Llew Mejia: Creepy Charles

Trying some more experimentation, making something to look more screen printed, I really want to make some risograph prints as mailers, but we will see what happens. Anyway it was a pretty good experience making something with no pressure, kinda just thought about how I thought Creeping Charlie should look like and plopped it in with various other semi-fictional plants.

 Let the good times roll!

Lindsay Nohl: Creeping Charlie

Here's the mini view of this huge pattern I made tonight.

When I first got my cat, Oliver, I had named him several things before something stuck. Charlie was one of the names that was high on the list. Oliver is, by far, the creepin'-est of cats, and as I was making this pattern tonight I thought for a second that it would have been very fitting had I named him Charlie.

I don't know why I labored over this pattern so much tonight, but I'm glad I did because I really like the way it turned out. It started as a complex sketch and turned into a giant winding beast. I took some liberties with the actual colors of Creeping Charlie - and I'm surprised I did because I am usually all about putting purple all over my artwork. But there was something really sinister about having red veins for vines -- and so it goes.


Here's a little close-up of the artwork

Majo Bv: Animal Floral

Hi!

 I'm so excited to be part of the 101 Florals challenge... yes, challenge because I'm not much of a flower person. The truth is, I'm terribly and utterly scared of bees and wasps, and flowers attract them so I try to be as far as I can from them. When Llew emailed me to tell me I could be part of their adventure, he also asked me what flower I wanted to work on. I had no idea... tulips came to mind 'cause I had recently received them, but he told me they had already done them. I needed to think, think fast.

 Then it came to me... succulent plants really enchant me. Their shapes are so organic and chubby and some are even protective (think of cacti). I googled succulent plants and the first image that came out was one of these cute tubby mini trunks (fenestraria), and I just felt it had to be my first inspirational subject. I searched for more images and discovered it wasn't one of the typical species you think of when you think of succulent plants: it has flowers and they look quite like daisies only smaller and with thinner petals.

 After the image research I started sketching, and what attracted me the most of all the pics I found is the way fenestrarias look from the top view: their pyramidal trunks create a beautiful pattern when looked form above. My final pattern kind of looks like simplified leopard spots, which I don't really mind: it's hard to come up with a new version of animal prints and I think I just did while actually working on a floral print (lol). Anyway... I hope you all like it. Let me know what you think about it with a comment (comments always make me smile).

 If you want to know more about me or look at some more of my work, just check my blog or my portfolio :) Have a lovely day and see you when I see you!

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!)

Cam Floyd: Plants & Such

 Cam Floyd is a really great illustrator, although his site contains limited material at the moment I can assure you, this guys got a ton of great work and definitely worth checking out. His work hits a lot of sci-fi notes for me, with a color palette that I wouldn't readily choose, but he boldly uses it and makes it work. So it's awesome and really great to have him on the blog.

 Check out more of his work here!

Llew Mejia: Islamic Ferns

I have been wanting to try one of these types of patterns for a long time and when I finally attempted it I think I can pull it off better next time with a lil bit more planning. That's just not usually how I roll, so this is what came out, still cool in a kaleidoscope kinda way. Either way this type of geometric pattern is really popular in Islamic architecture, and any sort of patterning that they do at all usually is built off of octagons. I thought it would be a little more complex, but really when it comes down to it, it's all just a buncha triangles, so just try it! haha get it? no? ok...

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".

Nicky Ovitt: Lil Garden

Nicky is a surface designer who has had many a big client, she had an interest in the blog, so I gladly let her participate! She made a little scene of rats or mice and the amaryllis as well coincidentally!

For more of her work check out her site,  also blog, otherwise,

Here' some info about her:

Today I enjoy a thriving freelance career providing illustrated and graphic patterns and prints to private label and retail clients. For a decade I was employed as an in-house designer/manager at a successful manufacturer of apparel and accessories specializing in lifestyle brands.

Llew Mejia: KANG KO BRAHS

 Had some fun with this one, haven't done a pattern in my personal style in awhile, kinda rhymes. Anyway, made some cobras, drew some mice, made a Dr. Seuss type world for them all to live in together along with weird pipette style flowers that shoot out of the ground, because if you have seen these flowers in nature they are real real weird.
They just pop out of the ground in clusters, and they actually get relatively tall, a lot of Mom's get them as gifts around now and winter because they do well as houseplants, they bloom and then they look like they die then a couple months later, BAM! YUP, new flower, bet you thought it was dead...WRONG.

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!