Tag Archives: prints

Meet the Designer – Melissa Hamlyn

Meet our newest featured designer in the Designer Project, Melissa Hamlyn. Dive into her world of creativity and innovation as we explore her unique design journey. Get ready to be inspired by Melissa’s captivating designs and artistic vision. Let’s embark on a journey through the extraordinary work of this talented designer. 

Keep reading to find out more! 

Melissa Hamlyn

Welcome! I’m Melissa Hamlyn, creator of Painted Lady Studio. I’ve been working with various materials for years now, but have only recently begun creating my own surface design patterns as well as writing blogs about art and design! 

Mood Board

My creations often feature bold colours and patterns made using digital and traditional printing techniques. I enjoy experimenting with new materials and techniques, which is part of what makes my designs unique. I love to sketch and test with scale and materials such as paint, markers and pen as well as styles such as realistic, abstract and geometric.  Over the course of my university studies I had a tactile and sculptural practice and I experimented with different mediums such as fabric, wood and plastic – these too have influenced how I think about making two-dimensional art. 

Studio Space

I have a passion for pattern, colour and texture. My work is an exploration of these things. Once I’ve settled on some sketches I scan and experiment with the image in Photoshop and Illustrator where I introduce textures and motifs I’ve made like marble effects, ginghams and shiny foils.  I then begin to finalise each hero design so that it has a strong graphic impact and then I mix and match coordinates to make a collection or sometimes a design all on its own! 

When choosing co-ordinates I focus on colour, never limit myself to just one colour palette and use a colour wheel to help me choose colour pairings that work well together as well as complimentary colours and contrasting shades of the same colour, this helps to create a bold look that is eye-catching but not too overbearing. 

Design Work in Progress

In addition I mix different prints together – floral prints with stripes, polka dots prints with stripes, polka dots with checks, anything goes! A strong graphic look and feel is my aim and I love to include a little bit of humour in my coordinates too. I love the classic look but I like to add a twist by using modern prints and colours that make my designs stand out from other patterns and designs.

 

The Mosaic Blooms collection features a series of prints, that have been cherry picked from various pointcanvas of Melissa’s surface pattern designer life and captures the approach she takes with each new design idea! We think these prints would work best for Home & Interior projects and fashion accessories such as scarves. Each of Melissa’s designs are available to be printed onto any of our stock fabrics. Simply head to our Fabric Shop online to view the whole collection and choose your favourite fabric! 

Meet the Designer – Tamsin Smyth

Our next artist in focus for The Designer Project, with her groovy, fun loving prints is Tamsin Smyth! Tamsin brings with her TWO incredible collections ‘Sunny Side up” & ‘Carnivale Geo’ for this feature, which we are ever so grateful for. 

Along with that, she has also put together this blog which invites you into her creative studio to see the behind the scenes to her creative process and how she dreams her patterns into being. Keep reading to find out more! 

Tamsin Smyth

Hello you! My name is Tamsin Smyth, and I am a surface pattern designer and illustrator living on a creek near Byron Bay. I have always had vivid dreams about pattern and fashion and colour. I was fairly obsessed with the wallpapers of the seventies, and I can vividly remember the fabric patterns of my colourful wardrobe from my childhood and my glamourous Mum’s outfits. Thanks Mum! 

Designing Process

I was absolutely obsessed with rainbows as a child, and my Mum helped me collect rainbow EVERYTHING. My life feels most centred when I am creating with and surrounded by colour, and colour makes my heart go plippety plop! Colours that sing, chubby shapes and flowers with a retro twist, is how I might describe my designs. With a passion for folk art and the natural environment, my designs tend to come from my imagination, which is my favourite place to dwell. I like to create my own sunshine through my art, and then share it with others. I am always surprised and delighted when someone likes my designs! 

Rainbow Clouds Sketches

I am so excited to share my collections, Sunny Side Up and Carnivale Geo, with the Designer Project and Digital Fabrics. Woot! I quite often dream a pattern into being. I will wake up and scrawl a pattern I envisioned while asleep. That’s why my sketches are so brilliant! LOL. The sketches never quite match the dream, but I really love where they take me. 

