Kennard and Kennard : Charming Coastal Creatures

Oh dear.  I swear I posted something in August but it turns out that I haven't.  Whoops.  And now it is the end of September. 

So what have I been doing since I last wrote?  I spent 2 weeks in August working on a quick studio job which took a lot of my time.  Then I immediately had to get a greeting card submission done and then work on my book job.  Can't say much about that yet unfortunately. I also finished a Fabric Collection with Kennard and Kennard and that just released recently!  It's currently available for pre-order on their website: Kennard and Kennard

It's titled Charming Coastal Creatures!

It's all about Australian animals located on the coast.  It was fun to work on and I learned a few more things doing this collection, when it comes to surface patterning.  Smart objects in Photoshop is your friend.  I also probably need to mute my colours more. I will need to try that on the next collection.

One of my favourite patterns where these rockhoppers too.  Don't see a lot of patterns with these little guys and I enjoyed adding in the crabs and sea stars.

Munching Rockhoppers

I normally hand draw in cafes and food courts. I like listening to the background noises and hearing the occasional snippets of loud conversations at the other tables. I get a bit stir crazy working on my own at home sometimes.

Drawing Fur Seals and Blue Penguins at the food court

I draw all the pieces separately, scan, colour and edit in Photoshop.  I tend to have a vague idea of how I want the elements laid out as I draw them.

Fur Seals and Blue Penguins

I would love to know how other surface pattern designers work.  I can work full digital but I really do enjoy the hand drawn process so I would prefer to stick with that a while yet instead of going full digital.  Though it will have to be fully digital when I start doing vector patterns.

That's me for now!  I'll try and write more in October.  I haven't been able to draw much for fun so it's hard to release anything up here.  Still, there are plenty of drawing challenges in October which I would love to do a couple of so I have things to upload onto my Redbubble shop!  Sadly, it hasn't had much of an update....