#Inktober Showcase

Inktober was started in 2009 and is still going strong today.  Mr Jake Parker, the creator of the project, has assigned very few rules

Pick up a pen, draw, hashtag it #inktober, repeat.

Anyone can take part and it seems like artists from all over the world do. I posted a picture and within 2 min 100 more pictures had been posted!

The goal is to practice your drawing skills and develop the positive habit of doing it daily.

Below are a few examples of my own work and a few from others within my surface pattern design community. Click on the pictures below for direct links to their Instagram accounts.

Julie Hamilton

Playing with light and dark. Flower shapes, some seeds and pods and an owl for good measure. When in doubt stick a bird on it.

Julie Hamilton

Next we have Katy Halford.  I found it hard to choose between all of her lovely drawings. This one made me smile so here it is

Katy Halford

Mary Tanana made some beautiful drawings on black paper with touches of gold, courtesy of uniball gelpens.

Mary Tanana

Heather Dutton spent her time illustrating every letter of the alphabet with beautiful patterns. Check out her instagram account to see more.

Heather Dutton

Amanda McGee  pretty much described all of us with her illustration. I am a big fan of her beautiful hand lettering!

Amanda McGee

Below is Flora Chang of Happy Doodle Land. Her name says it all. She loves to draw. Check out her new colouring book!

Flora Chang

Inktober will be back again next year, but don’t let that stop you from picking up a pen and just busting loose. Until then, feel free to share it with the rest of us on hashtag #shareyoursketch – another fun community to share your creative process.

Ink on!

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My first podcast – Creative insights from Creative people

Excited to announce that I am Live on Kara Gott Warners Morning Cool Down Show episode 75. Creative insights from creative people.

I spoke about my journey so far in the world of art licensing and surface pattern design. If you follow along here you will know it has been a long, but very enjoyable ride.

Todays show is 45 min. long so grab a coffee and please have a listen. There is even a bit of show and tell.

It is good! I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive. I wasn’t worried about Kara – she is all voice. She is loud and clear and interesting!

I was just a wee bit worried about my performance. Would I hum and huh? Would I laugh too much? Would I provide too much or too little…

Big worries as you can see!

I am very happy to announce it all went well.

Direct link to Karas website which is full of interesting creative podcasts from all types. Great to listen to while creating away because it never hurts to get inspired by others tips and tricks.

My podcast (show notes)

Morning cool Down Podcasts 

Thanks!

Another beautiful weekend is in the forecast. Hope you enjoy it!

Finding Inspiration in the Leaves of Autumn

Inspired by the abundance of leaves in my  autumn backyard. So many shades of red, yellow and green. Berry branches, old seed heads and a token mushroom or two make my garden a rather special place at this time of year..

A snapshot of what fall looks like around here…minus the never-ending rain.

I know they should all be raked up and my garden put to bed, but I like to think of it as ground cover for the long winter ahead.

I aspire to be a gardener, but while I love everything in the garden, I don’t like the time and energy it takes to deal with my garden. Long ornamental grasses, big rocks and flowering bushes are fine with me for now. I am hoping in time that my feelings may change and I will be motivated to embrace everything it has to offer.

 

Collected on a morning run.

Leaves in my sketchbook.

I have one garden leaf in particular that I love.

I love the shape and changing colour of this leaf as the season progresses.I know I should know what type of bush this belongs to, but I am  sorry, I don’t.

Finding a bit of inspiration from its shape and colours to be used in some surface pattern design.

The beginning of the Bayberry collection – coming soon!

 

May the sun be shining bright where you live. I am sending all of our rain to California where it is needed most.

Finding inspiration~Back to basics!

Every once in a while I sit down to a fresh piece of white paper and my mind goes blank. I feel like there  are no original ideas left! It has all been done before.

At times like these when my  rosy outlook takes a little detour I usually come back to basics – simple geometric shapes and marks. No color.. just black and white.

It is my hope that the wonderful combination of all these shapes will eventually come together and find their place somewhere in my surface pattern design.

The days have been busy here. The ski season is slowly coming to an end, but the competitions are still on. Travel to other mountains, school trips and spring break have left me with little time to sit uninterrupted to create. I have been trying to change my ways and create in clumps of time, but I still find that my best time is when I have nothing pressing or beckoning me away from my work.

There really is nothing better than a long stretch of uninterrupted time to sit and create. I think most of us can agree on that!

I am (slowly) working  on my next collection for Modern Yardage – MeadowBlush. Taking inspiration from my geometrics, I enjoyed combining different geometric shapes to make up the flowers and other elements involved in this design.

