The "Winter Festivals" Collection Is *New*...

 Today's offering is my "Winter Festivals Collection"...

( Click here to see the collection on Redbubble .)

This "Winter Festivals" design is  a first for me because it's much more modern in design, and came about in unusual way. In a nutshell: I dreamt about this pattern. True, my recreation of it is not nearly as complicated or ornate as the one in my dream. But the idea of it, being the essence of all winter festivals, has somehow still come through. And gives you the chance to have décor  and gifts that work for a longer and wider winter and festival season than just Christmas.

As ever though this is still part of the "100 day" project...Day 87, to be precise. And there'll be something different  tomorrow.

Day 16: The Finished Fish Pattern

 Hello again. Remember those fish motifs from yesterday? (And my commitment last week to show you how long things really take?). Well, both of those things combined mean that Day 16 involved me simply making and finishing the fish pattern, including-eventually, finding just the right background colour.

As you might expect for a fishy pattern, it looks great on a shower curtain..

But it also makes a fun and whimsical floor cushion, 

and very cute on pouches (in various sizes-great by themselves or to act as a "wrapper" for other gifts).

Have fun with this-the full selection of items bearing this design is here.

More tomorrow.

Day 14: "Flower Garden": A Joyful Whimsical Pattern with a Boho Vibe.

And after a very full day's work, Day 14 shows what became of those black and white floral sketches on Day 8.

This is new, and will bring summer closer to you wherever and whenever you're reading this. It's based on the herbaceous borders in English country gardens. But somehow, a more joyful, hippie and boho vibe just came singing in, with all those pinks, purples and golds.

This is the pattern (which is available on fabric here...

And looks great on *so many* gifts, treats and other scrummy items, like:

"Flower Garden" phone case

"Flower Garden" Notebook

notebooks and more,,,

It's not often a design gets this far in one day, even if it's a long one. But hope it helps you feel happy and have more fun, whatever else. 

More tomorrow.

Parrots and Palm Leaves (New Seamless Pattern)

In haste and a week of truly mixed fortunes, have not had as much time to create as I would have liked. (All cartoons this week were for specific recipients, so have to stay under wraps for now).

Nonetheless, these parrots were my last-minute entry to the Spoonflower.com/Bucketfeet competition on a rain-forest theme.

There's still one more week of their co-sponsored competitions to go (I believe next week's theme is "Aquatic" but don't quote me on that). And the real bonus for entering is that for every entry they receive in these Bucketfeet competitions, Spoonflower is donating a dollar to a Native American rights charity. So whatever the outcome, each entry is doing some good in these uncertain times.

In any event, enjoy the parrots. May they bring some tropical colour and rainforesty-goodness into your life.

Every Flamingo Has His Day...

Some time in June, I drew this flamingo. And for reasons that were undoubtedly good at the time, I didn't post him on the blog. This was even though (apart from his legs and feet, which needed a surprising amount of thought) he was quick and easy to draw. Instead, I decided he wasn't "good enough", and needed "a purpose". (Am wondering now exactly why I thought that. He's a flamingo drawing...Which is probably purpose enough, in the circumstances...:-)). 

Anyway, I then set about attempting to "improve" him. At one stage I even sent him to the carnival, metaphorically speaking...

And yet, still nothing seemed right for him.

Then, out of the blue, there was a weekly challenge at Spoonflower, the theme of which was to be "vintage flamingos". And suddenly, he had found his niche. As a vintage 1950's lawn flamingo, he didn't even need those rather troublesome legs (sorry, Mr Flamingo) but just a simple pole.

And voila, this design was borne, almost as quickly as most of the original drawing.

The Spoonflower challenge was just for fun. But it does make a nice, fun fabric, both at Spoonflower and Zazzle.

Every Flamingo Has His Day...

So I don't know about you, but what I took from this is that every flamingo has his day. There I'd been, trying to turn him into the "perfect" flamingo, when he was destined to be an intentionally-fun lawn flamingo all along.

 In other words, perhaps every idea that comes to any of us in a clear form, is worthy of shaping,  however bizarre it seems at first. More than that, is likely to have a purpose down the line, without excessive stressing out on the part of the artist/writer/musician/thinker/insert your preferred means of carrying out ideas here, on the part of any of us.

