January 2022

pattern design

Hello. Long time no post, right? So, I have tried daily post, did not work, then I have tried weekly post, did not work. Now obviously it’s time to try monthly post. Twelve posts a year, that should be feasible even for myself, right? Let’s see…

I have been doing art in the past six months, not too much of it or not as much as I would have liked, but nevertheless. I made almost a year long break on my printing account on Instagram because I was intimidated by other people’s good work. That was a new feeling for me. Also, I started counting likes and followers, which was also very unpleasant thing to do. So, I decided to give it a break and see. That was in February 2021. I returned on December 1st to participate in #carvedecember challenge and I had a good time. I continued to post every day since then. I did a lot of quick carves on plastic erasers and that was very relaxing and carefree activity, and then I did even more prints by combining and overlapping those blocks. Such as this one:

I also decided that it’s time to get myself a printing press. I opted for woodzilla press because they are truly beautiful to look at unlike most others that look really terrible. It arrived before Christmas and I tried it several times already. It’s working really well and will be extremely valuable when it comes to printing lino carvings. Here it is:

During my long break from printing and Instagram, I spent a lot of time thinking what I want to do with my web site and managed to come up with a rather clear picture, so I started restructuring it again. I want to make space for the diversity of my art, because that is who I am. I like to do many things and I do not see why I have to limit myself because I would like to perfect just one and gain certain group of followers and make a business out of it. It could be nice, but maybe it’s just not for me. So I will just continue to do what feels right. At this moment it’s experimental printmaking, digital collage, digital illustrations in Fresco and occasional coloring page to offer on my web site. I also plan to do some sewing and fabric printing and to update my online shops.

Here are two more photos of things I did in January:

Digital collage in FRESCO
Block printing on a T-shirt

In private domain, things are mostly the same, the only exception being Lili:

Lili the puppy

Lili is now almost one year old. She came to us on 30 April 2021. She is gentle, soft and adorable and has brought much joy and stability to our lives. She is helping Lola overcome her timidity and anxiety, she is also helping me calm down and be a better human to both of them.

That’s it. Have a good month, until I, hopefully, write again.

13-14/2021

pattern design

It’s hard. I missed a post last week because I simply did not feel like sharing. I still don’t. But then I remind myself that I also do it for myself, to remember what I did and how it felt, so here we are.

I was busy at work. I did some art. I missed the last Spoonflower challenge and I will miss this week’s one too and probably the next one. Because it has little meaning these days. I feel lost and undeserving. I mostly just doodle. I do collage because it calms me down. I work on Life Book lesson one, little by little it takes shape.

Spring is here, we are locked down and it is not improving. Lola is having some paw infection probably fungus, I started adding immune boosters again. We don’t walk these days because her feet are painful, so we mostly just spend time in the garden, doing some little gardening and spring cleaning. It’s cold. I am grateful for the garden and sun and time off work for Easter. That’s all.

11/2021

pattern design

Oh, it’s already Monday! Two hard weeks behind me with two hard audits at work. But, it went ok and I am here and no audit until end of April, YAY! Hungary introduced even stronger covid restrictions until 22 March, with most shops closed. There are around 8-9 thousand people getting officially sick every day. We are still ok.

I do very little art these days, so nothing much to show except this pattern which I made for this week’s Spoonflower challenge:

The theme was cryptozoology and I tried again to turn something basically scary and ugly into cute. Don’t know how well I managed having it swimming in a cup, but anyway, seemed like a good idea.

I took a holiday on Friday and today is a public holiday, so I had four days to relax, which is basically what I did. I rested, walked, went to the market on Saturday as usual, did some little cleaning and some drawing and some game playing. It was helpful. I am worried and stressed about the situation, seeing how weather is improving and we are still locked and prevented from moving freely. Mother’s surgery is even not possible at the moment because all elective surgeries got suspended.

OK… Take a deep breath… and try to flow gently… Nothing else would make any sense at this moment…

10/2021

pattern design

There was a 5 day long audit at work last week. It was terrible, so no time for anything really. The madness continues tomorrow with another audit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I plan to take holiday.

This is the pattern for this week’s Spoonflower challenge:

Otherwise, things are depressing. Lockdown is extended and measures are stricter. Mother’s surgery is nowhere to be seen, and she is getting more and more anxious, which is making me anxious too.

So, hard times. I will be here waiting and drawing. Here’s the dancer from last week on black background. I would not mind it on a tshirt.

9/2021

pattern design

It was a busy week and a busy weekend. I missed to write my post yesterday, so I am doing it now on Monday morning before I go to chiropractor. I was working this week on a drawing for the next Spoonflower challenge which is themed Rococo. I am so very impressed by those enormous dresses and hairdos, wondering how much time women spent on dressing and making themselves presentable. What a strange age and fashion! Here’s my entry:

It took ages to draw, but I am really happy with it.

And that’s all. I did not do anything else, only started drawing another dancer figure because I really enjoyed this one, so I would like to try another one. I am learning more about Fresco and I really love it. I was also researching Behance and Adobe Portfolio because I realized I would definitely need to make a portfolio sooner or later. Today a new Immersion course is starting. I hope there will be some instruction on Illustrator for iPad.

