Twenty Fifteen

The Love, Luck and Happiness calendar for 2015 is now ready and available in the shop here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Twenty Fourteen

I had a chance to finish the new calendar at the weekend and it's now available to order in the spoonflower shop. I added some new bits and changed around some bits and it's definitely my favourite so far. As before, I've used quite a few symbols which signify prosperity, longevity, happiness, harmony and good luck in many eastern cultures:

Love, Luck & Happiness 2014

LLH Details - click for a larger view.

I liked the idea on the spoonflower blog recently to use the gift wrap option as posters so I've made it available on that as well as fabric and wall decal this year. According to the help desk, the satin is heavier than the matte (131 and 98 gsm) but both are sturdy enough for it. 

I hope you like the calendar and that you have a great week whatever you're up to :)

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Update 2014: The new 2015 calendar is available to order here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Antidote for wintery symptoms.

Icy drizzle, low clouds and grey skies - all the symptoms of an oncoming winter! Here's an antidote I've been working on this week for this contest:

Lagoon details: threadfin butterflyfish, flame angelfish and sergeant major fish.

Lagoon details: anthias, clownfish and flame angelfish.

See other t-shirt designs and vote here or read about how I made the water texture here!

Lagoon on a Riviera Tee

Lagoon on a Riviera Tee - the pattern is from One-Yard Wonders.

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Midyear Calendar: Love, Luck and Happiness

Midyear Calendar: Love, Luck & Happiness

I can't believe midsummer is almost here (we definitely haven't had the weather for it the last few days)! To celebrate anyway, I've made a midyear calendar which runs from July 2012 to June 2013. It's based on this one I did for the beginning of the year featuring symbols used in many eastern cultures to bring prosperity, longevity, happiness, harmony and good luck; so if you fancy a bit of zen in tea towel form, you can find it here on a linen cotton blend!

Calendar detail with different colours for 2012 and 13 :)

Details - click to view larger.

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Update 2014: The new 2015 calendar is available to order here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Lagoon

Lagoon



Lagoon details - click to view larger.

I love the versatility of vector graphics. For anyone who's looking to upgrade their software, I'm currently using Xara Pro 7 (update Nov 12: I've upgraded this to Xara Pro X which you can read about here!) which is a fraction of the price of the Adobe stuff and has a really usable interface. Apart from the layering and flexible editing of shapes that vectors offer, using the texture fills is addictive and they can be absolutely anything. The water in my design above for example, is made up of layers using a photo I took of sunlight reflecting off a bowl and I'm really pleased with how that's turned out!

You can see all the other 'fluid' illustrations here! 15% of proceeds from Lagoon go to the Coral Triangle Initiative!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Koi & Crane Journal Cover

I've been working on a 2012 journal cover based on the koi and red-crowned crane vector images I made for the calendar recently. It's designed to fit on a linen-cotton fat quarter, including instructions, here at spoonflower and fits an A5 journal or sketchbook.

Koi & Crane Journal - Cover

Koi & Crane Journal - Inner Panels

2012 Journal Cover Details - click to view larger.

I hope you all have a great weekend!


Update October 2012:
Read about the new 2013 journal cover here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

2012: Love, Luck & Happiness!

Calendar 2012: Love, Luck & Happiness

Calendar Details - click to zoom.

I finished this calendar just in time for this! It turns out my helper, although brilliant in her field, isn't so good with vector graphics. Much of this design is made up of symbols used in some eastern cultures to signify prosperity, longevity, happiness, harmony and good luck - let's hope they work!

If you'd like to invite some auspicious symbolism into your life next year, why not pick up this calendar on a linen-cotton blend here for just $14 (£8.70/€10.20) You could hang it, make a cushion out of it or just use it to dry the dishes :)

Update October 2013:
Read about the new 2014 calendar here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Koi & Crane

Another couple of vector images from my latest project:

Koi & Crane

I've based the crane on the Red-Crowned Crane which, although endangered through loss of habitat, has been increasing in numbers over the second half of last century. These beautiful birds have an elaborate courtship dance (involving throwing grass in the air!) and pair for life.

Red Crowned Crane by Roy Toft

While looking for inspiration I came across this photo of calling cranes on Hokkaido Island by the fantastic wildlife photographer Roy Toft. Have a look at more of his incredible work here and here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Scatter!

Scatter!

Scatter! A design with Galápagos Sea Lions; new, improved and available on linen and cotton at the Forest & Sea Spoonflower page!

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Update 2014: See the new version of the sea lions here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Also New..

.. and available at Forest & Sea on Spoonflower:

Scatter! Shown here on Linen-Cotton Canvas.

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Update 2014: See the new version of the sea lions here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Scatter!

Spoonflower entries this week are all based on fishing. I don't think I'm alone in chosing a nature theme rather than the human sort:

Scatter!

This repeat design is put together from sketches I made of Galápagos Sea Lions seen on a beautiful documentary about the Pacific Ocean. As ever, I'd appreciate your vote if you have time :)

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Update 2014: See the new version of the sea lions here!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Java Sea

Illustration Friday: Soaked

Java Sea I

Java Sea II

This inter-island area of the Pacific was flooded at the end of the last ice age and now its warm, shallow waters support an estimated three thousand species of marine life. I'll admit, I often sketch from the telly, mainly nature and travel programs, and these drawings were taken from film of the rich volcanic waters off Krakatau (Globe Trekker on the Travel Channel).

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Sea Dragon

Look what I won! A full resolution pdf copy of Naomi Orana's Sea Dragon:

 

I just love the patterned fish! And look at the style in which she announced the winner of her giveaway:

To see more of her beautiful paintings visit her blog 1 day or have a good old rummage in her Etsy shop!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware