BLOG HOP TROPICAL FUSION

Once again I am forced into the blogging world. I am actually dragging myself back to the blogging sphere. My friend and pattern collegue Mary Tanana gathered us together to form a blog hop so when you know you have been a 'non poster' for a while, what better opportunity.

If you are following on in the Blog hop you have probably come from the lovely Jennie at J.L.Illustration blog here.. and will probably know all about it by now so I won't bore you with details.

Lets just get on shall we...

Here is what I made (I hope you like it) and below that is how I did it..!! For the most part people read blogs to find stuff out, nitty gritty stuff about how things are achieved, how they did them, was it drawn or photographed, did the person take an age to do it, or whether they just threw it together. I'm not ashamed to admit I started these patterns and completed them in around 4 hours.. (you can tell, can't you?)

I began as usual with my friend and obsession Pinterest. I made up a board of all the things which I feel relate in some way to the theme tropical fusion. You can see (and hopefully follow my boards here).

After a good root around and lots of diverted pinning (about 300 pins worth of non related stuff actually) - not the best idea when you are sofa surfing with chocolate at hand.  I started drawing a few shapes in pencil, an idea etc. I think Pinterest is quite clever, it's sort of like shopping on the cheap, you pin it, and it's kind of yours some how.. weird.

I work in Illustrator for the most part, but if I'm feeling brave I might finish in Photoshop and below I added a couple of subtle brushes to complete the effect - gives it a bit of mood I think. The pattern above has quite a big brush of a dead rose head..

Here are a couple of shots of work in progress within Illustrator.

I tend to gather all my motifs and a few besides together in my file and start adding colour. My patterns can go either way at this point and are often dragged to the rubbish bin if they refuse to come together in say 15 mins max. I like to work quickly but with an idea of what I want in my head before I begin.

So I hope you liked them, please pop over to the next blog - lovely work by Joni Barriere at Studio Lulu Designs here. 

Or if you just joined me, and think you might have missed something jump back to the beginning blog Mary Tanana of Groovity Designs here. 

Thanks for visiting - and come back soon.

A FEW SHARES

Hello my dears - thought I would very quickly share a few bits with you before school pick up.. 

Not much happening really.. I've made a few patterns, found a few friends making things for Xmas markets.. 

Thinking of having a few bits made. The problem is that I can't think or organise beyond next week Friday and lots of these things are booked, paid for, and organised like a year in advance. A whole year. Who in the blazzers is that organised,? not little ol me for sure. I can only just organise a dentist appointment in advance, so there is no way I'm going to get that organised. Alas - I won't let it kill me, I will try and do something. 

Our dishwasher machine thingy decided that enough was enough the other day. Obviously not to be undone, you sort of convince yourself, ha, that's no problemo, we can eat out, wash up - or just not eat... but no.. !

With 5 people in our house, we all went into melt down mode. For a start our kitchen is not designed around washing up being a pleasure - the sink is for used tea bags and that's about all - no flies on us.

After three days even our 3 year old started to complain his milk didn't taste right. We cave in and pay a man 250 shinys to retrieve a kids car part from inside somewhere. Thanks. Felt quite sorry for the man - I mean he could hardly get to the thing for all the dirty pots over taking every surface in our kitchen. Gross. The acid test was he accepted a cup of coffee which you never do if your in someones house you think is filthy. 

So what else, oh, yes I made a few patterns for the latest brief in Moyo Mag issue 5. I don't normally do them because I either forget or think - hmmm what to do. Then I move off to something else and again forget..

But this time - I went back to basics, thought about the brief, what colours came to me and took a few pics. 

I'm loving grey and orange right now - 

Anyway - recently I've been taking a class in Nicoles Classes, they are of course on line. ( as practically everything is these days) - You can find the one I took here. 

So one of my ideas was to use the snowflake I had made and sort of use that as a basis for the 'Winter theme'. 

Anyway I know there is some room for improvement - but not bad for a days work. A fixed dishwasher too.. we can eat again. xxx

DAYS OUT - CALKE ABBEY DERBY

Well, had a little visit with the family last week. Mainly to get a break from the kids, or at least try to off load some of the telling off to my parents in Derbyshire. 

Whilst there I took the opportunity to visit Calke Abbey in Ticknall. A wonderful place - lots of things for the kids to do and a big old house for the grown ups. It helps if your Mum is a volunteer.. (Does that mean I'm middle aged - when your Mum is volunteer at the NT?)

(image credit National trust)

I took a few pics whilst I was there of the patterns in the house and quickly dropped them into a collage for you. Hopefully some of them will inspire me to make something great in the future. (or you) - It amazes me how they made such wonderful intricate patterns without photoshop or Illustrator.

I'm finding it quite hard at the moment to get going - which direction etc. I have opened an Etsy shop selling printable downloads in an effort to get some of my patterns noticed, alas this is proving more difficult than expected.. the market is quite saturated.

So - do I now get a few things into Spoonflower? - but a friend suggested that sales are so low, (I guess because the site is so big) - that it's quite a lot of effort to get them in there, plus are unlikely to make a fortune. (glum face) - Perhaps it is better to look at it as more of a notice board to getting noticed..?? But, I'm not totally away with the Fairies, I do know you have to start somewhere.

Talking of notice boards - I'm starting to fall in love with Pinterest. To begin with I thought well, what is the point of it, but now I see why it is - it's kind of addictive! I see so many things I'd like to try, paint, draw - redecorate etc. Here is my page if you would like to see it. I've noticed quite a bit of traffic too from there to here - so that is good.

Well hopefully I will have more time to devote to my project once the kids go back to school. 

I hope you like the pattern above, I made it supa quick one morning - out of necessity more than anything as I needed something fresh for a directory.. shhh... more about that later.. !

Bye for now..

COLOUR FOR THE MASSES - AM I 12?

Of course I'm not 12, but I might be.. I might want to be 12 again. Given that I feel 12 when I see this new book sat  on my desk. Yes, what kind of book is that I hear you say, some kind of picture book.. er no.. it's a colouring book. Not just any old colouring book, a book for people to colour in - yes, but why the hell would I want one? Given that I'm now 40 (cough cough)...???

Well I'll tell you peeps, it's because I'm still trying to draw each day, I'm still trying to draw something of reasonable quality and yes I want to be good at colouring in. Especially on those days when I can't draw a flippin circle even. You see my patterns need colour and where do you get that from? No, not from years of slaving away in the back room of a colourist, or taking a textile degree, or from dyeing peoples hair.... its by experimenting with your own colours. I'm not talking those 20 pencils ya mam got you in Wilko when you were 10, (because you'd been good all morning and not taken any of the plastic square toppers from M&S coat hangers honestly Mum... ) I'm talking about Copic markers, Sharpie markers, Faber -Castell and Zig loveliness.  If they were shoes, we're talking Jimmy or Vera here. (perhaps not quite so expensive, but really quite good) 
I was listening to this the other day and I just love the way Khristian A Howell can use colour.. she is amazballs. I mean she has the full package, colour, pattern, everything, and looks like a super model too.. ! Darn it.

So my intention is to grapple my way through the hell of his Tax Return, (why do men seem to be able to do big things, but none of those little hit you in the eye this is a crap job for Monday) jobs??? - Not that I will add any colour to THAT but at least at the end - I shall be able to colour something in. 

Haven't started yet, but that the fact that I'm writting about it, means that 
A) I will in due course, 
B) If I don't I will have wasted an hour writing this and 
C) I will look a ninny). 

The book is called Secret Garden - by Johanna Basford and here are few more pics for you..

Hopefully after I've done a few pictures I'll let you see them. (I recently got aquatinted with Instagramenes (that's Instagram) for those failing to keep up - I'm Surface Hug if you want to follow me.. and maybe I'll follow you back.  

So what have you been colouring in lately? 

Currently I'm listening to The Potato Factory - which is a sort of historical fiction book about a real life pick pocket in London in the 19th century.. some say is the character Fagan in Oliver Twist. 

On the T.v.v.. I'm still watching and waiting each week for the next episode of The White Queen. I have to say I didn't really like the what I'd read about the Woodvilles but I am now warming to them (and I love the name Jacquetta) I would pay the BBC dearly if they made the drama of Mary Queen of Scots.

Bye for now.. 

(ha 2 posts in 2 weeks - getting better)

Trina 

x

WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS...

How its all done... 

Well, hello there peeps. So sorry I haven't been blogging lately. It's one of those jobs which you really can only do when your feeling a) inspired - or b) guilty.. 

No its not because I've been glued to Strictly or because Downton has started again... (well perhaps a little of the latter). I really have been lazy and for that I'm sorry.

I'm not going to feel bad about it, because I've recently got a new iphone, (well a cast off from himself) and I know I'm not the only one who wakes up and immediately looks at stuff and then gets distracted, then goes with all good intentions to do blog, then gets distracted again.. it really is very anoying. You see I'm not a very disciplined person, (as he will quite readily point out) but I can get down to some serious work when induced to do so.

(see I'm digressing again... stop it)

Anyway the point of todays post, that sounds like I post daily - well, no people I don't.   I thought it might be interesting to show you a bit about my creative process. 

My disclaimer at this point is that I'm sorry if I do it wrong, but I'm still learning, so all those professionals out there - please don't jump down the computer at me.. 

Well here goes.. 

The pattern at the top is one I made from scratch - and here is how it was done.. 

Take a trip out to National trust property because the kids are bouncing off the sofa and take camera.. I'm fortunate that I have a good camera (Cannon Eos 600D) which never really takes a bad picture - I mean at least in the digital age you don't have to go with your mum to town any longer to Supersnaps and wait 1 week to see them, only to find there really are no heads on folk and you have camera shakes... gosh that was annoying... imagine how much money we've waisted on crap pictures...??

Here are my pictures from the lovely Barrington Court in Somerset.. I'm quite drawn to the dead bits on flowers. - (lets not go there)

So now I've got a couple of good pictures - all I have to do now is draw them.  This bit I find the easiest because, well I've always drawn things.. (I'm not very good at drawing anything with pulse, animals, people etc) Unless they are three miles in the distance..!

As you can see - I've hand drawn the flower based on the photographs. Of course they are not exact, because I've cut the bottom off one and well the other I've adjusted to fit the paper size. But it sort of represents the photo a bit.

The next job - is to scan the picture into Photoshop - I'm not going to explain much about this - because I'm not YET a fan of Photoshop. It never really does what I think it should be doing and sometimes I really do loose the plot and just start all over again. I then saved the image as a jpeg file - after a little clean up. 

Once I'm happy with this its then imported into Illustrator. (please note from this point on I'm on a wing and prayer, because, well, basically these systems are so powerful and complex it will take me another - what - year ? - to become Adobe 'confident' - but I do my best as they say.. 

So I'm thinking about colours, do I want it to be natural or mixed, or seasonal etc... 

I'm using an app called Kuler - it's great for looking at colour combinations etc and often taken from photos from nature - which I always think look best for colours, because I don't think we can replicate them. The best bit is that you can download colour combos and then upload them into Illustrator right there, like 'voila' it's done. 

I also try to be disciplined in them - stick to what you want and keep it simple.

So after all that I'm pretty much done. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them yet, possibly stationary although I've yet to find a printer of wrapping paper who doesn't charge you fortune.. 

Hopefully one day I'll have an agent who can help, but in the mean time, I must keep tapping, undoing, drawing, filling, saving, and photographing. 

Good luck to all my fellow ABSPD students.. Module 2 starts soon people... eyes down.. 

Thanks for looking

p.s. I need another few likes on my Facebook page - so be a love and I'll do the same.

Trina 

xx

p.s Went onto my Facebook page and my little boy (2) had not only tweeted on my behalf but it had gone on my Facebook page and Web.. so if you see a thing about a game to feed a horse - its not me, its him.... (how rude is that?)

Surface pattern designing

Well hello again peeps.. 

Sorry for not blogging for a week or so, but I have been genuinely busy busy busy...

Firstly I've been racing through my Surface pattern course - its fab..

Each morning you receive a new 'lesson' on the virtual classroom, sometimes with links, comments, things to look at later. Interviews, tips, and workshop pdf files. Then I've got to be creative amongst all that work and come up with something I like .. not an easy feat when your putting your work out there for all to see... A bit like showing everyone your pants, you just don't know how its going to go... 

