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I painted this watercolour Partridge in a Pear Tree illustration almost a year ago, blogged here. As the festive season is almost upon us once more, I pulled it out of the 'archives' to create some patterns that I'll place on fabric, gift wrap, tea towels, cards, etc ... though it's taking me some time due to the slow internet connection out here in my temporary 'digs'.

Here are the 3 pattern variations:

I then had to figure out a simple coordinating background pattern, and as I love stripes ...

Those stripes could be a tad paler, perhaps? Still, a sweet pattern for Christmas nonetheless? I'm also going to take the partridge off and keep just the pear tree as an all-year-round pattern, I've decided. I like it.

I wish all of you a sweet, colourful, delightful week. If you feel like getting some Christmas shopping done early and are curious as to how the Partridge in a Pear Tree illustration looks on some lovely home wares and gifts, I have the non-stripey ones up already over at Society6, so just click HERE to take a peek. Or HERE for the patterned version. I'll be blogging the cards and gift-wrap papers over at my Floating Lemons Treats blog this coming week. Cheers.

I am going to have to apologise in advance as blogging is going to be a bit erratic in the next couple of months, as I'm dashing around clearing things up and packing. Yes, packing. More on that later ... Meanwhile, here's a little paint doodle I did a few months ago that I've finally cleaned up and created a pattern with:

And here's the original sketch:

I left all the painted imperfections in this time. I normally photoshop them out, but I liked them here, it's oddly childlike and simple but sweet. Well, that's my opinion ... what do you think?

Wishing you wonderful days of sunshine and all things good. Cheers.

I'm still working on different colourways for my Into the Woods collection, but meanwhile, here's another new mini-collection that I've designed for spring and summer. It's wonderfully bright and cheerful, with lots of flowers that pop, and coordinating little florettes (well, that's what I call them) and stripes of curvy leaves ... wonderful for outdoor parties and get-togethers in the sunshine.

I've already placed in onto tons of lovely goodies for the home, kitchen, and on gift boxes and matching cards and wrapping paper. Click here for a peek at a Pop Flowers table setting, and on the links below to pop over to the stores where it's on a whole range of sweet products:

Pop Flowers Collection by Floating Lemons for Zazzle

Pop Flowers pink at Society6

Pop Flowers blue at Society6

Have fun and enjoy a wonderful week. Cheers.

I took a course from Pattern Observer, called Mastering Your Market, at the beginning of the year, but never had the time to showcase the pattern designs that evolved from it. It's about time I posted them, as it was an excellent course and I learned so much from it.

The patterns I created during class were very different from those I was used to designing - one reason I so thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, as it forced me to think and see from another perspective. Here's just one of them, Into the Woods ...

I was curious to see how it would look on bedding, so of course I made a mock-up from it ... what do you think?

I'm going to play with different colour variations to see how it might turn out, but was very pleased with this final result and a good review from it too. Now it's time for me to really go into the woods with the dogs for our daily walk.

Wishing you a fantastic day. Cheers.

Yes, I love studying. So I've just started on The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design's Module 4, having taken the previous 3 Modules last year and loved them. The e-courses are doing me a ton of good and, if anything, letting me know how much I have as yet to learn about art and design. It's the first week of ABSPD, and I've been sketching Things and Characters. Here's a bit of what I've come up with so far. I'm calling this first one "Cat Blobs" ...

I don't know about you lot, but I really want it on a print and, oddly enough, a tea towel - perhaps even a journal/notebook! The second one was just organic blobs really, and I'm not sure where it came from but quite liked it:

And this final one was an attempt to sketch birds. OK, it needs more work, but I can see a few there that can be improved on and used for something later, what do you think? Any favourites?

I'm not too sure of how that cat got in the bottom of the page, but it probably thought the birds just too good to resist. I'm off to sketch more today, let's see what pops up. Can you tell that I'm thoroughly enjoying this?

WIshing you a day full of pleasant surprises. Cheers.

