On the Path

Checking In

Field Notes

Illustrator Brushes Patterned Sketchbook Revival 2026 ​

Inspiration

Artist Katie Scott Revisiting Past Work ​

Studio Notes

'Florence' 'Riverview' Fabric Collection

Final Thoughts

Bridging the Gap

Checking In

And just like that we are almost in the middle of the first quarter of 2026. I've been keeping my goals front of mind and making an effort to keep on track. I still haven't got the hang of pre-planning my days and weeks as I wanted, but that's okay. I've noticed that some days my mind is clearer and it's better to tackle the things that take me out of my comfort zone. Other days, when I'm not feeling as inspired, are more suited to completing the more mundane, everyday tasks. But my long-term habit of writing a to-do list at the end of my day has always been my key to getting things done and keep moving forward. I seem to have settled into a more relaxed daily routine, as it seems to suit me best. I’d love to know how your first quarter is going and if you are feeling the same.

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Illustrator Brushes

When I began using Illustrator I had no idea what brushes were. But when I was creating my 'Row Boat Chaos' design I found out just how useful they can be.

Trying to create this rope between my row boats would have been impossible if I tried to piece it all together with separate shapes. Believe me, I tried! By creating my own brushes in Illustrator I created curving lines of rope easily.

Simply put, brushes apply a design along a path. I've recently made a few new brushes as I wanted to create the type of fancy flower stems that William Morris uses in some of his designs. I'm definitely not an expert, and I'm finding things out as I go, but I'm hoping you might find what I've learned so far to be useful.

There's a couple of things to remember when creating your brushes:

• Create your design horizontally if you want your design to repeat seamlessly. If you create a vertical repeat, you will get individual blocks of the repeating tile appearing along your path.
• Make sure your design repeats perfectly from left to right, like you are designing ribbon or washi tape. It doesn't need to repeat from top to bottom.
• You don't need to add a bounding box underneath your design with no stroke and no fill as you do when creating a pattern swatch.
• Be mindful that your design may be repeated around curves. That's why I made sure to keep my beige edge pieces whole in the example below. They don't extend in front of, or behind, my horizontal repeat. My black flower is chopped off, but as it is in the centre of my 'ribbon' it appears to meet together on the finished path. Practice makes perfect. You will learn what works as you go, just as I have!
• Use the Pathfinder Tool on your finished piece to unite all the sections and avoid those hairlines showing up!

Making a Brush

Create the Artwork Draw your design in Illustrator as a horizontal repeating tile. Once you're happy with it, expand any effects, outline any strokes (OBJECT-PATH-OUTLINE STROKE), and determine the repeat dimensions of your artwork.

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Clip Artwork to Create a Repeat Tile Apply a rectangle with the repeat dimensions over your artwork. Use the crop feature in the Pathfinder Tool to remove anything that extends beyond the repeat.

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Your Brush Artwork is Ready to Save Your cropped artwork should look like this - clipped to the right dimensions.

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Saving Your Brush - 1 Select your cropped artwork, open the Brushes Panel, click on the plus sign at the bottom of the panel. Choose 'Pattern Brush' from the pop-up menu and select okay.

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Saving Your Brush - 2 A 'Pattern Brush Options' menu will open. Just make sure that the scale is set to fixed, and 'Stretch to Fit' is selected. You can also name your brush here.

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Finding Your Brush Your new brush should now appear in the brushes menu.

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Applying Your Brush on a Straight Path Draw a line with the Pencil or Paintbrush Tool and select your brush from the Brushes Panel. Your design should seamlessly follow your line. Applying a brush to a path is considered an effect, so you will have to expand it.

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Applying Your Brush to a Closed Path Try applying your brush to a geometric shape created with the Ellipse, Rectangle or Polygon Tools.

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Change the Colour?

You can use the Recolour Artwork Tool with your design if you want to change colours.

Change the Size?

Before expanding, change the size of your stroke.

Change the Direction?

Your brush will be applied to your stroke depending on which way you drew your path - top to bottom, or bottom to top.

Hairlines Showing Up Between the Repeated Sections?

Remember to use the Pathfinder Tool on your finished piece to unite all the sections. This is something I forget to do!

