A Change of Season

March is the beginning of my favourite time of the year - Autumn! The weather starts to cool down, the light becomes softer and getting things done becomes a little easier for those of us that struggle through an intense, and often humid Australian summer. The daily chore of watering the gardens or attending to outside duties first thing in the morning, before the heat sets in, slowly fade away and the days' activities become less dependent on the weather forecast. We can start enjoying morning tea on the front or back porch again and I can wear my favourite hand knitted jumper in the evenings. Oh how I'm looking forward to snuggling up underneath a patchwork quilt again!

Free Mockups

While trying to source some new mockups to share my new collection recently, I happily stumbled upon a website you might like to have a look at. Mockups-Design.com offer hundreds of free quality mockups perfect for surface designers. I was blown away by the quality and quantity I found so I downloaded some and tried them out in Photoshop. They worked beautifully. Here's a few of the mockups I created:

If you do venture over to the site it's worth reading the About section. It shares the story behind the website and how it's all created by one person with the sole intent of offering free mockups for designers! There are a lot of ads on the website but the host explains that's how he can offer his mockups for free. He also asks for us to share the website with others. I hope you will have a look. I'm sure you will find it as useful as I have!

Acrylic Markers and the 100-Day Art Challenge

I saw Katie O'Shea using her ARRTX acrylic markers on Instagram and knew I had to have them! The colours are so vibrant and they are so satisfying to use. From the first stroke I knew I'd found a wonderful way to 'paint' without all the associated mess. But I must admit not being able to get a thin accurate line is a limitation I am slowly learning to embrace. I'm using coloured pencils to add detail and texture, and to even out some of the lines. As I was using the markers regularly I decided to start the 100 day challenge. So far so good. I am really enjoying creating for fun each day.

Stacie Bloomfield's Free Procreate Class

I've signed up for Stacie's free 3-day mini course running 10th - 12th March called "Your Digital Art Start" to help me advance my skills with Procreate - it was one of my goals for this quarter. The lessons arrive in your inbox but you must sign up ahead of time. You can find the form on her website through a pop-up, or through a Gingiber Instagram post published on 17th February.

An Artist Date

We love visiting The Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney. It's about a 2-hour drive away from home so it's definitely a planned day-trip for us. When I found they were hosting an exhibition showcasing Australian women artists in Europe 1890-1940 we had to go. The beautiful work of Nora Heysen, Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington-Smith was on display, as well as lots of others I hadn't come across. There were over 200 paintings and sculptures in the exhibition so we were able to really immerse ourselves and spend a good hour wandering around.

Of course, as I'm looking at the art on display, I couldn't help noticing the design on a ladies' beautiful dress! That happens a lot to me - a design on someone's clothing or a colour combination stands out. Does it to you too?

While we were there we also got to see an exhibition by another Australian Artist Ron Mueck. We had seen one of his sculptures at out local art gallery a while ago and I was keen on seeing more of his work.

One of my favorite artists of all time is Brett Whiteley. I also love the work of John Olsen and I was happy to find his work 'Five Bells' as I walked around. There was an amazing parquetry mosquito by James Angus and a landscape by William Robinson that I loved too. There are 2 huge buildings filled with art so it's impossible to see it all in one visit, but we fit in as much as we can each time.

But one of the unexpected highlights of the day was stumbling across Art Express. It's an annual exhibition showcasing the top artworks created as part of the NSW Higher School Certificate Visual Arts course. Art Express means a lot to me because one of my artworks was selected back in 1991! It brought back such happy memories for me.

I fully understand the importance of participating in weekly 'Artist Dates' suggested by Julia Cameron but I have to admit I rarely do it. I'm sure that my creative work would benefit if I made it a priority. Another place I love visiting is our local garden centre. It's free and I can spend as much time as I like looking at beautiful flowers and foliage as well as the sculptures and garden ornaments they sell. Do you regularly take yourself on an 'Artist Date'? Do you enjoy visiting your local art gallery or is there somewhere else you like to visit? Where else do you go to be inspired? I'd love to know.

Showcasing The Process

I have always found the preliminary sketches of a design can be just as beautiful and inspirational as the finished work. As artists they are a fantastic resource to learn more about the art of surface design. If you've been lucky enough to hear Bärbel Dressler analyse the Arts and Crafts style by looking at these sketches, you will know how much information can be collected. And with the rise in popularity of everything created by hand it is a perfect way to share the human hand behind your work. Have you ever thought of showcasing your work in this way?

A New Collection

During our Murray River trip last year, I created a lot of new artwork with the hope that it would become a new collection. But once I returned home, I realised the designs didn’t sit together as cohesively as I’d imagined. I had plenty of blenders and coordinating prints — but no hero. And the hero is usually where I begin. So I went back to the drawing board to see how I could bring it all together.

I revisited the sketchbook I'd filled during the trip and 'considered' using a few of my older designs I'd been working on, thanks to completing 'Repertoire' while we were away. And then things started to come together. At first, the collection was about what I saw. In the end, it became about what I learned. I'm feeling like I'm on the home straight now - finalising the scale, naming each design and refining the logo and blurb. In all, this collection has taken six months to get to this point. Giving myself time for ideas to take shape and settle in, or be excluded, has reminded me how simple, or challenging, the process of creating a collection can be!

Once I'm happy with all the designs, and the blurb and logo are finalised, I will be ready to pitch the collection. Somehow, I've managed to avoid this necessary part of the surface design business for far too long! I think I will rewatch Mel Armstrong's Skillshare class to learn how I might tweak my approach and hopefully achieve a licensing opportunity. Do you have any advice or tips you'd be willing to share?

A New Printer and Scanner

And just like that our 12+ year-old colour printer/scanner died and I was in the market for a new one - but which one! After a lot of research I'd come up with what I thought was a sensible solution. After asking for the advice of a knowledgeable salesperson I am happy to say I think I made the right choice - an Epson ET8550. No more messy cartridges and a sublime print quality we haven't had for a long time.

I was lucky enough to pick up a second-hand A3 scanner and printer for $50 a few years ago as I like to sketch and work out my repeat tiles on A3 paper but the print quality is rubbish. This new Epson printer can print A3 so a whole new word has opened up for me!

Printing out each design in a collection is how I determine the final scale of each pattern so having a working printer is essential. Envision me standing among a sea of printed pages strewn around my lounge room! I write the percentage I reduced or enlarged each design on the back of each sheet and this saves me so much time! Having the right equipment really helps doesn't it.

Consistency

If you're taking part in the 100-day challenge I'm sure you started out with all the same feelings as I did. It's a big commitment, and it's more than likely that the excitement will wear off at some stage. But so far, it's a daily delight rather than something that I feel forced to do. I'm not very good at posting on Instagram everyday (that's another challenge in itself), but I know that I'm keeping up and I look forward to picking up my art supplies and seeing what happens. So here's to consistent daily action! It will be interesting to look back once I'm finished and see if my work has changed through those 100 days.

Until next time,