I guess I won it. I'm not patient enough to do things correctly, but I do have a lot of fun.
My happy cushion covers were made with canvas from Darlene's ( I love the place), some beautiful Japanese dots I bought at WhizBang (cutest little shop ever),and fifties vintage I found on ebay. And the throw is from Urban Outfitters all right. Maybe I will have to work on a sofa cover someday when I will fill courageous enough to to a pattern. Ouch.

Je ne suis pas bonne couturiere. Je m'amuse trop, je ne suis pas patiente et surement pas perfectionniste (du moins pas pour ca). Je ne suis meme pas fichue de suivre un patron. Mais j'aime beaucoup ca!
Un bout de toile du tissus Japonais et un tissus vintage west-coast, me voila ravie...Pas moyen de me rappeller si les pois Japonais sont de Kokka , mais si je cherche je vais encore depenser des sous, non non non!

bis, since someone asked to see it front, here's a front view and a side one.I re-did the back view because I wasn't happy of the colors.

Christine, if it was a recipe, with oil water and green...Maybe pistachio...Sounds like a cake. A rolled up pistachio cake. 'cause of the snail, you see. Maybe with tiny black seeds for the eyes.

Si vous voulez une echelle dans la crognoture, la chtite fleur bleue doit faire dans les 6mm a tout casser.

©del4yo delphine Doreau 2008

We have this little song in France about a green mouse running in the grass. I always loved it " A green mouse was running in the grass, catch her by the tail, show her to these fellows. These fellows tell me " dip it in the oil, deep it in the water and you will have a good hot snail"

I don't know if it's nonsense or if there is any religious or satirical hidden sense in it. Just the way it is I loved to sing it, and I wanted to illustrate it since we have a garden:

Une souris verte qui courait dans l'herbe...Je me suis toujours demandee si il y a un sens cache dans cette chanson...Il ya-t-il un sens religieux? Ou une allusion a un tres mauvais restaurant? Ou peut-etre il y a-t-il un autre sens satyrique... Je me demande de quand date cette chansonnette?

Ca me rend un peu triste , parfois, de penser que depuis les blagues de Victor Hugo jusqu'au chansonnettes pour enfants, tout ce qui est gai et joli est si peu integre a notre culture... On etudie seulement ce qui est serieux. La souris verte au bac, qu'on rigole un peu!

Lire la traduction en Francais

There is no such thing as New. I mean out of the blue coming from nowhere new. It doesn't exist. Some people (I can't call them artist) think what they are doing is coming from nowhere (magic!), but most of the time they are doing nothing but cliché, again and again. Why? Inspiration comes from study. Inspiration comes from what you see, what you analyze, what you understand. Study little and your art will be little. There is magic, but it's not coming from nothing. It's coming from study.

If you study only one artist, one group, one art, what you'll do will be only pale copies. It's good to copy (as long as you say it's a copy). It's the best way to analyze.  Trying to work from nature only is silly, and all the great painters I know did copy the ancients for learning purposes. But there is a big difference between copy and art.

Here we are. Inspiration. Easy to say, difficult to find? Not so much. Study what you like, and get some more.

It's really easy to study now. I buy books and read them, but I also read blogs and use google as a tool to help me study.

I don't watch much the blogs of fellow illustrators, unless they do a very different job than mine. This to avoid unconscious copy, but also because if they do something close to my art it doesn't help me improve. But I do check something like a hundred blogs. Blogs about design, blogs about history and culture, blog about photography, everything. Thank you guys I learn so much reading you!

The more you see, the less you'll get stuck into copying. Imagination is a muscle. You have to practice. The more you practice the easiest it is. It's difficult to explain how ideas come from all that studying.
Maybe an example would help?

I was watching these pictures of a tiger carrying an umbrella, an then it's been a while I wanted to do something inspired by the story of the musicians of Bremen.  But I'm not very fond of the list of animals in the story... so suddenly watching the tiger I found out that it was not such a problem. I can use my own animals. Let's do tigers and giraffe Bremen style!
See? It's a game of this and that, just let your mind wander from a subject to another. Learn to do this.
Tic tac toe, letter X, letter O and then XOXO! here it is, idea.

And when an idea comes, have paper in hand, and take notes! Get some pocket sketchbooks, carry them around with you.

Another way I use to get inspired is making a search for a cute word in Google image. Searches like "house sparrow", "cupcake" or "california poppy" will bring tons of images . I browse and browse and make sketches of the cutest until I've analyzed what I liked or not in these pictures, what kind of details, forms and colors are truly significant to represent the subject I chose. Then I stop browsing and sketching and begin to design my very own idea of the subject.   It's a very soothing and calming process and I always come with truly personal images.

I also do computer backgrounds that look like inspiration boards, with all the pictures I like or find inspirational. Today mine has a flower pattern from an eighteen century book, a lion embroidery from the seventies, a few thirties fabric patterns, a traditional ikat jacket with beautiful colors and watercolor charts.

There is tons of other ways to get inspired. You can watch  your favourite children's pictures and think of a way to mix them. Or observe an old pattern you find quite ugly but still appealing and then try to find what's appealing and use it.

