Lysa Flower's Daily Design Diary : : A-Z Comedians, “That’s What She Said” Personal Project

Remember when?!

Wow! This is a blast from the past! Remember 2020 and COVID?! Did you clean out your closet? Or did you pick our a personal project? I went with option two. This was my personal project, it helped me learn Procreate, practice drawing humans and lettering. It meant I also watched A LOT of much needed comedies! And I did a lot of reading about each of them. All of them have outstanding stories. It would be pretty hard to pick a favourite…but if I had to absolutely choose, Parks & Rec is one of my all time very FAVROITE shows, so I’d have to go with Amy Poelher! Have you seen it? I do wish I had Kristen Wig in here ( I do LOVE HER TOO). Hmm, do you think there anyone else I might have missed whose excellent? Maybe I need to revisit this personal project again ...

 
Source: lysa-flowers-daily-designer-diary-thats-wh...

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY: Inspired by my mom and our daughter

 

How this quote set me firm on licensing & collaborating with companies who also believe this to be true.

I'm often told my illustrations, prints + patterns and the mural I did for Dressew, makes people feel joyful and happy, which I love hearing!

“Your joy is your sadness unmasked”. Recently this quote, by Kahlil Gibran, fell into my lap. I had to really spend some time with it. Especially that word, unmasked.

You see, I'm the daughter of a woman who has worn a mask of heavy makeup on her face for her entire adult life. My mom was born with a port wine birthmark on the lower half of her face, from ear to ear, that runs down her neck and into her chest.

Growing up, I knew my mom woke up at 5am to start the process of putting on her make up. It takes her 3 hours to do it before leaving the house every single day. Why would she go through that? It has everything to do with how people reacted to her as a child. When she told me she knew what the Phantom was going through in Phantom of the Opera, my heart broke. Knowing she was terrified of people seeing her without her makeup and hearing her say she felt like a monster. It was too much.

When I was 8, she started laser treatments to remove her birthmark. She's still doing them every month. I'm 51. She's 71 with no intention of ever stopping. She also does every treatment without anaesthetic so they can go deeper. Those early laser treatments were especially brutal. After one treatment, I had a teacher at my school ask her if she had been kicked in the face by a horse. Nope. But my respect for him was greatly damaged after that. Witnessing how people reacted to my mom always shocked me. It only made me appreciate and love her even more, because I knew, with or without make up she's so incredibly beautiful.

I am also the mother of a transgender daughter who felt like she had to hide behind a mask her entire life. While she desperately tried to suppress it, it nearly cost her life.

When our daughter transitioned, it wasn't the easiest. I wish I could say we handled it perfectly. We didn't. We were led by fear (actually we were downright terrified!) about how the world would treat her. Having witnessed how some people treated my mom, perhaps magnified this fear. As our daughter transitioned, we all learned how painful it was for her to hide who she truly was. Slowly over time, her body, her clothes, her world all started to make more sense and brought her peace. As my dad said to me during her transition, "40 years ago, she would have had to push herself so deep down." After having watched a lifetime of my mom painting a mask on herself every morning, we couldn't imagine our daughter needing to hide behind a mask everyday either, no matter how safe we wanted to keep her. Today she is thriving, successfully supporting herself as an indie video game developer. That on its own isn't an easy task! We are so very proud of her; our hearts could burst!

It's because of these two women, my mom and my daughter, that deep in my bones I believe wholeheartedly in love and kindness for everyone. Including those people who looked at my mom with disgust or fear, and those that believe our daughter DID have a choice in being trans. I wish for their families and loved ones, that they feel the freedom to exist and for their differences to be celebrated. Not hidden away, masked in shame. Life is to short, boring, beige, blah and honestly sometimes it's just… brutal.

Which is why after sitting with this quote for some time, and thinking about my mom and our daughter, I'm inspired and firm in my commitment to collaborating with companies and brands that celebrate our differences and practice, "YOUR JOY IS YOUR SADNESS UNMASKED".

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY : : Dealing with Disappointment

 

What’s your favoUrite flavoUr… of shit sandwich? or would you prefer cake?

It’s still hard to accept but wanting to live an creative life, sometimes you have to be willing to eat a SHIT sandwich, as Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in her Big Magic book, and then ask yourself….

