Free Chinese New Year of the Rat Clip Art

Though there's much else going on in China right now, it's also Chinese New Year this weekend.

As I know I have some blog readers who also use Feng Shui and have various other connections to China, I thought you might enjoy using this happy little rat (it being the start of the Year of the Rat) in your projects. The usual angel policy terms apply, and you can just right-click to download. (He's not huge in size,  but would work well in web-based or small-scale projects).

And of course, it's fine to use him at any time, and not just in relation to Chinese New Year.

More soon.

Sneak Peek and New Free Printable

Hello again!

Hope that this week has been treating you well. *So* many things going on that am mega-late in the day posting this, but anyway...I *do* have time to give you a peek into a much larger project that am hoping to tell you more about next week.

In the meantime, here's a visual clue:

Update: By request, this image is also now a free printable. (Just right-click and save or control click on a Mac and it's yours. But if you'd like the 4-pages that go with it, the full kit also available to buy here).

More soon...

Inspiring Quote: When the Winds of Change Blow...

Seems like the winds of change are blowing for us all this year already...So this quote (which is apparently an ancient Chinese proverb), felt like a good one to illustrate.

And if you're on eof those people who likes to know how things were done, this is all hand-drawn, but also all digital. The textured background involved several layers in ArtRage 6, and I did the sketch and brush lettering in Krita).

If it speaks to you too, it's fine to share this image on social media (or you can get it as a gorgeous and durable metal print poster at Displate.Com...where a new tree is planted with every purchase made).

More soon.

New Fuschia Design...And A Tale of Two Graphics...

Hello there, and if you happen to be reading this as it's published-first *thank you*, and even more importantly, a happy new year to you.

I hope the holiday period treated you well. Just for once, I almost took an entire fortnight off over Christmas. I say almost, because, well, art is fun, as well as work, and the idea of summer fuchsias took hold. One thing led to another, and then this little sketch...

mysteriously turned into this...

(with more pictures of everything looking yummy here).

(And if you're more into printables than décor patterns, you might want to look here too).

But apart from that, honestly, we concentrated on relaxing, and am genuinely and gently getting back to speed.

It's good to be back-more soon.

Free 2020 Clip Art Printable

Hello again.

Thanks so much for being here on the blog with me this year. Today, I have a gift for you that should literally last all year, a fun 2020 printable jpg that spells out the year in a way that includes "2020 vision" as well. You're free to use this image in any project you personally make using this printable, (including, with this one,  personal blogs and videos too).

(To save this: Right click and save image on a PC, Control click and save on an apple, tap and save on a mobile device).

Have fun with this and as am taking some time off, will see you in 2020!

(Update: If you like this graphic but aren't feeling like making things yourself at the moment, this

design is also now available on Redbubble as postcards and more. Enjoy, either way). 

New Digital Painting: Whimsical Sleepy Fox

"Sleepy Fox" (whimsical digital watercolour in Krita 4.2) 

This sleepy little fox taught me two things today.

1) It is *always* worth taking a photo of something appealing the second you see it. In this case, I was glad that hubby and I had spotted and photoed this sleepy fox in a neighbour's garden during the summer. (It's a bleak, dark, rainy and windy day in December as I type this...And let me tell you *nothing* in the garden right now will beat this sleepy summer fox. :-)

2) Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it's also *always* worth persevering. I nearly gave up on this little guy several times during the sketching process, doubting the angle ("His trademark tail is hidden..Oh, no!") the shape, and even the colours. But all in all, am glad I kept going.

Am still going to wait overnight for the mysterious "art fairy" to work her magic, and let me know whether there's more that I need to do here. But just for now, I'm going to leave this here and chill, just like our foxy friend here.

More soon...

New Digital Painting/Illustration: Veg!

Hi again.

Today's digital painting/illustration is simply of vegetables, in Krita pen and wash digital watercolour...

And what am I going to do with it? (No idea, to be honest, but am sure its purpose will emerge. Have almost never yet produced something without it having a role to play somewhere...eventually :-))

If it strikes you that this has a perfect use, please let me know!

By the way, in contrast to the little bear cub the other day, this image didn't wander into my head. But you can't just wait for inspiration to strike, can you?

So I decided that I'd draw the next thing that came into my head, whatever it was. Randomly, that was a carrot... and then the rest followed anyway.


In the meantime, hope it helps you feel healthy and bright in these wintry days.

