Biker Doodle: Felix

Felix was growing a beard but shaved it off recently. He decided it probably didn't look that great. Every once and awhile, Felix thinks he needs a fashion update, even though he's not that into fashion.

101 Florals : Under a microscope

Today's pattern has a little bit of a twist to it. For some reason I was stuck thinking about microscopic organisms all day today. It was just one of those things that stuck in the back of my mind. Do you know when you un-focus your eyes and just stare into space --- then little spots swim across your vision?

I was thinking about those. Those little tiny floaty things.

Then I made this pattern. It's a very pretty flower on it's own and though my first intentions were to show them as they were, in a cluster, I started drawing other things and just went with it.

Biker Doodle: Sandra

Sandra has a bike but she doesn't ride it anymore. She likes keeping it, though, “because it's a really nice bike, if someone would actually use it.”





My posting has been pretty sporadic this past few weeks, but I think I'm ready to say I'm going to be moving Bike-posting days to Thursday!

101 Florals : Clusters

Happy Monday! This weekend was a crazy one. For some reason it felt LONG. Really, really long. When I got home from manning the gallery on Saturday night I went to lunds and bought myself some flowers. They weren't Hydrangeas like the ones I've drawn for today's pattern, but a dozen roses. Bright Orange-pink ones. On sale.

Because I deserve them. Then, because I couldn't help myself, I bought roses for everyone else I was going to see that night. Yellow roses, orange roses, pink roses, peach roses. Llew and I once went to a psychic -- (which, now that I think about it, seems like a long time ago) who told me I need to buy flowers for myself more often.

I've remembered that ever since and I've made a point to get myself flowers at least once a month. I wish they lasted longer. I suppose that's why they make silk flowers. So you can have something a little more permanent brightening your day.



Anyway, speaking of permanence. I did this whole pattern with ink and no pencil. Just one group of sketches with a brush pen. Just one whole page of plant parts with no stopping. It was therapeutic. Here they are! Loads and loads of Hydrangeas!

101 Florals : Good Morning

After spending an hour making lots and lots of icons, and a couple different patterns, I finally scaled back and made something simple. I went with the star-shape and did a bunch of mini Morning Glories as a polkadot.

Today I was playing around with using a new medium called Art Graf Black Carbon. It's a block of black carbon that, when used with a wet brush, turns into ink! It's a nice, portable material to use and I ended up doing quite a few sketches with it before settling on these icons.



Here's how it looks repeated. I wish I had some sheets that look like this!





Here are some images of what I started with. I spent about an hour making all sorts of marks for this pattern so there are a lot of pieces I haven't used (hopefully I'll be able to use them later!)

This week has been a whirlwind of stuff. On Wednesday night we were broken into and a lot of our equipment was stolen. Luckily we have all of our files and things safe on a cloud server, and the things that were taken are all replaceable. It's a strange thing to know that people were in your space and going through your things.

Strangely enough - It doesn't make me fear our neighborhood and we're all feeling ok about it now. It sucks to think that there are crazy people in your neighborhood that are willing to go through that much trouble for a couple of computers. You've got wonder how hard up they are to chance getting caught. Thursday was crazy and we had the cops there (with the forensics team! Can you believe it?) for half the day as we ran through all that was missing.

Needless to say it set us back a little with work and it's awfully hard to get things done when you're trying to patch things up!

All is good now, but I thought I'd mention it here. We're doing just fine now and we're making the appropriate adjustments to the space to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm hoping this week will be nothing but sunshine and roses! Wish us luck!

Biker Doodle: Andrew

Andrew has a collection of strange collections: a collection of bottles manufactured before 1980, a collection of patches that are at least 70% yellow, a collection of cheap plastic dollar store toys…




I like the concept sketches for Andrew, so I thought I'd share those, too!

101 Florals : Greys! Hello, Fall!

A Detail

It's a three-day weekend! We've got a whole day left to enjoy!
It's unseasonably warm these days in Minneapolis and though I should be celebrating the remaining days of summer, I'm actually looking forward to the cool days of fall.

My wardrobe is stuck somewhere between the weird tank tops and short shorts that I had been sporting, and the too-many-layers situation I like to bring on when I start to see the leaves falling. I woke up today and when I looked outside, I noticed the majority of the trees outside my window are already turning yellow and leaves have covered the windshield of my car.

So! With that, I headed to an autumn flavored color palette. I figure I might as well usher in the cool weather with some grey, mustard, teal and neutrals. Now that I think of it, I just went out and bought a couple outfits in those exact colors...hmmm.


The full repeat pattern

With fall comes all of the other things I love. Like school. I begin teaching a pattern and product design course at the College of Visual Arts in St Paul on Wednesday and soon I'll be teaching a hands-on patterns class at MCAD. That, and I've got a lot of other fun things to look forward to as I get further into fall. Back into the groove, right?

For now, I'm running through all of my favorite types of patterns and trying new things. I think this Calla Lily pattern worked out well for me. I'm thinking of trying something a little different next time! Happy Fall, everyone. And enjoy the holiday!

Cross posted with 101florals blog!