Products

Neon lights

When I was looking for camo (camouflage) backgrounds to try out I found some free for commercial use examples at Spoon Graphics, and I also signed up to the site newsletter which has had some interesting subjects. One that caught my eye was the Neon Light Effect Photoshop Tutorial – although I use GIMP rather than Photoshop the techniques were readily transferable and I had fun making some neon sign designs from my artworks

The effect really lends itself to logos, although I will have a go at car outlines at some point. Stag, Imp and TR6 logos all available on the usual variety of products in my Amazon, Teepublic and Redbubble shops 🙂

Camo

The other day I noticed that camo – camouflage – designs are very popular in clothes shops at the moment, so thought I’d have a go at customising some of my artworks.

I found some urban, woodland and desert camo backgrounds at Spoon Graphics, very generously provided free for commercial use and perfect when combined with my existing “monoblock” style. One of the first I had a go at was my IH Scout II, and I’m happy with the way they turned out.

The urban camo version of the Scout has a couple of sales already and so far I’ve added an ERF E14, Bedford TM, Leyland P76, Triumph TR7 and Hillman Imp. Hopefully they’ll do well and I’ll add more if the style turns out to be popular.

Anonymous Bubblemail

Redbubble has a system called “Bubblemail” which allows artists to be messaged by customers and other artists without revealing email addresses (Redbubble itself uses regular email to communicate), either by messaging an artist directly or taking up the invitation to leave a note for the artist after ordering an artwork

I receive messages which mainly fall into one of three broad categories:

  • Comments – “I have/had one of these” and compliments (always welcome, thank you!)
  • Requests – usually for new designs or variants of existing artworks
  • Queries –  where’s my order, can I change my order, etc

For queries I thank the sender for ordering one of my artworks and explain that I have no access to order details; as the artist I upload my artwork and Redbubble does the rest, including taking orders, production and shipping. I then direct them to the links for Redbubble Customer Service. Sometimes people let me know how they get on, and it seems to work well in most cases

That’s fine if the sender is logged in when they message me, as the system shows me their username and location and I can reply to their message. However, the system also allows senders to send messages and leave notes without being logged in, and I then receive an anonymous message, that I can’t reply to

Not a problem for comments like this – thank you, whoever you are! – but pretty frustrating when someone has a request or a query, and I have no means of responding…

If you end up here equally frustrated after failing to get a response to your query or request on Bubblemail please feel free to use my Contact form and you will get a reply!

18 wheels on my wagon

One of my latest efforts, a mighty American 18-wheeler in a variety of designs based on a photo I took in California in 1988 and as represented on cut-out magnets – they are of course available on the usual vast array of interesting products in my Redbubble and Teepublic shops

This is the original image, taken on a Canon film camera. There was in fact only one truck, I shot it from both sides, swapped the images round and then stitched them together to give the illusion of two similar trucks parked alongside each other. It worked so well – the only real giveaway is the shadows – that most people who have seen it have been surprised to learn it’s a trick truck photo 🙂

Splats

Something a bit different – Morris Minor, Sunbeam Alpine Tiger and Jensen C-V8 based on my photos. Contrast pushed way up for the bold saturated colour, trimmed using the Splats 2 setting in the GIMP Eraser tool and finally the model badge cut out and overlaid

Available on a multitude of products in my Redbubble and Teepublic shops

Christmas is coming…

With exactly three months to go there’s been a noticeable increase in sales of Christmas special designs, prompting me to do some new ones for this year – I’ve updated the “tree bauble” concept (which my new “monoblock” designs seem especially suited to) and added a Santa hat to some line drawings and photos

Visit my Christmas stores on Redbubble and Teepublic (designs also available on Amazon)

Thanks to Chris for the loan of his hat for these images and the idea for a fun Christmas design, available on Redbubble and Amazon 🙂

My old favourites featuring Santa and Rudolph have proven popular and are still available on the usual variety of products on Redbubble and Teepublic as well as Amazon :

Let the festivities begin!