A quick break from working on college projects and Floating Lemons uploads ... decided to pick the brush up and have a bit of therapeutic fun.
I'm now wondering whether they would look good on mugs, plates perhaps ... ooo, a shower curtain! Aha, off I go to experiment a bit more.
Have a fantastic week. Cheers.
Here's a fun illustration I did to go with one of my favourite quotes: "A Journey of 1000 miles begins with one step", attributed to Confucious.
I'm offering it as the first free printable for 2015, to the subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Last year I managed, by some minor miracle, to create an illustrated affirmation a month for those who signed up - despite the huge changes going on in my life. I was determined to keep my promise and I did it. Yay me.
This year, however, I'm going to be a bit more sensible as I know I'll be moving house again, and I will have assignments to complete for college ... so I'll illustrate favourite quotes whenever I can, and offer those as free printables, as well as intersperse that with a few giveaways throughout the year for all you wonderful friends who have signed up. A bit less stress and pressure until I find someplace to settle down in, eventually.
If you'd like to join in and receive a surprise gift or illustrated quote once a month, please do sign up, HERE.
Hope you're having a wonderful start to 2015. Wishing you infinite possibilities for the year ahead. Cheers.
Wishing everyone a new year full of positive energy!
It's been a year of huge changes, a few setbacks and (multiple) stresses, and a LOT of learning-new-things for me. It's been quite amazing and I've loved every second of it, even those moments (a few) when I felt like giving up completely. Well, I can be pretty stubborn when pushed, and that comes in handy sometimes ... I refused to give up, have ploughed on, and am looking forward to the changes speeding my way (oh yes, they are there) this coming year. Yes folks, I'm taking my own advice and embracing a life full of infinite possibilities.
I received a lovely parcel through the post that wraps my year up beautifully: the calendar created from the monthly free printables I illustrated this year as give-aways for the subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Couldn't believe how well it turned out, I love it. I haven't got my good camera with me (had to use the trusty iPhone) and of course am still in temporary quarters, so excuse the not-too-great quality of the photos below. Hopefully you'll get a goodish idea of how lovely it looks, up on the wall. A huge thanks to Zazzle for the amazing job printing it ...
"I Choose" Positive Affirmations Calendar 2015 by Floating Lemons for Zazzle
I don't want to overburden this post with too many images, so have placed the last 6 months of the calendar over at the Floating Lemons Treats blog, so if you'd like to see them just click HERE. And if you want to gift it to yourself or anyone you know who might appreciate some positive motivational quotes, click HERE.
Let me know what you think of it, and please forgive me for being just a teensy bit proud of myself at the moment -- not just of having created the art, but for having stuck to my promise and delivered an illustrated quote monthly even through the chaos of moving to a new country and (re)joining College!
So, have a fantastic and safe New Year's Eve and an even more fantastic 2015. Cheers.
____________________________________________
ooops, almost forgot! As of the 30th of January the "I Choose" free printables from 2014 will no longer be available for download, as I'll be starting something new for 2015.
So if you're a subscriber and haven't yet grabbed one of the above, then do so very soon (you can see the 12 designs HERE, though they are formatted as A4 pages for you to download, for easier home-printing). If you haven't subscribed yet and you'd like to be able to grab one or all of them as free printables, please sign up for the newsletter soon as I'll be mailing out an extra issue just before the 30th, with the download link, before it disappears for good. Cheers!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a fantastic New Year!
This alpaca is one of two that friends of mine are looking after at the moment. I've taken some creative liberties with proportions and perspective, but I'm sure they will forgive me for it. They are sweet, playful, and perfect for wishing everyone a warm, woolly Christmas and a friendly, positive, wonderful end of 2014. Have fun and be safe! Cheers.
It's the holidays! I hope you're all having a fantastic time with friends and family. I've taken a couple of days off after finishing up projects for this first term, but now I'm back to work. College has been wonderful ... so far it has been a huge, rewarding, re-learning curve, and I'm still digesting the feast of new creative ideas that I've been fed.
