Kate Pitner Designs

“Binary Love You” Fabric available at Spoonflower

katepitner — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:04:13 +0000

I had so much fun creating this fabric. I have been taking Michelle Fifis’ e-courses at Pattern Observer for the last year to increase my skill and knowledge on how to properly create repeat patterns for the fabric industry. It’s a whole lot trickier than I originally thought and Michelle’s courses have been invaluable in my growth as a designer.

With my emerging and new skills I decided to have a little fun and participate in Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics’ competition entitled “Geek Chic”. I didn’t have a lot of time to invest in the project, but I’m always trying to challenge myself to work faster and more efficiently. I decided to create a Binary Coded Love Note fabric for all the passionate Geeks out there who love a little cute fun and whimsy in their day. I found this awesome Binary Code translator (try it out sometime – it’s really fun to do), and created love notes for the brainy and brilliant. It was great fun. The next challenge was to create a half drop repeat, and it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t add in some hand drawn touches. The end result is my BINARY LOVE YOU fabric available now for sale in Fabric and Giftwrap at Spoonflower.com! I think I’m going to make a little pillow with this swatch. I’m kind of hooked on Spoonflower now, and I’m fast becoming addicted to creating repeat patterns, so you can be sure I’ll have some more designs out in the future. I’ll keep you posted!

Click HERE, or on the image below, to go to the order page!

OH, a side note – I didn’t win the “Geek Chic” competition but I learned so much from this first go around that I am going to for sure give it a try again next time!

Inspiration: Wood Grain

katepitner — Sun, 05 May 2013 23:27:47 +0000

I’ve been diving deep into textures lately and when I came across this old log cabin, and its fabulous rustic gnarled surface, I knew I had to take some pictures. I’m thinking a fun PS texture brush is going to come of these images, but for now I’m just marveling at the simple beauty of it. What’s inspiring you today?

Bounty in a Box – Color Palette

katepitner — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:12:25 +0000

OH SUCH COLOR!

I was the lucky recipient of an organic produce box this week, and I swear it was like Christmas! You never know what is going to be in these boxes and I was so excited to peel back the paper packing to see what was inside. Here’s what I found: two varieties of organic lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, mustard greens, onions, avocados, herbs, and oranges. SO fantastic and gorgeous that I just had to make a color palette from them. My challenge now is to find a good recipe using parsnips, beets, and mustard greens (not necessarily all together). If you’ve got any suggestions – please let me know!

By the way – below is my “Peace to All” collection. I thought it went nicely with these images! You never know where inspiration will come.

Progression – It’s life

katepitner — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:16:06 +0000

Every morning my dog and I take our daily walk. Our journey leads us by the same beautiful trees that I love to watch change through the seasons. This old Black Oak, weathered and worn by wind, lightening, and rain, is a tried and true favorite of mine (not to mention the halfway mark on our trip). This year I decided to take pictures of it as it progressed from its dormant state to its full and luscious self, wearing all those amazing fresh and new crisp green leaves. As always the transformation is breathtaking (my pictures don’t do it justice). The birds think so too, and I’m always happy to hear their chirping and see them swoop in and out of the bows as we pass by.

All this change, happening year after year, has made me stop to pause and think. I’m reminded through these pictures that life is all about progression. It has cycles and seasons, and yes – storms, but our ultimate state of being is that of moving onward and forward. You’ve got to love that!

Good Art ~ Matej Peljhan

katepitner — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:25:43 +0000

“Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.” - Albert Einstein

Photo by Matej Peljhan

My niece sent me a link to THIS STORY about photographer and psychologist, Matej Peljhan, and the amazing gift he gave using his artistic talent to help a young boy named Luka. With Matej’s help, Luka, who is stricken with muscular dystrophy and bound to a wheelchair, was able to realize his dreams of adventure and freedom. The grace of this story reminds me how, in the midst of trying to make a career from the gifts and talents we all have been granted, it is important to remember that our ultimate job is to use our talents to better the world. What fun Matej must have had on this photo shoot with young Luka, and I can’t imagine how excited Luka was when he first saw the final images created! Brilliant! What an excellent example of how to ‘pay it forward’.

Wishing you an Art filled day!

