affinity designer Ohhh My Strawberry Monkey

[Sam Neil]

Hey Allan,

Just wondering what did you use to build the website?

S

[My Strawberry Monkey]

15 hours ago, Sam Neil said:

Hey Allan,

Just wondering what did you use to build the website?

S

Hi Sam, I used Affinity Designer for all the vector work then exported as .svg to use in Adobe Muse which is now a end of life app, so looking to switch at some point to Without Code or WebFlow...

[Sam Neil]

1 hour ago, My Strawberry Monkey said:

Hi Sam, I used Affinity Designer for all the vector work then exported as .svg to use in Adobe Muse which is now a end of life app, so looking to switch at some point to Without Code or WebFlow...

1 hour ago, My Strawberry Monkey said:

Hi Sam, I used Affinity Designer for all the vector work then exported as .svg to use in Adobe Muse which is now a end of life app, so looking to switch at some point to Without Code or WebFlow...

Thanks Allan.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

With world book day happening this past Thursday and being featured in the recent Affinity Spotlight it has got me thinking about my cover for my first children's picture book, so I'm current working on a new design and a few other changes inside, hopefully I'll finish in time for the summer...

 

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[My Strawberry Monkey]

Where would Strawberry Monkey be without all the strong, successful women in his life? #internationalwomensday

When I first started this journey all but one of my characters were male, it wasn't intentional, it was just my default. It sounds odd now, but I didn't think about female characters. I remember reading an article about diversity and female characters in children’s literature and that had a massive impact on the direction of the books. There are now more female than male characters, one of whom is Dr Horse. I want young girls growing up to be inspired and show them that they can be whoever they want and this is why I started to create more female positive role models.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Sooo, mainly during lockdown I worked away re-illustrating the characters for the website and the first book! A lot of changes have been made, I think taking a little break from it all helped me see what I wasn't happy with. Anyway the book is now live and back on Amazon! SO much happier with its new look...

[My Strawberry Monkey]

As summer approaches, make sure your kids stay safe.  Have a read of this blog post with some tips on how you get your child to wear suncream, with the help of Strawberry Monkey! 🥵

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-can-you-get-your-child-wear-suncream-mystrawberrymonkey

 

 

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Slowly starting to add more products to the website, thought these greeting cards would work well for my characters!

Go cheer up someone's day and get your My Strawberry Monkey greeting card here!

 

🍓🐵

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Somehow I feel like this thread is becoming my personal diary! 😂 Anyway, years ago long before Affinity came into my life I tried creating some motivational quotes wall prints, bought a printer, the whole set up. it was sooooooo stressful, mainly due to me not knowing what I was doing and having major issues with colour accuracy from Photoshop and Illustrator. Looks like I may have come back round to the idea of wall art, this time for kids though, currently testing out some prints:

 

 

[Alfred]

31 minutes ago, My Strawberry Monkey said:

Somehow I feel like this thread is becoming my personal diary! 😂

Just “becoming”, Allan? I think it’s been your personal diary all along, but it’s a great way to showcase your wonderful work.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

On 3/25/2022 at 12:28 PM, Alfred said:

Just “becoming”, Allan? I think it’s been your personal diary all along, but it’s a great way to showcase your wonderful work.

🤣 Thanks, gotta share my thoughts somewhere.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Test prints for the wall art arrived from the printers, looking good! These will look amazing once framed. Hopefully, not too long and they'll be up on the site.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Finally managed to get the Etsy shop up and running for the wall prints after the test prints and a few technical difficulties along the way. 13 so far, I will be creating and uploading more over the coming weeks! 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MyStrawberryMonkey

 

 

[Gee Whiz]

YO! This strawberry monkey is DOPE crazy! I love it ya'll! 

[My Strawberry Monkey]

On 6/11/2022 at 2:25 AM, Gee Whiz said:

YO! This strawberry monkey is DOPE crazy! I love it ya'll! 

Thanks @Gee Whiz 😁🍓🐵

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Wow, has it really been two years, since I last came here!? How time flies is what they say...😂

I've busy with other projects and life and a little creative rut. Anyway, love coming back here to see where it all started, the books and characters were actually an add on to my design work initially, then over the years it's grown into it's own thing.

Here's another before and after, such a contrast. The two main characters and the rest of the project have had a 'glow-up ' 🤣 The first image was one of my first for this project and the second was something I put together yesterday. On reflection, I definitely rushed into this in the early days but I've learnt a lot along the way.😀

 

Allan

[peter]

On 2/15/2019 at 10:47 AM, My Strawberry Monkey said:

So here it is, the official picture of me meeting Theo to collect my award for my children's picture books and preschool website mystrawberrymonkey.com

 

All the characters, both books and website were all created in Affinity Designer! It's been an exciting journey so far. This just goes to show that with an idea, a little dreaming and a lot of determination can take you to amazing places.

Well done mate, getting a dragon on board is seriously impressive.

[peter]

On 3/10/2022 at 6:17 PM, My Strawberry Monkey said:

Sooo, mainly during lockdown I worked away re-illustrating the characters for the website and the first book! A lot of changes have been made, I think taking a little break from it all helped me see what I wasn't happy with. Anyway the book is now live and back on Amazon! SO much happier with its new look...

This makes it real and it looks like it's been here forever, just like Peppa Pig has. As I said earlier, with Lee Evans doing some of the voice work. Do you have any others who could lend their voices, as I'm sure that could get them to jump off the page and into the readers' heads?

[eejits]

We’re all flocking back here (thanks to Peter for the nudges). Feels like returning home. 
Glad to see MSM still kicking around and looking even better than ever!! Awesome! 

George

[peter]

On 4/9/2022 at 3:03 PM, My Strawberry Monkey said:

Finally managed to get the Etsy shop up and running for the wall prints after the test prints and a few technical difficulties along the way. 13 so far, I will be creating and uploading more over the coming weeks! 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MyStrawberryMonkey

 

 

Looks so much better on the wall in a real room, where it belongs. How did you do the canopy on the rocket? Was it a quick shape with a transparency filter or a different approach? Well done Allen.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

On 6/12/2024 at 8:46 PM, peter said:

Well done mate, getting a dragon on board is seriously impressive.

Thank you @peter!  

I still remember walking into a local shop and them asking me if that was me on the front of a local paper, it was and I wasn’t expecting to be featured. Gotta treasure up those good times and create memories. . 

[My Strawberry Monkey]

On 6/12/2024 at 10:16 PM, peter said:

This makes it real and it looks like it's been here forever, just like Peppa Pig has. As I said earlier, with Lee Evans doing some of the voice work. Do you have any others who could lend their voices, as I'm sure that could get them to jump off the page and into the readers' heads?

@peter Thank you. Getting Lee Evans on board would be amazing! The studios will always have their own agenda and people they would like to use…

[My Strawberry Monkey]

On 6/13/2024 at 7:17 PM, peter said:

Looks so much better on the wall in a real room, where it belongs. How did you do the canopy on the rocket? Was it a quick shape with a transparency filter or a different approach? Well done Allen.

It does indeed! And yes, just a shape with reduced opacity if I remember correctly.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

On 6/13/2024 at 10:19 AM, eejits said:

We’re all flocking back here (thanks to Peter for the nudges). Feels like returning home. 
Glad to see MSM still kicking around and looking even better than ever!! Awesome! 

George

@eejits Ohhh My! It does indeed, it's great to see the growth from two characters in to what it's become...

Yes, thanks to @peter 😀

Thanks, a lot of learning and changes along the way...Many more to come!

 

 

 

 

[My Strawberry Monkey]

There have been a number of characters created along the way, for some I had to go back to the drawing board and start again.