Another pattern this week for my Redbubble Store - birds and potted plants gardening, inspired by the fact that I have been doing a lot of gardening recently. I was delighted to launch this one on the full range of 'kids' clothing' as well as home décor, adult apparel, accessories - and of course, socks! I do love the socks.

Warm, sunshine-filled days must have gone to my head last week because I totally forgot to post this! I back-dated it while I was posting next week's, if that makes sense (beginning to feel a bit Time Lord)
Anyway, I took a bit of time out to tidy up my Redbubble Store and design a new pattern - birds and berries, all ready for Autumn. I am loving the way the pattern works on the products and I have discovered I definitely have a thing about socks. Here is last week's pattern on some products, too.

I was so excited when Redbubble launched their face masks I couldn't wait to get my patterns on them! I loved the way they looked, and it occurred to me that stylish shoppers could sport some phenomenal accessorising (phrase courtesy of my friend Tish) with matching face masks and shopping bags! - or socks, or scarves ... etc!

​Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

The children's book illustrations are going well, I'm getting very excited for the time I can finally share them. I also try to add something new to my Redbubble store every day, even if it's just a post card; this week I made this mandala tattoo design and love how it looks on the products.

Thanks for visiting, stay safe, and see you next week

I had imagined I would have lots of time on my hands and get lots of work done in these extraordinary times of lockdown against the spread of coronavirus. It is true that reduced traffic outside brings peace and tranquility, but ironically I have never been more social. People having unexpected time on their hands means much more Face Time calls and get togethers on Zoom, as we bring one another cheer and chat to those who are in isolation. B and I have been more regular than ever dog walking as our 'one-a-day outdoors exercise' walk. Shopping takes so much longer because of social distancing measures in the shops, followed by cleaning down all the purchases when they come into the house. I have actually been forced out to the shops more often than usual; normally we would get two home deliveries a week, but now so many people are working from home that high demand on delivery slots makes it difficult to get one.

I did, however, spend a few days this week on my Redbubble store, continuing to make greetings cards, post cards and pin buttons from my 100 cats project, plus refreshing old patterns and adding a couple of new ones to decorate the products.

Thanks for visiting, keep well, and see you next week! 

Working with the gouache paintings I made last week, I made some butterflies to go with the poppies (top right) and created a new pattern. I am loving this work! Next week I intend to work on the poppies pictured top left. I am uploading them to my Redbubble account, it's always exciting to see them on the products and tweak around with them until they look just perfect.

This week I developed two of the experimental patterns I made previously from my Easter sketchbook. I was delighted with both, but particularly liked the image above for the clarity of its jewel colours offset by the black background. I love how they look on Redbubble's products; for some reason I am usually most interested in the framed prints, pillows and mugs - I guess home decor is my thing!

My shop on Redbubble is growing, there is still a lot to do but I am finding my way around the platform nicely nowadays and I love it. I feel more confident about it now, so here is a collage of four of my designs on pillows. I finally feel brave enough to link the image to my account, so please click if you are interested in taking a look - and you can also explore some of the truly amazing artists producing very cool designs on Redbubble.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

I made a return to working with my hands this week, as opposed to digitally!

Procreate on iPad was a miracle during the house move, requiring no space or materials other than a stylus and a charger which enabled me to continue to work and generate new ideas (when there was time). I created some digital work which I find truly wonderful - see last week's post.

At the beginning of this week, however, I was struggling with it. In the end I became aware that I was trying to replicate my freehand drawing methods and it wasn't working for me. I tried every brush and everything the digital brushes could do, but I was going silently mad in the process. I know there are artists out there who effortlessly produce work in Procreate and create their own brushes to suit, and I can't tell the difference between their digital and hand-made works, but I was spending hours - days and hours - and getting frustrated and wasting time producing hellish, ugly, stiff, overwrought works.

In the end I thought that was nuts. My studio is well enough organised now to be able to work by hand and get it into Photoshop. I set up my room so I have a drawing table and a Mac table with a large enough monitor to finish hand drawn and painted work for Redbubble merchandise, so here is what I came up with: a floral watercolour which became a very lovely pattern, a home-made rubber stamps design (ditto), and a cyan line drawing of a spaced-out cat in a garden which I don't know yet what will become.

I will continue to work in Procreate, it is an amazingly powerful tool for iPad and I enjoy using it. I have created many works over the past year, discovering fascinating ideas which I wouldn't have happened without it (see previous posts!). But I have to say it was lovely to get out the pens, pencils and watercolours again, too.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

PS I will be linking to my Redbubble shop, it just doesn't have very much content yet!

I have had fun with ferns this week! The design above shows a ferny dither with no repeat pattern in 4 colourways. I made them for one of my Redbubble collections which I have named ‘Granny’s Attic’, and I was delighted with how they looked on the different products. I enjoyed getting my head around the logic of fitting the elements of the design together. 

It gave me the idea that I would really like to design large, delicate ferns in white line to print on black and other deep colours. I have a vision which I particularly fancy on throw and floor pillows. I believe in making things I would like to own myself, and letting the fun happen; I reckon if I like it, I am sure other people will, too.

I worked on fern drawings for a few hours today, playing around with a couple of ideas and trying different treatments. There is still a lot to do to get the design print ready, but I am happy with progress so far. In the mean time, I blogged some images and thoughts on that over at The Weekly on my Heather Eliza website.

​My plan for the coming week is to clean up a few more of my Instagram Folktale Week and Inktober 2019 posts which people have asked for, as well as to keep going with the new fern design. It won’t be long until I can do the ‘press release’ (grand term for telling my friends I have a shop at long last) - but it is such interesting work, I am loving it!
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Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

Following about 10 days of research into licensing artwork, I finally made the decision to open a shop on Redbubble. I have been asked so many times recently if there is somewhere my work can be bought online, I thought it was about time I got on with it. This last week has been a steep learning curve, but very exciting, and it appeals to the graphic designer in me. When I was 14 years old, I used to produce endless designs for decorative letter papers, notebooks, cards and envelopes with the dream of launching my own stationery line, and I'm now nearly 60, so it really is time!

At the moment I am systematically going through my Instagram posts for Folktale Week and Inktober, resizing them and cleaning them up, starting with my own personal favourites and my 'best nine' of 2018. I love the process of redesigning them to suit the different products. Some of the works I leave in the square Instagram format which looks great on throw pillows and art boards, but not so great on the Redbubble greetings card format, so I make different versions to suit. I finished this design yesterday, which is a reworking of my grinning Cheshire cats. I am delighted with how it looks on all the products!
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I have a long way to go before I can officially announce the 'grand opening', but it's a great journey!

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!