What do you think? Have you ever had an idea that seemed strange at the time, but later slotted in mysteriously perfectly into your life or work, in a way you couldn't have predicted at first? Do please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

New: Cute Whimsical Snails & Mushrooms Design

Nearly all the feedback I've had suggest that whimsical designs are where it's at for BoundingSquirrel.

So when we had nine snails (yup, nine...I watched them for far longer than a grown adult probably should...:-) in or on our window box yesterday, this seemed like the obvious next design.

If you'd like to make things with this design, please favourite it at Spoonflower, and I'll add it to the designs for sale.

If you'd like to buy it (or just see something cute) it's on a huge range of items here.
More soon!

Daily Illustration #94: Whale Patterns

It's day 94, so am coming into the last week of this 100-day challenge.

Rather than slowing up, decided to have a go at something new for me: three co-ordinating patterns.

They're based around the idea of the epic whale migrations that every mother blue whale makes with her calf up the Pacific coast of the US, which blew me away in a documentary, in its scale and audacity.

These patterns aren't that audacious-but hopefully give you cute whales!

Daily Illustration #90: Berry & Leaf Pattern

This started as an experiment in simpler and less focal pattern-making. (Sometimes I still need to learn that it's OK to whisper, sometimes ;-).

But once the leaf motifs started forming ogee-ish shapes, it morphed into an experiment in making a (geometic-ish) design with organic motifs.

Add in the red and the green, and suddenly, I'm up to my old tricks (ie making a seasonal design (in this case, something quite Christmassy, like napkins do you think?) at an entirely inapporopriate time of year.

But in any event, think I'll keep the pattern. What sort of items do you reckon it would suit? Please leave a comment and tell me. 

Daily Illustration #71: Bluebell Pattern

Really wish that our trip to the woods today had revealed bluebells like these, instead of a sea of mud.

Until they do, will have to keep experimenting to make them into a pattern instead.

More tomorrow!

Daily Illustration #70: A Peony Bud Pattern (That Almost Didn't Happen)

This pretty bud pattern (apparently they're peonies and not as abstract as I thought) almost never happened).

You might remember a sketch I did in traditional watercolour pencils a few days ago (at the bottom of this post). Being pretty much a digital woman, it felt like just practice and a bit of fun. But basically, I ignored it.

Yesterday, idly, I played around with turning the scanned picture into a motif in Patternshop, and this emerged. (It looks even better on items-as will be able to share shortly).

But the moral of the story (which is probably familiar to you if you already create anything) was this. It seems to be a mistake "rule out" any work right away. I would never  rule out a person in such a dismissive way, so it's time to apply the same rule to created things. Lesson learnt.

Daily Illustration #66: Grapes, Wines & Vines Pattern-Experiment & Work-In-Progress

These grapes, vines and wine were meant to be just an experiment for me in making a more complex patterns...I need to re-draw some of the elements.

But teamed with yesterday's illustration, can see how you might think I'm attempting to lead you into a life of excess ;-). Promise, I'm not...

Daily Illustration(s!) #64: Feather Pattern, More Experiments, and Quiz Answers

Yes,this post contains the answers to yesterday's quiz questions, among other things. So if you haven't tried it and want to,  please go there first.

In the meantime, I played around with the feathers from that little experiment. So far, they look like the picture above. May add more back ground later.

And in other news,  the traditional watercolour pencils came out again. I've no illusions that there's still miles to go. But understanding how the traditional mediums work in practice is translating over to digital work and accuracy in ways that I hadn't expected. If you "do" digi painting, do you find the same?

Anyway, the latest attempt in watercolour pencils is still abstract and floral, but looks as below. Bear in mind, this is still one of my few (ie fingers-of-one-hand few) attempts at traditional art for *many* decades. And I *still* prefer digital ;-)

Answers to yesterday's quiz

So now, (and far enough down the page for people who still wanted to participate), here are the answers to yesterday's quiz

They are: A-4. B-3, C1, D2.

Congrats if you got them. It's just for fun, so no prizes. But please do share the quiz post if you feel so inclined.

More tomorrow.

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 #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 #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 #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 #24: "Material Girls" Seamless Pattern (Digital Pen-and-Wash Drawings)

This pattern is based on the theme "80's hairstyles" for another upcoming Spoonflower contest. Many thanks the people who have bought and made favourites of the (still very new) previous BoundingSquirrel designs there. I really appreciate it.





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