Fabric Swatches

I tend to create bold shapes with no outlines, but I do love a bit of hand drawn line and texture too. I am also entranced by the rhythms of meadow flowers, and I have tailored a rolling meadow and some sweet snowbells for this collection. Once I have the sketch scanned into Adobe Illustrator, I can begin creating the vector shapes and playing with a colour palette. Often the elements evolve way past the initial sketch, but it’s a sure-fire springboard (the peekaboo rainbows sketch is a great example!). Quite often my designs end up large scale like my sunrise and sunset blooms, and my lolly jumbo gingham. I love a chubby check! 

Tamsin in her Studio Space

I hope you find something in this collection to bring a little fun and whimsy into your life. I’d love to see what you create with them, so be sure to tag me on Instagram @tamsin.smyth so I can share the love!  

Sunshine and rainbows, Tamsin x 

Bum Bag Baby Muse

Sunny Side Up is a curated collection with a little bit of everything that Tamsin loves. The sketch here called Bumbag Baby is the muse of this collection, and she encapsulates the sweet fun and playfulness of Tamsin’s 1970’s childhood. The Carnivale Geo collection is a retro rainbow of tumbling fun inspired by the Ballet Russes costumes and vintage carnivals. Both collections feature the soothing hues of the seventies: peach orange, yellow and pale pink with pops of purple and blue. These designs would be great for any number of applications such as fashion garments, swimwear & beach wear, cushions, beanbags, table linen, tea towels, hair towels and robes! Each of Tamsin’s designs are available to be printed onto any of our stock fabrics. Simply head to our Fabric Shop online to view the whole collections and choose your favourite fabric! 

Meet the Designer – Meredith Gain

Next up as our featured artist in The Designer Project is the ultra-talented Meredith Gain from MGK Designs – with her textile collection ‘Beach Days‘! 

She has put together the most wonderful blog post, diving deep into her creative process and inspirations for creating these amazing designs. Keep on read to find out more! 

Meredith Gain

“Hi there 

I’m Meredith Gain of MGK Designs and I’d like to share my inspiration and design journey for my fabric collection Beach Days that I’m so excited and proud to have available via Digital Fabrics and The Designer Project. I grew up in the carefree beachside suburb of Nth Curl Curl on the northern beaches NSW in the 70s where I spent my time swimming in the surf, exploring the rocks and generally having fun in the sun! My journey into surface pattern/textile design came about from my love of design and always the need to be creating! Prior to finding my way to textile design – after I had my 2 kiddos – I was creating delicious food as a chef for over 15years before I had my family and moved back to the beach for that carefree lifestyle I had growing up! 

Creative Space

I now spend my days creating art for fabric, actually any surface that needs a design! And of course, I still love cooking! And always with music playing! I pursued my love of art and design via a surface design course at ISCD and won several awards at the time … This led to an opportunity to design a wallpaper and interior fabric range for Emily Ziz .. I now have 3 collections with them.  Alongside my interior fabric collections, I also continue to create for several print studios for swimwear and women’s wear … and even have a few rugs and carpet designs! I am happy to create and adapt my style to many different briefs and clients, but my natural handwriting lends itself to an organic abstract very textural coastal vibe. I love to walk the many bush tracks and coastal paths of sunny Sydney; in fact, any coastline will do ! 

Peach Breeze in the making

I gain so much inspiration and joy from the surrounding nature and I find this comes out in my art via the mark making and line work that makes up much of my artworks. The designs I have available here for Digital Fabrics are in a lovely warm palette of pinks, peaches and oranges, reminiscent of a sunrise and the happy rosy glow after a day spent by the beach; with sunscreen, sunglasses and hat on of course!! I work mainly on my iPad in Procreate to experiment & muck around.Working with layers and effects that I then upload straight to my mac to work on further to put into repeat and play with colours. It’s usually straight to Illustrator and sometimes Photoshop but I’m definitely team Ai ! 

Iceream Trek Original Art

Each design usually starts with a mark making frenzy when something inspires me. Again, mainly on the iPad but sometimes I like to spend a day and get the paints out to do a big batch of swirls, marks, shapes and lines that get used in my designs. Though I even recently did a piece using the only material I had on hand…a lipstick and a notepad!! I then take photos of the mark makings and digitise using image trace in Ai. This is where I like to play around with layers, textures, colour and scale. As it helps to visualise the end product, I like mockups to see how the designs might look on a skirt or swimwear. The colours are generally depending on if I have a brief or what I’ve recently seen that inspires me. On a recent girls trip away to Daylesford VIC I was so inspired by the scenery and the colours that I just had to create a mood board! It actually inspired the design SAND DRIFTS…even though I’ve changed up the colours for this collection! 

