surface pattern

Zoo life Pattern

| terriaw

I made another new pattern, this one from my zoo animal drawings!

Zoo animals pattern by Terri Wilhelm
Zoo animals postcard by Terri Wilhelm

After illustrating a variety of animals on a giant page, I Photoshopped each animal to its own layer and arranged them into this cool pattern.

Zoo animals pattern by Terri Wilhelm

I also made a badge/banner for use on my website and on my Illustrator For Hire page.

Zoo Animals badge by Terri Wilhelm

l painted the original layers with watercolor and added details with colored pencils.

Zoo animals painting by Terri Wilhelm

I think it’s a fun hero pattern for a new collection, so I’m working on ideas for coordinating and blender prints.

Wouldn’t this be fun for fabric, gift wrap, stationery, and postcards for gift shops or end pages for a picture book?!

Wildlife Pattern

| terriaw

I made a new pattern!

After illustrating my page of local wildlife, I started messing around in Photoshop and ended up making this cool pattern.

Screenshot

l painted the original layers with watercolor and added details with colored pencils.

I think it’s a great hero pattern for a new collection, so I’m working on ideas for coordinating and blender prints.

Wouldn’t this be fun for fabric, gift wrap, stationery, and postcards for gift shops or end pages for a picture book?!

December Sketchbook Art

| terriaw

I started a new plan this year to create seasonal art by setting up a new sketchbook each month, brainstorming a theme, color palette, surface pattern, greeting card to hand-letter and character sketches and vignettes for little stories. I’m a very in-the-moment kind of person so I’m hoping this will help me establish seasonal art I can promote over the next year, in advance of the season to allow time for publishing and manufacturing.

I painted this pattern in my December sketchbook for a wrapping paper or greeting card design.

I also hand-lettered a greeting card design in two different sizes, a square shape and a rectangular shape.

Next up I’m working on a few woodland animal character sketches for little story vignettes.

One of my favorite things to do is simply draw an animal or scene with a pencil but I also love painting, so I’m excited to see these little illustrations come to live with watercolor!

It’s the most wonderful time of year!

From My Sketchbook: Fresh Cut

| terriaw

One of my favorite sketchbooks prompts lately has been to use my weekly bouquet of fresh-cut flowers for inspiration.

Similar to these previous sketchbook pages, I was inspired to draw pom daisies, carnations, alstromeria, and roses from recent bouquets. Then I filled in the corners and crevices with a few of the swirls I love to draw. I am imagining what this illustration will look like with the bright pops of color from the real bouquets which will be a fun surface pattern design.

sketchbook page fresh cut flowers

I have a few more sketchbook pages in process, inspired by signs of spring – ferns, trilliums, feathers, vinca vines, maple tree flower clusters and crab apple tree blossoms.

sketchbook page: trilliums and ferns

In order to fill up more sketchbooks this year, which is on my bucket list for 2015, I’ve been trying to draw a lot more lately. Hope to share more with you soon.

Terri

From My Sketchbook: Fresh Cut Inspiration

| terriaw

One of my latest favorite sketchbooks prompts for the year is to use my weekly bouquet of fresh-cut flowers for inspiration.

These new sketchbook pages were inspired by pom daisies, carnations, alstromeria, and roses from recent bouquets. Then I filled the page with a dramatic spray of leaves and a few of the swirls I love to draw. Next up, I plan to turn these illustrations into new surface patterns, so stay tuned!

sketchbook page daisy and leavessketchbook page carnations and leavessketchbook page alstromeria and leaves

sketchbook page rose and leavesIn order to fill up more sketchbooks this year, which is on my bucket list for 2015, I’ve been trying to sketch more lately. I’m hoping to fill up more sketchbook pages like these with flowers, leaves, flourishes, and other nature-inspired images I see out my window this spring.

Terri

From My Sketchbook: All Over Pattern

| terriaw

In order to fill up more sketchbooks this year, which is on my bucket list for 2015, I’ve been trying to sketch more lately.

One technique I’ve been trying these days is fill up a page with as much surface pattern as possible. I usually start out with a large central motif, such as the crochet-doily-lacey-inspired flowers on these pages, and then take shapes and other elements from those flowers to repeat and scatter across the page.

sketchbook page lace flower patternsketchbook page all over pattern

Both of these pages turned out exactly how I imagined them, even though the only drawing I started with was the large floral motif. It was fun (and therapeutic) to get carried away from there. Just imagine how these pages will look with some color!

Time just slips by when I’m drawing in my sketchbook, especially when I have a steady house beat going in the background. I’m on a roll so I’ll just keep going.

Terri