Since finishing the MATS Home Decor course, I have been feeling really inspired to try different creative techniques. I have done a few online courses on https://www.creativebug.com, one was blind contour drawing with Molly Hatch, which was fun…I like the naive look of the drawings, I might make a pattern for some blinds in my kitchen! :)
MATS-Wood week
Wood week was the last week of the course and the brief was textures. I decided to base my design on the kitchen this week and my main products were oversized vintage style chopping boards with recipes on them...
MATS Ceramic week
I was really looking forward to ceramic week, I have always been fascinated as to how the finishes are achieved. This weeks ceramic brief was to include hand lettering in your design. I stayed with my painterly style and felt more pleased with the final outcome on this one...
MATS Glass week...
The brief for glass week was to include pattern on your products.
Having felt the need to start painting again over the last 2 weeks of the course, I took the plunge and got cracking and boy did I feel the fear!!
I decided to keep the actual products quite simple, as I was concentrating mainly on painting, so I did 3 plates in various sizes. The florals were based on buttercups, dandelions and various grasses and weed type shapes.
MATS Fabric Week
The brief for fabric week was florals, which was lovely and you could also include the birds from the previous week.
When I started this brief I found that it was quite difficult for me. I normally design cute, quite colourful work and the mood board I had selected for the home decor course had fairly muted and quite sophisticated colours. I found it hard, as I kept wanting to add cute birds or quirky characters, but I was trying to achieve a more grown up look. It took a bit of getting used to.
At this stage I also felt I should be doing a more painterly style, as this is big in home decor at the moment. But having not painted for a good few years, it was kind of scary, so I stayed with my normal style of hand drawing everything and then live tracing in illustrator, apart from the bird canvas on the left hand side that was done with watercolour paints.
I was pleased with the final designs, but also felt frustrated, as i knew it should have been more painterly...
MATS-Home Decor...
I have been super busy over the last month and wanted to share the rest of my home decor assignments on my blog. The course was so enjoyable, I learnt loads about the home decor market and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in this.
I tweaked the first weeks Metal assignment slightly, so I have reposted that again...
Lilla's Home Decor Course Wk 1…Metal
I have been really looking forward to doing this course, my dream would be to produce a line of home decor products and I have always wondered, what the different techniques are called and how to explain this on your artwork. The course is presented by Lilla and Margo Tantau, VP of Creative for MidwestCBK.
I started off the week feeling really excited, I wanted to produce some screen printed looking designs, fairly simple, but bold and contemporary. I have no screen print experience (although I am planning to do a course shortly in Bristol at Spike Studio's) so I played around with hand printing. The theme was birds, and I got crackin (as Lilla says) and produced some hand printed textures that I thought were ok, scanned them in and experimented in photoshop. By Wednesday I had a design that I really liked... but by Thursday I was not so keen :)
I am not sure why this is, but when I finish my art in photoshop, it always feels to me more traditional in styling and I was looking for a contemporary piece.
So my work started off like this...
and then it went to this...
there was still something that I wasn't sure about, it was bugging me, so I tried another...
On friday I had a complete re-think... I realised that my taste in home decor is quite different to my normal paper products/surface pattern design. I had recently moved back to Bath from North Yorkshire, where I was working as a greeting card designer for a big company, to set up my freelance business and my house needs some re-vamping, as it has been rented out for 5 years. I wanted to design some products that I could make for myself, to put in the house. My taste is quite natural when it comes to home decor, I like white walls with patterned accessories, adding life to the place ...muted cols, natural fabrics and wood, but still very contemporary.
I drew some very simple shapes of florals and birds, scanned them, live traced in illustrator and then I played around with the colour to produce a design that was more me!
I am much happier with this design and feel I learnt absolutely loads last week, not only about the process, but also about the way I work differently, on different products.
My final design...
I am featured on print & pattern blog today...
Yay, I am featured on the wonderful print & pattern blog today, here is the link...http://printpattern.blogspot.co.uk
Print & Pattern Blog Designer's for hire...
I am now on Print Pattern designers for hire!
I won...
Yay…I won the Spoonflower competition with my mermaid pattern repeat! I didn't know what to expect as it's the first time I have entered…I'm really looking forward to working with CWDkids on a mermaid pyjama line for girls :)
Fashion Girl Character...
I have been experimenting with cute fashionable girl character's in photoshop this afternoon. Played with watercol marks and brush pens to get this look. Hope you like her :)
My Spoonflower competition entry...
The theme for Spoonflower's competition this week is mermaid's and as I had already done this theme in Lilla's MATS course, I thought I would enter. I have revised it quite bit, drew more mermaid's and tweaked the colour. If you like it, you can vote on spoonflower :)
Cute Mermaid Character...
I am going to enter the spoonflower contest this week…the theme is mermaid's. Here's one of my initial characters, hope you like her x
hello little bears...
This evening's character development.These bear's were done in illustrator…might try them in photoshop tomorrow to see which I prefer :)
Bunny Love...
Experimenting in photoshop this evening, playing around with the dry media brushes ...
Mum & Baby Bear Character Development...
Today I have been working on a range of greeting cards, for a lovely company that I freelance for. This evening I drew a Mum and a baby bear with bird friend :)
Character Development...
I love drawing characters, animal or cute little humans…but I always feel the fear before I start them! So because of that I have set myself a target, to do one every week day...hope you like the moggie's I did this evening :)
MATS WK 5-Paper Party Collection...
I didn't make the deadline for week 4 :( the brief was to design a map of your home town, I live near Bath, it's such a lovely city! It is almost completed and will be posted soon.
I loved week 5, the brief was folk art and I wanted to do a children's' party range. I hope you like the final piece...
MATS Wk 3-Scrapbooking
Week 3 of Lilla's MATS course was Scrapbooking…for me this was the hardest week so far! The mini assignment was based on airships… and if I'm totally honest, I wasn't loving it. This then led onto the main scrapbook project, with the theme of Vintage Communication including airships. Although I struggled more with this brief, I'm glad I persevered… I definitely enjoyed it more once I started putting colour down.
Here are some initial sketches and my final piece…
Childrenswear Design Cont...
For my final babywear project, I went back to illustrator... I just feel more comfortable using this software.
I want to develop the pattern's further, there's so much scope with this brief, seahorse's, mermaid's, crab's etc...so many icons to draw and a great theme for kids.