“What’s your favorite flavor of shit sandwich?” What Manson means is that every single pursuit—no matter how wonderful and exciting and glamorous it may initially seem—comes with its own brand of shit sandwich, its own lousy side effects. As Manson writes with profound wisdom: “Everything sucks, some of the time.” You just have to decide what sort of suckage you’re willing to deal with. So the question is not so much “What are you passionate about?” The question is “What are you passionate enough about that you can endure the most disagreeable aspects of the work?” Manson explains it this way: “If you want to be a professional artist, but you aren’t willing to see your work rejected hundreds, if not thousands, of times, then you’re done before you start. If you want to be a hotshot court lawyer, but can’t stand the eighty-hour workweeks, then I’ve got bad news for you.” Because if you love and want something enough—whatever it is—then you don’t really mind eating the shit sandwich that comes with it.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

But what about a SHIT CAKE you ask? …

Sometimes disappointments feel larger than a sandwich and they feel more more like a SHIT cake. For example: yesterday. I applied for the Vancouver Mural Festival and for the third time I didn’t get in! I’ve heard rumours you have to apply four times but honestly I think they’re just rumours. After the initial sting and distasteful first bite of this particular SHIT cake, I’ve asked myself, what do I need to grow and learn for a better outcome next time? This is what I came up with:

WRITING: Perhaps my application could have been stronger. So reached out to Leah Kent, a writing coach I met through the Content Cultivation Course with Rebecca Van Damm.

MORE EXPERINCE: This was a great wake up call and lit a fire under my butt. I’ve pulled out a big old piece of plywood to practice on. I’m on my way to pick up hooks to mount it on our kid’s old wood playset.

Last fall my generous friend Kam used her Cricut Maker to cut out my stencils after I told her about an unfortunate run in with the owner of a local sign shop, who I don’t think likes women very much. Sorry, my money will not be spent with you, if you’re going to insult me and only talk to my husband. BU-bye! Anyhow I let life get busy. The weather changed to winter, BUT NOW the weather is getting great for painting outside! There’s nothing stopping me from practicing! Can you hear my spray cans clanging as I shake them?!

I DO NEED ANOTHER WALL: Dear Universe, I would like another wall to do another mural on pretty please. I understand my journey may not be a straight shot, and I’m okay with that. I’m happy to find my own wall again. If you could just point me in the right direction or if you know of anyone who would like their wall painted please point them my way.

In the mean time I have already reached out to a potential wall I had been meaning to follow up on. They seemed pretty open but I have to remember, it took Dressew from March to January to follow up and ask me.

PATIENCE: ugh! Fine.

TRUST: The next wall will come and it will be as impactful as Dressew mural was to their community.

In the meantime as those things line up, I will use this SHIT cake that was made for my father-in-law’s birthday. My mother-in-law is celiac and made this gluten free carrot cake. To quote my husband, “it looks like the icing is even trying to get off the cake!”.

Now, are you wondering why do we have candles that say SHIT? Don’t you?! Doesn’t everyone?! Ha, aha, ha!!! Actually I made a full gluten chocolate cake for my father in law and it had candles on it that said, “U R Old”. After we laughed about the carrot cake it seemed only appropriate to add the SHIT the candles to it. Who knew the photo I took of it would become a great reminder 3 days later that, yes, yes I do want the SHIT cake! I want ALL the SHIT cake and I will eat another and an another and a… well, you get the idea.

 

Lysa Flower's Daily Designer Diary : : illustration

 

Find the Calm in the Chaos:: a change of background was the answer!

Trust me, the irony of how much I had to wrestle with this illustration was not lost on me. I won’t lie, I was feeling uncomfortable with how much time it was taking! I took a bit of a break and started to play with it again after some feedback from my husband and my Monday co-working group of fellow artists.. Above is what I came up with.

I’m finding gardening every morning very satisfying and to quote Blur in Park Life, “It gives me a sense of enormous well-being”. It’s also basically manual labour and switching tasks isn’t fatiguing for my brain. However, yesterday my son asked me to watch a YouTube video about productiveness (mostly I was listening because I had no idea what I was looking at in this League of Legends Streamer’s video). I LOVE what he had to say! And I loved even more that our 20 year old, was listening to him (saying stuff we’d been saying for some time now-ha! parenting!). Needless to say I love learning about ways to be more productive and my favourite Huberman Lab Podcast episode is with Dr Cal Newport: How to Enhance Focus and Improve Productivity. Which this steamer mentioned! See Kiddo, your mom is COOL! Ha!

This is the square version.