Lipstick Art

My work is always evolving! 

You can find my latest works in progress or my ‘just because I’m feeling it art’ on instagram @mgkdesigns and my website https://www.mgk-designs.com/“ 

Beach Days is a collection of organic, abstract, all-over patterns; inspired by coastal walks by the beach. Many things inspire and remind Meredith of her childhood, spent living by the beach: bark on the trees, bird footprints in the sand, coastal bushes, sand hills, beach debris and lazy summer days! These designs would be great for any number of applications such as sundresses, swimwear, cushions, beanbags, tablecloths & napkins, tea towels, scarves, sarongs and beach towels! Each of Meredith’s designs are available to be printed onto any of our stock fabrics. Simply head to our Fabric Shop online to view the whole collection and choose your favourite fabric!

 

Jenni Rogers – The Designer Project

We’ve absolutely adored sharing the delicious ‘Blooms & Bakes’ Collection by artist Jenni Rogers for this installment of The Designer Project!  

As passionately described by Jenni, “When I bake the texture and colours consume me – there is never ending inspiration from these subjects. It’s life and it is a part of us all”. Jenni’s creative process starts with feelings that she gains from the observation of these subjects. Then her mind starts to envision how it could look, usually painting from still life, photos or real life as in plain air.

We hope that you have all loved Jenni’s beautiful collection as much as we have! Each of Jenni’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop online. Keep reading to find out more about Jenni’s work, inspirations and typical creative process! 

Jenni Rogers

Hi, my name is Jenni Rogers, artist, surface pattern designer and chef and I’m based in the beautiful Byron Bay Hinterland. I love creating paintings/patterns that combine two of my favourite things –  cooking and art. 

And I’m super excited to be included in the Designer project with Digital Fabrics, thank you!  

I thought I’d introduce myself by sharing a little behind the scenes look at how my patterns start, what my inspiration is and how my sketches and paintings evolve into the patterns you see here at Digital Fabrics. 

Almost all of my initial inspiration comes from food in some way or another whether it be raw ingredients, like how vanilla paste sparkles in the sun on a teaspoon (that may sound odd to you…lol ) or a messy table after a great meal shared with family and friends, with serviettes, plates stacked, etc. Yes these are the things that capture my attention!   

I find all aspects of food and cafes very emotional.  I often associate memories to food. I know when I bake bread, I think of my dad in the kitchen baking these enormous loaves for our family, my Grandma and I making little, sweet jam mushrooms with icing and pastry stalks and my mum and I destroying the kitchen through cake decorating, every bowl and appliance in the house was used. Our favourite recipes remind us of our loved ones – when we create them, in a way, it brings them back to us. My paintings and then patterns are a way of capturing those images. 

This is my initial process on how I create a pattern and it starts in the kitchen:  

1/Photograph whilst making the recipe – usually cake! 

2/ Eat baked goodies and share with family   

3/ Sketch out different elements within the baking process to see what looks good and to plan how the recipe will read and if its easy to follow. 

4/ play around with painting different parts of the process  

5/ This is the finished painting below.  I call it Recipe-art.

 

Once the painting is finished, I then use some or all of the elements within the painting to create patterns.  I start by scanning in my finished painting, basically pulling it apart on photoshop and then arranging them into repeat patterns.  I usually end up with at least 50+ patterns from each recipe, its actually hard to stop! 

High Tea Design WIP

And this is the finished pattern. 

“High Tea” and it’s available to use now within Digital Fabrics. 

I would love to see what you make with my patterns and I hope this has inspired you to get busy creating!  Please tag both Digital Fabrics (@digitalfabrics) and myself on Instagram or Facebook.  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetart_by_jenni  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sweetartbyjenni  

Happy Creating , Jenni  

  

This photo below is where I paint smaller artworks and working in photoshop.  

Jenni’s Art Studio

And this photo below is my art studio where I paint larger artworks and I can get a bit messy.  

Jenni Rogers

 

If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!

