Pattern 3/52

After the tropical palette of the last pattern 2/52, it is now time to face the reality of German winter again. Even though we have hardly had any snow yet … You might recognize the pattern again, I used Clara’s January calendar page for it. I took a photo of the cut-outs and it image-traced very well in Illustrator.

At the moment I am taking Module 2 of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, a course filled to the brim with information, learning, exercises and assignments and with an amazingly talented and inspiring design community.

Last week we learned (among many, many other things) how to mock up our patterns as wallpaper in a room set. The snowflake pattern might not be a wallpaper for all seasons (floral patterns are more timeless and pleasing throughout the year), but I think it looks very inviting to go on a little skiing holiday.

And I want to show you another mock-up set:

For dining in style after skiing.

Jan202015May 11 2015

Pattern 2/52

My second pattern for the year-long challenge is also based on a gem shape like 1/52, I call it Tropical Crystals:

This time the crystal shape was hand-drawn.

And why tropical? Because I used some colours of this colour palette from last year’s trip to Thailand.

And how I surprisingly found out today, the colours in the pattern are predicted in Pantone’s Fashion Colour Report for Spring 2015 here.

Jan192015May 11 2015

Pattern 1/52

I am happy to announce a new year-long project today!

As my three 365-day-projects have ended with the end of last year, I first felt some relieve for a while this month. Carolina has stopped taking her afternoon naps coinciding with the end of the photo-project and I can declutter now only when I feel like it. But I must admit, that I am not able to spend my two-Euro-coins anymore, I am collecting them again this year. Yet this doesn’t challenge me enough on a creative level, of course. Not that I could complain about too little creative projects in my life … I draw, paint and design on a daily basis and I am taking a couple of art and design e-courses this year again. There is A Year of Painting II with Alena Hennessy, Assignment Bootcamp with the Lilla Rogers Studio School and The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design with Rachael Taylor.

And surface pattern design will be my year-long-project – I will create (at least!) and post one pattern each week of 2015. My pattern-design-passion has started last year in October when I took Jessica Swift’s excellent weekend-intensive-workshop Pattern Camp (she is re-running the course february 7-8) and further developed my new skills with Rachael Taylor’s and Lilla Roger’s classes and hours and hours of burning the midnight oil.

As we are already the fourth week into January, I will be catching up posting patterns over the next days.

Here is my first pattern 1/52 – Flower Crystals:

Purely created in Illustrator and mocked up on a notebook.

I have recently discovered while designing that I am very much drawn to geometrical patterns and perfectly timed print & pattern’s new book has just been released:

So much eye candy and inspiring designs!

I must say, I am very excited about my project of 2015 which will be great for experimenting, having fun, staying motivated and further building my pattern portfolio.

PS: Here is another Pattern Camper, Stephanie, who had the idea first.

Jan162015May 11 2015

Vernissage Invitation (in German)

Jan142015May 11 2015

Stay Warm

15 minutes of painting on a January day.

And we even had a little snow today

(that didn’t stay).

Jan112015May 11 2015

Pink Moment of the Week

… “hanging day” of my exhibition together with Doris Reske.

Jan92015May 11 2015

15 Minutes

More often than not I get this question – how do you do it all? Having a family with two young children, being a self-employed yoga teacher and then all those paintings and the crafty stuff like sewing and knitting (and blogging about it).

There is no secret. We are all busy. We all have 24 hours in a day. And we all have creative dreams, that often get lost in the net of everyday. But what I often say – you can get a lot done in 15 minutes. 15 minutes a day add up to nearly two hours of creative time a week.

And because long stretches of creative time are usually unrealistic, I was very happy about the first lesson of Alena Hennessy’s painting e-course A Year of Painting II (I took the first year-long-course last year and this is the follow-up where we dig deeper). Painting your word of the year in 15, 10 and 5 minutes. No room for perfectionism in this short period of time. Just play, intuition and fun (even though some frustration might occur). These small imperfect paintings became some kind of meditation for me this week.

And I also found out this week that I am not the only one with this little-15-minutes-of-creativity-theory. I listened to an interview with creativity couch Samantha Beckett and she even wrote a whole book about it. Her advice: discover which of your projects matters most to you, spend 15 minutes a day on that project, every single day (before checking your e-mail). Magic will happen. Or in my words:

15 minutes of painting a day keeps the muse from going on a holiday.

Jan72015May 11 2015

Business Cards

My new art business cards from London were delivered yesterday.

I used a floral pattern from the MATS-course for the front of the cards and part of a painting for the back/contact side. They were printed by MOO and I just love that the business cards come in squares and that you can have a “green” option – printed on recycled paper and using wind energy for the production.