was more fun. Painting the picture or seeing what I can do with it afterward.
I started by making stickers to keep my letter writing interesting and entertain myself and my friends.
Next I discovered that you can make anything into an all over print on a bag on Zazzle so I had to give that a try and I've got to say that I was really impressed with the quality and the value on that.
I'm headed back there now to see how some of my other paintings look on them.
Yes, the possibilities really are endless!
Friday, January 20, 2017
Painting Last Summer's Garden
After having tea out in the garden one day I decided to pick some lettuce and pea pods for lunchtime salads. Since I didn't have anything handy to put them in I used my cup and saucer and loved the way it looked. I took photos and started a painting back then but didn't get anywhere near a finish until yesterday.
At this point the painting could be finished but I'm wanting to change the background so we scanned it just in case I ruin it now.
Another thing that we did with it was to remove the background on the computer and use the image on an assortment of different backgrounds on products in my zazzle stores.
My favorite one was to add it to my flying dishes painting that I'd done about 18 years ago. It blended with it so well that I'm probably the only person that can tell it was added on.
Many of my paintings have had blue and white dishes on them over the years so it will be fun to see how well it combines with those too.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Sketchbooks, Scrapbooks and where to go from there
Hi there,
I've just spent a few days looking through and re-arranging some scrapbooks an sketchbooks and deciding what else I can do with a lot of the material available that I hadn't done before.
I turned a number of drawings into rubber stamp designs and was even inspired to do a few new drawings for that project.
I re- arranged scrapbooks so that there's one for press clippings, one for drawings and then several others on different subjects so that I've got everything close at hand for the times that people ask me what sorts of other art and craft projects I've done. I find it much easier to show them than to tell them and keep all of this on the same shelf as the books and magazines that I've been in.
Between that and the scrapbook wall I put together recently I'll be in good shape in case anyone comes around to interview me again.
That done I can get relax and get back to some real art again.
I can hardly wait!
Friday, January 13, 2017
Off to a Promising Start
I'm pleased with the results so far and have put this painting on around 100 different sorta of products this week. Now I've finished with this and am relaxing back into an abstract painting which so far is more of a finger painting than anything else. It felt REALLY good and I can't wait to get back to it.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Hope for Spring
We're looking at below zero temps tonight and my thoughts are with all of the people that don't have adequate heat or shelter in weather like this. I used to put thought into action by crocheting a lot of things to keep people warm and comfortable. Most of the time it was hats, scarves and lap robes or small afghans.
My hands no longer allow that and I never have any money so there's little I can do except continue designing and hope to make some money. Right now I'm designing lots of products with that last Iris painting on them and am challenged to see just how far that I can push the design.
Each day when I grab the laptop and head for the table to work ( I'm learning to type left handed until I can find voice activated software that works well for me).
Anyway...back at the table I had to smile because my flower seed has sprouted and grown a couple of inches from yesterday. More leaves are beginning to appear and it's a great reminder that life goes on.
I can't wait to see if they'll grow this great indoors.
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