At last - I feel more up to getting out and about - cycling, gardening and long evening walks with the dog! And wishing I had the spare dosh to go horse-riding...
Oh and boating and abseiling (yeah right!)
Sunny Sunshine - C'mon!
Oh Happy Days - I LOVE the sun! Makes me feel so much better - I can pootle about all day outside and even meet my lovely brother and the boys at the woods for a delightful picnic by the charming castle made from oak. There's a huge xylophone deeper in the woods too. Finding the right sticks to bash out a hollow wooden tune is half the fun!
I collected some lichen that was lying about under a huge oak tree to photograph:
looking green and delicate in the shade
posing on a roundy stone
bleached and harsh in the full sunlight
Create Your Own Digital Collage Here...
I have started a new page called Create and Play.
You can use the separate images from some of my digital collages created on Polyvore - to play around and create your own image!
Enjoy - it works!!
New Patterns...and Pics
I have put some new designs over on my Surface Pattern page - inspired by the visit to the Fashion and Textiles Museum...
The designs on screen - they are over on the surface pattern page
My little lad's table top farm
Horse, cow, chickens, goose and big hen all chatting
Nosey cows, coming to see what I'm doing!
Deer print on a frock in H&M
The dog wanting a walk...pleeeeez Mummy...
Here are some random photos from my new phone:
Reading Matter - and...Oooooh - New Phone..?
My new mobile phone has just arrived - and it has a camera! The first time I've ever had such a modern article! - As yet, I have not worked out how to save or upload photos, so not here yet! I'll be able to access some websites from my phone - I think - I have to get my big son to go through it all with me and show his old Ma how it all works!
But most of all - I can't wait to take photos of things that inspire me when out and about, then upload here and share them!
On another note - I have ordered some really interesting books from the library recently. They are all really inspiring - showing lots of contemporary designs and full of tips for thinking in terms of repeat and colour separation as well as extending the combining of traditional drawing with working digitally:
Digital Fashion Print - with Photoshop and Illustrator, by Kevin Tallon
Fashion print Design - from idea to final print, by Angel Fernandez
The Fundamentals of Printed Textiles Design, by Alex Russell
And the complete guide to Designing and Printing Fabric, by Laurie Wisbrun
But most of all - I can't wait to take photos of things that inspire me when out and about, then upload here and share them!
On another note - I have ordered some really interesting books from the library recently. They are all really inspiring - showing lots of contemporary designs and full of tips for thinking in terms of repeat and colour separation as well as extending the combining of traditional drawing with working digitally:
Digital Fashion Print - with Photoshop and Illustrator, by Kevin Tallon
Some industry insights from Russell's book in particular, that I hadn't known previously, will have an effect on how I design work and what I put together for a portfolio.
And the complete guide to Designing and Printing Fabric, by Laurie Wisbrun
Wilson's book is very pretty - beautifully laid out and it makes me want to set up a screen printing studio in our barn..tomorrow! Throughout the book interviews with designers and makers are scattered, which allow for possibilities of further investigation through extending research and knowledge of other designers and their work.
Particularly; the work of Josephine Kimberling exudes her passion for colour and layering up of pretty floral motifs:
Also Malka Dubrawsky's hand printed and painted bright jolly fabrics have a simplicity that allows colour to carry the design:
Nancy Mims designs fabrics and on her website this is how the work is described:
"Designer Nancy Mims is a leader in the healthy home textiles world. Refusing to sacrifice beauty for sustainability, Nancy founded Mod Green Pod, the first home textile company to merge innovative, colorful design with organic cotton and chemical-free production. Mod Green Pod proved that gorgeous upholstery and wallpaper don’t have to be soaked in harmful chemicals and healthy fabrics don’t have to look like burlap. Mod Green Pod proved that design can be sexy AND sustainable."
Have you found Polyvore yet?
It's really good fun and addictive - a mood board creating website - with LOADS of images, themes, colours and a nice blank canvas to drag and drop them onto!
This is an Art Deco one....
Pretty isn't it?
Here are some more I've been playing around with...
It's really good fun and addictive - a mood board creating website - with LOADS of images, themes, colours and a nice blank canvas to drag and drop them onto!
This is an Art Deco one....
Here are some more I've been playing around with...
A Grand day Out.....
Had a lovely day on Saturday with my beautiful teenage boy.We got the first bus - at ten past seven - then a train to London...
We headed out to Bermondsey to find the orangey pinkness that is the Fashion and Textiles Museum.
The exhibition was of textile designs by three women designers in the 1940s.
I got a couple of postcards:
These scans of the postcards are by no means a full representation of what was there - the designs were beautiful. The scale of some of the motifs combined with simplicity of form and colour combinations showed a real skill and understanding of screen printing as well as design and the way a repeats work.
There were examples of different colourways for the same designs - and colour choice and juxtaposition made such a difference to how a design sits - just fab!
We only had about an hour and a half before we had to travel back over the river to Bloomsbury for the Portfolio Intensive - organised by SCBWI.
There were two illustrators' agents and two publishers there. I got to only see the two agents - the time went SO quickly.
It was really interesting seeing the work of other illustrators too - at various stages of their careers. I learned a great deal in four short hours and came home very inspired.
The agents were honest but encouraging - generous with their really constructive feedback. So now I know that I must draw my little son more and keep drawing. Frances McKay obviously thinks I have good drawing skills - but need to develop an illustrative style. She liked the line drawings of Alfie the dog..
Mark Mills focussed in on a small sketch for an idea to illustrate a poem - a fox
We headed out to Bermondsey to find the orangey pinkness that is the Fashion and Textiles Museum.
The exhibition was of textile designs by three women designers in the 1940s.
I got a couple of postcards:
Lucienne day - Calyx, 1951
Jacqueline Groag - untitled, 1952
Marian Mahler - Mobiles, 1952
Lucienne Day - Apollo, late 1950s
These scans of the postcards are by no means a full representation of what was there - the designs were beautiful. The scale of some of the motifs combined with simplicity of form and colour combinations showed a real skill and understanding of screen printing as well as design and the way a repeats work.
There were examples of different colourways for the same designs - and colour choice and juxtaposition made such a difference to how a design sits - just fab!
We only had about an hour and a half before we had to travel back over the river to Bloomsbury for the Portfolio Intensive - organised by SCBWI.
There were two illustrators' agents and two publishers there. I got to only see the two agents - the time went SO quickly.
It was really interesting seeing the work of other illustrators too - at various stages of their careers. I learned a great deal in four short hours and came home very inspired.
The agents were honest but encouraging - generous with their really constructive feedback. So now I know that I must draw my little son more and keep drawing. Frances McKay obviously thinks I have good drawing skills - but need to develop an illustrative style. She liked the line drawings of Alfie the dog..
Mark Mills focussed in on a small sketch for an idea to illustrate a poem - a fox
So I sketched and doodled my way home on the train - whilst my son filled several pages in his sketchbook too..
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