-Update the next day (5/12/2019).

So it turns out I am happily wrong...this image looks *amazing* on a whole range of items, from T shirts to art prints...(See for yourself at my Redbubble shop here...)

New Digital Painting/Illustration: Sending You a Bear Hug

Was going to take a longer break, but this little bear wanted to be drawn in Krita and shared. (Suspect he wants to be uploaded for sale to make his way into more people's lives-will do that tomorrow!)

Update 3/12/2019: You can now send someone a bear hug on cards, T-shirts, stickers and much more...

More soon...

AEDM 30: A Christmas Ecard...

It's the final day of Art Every Day Month. And here is the e-card I've designed for hubby and me to send this year.

They've become a tradition like any other. And this year, our donation to go with it went to planting trees with the Woodland Trust.

As ever, you're also more than welcome to use this graphic as an ecard too.

The full link for donations to the Woodland Trust is:

 https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/support-us/give/donations/

Thanks so much for bring part of, not just my Art Every Day challenge, but also my year and my life. It's lovely to know that people have been enjoying these posts.

I'll be taking a break from daily posts for a few days, but will be back soon!

AEDM 29: "Crochet" Effect Mandala Pattern

It's Day 29 of Art Every Day Month, and today's design came about by accident.

Following a recommendation, I went to try out SumoPaint, an image editor that (at time of writing) seems to be free-to-use online. (And please note, I'm not being paid at all for saying anything about SumoPaint, I'm just a curious new user of it).

It looks fantastic, and would appear to have lots of tools included that are similar to Photoshop and other more expensive apps.

I ended up playing only with the symmetry painting tool in various sizes. And after some playing around (there's really no other phrase for it, it was great fun :-)) out popped these mandalas.

They've got something of the appearance of wool, so have likened them to crochet in naming them. But you might see something entirely different in them.

As a sidenote, for speed and familiarity, I created this quick actual pattern using the mandala motifs in Patternshop (an excellent free pattern-making program that I think have mentioned before).

But in fairness to SumoPaint, there may be a way to arrange motifs there that I simply haven't found yet. They do mention "Pattern fill" which, along with *lots* other features in the app, I have yet to explore.

All-in-all, SumoPaint looks like an interesting app to watch.

More tomorrow.

AEDM 28: "Thanks So Much": Free Printable

I'm from the UK, so we don't celebrate Thanksgiving as it is today in the US....But it still seems a great idea to take time to be thankful and generous.

So, for Day 28 of Art Every Day Month, here's a free printable that you can use in any context where you want to be thankful (and even sell anything you make from the printed sheet: my full "angel policy" for crafters is here).

Thanks for your visit, too -and have fun with this.

More tomorrow...;

Free Christmas Printable & Colouring Page (AEDM Day 27)

This free Christmas printable is 5000 pixels square and full size, making it fab for any projects you want to create using it when printed out.

If you'd prefer to colour it your own way, you're also welcome to print out the black-and-white version as a colouring page...

Either way, enjoy!

These are also my art for Art Every Day Month day 27, so there'll be...

More tomorrow...

AEDM Day 26 & New Illustration: Orange Slice

For Day 26 of Art Every Day Month, here's a slice of orange on a work top, in Krita...I'm out of time for anything more fancy...

More tomorrow...

New Digital Paintings: Hellebore (AEDM Day 25)

It's Day 25 of Art Every Day Month, and am trying to decide between the splattered and non-splattered versions of hellebore flower (also called the "Christmas Rose"). What do you think?

Version without "splatters"

And the version with:

In any event, more tomorrow.

New Digi Watercolour Sketch in Krita: Scissors (AEDM 24)

Yep, it's day 24 of Art Every Day month. And I'm at that stage in a challenge where I'm casting around the house for things to draw...:-) (Also grey London in November doesn't necessarily hold all the appeal it might...for me, at least).

However, this has led me to attempt a quick watercolour sketch in Krita, of scissors. And, as I hardly ever draw man-made objects, am reasonably happy with this as a quick first attempt.

More tomorrow.

Rainbow Layer-Cake in Digital Watercolour: AEDM 23

For Art Every Day Month Day 23, here's a digi-watercolour (in Krita) of some rainbow layer cake.

Now, if you know me, you might already know two things. Firstly, that I'm always wanting to draw more food, but hardly ever do.

Secondly. that I've deliberately (but by choice) along with hubby, not eaten sugary food since about July 2018.