Susanna April – The Designer Project

It’s been amazing sharing all of the wonderful designs by textile designer Susanna April with you! We hope you’ve loved them just as much as we have. To coincide with Susanna’s ‘My Hearts Garden’ collection being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which further explains her self-taught design process, what inspires her designs as well as bit more about herself. 

Keep reading to find out more! 

Susanna April

Hi fabric lovers! I’m Susanna, an intuitive acrylic artist and designer from QLD, and I’m so excited to be a part of The Designer Project!

Susanna in her Studio

I’ve been painting and dabbling in art for years, but recently have come alive with discovering surface design – as a graphic designer by trade it’s been a dream come true to marry my two loves of paint and digital together!


My process is quite fluid and simple, and really just comes down to loving paint and loving the feeling of making beauty with my hands. My art practice is very connected to my spiritual journey and I call it ‘a creative journey of surrendering all’ – you will see this in the titles of my prints! Art has always been healing for me and I’m passionate about seeing it set others free from fear and awaken joy in people hearts.


I start by layering many sheets of paper with acrylics to get in the ‘flow’ – usually at 10pm at night because I have two tiny and beautiful but also very needy kiddos. After I get in the groove I’ll work on a canvas piece or two, layering the colours intuitively – there’s not really a method to my creativity – sometimes it works, and often it does not! But the longer I persevere the more wonderful and delightful discoveries I make.


I like to think of my style as a ‘colourful minimalist’, there’s nothing better than seeing a certain colour shine on a background of white! I choose my palettes to sing together and don’t often use contrasting colours.
After I’m happy with an artwork I will either scan via my art scanner or take a high res photograph, and then create a seamless repeat in photoshop. I love how abstract art looks when it’s large scale – especially on textiles and clothing – almost like wearing a piece of art!

You can follow me along for the journey over @susannaapril, I share my heart and creative process quite openly. I would love to see the creations you make from my prints!

Thanks for reading, happy sewing!
Susanna x

 

If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!

‘My Hearts Garden’ Textile Collection by Susanna April

With a new season, brings a new featured designer of the month! We couldn’t be more excited to announce that our next featured artist of The Designer Project will be none other than the amazing Susanna April!

Susanna  is an intuitive abstract artist driven by emotion and feeling in her art practice. Her pieces are created from multi-layered acrylic artworks which sing with detail and depth. She lives in Brisbane, sunny QLD, with her two kiddos and husband and loves a good day at the beach.

Her ‘My Hearts Garden ’ collection is vibrant and full of colour, the perfect patterns to bring art to life in your textiles! What’s more fantastic is that the whole collection has been made available in our Fabric Shop online, meaning each of the designs can be printed onto any of our stock fabrics. Below we’ve shared a bit about each of the designs and the types of projects we think they’d be great for so keep reading! 

‘My Hearts Garden’ is a vibrant, fresh print with lots of detail, layering and brush strokes. It features pink brush strokes mixed together with teal and green.

‘My Hearts Garden’ would be perfect for any fashion project! We especially love it for pyjamas

‘Pink Terrazzo’ is a wonderfully detailed small scale print with clear brush strokes and abstract shapes. As you can probably tell by the name, this print has the sweetest pink colour palette.

‘Pink Terrazzo’ would be fabulous for fashion accessory projects! Think Tote Bags, Scarves or Bucket Hats!

‘Treasures Above’ is a wonderfully detailed small scale print with clear brush strokes and abstract shapes. We love the combination of Pink and Neutral shades in this design.

‘Treasures Above’ would look amazing on some custom cushion covers for table linen! Any Home & Interior project really!

‘Gardens Alive’ is a vibrant, fresh print with lots of detail, layering and brush strokes. The design features wonderful shades of green and teal with pops of white.

‘Gardens Alive’ is another wonderful print that would work perfectly for Home & Interior projects!

‘Let the Heart Dance’ is a beautiful and vibrant multi-layered, pink abstract print created from an original acrylic painting on canvas. The detail of the brush strokes really make this design stand out!

‘Let the Heart Dance’ works absolutely perfectly for any and all fashion project! Summer dresses and skirts, silky pyjamas!

‘Many Waters’ is a beautifully complex design created to captivate your eyes with its delicious swirling brush stroke, in this divine teal shade.

‘Many Waters’ would be amazing for a wide range of project; not only fashion garments but also home and interior projects such as Tea Towels!

