pattern camp weekly challenge: forest

© virginiafitzgerald 2016

Some of you may remember that this summer I won a scholarship to Jessica Swift's Patterncamp, which was a weekend long 'bootcamp' for pattern design using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.  It was an amazing weekend!!! though the expression, 'drinking from a firehose' really captures the experience.

© virginiafitzgerald 2016

There was A LOT of information shared within the 48 hours, but luckily you have many opportunities to continue to learn and practice.

© virginiafitzgerald 2016

One of these opportunities is every week Jessica offers all campers, past and current, a pattern challenge theme with which to create new patterns which you can then share with the PC community.  I have been able to participate every few weeks, but I love it when my schedule allows, as the weekly challenges helps me to hone my new skills and I can get feedback from fellow campers.  It is one of the many benefits of patterncamp.

original postit pattern

For last week's theme: forest, I created two patterns, in a variety of different color ways .  The pattern of 'just trees' I did in Adobe Illustrator, a program that is very new to me.  The bird pattern was done with Adobe Photoshop, the program with which I am very comfortable.  For this pattern I started with a painting from my #30daysofpatternstudies that I did last February with Francisca Nunes. (click here to read more about my adventures in patterns on post-its.)

© virginiafitzgerald 2016

© virginiafitzgerald 2016

The next bootcamp weekend is in October, some info and links to the class are below.  I highly recommend taking this online course if you are interested in pattern design.

Jessica is a great and patient teacher.  She is a working pattern designer and illustrator so she has real life experiences to share.  The bootcamp is a great survey of many aspects of putting a design into repeat, AND you become part of a wonderful community of like mind pattern obsessed folks!!!

Though beware ... it can be HIGHLY addictive!!!

peace,

The next session of Pattern Camp is October 15-16, 2016.

Registration will open September 15, 2016.

Pattern Camp is a 2-day, intensive, weekend-long virtual, online pattern design workshop created + taught by Jessica Swift. It’s pattern design boot camp! (Except fun, and no one will yell at you, promise.)

a flurry of spring is now online ...

some of the products available at Society6

Today, I have dipped my toes into another online venue with some of my design work.

I worked one of my #30daysofpatternstudies into a repeat, called it 'springtime flurry and posted it on Society6.

Society6 will put my artwork on a number of products so that anyone can go and order different merchandise with some original virginiafitzgerald art on it!!!

iPhone skin available at Society6

I have ordered one of the carry-all pouches to make sure that the quality is to my liking, however I know other illustrators and artists who use this site so I am pretty confident that I will be happy with the end product. 

As one of my goals for 2016 is to have an online shop, either on my website or via Etsy, I see posting some art on Society6 as the beginning of my foray into the land of online commerce.

Another perk of listing with Society6, is that they are running a promotion from now until March 6th - the link for the promo

promo: get FREE Worldwide Shipping + 15% Off New Carry-All Pouches when they order from your Society6 Store

Promotion expires March 6, 2016 at Midnight Pacific Time. 

*Free Shipping offer excludes Framed Prints and Canvas Prints

(Also, true confessions, it is such a hoot to see my art on the different products!!! )

And as a way to celebrate this newest entry to the online world,

 I have created a downloadable calendar for the month of March with the pattern of the day ...

you can either download the calendar from here or you can follow the below link to my flickr account

https://flic.kr/p/EeeoRJ

So happy March everyone and thank you for your ever-present and thoroughly appreciated support!!

peace

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patterns on a post-it

photo by Francisca Nunes of some of our posts for her #30daysofpatternstudies 

One of the perks of Instagram, besides finding awesome artists and beautiful art, is discovering interesting projects/challenges.

Last year I contributed to the coloring book 'Breathing to a new Beat, "the Breathing to a New Beat Technicolour Dream Book is a collaborative fundraising colouring book to support the Heart and Lung Transplant Trust Vic (HLTTV)" and the brain child of CurlyPops .  

This month I stumbled upon Francisca Nunes' #30daysofpatternstudies and knew it was perfect for me ... I love pattern and a post-it is the perfect size so that I can't spend all day working on it (need to be on the watch for anything that may be a #productiveprocastination possibility)

pattern 11/30

And it has been a perfect project, post-it are always available, and perfect for when you are on 'hold' on the phone, waiting for a carpool pick-up and lately they have been quite handy while traveling on the train and during the 'lovely, yet repetitive' college informational sessions.  This week Francisca posted about her reasons for starting her #30daysofpatternstudies and has posted some of our patterns (make sure to click on the link at the bottom of this post to be taken to her blog!)  and I figured I would share how this has been such a terrific experience for me on my blog.

