The results of last week's work in progress: vibrant, abstract pinwheels and knots patterns. I mentioned in my Heather Eliza journal that last week I was off work sick. As soon as I began to feel a little better I set myself up with a few old patterns I wanted to rework in a clean outline style for better reproduction on fabric: nice, absorbing work which didn't try my sore brain too much.
The two patterns here are my favourite new bold colourways of an old pattern, a result of the work in progress image from my previous post. This week I was able to return to work, probably a week too early, but because I am on a temporary contract right now I don't get statutory sick pay - what an incentive to get back to work. I had accrued a few days holiday, however, so all in all I only lost one day's pay. Anyway, it was a great opportunity to recover in bed with hot water bottles and cosy PJs and get on with some nice slow work on my iPad. This week I returned to work and grew stronger every day, so now I'm in full-on recovery and really enjoying these bright patterns. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! ... with bright, light colours: a cleaned-up version of my flying sprigs pattern - loving the cartoon feel. Now the days are noticeably longer, my early morning drives are in nearly full daylight, and I'm getting a bit fed up with darkness. I rather liked this work in progress shot of a pinwheels pattern just as it is. This one was originally a 'riso' texture in 2 sombre colours; in comparison to this new version it was very dull.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! I have started some pareidolia drawings from the recent photos I took of crushed up leaves on the pavements, but first of all here is a design tweak which lifted this pattern of shapes. I rounded the top edge of the green shape in the middle of the two images above - left is the first draft with a flat top, right is the rounded version which did so much for the pattern, making it less rigid and giving it some bounce. Compare the look of the pattern now with the older version in previous posts. The image below is all the layers of patterns in a Procreate document made visible all at the same time - I find the intense collage effect exciting. The shapes take on a thin tissue appearance, and the whole effect is like confetti in a heap. Thanks for visiting, see you next week!
Before I get into some pareidolia inspired drawings from last week's photos, I just wanted to explore a few more colourways on these patterns. I felt deeper, richer themes may work well with the woolly feeling of these, and bring some warmth into the chilly days of early February.
By the way, it is just glorious to get a glimpse of light before 6am when astronomical dawn happens now - by the time I get to work in the mornings next week, the sun will actually be rising. Bring on the spring and all its happiness! Playing with different colourways for the original combs pattern I posted two weeks ago, this vibrant one against a dark background was a big favourite. Then, almost unconsciously as a form of doodling I began to play around making birds from the combs. They quickly became a pattern as I listened to Beatrix, a wonderful dramatisation of the life of Beatrix Potter on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Two ways to relax in the evenings when I'm too tired to take on anything that requires big thoughts! Thanks for visiting, see you next week
I made this pattern of combs from some of last week's shapes, adding a few extra elements so there are combs and combed. I think it's my favourite!
Motivation: when I get sluggish in the creative department I will often set myself an exercise to kick things off again. This week I used one of my favourite ploys, which is to design some basic forms, decide which are of the most interest, and organise them. It could be just in one neat image like the one above, or maybe a series of simple abstract compositions. This week it naturally progressed into pattern-making and here I am all excited again - some simple block repeats, followed by half-drops which trotted out nicely. Glad to keep my hand in with patterns created in my archaic and slightly chaotic way on an old iPad with no automated process. Thanks for visiting, see you next week!
Cat in a huff - I am looking after Minnie the cat this weekend, and she is often spectacularly huffy, so funny. I also worked on a composition of coloured dots which I later made into a pattern. I backdated this post because I took the day off for my birthday!
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Feeling his inner tiger for Caturday, still inspired by those children's playground drawings; and working on colour schemes. I started with this hot spice palette because I thought it would be the hardest, and yes, it did present some problems but I thoroughly enjoyed the work. I always imagine mixing and matching duvet covers, pillows and cushions when I 'm doing this - I'd love to see it in real life. Thanks for visiting, see you soon!
