Barron Storey

I had the great pleasure of taking conceptual illustration with the amazing Professor Barron Storey. This class was a pleasant change from the sometimes grueling and tedious work i do in my other illustration classes. Not only did I learn to better develop and communicate my ideas but im also starting to understand the potential of my abilities and go beyond simple visual narratives.  The above piece is one "bit" from my collage piece on the generations of wedding dresses. Below is an ink wash addressing the issue of sending minors to adult prisons. This piece was a challenge because I had only 2 hours to work on it in class. And :astly is my spread in our class zine "Pinky Swear" - a fun collection of work about childhood misconceptions. I'm definitely going to miss this class.

 

 

Steeple Chase

Just some preliminary work on an amusement park ride I was designing for visual development class. These animal silhouettes where the most fun for me, maybe i will make more.

forest fey lady

just a photo shop exercise, i'm still working on how to paint hair.

locksmith

Hes in a band...

Tree House Project

My rendered exterior and a rough interior shot, plus a prop.

Soto's Kitchen work

I just finished up work on the kitchen assignment for vis dev class. This was my first time designing an interior. Its basically a kitchen based off the writings of Gary Soto, a Mexican American who grew up in 1950s Fresno California. I tried to stage this in 2 views, One of a kitchen in the evening after the kids have been tucked in for the night and the other in mid morning when mom does chores and the kids are busy getting into trouble (mixing a big bowl of pudding on the table).

To help facilitate this assignment we did a lot of outside research and studies, including these little still lifes I did in photoshop.
The Hardest part of this assignment was trying to capture the mood of the story in an imaginative way while remaining true to reference and research.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Ive been driving myself nuts on a new pattern. I have always loved Alice and the artists that portray her. I just now finally have found the time to take it on. I based this piece off of the original illustration by Tenniel (1866).

The difficult part was figuring out how to convert the original illustration into a simplified pattern. I made several passes over the drawing, taking out information here and there until it was mostly shape instead of line.

What is different about this punch needle is that I used the color of the weavers cloth as part of the image. I like the look of the cloth but just in case i am doing another version with a neutral colored background punched in. This is also the largest design i have made 6 1/3 x 4/1/2 inches, big by punchneedle standards. The pattern should eb up and ready for sale on ETSY in the next few weeks!

I think the story of Alice is one that will endure and be loved by many more generations. Many of my favorite illustrators have contributed to the subject including Arthur Rackham and Mary Blair. Now that the new movie is coming out this year i am excited to see how Alice will be portrayed in live action.

Some Thoughts on Color

Some times the hardest stage of pattern making (and picture making) is picking out your colors. We want good contrast, we want a lot of variation and interest, but we also want it all go together. Sometimes i choose out colors and i feel like I'm either too bland and predictable or drowning in a rainbow of sensory overload.
I find that the best way to get inspiration and make good color choices is to seek out good reference.
Palette hunting can be quite fun and i am often surprised how well certain color combination can work. You can find these palettes anywhere: advertisements, photos from interior decorating magazines, fine art paintings and design books, and even photos of nature.
My favorite place for reference is COLOURlovers This community allows users to create their own palettes and colors and upload them for all to see. You can even import a picture or painting you like and extract the main colors from it.
I made the palette below by extracting colors from this picture:


Color by COLOURlovers

The colors are mostly monochromatic and have a nice warm feel to them. I also could of pulled out some of the subtle greens and pinks from this picture, the options are limitless. But it only took me a few minutes to put this palette together, if you had just handed me a color wheel with a million options and said go for it i would be at it for hours and probably wouldn't of come up with something this nice.
Now the hard part is finding these colors in floss form or mixing them yourself with paint.

Here are some tops palettes right now:

Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers

I even used this site to help me pick out my wedding colors.

Color by COLOURlovers

Grand Opening!

Hello and welcome to my little art and punch needle corner on the internet.
My name is Christy Morgan and I am an illustrator and crafter. This blog will show case my newest patterns for punchneedle, my student work for illustration and design, and also be a place to share my thoughts on crafting, art making, and etsy.



I also have my patterns available on www.punchneedledog.com _ a site that offers wholesale, valdani floss, and really cute primitive gifts!