Monday, July 30, 2012

Lindsay Nohl: We want a Pitcher (plant)

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I spent about two last night coloring, drawing, working and swearing over this one -- then I scrapped it. Pitcher plants are weird. They kind of look like snakes, a little bit like those tooting pipes (anyone know what I'm talking about?) in old Mickey Mouse Cartoons, and sort of creepy.

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Here she is in her full glory!

My second attempt at this pattern went a lot better and I tried a technique I haven't used in patterns for a while. I have this really nice brush pen that I used on a rather bumpy piece of drawing paper. The effect was a little dry-brushy and looked a lot more rough than I usually draw. I like it.

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AAAAnd a closeup!

Even though these plants are pretty wild, I think the final came out pretty peaceful looking. I chose the green type of pitcher plant and I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else does this one! It was hard!

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The Scan of my ink drawing! Unedited!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Alyssa Nassner: Wooden Shoes and Tulips



When Alyssa knew I was doing tulips, she flipped out and told me she was going to do a wooden shoe pattern with some tulips if I didn't. Since I went the more serious route and did a toile pattern, she did a nice lil wooden shoe and tulip pattern for you all. She told me when she was making this pattern that the inspiration came from a wooden shoe that her Dad had acquired from Holland. Coming from the East Coast she saw a lot of Dutch Amish folk art that inspired her artistically. So here it is, and enjoy!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Llew Mejia: Titillating Tulip Toiles




This week tulips are the subject and I thought they were a suitable flower to make a couple of toiles out of because of the Dutch countryside being a perfect subject for the landscaped nature of the traditional toile pattern.

 I ended up with two patterns this week because I made a couple larger tulip icons that didn't really fit into the dutch scenery pattern. I wanted to use the classic blue color to resemble Dutch dinnerware. It was actually pretty challenging trying to render something that had to appear like a loose semi realistic landscape, I am no Van Gogh, but I tried my best.

Tomorrow we will have the talented Alyssa Nassner  joining us for our guest post of the week, it should be good, stay tuned!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Lindsay Nohl: End of spring-time. Tulips

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You know it's spring when the tulips come up, but you know it'll be summer soon when they start to fall apart. The petals droop strangely on the stem, and they slowly peel open.

I love tulips, but I really love them when they're in that weird state.

This one was inspired by a gouache study I did earlier in the week. I wanted to get back to doing some things that were very human-looking and really expressive. I absolutely love gouache and don't use it enough. These days it's hard to get out all of your paints, set up, and sit down for more than a couple hours -- so, when I do, I savor the time.

I am sure that some of the inspiration from this one came from the Fairytales and Florals art opening I was at on Friday. Everything there was pastel and dainty and there were more than a fair share of flowers.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Olivia Mew: Chrysanthemum Kaleidoscopes


This week the fabulous Olivia Mew is joining us.Olivia is an illustrator and textile designer based in Montreal, Canada. After obtaining a BFA in Fibres from Concordia University in 2011 she turned to the illustrative / surface design side of her field. Since then she's worked on building up her own brand of printed textile products which she sells through her online shop as well as through various shops worldwide.

I have always loved Olivia's patterns and textures, so I am really glad she is part of this project. It's also great that we got to kick off the guest artist part of this whole blog with her, which like I said before is now being posted on Thursdays. So always check back when you can!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Llew Mejia:Tweenie Chrysanthemums



Hello everybody, so for starters I would like to say that we are beginning the most exciting part of 101Florals this week. Which is having guest artists join us weekly to show their personal interpretation of the weeks flower, this week we will have wonderful Olivia Mew with us, but you will have to wait until tomorrow. Guest artists will be posted Thursdays on every week from now on, So keep your eyes and ears open for every week we will have a different artist!


 Usually I feel like I go a little overboard with details on some of these florals simply because that's what I like most about drawing. But this week I really wanted to go for a more girly looking pattern to see if I could even do it, sometimes I feel like my patterns are a little too serious. I could see this pattern on a tween girls bedspread while she is asking a magic 8-ball  whether Scott, or  Blake, or Chet, or Chad, are still in fact in love with her, so I think I really accomplished my goal of diversity in pattern making this week.


To create this pattern I made around eight different icons in all different mediums from pencil, to brush pen and scanned them in with their respective textures which gave it a better flow. I then did a half drop repeat with a few of the icons and then filled in the rest to give you what you see now.





Monday, July 16, 2012

Lindsay Nohl: Chrysanthemum Wallpaper

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Well, I waited til the last minute to make this one, but went the extra mile to make it into something I loved. I spent my day yesterday waking up late, running over to St Paul and going to meetings -- then getting a moment of solace at a coffee shop with good friends.

So, as I stared this pattern around 10pm last night I cursed myself for procrastinating. Mondays are tough and today is no exception. I've finally transitioned to listening to the 50's station on pandora, which made working late so much easier. I spent a good 5 hours or so drawing, re-drawing, and singing at the top of my lungs into the wee hours of the morning while I finished this guy.