pattern 10/30 'lovebirds' for Valentine's Day

First I have really enjoyed getting to 'know' Francisca and her work via Instagram! 

another photo by Francisca Nunes of some of our posts for her #30daysofpatternstudies 

Secondly, any of these daily or monthly projects/challenges are a great way to hone a certain interest or talent. Doing a certain assignment every day for an allotted time takes away the sense of the work being 'precious' or the need for it to be 'perfect', two words that can kill any creativity!! 

one of the rooms at Charleston, Sussex, England

Creating these 3x3 pieces of pattern has reminded me about how much I LOVE to create pattern, how I used to envision living in a home that I covered with pattern.  This explains my obsession with the Bloomsbury Group and the country home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, the Charleston Farmhouse, where the artists decorated the walls, doors and furniture! 

pattern 13/30 

pattern 14/30 

Also this project got me to pull out my gouache paints, an opaque watercolor, which I used to use when I was creating illustrations and art for greeting cards (way back when).  Via these post-it, I am thoroughly enjoying rediscovering the wonders of gouache, which is so timely as I am reestablishing my freelance illustration and design business this year!! 

pattern 12/30 (pen and gouache)

Lastly this has been an awesome project to take on the road ... post-its are perfect for traveling as I taking my daughter on an eastern seaboard college visit via Amtrak.  And it turned out to be a lovely mother/daughter bonding moment!!! Below is my post-it pattern which was inspired by Maya's beautiful mandala!!!

pattern 15/30 

To see all of my post-it patterns you can check out my instagram feed and to see see the work of Francisca Nunes and read her thoughts about her project, #30daysofpatternstudies check out her blog: 

http://heartmakes.blogspot.pt

And lastly, as Francisca noted in her blog, JOIN the FUN!!!

"If you join us post your patterns with the #30daysofpatternstudies and #heartmakespostit, so every patterns will be in the same palace and we all can see the creations of each others!"

pattern 1/30, felt tip marker and gouache
hope to post this on spoon flower as a repeat
©virginiafitzgerald2016

peace

getting out the votes!!!!

yes, you are right  ... isn't it too soon to be campaigning for the next president?!?!? 

But I am NOT talking about that kind of voting!!

click here to place your vote for my design 

I talking about voting for MY design for 

Spoonflower's 2016 calendar dish towel contest!!! 

I finally submitted a design to the weekly contests hosted by Spoonflower!!

something i have wanted to do for a long time.  

And since I LOVE dish towels and love calendars 

this was a contest I couldn't pass up!!! 

So now I need to get out the vote!!!! :D 

so click this link and go 

VOTE!!!

http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=329

Now the voting can be a bit confusing for some ... 

so if you are having some issues, hopefully these visuals will help.

but do remember it is NOT as complicated as it may look :)

here is Spoonflower's home page, 

which you will see if you click 

spoonflower.com

Click on the box on the left that says "VOTE ..."

you will then be brought to this page:

now click on box on the right:

VOTE IN THIS WEEK'S CONTEST

(or if you click HERE, this link takes you directly to the voting page)

you should then be on the voting page which will look 

something  like this:

but they state clearly "Designs are ordered randomly for each person who votes." 
which means the order of the the designs vary for each voter 
so you may not see my design right away so then you will need to scroll down. 
And if you are not finding it then refresh your page and you will get a different order

once you find my design, click of the check mark to select!!

after that you can click 'submit' or vote for other designs.  

There are some really nice designs 

 once you submit you will get a dialogue box like the one pictured below and you will need to type in the text that you see (this is Spoonflower's way of making sure each vote is done by a real person)

once you submit your the correct text :) 

you will get a page saying 

THANK YOU FOR VOTING!!

from which you can share your activity on Facebook or Twitter!!

(I am suddenly getting the allure of social media!)

You can also order this design and make your own dishtowel!!! 

Spoonflower prints on many different types of fabrics and makes gift papers.

I have always been happy with my orders from Spoonflower!

I am hoping to post some more designs on my Spoonflower 'store', 

(yes I have a store :) Can you tell that I am having some fun?!?!? 

peace & thank you!!! x

Illustration Friday: Kernel

When I saw the prompt for this week's Illustration Friday I thought of this surface design I made in another life!!

Each week the topic is suggested by a fellow illustrator, and included in the topic email there is frequently  a quote.  The illustration doesn't need to relate to the quote & mine obviously doesn't, however I wanted to share this lovely quote. 

 “Nature has neither kernel nor shell; she is everything at once” ~ Goethe

This week's topic is "kernel", suggested by Sylvia Liu (http://www.sylvialiuland.com/). Thank you Sylvia and let's go out and enjoy Nature this lovely Spring weekend!!

Peace