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Penguin Bedding

Penguin Toss 2 is my entry this week in the Spoonflower design challenge. I have been learning how to create fabric patterns that work for quilters. According to my friend Dawn at SewDawnFun, patterns that don’t have a strong 90°…

Beach Body

A buff penguin

Beach Body is my version of a buff penguin on the shores of Antarctica. It is a relief print made from three carved plates a blue, orange, and black on Mohawk superfine. The plates are carved on Sinatra plastic plates.…

A Simple No-Mess Gelli Plate Recipe

No-mess. I am not kidding, and it is so easy. I have made many of these plates previously and ended up with a sink full of sticky dishes. I like art messes, but not cooking messes and so let’s get…

Way too long

I have over 300 post-it doodles from the last few years. The project was created to be a quick-to-finish project because I had a difficult time finishing projects. I set up a pattern in my Instagram post that requires a…

Kit10 Zombie | Enamel Pin

After 9 lives comes 10… Kit10 Zombie I am happy to announce the availability of a new soft enamel pin. Kit10 Zombie is available now.

Learning to See: Proximity

Proximity is the distance between shapes. When two small shapes are close to each other, they visually combine to create a larger, more significant shape. It is easier for a viewer to see and understand one large shape than it…

Learning to See: Negative Space

Negative space is the space between and around objects within a defined format. Negative Space Questions When looking at art and design, one thing that will help you see the composition more clearly is looking for negative space. Asking the…

Photoshop Sticker Mockup Tutorial

Use your own drawings to make sticker mockups Create digital sticker mockups of your own drawings in a few simple steps. (Download working files) ArtBasics.online is a school I am starting for the aspiring artist to develop foundational skills. Stop…

It is time for a change

My blog has been on auto pilot for far too long. It is time to take control and give it some direction. Welcome to anyone who is still around. I would love to hear from you. I have several things…

Pot Belly Pig Pin

This is my first enamel pin design and I am excited to share it with you. For any purists out there, I know that potbelly pigs do not have curly tails so this pin in fact is a pig with…

Baby Beaver

I am just learning how to connect images from my Instagram account into my blog. Now that I know how to embed images from Instagram how should I use it? I think it would be a good idea to select…

Skoughtee Texture No.001 on Gumroad

Download | Skoughtee Texture No.001 on Gumroad Skoughtee Texture No.001 from Scott Franson on Vimeo.

Inspiration: Projection and paper folding

Mixing physical and digital media can produce some wonderful and unexpected results. This Ted Talk by Marco Tempest is a wonderful example. (Motion Design: Alain Renold, Pop-up Design: Peter Dahmen)

Forced left

Tomorrow morning at 5:30, I will be having some surgery on my right arm that result in a lack of mobility in my right arm for a short while. So with a pen in my left hand I will start…

Adonit Jot Pro: Get it!

My Jot Pro from Adonit has arrived and it is by far the best stylus I have used with my iPad. It was a project through Kikstarter and it is a great product. The package is hard to open and…

Tutorial | Pattern as Brush Texture | video

Pattern as a Brush Texture from Scott Franson on Vimeo. Pattern as Texture | Any pattern that you create or scan can be used as a texture for a Photoshop brush. This tutorial is a followup to the Repeating Pattern…

Doodle: Aug 18, 2011 | video

Doodle | Aug 18, 2011 from Scott Franson on Vimeo. Doodle: Aug 18, 2011 | A good friend David Molanphy, asked me to record my drawing process for my doodles. I have finally found a use for the video camera…

Living

There are times when I wonder if I am living a life worthy of the great blessing of liver transplant. | Living a life that matters, a life that makes the world a better place to be. I once overheard…

Summer Break

This is the first week of my summer break | Actually, I am really on medical leave, but calling it summer break is a more hopeful way of looking at it In my attempt to keep busy this summer I…

Welcome

This is the creative home of Scott E. Franson. An educator by day and an author, illustrator, graphic designer by night, weekends and other spaces between semesters. Here you will find experiments in digital illustration and other creative endeavors.

iPad and books

The iPad arrived two days ago and I have been exploring what is available. I was very excited to see the iPad version of Alice in Wonderland. Now that I have seen it I think it was a fun gimmick…

The Scott E Franson Store (Beta)

The Scott E Franson Store (Beta) is short for a store that sells my prints, works and needs lots of adjustments. After a peek at the store I would be open to any suggestions that you may have. Thank you…

Giraffe

A giraffe is not at all clumsy reaching the highest, greenest and sweetest leaves, but getting a drink is a different story. This is a digital image created to look like a relief print (wood or linoleum block). There are…

