2020 Patterns

So, I'm determined to get on top of life this year! Here are all the new patterns that I've created so far in 2020.

You Mean the World to Me- Blue Polkadot Planet Pattern

Another 2019 surface design. We live on such an amazing little blue planet!

Mortgage free pattern

Another surface design for a line of dresses that I'm sewing.

The idea behind the project is cynical optimism.

Working on a fabric pattern

The these of this one is 'housing' or 'dream home'; it will be called the 'mortgage free' pattern.

Blow away- Sycamore seed pattern/ surface design

A new sycamore seed pattern- I haven't decided on a colour yet.

Fitness- Spoonflower challenge

This is my latest surface design- the theme this week is 'fitness', which I've also been trying to master these past few months- I've lost almost two stone, and I feel much better for it.

Freud

The father of psychoanalysis. He was an interesting figure right up until his death.

Watercolour!

I've been looking into eventually finally joining SOFA (the Society of Feline Artists). First I need to create a larger cat portfolio using traditional media. Water colour is my weapon of choice, so here we are. It's a start!

She decides

I created this illustration for She Decides day. Family planning is an important step to saving our planet. Women tend to make better choices when they're more educated and free from patriarchal dominance.

Illustration Friday- Icon

So, last week's topic of 'icon' is still running- I thought I'd create a Buddha illustration for the sake of catharsis. I loved seeing Buddhas of all styles and sizes when we visited temples in Japan. Maybe it's because I'm a bit too used to Catholic iconography, but I do prefer Eastern religions- in general, they SEEM more peaceful (note I say 'seem' because just about all religions have a horrible dark side).

My Garden of Hedgehog- Colour Collective and Illustration Friday 27/04/18- Transformation.

A concept that I had been doodling for a while now. I originally imagined the spines being trees, but decided to draw them as flowers in a hedgehog garden for this week’s colour collective. It’s not very refined, I may edit it some more at a later date.

Flower

This is a flower that started to grow in my mum's garden during the 7 months she's been in care. They just sprung up one day, out of the cracks in the garden path. I know that it's some kind of weed, but I don't know what it's called.

Illustration Friday- Monkey

Last Friday's theme was/ is "monkey".
When we got married in February 2017 we went to Japan for our honeymoon. One of my dream destinations was the monkey hot springs to see the Japanese Macaques taking a bath, but we didn't make it. Maybe some day. I loved the Japanese mountains.

Pinecone Pattern

So I decided to add another pattern to my portfolio- this one's got a slightly wintery feel. My cousin's wedding had a pinecone theme, which was great- I've always loved collecting them on family walks in the autumn/ winter, and love their Nordic feel.

So Christmas is approaching!

Over the past few months I've created a series of activity sheets in an attempt to keep ticking on with illustration through a pretty low point in my life. I've made some cue cards and colouring sheets for my very young Chinese ESL learners.

Skill- the cat and the fiddle

I've been doodling different versions of this print for a while now, but I think that I like black and white work the best.
This is part of my new black and white OrCATstra series.

Patterns!

 April has been a fairly chaotic month- I've won a runner up prize for the Prince's Trust competition that I entered back in January- so there we go. An exhibition was going to be held on June the 8th in Shoreditch, but thanks to Theresa May's announcement, that has been postponed (possibly until the end of the summer).

I've also been designing more country themed patterns (& other designs), I will be opening up a shop on a country themed website set up my Mia Woodford, called 'By a Country Mile.'

Illustration Friday- Snail

These are some sample snails from my children's stationery set. I thought that these would be perfect for this/ last week's Illustration Friday topic. It was a slightly quirky idea that I came up with in order to pitch to a Japanese sticker company that I had come across when we went to Japan last month (but unfortunately they have all their designs designed in house).

Stationery set

Recently I've been thinking of creating some sticker/ washi tape packages to licence out, and this is my latest realisation- Snail Race. I originally thought that I'd like to licence it out to a Japanese company that I came across in Tokyo, but so many many companies have their own in house designers, and it's tricky enough to find one that's the right fit.

Either way, I have a lot of stuff to get out there, so I'll just keep on plodding on!

More new greeting card designs

 I think that it's time for one more blog update before we head off on our honeymoon (we're going to Japan shortly after the wedding). I designed some more greeting cards for my shop/ portfolio- I hope that they do well! When I get back (hopefully with some new material to inspire me!) I need to work on other aspects of my portfolio.