Lindsay Nohl : Moss!

Never-ending little moss tufts!

Lindsay Nohl: Watercolor flowers at night

Full repeat

I started creating this pattern last night by playing with watercolors. I had done these guys in greyscale first and then decided to color them in the computer.
I wanted to make something that had a glowing look and that was reminiscent of a field with fireflies, without actually drawing fireflies.


Detail

It's getting closer and closer to spring and I can't wait until it's nice enough to go outside and see some real flowers. It's funny. I draw foliage so frequently, yet it's been a long while since I've gotten to see greenery around my neighborhood! Soon. Soon.

Lindsay Nohl : Vintage Floral

I have this great old wallpaper book from the turn of the century that has this massive cabbage roses in just a couple colors. I had been looking through it last week for inspiration and came across this mustard and green color combination. I'm absolutely amazed at how beautiful vintage patterns are. It's apparent how much preparation and time went into creating them.

It's no wonder I'm a vintage paper addict.

I have been doing some complex patterns lately and decided that this week I'd do something a little more quiet. I created this one with ink on paper first, with a linen texture overlay on top -- and colored it up!

Lindsay Nohl : Succulent Cuttings

Keeping it simple today!
I had a great trip to the Como Conservatory today with Chris and it was AWESOME! Man, I have been craving some living plant-action!
It's been so white outside and it seemed like a nice Sunday outing. I did a couple tiny drawings this morning while I was at this new coffee house near my house, Parka and just ran with them for this pattern.

I was making loads of little terrariums last summer and I was having flashbacks when I was making this pattern. I really ought to do that again. I think I just might!

I usually frown at white backgrounds on patterns but for some reason this one just felt right. I had this one a couple other colors before I finally just left it alone. So here you have it! Little tiny cuttings from some of my favorite succulents!

(I'm also channeling some 70s art vibe in here. Inspired by a pic I saw earlier today while I was in a used bookstore near my house!)

Lindsay Nohl : Fern Linens

I have been wanting some new kitchen towels and I made this linen-y pattern with them in mind. Ahhh I wish they were real!
I was inspired by two new shops in the Minneapolis area -- Forage and Parka. One is a really cute furniture shop that sells a lot of local and hand-crafted furniture (nice, mid-century inspired stuff!) and the other is a new cafe with awesome coffee. Both shops are minimalist and really nice -- lots of natural colors plus white.

I got the chance to sit down and really take a look at ferns with this pattern, too, which, if you haven't had a chance to look at one closely, are super crazy. They're amazing -- or as Chris would say "They're natures fractals".

Lindsay Nohl: Abstracted Amaryllis

I received an amaryllis bulb from a co-worker back in the day and it would bloom once every year and then sink back into it's pot and appear to be dead until the next year. I always thought it was funny. As I was researching this one I kept thinking of how weird it was that all of the blooms come out of one stalk. All of the sketches I was doing looked strange, and after thinking about it for a while I decided to create an abstracted 6-blossom version from the top down. (I realize this isn't entirely accurate, whoops). Still, I was happy to make something that looks like I had a bunch of little twigs and curly doo-dads falling from the sky.

I always make my patterns at night, so they also all seem to have some kind of dark quality to them. Maybe it's that combined with the darkness of winter. I'm looking forward to the sun staying out longer and longer in the next month. It's exciting to have a little bit of sunshine still going on when I leave work!

Lindsay Nohl: Clusters

Clusters of Guarana Berries

I was inspired by vintage wallpaper and a weekend trip to H&M. I think I've been seeing this tomato red color everywhere and I absolutely LOVE it. In fact, I tried to convince Chris to buy some pants this color. It's cheery and vibrant and I think it may be one of my new favorite colors.


And here's it repeated!

Lindsay Nohl: Making Progress on Pineapples

Progress on the color so far! - Second layer of blues layered in

Ok, so I decided to go for something super complex this time - not really in the way that the pattern is made, but the technique that I'm using to paint it. I'm trying watercolor out for the first real time since high school and it's been... interesting.
I wanted to show you a little bit of what I'm working on though it isn't a repeating pattern quite yet.

I have plans for a Damask pattern -- as you can see I'm working on the diamond shape right now. I've set it up so it'll be fairly easy to repeat once I have the whole painting complete. I'll just have to tile it up and let it go!

It's been exciting. I've been making this while watching Discovery Channel documentaries on mount Everest (thrilling and terrifying!) and plugging away at it after I teach night class. I don't think I have much left to do, but once I get it finished up, I'll make sure to post it!