I can imagine them on outdoor pillows, children’s bedding, a sweet little summer dress…

I think some ladybugs are also in order for spring. I may  also throw in some butterflies and I don’t doubt that some seeds and pods will also end up in the collection. They seen to end up in all my work.

My MeadowBlush fabric collection will be coming to Modern Yardage month end, right in time for spring.

Have you had a look at my 101 projects to make with one yard of fabric pinboard? You can find it on Pinterest here
If you are like me and finding it hard to find long hours of uninterrupted time then this might be the answer to your sewing and crafting creations.

I am heading off today to one of my favorite places – the Big Island of Hawaii. Time to feed the soul and the senses. Pop back next week for some visual inspiration, or if you just need a hit of sunshine!

xox

Indigo,Paris 2014 is live!

Indigo 2014, the creative textile and surface design show, is now live in Paris!

This is what the past 6 weeks of my life have looked like in preparation. Creative chaos at its finest.

Sketching, sketching and more sketching. Reviewing all my old notes for Make Art that Sells. Driving to the store to pick up more Sharpies!

Dozens of  children’s motifs all waiting to be patterned. I am amazed at the amount that just didn’t make the cut. They will all have their time though. No art work is ever wasted, it will always find its place somewhere.

I completed 20 mini collections in total for Believe Creative Studio. It look me quite a few tries to start, but I finally fell into my groove and the style that is mine and a style that worked well with the Believe Creative Studio style.

There were definitely moments. Many moments. Moments of doubt, insecurity, and creative exhaustion. The belief that I didn’t have another creative drop left in me.That frantic moment of “I got nothing!”

Those were the times the music got cranked and  fun times were had playing in the snow. Anything to clear the mind.

I have to admit that despite the highs and lows~ I loved every moment of it. I loved the challenge of following a brief. I loved stretching my imagination and trying to think like a child.

Still waiting for my Sharpie sponsorship….

As this was my first experience designing with a studio, with an end goal in mind, there were many lessons learned. A few of these I thought I would share with you.

1. Work around a theme and stick with it.Explore a subject and immerse yourself in it. I made the mistake of jumping around from brief to brief and had a few moments of confusion.

2. Finish one piece of work before you start another. This is a matter of personal preference of course, but I found I would sometimes get stuck and instead of working through it, I would just start fresh with a new pattern. As a result I have many pieces of unfinished work. I know that I can work through them, but I won’t. I love a big, blank page of possibility. I like starting.

3. Turn off all social media. Learn what distracts you and get rid of it. Many people made comments about my lack of participation in my social media world this past month. (which also included blogging…sorry)  I just found that at the end of the day I was mentally exhausted.  Now, however I feel like I can whip off pattern after pattern. I have upped my pattern making stamina.

4.Explore your favourite kids store and see what they are doing. This definitely helped me with my playfulness and use of colour. It also helped me with the sizing of my motifs. Rosie also made a great suggestion – borrow a  piece of children’s clothing to give you a sense of sizing. Your motif has to read well small.

5. Stop in moments of frustration. Don’t push yourself to create. Walk away. I found that once I cleared my mind and relaxed, inspiration came flowing back.

6. Play happy music. Invite young friends over to draw. I was lucky enough to get to spend an afternoon babysitting Thomas,a young friend of mine. He was very quick to give advice and show me how a dinosaur is really done. He was also a little put out that I didn’t have one light sabre in my collection…or a narwhal (a what?). I would have liked to post his drawings, but the smarty pants took them with him after I threatened to use them (with commission of course:)

One thing is for sure – designing for children makes you happy. I often caught myself with a smile on my face.

Unfortunately, I cannot share any of the  designs until after the show, they are top secret!

A big thank you to Rosie and Vincent of Believe Creative Studio for all of their hard work ~ critiquing, organizing and for being supportive and enthusiastic. I would also like to thank all of the guest designers who were very quick to offer support and answer questions.It is always nice to meet others from all over the globe. I wish everyone of you the best of luck!

Thanks for the fun!

Creative Process with Lindsay Buck

Today we have Lindsay Buck of Slumbermonkey Designs telling us a bit about her creative process. Lindsay blew me away with her attention to detail and process here.I admire her sketchy quality and love all the texture and layering.The colors are perfect for this season and her woodland theme is right on trend too!

Welcome Lindsay!

“Prickles and Pinecones”

The photos and process that I am going to talk about relate to an ongoing collection that I am developing based around Autumn, animals and natural forms.

I get inspired to create by all the things that are around me. For this particular work I began gathering conkers (from the horse chestnut tree) and pinecones when I was out walking my dog. I love their protective, spiky surrounds and their colours. I gathered quite a collection and then I began to draw.

