Illustration vs. Design
My 2025 Calendar is out! https://www.northstarstudio.net It’s a bit different in direction from the ones I did in the past. I usually do something slightly illustrated- leaves in the wind, Stained Glass Tudor Roses…. My favorite was 2022. I drew a lemon tree on a pink background and each lemon had its own month. It was really cute and upbeat, which we desperately needed in 2022. This year, its all about design. I have often said I am a designer, not an illustrator. That is less true as my illustrating improves, but at heart I am still a designer.
So Many Colors!
During my recent bout of Artists Block, I used the down time to play with color. https://northstarstudio.net/artists-block/ I started building Color Palettes in Procreate, the drawing app I use on my iPad. I created a lot of palettes. And the more I worked on palettes, the better my palettes got to be. The first ones aren’t bad, but the most recent ones sing. I’m really pleased, in retrospect, with how well I was able to stay productive, even if I wasn’t producing art. These palettes will fuel this new surge of creativity I feel coming on. My down time was well spent.
Once I had all of these beautiful colors assembled and organized, I couldn’t wait to start playing with them. And it’s time for Spoonflower’s annual Tea Towel Calendar Challenge https://www.spoonflower.com/design-challenge/2025-tea-towel-calendars-2024-10. I didn’t know what I wanted the the calendar to be yet, so I was just sketching out some ideas, getting an idea of composition. I started laying out blocks of color to designate months; I could come up with the exact illustration later. And I got to try out my new palettes!
An Idea takes Shape
I had this idea in the back of my head for a midcentury modern style bird with big, color block feathers, so I was using a large diamond shape with rounded side corners. I grabbed the first palette and laid down a few colors. I was on to something! I tried the same color blocks in another palette and it looked great, too. And then another. And then a few more. I tried overlapping the colors and letting them blend, creating vibrant, new colors. I put the darkest diamonds at the bottom of the canvas, gradually getting lighter as you reach the top of the canvas. It was such a pretty effect. If only I could make each diamond dark at the bottom and fade out to a whisper of color at the top…. Wait. I can do that.
And So I Did
The design I had before me was nothing like the big mid-mod bird of my musings. In fact, it didn’t really look like any object. It was just colors. Gorgeous, rich jewel tones fading into translucence. I was captivated. I loved what I just created. But I needed a calendar. And a Calendar has 12 objects for 12 months. And this was not that.
I still needed to draw to the months. It’s a good thing I’m practicing my hand lettering! https://northstarstudio.net/despite-everything. And this gave me time to think. The design I had was beautiful design work. Does it need to be illustrated? It’s not a requirement. Will people vote for something that’s not illustrated? I don’t know.
I managed to add the months to the design without interrupting the flow of translucence. And I came up with a really stylized 2025 that works well with the design. The overall effect is this serene, chill vibe that’s going to feel as fresh at the end of the year as it does today. And the beautiful thing about tea towel calendars is that when the year is over, you will still get years of usefulness out of them. They make such a great gift. Yes. This is the one I want to give out this year. I hope it is the one that you will give out as well. Don’t forget to gift one to yourself- you will be glad so many times that you did.