In a Valley

My life in children’s publishing has been in a confusing place for a while. One book is published and book number two has eluded me. I have one manuscript out to a publisher. When I sent it I felt really…

Getting a Critique from a Child

I have heard some illustrators say that they show their work to children and other illustrators that never show their work to children. The picture book market is interesting because adults make the purchase and then children are the consumer.…

Good News from Vermont

I am pleased to announce that my favorite bow tie company, Beau Ties Ltd. of Vermont, has licensed the Doodle Garden Bow Ties. Stay Tuned for AvailabilityWe are at the beginning of the process and I don’t know how long…

A Magician’s Mistake

As you may have noticed, I have been away for a while. I have finally returned and I have had an adventure. I had exploratory surgery and now look like I was involved in a magician’s accident. I am the…

300 Libraries

Un-brella is in 300 library systems according to World Cat. I just checked it this morning and it has made it to 300! It is fun to see which libraries it is in and to see that it is being…

New Book Concept: Ready to send to publisher.

I have been spending most of my time lately working on a picture book project that I am sending off today. Here is my sales line: A delicious blend of color mixing and tragedy. This is the time in the…

I just found these drawings in the deep dark corners of my hard drive today and thought I would share. I hope that you enjoy them. The first two drawings are of my daughters. The has always loved to dress…

Hipification

One of my favorite blogs is by Fuse #8. This week she used this new word Hipification refering to an artical in the New York Times about librarians becoming more hip. Well, I think Hipification is a funny word and…

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

I have just finished reading the first three books in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters& The Titan’s Curse. What a great ride. Great characters and lots of action.…

Stories and Tortillas

I teach art classes at Brigham Young University-Idaho. It is always a pleasure to have young excited students with their lives ahead of them. All of these students want to know how to make great art. At first they seek…

I don’t know

The other day I went to the doctor. As normal I filled out the health history sheet. One of the questions asked about family members that have had cancer. I checked that my grandmother had had cancer. During the office…

Color Harmonies

My students informed me today that this site has been around for a while, but I just found it and think it is really cool. Kuler from Adobe is an interactive flash based site that helps create color harmonies. When…

Un-Brella Print Recipients

I am happy to announce the recipients of the Fine Art Prints from Un–Brella. I will soon be sending a print to each of the libraries. There are several school libraries and it was fun to see how excited they…

My Little Corner of KidLit

Why would anyone be interested in reading this!?!?. This is a question that I often ask myself after making a post to my blog or just before I erase a blog entry that I have just finished typing. My experience…

$1,231.35 + $3.45 shipping—I am so confused?

(UPDATE: I contacted the company and they fixed the prices. But wouldn’t it be cool if the books were really that valuable?) Un–Brella: $1,231.35 + $3.49 shipping Dance By The Light of the Moon: $1,231.35 + $3.49 shipping.The Forever Dog:…

Buyer Beware! $1231.35 + $3.49 shipping

It is hard to believe that this is real, but look at the price someone is trying to sell a copy of Un–Brella for $1231.35, on Amazon. You would think that a price this high would include shipping, but it…

100 Doodles Very Soon

I have nearly reached 100 post-it note doodles. I hope that you will come and celebrate with me on May 4, 2007 (Thank you Dylan). It has been a fun challenge for me to do a doodle each day. (If…

Book Signing Tomorrow!!

I will be at the BYU-Idaho Bookstore in Rexburg, Idaho, April 27 from 12:30-2:30 signing Un–Brella. I am looking forward to meeting new people. Please stop by and say hello. The Bookstore is on the campus of Brigham Young University–Idaho…

Visual garbage courtesy of Tony Carpenter

One day while teaching a graphic design class, I asked the students to tell me why they were designers. One of the students spoke with a quiet, clear, passion and said, “I have an inner desire to create beauty.” The…

Do you Look at Clouds?

This evening my daughter (10 yrs old) asked me as we were driving home. “Do you think anyone has ever thought to look at clouds for character designs?” If you ask me it is a brilliant idea. She watched the…

16 days old

It has been a strange 16 days. I counted down and waited for April 3, 2007, the birthday of my first book, Un–Brella. Here is what I have discovered . . . not much happens. The book seems to be…

School Visit: Greenwood Elementary

Monday I had the opportunity to visit Greenwood Elementary, and share my book, Un-Brella, with the first grade classes. We had a great time. I just heard from one of the teachers with a wonderful review from a student. ”…