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Chrysanthemums are fun to draw. They're weird and curly and yellow (one of my favorite colors). They remind me of outdoor, spring weddings and of vintage wallpaper.

My plan, today, is to walk over to the coffee shop next door and buy myself a giant latte in celebration of late nights, getting things done and waking up early the next day!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Llew Mejia:The Bulbous Banana Flower

Nanner wallpaper pattern Nanner flower Nanner Flower This flower is even more alien than the last it's insane if you ever get a chance to see one you should. If you are really serious about seeing one you should just go to the Como conservatory here. Otherwise there's always google maybe with a human next to the picture to give you an idea of the size of these things. On to the pattern itself I wanted to make a damask pattern with this flower because the shape kind of lends itself to that but it needed something more so I drew a ton of paisley-esque icons to fill up the background space. I also wanted to include banana leaves because they are real cool themselves, but I didn't want to draw them realistically so I made them look more like a place holder for the flower stem. This one was a real challenge just because of the length of the actual flower. For the next flower we will have the feathery Chrysanthemum as our flower, and the wonderful Olivia Mew will be joining us as a guest artist, so keep your eyes open!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Lindsay Nohl: Banana Flower Pod

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Seriously -- you could have fooled me. After last week's temperatures, I would have sworn that I had taken a vacation in the tropics rather than a stay at my parents' house in Mequon, Wisconsin.

Temperatures were in the 100s, and I was wilting under the summer sun.
It's been a while since I've been on a real vacation and this was as close to a week of rest and relaxation as I was ever going to get.

I spent my time swimming in the pool, eating vegetables from my parent's huge garden, and bumming around the house. Both of my parents are go-getters. They have an incredible amount of energy and they never skip a beat. This year their project-pride-and-joy was their 30 x 45 foot vegetable garden. I spent a couple hours out there picking radishes, harvesting beets, (delicious, I know.) and taking the occasional instagram photo of a head of cabbage.

I was definitely impressed by their efforts and even more impressed by the dozens of canned, pickled radishes and beets my mom made after the harvest.

Seriously, they never stop.


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Here is my pattern in repeat. Pods! Everywhere!

I actually had a great time just being.

So, in honor of hot days and relaxation. Here's my 101 florals pattern of the week, the center part of the Banana Flower in repeat. A little tropical, a little seedy.
A little bit of both.

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And where it all started. Yeah, my sketches are a little messy... can you tell I use photobooth to "scan" my sketches?

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Llew Mejia: Clematis, a succulent pod-plant

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I used to have a bunch of different types of Clematis vines growing on the fence of my old house and they would always look like plants you would see if you got sucked into Jumanji, you know the crazy constantly life threatening jungle world where Robin Williams lives? I wanted to make my flowers have a poisonous creature vibe to them, so I gave them juicy eye holes and succulent textures. I want them to seem like they stank.

Anyhow I was looking at a lot of French Chintz patterns while I was constructing the way I wanted this pattern to go, it had to be seamless and well balanced like their patterns were. I had to toss all the larger icons and see that the spacing was really even, then print that out, draw over it where the vines should go, scan those in, place them, then create smaller icons to fill up the rest of the space. I just explained it pretty quickly but honestly it took forever...I also decided it would be best to do this in B&W considering the level of detail.

Hope you all enjoy it!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Lindsay Nohl: Clematis, forever zen

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So, yes, I took a couple liberties on color here with this Clematis, but I think this pattern is better for it.

The whole time I was making this pattern I was practically in a trance- fueled by streaming meditation music from one of my new favorite channels on the radio. I walked around Uptown with my good friend, Francesca, doing the coffee-shop tour of Minneapolis as she snapped pictures of colorful fixies.

We crawled around Uptown, Minneapolis, handing out flier after flier for an upcoming show at our gallery, when we finally stopped into a store I had been wanting to visit for nearly a year.

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Detail shot of the color-against-color work

My sister laughed at me later when I told her that I stopped in to Eye of Horus, a local shop for people interested in the occult, tarot, and things of the like. Though I got a chuckle or two from her, I was super excited that I had finally gotten the chance to go in. The place was filled with crystals, tons of books on all of the subjects I'm interested in right now, and all sorts of neat things. The women that ran the store were awesome, and calming.
Francesca told me afterward that one of the women had "one of those voices" - where you just want them to talk at you for days.

I had a 10 minute Reiki session with one of the ladies at the shop, and went on my merry way with a new deck of Tarot Cards and a book about Witches in 1800s Europe.

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The sketch that started it all

I guess the point of me telling this story is to explain the feeling I got while making this piece. It was meditative, to say the least. I'm sure after a day of being in zen mode, I was ready to make some art that reflected my thoughts. And here it is!