Last weeks Illustration Friday image

I know, I know, I just keep missing the boat with these illustration friday entry's. I had so many ideas for last weeks word 'beneath' and started quite a few designs failing to finish any of them in time! Anyhoo I did sit down this evening to put something together. I decided to create a pattern design too as that is something that I need to get back on track with. So here we are, for 'beneath'... the idea was that beneath the horse there are his shoes. So I created a simple repeat pattern using a horse head and horse shoes. I am happy to get something done, even if it is too late to enter on the website.

I have almost finished my first painting so will post about that soon, hopefully tomorrow night. I have 3 paintings on the go at the moment and am enjoying them very much :-)

I hope everyone is well out there, have a good evening!|

Paisley Parrot pattern and holidays!

Hi all, I have just got home from 9 days away in the sunshine in Crete. I had a wonderful time and it was a bit depressing to come home to a gray city where I have to have the lights on in my flat..in July!! Anyway to brighten things up here's the other parrot pattern I was working on, I like it, and guess what? the suns come out a bit :-)

When I was away I took lots of photos that will definitely inspire artwork and patterns. Its always nice to travel to new places even if they aren't as far away as Crete. I wanted to share some photographs that I took whilst on a trek we did through the Samaria Gorge.The gorge walk begins at 1227m above sea level and is 16km long it took us roughly 5 hours to complete. We were a bit competitive though and didn't take many rest breaks! Half way down into the gorge I began to really suffer. I wasn't suitably dressed at all...wearing canvas daps and a dress!!! My shoes went into the bin at the end as the soles had worn through and cracked! I had the most painful feet for the rest of the hol..you live you learn right?! at the end of the walk you come to an amazing beach at the shores of the Libyan sea. The south of Crete had the best beaches...The water was just so so clear.

At the start of our walk, 1227m above sea level;

Unreal right? These images look like they came right out of a book, then further down the gorge we started to come across abandoned villages. These really were in the middle of nowhere, and in winter the people who lived there wouldn't be able to get out at all due to the river which apparently rises so high that it's impossible to cross.

There were lots of churches along the route, tiny little places, this one was my favorite. I love how  it's nestled against the cliff and the church bell was strung from the tree in front. It really was a beautiful place.

And here I am, inappropriate trekking clothing and all I really enjoyed it! At least I remembered the drinking water! So some Crete inspired patterns coming soon, I have a huge list to add to my other huge list of pattern ideas, which is always a good thing, bye for now :-)

Seaside inspired patterns

Hi all, well I've just spent a lovely 2 days at the seaside town of Falmouth UK. The sun was shining it was hot and the beach was heavenly :-) I went to visit two close friends and had some much needed girls only time! Take a look at the beach, pretty good for the UK I think! For the pattern lovers out there check out my friends beautiful skirt, an ebay find, I LOVE the fresh summery feel to it. It was so nice to be by the sea and I didn't want to leave...

 But I did, and tonight I finished off some crab drawings that I started last week and I put together this fun pattern.

Funny little creatures! I want to do some more crab patterns, maybe some happy colorful crabs and then some crabby not so colorful crabs!

On another note I also wanted to say hello and thank you to the new folk who have been visiting my blog. I always appreciate comments and I love 'meeting' other creative people. I'm really enjoying exploring the blogs out there and seeing the amazing art and design work that many of the visitors to this blog create.

So hello and Thanks for visiting :-)

I'm going to go and dream of the seaside now, take care and night night.

A little update,pattern tweaked

Petals

A while ago I did some drawings of flowers and petals, I really liked the style of them and thought they would make great patterns, I'm really enjoying how bright and cheerful the colored backgrounds make these patterns...summery and delightful! :-)

here's what I've come up with so far.

This blue one reminds me of those tiny little fish that you can buy at pet shops...the shimmering blue ish ones!! I don't know what they're called, anyone else know?!

Then I began to play around with colour, I really like these patterns on the white and also with bright summery colours. So I thought I'd post my experiments.

I think the blue and the green are my favorites! Right I'm off to walk to the gym and to see some sunshine! I hope everyone's having a sunny day :-)

Patterns

So I have lots of images/ideas that I've created over the past year that I've wanted to turn into patterns...But I didn't know how to create repeat patterns until this week, I now have lots of work to do!! It's quite an exciting time for me at the moment with my art, I feel like it's all coming together at last..and I start a new job next week that will give me so much free time to create, I can't wait to see where it will all be in 6 months time. I at least hope to have an Etsy shop and a regular stall at one of the art markets in Bristol by the end of the summer. Here are some new patterns that I put together today, go me!

Sunny flower patterns

 

Collage shells

Addicted to pattern and collage.....! I was thinking today that collage reminds me of being a child, using pritt stick glue and scraps of paper.. and making these collage shells also got me thinking about being a child visiting the beach with my grandma and my sister.. I'd like to explore British beach imagery more for use in patterns...buckets and spades, bright orange crabs, seagulls, chips in newspaper and rum and raisin ice cream!! Okay I know I'm getting carried away now... :-) Here's something I put together today, would make nice wrapping paper I think!

My first repeat pattern!

I'm so so excited! I've just created my first repeat pattern...I've wanted to know how to do this for ages! I followed an online tutorial for creating repeats in photoshop. It was really easy to follow and on a site called Mels Brushes, this is a really informative site created by a UK based Graphic Designer. I'm so thankful that there are people out there sharing their knowledge about these things...Here's my first repeat pattern!

seagulls and patterns

Here's a little something I've been playing around with...I really liked the way I drew the sea in the seagull image...so i'm playing around with that pattern..In the two pattern images i've used colour combination that I've been drawn to recently..the colours in the black pattern image were inspired by a head scarf I saw on an elderly lady on the bus the other day! At times like that I wish I could photograph the person so that I remember every detail...but then I guess the bits that you forget are also important; as you then remake the image up in your own mind...creating something new...