In my employee days I designed pretty papers and stickers for scrapbooking. I created a LOT of designs with butterflies. There always had to be butterflies in every collection. How could we shove a butterfly in this? was the question to ask. You see, ladies that scrapbook LOVE butterflies, the symbol of coming-of-aged-ness and growth.
I really got sick of butterflies.
In an email exchange with the design team I accidentally referred to these creatures as "bitterflies". Freudian slip? Yeah, most likely. We chortled about it. (Hi Joel, hi MC!)
Lately, I've come to appreciate the bitterfly. There are so many more varieties on the east coast. And they are pretty symbolic of my life since moving to DC. Change and growth, baby. I'm feeling it.
The saying "Morph or DIE" kinda bites you in the ass, but it's true. Resist change and you die, one way or another.
I had made an earlier version of this, circa 2008. Here it is, if you wanna see it. I made it for my Nokia phone. Haha, Nokia phone.
For those that don't want this quote staring at them in the face, I'll post a version of this on Tuesday with just the pretty flowers and bitterflies. Ba ba ba-bonus. Subscribe to get it sent to your inbox.
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7 comments on “Morph or Die”
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POPULAR FANCY GIFTS
I love the “bitterfly” here. It has a unique quality that comes from the watercolour accent. Great lovely work, girl.
thanks, bethania :)
Hahahah BIggy, thanks for the shout-out. Yeah “butterflies always sell” was a mantra that always made us simultaneously groan n giggle, didn’t it. Nice design, and I’m glad the bitterfly has become a more personal symbol for ya now as you’re crafting a new life in DC.
“put a butterfly on it” came before “put bird on a it”, i do believe! thanks, nice lady. ;)
A subscriber emailed me, asking:
“barbra, this wallpaper is super cute!
how’d you make the butterflies so watercolory??”
Answer:
I used a watercolor brush in Photoshop and played with the opacities as I “painted” to make it feel layered and watercolory. The butterflies are actually a layer mask so I just free-painted and then basically masked out the butterfly shapes. I often use layer masks and solid color layers instead of painting on a normal layer with a bunch of different colors. If that makes any sense… probably an image would explain this better so see below…
http://www.barbraignatiev.com/images/2012/08/butterfly_process.png
Lovely, lovely design.
I seem to be in a “butterfly phase” coz I recently was inspired to write a book that equates overcoming shyness to a caterpillar morphing into a social butterfly and then somehow I land on this awesome page.
Thanks for sharing
Thank you Miriam! How strange where the Googles leads someone :) Glad to have you here.