Showing posts with label roses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roses. Show all posts

Thursday, 29 February 2024

A Bunch of Roses Gif

Animated gif showing a bunch of pink roses forming from the sketch to full colour, with green background and the appearing text, "Sending Love".
Tap click or right-click here to download

Hello there

Hope life is treating you well. If however, you need a bit of a pick-me-up, feel free to download and enjoy this bunch of flowers (and/or send them to someone else as well).

If you're the sort of person who'd rather just think about how thing made, then it's also, broadly a really fast time-lapse of the different stages I tend to go through to make a sketch like this.

Take care, and more soon.

___________________________

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Monday, 19 June 2023

Happy Solstice Roses

Image is an illustraiton showing 3 pink roses and leaves and the words Happy Solstice in white.
Happy Solstice Roses

Hello there.
Hope life is treating you well. The site revamp continues, but as it's almost finished, thought it was high time was back in touch with you.

Not least because, Solstice illustrations have a bit of a tradition around here, and still wanted you to have one, even though this is more of a sketch than I'd have liked (in ArtRage6, just to ring the changes). You're welcome to share it if you wish, though can't vouch for its size and therefore printability.

The bigger news...

The bigger news is that the site should now be easier to use, especially on mobiles, and...

My art now has its own store on Pixels.Com. Please do have a browse and see what you think about how easy it might be for you to use.

And with that, will continue the re-vamp, but wish you a happy rest-of-the-week. (There'll be more when the revamp is fully complete).

Thursday, 30 March 2023

Bits, Bobs and Two Unexpected Visitors...

Hello there, and as ever, hope that life is treating you well.

Now, this is the time when you get to peep behind the curtain, and see how creativity really works, instead of the, "yes, one-neat-product-appears-every-week," version of events into which this blog might (accidentally) have lulled you before now.

line and wash digital watercolour sketch of a sunny park garden bench with wisteria around it.
"Wisteria Bench" Work in Progress
Digital Watercolour Sketch
in Rebelle 5,
by Clare Walker



First up, there's a park/garden  bench sketch. I drew it mostly to celebrate humble-but-wonderful  benches in the sun, and a vague idea that, when finished,  it might one day join what I might (in a grandiose moment) call the "garden art series,"...The start of which is in my Society6 shop, at least for now.


Line and wash digital watercolour sketch of a ball of pink roses on top of a be-ribboned pole.
"Roses on a Pole"
Digital Watercolour sketch
 in Rebelle 5, by Clare Walker



Next there's these roses-on-a-pole. The start of a wedding design? Maybe. Something for May Day? It could happen. But they got created because they were fun and reminded me of summer on a rainy day. Which is much more in line with how creativity really works than the "uploading-on-a-schedule," online world might suggest.

And then there's this post itself. For a perfect Easter post, in a world of productivity-over-creativity, there should be bouncing bunnies or similar. (And yes,  it's with some relief that I can announce that there'll be a more "correctly" seasonal post (if you want to call it that) *next* week.


Those Two Unexpected Visitors...

But if I had gone along with that particular script this week, then some real life inspiration which landed in the window box,  three feet away from my keyboard, wouldn't have got a look-in, almost literally.

Let me introduce you to the first of them. Both these photos were taken by my husband, so massive thanks to him (a.k.a. often on this blog  as, "The Computer Man").


Photo of a very round robin on a window box.
Round Robin-Photo by Jim Fernbank


Yes, it's a robin. That most famous of Christmas birds (in the UK, anyway), gracing us with his presence (like the snow of  a couple of weeks ago) much closer to Easter.

I had a vague memory from childhood that robins like to eat tiny pieces of cheese.

That turned out to be the understatement of the century. He clearly *adored* cheese. And soon had us trained to leave out cheese for him in response to loud and disappointed squeaks each morning.

But the cheese kept disappearing *so* quickly, that we became suspicious. And sure enough, a second, sleeker robin is also dining at the window-box buffet.


Photo of a more svelte robin bird on a window box.
Sleek Robin- Photo by Jim Fernbank



Which, combined with the fairly recent memory of snow, now meant that a snowy Christmas design just had to be begun, at least, even though you might not see a final, end result,  "on" something, for months.


Line and wash digital watercolour work in progress sketch, featuring a red robin in the snow.
Red Robin Sketch
Work in progress digital watercolour
by Clare Walker





(And yes, I know that my robin sketch features a red bird, and these robins are distinctly orange. But I'll save that debate (and the huge, bizarre, difference in popularity between robin designs in each colour) for a post nearer Christmas.


It's *all* OK...

Thanks for reading down this far. This post has rather wandered and wound its way round, a bit like how creativity itself seems to work. Am hoping that it's been fun to read, and that it might explain why things don't or can't always seem to appear, "When they *should*". 

Most of all, I hope that it may have inspired you to follow through on creative ideas, whenever and however they appear for you. It's all *OK,* and you, I, or anyone else, all have permission to follow those inner-and outer-promptings, as they happen.

 Even if that does mean that you draw robins at Easter :-) .

That's all for now. But my current plan is to be back a little sooner next week, with some genuinely spring-like or Eastery treats.

More soon.

__________________________

Friday, 17 June 2022

In the Lavender Garden...