‘Desert Dawn’ is a beautiful, neutral print layered with lots of brush stroke and paint detail. It’s colour palette is reminiscent of the desert with warm tones and soft pinks.

The cosy vibes of ‘Desert Dawn’ make it perfect for homewares such as cushion covers, blankets and bedding and maybe some fashion garments such as scarves!

 

We truly hope you love these beautiful collections as much as we have, and can’t wait to see what you create- the ideas are endless! Each of Susanna’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop online.

Andrea Maurer – The Designer Project

It’s been so amazing sharing all of these beautiful designs by textile designer Andrea Maurer with you! We feel to privellaged to have not only one..but two stunning collections from her. To coincide with Andrea’s ‘Warm Winter’ and ‘Coming Home’ collections being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which further explains her self-taught design process, what inspires her designs as well as bit more about herself. 

Keep reading to find out more! 

Andrea Maurer

Hello! I’m Andrea Maurer and so excited to be included in the Digital Fabrics designer project. A selection of my prints will be available as part of their print on demand offering which I think is just a wonderful option for makers and creatives to have unique fabric without the minimums required by other suppliers.

Flowers are my go to inspiration! If I could spend my days surrounded by flowers and basking in the sun I would! My colour palette usually leans towards soft tonal colours and would say this is inspired by vintage wallpapers and textiles. My style is naturally feminine and I love creating a whimsical timeless feeling in my prints.

Andrea in her studio

My process often begins with an idea of a composition or at least of one or two elements. Once I get these original ideas onto paper I can see the rest of the print coming to life. This blossoming of an idea usually leads to many elements that help create a collection of prints which have originated from the original feeling of those first few sketches and paintings.

Once I have finished drawing or painting I then can’t wait to get my artwork digitised and imported into photoshop so I can clean them up and start playing around with a composition for a print. I scan them in and am always amazed at how well everything translates onto my screen! I love the flexibility of working digitally and being able to change the colours and composition to create a different feeling than if it was left on paper. After putting it into repeat the print is born and can be made into absolutely anything which is such a thrill!

Original watercolour motifs for ‘Winter Pantry’ Design

I love using mock ups to see how my print would look once it is made up into something and the way it looks on folds of fabric and wrapped around the body or onto a product. This process is really addictive and makes me want to turn everything into a print, which I nearly always try to do.

Winter Fruits Design

I am so passionate about creating and love the studio space in the corner of my home that allows me this sacred time to create amidst the chaos of being a mother to a tiny human. I try to keep paintbrushes and pencils close by so that when I have a spare moment I can create without much fuss. It’s important to me to see the artwork that I’ve created in the past and love, this helps me to know that I can do it again and builds my confidence to keep creating even if I’m not feeling 100% inspired in that moment.

Winter Fruits Product Mockup

I’m so grateful to be a part of this platform of other designers doing amazing things and whose artwork I love! I hope some people resonate with my prints and I can’t wait to see the creations and designs that come of it.

Thanks Digital Fabrics!
– Andrea x

 

If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!

‘Coming Home and ‘Warm Winter’ Textile Collections by Andrea Maurer

For our latest installment of The Designer Project, we’ll be featuring the work of artist Andrea Maurer with not one…but TWO amazing textile collections – ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Warm Winter’ ! 

The ‘Coming Home’ collection is about Andrea coming home to herself in motherhood.  She realised that her motherhood wasn’t holding her back, but is in fact the source of inspiration if she lets it. Think of a beautiful array of flowers that have been given the space to flourish, each tender delicate leaf turning out rewards the sun proudly in its unique but confident way. It means allowing some failed shoots, embracing the broken damaged leaves and imperfections. This collection of prints combines her findings in nature, her sketchbook scribbles, digital interpretations all in soft dreamy colours that bring her happiness. It’s Andrea coming home to herself.

The ‘Warm Winter’ collection was inspired by warm European summers dreamt up during our winter. Imagine brick line alleyways with the flowers in bloom and the smell of baked goods being baked and the cosy insides of a home with in season fruits and vegetables. Andrea wanted this collection to take her there and bring warmth through its colours.

We think these two collections are utterly perfect for fashion projects! Think of stunning dresses and most luxurious garment sets. They would also be perfect for sweet homewares such as table linens and perhaps even tea towels!