I love working with fine liners and pens and all of my sketches are created in a little sketchbook that I use. I also began to think of hibernation and creatures that like to sleep a lot. I was drawn to hedgehogs and began to amass quite a few ideas and drawings.

I had lots of material to work with and, after scanning my drawings into Photoshop, I began to develop individual motifs and design elements. I love playing around at this stage. Trying out colours, layering, and placing and different filters. I seem to have loads of ideas whizzing about in my head so I work on lots at once. I keep an eye on colour trends (Pinterest) and am often inspired from what I pin.

This collection was something I was developing myself and I try and juggle this with chasing up briefs for competitions and submissions. At the moment I am really trying to build up my portfolio of work as I have only recently returned to Surface Design.

I decided to call the collection “Prickles and Pinecones” to draw together all the different elements that I was inspired by. I am still adding to it and keep returning to my theme, creating more drawings and patterns to put into various collections.

A Big thank you to Lindsay! I know these blogposts take alot of time and consideration to prepare and she did a great job recounting her creative process. All your hard work is appreciated! Thanks Lindsay.

Lindsay is a hardworker-look at all of her links! I have included them for you to drop by and say hello.She has just recently jumped in full force to the world of surface pattern design and would be a great person to connect to.I always love and appreciate meeting fellow creatives here on my blog or at many of the other social hotspots I frequent so please stop by and have a visit!

Links:

https://www.moyodirectory.com/slumbermonkey
http://www.behance.net/Slumbermonkey
http://slumbermonkey.blogspot.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/buck_lj
http://www.pinterest.com/SlumberMonkey/boards/
https://www.facebook.com/SlumbermonkeyDesigns
http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Slumbermonkey
http://folksy.com/shops/SlumbermonkeyDesigns
http://society6.com/Slumbermonkey
http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/slumbermonkey

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!

What does your creative process look like?

Do you ever wonder how other artists and designers come up with their creative ideas? I do!

I am very happy to have Femi Ford on the Creative Process pedestal today. I love her beautiful, bold and vibrant printed patterns.Femi is a mixed media artist with a background in art and printmaking. I have always been a bit curious as to how she incorporates her art into surface pattern design.

Today we get to see how her creative mind works!

What inspires you to create?

Inspiration usually finds me when I’m working in my garden or in my studio. Most often it is a natural pattern that gets my brain going rather than color.   Color excites me, but it’s usually the last thing I decide on.  My most exciting moments are when I don’t have a plan and I create a wonderful, accidental texture that I just know will make a great pattern!

Her mini assistant!

What medium do you like to create in? 

Printmaking is my favorite medium, followed closely by painting on canvas or drawing loosely with ink on paper.

Do you keep an art journal? 

My sketchbook is really a rambling, mess of experiments that are connected by a fine thread of inspiration.  I look back at it to remind myself of how I arrived at my current projects.  I use my phone to grab quick reference pictures while I’m out and, OH BOY, do I love Pinterest!  

Do you work on just one design from start to finish or do you have a number of different designs on the go?

I always have a number of designs going at once.  It’s a challenge for me to focus on one collection at a time, but I’m working on it!  My work is slowly evolving in style because I like to work in different mediums…but I’m happy with where I am.

Do you prefer to design for a brief/competition or your own personal inspiration?

I do like to work towards a particular trend but with the freedom to interpret it on my own.  For the most part I’ve stopped doing competitions because I feel like companies are trying to get something for nothing.  While the exposure might be good, I think it devalues our work as artists.

What time of the day are you most creative?

I’m most alert from 9am – 1pm.   But I do pull the occasional all-nighter if the kids are asleep early and the music is flowing!

Beautiful mock ups. I love seeing the patterns created on actual product. These beautiful designs are for sale on Society 6!

Beautiful work Femi! You have inspired me to try something new.

Here are a few places you can find Femi:

website::  http://www.femiford.com/

facebook:: http://www.facebook.com/FemiFordArt

twitter:: http://twitter.com/femiford

society6 ::http://society6.com/FemiFord

Thank you Femi!

Guess what today is? The last day of school-yippee! School out for Summer!
Bad parenting is already in full summer mode – late nights,missed meals,no rules.. I can barely get my son out the door this morning, late for school on his final morning!

Happy happy:)

Find New Designers Pin-hop!

Welcome to the first ever Print and Pattern Pin Hop! I dare say it may be the first ever Pin-Hop on Pinterest.

The Pin-Hop is hosted by Find New Designers, a collective of International Surface Pattern Designers.