Hello there

Hope you've had a lovely week, and are coping with the heat/cold/other weather oddity (delete as applicable) in your particular part of the world. Here in London, it's seriously warm. So, where better to take you, than a lavender garden?

Lavender fields in digital watercolour by Clare Walker
Click or tap here to see the full version of this design

This is a digital watercolour of mine in Krita, and it's based upon a trip we took to see the Fawcett Garden in Vauxhall.

As you can see from these photos, the garden is smaller than the mythical place in my imagination :-) (isn't that always the way?). But it is beautiful, and we got there at just the right time to see and smell, the lavender. (As ever, the Computer Man and I went together. Most of the photos are his, as he's much niftier with a camera than me).

Happy bees abounded...

Close-up photo of a bumble bee in lavender flowers

And there were roses, too...


As well as a general feeling of "Cottage Garden-ness"...

Photo of cottage garden style planting (lavender, roses and honeysuckle) in Vauxhall park
Photo by JimFernbank

Which is all the more amazing, when you consider that Vauxhall Park is just a stone's throw from the MI6 building in central London. 

The thing I loved best though, is that the park's lavender (which also featured in rows like these)...

Photo showing lavender beds
Photo by JimFernbank


is harvested every year, by volunteers, with proceeds from the resulting oil being used to fund the ongoing upkeep of the lavender garden.

You can't beat a situation so full of win-win aspects for everyone, can you?

And on that note, I'll just wish you a happy weekend (or week, depending upon when you're reading this).

And thank you for reading down this far into a long post :-).


Thursday, 10 June 2021

Sketchy Roses Pattern Collections to Mix and Match

A graphic of illustrated rose-patterned papers in a set
The "Sketchy Roses" printable papers
Collection




Hello there, and hope this finds you well and thriving.

Today, am so happy to be able to present my new, Sketchy Roses collection to you. 

 It's a coordinated collection of my designs for your projects, in a light and fun style that nods to tradition, but is sketchily light enough to feel fun and happy too. Each design can also be used in either direction. The collection is available on printable papers, and home décor/gift items too.




The story behind the collection:


Photo of a pink rose

The collection (in all  its forms) was inspired by the beautiful rose gardens we're lucky enough to have around these parts. (Thanks to The Computer Man who took these pics on a stroll we had.)
Photo of pale pink roses



And, just like the different, multi-coloured roses in a flowerbed, these papers and fabrics are designed to be mixed and matched together in your projects too.

Photo of single pale pink slightly wabi-sabi rose

Finally, if you love the designs, but aren't feeling crafty, I've also popped a "mix and matchable," selection of gift and decor items onto Redbubble. You can see the whole collection here.

Here's how just some of  those gift items mix and match together as cushions and pillows, and on a mixture of items.


More than anything, please have fun, and may anything and everything in this collection spark joy and delight for you, your friends and family, and the world at large.

More soon.

(N.B. post edited on 23rd June 2025)

Friday, 9 April 2021

New "Rose Girl" Design and A Dilemma...


Hello there. Hope this post finds you thriving, and (ideally) in temperatures much warmer than our own current *spring* cold snap.



In anticipation of all things summer though, this "Rose Girl" design appeared the other day. (I say "appeared," because was sat down meaning to draw something else entirely, and somehow this design happened instead). The whole business of creating things seems to be like that sometimes. You expect oranges, but get pears...And yet, it all works out.









Anyway, this led to a dilemma, because she's quite different to a lot of the things I normally draw (being a person, for one thing ;-)).

But after encouragement from some friends online, I uploaded her to my Redbubble shop, and am glad I did. Because it turns out she's rockin' it on greeting cards, wall art, magnets, pillows/cushions, and more.






Hope she brings you thoughts of peaceful summer days too. And in any event, have a happy weekend. 
More soon!

If you enjoyed this post, please like, follow or comment about it on Facebook. Many thanks!

Wednesday, 7 April 2021

Free "Sending Love" Animated Roses Gif or Ecard

Hello there!

Hope things are wonderful for you whenever you're reading this. If you're also needing to send a quick message, or send someone some virtual roses for whatever reason, this animated gif/ecard features pink roses, and could be just the thing.

"Sending Love "animated gif features pink roses





As ever, just right-click, click or tap, according to your device and save, and you're good to send it like any other image.

Hope this helps and more soon!


If you enjoyed this post, please like, follow or comment about it on Facebook. Many thanks!

Friday, 16 March 2018

New: Basket of Roses Design

New this week, a basket of roses...



Which you can buy (in a slightly modified form) as a card topper sheet here. (Update April 9th: Marion Kimbereley-Scott has also posted a beautiful photo showing how good this can look when it's made, right here.

Plus, if you remember the snail from sometime ago, he/she has a new relative in the form of a fun, foldable snail card, with which you can send any belated cards you choose...

More details are here.


Have fun with these-more soon.

















Friday, 1 April 2016

Daily Illustration #93: Rose Floral Chintz Pattern

Can't get over how different this floral pattern is from the original Day 91 picture I reassembled into pattern motifs, as discussed here.

It took so long, and having added in extra bits, it might actually have been quicker to re-draw just the motifs from scratch. But that's another story.

I'm loving how this pattern turned out, especially on laptop skins and many other things available here.