But when a neighbour's kid really sweetly offered us a slice of her birthday cake, neither I nor my hubby had the heart to refuse.

The cake was delicious (and it turns out, it's what you eat *most* of the time that counts)

And more importantly for this blog, it turns out that drawing food is huge fun...and I'd love to do it more often.

Speaking of more, there will of course be ...more tomorrow...

AEDM 22: An Inspiring Quote from Barnum...

Art Every Day Month, Day 22.

Came across this inspiring quote from PT Barnum today, loved it and decided to illustrate it...But am running out of time for the day. Outside of the context of the AEDM challenge, I'd have spent a *lot*longer making sure the text can be read, and "texturizing" the text itself. (Background texture in ArtRage 6, lettering in Krita).

However, just for now, this is going to have to be today's post...As there will be, you guessed it....

More tomorrow.

A Special Announcement...

Special announcement... Ooooh, this is exciting...I've been approved to compete in this year's Wraptious Christmas Competition, with these designs (available on either prints or cushions).

It's effectively a pop-up Christmas shop, with three trees planted for every order placed.

But whether you just want to buy or browse, I really need your help. This is because every single like and share I receive until Friday 13th December counts as a vote in the competition.

So, please visit, like and share this page: https://www.wraptious.com/collections/autumn-2019-submissions-by-clare-walker

Many, many thanks!

Winter Whimsy Botanicals in Krita: AEDM 21.

It's Day 21 of Art Every Day Month.

And today, I was inspired by a brilliant winter greenery tutorial by Shayda Campbell on YouTube.

Christma has always felt a bit "blah," grey and difficult to illustrate, as everything turns so
Now, as her tutorial is for physical watercolour, I knew that some changes would be needed to pull off a similar effect in digital watercolour in Krita 4.2).

For example, graphics pens are wonderful. But colour mixing, mostly at least, has to take place with them in different strokes or layers, rather than mixing on a palette.

And once there was one change...Well, suffice to say that I seem to have ended up with mistletoe rather than cedar...no pinecones, holly with many less berries,  and very whimsical white berries, that  don't look like Shayda's snowberries at all...

In other words, the final result doesn't really resemble the actual tutorial in any way.

But I did learn a lot from the technique, and enjoyed playing with a much lighter colour palette than I normally would. Thank you Shayda for a great and inspiring tutorial. It certainly isn't your fault that I seem incapable of following anyone's tutorials without going completely into my own world instead. :-)

More tomorrow.

Penguins & Mistletoe (AEDM 20)

Following on from yesterday, AEDM 20 shows what happened next: a possible penguin romance, complete with mistletoe. Am still not certain whether this will turn into a card or something else as yet. But this is where I'll leave the art for now. There's time before Christmas yet for something to get added or changed here.

More tomorrow.

New Digital Watercolour Work-in-Progress (AEDM 19)

For Day 19 of  Art Every Day Month, I made myself practice what I preach. Have been saying for ages that it's important for people to realise that lots of paintings and graphics take more than a day to create.

But it feels really challenging to post something "unfinished£. Yet, unless I do, a) I won't be walking my talk, and b) I can't reasonably expect anyone to understand how long some tasks really take.

So here, for your delectation and delight (?!) is an unfinished work-in-progress, currently featuring the image that popped into my head and kick-started the process: a penguin in a red hat.

More tomorrow, when I'll be as interested as anyone to see where this goes.

Thinking of You Card & Repeat Pattern: AEDM 18

For today (AEDM 18) I've had a sudden unfortunate need to design and send a "Thinking of You" card with a co-ordinating pattern inside. (You may recognise this leaf motif (slightly modified) from day 14).

I'll probably put this on sale in due course, but right now, I just want to get this sent to the person who needs it.

More tomorrow.

New Digital Painting/Art Journal (AEDM Day 17)

Day 17 of the Art Every Day Month challenge, and this is as much a note to myself as anything else.
Joy comes naturally to me...but so does an accompanying smidgen of guilt if others aren't in the same place.

Then I pondered on this...When you think about it, it does no good at all to dim your own joy too far...It may in fact lead a person to be less effective in helping others than they might otherwise have been...and to have fewer reserves to draw upon in their own time of need.

Just on a personal level, felt like a point worth remembering-as well as a great chance to practice digi *watercolour* lettering (and backgrounds) in Krita 4.2.

More tomorrow.