Different patterns in matching colours: here is a mix of vintage daisy, the pattern I'm just calling 'shapes' until I think of a better name, and a combs pattern I've been working on this week - plus a very cute moth on a flower.
Lots of fun with retro colours this week!
Starting from top left and going round in a clockwise spiral to the centre: 1. The first version of last week's pattern tile. I decided it was too fussy for what I wanted, so a simplified version replaced it. 2. Colourful lines created using a clipping mask, and 3. The delightful chaos of the layer unclipped! It looks like mad kiddy drawing. 4. A classic 70's green scheme. 5. A couple of motifs I introduced to the pattern but didn't use - will keep for a completely different pattern, I think 6. I spent a lot of time during the week collecting colours based on retro children's toys, as well as traditional sweets like midget gems and jelly babies. Disturbingly, I discovered the plastic toy colours were virtually the same as the food colours. 7. My favourite renditions in a natural palette, and 8. Another favourite colour scheme, from a vintage floral based on a men's neck tie in my collection. 9. A 'missed register' to make your eyes shudder! Made by nudging the outline away from the fill. I like it. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! A return to geometrics, designing a pattern with some simple shapes I made back in January (the first artwork of the year). I quickly threw together a few ideas at the time which I have been waiting to explore, and this week seemed to be a good time to start.
The new version shown here is tighter than January's: I weeded out some elements, introduced a couple of new ones, and rearranged the composition to suit. I tested the pattern with a single tone to see how it holds together - some colour experiments will be coming soon. My full time job is busy at the moment, and lots of my spare time is being spent outside gardening with B in the fair weather, so I'm just taking it easy inching along with the artwork for now. The pattern outline tile for June Meadow 2023 version is now refined and finished. I simplified a few areas and tidied up loose ends (literally). It now works perfectly with colour drop, so creating different colourways is a seamless process. Even if I change my mind a dozen times about a certain area, I can now simply copy and paste in a new outline section where I want the changes, remove the old section, and fill with new colour without chewing up the edges. So I now have two versions of this pattern, one for day and one for night.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! |
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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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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I keep lots of scrapbooks and sketchbooks where I develop ideas and design little creatures. Here's a peek inside one ...
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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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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April 2024
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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.
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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.
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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 ...
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