Happy Earth Day!

The birds and the bees,  the water and the trees, flowers, rocks, mountains…..whats not to love?
It inspires me daily.

Happy Earth Day!

Some paper-cut art patterns in honour.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

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#Shareyoursketch with us on Instagram!

Share your sketch with us! #shareyoursketch on Instagram

I love to see how people create. What mediums they like to use~ pencil, pen, ink or paint.I love to see how characters and motifs are developed. I love to see how people come up with ideas and what sparks their imagination. I also love to see all the different variety of lines and textures used.  I think it’s a great way to get inspired and learn from others.

doodling my surroundings @artisticallyafflicted

I am in the business of making motifs. It takes a lot of time doodling and mark making. Time to practice and try new things. I need all the inspiration I can get so thought it would be fun to try and get others to share their work. Here is what is inspiring me lately on #shareyoursketch.

Heather Dutton (@hangtight) of Hang Tight Studio shares proof that inspiration can come from anywhere. This quirky character is the result of a blob of coffee spilt on the floor.  Heather is pretty active on Instagram. The next two are also some sketches that Heather shared.

Some more doodles waiting to get turned into pattern..

Mary Tanana (@groovity)  of Groovity Designs shares her tropical doodles, a result of her time in Make Art that Sells. I believe these were used for the tropical fusion bloghop which you can see here  – beautiful!

I love this giraffe all zentangled up shared by Angelica Venegas. (@portallerdepapel). This drawing was done by her daughter Rocio.  Her zentangle work looks fantastic here and has inspired me to try some of my own.

Here is another zentangle sketch courtesy of Aryanda Septian (@Ariyandaaa) from Indonesia. Her Instagram feed is full of beautiful sketching, shading and lots of portraits. A whole other world I have yet to explore.

This hipster, shared by Lori Leissner (@leissnerart) just makes me smile. I love his look and his poodle pooch companion. I could see this character developed in so many ways. Lori was in a very loong meeting when she shared this.

Sketches can be in color too! I love this one by Pam Keravuori (@pamkeravuori) created while  hanging at the waterpark with her young daughter. That made me laugh – I first started doodling while spending many an hour at the park with young children in tow. There is lots more color and wonderful type on her feed.

Feeling inspired? Come and share your sketch with us then!
I will be posting some here on my blog every week so that others can get inspired and make new friends on Instagram.

Enjoy your weekend!

Inspired by the mushroom season

The forest is alive with mushrooms. Everywhere you look mushrooms are sprouting up in every different size, shape and color. I keep expecting little gnomes to jump out at me. I have caught myself shoulder checking more than once.

Today I kept hearing voices and my imagination got the best of me. I realized part way through my walk that the woods were alive with pickers. I could hear them, but just couldn’t see them. One day I will learn the difference between edible and not so edible.

For now, I will stick with pictures ~ lots of pictures. My poor Instagram friends are probably starting to think I have become a bit mad, or at least found the magic in it all. Ha!

Today we have mushrooms for you in all shapes and sizes. I put a shout out to my artist friends asking for their mushroom inspiration. I love what I received and am happy to be able to share them with you.We have  mushrooms doodled, sketched, painted, in pattern and even in character!

Here are a few of mine doodled out in black and white. I am not sure what I am going to do with these, but I have a couple of ideas percolating!

Have a  look at these beautiful representations of mushrooms by Cheryl Bakke Martin.So natural in color and line. I love the sketchy feel of them.

Petra is also lucky enough to be surrounded by mushrooms. She has many a blogpost about her mushroom inspiration.She has a czech mother crazy for mushroom picking. Have a visit to her blog for many a good story. I was just recently introduced to her blog and it is fun and fresh. Petra has a very good sense of humour and her posts bring a smile to my face.

How about some mushrooms in pattern? I love Lindsay Bucks use of color,shape and texture in her first piece Fantastic Funghi. There is so much to look at. Lindsay has lots more on her blog– her latest post on conkers still has me trying to guess what a conker is!?