One of them was learning how to rubber stamp. I'm pretty hooked, and am contemplating getting my own carving bits and pieces so that I can experiment further at home. Here, though, is what I managed to get done in class using mini erasers:
And here's a look at one of my college projects. Definitely out of my comfort zone, and I'm a bit uncomfortable with the end result, but love the fact that I'm doing something so new to me. Eventually things will come together, I'm sure. Meanwhile ...
I was given 3 words: shoes, woven and dissect, and after much research, hair-pulling, distracting red herrings, and tons of experimentation -- all loads of fun -- this is what I came up with. Very childish and simplistic I know, but there are a lot of layers and depths hidden behind this sweet creation, so I'm more than happy with it. It's a good start ...
Enjoy the holidays! Cheers.
I've been busy. I've even gone on a couple of short trips recently, to get things in order and to meet up with family. So I'm a bit behind ... the slow internet connection doesn't help much but it seems to be behaving today, so am taking advantage and posting a few more pages from the sketchbook ...
This (very sketchy) illustration was based on Aesop's Fable, The Crow and the Pitcher. The crow is standing on a little booklet that tells you the story but if you'd like to read one of the (many) versions online, you can find it here.
And here are some 3D pieces I've worked on, a woven case for the ketupat (Malaysian rice is cooked in this for festive ocassions, read more here), and some metal-work that I thoroughly enjoyed. Might make a pendant out of one -- or all -- of those.
Yes, the theme for the moment is shoes. Well, sort of. More on that later. Meanwhile, have a fantastic week.
I'll be posting the final "I Choose" free printable next Saturday, and that will be available (along with the previous 11 from 2014) till the end of December to all subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. After which it will be gone, and I'll be thinking up something new for you for 2015. If you'd like to sign up for the newsletter and the free printables, just click here.
I've been busy at college. Started learning metalwork recently and it's wonderfully fascinating. I've done a couple of rough, small pieces and will show them off soon. Meanwhile I've managed a few doodles when time permits, adding colour to my Float Like A Balloon drawing and sketching a few ravens for fun, all in my moleskine blank book ...
So yes, I'm still fascinated by the black birds and their mythologies and fables, so will pursue that further whenever I find spare moments to do so. Right now I'm occupied with filling in college sketchbooks and drawing tons of shoes ... so expect to see loads of footwear up here soon.
Wishing you a week full of blessings and lightness. Cheers.
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.
As we head into winter I thought it would be good to have a reminder of sunny days and summery good times to keep us warm when the cold finally hits. As I write this the weather is extraordinarily mild (for the UK!), the sun is shining away brightly, I'm not as yet huddled in front of the fire, and am enjoying every moment of light and clarity ... while it lasts. Here's a little print I've made to lift the spirits during the greyer months ahead, or just to provide an extra glow if you're lucky enough to live where it's warm all year long.
I re-coloured my Painted Flowers pattern for this, and cleaned it up further. Seemed perfect for this month, wouldn't you agree?
As always, it's available as a free printable (along with the past 10 monthly designs for 2014) for all subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. If you'd like to sign up, just click here.
Wishing you good humour for the week ahead. Cheers.
This is one of the projects I've been working on recently, for an art college class. Yes, birds and mail art. Wonderful. Loads of cutting, slicing, collaging, and then drawing and painting, was done. I ended up with a couple of options to work on, and liked them both but ended up picking this one below for the final review.
I went through a bit of exploration and research and managed to develop quite a fascination with ravens, sifting through poems such as Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven', folklore, fairy-tales, fables--almost picked Aesop's The Crow and the Pitcher--so it isn't too surprising that I went with this pair in the end ... In Norse mythology, Huginn (from Old Norse "thought") and Muninn (Old Norse "memory" or "mind") are a pair of ravens that fly all over the world of Midgard, and bring information and news back to the god Odin. Flying messengers. Perfect.
I've depicted them as a white and black raven, and addressed the envelope to them. Their names are written in ancient Nordic runes just above their respective beaks. Yes, there's a message inside as well, written on rice paper 'parchment'. Private, of course. Let's hope that the envelope will eventually be returned to sender (me!) with a postal mark to show that it's been in the system. Here's a glimpse of the bit of mess I made while researching and working on the project ...
Here's the back of the envelope with a depiction of the Nordic mythical Tree of Life, Yggdrasil ...
The ravens and the tree were paper cuttings (my sketch book suffered somewhat) that I painted (watercolour for the birds and some marker pen on the tree) and collaged onto the envelope. On the front I'd also glued crosswords (to symbolize thought, naturally) onto the original white envelope, and then placed a thin sheet of rice paper over the whole thing so that it looked like parchment, slightly aged. I quite like the result, what do you think?
The other attempt at mail art was slightly a different one: I made an envelope from black paper and then cut straight into it, collaging and shading only the white bird on the front. Then I placed white paper inside the envelope so that it showed through the snipped out leaves, flowers and insects.
Simple, but I think it's quite cute. The back is a more abstract representation of a (meaner) raven and its wings, can you see it?
I did like this black and white bit of mail art, but once I'd begun on the research for the winged messengers of Odin, I fell in love with them and that was pretty much that. I think I made the right choice picking them as my final piece, what do you think? There are infinite possibilities for both options though, and I may end up using them somehow on cards and other goodies, so keep an eye out for them up at the Floating Lemons shops in the near future ...
Meanwhile, I wish you a fantastic week. Cheers.
I can't believe that it's been less than two months since I moved to the UK ... so much has been squeezed into that small amount of time that I'm still in a bit of a daze. But the good news is, of course, that I'm finally back on the internet.
Have tons of catching up to do but it will have to fit into the cracks between my college artwork. And I haven't been completely idle creatively either, despite 'real life' competing for my attention lately. Here's a glimpse into what I've been doing - tons of research and a few sketches for an upcoming class project. First though, here's the art-space I've set up for myself in our new, temporary home:
And a glimpse into the pages of a new sketchbook:
Different mediums, styles, cutting, collaging - lots of lovely experimentation going on. Birds (I'm developing a particular fascination with ravens and crows) and mail art. I've also been pinning for inspiration so if you'd like to have a look, check out my Pinterest Boards, Art: Mail Art, Art: Crows & Ravens, and Art: Birds. Have fun.
Wishing you a week full of flights of fancy. Cheers.
Still without internet! I'm sitting at the pub down the road trying to finish up the newsletter for this month as well as the free printable "I Choose" design for October. Pretty apt once again I'd say as I've definitely been scaling heights this past couple of months. The move to the United Kingdom has been a huge one and real life intervened with all the usual little bumps and glitches that accompany such a big event. But ... I've found a temporary home in the beautiful countryside of Oxfordshire, the dogs are happy, the friends are hugely supportive and art college has been an amazing experience so far.
Here's the design for this month:
My 'mountains' have been almost as numerous of late, and just as colourful. I wouldn't change a thing. I'm hoping to be back online by the end of next week - apparently there's a fault in our landline and an engineer has to come out and check it. Fingers crossed. Let's hope the landscape ahead is slightly less bumpy.
Oh yes almost forgot, the above design is of course available as a free printable (along with the past 9 monthly designs for 2014) for all subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. If you'd like to sign up, just click here.
I should be back to regular blogging soon! Wishing you mountains of joy for the coming week. Cheers.
I'm counting my blessings. And apologising for being one day late with this blog post and my newsletter! I've had to attend to practicalities and real life stuff. Who'd have thought moving to another country would take up so much time and energy ... ha ha. It's been a mad scramble to get any art or work done. Internet is intermittent at best here in the depths of the beautiful English countryside, so let's hope this gets posted today. I'm counting my blessings, and there are a multitude of those in my life daily.
