Sundance

Poppyfield and Sundance

Hi, have you had a good start to your weekend? I've been sorting out these new designs. On the left here is a new version of Poppyfield with updated, brighter colours and a smaller repeat. To the right is a new pattern which I've based on it and I'm so happy with how the colours have printed - they're so fresh and bright. It's called Sundance after the flowers I'd never heard of and only happened to come across after designing this pattern - meant to be?! I hope you like them too; if you do, you can find them in my Spoonflower shop!

Have a good Sunday lovely peeps :)

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Pines & Cranes Night - Large Scale

I've had a request through Spoonflower for this design on a larger scale so if you'd also like to make a throw or a bedspread with this pattern then Pines & Cranes - Night (large scale) is available here!

Update 30th March: This design made the Spoonflower Hot Sellers list this week - many, many thanks to those of you who've ordered some!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

✶☽ Night and Day ☼☁

Pines & Cranes - Night

Pines & Cranes - Day

Details of Pines & Cranes Night...

...and Pines and Cranes Day. Click for a better view!

New in the shop: Pines & Cranes in the new nighttime version and a daytime version to match. They're based on a previous design which I had printed in a new colour with added texture for some pouches.

I can't decide which I like best; do you have a favourite?

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Nighttime

Pines & Cranes Desktop

A nighttime version of the Pines & Cranes design. Hopefully I can sort this out for the shop next week but for now I've set it as my wallpaper for the holiday season. As you can see, I'm not the tidiest desktop keeper (and this is the sorted out version)!

I hope you had a great thanksgiving if you celebrate it and have a great rest-of-weekend :)

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

The Moon

It feels like such a long time since I've written here but I've been busy all the same with future projects! I'll have to wait a while before I can post about those but here's something I've been working on last week:

Love, Luck & Happiness Decal Mural

I had a brilliant request from a lovely person through Spoonflower to adapt the Love, Luck & Happiness calendar for a mural. It was pretty tricky working out all the elements into this format but I love how it's turned out! The measurements left a space at the top of the three 30 inch decals which I filled with another design (of her choice) to cut off and use in another project:

Woodland Mural

This was also originally a calendar and I really enjoyed playing around with the elements to fit the space.

Patrice A. is hosting a drawing challenge over on her blog this week; subject: the moon, so I'm submitting the mural image above. I first came across her work on V's brilliant advent calendar and absolutely love her owl cushion - click through for the links to all contributed moon pictures!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Illustration Friday: Wings

Misty mountains for this week's Illustration Friday. To see all the other 'wings' illustrations, have a look over here :)

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

This year's Christmas.

These are the Christmas cards we sent out this year and I couldn't forget you, lovely blog (and all who read you of course!) I hope everyone has a really great festive season and that 2013 will be happy for you :)

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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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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Nasher Museum of Art

This week the Nasher Museum of Art is holding a contest with Spoonflower to celebrate their exhibition of works by Matisse, Picasso and Gauguin among others. Matisse had a huge and varied collection of textiles that he often featured in his paintings and the brief is to design a textile that would be at home in one. The top ten designs will be displayed at their Art for All event on December the 6th! The design is restricted to four colours plus white (see below).

Au Jardin

Au Jardin with specified colours

I'd love it if you'd take a couple of minutes to vote for me and have a look at all the amazing designs people came up with - click here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Twit-twoo!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Is There Life On Mars?

Vector Illustration: Earth

Vector Illustration: Mars

It really doesn't feel like over eight months since I posted these two but the view from Curiosity right now is already more like the second picture than the first. The mobile laboratory, which is the size of a car, is scheduled for an ambitious landing in Gale Crater at 05:31 GMT, August the 6th and we'll definitely be watching. Happy weekend peeps!

August 6th:

New pictures of Mars, credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The crazy sky crane worked! Such a great achievement - congrats everyone at NASA! I'm really looking forward to finding out more over the next few years.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Starburst

I had a lot of fun designing the pattern for this week's Spoonflower contest. The brief was to design a mid-century print for the Carey Players' upcoming production of 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying', set in the early 50s.

Starburst

There are some subtle textures on this one - click to view larger details.

In one of the scenes, Rosemary is hoping to impress with her new 'Paris Original' cocktail dress, only to find that she's not the only one...

