This morning I was getting Instagram and blog images ready for posting when, poking around in Procreate, I saw this collection of creatures in one document close by my 'digital sketchbook', a collage of textures spread like pages I put together back in February. It was a complete coincidence, I had only imported the sketchbook document the other day to look for something unrelated to the beasties. The two images were talking to each other so well I thought to put them together, and loved the result. The dark background is the original pavement photo I originally set the collection of beasties against last week which I liked well enough, but this is so much more fun! The colours and textures work off one another so well, a chance encounter has become quite a new favourite.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! There has been a lot of pareidolia in Binky world, including this man wearing a bowler hat on a bicycle amusing a pony riding by riding with the handlebars back to front - it can get a bit surreal in this world of the imagination!
I've been working ahead of myself this week to collect together a few images while I begin a new body of drawings (see my Heather Eliza journal) and I'm not sure how much visual story-telling I can do at the same time as developing these. Normally I can switch quite easily between illustration/pattern-making and my drawings, but beginning new work requires total focus until I feel my way into it. Once I know where new work is going I can begin to switch about again and regain a balance between the two practices, and the pleasure and interest in each resumes and they jog along side by side. There is of course always the fear that I'll forget how to do the other thing while I'm focusing on the new, whichever way the switch is, but it's usually still there waiting for me when I get back into it. Hopefully. You know us artists, so full of self-doubt and imposter syndrome it's amazing we ever get anything done at all. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Sea creatures and birds all in the same place - well, why not. In the combined world of pattern-making and pareidolia these things really don't matter! This new pattern is made from last week's creatures I found in water-stained pavements in the park. Thanks for visiting, see you next week!
Midweek bonus post - I made a pattern from all the pareidolia creatures I have created so far, set in a cloudy sky.
An immense relief to take a break from making artworks which are all digital clicks and numbers! It must be an annual thing, because exactly a year ago I was making works based on scenes I saw in rain-soaked cracks in the park pavements after the sun has burnt off the puddles. Perhaps the rain is just the right sort at this time of year, I know exactly when I'm going to get the best photos which inspire pareidolia. At first it was tough to get going on these, following an extended period of pattern-making and uploads of designs, but it soon came back to me. I wanted to get back into illustration mode because there is still some work to do on that children's book with author Amber Hunt. I made the image at the top first, a mermaid taking her catfish for a swim, for yesterday's caturday hashtag on Instagram; after that the work began to flow freely. These are two interpretations of the same pavement splodge, pictured below, I simply turned it a different way around for each - the mermaid in the first image here, and cheeky little winged doggie in the second. Thanks for visiting, see you next time!
I spent the last few days redesigning my notebooks which feature artworks (rather than repeat patterns) on Redbubble. I wasn't very happy with the hardcover journals in particular, I wasted so much time uploading and tweaking the old designs over and over each time with no success, I decided a radical rethink was required for them which would also work for future designs from the off when uploaded. I also wanted the back covers to be more intrinsic to the design, so I made the decision to free the artworks from the frames I had created previously which were an absolute nightmare to line up on the products on Redbubble, and which I found a bit uptight anyway. Luckily I keep all my psd files, so it was possible to simply remake the artwork to spread across the spine and flow. I am now very happy with the hardcover journals - they are a lot of fun made this way! I haven't yet changed the spiral notebooks in all cases, but I'll get there in time; it's the kind of work I really have to be in the mood to do. It occurred to me during the notebooks process that I was able to get artworks onto throw pillows, so I worked a few of those with complementary cushions designed with the brocade border. I visualised a sofa with a coordinated mixture of both.
However, the larger sized documents required for the products began to prove a bit heavy going on my now ageing iPad Air. Procreate constantly crashed, in spite of offloading all other works to storage files got wearisome, so I have only made about three of these artworks available on cushions so far. I do think they look pretty, though, so it is something I will continue during odd moments. I just feel it's time to move onto something else now before I go crazy! Thanks for visiting, see you next time ... This one has kept me busy all week with enough going on in it to satisfy even my horror vacui. Flowers do make themselves from flowers, don't they? Above is a composition ahead of putting it into repeat, I rather liked the tall yellow stalk branching out into bunches of flower heads (just right of centre) but it didn't look good in a pattern, rather irritating actually, so I modified it to better suit the flow of a pattern in half-drop. Below is the result. I am loving the exuberant jollity and personalities of the flowers. Thanks for visiting, see you next week!
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Welcome to my illustration and patterns blog.
I illustrate under the pen-name of Binky McKee, McKee being my mother's maiden name. Binky was the name of every single cat my great-grandmother kept - allegedly about 40 of them during her 94 years of life. I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the binkymckee. with weebly.com and it will work again. I hope you enjoy your visit! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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I keep lots of scrapbooks and sketchbooks where I develop ideas and design little creatures. Here's a peek inside one ...
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As you may know, I am also known as Heather Eliza Walker.
Click the image if you would like to find out more and visit my other website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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April 2024
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This time, take a peek into my ceramic design sketchbook. I actually made some of the mugs, but I kind of prefer the drawings! The plate designs are painted on paper plates, a most liberating process.
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These watercolours are from my pattern sketchbook. I used coloured wax crayons to resist the washes of watercolour, also home-made rubber stamps dipped in bleach then printed on crêpe paper - the bleach takes out the paper dyes.
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A sketchbook I used for mark-making with unusual objects - corks, seed-heads, feathers, home-made rubber stamps, my fingers and lots of flicky things ...
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