Since then I’ve been wondering if I’d be happier dedicating a full day to design work, not just mornings. Knowing my time is up at lunch makes me feel a bit chaotic and it’s hard to relax into the design process. The brain change is well, a bit distracting and taxing.

Either way, I worked on this illustration today after knowing it could be better and I didn’t want to settle with just alright. I thought, maybe I need to change the background? I loaded up the Endless Summer repeat and YEP! There it is! YES! I KNEW IT!

This is the 8x10 inch version

So to recap, last year after I had designed the Goin’ Surfin’ collection (after camping and surfing) I assumed, yep, that’s what this collection is about. Nope. It wasn’t until it was done that I realized for the last two years our lives had been turned upside down. We were sinking and taking on water. Our lives were total chaos. Think of the movie, “Everything, Everywhere all at Once” , that was us. Then, in the middle of it, and with help from the good people at The Foundry, we found the calm. Much, much needed calm in all that chaos.

My hope is that everything in your life never gets wildly out of control like ours did. However, if it does, please know this illustration is dedicated to bring you comfort & support.

 
Source: lysa-flowers-daily-designer-diary-find-the...

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 13, 14… I don’t even know anymore, it’s all bleEding together…

Ever go overboard on colour? I’m a bit blurry eyed now. I need to take a break from this. The answers will come. Or, if you have an opinion, I’d love to hear it and I’m up for any feedback :D

Disclaimer: I realize on a few of these there’s a grey line on the side of some of the images. That’s because I exported them and I have a layer on top of the artboard. I see it and I’ve instructed my perfectionist to get over it. It’s just a thumbnail.

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 12

So in the back end of my blog, I get these thumbnails. I noticed on them how they weren’t quite the balanced shape I was going for. Then I remembered some old tricks from art school days. Stop thinking of them as letters and start thinking of them as shapes. God, I love Adobe Illustrator. I inverted it, tweaked, flipped it upside down, tweaked it and finally settled on it! Phew!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

 

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 11

Um… Where did the week go? This isn’t as far along as I would have liked it to be but I’m glad I stuck it out with the lettering. It has the vibe I was dreaming of. Tomorrow I’ll play with the flowers, the surfers AND hopefully with the colour too! My very FAVOURITE part!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

 

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 9

I was wavering on if I should keep make it, “Find Calm in the Chaos” or keep it, “Find the Calm in the Chaos”. In the end I decided to keep it the way it was.

I also played around with the D to make it more like the A. I think I’ll go back to the way it was.

Loving having surfers as the dots in the i’s!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

 

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 7 & 8

So I broke it. On purpose. Which is my go to when a print or illustration doesn’t quite feel right or too tight. I started blowing out the bottom of the letters and I’m LOVING IT. I’ve also decided to ignore adding surfers until later. These letters have to be JUST right and it’s been a great exercise in pushing my hand lettering. It’s definitely getting closer!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 6

Hmm… That dang F! I’m moving a few things here, a few things there but it doesn’t quite feel right yet. The word “FIND” doesn’t quite have the angle I’d like BUT I did move the angle of the “CALM IN THE CHAOS” which feels better.

I’m wanting this illustration to be able to work at 8x10 and 8x8 inches. So I’m asking myself if I should spread out the surfers? Either way, it’s time to take a step away and have a do nothing day tomorrow. We’re going out to see Big Sugar play their full album full album Five Hundred Pounds tonight and I don’t function well without enough sleep. I think I shall lay in bed with the cats and snuggle instead. I know, it sounds rough doesn’t it!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

 

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS :: DAy 5

 

Yesterday I woke up and felt really in my head. Foggy and grumpy. To get back on track, we hiked up the mountain we live nearby. This spring has been spectacular! The weather was wonderful, sunny and breezy. It did the trick and I was left sweaty and back in my body. Refreshed.

I enjoyed the afternoon and evening in my studio. I added some roundness to the ends of the C, the A, the O, and the S. I made the F smaller and the D larger. I thought it would make more sense since all the other words are like that too. I need to rethink the F, it’s being a bit tricky.

Today I didn’t listen to music but listened to a playback from an online course I’m at taking called the Content Cultivation Course. There were some great nuggets in there!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 4

 

Want to play a game? Spot the differences! The illustration on the left was at the beginning of the day, the one on the right is at the end of the day. There are 9 differences. The Answers are at the bottom. No peeking!

