Only the most devilish color combination would do for this poster! I might make a version with the colors inverted, so you can view the same red and blue hovering in front of you as an afterimage.
Vector Art
Illustration Friday: “Peace”
Rainbow Kawaii Gears
Workin’ together!
I was going to add these to my last post, but the Internet likes volume.
Making things rainbow and kawaii seems to be my favorite way of cheering myself up when I’m going through something heavy. It’s the visual equivalent of eating a pile of candy. I can’t sing the blues until I’m a safe distance from it, I’ve learned.
Artists, illustrators, designers: do you have a kind of art— style, subject, practice, etc.— that you turn to when you’re going through a difficult time?
Illustration Friday: “Repeat”
I started calling myself “Little Cog” when I did data entry work in a cramped, frigid cubicle. “There there, little cog,” I would say while sniffling, trying to fight off another office cold. Luckily I don’t think of myself that way any longer, but the character stuck in my mind. Hopefully it has the balance of cuteness and melancholy that I imagined.
Before & Afters
Dreamin in Neon

After spending most of the month learning After Effects and designing new greeting cards and posters, I took a detour this morning and made these custom neon brushes for AI, from a tutorial by Diana Toma. I would definitely recommend this tut for an AI beginner, because it’s easy to follow and as you can see, these brushes will turn your most mundane strokes into the black velvet painting of your wildest, kitschiest dreams:
Diana’s tutorial here: Create a Set of Neon Art and Scatter Brushes in Illustrator
I just started plotting out a longer motion graphics project, but these neon brushes will have to find their way into another one! You can follow my progress in After Effects on my new Vimeo account.
Time for some timely updates!

Hello friends, future friends, friendly foes, and the fairly indifferent,
It feels like forever since I’ve updated here. I miss keeping up with Illustration Friday each week, but at least it’s been lots of work that has kept me away from here for now. Besides the illustration above, which I developed from an old IF sketch, here’s what I’ve been up to this year:
-Working on a couple of new commissions.
-Completing many new posters and greeting cards for my Etsy and Society6 shops.
-Writing and sketching my first children’s picture book proposal.
-Learning and practicing with new software! This is the first year I’ve subscribed to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, so now I’m overwhelmed with this new access to all of their programs. My goal this year is to learn After Effects and Muse… and everything else if there’s time!
But there is still plenty of time, so if you’d like to work with me, please write to elizasteindesigns [at] gmail.com, or send me a quick note on Twitter @MsElizaStein.
A long overdue Happy 2013 to all!
~Eliza
Illustration Friday: “Capable”

I still can! Even on the mornings when I think I can’t, I repeat it to myself like a mantra and somehow, I find the power to reach for sock #1.
The background for this is driving me crazy. I want to make it look like a pile or closet of clothes, with even more colorful patterns, but for now we will content ourselves with these pastel swirlies.
New Logo Design
A logo I did on short notice for an affiliate marketing company. See the alternate designs after the jump.