Just for fun you can see a little bit of my coloring process here!


First Layer of Blues


Preliminary Underpainting

Lindsay Nohl : Cactus Blooms

Pointy!

This flower was a challenge for me - mostly because, as I was looking up the Saguaro cactus for reference, I saw that the blooms cluster in these bizarre families around the tops of the cacti. I liked the green blooms so much that I wanted them to be a major part of this pattern.

Here's a never ending field of Saguaro blossoms! (with a little pointy bit here and there!)

Lindsay Nohl : Vanilla Flower, winding.

Tried something new tonight!

So - here's another new approach to pattern-making. I'm teaching a class in a couple weeks and I've been trying all of these new ways of putting patterns together. It's been a blast trying to figure it out but it was definitely a challenge!

I tried a pattern with a couple layers this time - large foliage in the background, and smaller bits in the front. There are actually three layers that went into this and surprisingly, I started with some swirly vine things and went from there!

I had a great time making it - sorry for the huge size, but I had to make a tall one to make it work! Hopefully it just makes the detail easier to see.

:)

Lindsay Nohl: Graphite Lotus

Hello again. I've been considering how to do this pattern all day and finally bit the bullet and committed to something a little more complex and more process intensive than some of my usual patterns. I have had a great time lately drawing in my sketchbook with graphite and carbon pencil and wanted to try something today involving that process.

Here's a Egyptian Lotus flower in a limited negative space pattern. I've seen other types of lotus flowers on my trips up north to my grandparents' cabin a couple times. I remember going on canoe trips with my dad early in the morning so we could catch a glimpse of the open lotus flowers before the mid-day sun made them close back up.

It's been a couple years since I've had that experience, and it may be many more years before I get that experience again. At least I remember it fondly.

Lindsay Nohl : Tiger Lily

I did a really nice drawing in my sketchbook this morning and returned to draw on it throughout the day. Thought it wasn't originally for my pattern, I decided that I'd want to do a damask-style repeat for today.

Here's a tiger lily pattern for you! I am really enjoying these dusty colors and the repetition.

Simplicity

This weekend was a long one and I am longing for a little simplicity.


So, with all of the stuff that's going on I decided to go a little graphic with this one. I channeled a little Marimekko here -- just one simple bloom repeated.

On a white ground

I wanted to do something a little simple this time - something with a white ground.
This time it's a mixture of flowers with a tiny bit of texture.

I was thinking about blind contour drawings tonight and how interesting things look when you allow shapes to connect. So, there you have it! These flowers look as if they were made with a piece of spaghetti -- one continuous line.

Late night pattern making.

Well, I cranked this one out a little late tonight. Things have been ridiculous at work(s). We've got a million deadlines and a million more projects going on. They're all really exciting, but man, when it rains, it pours. I was up late tonight working on my piece for an upcoming exhibition and trying to help Chris get a bunch of holiday cards done for one of my clients.

The color palette for my pattern tonight comes from all of the weird drinks I've been trying over the last day or two. I went to Whole Foods and bought some probiotic vegetable drinks, some chia seed drinks, and some other weird flower essences. Most of those drinks are green, but there was one beet and ginger flavored drink that I snuck in there that was a bright magenta.

I also was trying something a little looser tonight. I've got this brush pen that I've been playing with that runs out of ink pretty quickly, but I like the texture it's got and I keep using it. Ah, those happy mistakes.

Lindsay Nohl : 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.

101 Florals : Cosmos, Inked.

Tonight I was getting ready for my Tools of the Trade Class at MCAD and I got lost in messing around with ink. I figured since I was already covered in black ink, I might as well keep going, so I made my pattern tonight with the tools I had handy.
I love that school. Also - I can't believe that it 's starting already.
Where did the summer go? I'm not sure.

Either way, it's nice to break out the ink and do some florals by hand this time.
I did a page of icons, scanned them, cleaned them up and tossed them around. I like how random they are.



Here's what it looks like repeated!

And here's what it looks like before all the coloring and tossing!



Wish me luck for the first day of school! I'm in my 9th year of teaching. I'm not sure how that happened either, but hey, at least I'm headed into a fun semester.
Keeping busy, that's for sure.

Lindsay Nohl: Chrysanthemum Wallpaper

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.



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!

Llew Mejia:The Bulbous Banana 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!

Lindsay Nohl: Banana Flower Pod

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.



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.


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