The playlist for today, I hope you like 100 Gecs!!! :D

And this is what I did this evening: Shout out to my friends Kari (@theprintmakerandherdog) and Tara (Tara.Lee.Bennett) stunning show at @newleafeditions on Granville Island in Vancouver.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*Answers: On the right illustration:

  1. no surfer on the F

  2. a surfer instead of a flower

  3. a surfer from the left had been moved to on top of the D

  4. no surfer in the right corner

  5. surfer on THE

  6. surfer moved from the M to a dot in the I

  7. surfer now on the C in Chaos

  8. the surfer is larger and between the A and the O

  9. surfer larger and on the S

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : DAY 3

I always start out with an idea but I know I have to be open enough to let it evolve. Which means a lot of playing. It’s getting closer!

Here’s what’s on today’s April 17th playlist!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

 

ILLUSTRATING : : FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : Day 2

 
 
 
 

While I still need to finesse my lettering, today I played with colour and scale.

There’s still a lot to explore. Mostly, each time I work on something new, I ask myself, “What if I did this instead…?” ALL DAY LONG!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll explore the scale of the background? I’d like to see what it would look like with the font interacting with the waves.

I’m also trying to stick to the Goin’ Surfin’ palette but I’m feeling a little boxed in by it.

Here is the April 16th playlist, I’m loving this new music!

 

LYSA FLOWER’S DAILY DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING Find the Calm in the Chaos : : Day 1

Today I’m trying something new. I’m going to start posting about what I work on everyday and here’s why:

My friend Hana, when she was diagnosed cancer, started going outside everyday. A love of gardening was something we shared, although she was much more enthusiastic about raking leaves than I ever was. Everything about someone getting sick is heartbreaking. When she got really sick, she’d say, when I get better, we’ll get together. All I could do was send her texts, telling her she was in my thoughts and I was sending her love, along with photos of my garden. Knowing she was going outside each day, I decided I would go outside each day too. It was my only way of feeling close to her. I would think of her each morning, knowing she’d be so pleased to see things budding or how busy the bees were on the dahlias.

In November, when Hana passed away, I kept going out every morning, comforted with my thoughts of her while I dug a little over here and I clipped a little over there. I went out with no plan, just what ever felt good to work on that day. I’m out there first thing every morning, rain or shine, anywhere from 10-30 mins every morning. We both live(d) on acreages and there’s always a lot to be done, to the point of being overwhelmed… but now instead of resenting it or feeling like it’s a chore, I crave my time outside. What a wonderful gift of a daily ritual Hana left me.

Then I thought, what if I applied this daily ritual to my personal work. Usually I get a deadline and dive head first in and I don’t come back up for air until I’m done. I do love a good deadline but this way of working has left me depleted in the past and what I’ve been craving is consistency. So here we go, an experiment! Every morning I’ll work on new work, a little drawing here, a little painting there! Here we go!

Okay, here we go:

Today I’m starting a new illustration for the Goin’ Surfin’ collection. It will be called “Find the Calm in the Chaos”. Job one is working on the lettering. I’m taking my LET GO letters and converting them into the letters I need. Which means making eight new letters by making a/an:

 

Here is the playlist I listened to whilst working away : April 15th, 2024 Ha! Whilst! It’s such a funny word!

 

A GOIN' SURFIN' GIVEAWAY : : WITH PAINTBRUSH FABRIC STUDIOS

GIVEAWAY TIME!!! On Instagram! Starting today April 8th!

Enter to win a Lysa Flower Goin' Surfin' Flat Fat Stack!

Um, what the heck is that?! It's Paintbrush Fabric Studio's, answer to a Fat Quarter Bundle but it's printed all on one piece of cloth, with a super long piece of selvage! (One of my personal favorite perks of a FFSB!) …BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

ALSO win a surprise gift pack from ME! Lysa Flower (there might be a rumor, it's a little somethin' somethin' from each of my collections in it! But my lips are sealed!)

A Goin’ Surfin’ Flat Fat Stack Bundle!

P.S. If you feel like overachieving and getting some extra entries you can share this reel to your stories and tag us!

All the legal jazz: Giveaway by @lysaflower/@pbsfabrics and is open to everyone, but if outside of North America, the winner will be asked to pay shipping. Giveaway closes on Friday April 12th, 2024 at 11:59 PST. By entering the giveaway you are acknowledging that you are subscribing to emails for Lysa flower, Paintbrush Studio Fabrics. You can unsubscribe at any time.

We will announce the winner in our stories on Saturday April 13th! (So don’t let scammers trick you with fake accounts and ruin our fun!)

