Lovely light-filled flowers to herald in the spring for Easter: I made this watercolour from 2019 into a half-drop pattern over the weekend.
I painted this watercolour especially with pattern-making in mind, but couldn't work out how to do it back then - I had still to develop the method I use today on my old iPad, but finally, here it is! Normally at Easter I would be outside in the garden with my watercolours in my popup tent, but this year the holiday fell too early and the weather left a bit to be desired. The spring flowers weren't quite out yet, and no sign of blossoms on the apple trees. I didn't get around to making jelly bunnies or a cake this year, either, because it just didn't feel seasonal. However, Molly arrived with a super spicy and fruity dough recipe for hot cross buns, so in the end we did have an Easter theme in the kitchen. Words cannot describe the fragrance as they were baking. Designing a simple companion pattern to use along with a more complex one is usually a very easy, quick process, such as last week's cloud patterns, but this one turned out to be a bit more challenging than I thought. The idea was simple enough, a striped pattern in 3 of the inky speckle colours used in the 'Rivermoth' patterns (here, and here) echoing motifs contained in them. However, in the process I accidentally mixed up two different pattern techniques at first, so nothing fitted in repeat. When I got that to work I adjusted the dimensions of the pattern tile to move the vertical elements closer together to tighten the design, and that started the whole process again from scratch: each layer had to be reset with alterations in my handmade-although-digital process. but, finally, a result!
I had intended making another two variations on the colourway but ran out of time due to the faffing which continued for hours. That will have to wait for next week now. Two fun, simple patterns to accompany the busier moth garden designs of 3 March. I picture a set of cushions on a sofa in my mind and imagine how they would all look together when I do this. I played with so many different colourways for the stars and clouds design above that I couldn't decide on a favourite, so I made a new pattern shown below just with clouds, but in all the inky speckle colours I made last October!
I am being shared between the upholstery section and the sewing cabin at work now, which means training in different equipment - today, it was the embroidery machine so I made a Binky!
I had so much fun drawing on the envelope and inside B's birthday card it made me think I should do more of this kind of drawing. I just sat and let it happen without too much thought, my mind simply spilling onto the paper. The invention was just like being a kid again, and B loved it. The card itself was one of the ones I made back in December, which I set aside for B at the time - there's always one in a batch which turns out a bit special.
I made monochrome versions of these designs last December as a quick aside, but only just got around to working on colour separations last month (and no, I still haven't found a better title than the mondegreen "Rivermoth Tonight"). Here they are now in beautiful speckly ink colours. Of course, I wanted to see how they would look applied to products. It has been an absolute age since I had a go on Redbubble and it was very nearly another age until I got logged in, thanks to forgetting my password and user name, and then had the wrong password written down for the email address to receive account recovery directions. But I sorted it out in the end, so I could try these two out on a couple of my favourites. It's marvellous really how the tech works to let you see how a pattern sits on an object, such a fun thing - and who knows, I may even buy something one day. For the time being I have my designs set to private until I decide what I want to share there, as I have a sneaking suspicion that ideas get pinched left right and centre from the platform.
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to my illustration and patterns blog.
I illustrate under the pen-name of Binky McKee, McKee being my mother's maiden name. Binky was the name of every single cat my great-grandmother kept - allegedly about 40 of them during her 94 years of life. I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the binkymckee. with weebly.com and it will work again. I hope you enjoy your visit! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I keep lots of scrapbooks and sketchbooks where I develop ideas and design little creatures. Here's a peek inside one ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As you may know, I am also known as Heather Eliza Walker.
Click the image if you would like to find out more and visit my other website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2024
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This time, take a peek into my ceramic design sketchbook. I actually made some of the mugs, but I kind of prefer the drawings! The plate designs are painted on paper plates, a most liberating process.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These watercolours are from my pattern sketchbook. I used coloured wax crayons to resist the washes of watercolour, also home-made rubber stamps dipped in bleach then printed on crêpe paper - the bleach takes out the paper dyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A sketchbook I used for mark-making with unusual objects - corks, seed-heads, feathers, home-made rubber stamps, my fingers and lots of flicky things ...
|