I'm working on a few different projects at the moment, all in progress, all squeezed in whenever I have a few minutes free. Here's where I was at the beginning of the week:

I'm glad to say that I'm pretty much done with the "I Choose to Fill Myself with Positive Energy" text design for the April free printable (for subscribers to the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter of course!), and I'll reveal all when the time comes. Meanwhile ...

I went a completely different direction with my Jelly assignment for MATS Bootcamp, and have managed to totally confuse myself. Should I go with something more along the lines of last weeks sketches, here, or stick to a slightly more geometric rendering of jelly moulds, as above? argh. We shall see. I may have to sketch a lot more jelly before deciding.

Meanwhile, here's the progress on a sketch I'm doing that will, perhaps, end up as a Thinking of You card up at the Two Smiles for HP (Hewlett-Packard) site.

I drew it, scanned it in and decided to experiment with some brand new digital pastel brushes that I purchased from Kyle T Webster. Oh my, I love them. Now that I've been deprived of Corel Painter (it just will not work since the last OS update and I don't want to invest and buy the upgrade only to discover that doesn't work either. I was, needless to say, hugely disappointed) these, along with his real watercolour brushes, are making digital painting a delight once more.

Here's a quick peek at what I've done so far ...

I'm using them exactly as I would my pencils on paper and there are layers and layers of colour being built up. Still have a way to go as yet, but I'm quite pleased with the way it's turning out so far.

Back to work! Wishing you a wonderful day loving what you do and doing what you love. Cheers.

Snapped photos of some marigolds from the garden, erased the background on Photoshop and then popped them into Corel Painter and used oil brushes to repaint them. Back into Photoshop for a cleanup, and here they are.

Then played around a bit with filters to see if enhancing them further would give me extra-ordinary results. Came up with the result below and I do like it, though I think I prefer the colours and contrasts of the original above. Still, there's something slightly crazy about the version below that appeals to the 'need-to-experiment-more' side of my nature that's demanding my attention at present.

Wishing you a bright, extraordinary day. Cheers.

This one is for my mother. Please keep in mind the fact that I'm a beginner and still experimenting, and excuse all the mistakes that you more proficient watercolourists (is there such a word?) will probably be pointing out, as I'm playing without training or rules (Tons of fun!). Still my mother likes it and that's what counts, right?

Here's a few progress shots:

I used watercolour pencils at the end just to clean up and add some detail. Now, off to think of something else to paint ...

Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

I usually doodle into a small moleskine journal that sits beside me and gets picked up whenever I have to wait for something to happen, such as when I'm uploading large images to one of my stores. I've been flipping through its pages recently, and found this tree silhouette, so of course decided to see if I could take it a bit beyond its scribbly confines to and use it on cards or gifts somewhere somehow ... Here's the original sketch, warts and all:

And here are some of the steps I worked on. First I 're-painted' the background digitally so it wouldn't look so marker-pen-ish:

I then had the brilliant (debatable I know) idea of working on the tree itself:

And finally, as I have Valentine's Day ideas in mind, I carved a heart on the trunk ...

All of the above was done in Corel Painter 12 (I love it!) and Adobe Photoshop. I'm a mere beginner at both but I couldn't live without them now.

I'm still undecided as to which one to use or whether to use it at all, though I guess I could put up some cards with the carved heart on it and see if anyone would like that for Valentine's Day. Would you send it to someone you loved? Cheers.

I am, very slowly, learning more about Surface Design. And discovering that I'm loving it. It's certainly not a simple process, but I do love puzzles and that probably helps, as putting the separate pieces together to make a cohesive (and aesthetically pleasing!) whole is definitely a large part of the overall process. I just hope that I'm getting it right.

Following on from my Daisy Joy, I've drawn 5 Poinsettia plants in the same style, and attempted once more to create a pattern from them. Here's one of the painted Poinsettias, and below that are the fabrics I've designed from them. 

As the Poinsettia plant is so closely associated with Christmas, I've picked cheery seasonal colours for the backgrounds ...

Poinsettia Joy dots Fabric Collection

Poinsettia Joy red Fabric Collection

Poinsettia Joy green