It's been a while since I drew any cute creatures, so in a brief break from pattern-making I drew this cute kitten sitting amongst flowers with a big jolly sunshine looking down on her. The kitten is a pareidolia image I saw in my bedroom curtains.
Following a recent jaunt into abstracts and geometric patterns, it's back to florals again with a rework of one I made in May 2021. It's one of my favourites, but I hadn't made it into a half-drop back then, just a block print, which I thought was a shame because it deserved a better flow; so while I was still on holiday I revived and refreshed the original. Now it is flowing and has bigger, brighter (and fewer) colours than before. I also revived a linen texture I made ages ago to provide texture just for blog and IG posts - it looks charming! Wouldn't it be great if it looked like that actually printed on a linen weave? Here are a few more colour experiments. And, as often happens, while I was working on this one, some new developments came into my head which I will post here next week! I haven't yet mentioned a revisit to the abstract shapes I started back in January to kickstart the new year after the Christmas holidays. I had developed ideas for patterns, which I never got around to putting into repeat, so this is what I was working on before I took my holiday from work. This one is my favourite, in 6 colours. I like to limit colour palettes from time to time, harking back to the old days of colour separations and single colour print runs. As a matter of fact, because my iPad technology is somewhat outmoded (it's nearly 10 years old), this is still the way I work, using the layers in Procreate 4.3.8 for colour separations.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Our neighbours' daughter had her 16th birthday at the beginning of the week and it was about time I made some more cards for such occasions - so I got to work cutting and folding enough cards to last us the year. Working on greetings cards is a great excuse for trying out things I wouldn't normally do, but when I sat down to make something my mind went blank. I turned to a few little compositions I was making in Procreate last May for inspiration, and this is what happened - it came out looking like traditional Scottish painting. Not surprising really, because it was an obsession of mine while at Gray's in Aberdeen. A composition for Instagram. I'm always trying to find ways to post images of my patterns without turning my page into something resembling a sample book, fine in its own context but not very interesting IG content. I liked this crazy paving kind of composition. I have been spending some relaxing hours in the afternoons while taking my holiday (very much a staycation at home) working a combs pattern I have been developing. The drop was too shallow so I basically started all over again, tightening the composition, and replacing some of the combs with new ones. I think the outline tile works very well on its own now. It would be great to produce a colouring book of outline patterns, I would be quite excited to sit colouring them in for relaxation.
Hurrah! I have been given a holiday from work. I put in for one and a half days next week to get some things done around the house, but was told by my manager that I had too many hours of holiday remaining and had to use up more. I ended up with nearly two weeks, beginning last Wednesday!
So I'm celebrating some of the joyful chaos here which happens 'behind the scenes' during designing patterns: above, what it looks like mid-flip while designing a repeat, and below is the colourful mess when a clipping mask is unclipped - or unhinged, rather! I love the child-like fat lines and the graffiti feel, it would make a great painting. I got a nice surprise during the week when I stumbled across a forgotten stars chequerboard pattern I had made especially for my Glorious Marrow ditty. I had forgotten it was all in repeat and ready to go, and had some fun playing around with different colourways. I was especially delighted when I discovered something else to do with the stars - making them twinkly. My love for textiles makes me think they would make a beautiful embroidery, the radiating lines suggest stitches. Wouldn't the sparkle stand out if it was sewn in gold thread? Just imagine, little stars sparkling with radiating gold catching the light.
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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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