Our beautiful leopard custom print cups have been designed by the very talented Shyanne Clarke! She has such an incredible career history, collaborating with many fashion brands which has taken her artwork across the world and into some of the largest commercial stores. It was a true honour to work with Shyanne and  finally seeing the designs come to life on our Luxey Cups was a dream come true. We sat down with Shyanne to hear her story and share her journey with you girls!

1. What’s your background and how did you become a full time artist?
After I finished having my kids, I began as a textile designer, designing prints for swimwear + fashion labels that have been stocked in Myer, David Jones and internationally in Nordstrom. Over the years I have continued to work on my craft, illustrating almost everyday and now going to uni studying a Bachelor or Fine Art. 

Throughout this time I’ve regularly been commissioned for artworks for homes and also murals. I have started to take this side more seriously (or maybe I’ve just gotten braver) and stepping more into the gallery and art collector world over the last year.  

2. Is there any real-life situation that inspires you the most?
I really love that golden dusk light, for a whisper of time before sunset, when you look around, the world is crisp and beautiful. It's the magic hour, when the beauty of our world dumbfounds you. 

3. Favourite or most inspirational place in Australia?
Theres too many to pick! ….and I’ve still go so much more to see. 

• The Whitsundays, we were up there for my sisters wedding a few years ago, it was just stunning, white sand, crisp blue water, absolute magic. 

• The sailing club in Darwin, I was there for one sunset of my life (another wedding) and it stands out as one of the best. 

• Sunrise at Harrys Lookout in Port Macquarie. 

• And Noosa National Park, it’s a bloody mission to find a carpark, but it's worth every lap. 

I’ve also never been, but I would really love to do the bottom and top of WA, those beautiful white beaches. 

4. How does your perfect day-off looks like?
Wake up early, have a coffee, watch the sunrise. Go for a morning swim and get some breakfast. Lay about on the couch all day reading a really good book, all the doors open, breeze blowing. Little afternoon walk of the dog, my husband makes dinner, a snug on the couch with the kids, maybe a cheeky wine and early to bed. This is best done on a Sunday I reckon. 

5. What’s your go to coffee and breakfast recipe? 
I’m a bit of a weirdo, I love a flat white and straight after a juice - green apple, lemon, ginger, spinach, ice. 

6. What artwork (that is not your own) is hanging up in your wall at the moment? 
I’ve got lots, my first piece of artwork that I collected officially was ‘The Little Mermaid’ by Kelly Smith aka Birdie and Me. 

7. If you weren’t an artist what would you be? 
A psychologist, I’m so fascinated with how we work as humans. 

8. What inspired you to create this artwork for Luxey? 
I use these dots and spots elements in all my artworks, for me they represent a capture of a moment in time, like stepping stones or a joining of the dots, the breadcrumb trail. If I put all my artworks together, they would have a little path and whoever owns a piece is part of this overall story. 

I am obsessed with leopard print, it's my favourite print to create with florals a very close second. The day I saw SL I was wearing all black with leopard print shoes. It's the perfect accent print. 

9. How was the creative process and what techniques do you use? 
I usually create by hand first, illustrating and/or painting, then scanning that into the computer. Depending on the outcome of the piece, I edit it digitally and create new elements, change colours, creatively play with it in Photoshop. 

For this leopard print, I enjoy every step of the process, taking my time and feeling it out. I hand painted some ink dot elements and played with formation and shapes I liked. I then recreated that in Adobe Photoshop with some watercolour and ink brushes and brought them together in a repeat pattern. I then transferred the print to  Adobe Illustrator, vectorised the file so that it could be scaled to any size and print well. I finished by creating the repeat pattern again as a vector so it would seamlessly print for the Luxey team.

10. What would you like this artwork to represent to our Luxey community?Your wild woman, within.