Daily Illustration #60: Ditsy Sweets (or Candy!) Pattern

Drew the different elements of this pattern in ArtRage 4 pen and digital watercolour wash, then rotated them into a pattern in Patternshop. Will be doing something more with it soon-watch this space.

Daily Illustration #59: Large Red Poppies & New Digital Painting

Large red poppies, a digital pen-and-wash sketch for an upcoming project.

Will update this later when the project is complete and received.

Daily Illustration #58: Cute Dinosaur Motif

So today's offering is a (hopefully!) cute dinosaur. Not much background because he's intended as a potential pattern motif . Meaning that yes, you'll probably see him again in a pattern.

He came about because of a conversation with The Computer Man, who expressed doubts about whether a dinosaur could be made cute.

I agreed that creating a cute T-Rex could be a challenge, but a cute diplodocus (thought to have been a herbivore) was probably possible.

Hence, here is an attempt at a cute diplodocus. Question is, I succeeded in the challenge by  making him sufficiently cute?

Daily Illustration #57: Rainbow Girl

Just needed to do something a bit different today-even though she probably needs loads more work. More tomorrow.

Daily Illustration # 56 (& New Digital Painting): Grasshopper!

Last summer, a grasshopper landed on The Computer Man, when we were out and about, and wouldn't leave for several minutes.Perhaps I was thinking about that as this little chap hopped into being today. Or maybe am just looking forward to the summer again!



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Daily Illustration #55: The Swallows Return

Actually, I haven't seen any swallows yet this year. But within a few weeks, they should be back...


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Daily Illustration #54 & New Digital Painting: "In the Greenhouse"

Today's post is an homage to my father-in-law's delicious tomatoes (Digital pen-and-wash in ArtRage 4).

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Daily Illustration #53: Something I Never Do...(Until Now)

It's a kind of rule for me that I never do traditional art. In learning art as an adult, I began learning art digitally, and vowed never to go in for all that mess of the traditional stuff.

But it turns out that with water brushes and watercolour pencils there is no mess. So, just as a one-off experiment, thought I'd give it a go.

Conclusion: it's very different and would need a lot more practice. But wanted to be brave, in honour of all the people bravely trying *digital* painting because of my enthusiasm.

I also now see why everyone puts beside their scanned pictures "the original looks better and much brighter". It does.

May not repeat this experiment, but it was more fun than I expected. And  at least if computers ever cease to work, there'd be some sort of replacement for my beloved digital programs :-).

Normal service resumes tomorrow.


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Daily Illustration #52: Undersea Doodles

 Just doodling some possible motifs for a new pattern today ...





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Daily Illustration #51: Tulip Fever Design

This"Tulip Fever" pattern started out looking very different, based on quite a prim sketch of tulips (below).

But decided I quite liked the end result, including its funky-and-impossible leaf crossovers. What do you think?



















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Daily Illustration #50: A Munching Caterpillar...

No idea why this munching caterpillar appeared today.. Especially as.I sat down intending to draw Easter eggs.

Never mind, one way or another it's still daily illustration number 50-yay! Can't believe have even got this far...

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Daily Illustration #49: Strawberry Fields

More like a journal page, this one (though still in ArtRage4), Determined to evoke the summer somehow.




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Daily Illustration #48: Red Floral Carnation Pattern

Was lucky enough to get a large bunch of flowers on Valentines Day from the Computer Man.


This pattern is based on the carnations from it (digital pen and wash in ArtRage 4 as ever for the floral motifs).

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Daily Illustration #47: Gecko (Digital Pen & Wash)

Clearly am aiming for foreign climes and sunshine with this one...





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Daily Illustration #46: Daffodils!

There are a few daffodils around-but am looking forward to a profusion like this...



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Daily Illustration #45: Teddy Bear Sketch

This little teddy bear may become a motif for a pattern. But for now, he's all I could do in a limited time today.


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Daily Illustration #44: Heart Umbrellas

Did this in ArtRage and Patternshop to enter (unwatermarked!) in a Spoonflower contest on the theme of love and weather. Hope it's actually warm and dry wherever you are when you're reading this.





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Daily Illustration #43: Squirrel Sketch

The blog lives up to its squirrelly name today, with a squirrel sketch in digital pen and wash. Perhaps he should stick around as part of the BoundingSquirrel graphics...

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Daily Illustration #42: St Patrick's Day Doodles-Free for Web Projects

It's a well-known fact (and joke) that I never seem to be able to produce items in their correct season. So yes, this is a doodle that should be for March 17th, but is (naturally!) being published in February.

On the other hand, it means that if you want to use this for St Patrick's Day web posts or whatever, you're in plenty of time and you can. (It isn't a high enough resolution for print projects).

If you use it, please keep the watermark. Credit and a link would be appreciated but not required, and copyright stays with me. Make sense?

More tomorrow.





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Daily Illustration #41: Finally Finished the Cakes!

If you've been foillowing this bizarre challenge for a while, you may remember that some rough cakes made an appearance as "work in progress" on Day Nine.

Here finally, on Day 41 is a pattern from them, now on displayed in my Spoonflower shop. If it gets enough favourites/favorites, I'll put it into production. 


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Daily Illustration #40: Happy Pancake Day!

It's Pancake Day, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, depending upon where you are in the world.

So today's illustration is a just-for-fun, pancake-tossing, animated gif file. Enjoy and share as you wish.







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Daily Illustration #39: Rumi Quote

Today's illustration was inspired by two things, each almost 800 years apart from the other.

The first is the quote itself from Rumi, the 13th century mystic:

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love". 

Coming across that quotation really stopped me in my tracks: it's been the guiding principle behind this blog from the beginning.

The second inspiration is the theme for February over on Creative Every Day, which was "love".

More tomorrow.






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Daily Illustration #38: Quick Crocus Sketch

Spent most of the afternoon in the park, so this crocus sketch is ultra-quick (in Art|Rage 4 again). But lovely to see the crocuses-it's almost spring...


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Daily Illustration #37: Mice Sketch Part Two (With Colour)

So, there are a few alterations to eye-shine and fur, and some cropping of this, as well as the added colour. Which version do you prefer, today's or yesterday's? Please do leave a comment and let me know.


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Daily Illustration #36: Work-in-Progress Mice Sketch

Just can't do these mice justice in the time I have for art today. So it's sketch today as a work-in-progress offering today...and colour tomorrow.



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Daily Illustration #35: Penguin (Digital Pen-and-Wash Sketch)

This is one penguin who definitely wants to chill...


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Daily Illustration #34: Snowdrops (Digital Pen-and-Wash Sketch)

It's not quite spring here yet. But there were snowdrops in the woods this week, to provide cheery hope, and inspiration for today's post. Enjoy!

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Groundhog Day! (& Daily Illustration #33)

Posting this on Feb 2nd, there's only one choice of cute sketch today. Enjoy this groundhog whatever the date when you're reading this though.

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Daily Illustration #32: Experimenting with Krita Software

Today's illustration is more of an experimental doodle, using Krita software for the first time. In order to evaluate it properly, obviously I'll need to become a *lot* more proficient. First impressions: an astonishing array of features and brushes for a free program, and seems excellent for treating different textures and effects. But as a new user, I didn't find this as intuitive to use as ArtRage, though perhaps it isn't meant to be.

We shall see...



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