Painting some Steampunk for my next Halloween fabric line!

Fabric design is a lot of work but it is such a fun and creative outlet for lots of artwork! I love the whole aspect of developing a concept, the focal fabrics and the supporting fabrics that make each fabric line unique and different. Don't get me wrong, its hard work with lots of time invested into thinking up the concept, creating the designs, drawing and painting to put together a fabric line. Sometimes I have a great idea and I spend the time to develop it and paint it only to not use it. Not everything turns out. But art is all about the journey! It's a wild, never ending journey that I love.

Last night my husband and I pulled a very rare, but occasional all nighter and it wasn't because we were partying or etc. I was to get the line in before the deadline date.

There are so many things that have to come together to make a fabric line cohesive and usable and there are many different ways to reach that goal. Some designers do everything on the computer. From their drawing, painting, vectorizing etc. Thats awesome too, each of us have our way of bring you lots of beautiful and diverse designs to get you excited to create.

I think that is another aspect of this whole process, inspiring others to create. Whether I inspire someone to take an art class or I inspire them to go home and sew, for an artist that feeds our creative souls.

The process for me since I do a lot of novelty fabrics is I create a theme and will write down everything I can think of that is related to that subject or theme.  I sketch first then refine the drawings and then paint, developing different aspects and characters for my lines. Then my husband brings them into the computer and works his magic by cleaning up my lines, if I paint outside the lines he makes me look like I don't! He adds the elements that I have painted separately so that the design comes to life. I paint everything separately so that I can have it to use it in other places in the fabric line or if I need it in another line. For instance, at the end of the video notice how the bird now has chain hanging from his neck with keys. All done separately and added later on the computer. I also used the keys in the tossed and the chain and keys on a cat. Okay, so now you know some of the secrets of Fabric Design, well some of mine anyway!

To see more of my designs visit my website at www.desireesdesigns.com
To see more of my artwork visit my other website at www.desireehabicht.com

Thanks for watching!