A good thing too is to consider studying your own culture. I do have to make more pictures from my childhood in Paris. I have to take a new look to the design and wallpapers that decorated our old family home. I study the history of children's illustration. I sowed in my garden flowers I  loved as a little girl. I just can't wait to see them bloom and have fun drawing them. 

You have to keep an eye on all and everything, and make something that will be truly yours out of it. Don't be small, don't stop at the first idea, go big, have fun, go for more, be proficient, be eclectic, and enjoy with delight the results!

There is no step without ground, and what you study should be the ground on your art path.

I'm working for the second round of the wise owl projct. while I was writing it I remembered it's been a while I wanted to post a few links I really like about things my petite maman would like.

Un blog juste sur les tissus liberty

Un blog beton couture

Des livres japonais de jolies broderies et particulierement celui-ci tres simple et tres joli : "embroidery one-point stitch"

La traduction ici.

I've been pretty depressed these days by people making bad use of my blog. Stalking, agressivity, spam, even  pictures stolen, ideas too. Yuck.
The best way to avoid such situations is to teach. No really. If people are interested in my art to the point they want to steal it, I'm going to teach them how to make their own. Like that they will be so busy doing theirs they will forget about mine. And it's a good gift to give to people who don't steal and are interested anyway.

So I will begin a new set of lessons I hope you will enjoy, and if not, I will publish it with a few owls illustrations for eye candy any way, because, you know, it's the wise owl project.

Lesson number one : the basics

Master your tools!
This is of course the basic, but it's easy to say , not easy to do.  First you may want to enquire around what tool is the most interesting for you. Is it a computer? Will you do your best learning to sew? What about sculpture, felting, drawing, watercolor...Ouch just thinking about it and I feel a bit dizzy. So many good things to learn! But maybe you already have an idea. Maybe there was some  material you really like to play with as a child. Maybe there are a few artists you like whom techniques you would like to learn.

Buy books and read them.
Google the name of the techniques you like.
Find some tutorials on the web and read them...

Then don't stop here. 
Practice.
When I want to learn a knew tool or technique, I practice it 20mn a day, minimum, every day. Of course it's not easy. It's always crappy at the beginning, then it's always better. You will be delighted by your new skills after a few weeks only. Don't show yet. Practice for yourself. If it's too difficult, inquire for lessons.

20 minutes doesn't sound  a lot. Just think about it, it's ten hours a month, plenty of time to create something interesting. Sometimes you will  be hooked and work more, of course. Sometimes you won't have time to do it.
But anyway. Practice do good. There's always results and good surprises.

Links for today:

DIY network, Crafster ® , Chronicle Books, Pomadour cute Japanese craft shop,  There is more classic arts and you can easily inquire for them, but these links will give you more ideas!
Choose something you like. Do art for you first.

 

I went last week with the gang to the Lotta Prints Party in SF . We had so much fun testing printing on fabric with the help of Lotta, it was really a great party. I myself made some tests I left behind for Lotta, and printed some of her designs on a baby shirt for my boy.
And look! My shirt is on the Chronicle Book Blog! My goodness I'm part of the buzz! I'm so excited!

Here's my sweet boy wearing it. It was definitely great fun!
(thanks to Wendy from Dozi for letting me use her lotus root stamp- such a great idea!)

The party was for the upcoming of "Lotta prints" book and I definitely recommand it. I can't wait to do some more shirts for my sweet boy and his dad!

Nadya, don't buy it, I got it for you!

©del4yo Delphine Doreau 2007

Sometimes I'm just not happy except for a detail. Showing you my happy detail.

Back to the drawing board.

Parfois ca ne vient pas, c'est tout bof. A part un detail, que je vous montre...Je retourne sur les hiboux qui resistent. Ou pas. Mmph. Il faut dire qu'entre les copiteuses-emprunteuses, le spam, les grognons agressifs, les critiques pas constructives du tout et la fatigue, c'est dur de garder la tchach' creative. Dur.

Happy (belated) birthday Yoko chan!
These cuties I made for my friend's birthday. It was fun to see you Yoko and L., thank you so much!
Il ike to use letters as pseudonyms, it makes me feel mysterious and interesting. Like it was nice to see you Y. and L. next time we will have to do it again with R. and W. and S.! Sounds extravagantly mysterious, ne?

The title is inspired by one of my favourite book : What do you say dear? by Sesyle Joslin (Author) and Maurice Sendak (Illustrator).

Des champipi des champipi des champignons pour l'anniversaire de mon amie Yoko qui les aime bien. J'ai utilise differentes techniques de vieillissement, dont une inspiree par mon cinematographer de mari qui fait des sauts de carpe dans son fauteuil des que la lumiere est trop orange dans un film. On taquine ceux qu'on aime avec les blagues idiotes qu'on peut XD.

Rose (pink) -SF zoo

Vert (green): if life hands you lemon, make lemonade -mon jardin.

Bleu, je souffle un peu. Blue, taking a break...

 

A bientot, je crois que je vais souffler jusqu'a lundi...au moins.

