Spoonflower MLP Prints

A couple of years ago, I discovered Spoonflower. It was love at first sight. Spoonflower is a website where you can have your own fabric designs printed. I have used the site for a variety of projects. Most of them are fabrics I’ve designed specifically for the project I have in mind and are unavailable for public viewing. I have branched out from these personal projects, however, and have created a set of six designs available for purchase featuring the mane six ponies from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I have fat quarters of each of the designs that I am just itching to make something with. I have been very pleased with the quality of Spoonflower’s fabrics so far, and their turn-around time has been excellent. They say to give 2-3 weeks. I usually get my fabric in less than a week—that includes processing the order, printing my fabric, and shipping it to me, so that’s one week from when I place the order until it arrives in my mailbox.

This year, I am going to reward myself at some point with a couple of yards of both Rarity and Fluttershy (my two favorite ponies).  I plan on making pajama pants out of the fabric because what could be more awesome than Fluttershy pajama bottoms? Ok, maybe this just appeals to me because I love pajamas; in fact, if I don’t have any appointments or meetings on a given day, then it would not be unusual for me to spend my entire day in jammies. Seriously, who wouldn’t? They’re super comfy. I also imagine they’d be great convention wear… it could count as professional attire at my table right? It is featuring my art.

Here’s a preview of the MLP fabrics. Click to view the fabric in my Spoonflower shop.

   

   

   

WIP Volume 37

This is going to be a longish post. =P I've been busy since my last WIP post. First up blanket progress. I've finished all the "squares". Now I'm assembling them. The second picture is progress on that.

 

Final Fantasy IV Buttons + 1 bookmark/postcard design.

Flutterplush

Anime RPG art clean up: The original sketch, and lineart progress.

Hobbit movie poster parody

Totebag projects--I made a Fluttershy bag, and now I'm making a few other bags. #1: White Mage inspired bag, #2 Purple and Black quilted bag--I plan on appliqueing a panda on it, #3: Black quilted bag cause I think it'll be pretty.

MLP Mashup set 1

More What Would ___ Do designs.

Overrun with Ponies

I noticed that a lot of what I've been doing lately has been very pony-centric. I really didn't intend for it to happen this way. I have long lists of things to work on in every possible category of craft (art, crochet, sewing, etc.), and for some reason ponies managed to make it to the top of the list in almost all of them. @_@

I don't really see myself as that big a MLP fan.  Don't get me wrong--I like the show. I especially love both Rarity and Fluttershy. Rarity is a favorite simply because it is not possible for me to not love a character who is essentially a costume designer. This goes back to Edna from The Incredibles. That movie made me all kinds of happy simply because of that one character. Fluttershy...well...if you get down to it, I am Fluttershy. I relate to her way too well. I feel incredibly socially awkward when I get around other people. Shy doesn't even come close to describing it. So, I love Fluttershy, and I love that a lot of other people love Fluttershy because, indirectly, it makes me feel more accepted as well. I realize that's not particularly rational. =P Of course, I never claimed to be particularly rational.

Anyways, back on topic. Too many ponies around Gothic Panda Studios...Right now I'm working with some custom printed Fluttershy fabric to make myself a tote bag (and I'm severely tempted to splurge on some of the extra soft stuff to make some pajama pants out of). I am working on My Little Pony crossovers (or mash-ups; I kind of like this term better) (and also because MLP is so abusable in this way--kind of like Sailor Moon). I am working on a set of MLP plushies for the Animazement Art Show/auction (in my defense here, I started these about a year ago). Oh yeah, and I'm also working on putting together a set of geek-themed household management PDFs (you know like printable planner pages, maybe a menu/grocery list printable page, to do list printable pages, etc.) (and this is also because I have to write things down or I forget--I am very easily distracted--so I love things like this, but I have yet to find any with awesome cook geekish themes), and I just happen to be starting with ponies. @_@ I think for that one I'm starting with ponies because for me, they're a little easier to work with and I'm kind of new to the whole design process for these things.

That said, the MLP themed pin-back buttons are finished. This means I will be moving on from that--be prepared for a massive bombardment of Final Fantasy designs. Final Fantasy is by far my most favorite rpg game series in existence. There are others that I like, but Final Fantasy and I go way back. So yeah, I'll be drawing from Final Fantasy I, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2 (this one's a maybe), XII, and XIII. Yeah...I wonder if I'll be sick of it by the time I get to the end of that? Heh. I am using it as an excuse to sit down and replay through all the games. FYI, FF VII is really hard to get a hold of now. Why don't people carry used PS 1 games any more? Or, maybe it's just my area. I originally had the game for PC, and I can't get that copy to work, so bleh. XD After that, who knows. I'll pick an obsession; I certainly have plenty to chose from.

I also finished the Dark Mare Rises parody movie poster. I was sort of planning on doing a follow up to that one with Pinkie Pie doing the "Why So Serious?" line on that one poster of the Joker, but I haven't been too motivated to start that one. Instead I'm working on a Hobbit movie poster parody. Any guesses on what I'm mashing that one with? =P Mwahahaha. Alright, got that out of my system. Oh, yeah, and I'm also working on a new set of 10 What Would ___ Do? designs (I have a few I'm still waffling on, so if there's someone you'd really like to see, drop me a line; now's the time to do so). So, there are going to be some non-pony things coming up, eventually.

The jist of this post: For pony fans, there's more pony stuff coming. =D For non-pony fans, there's some other stuff coming. =D

WIP - Vol. 36

Final Fantasy I buttons (3 mages + 1 failed Black Belt design). At the top you can see sketches from the now finished My Little Pony button designs.

This is going to be a blanket for a baby in my church. He's just a couple of weeks younger than Sophie. =)

Up close of one of the blanket squares

It's my Fluttershy fabric. The print came out larger than I thought it would, but I still have ideas as to what to do with it. =D If I thought I could afford it, I would totally get enough of this fabric to make a pair of pajama pants.

I'm working on the new set of What Would's. Here's a preview of one of the new designs.

Really bad picture quality, but I was too lazy to dig out my flatbed scanner for this. XD The beginnings of the first set of My Little Pony mash-ups I'm working on.

Wednesday WIP: June Part I

It's been a crazy month since I last posted a real WIP post, and sad to say, I don't have a whole lot new to actually post here, especially considering how much time has gone by since the last post.

Anyways, let's go with some updates to what I've been working on--much the same as what I was working on last time. Let's start with the plushies. Last month I started working on a set of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic plushies for Animazement's Art Show. We did not make it to Animazement, mostly because of little Sophie, but also because I spent so much of May sick that I wasn't able to finish either the plushies or planned costumes for the convention. The weekend before the convention we decided to cut our losses, canceled the hotel room, and stayed home Memorial Day weekend for the first time in 13 years (this will probably be a post topic for another day). I am still going to finish this set of plushies. They are still going to be one-of-a-kind. I will probably put them in Anime Weekend Atlanta's auction or maybe I'll do something online. In any case, here is a photo of the progress on that project: Twilight Sparkle is finished, although I may go back and redo parts of her mane; the other six planned ponies have most of their parts made--I still need to make their eyes and cutie marks, assemble the pieces, and add their manes and tails.

 
Along with the My Little Pony plushies, I was also working on a set of Soul Eater costumes for my family for Animazement. Once it became clear we weren't going to make it to the convention, I slowed down work on these. Generally speaking, most of these costumes are still piles of fabric. I have started Soul, although so far, about all I have is a little bit of progress on his jacket. I might have these done by the end of summer.... Maybe. XD

Then, I was working on that epic noir-themed Final Fantasy VI poster. That's still not finished. >_< It's really close though. My biggest problem right now is Photoshop. For every minute of decent work I get, I have to spend 5 minutes waiting for Photoshop to reload the file because it crashed and then I have to redo that one minute of work, or I'm waiting 3-6 minutes for the file to save before I can move onto the next minute of work. You'd think this was exaggeration, but sadly it's not. We thought we'd fixed the problem, but for whatever reason it reverted back after one session of good behavior. It's been incredibly frustrating. On the plus side, this project is almost finished. I need to add the rest of the color behind the picture and then do some minor touching up.

I have plans for a few other odd things. I am working on a set of My Little Pony human-form badges. I started this back at Anime USA last year, and I added two more character sketches at Magfest. These aren't necessarily new WIPs, but it's a project I'm going to be trying to finish up this summer. I'm also going to be working on finishing the Hunger Games bookmark and postcard set I started before we moved (for the last time). I've finished the designs for Katniss on the chariot debuting as the Girl on Fire and Katniss at her first Interview. the next one I am going to work on will be Katniss at her interview after she one the games in the first book. I've got a really cute design in mind, and I can't wait to get it down on paper. On top of those fanart projects, I am also working on a new original art set for Anime Weekend Atlanta--all I have for this set now though is scribbles and ideas, so no pictures to go with it yet, but I'm hoping that will change by next week. =) These are the main projects I'm working on (well more like my main secondary projects). There are also a myriad of smaller side projects that I'm kind of playing around with--as if I don't have enough to work on, but this kind of thing really suits my short attention span. This means though, now that I'm mostly settled, mostly well (and hopefully that stays that way), no longer pregnant and exhausted (believe it or not, even with reduced amounts of sleep being up with Sophie, I still have more energy), and done with distractions like travel and family events, which although fun, don't make ideal times to get work done, the Wednesday WIP posts for this summer should be filled with all kinds of fun and exciting things. =)