I had a refresh of colours, textures and subject matter this week. These flowering cactus collages (made inProcreate) had been hanging around in my workspace for a while but something wasn't gelling; however, a new approach to completely brought them to life. I wasted an awful lot of time trying unsuccessfully to get them to work (I liked the shapes and idea) until this refurbishment in new speckled textures and drawing captured exactly the right mood.

When I'm not designing patterns, I don't have to worry about making everything as clear as a cartoon. Close tones and subtlety are open to me, and these two cactus pieces were my favourites of the week's work. I particularly like the Japanese woodcut look of the blue one here - it's cool, flat and graphic yet soft, with its little pattern details derived from the spikes of a cactus.

These charming partying cats were created especially for Caturday on the May bank holiday weekend!

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Last week's success reworking Yay Flowers! from 2020 inspired me to rework the Birds and Berries garden pattern I also made last year, but never used. I gave it a quick try on Redbubble at the time, but had concerns about it so I never launched it. Back then I was working by bouncing designs back and forth between iPad and Photoshop and it raised a few issues, such a line of just one pixel going missing etc - a minuscule difference, but enough to fault a good pattern, and although I tested the repeat thoroughly and it seemed fine in the end, I just didn't trust it.
I lost Photoshop when my very, very old MacBook finally died, but already had Procreate on iPad and was using that more and more. I won't subscribe to Adobe any more (don't approve, and can't afford it anyway) so nowadays no more Photoshop and I am working exclusively on my iPad Air. No, I don't have the wondrous Procreate 5 because it's only available for iPad Pro (which I also can't afford) but over the last few months I have worked out an idiosyncratic but completely practical way of making good patterns 'by hand', which I really enjoy; I can work in comfort at massively enlarged pixel scale for total accuracy. It's a kind of hybrid of the physical paper method and modern (well, sort of in my case) technology, and it certainly satisfies my inner jigsaw puzzler!
So, this week I had the confidence to get out my favourite pattern and rework it. I could only get it to work last year in merged form, solid state with background, so colour variations didn't really work. I rebuilt the pattern tile from scratch with elements I had filed away, and hey presto - colour separations!
​I love this silvery version (above), the original colourway is shown below. And yes, the pattern is going back onto my Redbubble store to play in all its colourways.

I challenged myself to make a pattern in 15 minutes just to see if I could do it!
Still on the 'riso' texture I created, I quickly drew these little creatures and some plants.
​I got them into a simple block, or grid, repeat, and it worked!

I experimented with different colours, not very sophisticated because in the time frame I didn't make colour separations on layers.
The painter in me really loves the nuances of texture and colour, but I know they will not reproduce well when printed on cotton or other textiles. It's a cute design, though.
I thought of them as being kind of elephant creatures, but was reliably informed when I posted them on Instagram that they are possums! A Google search revealed that they do, indeed, resemble possums although they could do with loner toes.

Lovely strong shmoosie blues here, but because of the transparency and texture of my 'riso' attempt the possums look a bit dirty and tonally it's all a bit wrong.

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... Here we have, top: weird sun-god creating constellations from the sea, and above, a hiker. Below are the original snaps I took in the park.

I nearly forgot to mention, I got a new stylus this week: I bought an Adonit Dash3. I use an old iPad (2014, 2ndGen) as well as a Samsung Galaxy mini phone, and an iPhone. This stylus works brilliantly on all. Previously I had two Heiyo styli; the first one was about 18 months old when the on/off switch cover fell off, following the plug charger cap which fell off  almost immediately after purchase. I replaced the stylus with a new one, and that suddenly stopped working after just two months; I literally put it down to go to fetch a cup of tea and when I came back it had just stopped working. Nothing had changed on iPad. I switched back to the old one, which for all its faults worked fine for a couple of months until it, too, suddenly stopped working in mid-project. Tech support was infuriating so after some research I got the Adonit Dash3 and it is excellent! Smooth, instantly works etc etc. Nice nib for drawing and writing. Should have done that when the first Heiyo failed. Note and NB!!: it doesn't work on iPadPro.

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At last, Christmas card-making underway!

I'm running a bit behind time this year and cutting it fine for International post, but catching up. I should really begin collecting ideas and materials in September to begin the process of Christmas card-making in October, because November and early December get busy with Heather Eliza work for winter exhibitions; I just didn't get around to Christmas things before Hallowe'en, after which time runs away.

Complicated by a head-cold virus which wiped my brain's creative files, I had a couple of false starts, but luckily one feverish night I remembered a carved Indian box I have been itching to make prints from for ages. It bears a central motif which could be interpreted as the Christmas star, so in no time I was back to my excited self, up and running with the printing ink and roller and delighted with the results of a day's work.

It’s a Wednesday mid-weekly today, because I got out of the studio over the Easter weekend.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday presented the most beautiful, hot sunny weather. I caught up with laundry and gardening in the mornings, but I also set myself an art challenge for the afternoons to work in a completely different way from usual. I was not to make habitual line drawings coloured in with watercolour, but instead to paint with gouache directly onto the paper.

The garden is sprouting, blossoming and budding all over and I wanted to get outside in the sun and paint what fascinates me. I pictured having a lovely collection of about 30 observational sketches by the end of the weekend; in reality I ended up with just these 10. It was slower than I anticipated because I spent a lot more time gardening and hanging washing on the line than I expected, but when I did start work in the afternoon there was a bit of a breeze, strong at times, which would suddenly blow my sun hat off and I had to chase it around the garden. The wind also kept turning the pages in my sketchbook while I was trying to work. I haven’t worked en plein air for many years, and I noticed a big change: nowadays I have to wear spectacles for close work, meaning my object was of focus when I looked up, which became a nuisance.

The main delay, however, lay in the materials and work method I had set myself. I hated it at first. Working without drawing went so against the grain I felt way out of my comfort zone and unhappy. I was using a sketchbook I made from Fabriano Rosaspina (a thick print-making paper) and Arches watercolour paper, instead of the tissues and smooth papers I am used to, and it felt rough and messy. The work I was producing was hideous and I wanted to give up, but I felt the exercise was a good idea and it does one good to get uncomfortable at times, so I forced myself to persevere.

The reason I challenged myself was to shake things up with my work. I felt I had been relying too heavily on linear work, marks, automatic actions and default shapes; I also have a habit of getting fiddly and over-detailed, which I wanted to break. Besides, the way I sit to make detailed drawing is bad for my back, and I get wobbly legs when I stand up which in turn makes my hands shake, and then I can’t draw because my line goes shivery. I don’t want to stop making detailed line drawings (my work as Heather Eliza Walker relies on it) but I thought it would be a good idea to take a break and try something completely different for a few days, and see what possibilities might come of it.

So, I did persevere. I got through the initial hate stage by allowing myself a compromise: I could use line and marks on top of the paint. That was satisfying, and I began to enjoy the colours and freedom of working this way. Then I found I could introduce painted elements such as stripes, introducing a satisfying linear quality which firmed the work up. The result was not the observational work I had anticipated, but being outdoors amongst the plants and flowers certainly informed it. I had no idea until this weekend what actually went on inside a quince blossom, or how things sprouted out of other things in different colours and shapes. I definitely responded to the interaction of what grows from the ground with sky and earth, and got out of myself.

Yesterday I scanned the work and found I really liked it, to my surprise. I feel I achieved something, and enjoyed being out in the fresh air. In spite of not producing the 30 beautifully observed Diary of a Country Lady works I had hoped for, I am happy with my 10 a bit weird and wonderful creations, which were observational in their own way and taught me a lot. My back and legs are better, and I feel healthier for it, too; so in future, I shall get half moon specs, tie my hat on with a scarf and get outside more.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

I had a brainstorming session this week. What I do when I brainstorm is to work very fast, allowing myself 4-10 minutes per drawing, and do as many as I can until my brain runs dry. I don’t worry about good drawing, expertise, or mistakes. In fact, the time limit prevents overthinking, so mistakes are good; I believe problem-solving is one of the key processes which help an artist to find their own voice, and working fast forces you to think on your feet and get resourceful in a way only you know.

Once I have finished the drawing session I take the more interesting ones into photoshop - not necessarily the best, but often the craziest which appeal to me - and I treat them in the same way as I would treat a considered project. It is amazing what reveals and connections occur. The collage above is a mix of revisiting works I have made as early as 15 years old, bonkers stuff that came out of photoshop, one which is rough as anything but I worked on some more (the yellow cat), more bonkers photoshop, prints I made 10 years ago (bottom left) which have good pattern-making potential to take forward, and lastly the line drawing in sepia and brown, where this week’s happy process led me today.
I recommend this exercise to anyone who suffers from creative block. I only get creative block in times of great sadness or similar emotional times, but I do get incredibly frustrated with myself. I have too many ideas and try and go deep into them all. This is a great way to separate the wheat from the chaff, to get back to your core, to see what is time-wasting and get back into your quiet self. I always feel cleansed, relaxed and stimulated after one of these sessions, ready to take on new work.

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A week of intensive pattern making again! I studied how William Morris made his pattern repeats and used one of his methods to create the floral pattern above in two colourways. Then I moved on to learning how best to draw in Procreate (I usually employ a cut and collage technique, but I get tired of the hours of cleaning up wobbly edges, the downside of using that technique digitally). Suddenly, and I really can’t remember how it came about, this mosaic or cloisonné effect drawing began to happen and I loved it. I even made a cat from it for hashtag caturday on Instagram! I will continue working on developing this idea this week, as well as adding to my Redbubble shop.

I am making the patterns really nice and big, so they fit just about all the products on Redbubble. My shop is growing, but there still isn’t enough to make the grand announcement yet. I reckon the second week of March will see it ready to ‘open’. I will, of course, be posting a link around then, so watch this space! It’s very exciting and I am enjoying the process enormously.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

This week has been all about crosshatching and colours. There were many other experiments, but I just love the way these look together as a group. Subtle repetitions and changes are evident within the forms which themselves are simple. That's a thing that interests me.​

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!