Andrea Rincon also placed hers in pattern.Love the transparency! Andrea has a great blog with a weekly brief to help inspire and get your creative juices flowing~ Brief? Me!. She recently had a creative brief on her blog about funky mushrooms.

If you would like to participate  and get inspired ,have a visit to her blog, Anchobee Designs for more information.

This week finds me back in student mode. Lilla Rogers Make Art that Sells Part B starts today. I am so excited to be learning again. I love creating to a brief, it’s such a challenge and really helps me focus on a topic.

Funny – she had me drawing mushrooms 6 months ago! I have been a bit obsessed ever since.

I will be popping back here weekly with updates on how class is rolling out.

Show us your creative process Nandita Singh!

No introduction needed today as Nandita has covered that for me below! She loves to talk and loves to share. Nandita comes to us all the way from India. Please drop by her lovely blog or one of her many social media site to connect with her. Check out all the places she sells her art too!

Hi all the lovely readers,

I’m Nandita Singh, a freelance surface pattern designer from India. I love bright colours and so you’ll often find a riot of colours in my work. I love to draw motifs — sometimes inspired by my Indianness, and sometimes by the nature and surroundings, and sometimes (honestly) by the works of the great pattern designers too… Yes, inspiration can come from anywhere, but the final output should be yours and yours alone.

So, today here, I’ll just start with my one of the latest motif that is inspired by my own collection of beautiful bangles! As you all know that we Indians love to wear colourful bangles, specially glass bangles!

I made a circle first — with the help of my own bangle which I’m wearing ( yes, that’s what inspiration and motivation is), and then filled the outer border with tiny leaves and finally ending it with two more outlines. But you see I was not satisfied with this so I thought of putting some gems and semi-precious stones and pearls in the form of small and big dots and circles! Now, this was the final motif I wanted.

Satisfied as I was, I tried different versions of this… Playing with different colours and techniques is very essential here, as you never know what the final result may come out to be.

I’m happy to tell you all that you can actually buy this motif in the form of art print, framed art print and stretched canvas from my Society 6 store.

And some more home products from my Zazzle store too.

So, don’t tell me you won’t like to have this cute pillow as your Christmas gift … hmm

Well, if my work suits your taste then you can find me and more of my work in my blog .

Thank you Nandita! I love your enthusiasm and great energy – it shows in your work and all that you do to promote your business. I am in awe of all the products that you have your wonderful art on!

For more on Nandita and all the places she likes to hang around..
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nandita.singh.334
Twitter : https://twitter.com/nanditark
Pinterest : http://pinterest.com/nanditark/surface-pattern-designs-by-me/
Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/29556923@N07/
Tumblr : http://www.tumblr.com/blog/nanditark-lifeiscrafty

Shop her designs/patterns as art prints, designer gadgets, fashion wear, foot wear, and homeware products

Society 6 : http://society6.com/nanditarksingh
Zazzle : http://www.zazzle.com/nanditarksingh
Bespo : http://www.bespo.co.uk/nanditasingh/
Keka case : http://www.kekacase.com/designer-cases/nandita-singh.html
Fashion Store : https://www.constrvct.com/users/nanditasingh
Spoonflower Fabric store : http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/nandita_singh

Thanks for stopping by. I hope this inspires you to get some of your own artwork out there!

Inspired by…my artistic affliction

Goodness, I am in the depths of my artistic affliction right now. I am not sure if I should laugh or cry.All I  know is that I am in need of another set of hands,definitely more time and maybe a cup of herbal tea. I need to leave the house and get some fresh air.

So thankful to Art Everyday for getting me back into my paint mojo. I am in love with drawing, but there is just something about getting into my paints and other mediums that just gets my mind exploring.

So what have we here ~ a painted, stamped and splattered background, a drawing or two,a few flower paintings, some manipulated photography ~ all scanned into my computer  and digitally produced in Illustrator.

The only thing I didn’t add was some stitching. Honestly I thought about it, but really, where would it go?! It’s a tad chaotic,but then so am I!

Tomorrows project ~ trying to figure out how to make a pattern out of all this.

It’s Art Everyday month ~ Hop on over to Leah’s blog for more info on Art Everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!