Weatherwise, I think the spring is slowly coming, we are having nice sunny weather and for a few days it was really very warm, but now it’s more like it should be. I met with the gardener and discussed upcoming works. They will come this week to start – one tree needs moving to another place, the big tree needs trimming, raised beds need finishing and so on. I am so much looking forward to all plants and grass starting to grow. It was a long ugly winter.

8/2021

Musings About Stuff, pattern design

This is going to be a very short one. I am not in the mood. I was too busy at work this past week, so I did almost nothing. Just a bit every day but not much in total. So today I am posting two videos and one pattern.

I drew this over two weeks, bit by bit and was fighting with turning it into pattern for a long time because I wanted to do it on iPad and Procreate was misbehaving and I would spend ages and then end up with a dreaded white hairline and several times so. Finally this morning I accidentally learned that Adobe Fresco can now make a pattern with help of Adobe Capture and it worked like charm as you see, and I could even get a half-drop repeat. Cool. Not that I am going to use this one for anything, but it was fun.

Here’s the video of the drawing:

And the, another video, just for fun:

Otherwise, I am exploring ways to use Adobe Portfolio for my web site, because it may be easier than WordPress and it’s free with my subscription. Then I got dragged into Behance and saw so many professional looking portfolios and projects that I lost any desire to enter in there with my funny little nothingness. So that’s the story of the week. I am keeping away from Instagram as much as I can, but obviously now I should also keep away from Behance. Luckily I have not posted anything yet there…

I am worried about everything and everyone, which is nothing new. I do not see where this world is going, except to hell maybe. I am desperately looking for peace and sanity, but they are nowhere to be found.

7/2021

pattern design

Feeling really tired. Lola is pushing my arm and preventing me from typing because she wants to be scratched. It was a terrible cold week with lots of rain which turned to ice overnight and for two days I was not able to unlock our gate and had to use car entrance to go out. Thankfully that did not freeze. I think it’s time for this winter to end, because now I feel I really had enough. Tired.

I am also tired of Instagram and constantly trying to keep up with every day posting, so this week I wasn’t posting or engaging in any way and I have to say that it felt good. I had to ask myself why do I keep trying to win likes and followers and to tailor my posts and accounts to what people like. It makes me frustrated and feels fake and I don’t achieve anything. So, I made a conclusion that it does not really matter and that I should really focus on what makes me happy and stop thinking about how to please the people.

In that context, I was mostly drawing on iPad and concentrating on Spoonflower challenges. My Ox pattern ended up on 82 place which is by far the best placement ever and it makes me really happy. To celebrate that, I created a coloring page based on the design, which I give for free and you can download it here.

Here are the two pattern that I submitted for the next two Spoonflower challenges. The first one I already mentioned last week, it’s challenge called patchwork and my entry is this one:

I think it will make a great cover from my sofa, so I am planning to order it very soon, just waiting for a couple more designs to order samples at the same time.

The second design I just submitted today is for the talisman challenge and I really spent a lot of time on it, choosing colors and making all the little details work together. I am still not completely happy with it but I think it looks bold and interesting:

And, as I said, I really enjoy drawing on iPad and exploring what can be done. Getting an iPad was the best purchase I made lately. This one was just a quick play, but possibilities are almost endless.

And finally, today I managed to squeeze in a little carve and print time:

That’s it. I listened to a good instructional presentation in Flourish hosted by Bonnie Christine, about web site design and message you need to convey and how to structure pages and links. I did learn quite a bit and will be working on implementing some of it soon. Still struggling with my page but I am working on it whenever I have time. A page a week will do and I will get there eventually.

6/2021

pattern design

Hmm.. I really did not manage to carve and print every day, actually I made only two prints:

But I did make a nice pattern for this week’s Spoonflower challenge titled Year of the ox. I really surprised myself because I felt totally uninspired by the topic, but once I started drawing I started liking it to and I am really pleased with the result:

And then a complete surprise: my design got featured in Spoonflower newsletter:

Results will be announced next week, I do not think I will win enough votes to make it into first 50, but this was by far my most liked design and being featured is a prize on its own. Yay!

I did work on another design for next week’s challenge, the topic was patchwork and I really like what I made. I am ordering it to make a sofa cover. Will post a photo next week.

It was my birthday on Wednesday. We made tiramisu and shared it and some sparkling wine with our neighbors out on the terrace. Stupid lockdown, but I am grateful we could do that much. Depressing.

5/2021

pattern design, Stamp Carving

Again a busy week at work and fighting for time and light to do some art. I did manage to make a quick pattern for weekly Spoonflower challenge. Here’s video of it:

Nothing special, but I am glad I did it because I want to do as many of these challenges this year.

On Monday a fresh supply of stamping pads arrived:

And I swatched them using an old stamp. I don’t really like the stazon pads, but I am sure I will find a use for them. They are too dark somehow and stamps cannot be cleaned easily after stamping. I suppose it doesn’t matter much as it does not affect the stamp, but still bothers me.

I am working on my 100 day challenge. I am on print number 19 today. I skipped two days this week, but still managed to do a decent number and even carved some new stamps. Here are the prints:

The rest of my life this week was ok. Took car to service on Wednesday and Mother to hairdresser on Friday. Everybody was more or less healthy and well, so nothing to complain about. Today I even managed to update my ‘About’ page here on my website. And hallelujah, l managed to link it here. I find this WordPress app quite difficult to use, frankly speaking. It’s easier on the computer, but you cannot lie on the sofa and type on your computer, so yeah…