Justyna

Mountains

I create a lot of my pattern-like designs when I talk on the phone. I just can’t sit still and do nothing. I always start doodling on whatever’s available. And since I have my reMarkable tablet with me at all times, I usually end up sketching on it.

This is a simple pattern of mountains that I made recently:

It all started with this absentminded sketch:

Then I uploaded it into Photoshop and cleaned it up. Added grey backgrounds. Made some mountains lighter, and some darker. Then I applied some distress textures that I bought on Creative Market. And the effect is a pattern that looks nice on home decor and some apparel.

Vintage Wash

Threadless added a new type of t-shirt. It’s called Vintage Wash and the colors are lovely, more subdued than normal t-shirts. They also have very creative color names. Instead of simple “Red” it’s “Nantucket Red”:

And this color is called “Summer Sky”:

This is “Saltwater”, my favorite:

The days are getting colder

A note on motivation

I’ve been thinking lately, I am very lucky that my family and friends are not very supportive. Most of them don’t believe in my success. My mom used to tell me I couldn’t draw — and it was after I’d been working as an artist for years. My friend said that I will probably not make a successful game, ever.

I also have friends who believe in me and tell me so. Maybe all those unsupportive and supportive comments cancel each other out, and that’s why I am never discouraged.

I know there’s a lot of talk about how important supportive environment is for achieving your goals. But I think this is wrong. For me, having only supportive people would not be a good thing. The best people to have around are people who are a bit like adversaries — you need to show them you can succeed, you compete with them, you want to prove them wrong,

I will destroy you

My cat series continues…

Blue Cat

This wasn’t the plan

I haven’t been working much these past few days because I am visiting my grandma. But here’s one of my recent designs.

Design ideas tutorial

Today I watched Michael Essek’s talk “How to come up with ideas that buyers love”.

There are two things that surprised me:

Michael has a much more professional attitude towards making designs. I sort of always just draw what I like. Michael, of course, likes to draw. But he also runs a business. I think I should learn from him.
I thought I had a lot of designs. I have now about 240 designs but not all of them are completely unique. Some are just different versions of the save design. Michael has over 2000 designs! He said that maybe even up to 5000 if you include all variants. That’s insane! When did he draw all that?

The talk was very informative and motivating. Go watch it.