Hello, my dear friend,

I’m a bit late this month—did you miss me? It’s cold, dark, and rainy, but what else can one expect from November? I’ve been painting a lot lately, though unfortunately just walls. Last week I finished painting the room that will become my new studio, and in the coming weeks I’ll be setting it up! I’ve been listening to Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell while working. Even though I’d seen the movie, like most people, and already knew the story, the book is a wonderful listening experience. The narrator does the accents and voices of each character so well that I can immediately tell who’s speaking.

Now, on to the art: this month I want to show you two patterns I created, and the first one has warm, cheerful colors to brighten your heart.

For this tulip pattern, I used a diamond layout and a simple repeat that still gives the impression of a half-drop. I also experimented with adding a bit of texture to the leaves. Now that I look at it again, I find it a bit too subtle. Next time I’ll try something more daring.

You can find it on Spoonflower, Redbubble and as a wallpaper for email subscribers.

The second one is with foxes!

For this pattern the brief was to use retro colors and this is my interpretation. It’s available on Spoonflower and Redbubble.

Both patterns are vector-based. Drawing with a vector brush feels a bit different from using a pixel brush, and the results can vary, but overall I’m happy with it.

At the same time, I’m itching to get my gouache paints out again and play around to see what happy little accidents might occur.