Meet the Designer – Rebekah McDonald

Welcome to our latest installment of the Designer Project! Today, we’re thrilled to introduce you to Rebekah McDonald. Rebekah is a surface pattern designer, Visual Arts teacher and artist based in the Limestone Coast of South Australia . Her work captures the essence of creativity and innovation. In this post, we’ll delve into her design philosophy and showcase her stunning projects. Get ready to be inspired by Rebekah’s incredible talent!

Hi everyone! I’m Rebekah McDonald from @rebekahmcdonaldart and I’m very excited to be partnering with Digital Fabrics and having some of my designs for sale in their fabric shop. I’m looking forward to seeing what creations people make with these designs.

My pattern designs cover different themes, with patterns suitable for different age groups and purposes. My media of choice for pattern design is watercolour and digital art, where I sketch, draw and paint motifs individually before arranging them into larger designs. This curated collection features some of my digital designs.

Below are some behind-the-scenes images to give you a glimpse of my work in progress.

My designs are inspired by the things I see around me and the things that I love, which often involve animals, botanical elements, and beverages. Once deciding on a theme, I start by looking for visual inspiration by taking photos, collecting images and creating Pinterest boards. From there, I sketch out individual motifs on paper.

My sketched designs are then scanned and uploaded into Procreate, where I trace over them and digitally paint them.

The drawing and painting of my motifs is very time intensive, but I like to create high resolution images with lots of detail, so that I can create my patterns to a range of scales. I usually have an idea in my head of how I want to arrange my patterns before I get started, but I still have lots of fun arranging these on my computer using Photoshop, often trying new layouts and creating complementary designs.

Below is an example of my what “By the Sea” would look like as a dress for a young girl. This pattern, along with most of my others, work well for apparel, but also for quilting, cushions and curtains.

I have a studio space that I use for my computer design work. When it comes to my sketching though, I tend to draw wherever I am, which might be at a bench, couch or even my bedroom, depending on the day. I tend to go wherever the light is best and the coffee is brewing.

“Summer Cocktails” is one of my boldest prints, with colours reflecting the excitement of summer and the juicy array of fruits and beverages that are available at that time. I aimed for high contrast colours, with lots of variety.

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a bit more about me and my design process. You can view more of my designs in the fabric shop, where you can choose to have these designs printed on a range of different fabrics. I would love to see the creations you make with my designs. Please tag both Digital Fabrics and me in any sewing projects you create.

If you’d like to see more of my art and design work, please follow me on Facebook or Instagram.
Thank you for reading.
Bek

Rebekah’s work is inspired by the many things she sees around her, but often features animals or natural elements. She is also inspired by the things that bring her joy, such as coffee, cocktails and cats, which are featured in her current release with Digital Fabrics. Rebekah is a realist painter and her realistic style also carries across to her patterns, although in many cases these motifs are simplified and stylised. Individual patterns and collections feature common colour palettes, which range from bold and bright to soft and subtle, depending on the mood she is capturing in the collection.