 

Coming Home:

Happy days is a fun floral print consisting of loose sketchy flowers finished in watercolour in warm hues.


Oddly Calm is a print that was her form of meditation one day. She hopes it brings calm to you when you see it. The design features a series of watercolour squares in a perfectly imperfect odd arrangement.


Wattle is a cute little block print featuring a wattle sketch in muted soft tones.


Coming Home is a soft watercolour print featuring gum leaves and native banksias


Summer is a linear repeat of local leaves foraged on my walk and hand painted. This print is finished in a vibrant summer peach tone!


Flourish is a loose line, watercolour print, featuring the most stunning floral motifs in an olive green tone/


Neutral Native is a series of hand sketch native plant elements in soft muted colours


Golden Bloom is a warm golden print featuring native plants hand picked and digitised – inspired by Indian block prints.

 

Warm Winter:

Peachy Watercolour is a warm peachy print consisting of loose watercolour swirls, flowers and leaves.


Soft Leaves is a vintage inspired print consisting of loose watercolour leaves in warm sunny tones.


Sunflower Fields is a lovely ditsy sunflower floral in warm yellow and peach tones.


Wildflowers is a watercolour confetti floral in pink and lilac hues.


Winter Fruit is inspired by warm sunny kitchens in the cooler months, this print consists of citrus fruit and sunflowers painted in watercolour.


Winter Pantry  was inspired by the comfort of the kitchen in winter and painted in a loose watercolour style.

 

We truely hope you love these beautiful collections as much as we have, and can’t wait to see what you create- the ideas are endless! Each of Andrea’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop online.

Dominique Collins – The Designer Project

It’s been an absolute blast sharing the playful work of Dominique Collins for our current installment of The Designer Project and we hope you’ve fallen as in love with her designs as we have! The Brisbane-based designer creates illustrations and print designs which typically incorporate bright vibrant colours and hand drawn motifs . We’re so thrilled to have Dominique’s ‘Whimsical Nature’ collection available in our Fabric Shop and are keen to see all the inventive ways our fabulous customers will use them! As part of Dominique’s feature the designer has also put together a guest blog which details her typical creative process as well as the things that inspire her! We’ve shared the blog post below so keep reading to find out more about Dominique and her charming designs!

Dominique Collins

Hi everyone! My name is Dominique Collins, everyone calls me Stixy. I am over the moon to be working with Digital Fabrics as part of the Designer Project. I currently own and run Stixylin, a very new illustration and pattern design business, I only started this in May 2022. I live in sunny Brisbane, with my hubby and two energetic children who keep me on toes and push me to create new designs and illustrations each week, with all their little requests (I love it!). I am following my dream as a creative freelancer so I can spend more time with my family while doing what I love.

Workspace + WIP Designs

Recently I took the leap to be a full-time artist/designer/business woman while being a full-time mum of two. I have been passionate about art and creating colourful designs since I was a child living in South Africa. Most of my work is self-taught and I love exploring different mediums, but found Procreate and Adobe Fresco are what I love to use the most (not to mention those apps being easy to travel with as you only need to take your iPad).

Fabric Testing of Falling Blueberry Leaves

I am excited to share my curated collection of pattern designs, creative inspiration and process and give you a sneak peak at my workspace. My work is still new and evolving in ways I could only dream of, with nature and family as my biggest inspiration. My work typically incorporates bright vibrant colours, hand drawn motifs and illustrations.

Work in Progress Falling Soft Blueberry Leaves

A little sneak peak into my workspace and how I got my dream space. We build our house two years ago and I designed it with a front office, featuring a great big floor to ceiling window which offers the best natural light. My workspace is generally clean with my iPad, computers and some fabric swatches and maybe a workbook. While creating I am always at my desk or on the couch, even sometimes outside. Depending on my creative mood, you will find me wondering the house with my iPad in hand and a big pot of coffee or tea floating around.

Dominique working on Blooms and Shrooms Design

Most of my inspiration comes form being outdoors, either with the kids or while running/cycling. Nature offers such a great inspirational palette of colours and shapes. My curated collection reflects this with rainbows, leaves, snakes and flowers.