New in my HAPPY Shoppe – Namaste Collection

katepitner — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:58:24 +0000

I’m excited to introduce to you my new sassy yoga girl ornaments available NOW in my Happy Shoppe on Etsy! I had so much fun creating these little yogis and I know that you will fall in love with them too. There are only four to pick from and each ornament is one of a kind – so don’t miss out!

Dottee Lou’s Pansies

katepitner — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:00:39 +0000

This past weekend my sisters and I held a memorial service for my Mother. She had suffered for many years from Alzheimer’s disease, and we walked that journey with her. It was a horrible thing to witness and I know that my Mother is now finally free from her mind that had abandoned her, and is in a place where she can feel joy again and live without fear. It was a beautiful day, shared by a very special group of relatives and friends who were able to spend time together remembering my Mom.

My Mother was known to those closest to her as “Dottee Lou”, and she absolutely LOVED pansies. In honor of her, and this day of remembrance, I created a special card (above) to commemorate the day. Check out the amazing pansy reference sheet below I used to inspire my pansies. After putting this together I can absolutely see why my Mother loved them so much. They are amazing flowers! I had the cards printed by my favorite card company, MOO, and they turned out fantastic! I ordered extras to bundle into little groups to give as gifts to those who were able to attend. I know my Mom would have loved them and the day.

To Support Alzheimer’s Research – Please check out the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America

Check out the changes I’ve made!

katepitner — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:05:08 +0000

WELCOME to my newly redecorated website! I’m loving how it turned out and I owe it all to my master Web Designer and Social Media Guru Kim Beasley. I’m really excited to get back to posting again and building up all the fun pages and features we’ve added to the site.

Stay tuned for Fun Freebie printables on my shoppe page, as well as gain easy access to my Happy Shoppe on Etsy (I have a new line of yoga girl ornaments coming out), and shop Little Aloha Flag Company for unique Hawaiian-style decorative house flags. If you are an Art Director or Manufacturer and want to see my full licensing portfolio, I will soon have a newly redesigned private Portfolio page for you to easily review my work for license or illustration consideration. I will be changing out and adding more preview blocks on my public Portfolio page as well, so no matter what, you will be able to see what’s new and exciting here at Kate Pitner Designs.

Phewww! There’s a lot going on! I hope you have a Great Day!

~ now, time for me to get back to work :0)

Coming soon …

katepitner — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:38:24 +0000

It’s Spring and bloomin’ changes are in the air here at Kate Pitner Designs! My amazing & magnificent web designer, Kim Beasley, has been hard at work on my behalf and soon my newly redecorated website will be launched! I’ve got some exciting new additions to the site that I think you’re going to really love, as well as an overall facelift that Kim and I have been working on for the past couple of monthes. I’m so excited to share it all with you so stay tuned!

FYI – If you want to learn more about Kim and her work, or just get some WordPress tips, check out Tara Reed’s latest Art Licensing ASK Call featuring Kim and her mad-Wordpress skills!

In the meantime, I probably won’t be posting much while I get my site up and going so I wanted to wish you all a very Happy Easter and a marvelous start to Spring: a time to renew, recharge, renovate, and (for me at the moment) redecorate!

have fun & be well

Do you know how to use the Wand tool in PS CS6? I thought I did …

katepitner — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:26:29 +0000

As you know I’m illustrating my first picture book right now, and doing so digitally. Working solely on the computer for this project has really pushed my comfort level with photoshop, illustrator, and InDesign, but I’m so grateful for the challenges. I’ve really grown a lot in my skill base.

Up until now I’ve considered myself pretty proficient at Photoshop, but when I installed CS6 late last year, simple little things started to act weird for me. As with most techie matters that go awry, in the beginning I just work around them and pretend that there isn’t a problem (yes – it’s my passive-aggressive approach toward avoidance). That works for awhile until I get so irritated I finally face the fact that I need to do something. Lately that issue has been the wand tool for me. I knew the options for it looked a little different, but it was the way it was selecting that really was causing me grief. I finally decided to seek out some help and, low and behold, I found out that Adobe did indeed make some ~~changes~~ improvements to the tool in CS6! I wasn’t going crazy, I was just behind the curve in learning about it.

Now that I know how this tool works I am IN LOVE with the new wand, and I think you will be too if you’re like me and have been in denial. Below is a super helpful video. I found a lot of great resources to watch on YouTube and Lynda.com, but I think this one is the most succinct.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Happy Selecting!