This is a proper catch up session. I moved my blogs to publish on Wednesdays because I get through a lot of work over the weekends which I finalise at the beginning of the week, so it makes more sense; but now I have 10 days worth to talk about. The headlines since my last entry are a new pattern (above), reworks of old patterns (top image and below) and a major reorganisation of my files and iPad. Reworks were mostly to create half-drop patterns from old grid ones, having decided I don't really want to make grid patterns in future because of their 'bang-bang-bang' appearance which works well for some designs, but my recent work suits either half drop or brick repeats. For this rework I replaced some elements with ones I am interested in at the moment - so now it has constellations, planets, stars and a flying saucer instead of big round flowers and circle shapes. I have also made sure that I keep colour separations for changing colourways using clipping masks; previously I was relying on colour drop, but I have found there are good days and bad days for its success in iPad. On a good day all looks fine, but on a bad day the dropped colour creates a halo, omits pixels and renders edges shaggily on even the clearest and simplest shape. It's a bit rough and I require reliability and quality, so now I use colour drop only for quick sketches to see how a colour might work.
My major reorganisation was to create folders (stacks on iPad) for colourways so I can clearly see how designs work together in a set colour scheme. It was getting rather bitty and confusing, and I was losing track of what I had and hadn't done with each palette. It also makes it easier to offload work onto MacBook to free up space on iPad, then retrieve designs to continue work in another palette on iPad, where each stack now has its own 'header' image with its colourway clearly displayed. It's a great feeling to clear everything down and establish order. Thanks for visiting, see you next Wednesday, if not sooner with more catchups! Big, bright and bold is the current mood - still catching up on last week's work, having been hampered by getting locked out of my accounts due to password security alert.
The sun is rising early now, which means getting to work early and lots of new things on the go. I completely reworked the possums pattern into a half-drop. I had convinced myself I liked the original 'quickie' block or grid print I made previously, but it really was a bit rigid and I was so much happier with this. The variety of scale and new incidental motifs is much more engaging, simple, and natural - just the way I like it. At the same time, I went big and bold with dots and geometric abstract designs - it was such a hot week of flowing ideas! Here is a composite of some of the new designs. Thanks for visiting, see you next week!
It's been a week of possums! Last June I challenged myself to make a pattern very, very quickly, and what I came up with then formed the original idea for this new design. It took rather longer this time, working with 11 colour separations for any number of colour combinations. Above is a block (or grid) repeat I worked in a few colours, and below is a brick repeat which I haven't yet played around with in different colours.
I lost my stylus for this entire week. It meant I couldn't work properly on my iPad without it, so little in the way of new work this week, but luckily I had these two collages I made last week to post here today. Until I lost the stylus I had not realised my level of attachment to it; we have been through so much artwork, so much discovery, and so much delight together. It had become a natural extension of my hand and therefore to my brain, and that hand felt quite bereaved without it.
From the title of this post you can probably guess what happened, but if you would like to hear the whole story, read on ... At the beginning of the week, I really wanted to hurry spring along when we had a beautiful burst of sunlight and calm between storms. I noticed that the sea crests I was working with the week before suggested a rhythm or even a pattern, so I created this riverside scene with spring flowers and swallows. It's just a sketch at the moment, but it shows promise when arranged in a brick repeat (I'm a huge fan of those), so I may be working it into a nice clean pattern for reproduction in the near future. Then the winds came in in big, blustery gusts - far too violent to be flying kites, but it did put me in mind of lovely breezy days on the hills with our kites as youngsters. Above is a work I created called 'Kite Party' with pareidolia critters last year, but I never resolved it or posted it anywhere; so I got it out again, refreshed it with a lovely green hillside (with polka dots, of course), and rejigged some of the critters - and here we have a celebration of breezy (not hurricane) weather. It was actually so windy the dog was terrified during the stormy nights, and we had to move her bed further away from the fireplace where she usually sleeps because of the wind booming in the chimney. I personally love that sound, so cosy, but it did get rather loud and scary at times. Now, I have been moving back into pattern-making mode recently. I found the kites from the 'Kite Party' illustration very interesting. I separated them from the rest of the work, made clean drawings which should print well, and arranged them in a brick repeat. I actually really like this, in fact I fancy the grey-green colourway in the middle as wallpaper for our downstairs loo.
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.
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May 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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