These mock-ups show the dress that will be used (a Butterick) with the Starburst pattern. I really enjoyed doing these; it was great seeing it come to life like that! I've already seen there are some amazing designs over there so vote for me if you have a minute. Whichever pattern you choose Carey Players, I hope you have a great production - wish I could be there!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Distant Suns

A while back we were walking home from the cinema and it was a really clear and starry night with those high, translucent clouds you get in cold, dry weather. I've wanted to try them in a design since, so with the 4th of July coming up and a stars & stripes spoonflower theme, I've put the stars on an ombre striped sky:

1000 Distant Suns

I also tried it with a smooth gradient:

First Light

And finally, my original plan, with light clouds:

Summer Night Sky

If you have a mo' this week, head on over here to have a look at all the stars and stripes designs and vote for your favourites :)

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Celandine

Celandine

A member of the buttercup family, apparently these sunny flowers are named from the Greek for Swallow (chelidon), blooming as the swallows return for the summer. If you feel like making something sunny, this design is up in my spoonflower shop and available in 9 different kinds of cloth!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Print & Pattern Kids

Bowie Style over at the Print & Pattern blog is working on a third book and this time the theme will be children's design. Patterns for fabrics and wallpaper as well as wall art, illustration and greetings cards may be included and I've submitted a bit of everything!

Five-a-day placemats:

Around the World in Fruit & Veg - see the original here

a couple of birthday card designs:

and repeat patterns for fabrics:  

Sand Dollars in Pink Pearl, Seaglass, Honey & Seaweed | Butterflies | Scatter! (see more about the sea lions here!)

I think the book will be more geared towards 70s retro-style graphic design and illustration but fingers crossed - I'd love to be in a Print & Pattern book!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

I, Robot

I'd just finished reading I, Robot by Isaac Asimov when spoonflower posted their upcoming robot contest. My design is based on the first of the short stories in the book and features Robbie, the nanny robot. It was published in 1950, so I've used mid-century patterns throughout and the Peanuts comic strip was first published in the same year so I've tried to base the kid's faces a bit on Charles M. Schultz's brilliant characters.

I, Robot.

I was well out of my comfort zone for this one. Firstly, it's a design for a cheater quilt and I've never made one and secondly there are people featured, which I've always found tricky but I think I like. You really have to see the details below though because the yumtious textures are definitely the best bit:


I, Robot Details - close ups and textures.

I, Robot Details - fifties prints and cog flowers. Click to view larger.

 If you fancy a look at all the other robot fabric and want to vote for your favourites, click 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

  

Jhali..

.. is a set of four designs for this week's spoonflower contest: coordinates. I originally meant to call it Jhari (which, according to my Google search, means river in Sanskrit) because of the Indian feel to it and also because it is based on water gardens and fountains. Uploading the design last minute I mistyped and I think I prefer the typo - so Jhali it is! Does anyone know what that means (in any language)? I'd love to know; hope it's not rude :)


Jhali

Jhali details - click for larger view.

You can have a look at all the other coordinating patterns that the talented members of Spoonflower have uploaded here.. and vote of course!

I really hope you had a fantastic new year's eve and that 2012 will be good to you!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Festive Freebie!

Thanks to everyone who's visited this blog and for all the kind and encouraging comments about my work this year! I've made a high resolution PDF of the above image for you to download and use as gift labels or cards, or anything you like - click here to download the file (under 'file' on the top right)! Just print onto card or sticker paper and fill in your name or personal message on the blank cloud at the bottom.

I hope you have a brilliant festive season and a very happy new year!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Evergreens

Thanks so much to all of you who bought a 2012 calendar and journal cover! I really hope you, or whoever you give them to, will enjoy using them next year. This design follows a similar theme, with just the red crowned cranes and pines making up the pattern for this week's Spoonflower contest (evergreens, limited to just four colours). Apparently the clouds are for good fortune and the cranes and pines both symbolise longevity in eastern tradition.

Pine & Crane

Pine & Crane details - click to view larger.

Click here if you'd like to see all the other evergreen designs (and vote!) and if you drop by tomorrow, there'll be a small Christmas freebie from me to you for you to pick up :)

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Update: See the new night and day versions of this design here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware