Going with the flow – floral pattern
Part of the new calmer lifestyle I’m trying to adopt, I’m throwing out all my design career goals and schedules and plans and ‘going with the flow’. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to do any work for studios – but I will only do so when I have the time and when it’s a call/assignment/trend
Holiday Flowers: New Colouring Book and FREE sampler
While on our holidays this year (in a very beautiful Cornish pair of villages – Kingsand and Cawsand), I did quite a bit of drawing full pages of stylised flowers – this seems to be my go-to relaxation technique – and I shared most of them on Instagram or Facebook. A few people said they’d love to
Another colouring book – and a free sample
Well, it’s taken a while, sorry, but I’ve uploaded my second printable colouring book to Etsy. And I am, of course, offering you a free sample as a little taster – hopefully it will whet your appetite enough to buy the whole book, but even if it doesn’t, I hope you have lots of fun
On gratitude and the blues
This weekend, Chris and I both had to do a lot of work. This meant we didn’t have time to take the girls out to cinemas or swimming or to hang out in cafes and museums. They got their homework done, had their baths, got given breakfast, lunch and dinner and also had approximately 5
When it all just flows
I don’t really have a problem with artist’s block (touch wood) but sometimes it takes a while to get into a brief, especially if you’re trying to do something that’s a little outside your comfort zone, or something that’s not really ‘you’. A lot of freelance and agency work involves pushing out designs quite quickly
The Landlady – Patternmash project
I joined up for Hannah’s Patternmash project at the start of January. Hannah provides monthly briefs to create patterns/collections for. Not hugely unusual, I suppose, but… her briefs are really well-thought out and researched and in-depth and she provides supportive moodboards, colour palettes and more. I think it’s the depth and the reaching beyond the
Drawing, drawing, drawing
Much of my December designing was all done in Illustrator – though almost always starting with sketched ideas and plans. I then squeezed in some painting at the end of the month, using some new paints – Golden Acyrlics – oh wow, I am totally and utterly in love with these paints. The only acrylics
Goals, tasks and accountability – NOT resolutions
Continuing on the ‘I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions’ theme, I am still looking to start the new year with a fresh attitude and raring to go. Because the girls start back to school on Monday (5 January), and that’s also when I’ll be officially back at my (TAG Publishing Services) desk, I’m really treating
Summer School with Make it in Design
The Make it in Design team very kindly provided a fantastic pattern design summer school over the last few weeks. We had three sets of assignments, about two weeks apart and there was a Beginner Track, Intermediate Track and Advanced Track and there was a different brief, but within the same megatrend. I had only
A Mini a Day: Week 1
So, this was the first week of doing my ‘A mini a day, a letter a day’ and it wasn’t a full week. I definitely enjoyed having a bit of a focus to my doodling and I think, though I still did my normal random (mostly floral!) doodles. I found myself being more drawn to the
A Mini a Day; A Letter a Day; A Colour Palette a Week
I’ve decided to do a mini (*) and a letter a day for a while (I’m not going to set a specific time limit – I might do it for a couple of weeks, or I might do it for a whole year). So, every day, in the morning, I’m going to pick a subject
MATS Bootcamp – Jelly!
March has been all about jelly. I found the topic a little less inspiring than last month’s cuckoo clocks, but still ended up having fun with it (despite a crazy ‘other work’ month that saw me with very little design time on my hands). Fortunately, drawing, painting and making pretty patterns are all part of
MATS Bootcamp – Cuckoo Clocks
I am so very glad that I signed up for the Make Art That Sells Bootcamp, from the awesome and inspirational Lilla Rogers. It’s a long-term (runs over a number of months) portfolio-building session – not quite a course, but there are lots of course-like aspects. You get a mini the first week of a
Colours
I’ve been finding analogous palettes quite appealing lately and find you can still get a bit of pop without needing contrasting colours.