We have so many friends whose birthdays fall between November and January that it has become an annual ritual to make birthday cards as soon as the Christmas cards are done, and it is free licence to mess about with every craft material in the studio (hem, spare room) plus anything I can purloin from B's shed. This year the hot glue gun came in extremely useful.
Looking at these birthday cards laid out together drying, I thought this would make a lovely pattern. It's been a while since I did some pattern-making, so that's something to look forward to for the new year, if not sooner.

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I have been working purely digitally for a while, which I love - but I always end up with a hankering for the human presence of the hand, and the alchemy of materials. Above is a watercolour from one of my sketchbooks, with wax resist and simple, free pen lines, which I made a while ago. I am very interested in designing patterns which could contain this freedom, I haven't figured it out yet, but it's something which has been going on in the background of my mind for over a year. Also, I haven't a clue which pen I used to worked on wax! It has bonded perfectly with the resist - experiments required (and possibly a lot of spoilt pens).

Above is a set of six little monotypes from the same sketchbook. I have always loved making monotype drawings. Using a glass plate rolled with printing ink or oil paint, paper is placed over the plate and I draw on the paper. It means when the paper is peeled away from the plate it reveals a mirror image of the drawing plus accidental smudges and textures. These surprises are exciting, and I use the technique both for illustration and in my Heather Eliza drawings.

This week I began to isolate sketches from my book (I did write about getting my jugs out and working with them, but NO, that's SO wrong!! Raised a few laughs on Instagram, though) . Here is a rudimentary something I put together as an experiment. The original monotype drawing was made on hand-made bark paper which supplies the lovely colour and texture for the fuzzy ink lines, cut out and placed over a digitally created linen-weave background. It may take a while, but I'll see where I go with this.

PS: I decided not to do Inktober on Instagram this year, I just have too many pots on the boil at the moment. I was tempted, but focus is required.

I have been studying and drawing my collection of gypsy purses from time to time since the mid 1990s, perhaps to try and work out why I love them so much. The gouache paintings pictured here pasted into a scrapbook were made back then (long before the days of iPad and Procreate).

I painted details of Indian bags and a black papier mâché bowl also from India, bought in the same shop in Cirencester as some of the gypsy purses; and the crackle glaze decoration on a flask which looks Greek - a thrift-shop find in North London, possibly brought to England by a holiday maker, which makes me think of red wine from sun-soaked country vineyards served in a bistro alongside all the colourful, fragrant foods of the Mediterranean.

I began working on drawings in Procreate this week, based on and inspired by my collection of gypsy purses. I must have started the collection in or around 1995, when I used to go camping in the Cotswolds to get out of London, and discovered a wonderful shop called Cargo in Cirencester. It was filled polished wooden floor to white ceiling with Indian artefacts and textiles, with a special basket of colourful embroidered, woven and appliqué purses. I had developed an obsession with Indian artefacts years before as a student in Edinburgh, combing Cockburn Street Market for Mysore soap, embroidered cushion covers, cheesecloth blouses and batik printed maxi skirts (I can still smell the fragrances now) - so this wonder of a shop in Cirencester became a treasure trove for me.
I have a very deep affection for my little purses which I hope to convey in the drawings, with attention to details such as tiny stitches and unexpected decorative motifs.

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A version of the pattern from the sketchbook pages I showed here last week, placed against a mossy background.
A real quickie today because I am full steam ahead and getting near to finishing the children's book illustrations!

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This is one of my digital sketchbooks. I am full-on with the children's book illustrations at the moment so there isn't much time for anything else, but occasionally I like a little light relief. Throwing together a simple pattern is great fun, and sketchbooks like these make it easy. Each image is drawn in Procreate on its own layer, so I can easily copy, paste, and rearrange different elements to play with different patterns. The sludge-green background is so I can spot any unwanted marks and tidy edges nicely.

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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 have been working on a pattern this week, based on a watercolour I made in a sketchbook a couple of years ago. I remade all the flower motifs from scratch and assembled them into a motif for experiments. Left here shows the first play around with a tile, just seeing what looks good and getting a feel for how it might look in repeat. It is in a more advanced stage in the image below, in fact nearly finished following a few more experiments and alterations. I want to make a grid pattern, then a half drop version.
There is a deliberate nod to the 1970s in the shapes and warm palette. The first play around had been put to one side while I continued work, but when I looked back at it It really reminded me of the '70s - of something in particular which I can't quite put my finger on. It's something like a cookery book, or a Clothkits design, or a kitchen mat; whatever it is, I am definitely going to have a go at recreating the look when I have finished this version of it.

We celebrated B's 60th birthday on Wednesday, so I took 3 days off this week. Monday and Tuesday I set aside for baking, preparation and making him a special painted card/art piece. Wednesday itself was a lovely day of special foods, deliveries of gifts and balloons, and pampering B. Then it was back to normal on Thursday and Friday working on the children's book, but I found myself a bit short of blog and Instagram material to share. Normally I collect incidental bits and pieces from my illustrations and assemble them into a still life or pattern at the end of the working week, but I had nothing new I could share this time (although the illustrations are working beautifully! - watch this space).

Luckily, I had started this still life in blue a few weeks ago, and all it needed was a pattern for the drapes to finish it. I had had plans for developing the pattern of ovals which I made at the beginning of February, so I worked on that today, and the still life was finished. Incidentally, I am most interested in patterns which have a block printed appearance at the moment (last week's post shows that, too). I was passionately in love with William Morris wallpapers and Indian printed textiles as a youngster in the 1970's, and it never really left me, but right now I am interested in fresh, simple shapes with lots of texture.

It's March! To my mind, that mean it's now officially Spring, and March is coming in like a lion today with a big old blustery wind. I worked on my HEW website this week, and completed two more illustrations for the children's book before relaxing with this pattern put together from flowers which I made for one of them. I thought it had an appealing 1930s vintage look. I was particularly interested in the panel which resulted when I turned the original drawing 'inside out' to create the pattern fill - perhaps a nice scarf design to think about?
Happy Spring!

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