Last week was all about drawing and mark making.. so having a go at finding new ways to make marks on things. 

Confused? 

Well, it could be using paint and your finger and drawing random stuff, or different pens or paints and just blobbing away or rolling a rag with ink on or even using the sewing machine to sew patterns or shapes, never heard of it before?, well neither had I but its actually quite liberating just throwing yourself into things and seeing what comes out the other end... 

Anyway a few examples are my leaves below which I gathered and just painted onto and stuck down and drew round, land splurged over and stuff.. The idea being that I can use this later for a background to a design or even a card, picture etc..

Hopefully that gives you some idea where I'm coming from...

Amongst all of this we were drawing things we might want to use... so here are my Poppies from pictures in the garden

(sorry its on its side, but I am still learning)

Well if I wasn't too distracted watching kids and doing crappy jobs like housework,  that  keeps me on my toes, this week has been all about colour. It has taught me loads about what I'm drawn to in colour. I like red, and not because its always 'on sale' but it shows urgency and perhaps that fact that I have no patience at all... 

(note to self, slow down, take some time over what I'm trying to achieve and think about it.)

Anyway we've been searching and taking photos of things and coming up with the colour charts for them... I took mine from a website I love called Flowerona which I love. It's about all things flowery and girly and colourful.. Here is mine..

I used a website called Kuler which then allows you to make a file which you can upload right away into Illustrator... cool or what? It shows the colours off the picture which might spark an idea or inspire me later..

Below of a couple of the efforts of this weeks work. I like them, but they are just not quite right somehow... I defiantly need to introduce more colour, more background, and perhaps move away from flowers for a bit to get a bit of variety and see where I'm coming from.

The course is also about finding your own style, why that's your style and how your going to keep going with that or move over time... I really can feel myself changing my tastes along the way.. 

Below is part of the result of the Poppies drawing above... 

This is Clematis I drew from outside the backdoor... 

 More poppies

Colour combinations

(note to self, have far too much pink stuff in this house, perhaps 3 girls against 2 boys doesn't help..)

On another note, had a lovely day out in Bath the other day.. I love Bath, (I'm going to live there one day) and took the oportunity to take some pics of patterns and colours there... I mean I took flippen loads, but here is a few for you.. 

So right now I'm struggling a bit with Illustrator - I mean there are loads of free tutorials on the internet, but really they do assume quite a lot and its bloody annoying going through them all to see which is relevant etc.. so today I joined an on-line site called Linda.com. It's a monthly payment which gives you access to all the tutorials you will ever need.. problem is some of them are 50 hours long...


On that note I'll leave you with a few pics of whats happening in my very neglected garden right now and hopefully be back soon... not within 50 hours of course.

Bye. Bye.
x

Gathering Inspiration

Well Hello

I've started my scrummy yummy course this week about Surface Pattern design..
Its been pretty low key I think so far, although I suspect this is to lead us in gently - because from what I can see some of the other students are preeeeettyyy damn good and they are going to need quite a bit to keep them stimulated.!!

It's really nice though to see other peoples work and 'be nosy' - our national hobby.
I've seen some great stuff and I'm really enjoying it. I think it is going to be really great.

So basically to give you some idea - this week we have been working on getting things together, gathering inspiration, recording it, and getting creative. I must say its all very informative and encouraging.

One of the tasks was to go out and photograph shapes. I chose circles and squares - and later we could use these photos to make drawings and let the creativity flow..

I should point out at this stage, that in comparison to some of the work, which is accurate, detailed and follows the brief, mine looks like I'm about 1 hr away from cutting my ear off. (is that true I don't know) Maybe that will be the case if the kids don't go back to school soon... pleeeaasse..

There are students on the course from everywhere - from Uk, Hong Kong to Australia. Also not everyone on the course is as novice as me, a few are already 'practicing' designers and have their e-shop and are up and running. I think this is good, because it sets the pace a bit and keeps it competitive in a nice way..

Here are some of my drawing efforts this week..

And finally .... after scanning into Photoshop and then Illustrator  - get yourself a pattern...
I haven't coloured it in yet, that comes later - but just need to practice, practice, practice...

Well - will post again soon

bye for now. x

If you want to check out the course here is the Link