Ditsy

At Spoonflower this week everyone's designing ditsy prints. I was definitely getting into the spirit of it and being really ditsy.. and indecisive but that's normal :) I did a lot of drawing and painting, toing and froing, and found ditsy prints are quite hard to keep fresh and will happily evolve into your gran's old wallpaper if you don't keep your eye on them.


See?

I decided to simplify the colours and here's what I came up with:

Summer Meadow

Click the details for a bigger image.

Have a look at the other designs and vote for some good ones here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Northern Autumn, Southern Spring

Northern Autumn, Southern Spring

A limited palette (3-colour plus white) design for the Autumn contest. The background is grey - my 3rd colour - with a white pattern that's ended up looking quite warm and felty. If you have a sec, vote here!

Northern Autumn, Southern Spring Repeat.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Into the Blue

Into the blue.

Click to view larger image.

These birds are soaring into the Spoonflower blue! This colour is so reminiscent of the 50's and 60's, I used a pattern of white dots to shade the clouds that many pop artists used in that era. This contest was palette limited to black and white, spoonflower blue and one other colour.

See the other entries and choose your favourites here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

A new background.

Back in March, I submitted a design for the Joseph Joseph brief. You can see the winning designs here and, although mine isn't among them, I was happy with it. It was the first time I'd used vector graphics and really enjoyed learning on this design but was never satisfied with the blue background (put in at the last minute as a bit of a rush job) so I've updated it to something more me: 

A la Carte on Wood.

I think it makes the fruit and veg colours stand out much better and looks more in context laid out on the chopping board, although it's a weird old mix of photo and vector; still, I like it! Especially the new shadows, which you can see better in the details below. It's a happy coincidence that the crack in the board ended up pretty much on the date line :)

Click for detailed view.

I'm sure I can use it for something kitchen related. I was thinking a calendar or placemats; anyone got any other ideas?

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

And best of all ... it's free!

All these designs are available on a free swatch from now until noon tomorrow EST (5pm London time, 6pm Amsterdam time) including free delivery! The swatches are 20 cm x 20 cm (8" x 8"), so big enough to do something useful with. Read more about it here!

Free Swatches at Forest & Sea! Click for larger image.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Arabica Cherry..



Arabica Cherry in Smoky and Mineral Blue

.. available here now too!

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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

  

Forest & Sea @ Spoonflower

Now available at Forest & Sea on Spoonflower:

Palace Garden in Peacock Blue, Lime and Jaipur Pink

Palace Garden in Indigo and Pomegranate

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

`Apapanes and `Ōhi'a Lehua Blossom

`Apapanes and `Ōhi'a Lehua Blossom for this week's contest at Spoonflower.

`Ōhi'a Lehua trees are amazing: they grow right out of the bare lava on the Hawaiian islands. They're also the main nectar source for `Apapane birds, a type of honeycreeper whose feathers match the colour of the tree's flowers exactly. In this design the grey background represents the lava plain and the top and bottom borders are for the volcanoes and famous ocean surf of Hawaii.

This was made for the Hawaiian contest at Spoonflower that was palette limited to just 3 colours (+ white). You can have a look at all the entries and vote for your favourites here, read more about the birds here or visit the Forest & Sea page on Spoonflower here! I hope everyone's having a good week.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Taoyuan, Taiwan!

Google Street View is such a great tool but it never occurred to me to paint from it before I found this ingenious contest.

Taoyuan County, Taiwan. Click for larger image.

I came across some amazing views and finally chose this one; it's the Dahan River Valley in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. What cinched it for me was the cloud fall over the mountains (top left) and terraced fields (left bank). The Chinese characters say Taiwan.

Have a look at some amazing entries and leave a comment for your favourites right here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware