This week I entered the latest Spoonflower Design Challenge: Monochrome Moments.
Spoonflower is a print-on-demand fabric company that offers weekly design challenges. For me a good challenge hosted by another person or company (as opposed to one I set for myself) is one that makes me learn something new in an enjoyable way. This could be learning new techniques, styles, or color combinations. Or it could be learning something new about myself as an artist.
I also need to feel some kind of excitement or energy behind the theme. (An earlier Spoonflower challenge on snakes, for example, was not one I felt the least bit compelled to enter!) I thought the monochromatic challenge sounded doable, as I've made many monochromatic jewelry designs in the past. My big challenge would be creating a digital design (something I'm new at), or so I thought.
The process proved to be more difficult than I expected. As I tried to sort out why, I came up with a few design insights to share.
Monochromatic Jewelry
If you've ever looked at my jewelry, you'd think I'd be pretty comfortable in this realm as I do make a lot of necklaces that are all silver, for example, or earrings made with all copper parts. The silver bracelet I shared in "Basic, Beautiful, ... and Boring?" (pictured here) is a fairly typical monochromatic piece of mine. I noted in that blog post that the tips for making an interesting design with a single color are varying the bead shapes, color range (dark silver and light silver), and texture (smooth and bumpy).
In looking at my older jewelry designs, I discovered, however, that some of the ones I thought of as monochromatic were technically not. If I used all white beads in a necklace, I would've labeled it monochromatic, but in truth, there would be a second color in the findings such as silver, copper, or gold. My previous blog post "Make a Sassy, Sparkly Beaded Belt" is a good example of this. The beads were all clear, but I used silver findings. (Although maybe an argument could be made that clear is not a color?!)
My initial difficulty in making my digital design came from wanting to add a second color, a neutral like white, black, or gray, which was not technically allowed. Only darker or lighter shades of a single color were permitted. Once I figured that out it was easier to move forward.
Mauve's Snowflakes
After trying a couple of different themes, I eventually thought about snowflakes which come in lots of different shapes. I drew dozens of them on the computer and picked the ones I liked best. As for texture, I decided to add a spattered texture to give the background more of a snowy feel. To create that, I sprayed ink on paper and digitized it. Of course, not all the spatter turned out to be in the right place, so I did have to move around some tiny dots on the computer screen. It's a sign of how much I'm loving creating digital designs that even this little bit of tedium did not take away from the enjoyment of the process.
Originally I used shades of blue, but ultimately entered the purple version in the contest because it felt more unique. I created a pink version that I liked too, but thought maybe it was too close to the color scheme used in the contest announcement.
The challenge is open for voting by the public through July 12, 2022. If you decide to vote, you can vote for all the entries you like. (Be warned -- there are 1,300+ entries!) Even if you decide just to browse, you're sure to find some monochrome inspiration for whatever format of art you create.