Here's "I Choose to Count my Blessings", the illustration/affirmation for September. It is now, of course, another of the monthly free printables that I'm offering to all subscribers of the Floating Lemons newsletter. To sign up just CLICK HERE, and you'll get access to the previous 8 free printables as well as this one.
Wishing you a wonderful day and week full of sunshine, love and delight. Cheers.
Remember the exciting news I've been holding onto these past few months? Well, it's all happening now: I've moved from France to the English countryside. Why? I'm going back to school! To be precise, I'm going to attend, for the first time ever, art college. There's a ton of reasons for my doing so, and I'll chat about them as we go along to classes together this year, but it's a huge step for me and wonderfully exciting. I'm looking forward to learning tons, and to adding depth to my work and my life. It's never too late.
Which is why everything has been slightly haywire, upside-down, inside-out and choatic lately, and I have to apologise again for the lack of updates here, but you'll have to admit that it's for a brilliant reason and that you can't help but feel happy for me ...
I did manage to find time here and there to tackle a few more Spoonflower daily drawing challenges, though I was left far behind during the packing and moving bit of my journey. I'm still going to carry on and complete their themes despite the fact that the spoonchallenge is officially over today. Still, it keeps me therapeutically content having my pencils, pens, and trusty moleskine journal in hand.
Here are another 5 of the Spoonchallenges:
#SpoonChallenge 6: LEMON
#SpoonChallenge 7: BOOK
#SpoonChallenge 8: ARROW
#SpoonChallenge 9: TEA
#SpoonChallenge 10: TOAST
I have a ton of mundane practical things to take care of before courses begin mid-September, but today is Sunday and it's lovely and sunny here in the English countryside, something not to be taken too much for granted. So I'm having a short but, I think, well-deserved break with tea and the papers in the garden of wonderfully welcoming friends where I'm staying for the moment. Join me ...
Wishing everyone a glorious week. Will update again very soon! Cheers.
I've been so extra busy this past couple of months that I've barely had time to draw. So you'd be forgiven for considering me certifiably insane when I tell you that I joined the one month Spoonflower daily drawing challenge ... but you see, it's because I couldn't make time to draw that I joined it. I needed that push, excuse, motivation ... to pick up the pens or pencils again and indulge in some much needed creative therapy.
And it's been wonderful. Fine, I was a bit late with a couple of the pieces (busy busy busy, remember?) but so far I've managed to keep up - by the skin of my teeth perhaps, but still. Here are the first 5 themed sketches, drawn in my moleskine sketchbook:
1. CACTUS
2. MOUNTAIN
3. TREE
4. LANDSCAPE
5. RIVER
I'm quite pleased with myself. I had tons of fun, and there are loads of ideas that I can use and carry on playing with, from each of the drawings. But the main thing is (have I mentioned?), I had tons of fun.
One of my in-progress pieces was also featured in the Spoonflower blog round-up of drawings from week 1, how absolutely cool is that? Can't wait for the coming week - and it's not too late to join the daily challenge if you wish to. Just pick that pen/pencil/brush up, and then #SpoonChallenge the results onto your social media ... for details and the daily topic, check out the Spoonflower blog. Wishing you a fantastic 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.
It's been incredibly busy around here lately - getting ready for some huge personal changes, and enjoying the company of visiting family and friends - so busy in fact that I missed posting something here on Saturday. ooops. Have barely had time to breathe never mind draw, so I dug around for something I did a couple of months back, just for fun.
Here is my proliferation of peculiarly painted pets. Not sure whether to continue with these and turn them into a pattern or not ... what do you think?
Have a pleasant day packed with potty peculiarities! Cheers.
This piece was drawn in coloured pencils as an assignment for my MATS Bootcamp e-course. It started off as a preparatory sketch in my moleskine, but I got carried away and ended up putting down layers and layers of colour. This was the result, "I Choose to Embrace the Unknown":
As always, I'm offering all the "I Choose" designs monthly as A4/A3 free printables to those who sign up for the Floating Lemons newsletter, so if you want to print them out at home for your personal use, or pass them onto friends, just click HERE to subscribe.
I sketched out quite a few ideas before the drawing above insisted on picking itself as the final. Here are some of them, and the prep sketches that refused to stay preparatory ...
All in all a wonderful nautical exploration. Hope you've enjoyed a peek at it as much as I enjoyed working on the whole project. Wishing you a fantastical day. Cheers.
I've been busy busy busy these last few days, and so am posting a little painting that I did in March and am finally able to show off properly (posted about it here). The image appeared in my mind one day and I dug the watercolours out, and was quite delighted with the results. It happens sometimes. I call it the Tree of Blessings now (instead of Tree of Hearts which was its 'working' title), and I may use it as the basis of one of my upcoming "I Choose" text designs ...
Wishing you a day full of simplicity and appreciation. Cheers.
Did a bit of doodling. Not quite sure what this is meant to be but I like it and may carry on and explore further to see what it decides to turn into ...
Here are doodled gift boxes. Why gift boxes? No idea. They just tumbled out, all wobbly and imperfectly cute, onto the blank page. I'll have to consider turning them into a pattern or something ...
All proof that I do occasionally take a break just to have a bit of fun. Back to work now. Have a fantastic day. Cheers.
I can't believe that it's already June, the year seems to have flown past and it's once again time for our monthly text design which is, "I Choose to Make a Difference". Because I do. Do you? We can all begin with doing one positive thing daily, and bit by bit we can, together, change the world.
Just a quick recap for those of you who may have only just started reading my blog ... I decided at the beginning of the year to illustrate and post, on the first Saturday of every month this year, a positive affirmation beginning with "I Choose ...". I used to be pretty skeptical as far as affirmations are concerned but have placed cynicism aside and am now a convert. They work.
I'm offering all the designs as A4/A3 free printables to those who sign up for the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, so if you want to print them out at home for your personal use, or pass them onto friends, just click HERE to subscribe. We've had a really great response, which is wonderful, thank you to everyone who signed up!
Here are the newsletters so far, from January to June 2014:
Choose to make a difference today ... and spread the positive energy. 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
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.
Seven years ago I mustered up the courage to make a huge change in my life, despite having been offered my "dream job". I left Australia and moved to France to instead work on my art and build a career and business from it. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.
I can't say that it was easy, and I've encountered quite a few bumps along the road, but I learned tons, and dogged determination has gotten me this far, with a small but thriving business and a huge love for what I do. Now, however, I'm again faced with massive new decisions to make, both in my work and personal life, and it's time to once again find the courage to make changes for the future. To follow my dreams. So this text design is particularly appropriate and will be my mantra for the days to come.
I've also placed it against a white background for the free printable that will be made available to the subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, as all that black may be a bit of a problem for home printers to handle. Both will be available, so you have a choice of whether to print it against white, or black if you think your printer can handle all that ink!
To sign up for the newsletter and get access to the previous free printables as well, just click here.
WIshing you the courage to follow your dreams. Cheers.
I'm finally back in France after a wonderful two week holiday, and it's taking me ages to get back into the 'routine' and catch up on stuff, and e-courses. I'm working on the text design for next month's newsletter at the moment, but apart from that haven't had the chance to do any new art really, though I'm full of ideas after the trip to Istanbul, that I hope will eventually make it out into the light of day.
Meanwhile however, remember the Cat Blobs that I drew last month? I did get around to creating a pattern out of them, though it still needs a bit of further re-fine-tuning. And I have some doodles that were hidden in the moleskine sketchbook that might not mind being shown off ...
I'd really like to create some patterns from those bees, and I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the Sharing is Caring bear and owl, or the sleepy cats, but as I'm quite fond of them I'm sure they'll get improved on and worked into something in the near future.
Now it's time to start catching up on two weeks worth of my e-course! Wishing you wonderful learning experiences. Cheers.