Different Brush Types

I haven't delved into the world of brush types, but here's a rundown of their uses:

• Calligraphic Brush - These brushes create strokes that look like they were made with a traditional ink pen or an angled, flat-tipped calligraphy pen
• Scatter Brush - This brush takes a single vector object or art and disperses copies of it randomly along a path
• Art Brush - An art brush stretches a single vector object or shape along the entire length of a path
• Bristle Brush - These brushes are designed to realistically simulate the look at feel of a physical paintbrush with individual bristles.

I've bought a few brushes before on Creative Market, but really haven't used them. Now I'm feeling a little more comfortable with making them myself I don't think I will be buying them in the future.

I've provided a link to the short video that taught me the fundamentals of creating my own brushes. There's nothing like watching someone do the thing you want to learn!

How to Create a Rope Brush

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Patterned Pro

I am sure that you've all familiar with the website 'Patterned'. It's not just a place for you to showcase your designs - it's also a place where you can sell and license your designs. I upgraded to a Patterned Pro membership last year as I love being able to upload mockups with my designs. What a great feature.

If you're not on the platform, but would like to be, you do need a code. Each Patterned Pro artist is given codes to give to friends. Please feel free to email me if you're interested in joining Patterned and I can send you a code so you can start listing, and hopefully licensing or selling your designs!

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Sketchbook Revival 2026

A few issues ago I mentioned the free annual 'Sketchbook Revival' workshop hosted by Karen Abend. I find it such a wonderful experience that I highly recommend you have a look. 2026 will be the ninth year. It will be held in April, so if you'd like to take part this year you can learn more on Karen's website.website​

Karen Abend's Website

Artist Katie Scott

I came across Katie Scott as I was scrolling through Instagram and instantly fell in love with her work. She’s best known for her incredibly detailed drawings — full of plants, flowers and creatures — all drawn with such care and attention. Her work feels both scientific and vintage at the same time, which I love. What inspires me most is how closely she observes nature and then recreates it in a decorative way without losing its integrity. And because it's so detailed and considered, I find myself discovering new things every time I revisit a piece of her work.

If you'd like to learn more about Katie, you can find her Instagram page here:

Katie Scott

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Revisiting Past Work

It's not a new idea to go back and recolour old designs but what about reimagining them? I did that recently and I was really happy that I did.

This was a painting that I created last year. It was a fun way to get back into using gouache, but I hasn't really done anything with it. I created it to practice how Hanna Wendelbo creates repeating patterns from her paintings in Photoshop. And there it stopped.

So recently I gave Image Trace a go and it totally changed the look and feel of the design. You may have figured out I like precise lines but I'd love to fully embrace the hand painted look, especially as it seems to be popular again thanks to rise of AI. And I love seeing other people's designs that do this look so well. Here's the same artwork transformed with Image Trace. I liked it so much I used it in the banner for my Spoonflower store and it's included in the final lineup for a collection I'm currently finalising.

So perhaps you could go through some of your older work and reimagine the whole design, or reuse some of the motifs, or use it to inspire a mini collection. I'd love to see what you come up with. Let's inspire each other!

'Florence'

I've been busy designing just for fun, but with the thought of a creating new fabric collection in the back of my mind. This design is named after my wonderful grandmother, Florence, who always wore pastels and loved intricate florals. She could crochet the most perfect doilies and rugs, and made the best pikelets. I chose a very basic stem as it was much too busy with lots of the others I tried out. I think she'd like it.

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'Riverview' Fabric Collection

My second fabric collection with Phoebe Fabrics is now available for preorder. It's distributed in Australia and New Zealand through Fern Textiles. I can't thank Merryl from Fern Textiles enough for all her help and insights. It's tricky to know how the process works as a newbie!

To help promote the range I sent an email to some of the fabric stores here in Australia that may be interested in stocking the collection. I will have to wait a while to see if my efforts have paid off. 'Riverview' is due for release in April.

View my Email Here

Bridging the Gap

I'm currently reading Stacie Bloomfield's new book "The Artist's Side Hustle". One part in particular has really resonated with me. Stacie was sharing how frustrating it was for her early on not being able to create the work she wanted to, and how the words of Ira Glass helped her rethink and successfully navigate this stage of her creative path.

I often wonder if I’ll ever make the work I really want to make. Looking back at my very first patterns reminds me that progress is happening, even when it’s hard to see day to day. Simply acknowledging that the gap exists, and it is a necessary part of the creative journey, is the first step toward getting to the other side.

Until next time,