 

LET GO : : deep thoughts by Lysa Flower

I always have an vague idea of what I’m wanting to do with a piece. The journey, like many creatives have written about, is U shaped. Starting at the top of the U: "This is such a GREAT idea! (sketching and inking)". To the bottom of the U: "Ugh! Why is this falling apart in my hands (realizing it feels a little flat)". To climbing up the other side of the U: "Okay, that’s interesting, (breaking it on purpose, pushing the scale super large or super tiny) what if I?… to Wow! I LOVE THIS!".

That U feeling; it’s kind of like riding a wave I suppose... AND like the ability to LET GO of expectations, disappointment, each moment. When I really started to think about it, the need to LET GO might be the purpose of life… Whoa, that got deep fast! All I was trying to say was that I LOVE when hand lettering and patterns go together ;D

 

ENDLESS SUMMER : : VANS

One of the very best parts of Tofino, other than the beaches and waves, is Tacofino, a parked food truck that serves tacos and my very favourite, Diablo cookies!

So there we were, after a day of attempted surfing (but successful boogie boarding), we thought we’d head into town to Tacofino. As we were driving to it we saw it! The most beautiful van I had ever seen…

The next day we went back to Tacofino for round two, and we also enjoyed ice-cream at Chocolate Tofino. While waiting in line for the ice cream I noticed this chalkboard painting of a van with surfboards stacked extremely high on it (I thought it was funny and took a very fuzzy photo of it). While I didn’t stack my surfboards that high on my vans they definitely influenced mine! Inspiration was everywhere on this trip!

I haven’t even told you about the sunsets yet! They were blazing and reminded me of the Endless Summer movie poster, hence the name for the top left print.

With every collection I love to do a standalone illustration for the name of the collection. While playing with some markers, I came up with the goin’ surfin’ lettering and ended up incorporating it into a tossed goin’ surfin’ van print.

So the moral of the story is, eat Tacofino, it’s good for your health, especially the diablo cookies, as is ice cream at Chocolate Tofino! Oh and yes, inspiration is everywhere… especially in Tofino!

 

PRETTY PLEASED ABOUT PURPLE!

… BEFORE IT USED TO MAKE ME PUKE! Okay well that’s a bit dramatic but it has been on my “No thank you” list for a long time. When I started designing for my Goin’ Surfin’ collection I wanted to push my colour palette and decided now was the time to make friends with purple. I had done it with grey about ten years ago, so I knew it was possible. Have you ever had a colour aversion?

I think A LOT about colour and I’m curious about these aversions. I don’t know what it’s like for you but for me colour is instinctual. I’ve taken all the colour theory courses, but to be honest, I can never remember all the rules. All I know is when I use certain colours or combinations they give me strong feelings that I react to.

I know about the symbolism of colour, which I find surprisingly conflicting for some colours (like yellow which can be both happy and anxious). I know purple is a hard colour to make and that’s why it was reserved for royalty, but that never helped me warm up to it.

Then there’s a psychology to colour but I think it gets muddy with your personal relationship to it. Let’s say a colour was a hot trend when you were a kid, for example avocado green, and you have memories of your mom making you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as you basked in your avocado green kitchen. You might have warm fuzzy feelings whenever you see avocado green but others might have the exact opposite reaction to it.

When it comes down to it, I think the specific hue is the important factor to making friends with a colour. For example, my father in law and I both love yellow. Except, he loves school bus yellow and I love a bright lemon yellow. To me, it’s not the same colour at all! Kind of like growing up with other Lisa’s in my class room. I didn’t think of our names as the same ever, even though they sounded the same!

So in the end, I searched and found a hue of purple I adored and used in Goin’ Surfin’. Not only did I stretch my colour palette, I finally made friends with purple and I LOVE what it did for this collection, especially my Sunshine Floral! Those pops of purple really made it sing!

 

MAKING WAVES FOR SURFERS!

Designing the waves of this intricate surfer print was one of my favourite design challenges in this Goin’ Surfin’ fabric collection!

Once I got my head wrapped around the repeat, and realized I needed to bring each wave to a point (otherwise it looked like toothpaste, ha, ha!) AND then when I put the surfer silhouettes on the waves, it was pure joy!

Then of course I played with ALL the colours (my very favourite thing to do!)! While I didn’t end up using the pink and yellow waves for the surfers I did end using it for the base of the sunshine floral!

In the end we went with the above colourways. ALL of them I’d LOVE to swim in! Or Surf! :D