Pin-Hop (defn)~ similar to a blog hop, but using Pinterest to pin our designs to a group board. The reader can then easily view each design and click on the image of choice to be directed to their favorite designers website/portfolio to see more.

Each designer has created a collection of designs based on one of Patternbanks A/W 2013/14 trend forecast themes showcased over on the Find New Designers Pin-Hop board. Over 50 designers world-wide are participating! A big thank you to Tina Olsen of Fyllayta for organizing!

The Pin-hop will take place tomorrow, Saturday June 15th! Please be sure to visit all of the other designers and feel free to comment, share,like and do what you do best – Repin!

The link to the Find New Designers Pin-Hop board is here 

My designs are loosely based on the Bauhaus/Op art theme of the 1920’s to 60s. I spent a bit of time researching the period and had some fun exploring in black and white.

I took a bit of creative license with my design process.My thoughts were around retro, geometric shapes intersecting with each other. I really did try hard to stick to my theme, but unfortunately I can’t always predict the end result of my creativity.

I have to say I am loving this color palette! I never use pink in my work, but here I am getting a bit carried away with it. I always love red and orange.

I was having quite a bit of fun with my geometric shapes so I thought I would try to stretch my style and create a design of geometric style flowers. This is very different from my hand drawn style, but I enjoyed the process and can see myself using more of this style in my design work.

There you have it! A great exercise designed around a theme, a few more designs to add to my portfolio and an interesting experiment being involved in a Pin-Hop.I must say, so far, I am quite pleased with the results.

I will be back early next week for two(!) Creative Process blogposts! If you have a moment please check out Majo Bautistas design work on the Pin-Hop. She was featured two weeks ago on my Creative Process series. You may be interested to see how she interpreted her theme.

Have a great weekend!

What does your creative process look like?

Do you ever wonder how other artists and designers come up with their creative ideas? I do!

I am creatively curious! I love to see the process of how one’s mind works from start to finish.

This week I welcome Jennie Whitham of JLW Illustration.

Jennie is a Designer/ Illustrator living in the U.K. She is a graduate of The Leeds College of Art, an active member of our Surface Pattern Design community, mother of 3 (almost 4) and produces a lot of work.She never ceases to amaze me with the beautiful patterns and illustrations she pumps out.

She can do it all! (and she does)

Creating motifs on her Wacom Tablet in Adobe Illustrator

What inspires you to create?

Pinterest is an amazing source of inspiration. Every thing from colours to textures, motifs etc, can be found there.

Creating textures for her work

What medium do you like to create in?

Adobe Illustrator. I would LOVE to be a ‘hand drawn’ illustrator/designer, but I just am not. I love nothing more than sitting at my computer, with a Cuppa tea, packet of biscuits, and my Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet. It is the best investment I ever made.

Artboards – playing with motifs, placement and pattern

Do you keep an Art Journal?

I guess my blog is an online directory of my goings on. I often head over when I need to find a design and see when it was created, and share my new designs with those who are interested enough to read my blog.

Finalizing colors and texture

Do you work on just one design…..

It depends on whether it is required of me. I get little time to just design ‘for fun’… theres always a submission to make, whether that be a competition, License opportunity, book submission etc. I like to create collections and I like to make lots of designs. The last collection is created ‘for me’ was my ‘pretty paradise’ collection, back in 2012, just after I finished ABSPD. I am currently doing #365patternchallenge, and decided to use the same colour palette throughout, So I guess come 2014 I will have a 365 pattern collection to work from. That should be fun.

Making a clipping mask

Do you prefer to design for a brief/competition or your own inspiration?

Both. I LOVE to be given a direction to work in, whether that be colour palette, theme, etc. it’s fun, not only to see how you interpreted it yourself, but how others have interpreted the same brief. On the flip side, it’s great to work freely. To just ‘let go’ and design exactly how you like to do it.

The final collection!

Ta Da! Her designs all mocked up and ready to go!

What time of the day are you most creative?

after 7pm…. I am a stay-at-home mum of 3 (soon to be 4) little rascals, and while I’d love to design full time, I manage to fit everything in between 7pm and Midnight. It works for our family dynamic.

I wish I could say the same for myself! I would love to be able to create at night, but I am a morning person through and through!
To find out more about Jennie please pop over to her social media hangouts.

Website :: www.jlwillustration.com
Facebook ::www.facebook.com/jlwillustration
Etsy ::www.etsy.com/shop/jlwillustration
Twitter Handle ::@JLWIllustration

Enjoy the rest of your week!  I can’t believe school is out in 2 weeks. Needless to say, but they are going to be the busiest two weeks of the year!