My creative process will vary depending on what I am creating. I will often be prompted by something in nature that catches my eye and quickly try to sketch it or take a photo of it to use as a reference. I will sketch my ideas digitally on separate layers so I can adjust and move motifs around before creating the final design. Often I will get creative input from my son or daughter on new ideas and colours or if I am feeling stuck. During my creative process, I will search Pinterest for images to go on my mood-board to help select a colour palette and maybe alternative ideas to help me bring more life to my designs.

Snakes in Leaves Digital Sketch

An example of my kids helping me, will be when my daughter told me how she imagines snakes gathering in the leaves, their beautiful colours and how they flow from one destination to the next. From this I was able to create Snakes in Leaves Peachy Pink. All hand drawn in procreate with the colours and shapes on the snakes selected by my daughter.

Rainbows Forever Work in Progress

Design Workspace ft. Rainbows Forever Design

Rainbows Forever was inspired by the rainy days in Brisbane and the beautiful rainbows that followed every storm. Everyone has down days just like the storms, we need to remind ourselves that there is a rainbow after every down/stormy day. The pattern started as a single digital watercolour painting and then I started to play around in procreate to make it into a seamless pattern. This was one of the first patterns I created this year and by far still one of my favourites.

Blooms and Shrooms Original Sketch

Blooms and Shrooms Original Sketch Closeup

Blooms and Shrooms Moodboard

Blooms and Shrooms was first created as a whimsical illustration and has since been re-worked into a seamless pattern. The motifs are inspired by vibrant mushrooms and my daughters love for pretty little flowers. She helped me select photos for my moodboard from Pinterest to help create the inspiration and guide for creating this pattern. I used a magnolia tree and morel mushroom colour palette to create a bright yet whimsical feel. Once I finished drawing this illustration in procreate, I exported it to Adobe illustrator to create it into a pattern.

Sewing!! I have never tried making a dress with a sewing machine even though I own one. Its about time I took the leap. Definitely a new skill I would love to learn as there are so many great designs on Digital Fabrics. I would really love to create a Rainbow Forever Skirt to brighten my day everyday.

Design Workspace

I hope you enjoyed my work and the behind the scenes of my creative process. I look forward to seeing what you will make with these lovely designs. You can view more of my designs in the fabric shop and I would love to see what you will create with them. Please tag both Digital Fabrics and myself in any projects or crafts you make with these fabrics.

Follow me on Instagram or Facebook to view more designs and how I make them. Heaps of Love Stixy.

 

If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!

Diane Quee – The Designer Project

It’s been amazing sharing all of the wonderful designs by textile designer Diane Quee with you! We hope you’ve loved them just as much as we have. To coincide with Diane’s ‘Delightful Patterns’ collection being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which further explains her self-taught design process, what inspires her designs as well as bit more about herself. 

Keep reading to find out more! 

Diane in her Studio

Hello, my name is Diane Quee, artist and designer. I’m so excited to be joining up with Digital Fabrics to bring you designs for you to create personal items with.

I am a freelance graphic designer who is passionate about designing logos and brand identity, drawing, painting and creating surface pattern designs. In my leisure time, I love to create artworks using different media such as pencils, oil, watercolour and pastel.  Also, I am inspired by the works of other artists; for example, the impressionist painters and certain contemporary artists. Inspired by the beauty of nature, I experiment and create various pattern designs.

Eucalyptus Flower Sketches

My design process usually starts with doing sketches in my sketchbook. I am inspired by the colours, textures and patterns in nature and nature provides the trigger for my creative juices. For example, I would use a pen or pencil and watercolours to sketch flowers and trees that inspire me.

Dinosaur Design Sketches

After creating the sketches, I scan and convert them to digital files so that I can edit and manipulate them in Photoshop and Illustrator.

For vector repeat patterns, I create each individual design element first and then arrange them in a visually pleasing composition on the computer screen. I experiment with different colours and compositions to see what works best for the design elements.

Nature Inspiration

Often, I use a limited number of colours in each pattern so that the design is clean and cohesive.

Creating repeat patterns can be challenging, but it is also a satisfying experience when I see the design process coming together and the endless possibilities that the patterns can be used for. I would like my patterns to bring joy and happiness to people, as well as being versatile in its application. That is, the patterns can be used on a range of items from fabric to homeware products.

Summer and Spring Leaves Sketches

I hope you are inspired to bring some of my designs into your life! Be inspired. Be Creative.

Starfish and Shells Sketches

Starfish and Shells Sketches 2

If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!