Sorry, in French only, once again. I'm bored with stoopid people stealing patterns and ideas here.
You are not concerned. You are welcome on my blog to enjoy pictures, love, freebies and non commercial fun.

Bon je vais etre claire les filles. J'en ai ras le bol de retrouver mes idees et mes patterns chez des greluches qui se font du fric avec en toute impunite. Je vais vous faire un petit post qui suivra pour vous apprendre comment faire pour trouver l'inspiration, parceque j'ai encore des principes pedagogiques et que je trouve qu'il vaut mieux enseigner que taper.

Mais, d'ici la, je vais piquer une bonne gueulante des familles, parceque ca fait du bien. C'est tout.

J'en ai marre. Un bout de pattern par ci, un des mes motifs par la, un de mes persos ici, une de mes idees la. Quand c'est chez des gens qui ne sont pas pros, ca ne me gene pas. Au contraire. Je vous aime les gens, je trouve ca trop meugnon quand vous utilisez mes images qui pour un mobile, qui pour une broderie, qui pour un faire part, qui pour sa classe (hiii love sur vous les gens). Personne ne demande a l'amateur de faire un boulot de pro, et mon blog est ici pour partager mes idees de pro, histoire de mettre un petit bout de soleil la ou vous avez deja un grand morceau de ciel bleu bien a vous. La, installez vous dans mes images, c'est tout confort, c'est fait pour ca.

Par contre, mademoiselle l'illustratrice de moins de trente ans qui vient faire son marche ici, je ne vous felicite pas.
Au fil des emails desagreables que j'echange bien malgres moi et au peril de mon moral avec une (petite ) poignee d'idiotes orgueilleuses, j'ai tire quelques conclusions. Que je vous expose, on ne va pas se gener.

1.Vous pensez que vous pouvez pomper ici parceque c'est pas un site pro, c'est un site d'amateur, je suis trop conne pour faires des trucs propres.
C'est fait expres. C'est fou le boulot que ca me demande de ne pas faire trop propre ni pro, et c'est fou comme ca me ramene du boulot mine de rien. C'est super agreable les trucs pros qui se la petent pas, ca se vend super bien. Vous devriez essayer.

2.Toujours a propos du principe "c'est un blog d'amateur, cette fille est une plouque, je peux pomper".
Je ne parle pas de mon boulot ici. Je ne suis pas orgueuilleuse, mon blog n'est pas la pour me feliciter de mes succes de graphiste. Il faut que je reactualise mon CV, histoire de rajouter la publication de carte de voeux pour le plus grand editeur de carte des USA, la creation de personnages pour la plus grosse boite de jeux, la creation d'illustration pour un musee...Et des tas d'autres choses tres plaisantes en court, des peintures, des impressions, peut-etre des tissus mais c'est pas sur, tout ca, mais j'ai un peu trop de boulot et un gros poil dans la main. Bref je ne poste pas la moindre invitation de mariage faite avec coeur pour une telle, ni la petite carte envoyee a la tante de province ( en retard, pardon ma tante), mais ca ne veut pas dire que je n'ai pas une vie de graphiste en dehors de ce blog.

Et quand bien meme! Si un amateur a plus d'idees que vous, respect. 

3."Elle va pas avoir le  fric pour payer un avocat."
Ha la je parierais pas. Ca me gonfle, mais je vais finir par le faire. Ca me demange limite.  Je m'excuse aupres des avocats qui me lisent, mais pour l'instant je prefere pourrir mon fils de cadeaux debiles. Quoique j'ai toute confiance en un bon avocat pour m'aider a gagner grace a vous de quoi le pourrir un peu plus...Je vais y reflechir.

Quelqu'un connait l'adresse d'un bon avocat specialise dans les droits d'auteurs en France? Drenka, PrincesseH, vous avez des idees? J'ai un bon lawyer ici mais il me dit que les delits doivent etre regles dans les pays ou ils ont ete commis. E. ( je suis gentille je te laisse l'anonymat), ca te laisse cinq minutes pour m'envoyer des images de tes parutions papier que je vois si il y a pompage ou pas ok?

4."Ca ne va pas se savoir si je pompe."
Ben si. Je suis pas tres aware niveau stats, c'est pas le but non plus, je m'en preoccupe peu. Vous etes les bienvenus chez moi quelquesoit le nombre. Mais le nombre de lecteurs ici se compte par milliers. Des lecteurs qui vous lisent aussi, et m'ecrivent quand on me pompe, parceque ca les enerve( merci merci merci).

5."Ah ben je vais peut-etre apprendre a faire mon boulot toute seule, sans pomper le travail des autres alors."
Voila oui c'est ca cherie. Apprends la difference entre inspiration et pompage, et fait toute seule tes images, voila, tres bien. J'ai des tutos pour toi si tu veux?

A bon entendeur
Salut

As scanned. I don't know yet what I will be doing with these cuties, but I plan to have some fun!

Brut de scan. Saviez vous qu'un scan en Anglais ca s'appelle un "scruteur"? huhu
Bon je sais pas trop ce que je vais faire de mes ti hiboux, mais je vais m'amuser ca c'est sur.